VFS Bangkok - UK Visa application

[John49]

I have only scanned quickly through the posts…

I am not the expert…

We successfully got a UK visitor's visa about one year ago with a detailed history of 10 years together, fortunately that included several trips together around Asia.

 

What I see is that they have capitalised on “You state you are unemployed and spend 12,000 THB (£270.42) per month on living expenses.”

 

Don’t say you are unemployed – tick the box that says ‘retired’.

Also, are they twisting your payment of 12,000 baht a month to mean you manage to live on that amount for a month? Then deducing that you are saying you can live on same in UK?

 

I would not talk about how much I pay my partner or how much I spend each month in Thailand.

For me, that’s kind of irrelevant; I said nothing like that.

They want solid evidence of your assets, especially money/pension, to fund your stay in UK.

Also, looks like they need more evidence of reasons to return to Thailand?

 

BTW, the UK visa is 'easier' than the Schengen visa.

For Schengen you have to go through the farce of dummy hotel and dummy flight bookings, plus buy health insurance, on top of requirements similar to UK.

[MyThai1]

5 hours ago, John49 said:

 

I would not talk about how much I pay my partner or how much I spend each month in Thailand.

For me, that’s kind of irrelevant; I said nothing like that.

They want solid evidence of your assets, especially money/pension, to fund your stay in UK.

Also, looks like they need more evidence of reasons to return to Thailand?

 

No that's exactly what they want to know. Remember it's her application not his, if she puts retired, how many girls can retire at her age in Thailand. She needs to show how she lives if that is with her sponsors money he needs to show the monthly transfers and the amount. 

[John49]

OK – “our application” was about her being retired at 46 years old and being entirely dependent on me.

 

We did include a copy of her bank passbook with about 200,000 baht.

I worked up this amount sufficient for one month stay as UK tourists (applying for visa) are considered to need x pounds per day (according to Google) when staying in UK.

(May apply only to those not sponsored but I wanted to play safe.)

Copies of my bank account statement that did include a few money transfers to her, but really showing my declared funds available for our UK stay.

 

Then, there was proof of our long-term relationship.

In our case, easy for us as we have visa stamps ‘in/out’ for our several overseas trips over several years.

So, our visit to UK was just another 'in/out’ trip, like those.

 

My case could be different in another way, this was my second visit to UK in 40 years, and I have no assets in the UK.

I stated this in our application – I think they knew we would not stay long.

PS I am UK born and hold a UK passport.

[MyThai1]

On 12/23/2023 at 10:49 AM, John49 said:

BTW, the UK visa is 'easier' than the Schengen visa.

For Schengen you have to go through the farce of dummy hotel and dummy flight bookings, plus buy health insurance, on top of requirements similar to UK.

What do you mean by "dummy hotel and dummy flight bookings", we fancy a look to Italy for a week in the summer and need to sort a Schengen visa.

[isaanistical]

On 12/19/2023 at 7:21 AM, billd766 said:

I can use email or a smart phone to talk to the seller world wide, but dealing with the UK government, none of this is permitted.

 

The UK embassy in Bangkok is of little to no help either.

Just like the UK itself. Don't forget they sold off the embassy...... it's a dirty little office in a block down the wrong end of Silom these days.

[soi3eddie]

On 12/23/2023 at 4:44 PM, MyThai1 said:

 She needs to show how she lives if that is with her sponsors money he needs to show the monthly transfers and the amount. 

It is for this reason that I started transferring £400 per month (about 17k THB) direct from my UK bank account to my GF's Bangkok Bank account about 9 months before applying for a UK visit visa in April 2023. This, in addition to other funds from my Thai bank account. Key factor of evidence is that we provided a full 12 months of bank statements of my UK account, my Thai account and GF's Thai account. This showed each funding, and could be cross referenced, with each account. I also provided my UK saving's statements showing deposits.

 

Including this we also uploaded a total of 47 files (a few hundred pages) of PDF documents. This included a covering letter about our relationship and intentions. My strong ties with Thailand (retirement extension and my 2nd home), her strong ties (and her annual visa extension for Thailand), her 14yr old Thai son's school info and bills, son's Thai birth certificate and ID card, my Thai condo ownership documents including chanote, yellow book and pink ID card, Thai driving licences for both of us, lots of pictures of us together with my family in Thailand on a visit. Pictures of us with her family - son and her parents, my UK business documents, my UK tax return, a full LINE App download of our daily correspondence since meeting in 2020 (350 pages of text), her Thai condo rental contract, full copies of all pages of both our current and previous passports, travel boarding cards from recent trips to other countries together. All Thai language only docements were translated to English by an approved translation service. All of the above took me about one full day of collation and scanning to PDF before uploading to the VFS website.

 

I should add the my GF is not Thai, she is Cambodian on a Cambodian passport. The visa was granted in about 2 weeks. She is now on her second UK visit in 6 months and we are currently in the UK and will return together to Thailand in January. On arrival at the UK border 2 weeks ago we went together through the "family channel". The only questions asked were "do I live in Thailand permanently?". Which I don't as only in Thailand 5 months a year. Also, asked return date and asked to see copy of GF's return ticket. That was all.

 

We'll make a new application next year. Hopefully it will go well as no circumstances changed and many documents already prepared. In my opinion, it is best to send every possible document you have showing clear evidence of finances, relationship and need to return to Thailand.

