Visa to Spain for a Thai girlfriend

[Jaysisaket]

Hello, folks!

I want my Thai girlfriend of 2 years to visit me in Spain for 2-3 months. For the visa she is required to present:

1. Two application forms with 2 fotoes

2. Medical insurance covering no less than 30.000 euro during the stay

3. Return ticket from Spain back to Thailand

4. Invitation from the receiving party

5. Proof of financial means

I can organize everything without any problems whatsoever. But I am worried about part #5. According to the embassy's website the applicant can be sponsored only by close relatives which I am not. So I cannot sponsor her. And my girlfriend used to be a bargirl but now is a freelance hairdresser and a make up artist. Her own income is sporadic and fairly low all in cash and she pays no taxes of course. So she will not be able to present any official proof. I support her every month when I am outside of Thailand by transfering 20k to her bank account. When I am in Thailand we live together and I have all the money and pay for everything so there are no transfers during these periods.

We are building a house in Sisaket and I use her bank account as the place to transfer funds from abroad to pay for the construction works. Over the last month I transfered around 21.000 euro to her account. And there is a balance of around 500k baht there which should be enough. But when she brings her bank statement it will be obvious that the money was transfered by me every time majorily over the last month and was not earned by her.

Basically the situation is that in reality I am the sponsor. She does not work a normal job and all the money she has comes from me. But I cannot act as a sponsor since I am not her close family. Is it a big issue really when applying for the visa and she can be denied? Has anybody had the same situation and they got their visa?

[PhilipCook]

Proof of financial means is your financial information, to support her during her stay in Spain. I wouldn't dare to advise you on your relationship with the lady in question as long as you are happy thats all that matters. Ignore the comments of Sirchai, he doesn't walk in your shoes, only you do.

[Guitar God]

I sponsored my (then) Thai girlfriend for a Schengen visa and just said on the form ( or in a cover letter, I can't recall which) that I would pay her food and lodging during the trip. She brought along a copy of her bank statement and a letter from work and it was granted without question.

The only snag was we applied at the embassy of the country I was a resident of, because we would be arriving and departing from there and it would be easier for that government to verify my income and history, but we were staying in Spain longer than we were staying there. I told them their embassy approved it based on the itinerary she submitted and they let her in.

I suspect her lack of proof of employment or other ties to Thailand would be more of an issue to immigration than verifying means of support.

They main thing immigration are looking for is assurance that will this person leave the country before their visa expires.

Concentrate on proving that.

[7by7]

OP, you may find Schengen visa FAQ helpful.

[ubonjoe]

I have removed a derogatory post and replies to it. A repeat of it will result in formal warning.

[kiniyow]

It will all work out in the End I assure you..

[Donutz]

According to the embassy's website the applicant can be sponsored only by close relatives which I am not.

Anybody can sponsor the applicant if need be. You as a boyfriend, friend or acquaintance can offer to provide financial guarantee (sponsorhsip) and/or a place to stay. These can also be two different persons.

Since it seems that your girlfriend has no financial means to support herself, you could provide this guarantee for her. That's perfectly fine. Alternativel you could top-up her account before hand but that could raise questions. Hard to say how an individual Schengen embassy or officer would judge this. A sudden large amount of money shortly before the visa applications will raise questions, but if you have sent regular amounts of money and there has been sufficient money in the account of the applicant for an extended amount of time (several/many months) this should be signs of a stable and sufficient financial income.

It could even involve three people: Thai (girl/boy)friend wants to visit their EU (Schengen) partner/friend. This person is still rather young and lives with the parents. In this case the parents could offer accamodation , an uncle could financially guarantee the couple if for some reason the applicant and (boy)friend plus partner are unable or unwilling to do so. It might raise some questions though since it would be rather unusual but it wouldn't be against the rules. One could provide a letter explaining things in more detail: what's the plan of the Thai visitor, why is person X sponsoring, why is person Y providing accomodation, why will the Thai person return on time?

