How Do We Go To The Uk For One School Year?

[finewine]

I am a UK citizen, currently living in Thailand, with 2 children ages 6 and 4 and a Thai wife. We have been strongly advised to have the children spend one school year in a UK school, in order to give them a lifelong foundation in the English language. The children have British nationality, but what visa would be required by my wife, their mother?

Is there an alternative to the settlement visa, as we intend to return to Thailand.

Any relevant advice would be appreciated.

[VisasPlus]

I think the answer is basically no. There is a category that allows a parent to visit the UK for up to 12 months if they have a child at school, but there are two requirements that your wife probably cannot meet :

1. have a child with valid leave as a pre-points-based system student or a Tier 4 (Child)

2. have a child who is attending an independent fee paying day school in one of the child student immigration categories.

Otherwise it will have to be a normal visitor visa, and you would need to be careful of "abusing" the visit visa requirements.

[weescotsguy66]

On an un-qualified opinion if your kids are British then I would have thought no visa was necessary on the thing of your wife visa, why not apply for a 6 months visa for a visitor.

Return to Thailand and apply for a second 6 months visa during the school holidays.

If she has had a 6 month visa before then she may be allowed to have a 2 year visitors visa.

[7by7]

There is a convention that a visitor should not normally spend more than 6 months out of any 12 in the UK.

[finewine]

Thanks for your constructive comments.

I hadn't heard of a 2 year visitor's visa, but I presume that you would need to leave the UK after 6 months. How long before she could return? My wife has had 2 tourist visas, before, staying about 4 weeks each time. The last one was 4 years ago.

[theoldgit]

I hadn't heard of a 2 year visitor's visa, but I presume that you would need to leave the UK after 6 months. How long before she could

A two year, or longer, visitors visa is really for regular visitors to the UK, as 7by7 had pointed out there is a convention that a holder should spend no longer six months out of twelve in the UK.

It's not really designed for people who want to use it to continually spend long periods in the UK, and whilst it's not enshrined in law, a holder would still need to convince an IO at the border that the visit is genuine and the visa holder is not attempting to circumnavigate the rules applying to settlement.

[Jay Sata]

I can't see why they can't have a good grounding in English in Thailand. A friend of mine had a little boy with his Thai wife four years ago and they have spoken Thai and English to the child from day one. As a result he speaks excellent English to the the point where there are disputes in kindergarten when the teacher try to use words like 'appen' for apple. He insists on correcting her which is embarrassing.

The problem arises when the Thai mother insists on always speaking Thai to the children at home.

Unless you are moving to a nice area of the UK you may find some of the pupils in the new school will add another dimension to your children's language and behaviour.

[rumbles]

Can anyone help me with this, our niece who is a Thai national wants to come over to the Uk to learn basic english,does anyone know if this is possible we would be her sponsers she is 9 years old , also could she be enrolled into a local school whilst here, both her parents are alive and will remain in Thailand, which visa if any?

Cheers

[Jay Sata]

Can anyone help me with this, our niece who is a Thai national wants to come over to the Uk to learn basic english,does anyone know if this is possible we would be her sponsers she is 9 years old , also could she be enrolled into a local school whilst here, both her parents are alive and will remain in Thailand, which visa if any?

Cheers

If you mean enrolling in a private UK fee paying boarding school I see no problem. Both of my children went to UK boarding schools where there were kids from across the world.

On the other hand if you are asking could a Thai child who is not your offspring be allowed to come to the UK to attend a normal state school at public cost the answer has to be no.

[7by7]

Can anyone help me with this, our niece who is a Thai national wants to come over to the Uk to learn basic english,does anyone know if this is possible we would be her sponsers she is 9 years old , also could she be enrolled into a local school whilst here, both her parents are alive and will remain in Thailand, which visa if any?

Cheers

The only way she could attend a state school was if she was living in the UK, not visiting.

The only way she could come to the UK to settle and live with you was if both her parents were dead and there were no other relatives in Thailand who could care for her.

So, as the post above says, the only option is a private school; although it doesn't have to be a boarding school!

As you can see from this flow chart, if the course is for 6 months or less then she can apply for a child visit visa ( see Para 46 of the immigration rules for the requirements for child visitors, and 46(a)(vii) for the conditions if she wishes to study as a child visitor).

If more than 6 months then she will need a Tier 4 Student (Child) visa.

Whichever, she will need to show that she has a place on an acceptable course from an approved education provider.

Edited December 17, 2012 by 7by7

[Jay Sata]

Can anyone help me with this, our niece who is a Thai national wants to come over to the Uk to learn basic english,does anyone know if this is possible we would be her sponsers she is 9 years old , also could she be enrolled into a local school whilst here, both her parents are alive and will remain in Thailand, which visa if any?

Cheers

The only way she could attend a state school was if she was living in the UK, not visiting.

