Taking Thai Wife Back To Uk

[Richard croucher]

I am married to a Thai national, and been living in Thailand for nearly a year, but now want to return to the UK with my wife.However because I have been living and working here,I do not have the same sort of ties in the Uk that most Men have that want to take thier wife back.

I don't own any property in the Uk, do not have savings in the UK, and do not have a job in the UK,so does this preculde me from being able to return home with my Wife

Please advise me

Richard

[mr-chris]

I am married to a Thai national, and been living in Thailand for nearly a year, but now want to return to the UK with my wife.However because I have been living and working here,I do not have the same sort of ties in the Uk that most Men have that want to take thier wife back.

I don't own any property in the Uk, do not have savings in the UK, and do not have a job in the UK,so does this preculde me from being able to return home with my Wife

Please advise me

Richard

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You will have to prove to the UK Imm Dept, that you can support her 100%.

Go to the UK embassy in BKK and register your marriage with them. Get it recognised. Make plans in advance. Get a job, even as a dust-bin man before you go back and make all arrangements for accoms before you land. Make sure that if you are unemployed, even for just a week, you can support her. Best advice, get legal help first. Not forum support. Imm Dept in Croydon won't look too favourably at your case if you're unemployed and without your own home be it rented or mortgaged.

Wishing you both the best.

PS. Get her a good coat before you go or suffer infectious wounds to the thighs. Fingernails are wicked for leaving infections in cold climates. Keep her warm.

[GU22]

Go to the UK embassy in BKK and register your marriage with them. Get it recognised.

A Thai marriage is recognised already, provided you have registered it at an Ampur and have the official marriage certificate. Any marriage that is legally recognised in the country where it took place is legally recognised in the UK. This has been the case for well over 100 years! (Richard, the ceremonial marriage is not a legal marriage in Thailand and so is not recognised by the UK, If you have only had the ceremony, get it registered at an Ampur before doing anything else. See Guidance for British Nationals Wishing to Marry in Thailand )

You cannot register a Thai marriage at the British embassy. From Recording a Marriage in the UK

If you wish, we can arrange for your Thai marriage certificate to be deposited at the General Registry Office (GRO) in the UK for record purposes. Please note the following:-

- The marriage will not be registered in the UK; the marriage certificate will simply be deposited;

- This means that the original certificate will not be returned to you;

- There is no legal obligation to have a marriage recorded in the UK.

(my emphasis)

This is a total waste of time and money. In any situation where you need to prove your marriage in the UK, your Thai marriage certificate with a certified English translation will always suffice.

Richard, have you read through Guidance - Husbands, wives and partners (INF 4) ?

From what you have said, your biggest problem is that you must be able to show that you can support and accommodate yourselves without recourse to public funds. You say that you don't have savings in the UK, but do you have savings in Thailand? Can you use those savings to support yourselves until you find work? Alternatively, is there a friend or family member who can accommodate and support you both until you find work? If so, they will have to provide details of the accommodation on offer and of their income/savings to prove that they can afford it.

Otherwise, I'm afraid that you will need to return alone and find somewhere to live and a job before you can apply for your wife to join you.

[mr-chris]

My comment on registering his marriage was one that follows through. If he registers at the UK embassy in BKK, not that he has too, when he arrives at customs and his passport is swiped, it will show that an amendment has been made to show him as a 'married' man and not 'single' as it probably presently is.

It's just one of the little things one can do to help oneself but yes, the Thai marriage cert is legal.

My apologies if my comment was taken wrongly GU22.

[GU22]

Er, sorry, no, it wont.

All that happens is the embassy take from you a copy of the marriage cert and send it to the GRO, where it is filed away. This may be useful if you lose your marriage cert as you can then get a copy from the GRO in London and not have to apply to the Ampur in Thailand where you married. In the future it may also be useful to some descendant in the UK who wants to trace family records.

But that's it, I'm afraid.

Still, if you want to waste the money doing this, then it's up to you, but I can assure you, and everyone else, that doing so or not doing so will have absolutely no effect on your partners visa application.

[khon_fused]

I am married to a Thai national, and been living in Thailand for nearly a year, but now want to return to the UK with my wife.However because I have been living and working here,I do not have the same sort of ties in the Uk that most Men have that want to take thier wife back.

I don't own any property in the Uk, do not have savings in the UK, and do not have a job in the UK,so does this preculde me from being able to return home with my Wife

Please advise me

Richard

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Richard, I have a couple of friends (one being the husband - British - and the other being the wife - Thai) that were in exactly in the same position as you seem to be and they came to the UK within the last several months, the wife on a Settlement Visa.

The three broad criteria you need to satisfy in order to secure a UK Settlement Visa are:

Proof of a valid relationship - easy for my friends, easy no doubt for you also

Proof that suitable accomodation is available - he had his parents formally offer adequate accomodation in their family home until they were up on their feet so to speak (and they went on to find their own flat once he found work - which has nothing to do with the visa application, coming well after the event)

Proof of ability to self support without recourse to public funds (for the non-UK national on the visa) - naturally a job offer would solve this, but in my friend's case he had his parents write a letter offering financial support (they thus had to provide proof of their capability to do so, but the amounts one needs to prove access to are nowhere near as high as most imagine they are) to cover his wife should it be required. He managed to find a job quickly on return.