In the end it's always about the entire picture. Are there any odd, uncommon or risky elements? Perfectly there should be as less risks open in an application. If there are any, try to cover those as clearly as possible, explain why for example the boyfriends parents are sponsoring, explain why... etc.

Short answer: if you yourself have sufficient and stable income then you can act as her sponsor. I don't know what the Spanish embassy sees as sufficient though. That should be covered somewhere on their webpage.

The FAQ that 7by7 linked to should be a good starting point. The Spanish embassy website is one hell of epic failure though, barely any info or links on there... The VFS page as some more info but you are 1) not obligated to use VFS it's services 2) VFS is a handling agency, for specific or uncommon questions your best source are actual authorities and people with legal knowledge (Spain, EU, Immigration Lawyer, ...).

If you still feel unsure, consider using a Visa Agent. This forum has a few linked to that seem alright to me.

Edited May 20, 2014 by Donutz

[Jaysisaket]

My girlfriend has just received her passport back. Her visa was denied.

Here is what we did. We submitted everything from the original list at Silom Complex on the 5th of June.

From my side I also wrote a small explanatory letter to the consul that I would support my girlfriend fully during her stay and wrote where we would stay and what we were going to do (sightseeing). I presented my bank statement as a proof of my financial means.

In about 4 days we were contacted by the VFS saying that the Spanish Embassy wants also a guarantee letter from my place of work. Which was compiled the same day and sent by fax.

On Monday (16th of June) my girlfriend received a message that she could come to collect her passport. And the passport had only the stamp that the application for a visa was submitted on 05/06/2014. There is also a supplementary page which says: THE INFORMATION PROVIDED TO JUSTIFY THE PURPOSE AND CONDITIONS OF THE EXPECTED STAY ARE NOT RELIABLE. It also says that we have 1 month from this notice to lodge an optional reconsideration appeal against this resolution.

We surely want to appeal. So I am asking your advice on how to do it properly. Basically I disagree with the fact that the information we provided was not reliable. It was all reliable and easily verifiable. If they required additional information they had to ask. But they only asked me for a guarantee letter from my place of employment.

[Donutz]

How odd, so the primairy reasons for a negative outturn were okay (travel purpose not clear, not sure if applicant wil return in time, insufficient funds), but the evidence backing this up was?

Did you guarantee her? If so I do not know what evidence the Spanish ask for this. If she guaranteed herself her bankbook (going back 3-6 months) plus some proof of income/job should be enough. The risk being that a lot of transfers could raise an eyenbrown: it could but does not necessarily mean something fishy is going on. In either case the website should state what supporting documents they would want to see. If you privided those things it wouldn't make any sense to denie the visa??

Unless they suspect the documents have been doctered with!!

Edit: When you appeal, be sure to include more or better (?) evidence to back up the financial

I just noticed that the embassy says on their website (and the VFS site) that they want a return ticket, no mention of a return ticket reservation (the VFS site mention a ticket reservation is okay for the application -but show a ticket upon issueing of the visa- so but the official website should be the primairy location for info). For an application a reservation is enough, though upon issueing the visa an embassy could ask to provide the actual ticket. It isn't right to ask for an actual ticket in advance! But then the Spaniard seem to have trouble applying other aspects of EU regulations (Visa Code and Freedom of Movement act) so no suprise there I suppose if nobody complaints to the relevant authorities that the Spanish are overstepping their boundaries. Write a letter of appeal, once more state in this who will pay for the trip (she herself with € 64.53 per person per day, with a minimum of € 580.77) or you (with ..???). , explain your plans and that you will see to it that you return. All of this does not seem to have been the issue. The financial means or travel purpose seem to have been adequete...

All I can think of is that the documents supporting this were not extensive enough or (more likely seeing how the refusal was worded) reliable enough... If you provided every reasonable bit of evidence you may wish to contact the embassy and ask them to explain why the evidence was not accepted. Question two is what the would like to see (an other is of they would be entitled do ask for X and Y but that could be left for a complain afterwards).

Edited June 17, 2014 by Donutz

[Jaysisaket]

How odd, so the primairy reasons for a negative outturn were okay (travel purpose not clear, not sure if applicant wil return in time, insufficient funds), but the evidence backing this up was?