The only way she could come to the UK to settle and live with you was if both her parents were dead and there were no other relatives in Thailand who could care for her.

So, as the post above says, the only option is a private school; although it doesn't have to be a boarding school!

As you can see from this flow chart, if the course is for 6 months or less then she can apply for a child visit visa ( see Para 46 of the immigration rules for the requirements for child visitors, and 46(a)(vii) for the conditions if she wishes to study as a child visitor).

If more than 6 months then she will need a Tier 4 Student (Child) visa.

Whichever, she will need to show that she has a place on an acceptable course from an approved education provider.

It get's more complicated if you are not the parent but a 'sponsor'.

The parent/parents have to apply and not the 'sponsor'.

There are very strict barriers in place now to screen out non genuine school applications. You'll be looking at several thousand UK pounds a year for the cheapest private school place.

I disagree with 7by7 as there are no options on the non boarding route.

[finewine]

Update 8/6/2013

Part 1 - Success.

It is only possible to apply for a UK tourist visa, a maximum of 3 months before the date of travel. Not very long if you have a tenant in your UK house, who requires notice. This application took 3 weeks to process.

The application requested an August start date and the full six months. It also included the reasons, particularly that the 2 children need a mother to look after them. They refuse any help in the toilet from their father.

In reply to a poster above, my children speak, read and write English as well as Thai. However their spoken English is "Tinglish" as spoken by many Thais and Farangs. No final "s", no "a" or "the", etc. Understandable but pidgin. They will start their Scottish school on August 14th.

However it is an experiment, for all of us and whether we can cope with the Glasgow weather and food for 6 months, I just don't know.

After August I will update this thread with our experiences of going back to the UK - positive and negative.

[bobrussell]

Can anyone help me with this, our niece who is a Thai national wants to come over to the Uk to learn basic english,does anyone know if this is possible we would be her sponsers she is 9 years old , also could she be enrolled into a local school whilst here, both her parents are alive and will remain in Thailand, which visa if any?

Cheers

The only way she could attend a state school was if she was living in the UK, not visiting.

The only way she could come to the UK to settle and live with you was if both her parents were dead and there were no other relatives in Thailand who could care for her.

So, as the post above says, the only option is a private school; although it doesn't have to be a boarding school!

As you can see from this flow chart, if the course is for 6 months or less then she can apply for a child visit visa ( see Para 46 of the immigration rules for the requirements for child visitors, and 46(a)(vii) for the conditions if she wishes to study as a child visitor).

If more than 6 months then she will need a Tier 4 Student (Child) visa.

Whichever, she will need to show that she has a place on an acceptable course from an approved education provider.

It get's more complicated if you are not the parent but a 'sponsor'.

The parent/parents have to apply and not the 'sponsor'.

There are very strict barriers in place now to screen out non genuine school applications. You'll be looking at several thousand UK pounds a year for the cheapest private school place.

I disagree with 7by7 as there are no options on the non boarding route.

Of course there are options to boarding! Many private schools take day students, quite a number only take day students. It would be necessary to provide details of suitable accommodation that was acceptable to the Home Office/UKBA, mainly for the child's welfare. Close family is ideal!

Private schools have been catering for the needs of international kids for 'donkeys' years.

[steady]

Update 8/6/2013

Part 1 - Success.

It is only possible to apply for a UK tourist visa, a maximum of 3 months before the date of travel. Not very long if you have a tenant in your UK house, who requires notice. This application took 3 weeks to process.

The application requested an August start date and the full six months. It also included the reasons, particularly that the 2 children need a mother to look after them. They refuse any help in the toilet from their father.

In reply to a poster above, my children speak, read and write English as well as Thai. However their spoken English is "Tinglish" as spoken by many Thais and Farangs. No final "s", no "a" or "the", etc. Understandable but pidgin. They will start their Scottish school on August 14th.

However it is an experiment, for all of us and whether we can cope with the Glasgow weather and food for 6 months, I just don't know.

After August I will update this thread with our experiences of going back to the UK - positive and negative.

I think that you will be very lucky if the school removes the "Tinglish" effect in one year. My family (3 children) came back to Scotland last September and we are just about to finish the school year and their English is a lot better than it was in Thailand but still has the Thai version of words dispersed. That said I do rate the school they are at and I can see that in the forthcoming school year they will develop much faster than in Thailand at things that I think will give them a better grounding in life. This isn't an anti Thai thing, both my Thai wife and I like the way things happen here but we were very happy with the Thai school the children were previously in. It was just that (with the finances at my disposal) they were only being educated for life in Thailand, in the UK, if they choose to do the work, then they can go to any country.

And I wouldn't worry too much about the weather, the wife and children have just spent all day swimming and canoeing in Loch Lomond with a mix of sticky rice and plain bread 'pieces' washed down with Irn Bru!