Thank You Thaivisaexpress

[dowman73]

I would just like to personally thank Paul and all his staff at ThaiVisaExpress for all his support, and advice in helping me and my wife, first get married in bangkok (13/06/0), and secondly and most importantly get a spouse visa (Granted 10 weeks 2 day on the 10/09/09).

I met my wife in london 2 years ago while she was here studying and we moved in together after 6 months when her year visa was almost up we extended it by one more year and on our first anniversary we got engaged at the time she still had over 8 months left on her visa and we planned to apply for a Certificate of Approval (COA).

My fiance had to go back to Thailand as her nan was ill and spent 6 weeks there, we then saved up for the COA and in March sent off all the forms she had 3 months left on her visa and we were told that the COA would take 6 weeks to process, leaving us plenty of time to get married and apply for a spouse visa all from England.

A week after we sent off the forms we came home to find that our application had been sent back to us in the stamped address envelope we had sent, the reason given was that no money was included of course we had put postal orders to the value in and had triple checked everything whilst reading the letter I my asked my fiance where all the contents were as I could not see our passports etc then I noticed that the evelope had been resealed by the post office saying that it had been found open and resealed by them. This was the start of the worst 6 months of my life as the penny dropped that all our information had been stolen in the post, both our passports, my birth certificate and postal orders, my heart stopped as I knew then that all our plans had just been ruined and being a saturday there was no one to phone only the police to report the theft.

I had to wait until monday before phoning the post office and was told I has to fill in a claims form and that they would look into it, I then rang the Thai embassy they told us it would take 8 weeks to get new passport for my fiance meaning that by the time she got it she would have only four weeks left on her visa which was not enough to reapply for a COA or anything the only option was for her to fly back to Thailand and for us to apply for a fiance visa or for me to fly with her and get married something that was not at the time a financial option.

I then started looking on here for information and advice and came across mariner29 (Paul thaivisaexpress) who I was told could help me I spoke with Paul two or three times before deciding to use his service everytime he gave me nothing but great advice and information all for no charge and no agenda, but in the end the fact that he had helped lots of people in my situation and had an office in pattaya with thai speaking staff meant that my wife could speak to them if she had any questions, or help in getting the paperwork together and nothing was lost in translation was the deciding factor.

Both my wifes family and mine helped us out financially I and i flew over to thailand to get married again with Pauls help he sent me lots of usefull information sheets, quetions that she might be asked at the embassy, check list of paperwork we needed, an affirmation form to fill in for the marriage, directions to embassies etc. We got married at the local ampur and then had a wonderful ceremony at the Monks Hospital in bangkok (£400 for ceromony and food for 50 guests) BRILLIANT!!

Paul was in pattaya while I was there and I drove down with the inlaws to drop off our wedding certificate and other paperwork to his office and and when we met him and his staff we both felt more relaxed and reasured that we had made the right choice. I flew back home a week later and the wife met one of the girls in the office and was taken to get her chest xrays and to the Regent House to put in the application something that I am sure she could have done alone but having someone else with her made us both feel better.

Then the horrible 3 month wait, all the time I was on the great forum page below

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Uk-Settlemen...tml&st=2200

and speaking to Paul who calmed me down when I was stressed and worried he always reasured me that everything would work out ok but like everyone else just to wait which I did and was blessed when we were granted our visa yesterday.

I know a lot of people have applied on there own and got the same results but I cannot recommend Paul and his staff highly enough, the best money I have spent this year apart from the wedding not only a great service but a lovey guy.

THANKYOU THAIVISAEXPRESS

[Iamemjay]

I'm with Mason45 on this - there was something wrong with the paperwork - and my experience with the Oz Embassy in BKK (or rather the bloody contractors to whom they outsource this work that the embassy staff don't like doing) is that one has a hel_l of a job finding out exactly what is wrong - they'll tell you all sorts of things rather than the truth.

I think they are just as bad if not worse than what we have to work with (or against?) in Thailand.

That having been said, tomorrow my Thai wife and I leave for what is her third visit to Oz. Her multi-entry (not asked for or required!) visa was issued 48 hours from the time of receipt (by secured post) in BKK. This time I chose to bypass their idiotic agents in Chiangmai - the previous time they were even worse than the Embassy!! - and just made double, triple sure that all the paperwork was correct and I had covered every possible base in terms of the questions/ blockages they might choose to use. (eg, sending bank records, photographs, evidence of our itinerary and bookings when they were not strictly necessary. Letters from family back in Oz were the only thing I omitted this time but have used them on previous occasions - have even been asked for them, but this is not stated in their documentation. If you are going to any organised functions in Oz, send a copy of the documentation eg. wedding invitation - I have also been asked for this previously.

Am I saying it is easy? - NO!!! It's a frightful process, one which as an Aussie I'm thoroughly ashamed of. When I made my first application oh her behalf in 2006, the process took 4 months. Given I live in the very far North close to the Myanmar border, the clear assumption they made was that the ONLY reason an Aussie male would marry a Thai woman and live there, would be to set up a cover for a drug operation. Of course they never said it - in fact they told me lies repeatedly during the saga and just kept on asking for more and more verification and even went to the extent of ringing my 90 y.o. mother and my sister in Oz to check my intentions!!. Hence my tendency to do an overkill on the two occasions since, when there have been no problems with the actual visa issuing process - only the agents in CM.

Yes, email the minister!

Best of luck!

[ThaiVisaExpress]

Good luck to you both and great to meet you both keep in touch.

[dowman73]

Good luck to you both and great to meet you both keep in touch.

2 weeks today and counting

[dowman73]

My wife arrives this evening!!!!

Thanks again for all your help and support.

From Mr and Mrs Dowman

[ThaiVisaExpress]

Enjoy .

[endure]

Congratulations! If you're sending important documents in the UK ALWAYS use Special Delivery both ways.

[dowman73]

The sad thing was we did!! Special delivery both ways and money and passport stolen within the postal service the letter was found opened and resealed by the sorting office. I think they should use the same system that the passport office does and use there own secure delivery service rather than asking you to sort it out yourself.

But that aside I am now sitting here in front of my laptop with my wife by my side although nothing is ever easy I still had to wait 3 hours for her to pass through immigration they grilled her like it was her first time here and made her go through the health check but although it was frustrating it was worth the wait.

As I have said before and will keep saying THANKS AGAIN PAUL AND STAFF