Just had a wierd telephone call from The British Embassy. I say wierd, because I've never heard of this happening before.

A Thai lady on the other end confirmed our telephone number and then asked for my wife. When she came to the phone, it was explained that it was The Embassy calling and that they knew she was married to a Brit and that she had gone to England last year on holiday.

"Could she confirm the date she arrived there?" She did, with some help from me. Then,

"How many days did you stay in the UK?" - "A month" (which was exactly the length of time we put down on the application).

Anyway, it was then "No problem. The Embassy is checking up on people who have visited the UK recently" and that was that.

I didn't have a chance to speak to the person again. Is this normal? As I said, I've never heard of it before, but seeing as they don't stamp visitiors out of the UK and so presumably have no record of departure, I guess, other than flight details, or liasing with Thai Imm, this would be the only way to check that my wife had indeed departed in accordance with her visa.

I can't believe the U.K. doesn't "swipe" passports and make a computer entry of departures.

One explanation is an "auditing" of systems, a random check to see if their records are accurate.

Very strange. I wouldn't have imparted any information until certain I'd verified that the caller was indeed from the embassy. Certainly, as a means of checking up who has returned to Thailand it is extremely flawed, so one wonders who it was and why they were truly calling.

Scouse.

That's how I felt, but as I said the conversation was over before I had a chance to get any information from the caller. No real details were given anyway. The lady knew our land line - very few people do, and it was the number we put on the application form. She knew my wife's change of surname - to mine - and that she'd been to the UK, so nothing seemed suspicious at the outset.

I'll call the Embassy tomorrow and confirm that they are making these enquiries.

I can't believe the U.K. doesn't "swipe" passports and make a computer entry of departures.

We don't.