Hi,

I am sending this post for my wife, whose English skills are not very good. My wife is a Thai citizen who has two children from a previous marriage to a Thai lawyer working in BKK. The children live with us, but custody of the children was given to the husband when they divorced a number of years ago.

The ex husband has recently obtained a UK tourist visa and is planning on going to the UK to get married with a Thai woman who he met online and who has been residing in England for the past 20 years. We know nothing about this woman, except that she lives in Birmingham and spends most of her time online.

The thing is, the ex husband is telling my wife that he wants to take the children for a "visit" to the UK during the upcoming Thai school break in March, and then arrange for them to stay there indefinitely with him and his new bride. My wife and I think that this is not a good idea because we know nothing about this woman (except that she is online 20 hours a day and has told the ex husband the unbelievable story that she has enough money to open a bank or a casino). Obviously we do not believe this, and we do our best to make sure the children are happy here, go to good schools and are provided for.

The ex husband is already packing his bags to go to the UK, and he is threatening my wife with taking the children away if she does not take them to apply for a tourist visa at the UK consulate. My wife has tried to reason with her ex regarding this situation, but he is the type that listens only to what he wants to listen.

I have suggested my wife to go to the interview and politely explain this situation to the consular officer and ask him to deny the kids´ visa application, but I am not sure if this is the way to go because if the embassy contacts the father regarding this situation he will probably take the children away from us.

Does anyone know if the interview is confidential? Does anyone have a suggestion on how to handle this?

Any help will be appreciated

Edited February 9, 200818 yr by chiangmaijay

I assume by 'custody' that you mean 'sole custody'

With a sole custody agreement her ex husband can apply for a Thai passport for them and visas for the UK without obtaining permission from your wife. The children and their father would have to visit both the Thai passport office and the UK VAC in person to make the applications so if the children were willing and he ever has them in his company he could arrange everything without your wife's knowledge.

If the ex husband makes a joint application for himself and his children to visit UK they may not be required to attend an interview at all. If they are, it is definitely confidential, a third party would not be allowed to attend the interview and indeed would not be informed that it is required.

Probably not much time left but if the ex husband has sole custody but the children have been living with your wife for a number of years and she has been responsible for the day to day care of them then I would suggest she needs to get assistance from a Thai lawyer and maybe go to court to overturn the custody agreement.

Does anyone know if the interview is confidential? Does anyone have a suggestion on how to handle this?

Yes, the interview is confidential; i.e. between the interviewer and interviewee. If you bubble the ex-husband to the embassy though, the quid pro quo is that they have to tell him that they have received information upon which they are acting, so he'll otherwise know that he's been dobbed in.

Scouse.