i was at the IOM today with my wife, and an Englishman came up to me and we started talking. He was living in the UK with his wife and son, and that morning he had applied for a uk settlement visa for his wife's daughter to join them. The daughter is living in thailand, with her aunt for the last year. the man was fuming at the embassy, saying they are a bunch of idiots. From what i can tell, VFS said he needed a TB certificate for the daughter, and proof of contact. he could not provide any details of payments sent or phonecalls made. he had not checked online for what he needed, and just submiited an application. i find it hard to believe that some people are so unprepared.

I have seen this many times to in relation to Australian visas. People turning up in the morning to VFS and filling in application forms without providing any supporting documentation whatsoever. Do they wonder why the get refused??

Thank you for your post, I met a guy at a European embassy last month equally unprepared. No, it's not the the embassy staff who make problems, often enough I found them really helpfull. But they have to follow procedures they didn't make, these come from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs back home. And every embassy I know in Thailand publishes this on the website.

Sometimes I do understand why embassy staff get impatient with people who didn't bother to even check the website before showing up in shorts and flip-flops, demanding a visa for their girlfriend "now".

I have seen this many times to in relation to Australian visas. People turning up in the morning to VFS and filling in application forms without providing any supporting documentation whatsoever. Do they wonder why the get refused??

Well, to be honest, in the years before all this war on terror horsesh!t, it was usually a case of fronting up at the embassy and filling in a form, paying the fees and walking away with what you wanted. I can imagine that someone who never had to do any international immigration stuff since those wonderful easy years may be suitably torqued with all the crap they ask for these days. Add to that the computer or IT 'Luddite' then it's easy to feel more sorry than amazed.