2 hours ago, Lancashirelad said:

Thanks for your comments all. I will post the refusal letter, but as I only have a photo of it and it includes personal details, I will need to type it all in. I'll do it as soon as time permits.

My I suggest printing the photo on plain paper, obscuring the personal details and then scanning, or if no scanner photographing, it to post here?

 

Easier than typing it all out, surely?

Best way if you have a photo is open it in a photo editing app and delete the bits you need to and resave it.

On 6/9/2018 at 4:19 AM, theoldgit said:

As you have pointed out, the source of funds in her account may have been an issue, the ECO may well have thought that her account had been padded to give the false impression that she was financially better off than she declared, this is often discussed on this forum, though obviously without sight of the refusal notice, I can do little more than make an educated guess.

 

You say that you hadn't visited her in Thailand very often, but did she provide evidence of other forms of communication, phone calls, messaging, social media and the like? 

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The extra unexplained lump sums appearing in her account are certainly an issue. I totally agree with you this makes it look like I was padding her account. Not so.

 

In the beginning, we exchanged messages via a website who unfortunately, without any warning, deleted all old messages. Previously they used be available even years later.

Since October 2016 we communicate with messages, phone & video calls via the LINE app and very occasional emails.

On 6/9/2018 at 9:46 AM, rasg said:

When my wife applied back in June 2015 I had visited her in Thailand three times from when we met in very late January 2015. Each visit was for 8-12 days so less than your months visit but over a much shorter period.

 

When you supply financial information to UKVI you need to make sure that any bank statements back up what has been stated on the application. In my GF's case I didn’t supply bank statements at all. Just stated that her salary was paid in cash each month and it was paid out for rent and money home to family and was never banked. Better to avoid sending bank statements at all from an applicant imho. The genie is out of the bottle now and you will have to supply them for the next application. 

 

They haven't called your GF a liar but she did supply inaccurate information. Maybe you should ask her why she gave different figures for her income that weren't confirmed by her bank statements. I have never let my GF/wife near her visa applications. Just had her supply me the information and I have collated it and added it to the application. Her English is pretty good but her written English is simple not good enough to understand what is required.

 

As theoldgit has said. A copy of the refusal letter is needed please. Hard to give any advice without the refusal. If it's just the finances it's relatively easy to address. If it's the one visit it's far more difficult and you probably need to visit her a couple of times before applying again.

 

Who was the "experienced helper"? A visa company?

 

 

 

 

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My lady's understood, spoken and written English is very good, but not perfect. A very intelligent lady who built and ran for many years a highly successful clothes production factory. I think your idea of collating everything yourself is a good one. It was my intention to do similar, then suddenly she employed the services of this 'helper' without checking with me. This took me by surprise.

 

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The genie is out of the bottle now and you will have to supply them for the next application.

 

Indeed and I think it now makes it complicated to explain her various income sources some of which are very irregular. (i.e. She still occasionally accepts and fulfils [by subcontracting the work] clothes orders from old customers..... these are in the 1000's of pieces.

 

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Who was the "experienced helper"? A visa company?

 

It was some Thai female that evidently has considerable experience in helping Thais to get visas. You know ..... the one who was insistently telling me a flight booking was necessary.  I have explained that if she really wanted to use an agency, she should have let me find one from the Embassy approved list.

Thanks for the various suggestions of how to get the refusal notice here. In the end, got a better photo, printed, deleted, scanned. Hope its readable.

 

3 hours ago, Lancashirelad said:

It was some Thai female that evidently has considerable experience in helping Thais to get visas. You know ..... the one who was insistently telling me a flight booking was necessary.  I have explained that if she really wanted to use an agency, she should have let me find one from the Embassy approved list. 

Maybe she has done one or two... ? Unless the visa agency you use is OISC accredited, don't go near them. The sponsors of this forum are well worth looking at.

 

I don't think they can help you at this stage any way and you really don't need a visa company to do this for you. It's clear why the visa was refused. One visit in two years is obviously not enough and the only way to address that is to visit your girlfriend in Thailand a bit more and I'm not surprised.

 

After that your girlfriend needs to be straight about her finances. If she states that she earned XYZ baht over a period of time her bank statements need to confirm it.

Can somebody please post link for UK tourist visa application.

7 hours ago, hackjam said:

Can somebody please post link for UK tourist visa application.

https://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/thailand/

 

https://www.gov.uk/apply-uk-visa?utm_source=visa-application-form&utm_medium=internal-link&utm_campaign=svv-apply-visa

 

 

The refusal notice basically says that they do not believe she is a genuine visitor and therefore suspect that she will not leave the UK at the end of her visit. This is for two reasons, one minor and one major.

 

The minor one is the nature of your relationship and the fact that you have only visited her once. However, this is a minor point and on it's own I do not believe it would have led to a refusal. Many people have successfully sponsored a UK visitor when they have only visited them once, or not even visited them at all and only ever met online

 

The major reason is the discrepancy between her declared income and her actual income as shown by her bank statements. That shown by her bank statements being ten times as much as that she declared on the form!

 

What was she thinking? Why not declare it all? I have heard of people being refused because they had too little available money, but never heard of someone being refused because they had too much!

 

This discrepancy between her declared and actual income has cast doubt upon everything else she said in the application. Which is why they also doubt that your relationship is genuine.

 

What she needs to do in her next application is fully explain where all her income, as shown by her bank statements, comes from and why she did not declare it all in the application this time.

4 hours ago, theoldgit said:

11 hours ago, hackjam said:

Can somebody please post link for UK tourist visa application.

https://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/thailand/

 

https://www.gov.uk/apply-uk-visa?utm_source=visa-application-form&utm_medium=internal-link&utm_campaign=svv-apply-visa

 

 

 

See also https://www.gov.uk/standard-visitor-visa

7by7

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The minor one is the nature of your relationship and the fact that you have only visited her once. However, this is a minor point and on it's own I do not believe it would have led to a refusal.

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I entirely agree with you on that. My apologies for the delayed response, your comments have been useful, thank you. 

 

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What she needs to do in her next application is fully explain where all her income, as shown by her bank statements, comes from and why she did not declare it all in the application this time.

 

 

What she declared was her regular, known income. The rest is ad hoc from sometimes fulfilling orders for old customers (thousands of pieces of clothes) and some kind of short-term share dealing. Sometimes she will go for months with no orders, then 2 or 3 will come in close together. Do you think a letter explaining this, along with the next application, along with an apology for the lack of clarity before, would assist? I will also have been to Thailand again.

 

3 hours ago, Lancashirelad said:

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What she needs to do in her next application is fully explain where all her income, as shown by her bank statements, comes from and why she did not declare it all in the application this time.

 

 

What she declared was her regular, known income. The rest is ad hoc from sometimes fulfilling orders for old customers (thousands of pieces of clothes) and some kind of short-term share dealing. Sometimes she will go for months with no orders, then 2 or 3 will come in close together. Do you think a letter explaining this, along with the next application, along with an apology for the lack of clarity before, would assist? I will also have been to Thailand again

 Yes, it will certainly help.

 

As i said, that her bank statements showed unexplained deposits immediately aroused the ECOs suspicions, she needs to full explain where the money came from. 

 

I fully believe that had she done so in her first application, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

 

Your visiting her again may help, certainly wont hurt.