Holiday To The Uk

[dave69rock]

Hi just a quick question

has anyone ever tried to bring their Thai Boyfriend to the uk for a holiday, if yes could you give me some info on how to go about it.

[ChrisP]

And a parallel question...

Anyone had any success bring the Thai bf to the USA for a holiday..??

I know the US Embassy wants to see "substantial ties to Thailand" to grant a visa... but he doesn't own property.. isn't married (!) - yet.

Sooooooo.... very nervous about applying for a tourist visa for him.. only to be refused.

ChrisP.

[mrentoul]

I have a gay friend, a Thai, whose boyfriend in the US wanted him over there for a holiday. I think he was to stay a couple of months.

Applying for a visa was a huge drama and in the end he was refused. He had to show proof of his ties to Thailand, you are right, such as a job, source of income, family background, six-month savings history and so on.

My friend did not have a bank account until recently, so he had no savings history.

He had to make a trip home to Chon Buri to get his birth certificate and school records. His employer wrote him a letter saying he expected him back on such-and-such a date, but none of this helped in the end.

It's not impossible to get to the States, of course. In fact his employer studied there years ago. But in this case, in the absence of a savings record, he just had no chance...and the application fee is non-refundable even when you fail.

[Guest IT Manager]

I have been asked about moving this thread to Visas to other countries.

If that is a general view, I will do it today. IMHO the issues gay people face in taking a partner to many countries, are similar, but not the same, as for taking a Thai GF to another country.

The exception to this rule that I am aware of, is or was, Australia.

Let me know here.

[ChrisP]

Many thanks to Indo-Siam, who gave me the following (depressing but realistic) news for a US visit by the bf:

Well, sadly for you, the answer is that prospects are VERY slim.

I think the cost to apply for a tourist visa to the US is around US $90 (3,500+ Thai baht), and about 96 out of every 100 applications are rejected.

Effectively, it is really not even worth trying. Better to both meet on some Caribbean island for a holiday.

'Sorry to confirm your suspicions. When I first came to Thailand in 2000, I was working for a US firm that sold high cost factory equipment. I was Asian Regional Technical Manager. My company in the US decided to host training for country technical representatives, to be held in Minneapolis. My job was to coordinate attendance by one service engineer from each country office. So - that's what I tried to do. The engineers from Malaysia and Singapore both got their visas to attend the training without incident. But the service engineers from both Thailand and the Philllipines were denied visas. Both were male, both had engineering degrees, both were making about US $800 per month (the Singaporean and Malaysian engineers were both making more than double that amount). But - both denied engineers were single, and did not own a home (the Thai engineer lived with his parents - which is typical for a devoted Thai child who is not married). The denied individuals both had engineering degrees, and were working for country offices of a US firm that issued them letters of invitation to attend company-sponsored technical training - at company expense.

So - that should give you some idea of the challenge.

Oh well.

I just think it's ironic/unfair that Americans coming here are granted an automatic 30-day tourist visa... and not vice-versa.

ChrisP.

[Peripheral]

Hi just a quick question

has anyone ever tried to bring their Thai Boyfriend to the uk for a holiday, if yes could you give me some info on how to go about it.

I recently wanted to bring a male friend to Ireland for a holiday. I looked at the posts on this website and concluded that it was going to be a waste of time because my friend works in a bar, earns about 6,000 Baht per month, owns no property, has no savings history et cetera.

I told him to apply anyway. The visa was granted in less than two weeks, even though I was told by the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin that it would at least 6 weeks.

He was granted a 3-month visa valid from 1st August to 1st November. I do not think this allows him to stay 3 months. I think he can stay for 4 weeks within that 3-month period.

I do not know what exactly we did right but if anyone wants to know what we did - or did not do - I would be happy to help.

[Clicker]

Peripheral-If you are in Southern Ireland you won't be falling under UK regs. I have tried in the past to no avail. Unless you are loaded, theres virtually no chance of getting your boyfriend into the UK or the States. These must be the worst two countries in the world for Thais to get visas. Why I wonder do Germans, Dutch & Scandanavian guys have no problems getting their Thai friends visas? I will never forget, some years ago visiting the British embassy in Bkk with a wealthy, professional Thai LADY friend who was being interviewed in order to get a tourist visa; this lady owned assets at that time in excess of 30 million baht plus was running a very healthy business empire & went in for interview armed to the teeth with bank books, accounts, chanods etc. She was refused!!! She only wanted to visit friends in the UK for two weeks! If refused, they can appeal, however at £500 sterling this is a lot of money to chance. At the same time as I was waiting for my friend there was an English guy in there with his heavily pregnant Thai wife. This guy had details of his property, work & income in the UK & like my friend, his wife was refused a visa! Much depends on who you see in the Embassy so I'm told. The decision is completely at the discretion of the individual who interviews, which can never be right in my opinion & the whole process should be looked at!

Clicker

[Peripheral]

CLICKER - Yes, I agree with most of what you say. I think maybe I was just lucky.

A good friend of mine tried to get his girlfriend (now his wife) a tourist visa to Ireland about a year ago and failed. He earns twice as much money as me so I don't know how much that affects things. At the time I knew nothing about the visa situation and I thought she must have a criminal record or something. My friend was totally gutted and it took ages for an explasnation for the refusal to be given.

In my letter of invitation to my friend, I gave no hint of romantic entanglement. I just thanked him for showing me around Thailand (again) and for helping me improve my Thai language skills. I then offered to accommodate him at my home for the duration of my three week (fictional) summer holiday from work in return.

I sent a letter from my employer confirming my salary (easy for me as I work for my sister and do all the admin - i.e. I wrote the letter myself) and sent bank statements backing this up. That was all.

I must say I think it is disgraceful that so many people are refused tourist visas - very insulting to the applicants and very embarrassing for their sponsors (me and you!). I was ready to create an almighty stink with my local politicians if my friend was refused (as I assumed he would be). It was not necessary but I still think that everyone who has had a friend refused should do it and maybe it would have some impact on the way our overseas friends are treated by people who are employed and paid by us!

[Clicker]

I totally agree with your sentiments Peripheral. Not wanting to sound pesimistic, but, I very much doubt that lobbying the embassy or immigration would have an iota of effect. What is needed is an overhaul of the screening process. Like you say, your friend who earns twice as much money as you do was refused for his friend. As

[Clicker]

Cut off in my prime there...lol....

As I was saying, until they change the way that final decisions are made i.e. The final decision to issue a visa being that of the interviewing officer, it will always remain an unfair system. These people are basically playing God & it is totally wrong in my book!

Clicker

[Ijustwannateach]

Mentioned this on another more recent thread, but a friend of mine (an American friend) applied for a visa for himself and the SO to CANADA. They had a well-documented history together for a couple of years in Thailand- and found out in the (successful) process that Canadian judges have actually issued strict injunctions to immigration offices not to discriminate based on sexual orientation (or else face deep doodoo).

If it's not too cold up there, maybe Canada's looking better for our gay settlements?

"Steven"

[stephanbkk]

Well last Christmas and New Years my boyfriend and I decided that he would like to viisit the UK. He is an educated Thai and 24 and works as an engineer for the same company for two years. Not more than 50,000 baht in his account but has several credit cards. He filled out the visa application. Made sure he had loads of supporting documents. Bank account book, credit cards, house registration, letter from employer. No problems. He was told to come back the next day to pick up his passport. He was given a 3 month visit even though we needed only 10 days. Now he does speak excellent English and had prior chops in passport from Hong Kong and Singapore so maybe that helped. Anyway that's our experience.