Visa For Wife. Use Company Or Diy

[silentnine]

Hi All

looking at a 5 or 6 month visit to the UK for myself, my wife and our son

we have been living in Thailand (full time) together for 6 years.

we have a 4 year old son together who no has both Uk & Thai birth certificates/passports

we have a business her in Thailand that is in my wife's names that generates an income for us, around 70,000bt per month.. although the moment the monthly income arrives we draw it from the ATM and spend it all lol.. in addition i have a small income from royalty fees in the UK of around 7000 pounds per year.

in the UK we have nothing .. we plan to stay at my mothers house for a few days then rent somewhere.

we do not keep money in the bank .so unable to show savings ..

she & I both have more reasons to come back to Thailand than stay in the UK

i do plan on working for 5 months when we are back there to boost our income/savings

the reason for the visit is

a/ visit my aging mother & my other english children

b/ for me to earn some $$ as i want to expand our buisness here in thailand

i cannot decide if to just try for a visitor visa for her (for 6 months) will the lenth of proposed stay go against us ?

or if to just go whole hog and apply for the married spouse visa , the benefit being she could work also. the negative part is we do NOT want ot stay formore than 6 months so the extra cost is a waste and i assume this visa may be harder to get.

so better getting visitor this time maybee and wait till i'm more old and more decrebid and have a real reason to go back to the UK

my querie is should we do it our-self or get a visa company to do it .. the company costs tho do see extreme

are they able to provide any missing documentation thru back doors ? or is it simply that they have a checklist they follow..

not sure how we will fare on the financial sponsorship side of things as all out money is here in Thailand and the money we will use in the UK will be the business income in Thailand and my own monthly income..

[silverdales]

The biggest thing about a visitor visa is the reasons to return to Thailand and a settlement is given now for 2.5 years then extended for another 2.5 years then you can apply but the applicant has to have been in the UK for a certain amount of time during that period (quite a bit) ... So I guess the answers easy really.. visitors cant see it being a problem, do it yourself if you are OK with forms etc its easy just read and double read, they are quite helpful on the phone or on this forum to answer any doubts, I guess they are the same ones every time!

[theoldgit]

First of all five or six months in the UK is a really long holiday, especially if you and your wife have a business in Thailand.

Who, if anybody, would manage the business whilst you were on holiday, would you be receiving an income from it during the extending holiday?

The purpose of a visit visa is just that, a visit, it's not designed for your wife to visit the UK while you are working there, the ECO might reasonably suspect that your wife wants to use a visit visa to circumnavigate the settlement route.

You say you would rent in the UK, how will you pay the rent and for your families keep, are you guaranteed sufficient work?

Quite honestly from what you have said I doubt very much if your wife would be granted a visit visa.

Regarding your thoughts on settlement, for your wife to be granted a settlement visa you would need to prove an income of GBP18,600 per year to qualify under the new rules, and you don't seem to be able to do so, would the funds from the Thai business dry up if you were both in the UK.

If you are unsure then have a chat with either Visa Plus or Thai Visa Express, both will give you a free opinion of your options and both charge reasonable fees.

I really don't want to rain on your parade, but I would advise you to take a step back and think it through again.

[silentnine]

First of all five or six months in the UK is a really long holiday, especially if you and your wife have a business in Thailand.

Who, if anybody, would manage the business whilst you were on holiday, would you be receiving an income from it during the extending holiday?

The purpose of a visit visa is just that, a visit, it's not designed for your wife to visit the UK while you are working there, the ECO might reasonably suspect that your wife wants to use a visit visa to circumnavigate the settlement route.

You say you would rent in the UK, how will you pay the rent and for your families keep, are you guaranteed sufficient work?

Quite honestly from what you have said I doubt very much if your wife would be granted a visit visa.

Regarding your thoughts on settlement, for your wife to be granted a settlement visa you would need to prove an income of GBP18,600 per year to qualify under the new rules, and you don't seem to be able to do so, would the funds from the Thai business dry up if you were both in the UK.

If you are unsure then have a chat with either Visa Plus or Thai Visa Express, both will give you a free opinion of your options and both charge reasonable fees.

