Is There A Uk Visa Scam At Regent House

[hellyes2oo2]

my wife and i were in bangkok a few days ago,and seeing as we are thinking of moving back to the uk we went to regent house to see which visa she would require. She has already had the 6 month one. Upon arrival we were approached outside by a thai man aking what we were enquiring about,after we explained to him, we were taken upstairs and he went to speak to someone then he returned mumblimg about we could have a private meeting with the ( and i think he said consul, but could not understand him properly). At this point we were shown into an office and introduced to a thai lady ( she did not give her name). She told us that the best visa for us would be a settlement visa,and that she would deal with it personaly.She asked for both our passports and my wifes id card,I tried to explain that we were only making enquiries,but she was insistent that we needed to get things moving,she went on to say that from this point on we were only to deal with her and when i got back to the uk i was to mail all the paperwork directly to her and no one else, and that she would contact my wife when it was time for her to go for a x-ray to show that she was not suffering from tb.She then said that before she could give anymore information on what documents i would require that she would need my visa card so that i could pay for the visa.I asked how much it was going to cost and to my astonishment she said 137,500 baht.At this point i told her that i did not have my card with me,so she said she is going to e-mail me in a couple of days with instructions on how to contact her to pay the fee.Now a few weeks ago a friend of mine got a settlement visa and i'm sure it only cost him about 30,000 baht. has anybody else been conned in this way at regent house. And does the british embassy need to be informed about this.

[Lite Beer]

Apparently there are a lot of scammers hanging around Regent House.

Your Wife applies at the Visa application center only, and on her own. They will not talk to you.

Ignore all the touts and scams.

You are not alone. See Here.

[theoldgit]

As Lite Beer says this firm is a scam company and you had a lucky escape, others have not been so lucky.

You could inform the British Embassy but whilst they will probably ignore the complaint, or even acknowledge it, there has been an official report showing concerns about this practice, and they may ignore it at their peril.

The UK Visas does warn about the use of agents, but these people are very convincing.

[londonthai]

"Upon arrival we were approached outside by a thai man aking what we were enquiring about,after we explained to him, we were taken upstairs and he went to speak to someone then he returned mumblimg"

visa office starts somewhere after the sign "visa office", and not on the pavement on the front of the building

[sumrit]

Sounds like you were approached by somebody from a company called Visa World. They have an office on the first floor next to the VFS centre but ave absolutely nothing to do with either the VFS centre or the British Embassy. They'll charge you a fortune but thany people likere is no way they can guarantee you a visa. Many people have been conned and ripped off by them in the past. Have nothing more to do with them.

[chiang mai]

Jeeze, scammers operating openly within feet of the visa office and intercepting customers,. I'm not surprised by much these days but that one comes close, surely someone can do something about the problem.

[ThaiVisaExpress]

Its a total waste of time complain to anyone about various companies you just get a negative response, this is why we escort our clients to submit the applications as we have had previous problems.

[gregchambers]

Visa World seem to charge 30k on top of the visa fee for a settlement visa (another 30k) or whatever they can get away with - they do actually seem to have some success, so at least know what needs to be submitted - as you would expect - but nothing you can not find out from this site and a spare hour's work. But I guess lots of people have not got a clue what they are doing...

Edited January 23, 2010 by 7by7
See below

[7by7]

Posts making unsubstantiated allegations of corruption at the British embassy have been deleted and posts referring to said allegations have been edited or deleted.

If anyone has evidence of such corruption they should present it to the appropriate authorities.

Members are reminded of the forum rules, and rule 6 in particular

6) Not to post comments that could be reasonably construed as defamation or libel.

[rixalex]

Upon arrival we were approached outside by a thai man aking what we were enquiring about,after we explained to him...

after you explained to him???

I've had the same experience but my immediate thought as soon as i was approached out on the street was that this man obviously has nothing to do with the UK Visa Office - since when have embassy staff or representatives ever been known to step out onto the street to greet people and walk them in?

Cathedral sized alarm bells should have been going off in your head.

All that said, to me it seems very strange the way this practice is allowed under the very noses of the authorities. Like they just don't care.

Edited January 23, 2010 by rixalex

[7by7]

See this topic for lengthy discussion on what action the British embassy can and cannot take over the location of this agency.

In a nutshell, the British embassy has no power to dictate to Thai landlords who they do and do not let office space to. They could move the VAC, but this agency or a similar one would only follow.

As I said in the topic linked to by Lite Beer:-

UKVAC staff are all in uniform. No uniform means they are not VAC staff.

UKVAC staff will check your application and supporting documents and will advise you if either are incomplete. If so, they'll ask you if you would like to withdraw the application and resubmit it once you have corrected the errors, but must forward it to the embassy if you insist.

They will not offer any other forms of advice.

They will not charge you anything for any advice they may give you.

They cannot guarantee success.

They will not make any charges, other than the visa fee and other small fees for ancillary services such as photocopying.

[7by7]

As this topic discussing this problem at length has been revived, I'm closing this one to avoid duplication.