I am in the process of organising an Australian Work and Holiday visa for my wife. She requires an original letter of approval from the Thai government to qualify. Does anyone know where to obtain such a letter?

Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Don't get your hopes up for this visa, they only issue a certain number of letters corresponding to the amount of visas available. i.e if Australia issue 200 visas per year then they will only write 200 letters.

We tried going down this route a year or 2 ago, were waiting for the new visas applications to be accepted (i think its around 1st July every year), my girlfriend went to the "Office of Welfare Promotion, Protection and Empowerment of Vulnerable Groups", a few days after seeing the applications being reopened.

When she got there she found out that all the letters had been issued a few months prior and no more would be issued. We were well pissed off as we had prepared everything else in advance. I wrote a letter of complaint to the Australian Immigration and they just said that they could not dictate the procedures in Thailand in this case.

I would advise you to get you missus down to the above mentioned office ASAP and see what the situation is regarding letters. You may be lucky and find that they are now issuing letters in advance for the new visa applications for July 2009 onwards.

Office of Welfare Promotion, Protection, and Empowerment of Vulnerable Groups (OPP)

www.opp.go.th

618/9 Nikkommakasarn Rd. Makasarn, Rajthevee, Bangkok, 10400

Tel: (02) 651-6920 Email: [email protected]

Good luck and let us know how you got on.

Cheers,

8ball.

Thank you very much for your advice. It is very much appreciated!