Best To Apply For Uk Holiday Visa Or Spouse Visa

[UKJASE]

Hey Guys - i hope you are well,

i need some advice please....

I am 41 and recently married to my thai girlfriend of 2 years. She is 33. I am from UK and we want to go to visit and maybe stay for a year or so. my wife would like the option to work, and if she were to fall pregnant, to be able to go to the hospital for check ups etc

we are unsure which visa to apply for.... at first we thought we would apply for spouse visa, but i see that it is 42,000B to apply, and takes a long time for the result, and that many people dont get approved

i see that the holiday visa is 4,000B to apply and the results come quickly, within 15 working days

ultimately, we would like to start a family and have our baby born in the UK, so that it receives a uk passport. as my wife is 33 we want to start to try for a baby reasonably soon, but i am worried we try for a spouse visa, and that gets refused, and then we may not been in a strong position to apply for a holiday visa, due to the initial refusal of the spouse visa

i think we are in a strong position to have the spouse visa accepted, but there is niggling doubt as i am self employed and so cannot show steady income at the minute as i have been here in thailand. i have money in the bank still tho, and we own a house here in thailand, and i have my own home in uk. she has two teenage daughters here, plus 2 plots of land

do you think we should apply for a holiday visa, and then go to uk for 4 weeks. she can meet my family etc, then we come back to thailand and apply for spouse visa / settlement visa as soon as we return. would this increase our chances of a succesful application, as my wife has already been to the uk, and left when she was supposed to?

or do you think we should take the chance, and make a spouse application now?

is there anyone within the application centre / embassy that we can speak to to assess our situation, or do we simply have to decide based upon the information we can find on the net?

thanks for reading and hope you can help

[7by7]

If she is in the UK with a visit visa she will not be able to work. Neither will she have access to free NHS care except initial emergency care in an A&E dept. Anything else will have to be paid for. So she cannot give birth in a UK hospital while in the UK as a visitor unless she pays for private treatment.

She will also only be able to spend a maximum of 6 months in the UK on each visit and, usually, no more than 6 months out of 12.

If the intention is to live in the UK then a spouse visa is the way to do it. Whether she has visited the UK before or not is irrelevant in a spouse settlement application.

If in the UK with a settlement visa she can work immediately and will be entitled to full NHS treatment.

The success rate for settlement visa applications in Bangkok is consistently above 90%. Show that you meet the criteria and she will get the visa.

But; those criteria are about to change! See this topic.

Have a read of UK Settlement Visa Basics and then if you have any further questions, feel free to ask.

The embassy and VAC will simply refer you to the official guidance (linked to in the above) and say it is your decision.

If you are British otherwise than by descent then your children will be British too, no matter where they are born. If you are British by descent then they will only be British if they are born in the UK or a qualifying territory (see here for more on this).

NB. Moving to Visas and migration to other countries forum.

[bobrussell]

The new 'rules' being introduced mean you will have to demonstrate the ability to support your wife before she will be granted settlement anyway. You will need to demonstrate a minimum of £18,600 income plus be able to jump through the other hoops.

Check the links in 7x7's post because the world has suddenly changed in the settlement visa stakes!

[UKJASE]

any idea when these new rules will be introduced?? if our application is in before they are introduced, but then the new rules are brought in before we receive our decision, will we have to abide by the new rules or the old rules?

[dracos]

9th July 2012 and the old rules will apply to you if you apply before this date. The threads linked above give a general overview of the new requirements.

There's also another thread running in relation to visa waiting times which is currently around 2 months (but expect that to increase with everyone trying to submit applications before the new rules apply). This also shows that the majority of members here have had successful applications to date - there is a wealth of information available on all sorts of topics in this forum and it is well worth investing the time to read some of these to make sure your application is complete.

You will need to make your decision soon as it can take a long time to put together a complete and well thought out application. If your wife has not already got her English test certificates this should be the first priority as the tests often need to be booked in advance and you have to wait to receive the results before submitting the application - especially if you are not based in Bangkok.

Settlement visa is intended for those that want to settle permanently in the UK. If your intention is to only stay for a year or so it would probably be advisable not to mention this in your application. Settlement is expensive but is currently the only way that you can have more than 6 months together in the UK. It's probably also worth reading the guide for visitors applications as well as these can be harder to get in some cases compared to settlement visas (normally based on reason to return to Thailand - although in her case the house, daughters and the land will help with this).

[UKJASE]

hey guys - thanks for your helpful responses...... i really appreciate the sound and informative posts you guys always seem to produce

like 7by7 says, we are entitled to a spouse visa so that is what we are going to apply for..... (and quickly due to the new rules coming)

Dracos..... you say we sould apply for language course quickly, as this will take the longest to receive..... i was thinking, my wife has been studying english for a long time in a school environment..... will her most recent pass at a language school in Hua Hin be enough? she finished there about 5 weeks ago, and achieved a level 3 pass of some sort i believe.....

or is it a case that all certificates must come from bangkok??

if the latter is the case, do you have any recommendations of any good schools in bangkok? her spoken english is very good already, i guess she just needs the paperwork to prove it

[dracos]

The below is a link to the UKBA website with respect to meeting the English language requirements:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/partners-families/citizens-settled/spouse-cp/documents/english-language/

The key wording here is "approved by us". On the right hand side of that page there is a link to approved English tests.

There are a couple of threads in relation to approved test providers on this website, one of the more informative ones was:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/552868-english-language-test-centres-in-bangkok/

There is a list of providers from last year which includes 3 providers in Bangkok, 1 in Chiang Mai and none in Hua Hin which may mean she has to take another test. This list may not however be up to date. The first step may be to check the list of approved providers on the UKBA website to see if your wife's qualification is included there. Then maybe try contacting somebody at the school to see if they have any knowledge of if they are approved with UKBA (but remember this is Thailand so be careful how you ask them the question as they may just say yes to keep you happy or because they don't fully understand what you are asking them).

It appears that some members have recently been using different test centres however the results of their applications are not yet known so there is no evidence of whether this is acceptable or not. Unfortunately there are very few members with successful applications who actually posted details of where their other halves obtained the English test certificates.

[7by7]

Some posts have been removed; please stick to the topic.

[Jaggg88]

If you want to start a family make sure you don't impregnate your wife before the settlement visa is activated ie she has actually arrived in UK - otherwise the pregnancy will not be covered by the NHS. When my wife fell pregnant she had to produce her visa and passport for checking with the hospital administrator and it was pure luck that the confinement date was 3 day after we arrived - PHEW! would have cost a fortune

[7by7]

The date of conception is irrelevant.

The hospital may (should) check her visa to ensure that she is entitled to NHS treatment (visitors aren't) but as long as she has a settlement or other residential visa then she will be entitled to full NHS treatment; even if her labour starts in the arrivals hall!

Jaggg88, as her confinement date was three days after she arrived in the UK, how did she/you convince the airline to carry her?

[bobrussell]

If you want to start a family make sure you don't impregnate your wife before the settlement visa is activated ie she has actually arrived in UK - otherwise the pregnancy will not be covered by the NHS. When my wife fell pregnant she had to produce her visa and passport for checking with the hospital administrator and it was pure luck that the confinement date was 3 day after we arrived - PHEW! would have cost a fortune

Some posts are great for a laugh! Can you imagine the NHS questioning a patient about the details of conception? (or 'impregnation' as it was delicately put)!

As stated by 7x7 the NHS covers her from the minute she lands (in reality from the moment the closest airport is in the UK) on UK soil.