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by soi3eddie

[soi3eddie]

1 hour ago, isaanistical said:

Just like the UK itself. Don't forget they sold off the embassy...... it's a dirty little office in a block down the wrong end of Silom these days.

 

Although I am dissapointed in the UK government for selling off the prestigious Bangkok embassy land, I cannot agree with your statement.

 

I visited the consular office in Silom/Sathorn in early November 2022 to get an affirmation of residence for Thai driving licence renewal (they since stopped offering these afirmations of residence as a service). The building is a modern and clean office building connected to the BTS by a skybridge walkway, the security staff very helpful and polite. The consular staff efficient (at least in the very little of service that they provide/d.

 

[josephbloggs]

40 minutes ago, soi3eddie said:

 

Although I am dissapointed in the UK government for selling off the prestigious Bangkok embassy land, I cannot agree with your statement.

 

I visited the consular office in Silom/Sathorn in early November 2022 to get an affirmation of residence for Thai driving licence renewal (they since stopped offering these afirmations of residence as a service). The building is a modern and clean office building connected to the BTS by a skybridge walkway, the security staff very helpful and polite. The consular staff efficient (at least in the very little of service that they provide/d.

 

 

i agree with you on all counts.

[josephbloggs]

3 hours ago, MyThai1 said:

What do you mean by "dummy hotel and dummy flight bookings", we fancy a look to Italy for a week in the summer and need to sort a Schengen visa.

For a Schengen visa you need to provide flight (or train) details of how you will arrive and leave the Schengen zone, you need to show confirmed hotel bookings and also evidence of an acceptable travel insurance policy.

Many people make fake or dummy bookings that can be canceled if they don't receive the visa.

The UK visa is harder than Schengen in my experience although we've always done the Schengen one after being granted the UK visitor visa so this may make things easier. The UK does not require confirmed flight or hotel bookings but has a much more intrusive set of questions and evidence to provide. I have never been refused for either in over 25 years of doing them (for girlfriend and then wife).

Edited December 26, 2023 by josephbloggs

[John49]

9 hours ago, MyThai1 said:

What do you mean by "dummy hotel and dummy flight bookings", we fancy a look to Italy for a week in the summer and need to sort a Schengen visa.

 

Dummy flight bookings are bookings that a travel agent will make for you with the airline, for a cost of say 1,000  baht per head.

This will detail your proposed flight itinerary in and out of EU.

I think the bookings are only valid for 24 hours then drop out of system.

Copy of this dummy booking must be included within your Schengen application.

 

I did not bother with hotel bookings thinking I would have to give card details and could be charged.

The lady receiving my application (VSF?) told me to go outside and use a shops computer and printer nearby (for a small fee) and make hotel bookings on Agoda for hotels not requiring credit card details. Can be done.

I brought back the dummy hotel bookings and the lady attached them to our application.

Looks like they scan the total package and send to embassy.

Later, I cancelled all hotel bookings.

 

Take care to apply for visa at embassy of country where you will spend most of your stay in EU, not the country of first arrival.

I believe you can completely change your itinerary after you have the Schengen visa issued.

Beware of small time window given on your entry and exit dates on the issued visa.

I forget - something like week or so.

This can tie you down when you come to make your actual flight bookings and travel plans.

On reflection, I wish that I had 'dummy booked' a longer EU stay period, the only actual extra cost is the extended health insurance - not so much compared with the total cost of the trip; gives some flexibility later on in/out dates of your actual trip.

[hotandsticky]

On 12/23/2023 at 5:49 PM, John49 said:

I have only scanned quickly through the posts…

I am not the expert…

We successfully got a UK visitor's visa about one year ago with a detailed history of 10 years together, fortunately that included several trips together around Asia.

 

What I see is that they have capitalised on “You state you are unemployed and spend 12,000 THB (£270.42) per month on living expenses.”

 

Don’t say you are unemployed – tick the box that says ‘retired’.

Also, are they twisting your payment of 12,000 baht a month to mean you manage to live on that amount for a month? Then deducing that you are saying you can live on same in UK?

 

I would not talk about how much I pay my partner or how much I spend each month in Thailand.

For me, that’s kind of irrelevant; I said nothing like that.

They want solid evidence of your assets, especially money/pension, to fund your stay in UK.

Also, looks like they need more evidence of reasons to return to Thailand?

 

BTW, the UK visa is 'easier' than the Schengen visa.

For Schengen you have to go through the farce of dummy hotel and dummy flight bookings, plus buy health insurance, on top of requirements similar to UK.

 

 

Nothing wrong with being a housewife who is fully supported by her sponsor/partner............worked for the 13 applications for my missus (plus many others).

 

There isn't actually a box for housewife.

[John49]

2 hours ago, hotandsticky said:

 

 

Nothing wrong with being a housewife who is fully supported by her sponsor/partner............worked for the 13 applications for my missus (plus many others).

 

There isn't actually a box for housewife.

 

The reason my tack was different (no transfers to her) is that my partner is not Thai, and is my dependant in my one year visa based on retirement. So, it’s kind of evident that she is fully supported by me in Thailand. I bring money into Thailand and then pay all the bills, etc.

 

I’m sure that many months or years, of fund transfers to a Thai partner or housewife is strong evidence of support and works well for the visa approval. I guess most applications are based on that evidence of support.