Settlement Process

[yumster]

Hi,

My Laos girlfriend has been here with me here in the UK for 5 months on a tourist visa. We are both flying back to Bangkok on next week and we have just discovered that she is pregnant (10 weeks today). My plan now is to get married in Thailand and then apply for the settlement visa.

My questions are:-

Will it be possible to get married at an Amphur with everything that entails and apply for the settlement visa in 2 days?

When we apply for the Settlement Visa I beleive that VFA will hold onto her passport, this will leave her in tricky situation as she does need to go back to Laos after we are married. Is there anyway around this, can VFS make do with a copy of her passport or can they give some kind of document so she can cross the border in Laos and come back.

Any help or advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[craigm16]

After my fiancee had handed over her passport to the VFS the following month her company asked her to travel to Macau for a 2day business trip. I called the VFS office in regent house and they said if my fiancee went to the VFS office they would give her a form to fill out and she would have to explain the reasons why she needed her passport back for a short period of time and it would then be upto the UK embassy to either say yes or no if she got it back.

In the end she never went through with this as she did'nt want to slow down the visa process.

Hope this helps you in some way.

[TiggerFish]

Hi Yumster,

I think you might be asking a bit much to do it all in 2 days, I recently (finished yesterday) went through the getting married and applying for a visa process.

I have head people say that you need to be resident in Thailand for 3 days before you can get married, I have also heard people say this is rubbish, I am not sure which is True.

Here's what we did on each day.

Sunday, I arrived in Thailand.

Monday 8am, submitted the Freedom of Affirmation to Marry to the British Embassy.

Monday 9am, went to the IOM to organise the TB test.

Monday 12am, returned the Xray to the IOM.

Monday 2:00pm, received the results (All OK fortunately)

Monday 2:30pm, collected the Freedom of Affirmation to Marry from the British Embassy.

Tuesday 8am, submitted the translated version of the Freedom of Affirmation to Marry to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for legalisation.

Tuesday 11am, collected the legalised version of the Freedom of Affirmation to Marry.

Now from this point on you can get Married at any Amphur but if you want your wife to change her name the only place this can be done is at the district office in her home town.

We travelled to her home town on Tuesday afternoon, got married and changed the name on her ID card on the Wednesday.

Changing names on ID cards is a 30 minute job but changing names in passports means a new passport in this world of digital passports and that takes 2 days.

Applied for a new passport due to the name change at 8am on Thursday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and collected it the following Monday.

Visa applications are accepted up until 3:30pm at VFS, my wife turned up at 9am this Monday morning after having collected her new passport and was seen at 1pm, out by 2:30pm (2 applications, one for her and one for her son).

If nothing else they'll need the passport at the end of the process to hopefully stick the visa in it.

I hope that is of some help.

[yumster]

Hi Yumster,

I think you might be asking a bit much to do it all in 2 days, I recently (finished yesterday) went through the getting married and applying for a visa process.

I have head people say that you need to be resident in Thailand for 3 days before you can get married, I have also heard people say this is rubbish, I am not sure which is True.

Here's what we did on each day.

Sunday, I arrived in Thailand.

Monday 8am, submitted the Freedom of Affirmation to Marry to the British Embassy.

Monday 9am, went to the IOM to organise the TB test.

Monday 12am, returned the Xray to the IOM.

Monday 2:00pm, received the results (All OK fortunately)

Monday 2:30pm, collected the Freedom of Affirmation to Marry from the British Embassy.

Tuesday 8am, submitted the translated version of the Freedom of Affirmation to Marry to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for legalisation.

Tuesday 11am, collected the legalised version of the Freedom of Affirmation to Marry.

Now from this point on you can get Married at any Amphur but if you want your wife to change her name the only place this can be done is at the district office in her home town.

We travelled to her home town on Tuesday afternoon, got married and changed the name on her ID card on the Wednesday.

Changing names on ID cards is a 30 minute job but changing names in passports means a new passport in this world of digital passports and that takes 2 days.

Applied for a new passport due to the name change at 8am on Thursday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and collected it the following Monday.