I really don't want to rain on your parade, but I would advise you to take a step back and think it through again.

exactly why i posted

6 months is a really long stay yes. .. i guess we came up with 6 months as i read the visa granted was for that lenth

the business will be run by us via the phone when needed and by family in Thailand, also we have good staff.. and yes we continue to receive income from it .. the business is not closing while we are away .but we will have to suffer some unsocial hours on the phone to keep it running in thai time

i outlined our income above..

the settlement route is there for long stayers who plan to settle ? and then apply for ILR

we do not want to stay in the uk.. . i will be parking and putting a cover on our fortuner. and driving some cheap nail from a uk auction i suspect..

and all our belongings remain here in thailand .. maybe 10 more years in the future we would consider moving .. but for now we have a buisness and a life here and uk settlement is not even in the thought process,, how to prove this to ECO though

should we say a shorter period and just hope for the 6 month stamp ?

i don't see how my wife visiting the uk while i work comes into it, surely they cannot regulate on that basis .. i am a uk citizen so they cannot query if i work or not , nor even ask if i do work (can they?) aslong as we can show monies.

if 6 months is to long a stay .. why do they issue a 6 month visa ? or should we ask for 3 then extend to 6 while in the uk perhaps ?

Edited September 18, 2012 by silentnine

[VisasPlus]

It's an interesting one for discussion. You are right, you can ask for as long as you want ( up to the maximum 6 months). But you have to satisfy the visa officer ( or I should say that your wife has to satisfy the visa officer) that a genuine visit, for however long you say, is what you actually intend. From what you say, you may have difficulty showing that you can even afford a visit to the UK. If I read you correctly, you cannot show any savings at all, so the first question in the visa officer's mind is how you will even buy(return) tickets.

To be honest, I could quite easily argue this application both ways. With the correct documentation, and a well crafted supporting letter, I could make a good case for a visa to be issued to your wife. Alternatively, on the information you have given so far, and your stated intentions while in the UK, I could make a good case to show, on balance, that your wife might possibly need, or want, to take some employment whilst in the UK to help out financially, or that you might be trying to circumvent the settlement requirements by getting your wife into the UK on a visit visa. The visa officer doesn't have to prove that this is not a genuine visit. He has to show, on the balance of probabilities that you have not satisfied him that it is a genuine visit. His subjective view will prevail.

As it is your wife applying she will have a right of appeal if the visa is refused. The appeal procedure can be lengthy, up to 9 months or maybe more. I tend to believe that where there is a right of appeal then the ECO, if he has to weigh the balance, will lean towards issuing a visa as the appeal process is a pain in the butt and can cost the UKBA the court "costs" ( only to the limit of the appeal fee itself) if they lose. There is no greater motivation than not losing money ! It is a business ( and no longer a service to the public), after all.

[silentnine]

how long is a visa issued for ? ie length of stay?

if you say you going for a month is it a month visa , or do they just issue a 3 or 6 month one ?

our income between us as above is for my wife 70,000bt per month .. and remains so while we would be away .. and mine is a meager 7000 pounds per annum off royalties received,, so between us around 23,000 pounds per annum. thats before i do any work in the uk.

more than enough to live on i'd think

if they in these situations would not like to issue a visa when someone is honest and says they plan to stay for the full 6 months that the visa would allow then surely it encourages people to say they are staying a lesser time on the application then just staying anyway ?

[theoldgit]

The standard visit visa is for six months and multi entry, the ECO can issue for a shorter period of time, but that's what they normally issue.

If a person applies for a visa and indicates they want to visit for three weeks, they would still normally be issues the six month, multi entry visa. If the visa holder then decides to stay for the full six months, or at least until the expiry date of the visa, they are not doing anything illegal but they could encounter a problem with a future visa application, a suspicious IO at the UK Border could feasibly deny entry to a visa holder if their application indicated they wanted to visit for a month and they told the IO that they were now visiting for six months, rare but it can happen.

I can see where you are coming from, and indeed Visa Plus, who is an expert in all things visa related, has indicated that he could argue your case either way. At the end of the day it's for you and your wife to decide what line to go down, it's not us you have to convince, it's the ECO.