I want to take my Thai wife and our nine month baby daughter to the UK to visit my mother for a four week holiday. We intend to stay with my mother and so will apply for a 'family visit' visa. (I work in Thailand as a head-teacher). My wife has a small business in Bangkok but she receives hardly any income. She has documunetation to show she has had the business for more than five years, and the business accounts are solid, but she has no savings and receives hardly any income as everything is in the business. How will this affect her visa application because i heard she needs to show savings in a bank account? Unfortunately, I have little savings myself. Please advise. Thanks.

Your wife doesn't need to show vast amounts of savings and neither do you, what she does need to prove, and so do you if you are acting as her sponsor, is that the trip is affordable. You need to cost the trip and ensure that you can prove that there are sufficient funds available.

If you are staying with your mother then fine, you need to be able to prove that the home suitable and you will be able to stay there.

As your wife has a business and you are a head teacher then that should convince the ECO that there is a reason to return, you might want to submit evidence of the business and your job and add proof that you can take a four week holiday from your employment, assuming it's not a school holiday. You might also want to include evidence of your accomodation in Thailand.

Regarding your wife's business, as I have already said that should go a long to proving her reason to return but she needs to include something about her cover arrangements during her holiday, is it a business with a manager who could provide cover, the will need to be satisfied that the business is genuine and it would not be jeopardised by her holiday.

Good luck.

Thanks.

They know money is tight , and most working Thais live hand to mouth. my wife only had about 3000baht in her account but had a five year History of money going in her account from her work.