Taking The Thai Girlfriend To Ireland And Uk

[jackinbkk]

Hi,

I'm a UK citizen with a UK passport and an Irish passport. I am staying in Phuket and I have been living in Thailand for 16 months.

I want to take my girlfriend to the Rep. Ireland and then to the UK. If I obtain a 3 month Irish tourist visa can I then

go with her to the UK. Am I free to go to other EU countries???

My girlfriend can show proof of owning her own house here in Thailand.

I have never applied for a visa for her before. Is an Irish visa easier to obtain than a UK visa???

Thanks for any advice.

-Jack

[7by7]

Neither the RoI nor the UK are full members of the Schengen Area.

The RoI and UK are not a common travel area; an Irish visa is not valid for the UK and a UK visa is not valid for the RoI.

This means that you will need an Irish visa for the RoI, a UK visa for the UK and Schengen visa for Europe.

See this thread for discussion on Irish visas.

If you want details of UK or Schengen visas, feel free to ask.

Edited October 21, 2009 by 7by7

[oldbill]

Hello Jack

I too hold both passports and I experienced the following. My wife (GF at the time) was in the UK on a visitors visa and I wanted to take her to the ROI to visit rellies. I contacted the Irish Embassy in London who explained to me that as my wife was not in her own country and was on a visitors visa to the UK they would not accept an application from us to visit the ROI.

We have since been granted Indefinate Leave to Remain in the UK.

We visited the ROI in December last year and it took the visa section almost 6 weeks to process the visa for a stay of only 5 days.

The Irish immigration were pretty hot at the port of entry.

My advice from experience to you would be to apply for visa'a for both countries and ensure your justification for the visit is well evidenced. Even though we had residency in the UK the application for our December visit was still very thorough.

Best of luck.

[spongeman]

Hello Jack

I too hold both passports and I experienced the following. My wife (GF at the time) was in the UK on a visitors visa and I wanted to take her to the ROI to visit rellies. I contacted the Irish Embassy in London who explained to me that as my wife was not in her own country and was on a visitors visa to the UK they would not accept an application from us to visit the ROI.

We have since been granted Indefinate Leave to Remain in the UK.

We visited the ROI in December last year and it took the visa section almost 6 weeks to process the visa for a stay of only 5 days.

The Irish immigration were pretty hot at the port of entry.

My advice from experience to you would be to apply for visa'a for both countries and ensure your justification for the visit is well evidenced. Even though we had residency in the UK the application for our December visit was still very thorough.

Best of luck.

Thats par for the course for immigration at Dublin.

[ThaiVisaExpress]

You will require 2 visas as advised our office can deal with both applications if required.

[jackinbkk]

2 visa then.

ok thanks everyone

[asia_pilot]

2 visa then.

ok thanks everyone

Or 3 if you want to go into the Schengen zone with her.

[ThaiVisaExpress]

Nothing is straight forward however you will have to get all the necessary visas for the relevant countries you wish to travel to.