Visa applications are accepted up until 3:30pm at VFS, my wife turned up at 9am this Monday morning after having collected her new passport and was seen at 1pm, out by 2:30pm (2 applications, one for her and one for her son).

If nothing else they'll need the passport at the end of the process to hopefully stick the visa in it.

I hope that is of some help.

Hi TiggerFish,

Your post was of great help thanks a million.

Is the embassy, hospital for x-ray, ministry of foreign affairs etc close to each other or was there a lot of travelling all over Bangkok?

Thanks

[TiggerFish]

There's a fair bit of travelling involved, here's a bit of a guide using mostly BTS where possible.

Map here >> http://www.bts.co.th.../Route_BTS.html

British Embassy.

BTS Ploen Chit

Map here >> http://www.into-asia...s/ploenchit.php

IOM

BTS Sala Deang

Map Here >> http://www.vfs-uk-th...emkij%20map.pdf

Then off to get Xrays, choice of two hospitals, we used Payathai 2

BTS Sanam Pao

The hospital can be seen on this map for the Thailand Research Fund >> http://www.trf.or.th/map/mapeng.pdf

Forgot to mention that after you pick up the Freedom of Affirmation to marry you need to get it translated, we did that on Monday afternoon. There are many many translation shops in and around Bangkok, we used one in the shopping centre that is opposite the British embassy on the map for the British embassy as Ploenchit Arcade, they did it in 40 mins and charged 300 THB. Many in this forum have mentioned it is worth getting your marriage certificate translated in to English once married, we listened to that advice and used the same translation shop to ensure consistent spelling when going back in the other direction.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

BTS to Mo Chit, use exit 3 or 4, can't quite remember, then you can get a mini van from 25 BHT each to the Ministry or get a taxi, the ride was about 30 mins at the time of day we went.

VFS Global Bangkok

BTS Ratchadamri

Map here >> http://www.vfs-uk-th.com/images/map.jpg

Happy Travelling.

Edited June 29, 2010 by TiggerFish

[yeesipha]

Yumster,

as your wife is 10 weeks pregnant,when she first registers at the IOM in bkk she will need to disclose this to them, and also MUST take along her anti natal care book which will be issued by her clinic in thailand ,she must take the book along otherwise they will not register her at IOM,also out of the choice of two hospitals that the IOM use, the bumaragad in bkk will not X Ray pregnant women full stop,so you will have to travel Phaya thai hospital in bkk,they do x ray pregnant women.or you may well decide that your wife undertakes the sputum test which take upto an extra 3 to 5 days for a test to be completed. some advice the IOM in bkk will try and talk you and your wife into taking the sputum test route for obvious reasons,politely tell them that is up to you and your wife to decide.

Edited June 29, 2010 by yeesipha

[yumster]

<BR>Yumster,<BR><BR>as your wife is 10 weeks pregnant,when she first registers at the IOM in bkk she will need to disclose this to them, and also MUST take along her anti natal  care book which will be issued by her clinic in thailand ,she must take the book along otherwise they will not register her at IOM,also out of the choice of two hospitals that the IOM use, the bumaragad in bkk will not X Ray pregnant women full stop,so you will have to travel Phaya thai hospital in bkk,they do x ray pregnant women.or you may well decide that your wife undertakes the sputum test which take upto an extra 3 to 5 days for a test to be completed.<BR>

<BR><BR><BR>Hi Yeeshipha<BR><BR>Thanks for the info. <BR><BR>What you have said gives me a bit of concern. My girlfriend is here in the UK as a tourist and isn't entitled to NHS treatment so we don't have an anti natal care book. She had had 2 positive pregnancy tests so she is definately pregnant. Not sure what I can do about this now, any ideas anyone?<BR><BR>Thanks

[yeesipha]

Yumster,no need to involve the nhs at all mate (yet) ,your both going back to bkk next week any way,find yourself a clinic and register her with them,they will issue the anti natal care book there and then,anyway ,you will be in thailand for a while and your wife will need regular check ups on baby and herself,so best to register anyway.

PS i nearly forgot congratulations on your news.