Did you guarantee her? If so I do not know what evidence the Spanish ask for this. If she guaranteed herself her bankbook (going back 3-6 months) plus some proof of income/job should be enough. The risk being that a lot of transfers could raise an eyenbrown: it could but does not necessarily mean something fishy is going on. In either case the website should state what supporting documents they would want to see. If you privided those things it wouldn't make any sense to denie the visa??

Unless they suspect the documents have been doctered with!!

She presented her bank book and her bank statement. She had more than is required by the Embassy in her account. The bank statement was signed by a senior manager of Bangkok Bank with a bank stamp.

In the application we wrote that she was self employed as a hairdresser and a make up artist. Which is true. We did not present any proof of job though as there is no proof. And the Embassy never asked for this.

From my side I presented an invitation made by the police here in Spain and my bank statement. I have enough money in my account to support both of us for many years to come. But they also asked for a guarantee letter from my job. Which was presented the same day. I have talked to the folks at my bank and my job. Nobody received any calls from the Embassy.

So do i get it correct that they are accusing us of submitting false information without making inquiries first? All the documents that we presented were genuine (except for faxed employer guarantee letter) and reflected the real state of things. So I am clueless as to why they should choose to doubt us.

I found the Embassy e-mail so I am going to write an e-mail to the consul asking him to elaborate more on what information he deemed as non reliable. But I would like to know if there are any other means of appealing. Because I believe we suffered unjustly in this situation.

[Donutz]

That's indeed the big question and only the embassy could answer (clarify) that. What was it exactly that was insufficiently reliable enough? Were they not convinced that she has a job (hairdress saloon)? Could you provide any other evidence of this even if you wanted to (my girlfriend had a small shop of her own when we applied with the Dutch embassy, to back this up she could show permits for selling alcohol and tabacco). Or was it your income (salary, job) that they questioned? Would they not only like to see a statment from your employer but also some other evidence (copy of your contract and payment slips??). I hope the embassy can clarify this.

Not having seen your documentation neither being a proffesional in this field, it's hard to say if you did provide all that reasonably could be expected from you, it sounds like it though... Though seen in a possitive manner they did not denie over the more common and vague reasons for denial such as "not sure applicant will return in time" or "travel purpose insufficient", so you must have met those demands? Which would should make it likely that you will get the visa when they can be convinced all evidence and resources are indeed accurate and genuine... See what the embassy has to say, I think you stand a more then good chanche to get this sorted out.

[CiaranO]

Im not sure but surely the Eco must be satisfied she will return to Thailand - what ties did you show to Thailand?

[Jaysisaket]

Im not sure but surely the Eco must be satisfied she will return to Thailand - what ties did you show to Thailand?

To be honest we did not show that she had any ties with Thailand. Basically she is single, self-employed and does not own any property in Thailand. She had enough funds to show but they all were credited in lump sum. So it may indeed look unreliable.

I have filed an appeal for her. The demands for the appeal are: it should be in the Spanish language and must be forwarded by a regular mail and arrive no later than 30 days since the refusal decision. So I am thinking that for an average Thai person it is not so easy to appeal. And I am thinking it was done so on purpose to minimize the amount of appeals. But nevertheless we submitted it. And now are waiting for their response.

I exchanged a couple of e-mails with the Embassy's employee and she told me that after submission of the appeal they will have to investigate all the circumstances. And will contact us in case anything else is needed or visa was granted. If they do not contact us within 30 days after the appeal was submitted then it would mean that the resolution was negative once again. So maybe we are waiting in vain and they will just toss our documents into a trash bin and forget about them.

I am thinking of submitting a new application with modified circumstances. Instead of just coming to visit me she will also study Spanish in a certified language school. I am going to pay for a 12 week course and the school told me that they would provide me with all the supporting documents for an educational visa. In my opinion this should have more chances. Denying a young girl (she is just 24) an opportunity to study which could possibly help her in life would be cruel.