Uk Spouse Visa --- How Much?

[wayner]

Hi peeps

Just a quickie.

My wife is about to post her spouse visa application to the UK embassy in Bangkok (from Lao)

Does anyone know how much the visa costs? Would like to confirm before sending.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanx

Wayner

[the scouser]

The embassy website shows it as 19500 baht.

Scouse.

[wayner]

The embassy website shows it as 19500 baht.

Scouse.

Thanks very much Scouse

[Ollie]

The embassy website shows it as 19500 baht.

Scouse.

Thanks very much Scouse

Out of curiosity, does anyone know why it is so expensive? What actually happens? Is there a stamp in the passsport? A paper document to produce at immigation at H'row? Or is it done electronically? Can the successful visa holder expect questioning in the UK or will they be waved through, especially if not travelling with their spouse?

[the scouser]

The fees are periodically set centrally. The current cost of a settlement visa is £260 and is applicable worldwide. However, the fee is payable in local currency, so is converted according to the current exchange rate. The embassy in BKK is currently using a rate of 75 baht=£1 (19500/260). The visa is stuck in the holder's passport and an immigration officer can refuse a visa holder entry, but only in limited circumstances. Refusal generates a right of in-country appeal; i.e. you're not kicked out until such a time as your appeal has been heard and found against you.

Scouse.

[GU22]

Visa fees is a subject very close to my heart, as the actual fee does not reflect the actual cost of processing.

When my wife applied for her spouse visa the cost was the same as now, £260, but the cost of a visit visa was £36 (it's now £50). I queried at the time why a settlement visa was so much more expensive and was told that it doesn't just cover the cost of the initial visa but also the cost of processing the future application for FLR, if necessary, and ILR. Fair enough.

Then this wonderful Labour government introduced the extortionate fees for FLR and ILR; £335 by post or £500 in person! (Although fortunately my wife had qualified for and been granted ILR before this happened.)

My MP, Humfrey Malins, is not only a founder of the Immigration Advisory Service, but was also Shadow Immigration Minister at the time and was keenly trying to get the then Minister to justify this enormous increase from free to at least £335. Her response? "It brings the charges into line with similar countries, such as Australia!"

In other words, "We can charge what we like without having to justify it because it wont effect the vast majority of voters." So they did, and of course most British citizens couldn't give a toss. So we have to live with and put up with it.

To anyone reading this who has yet to embark down the road for a visa, take this advice. Unless there are very strong reasons for marrying in the UK, always marry in Thailand and go for a spouse visa, not a fiance one. This cuts out the FLR stage and so will save that fee of at least £335.

Although same sex couples have to apply for a fiance type visa so they can come to the UK and register their civil partnership. Isn't that unfair discrimination?

[Ollie]

Scouse & GU22

Many thanks for that information - very helpful.

Ollie.