Why Is Uk Passport So Important For Thai Wife?

[caravelle]

Hi

I have posted this topic in the general forum but feel this forum is more appropriate.

I am in a happy marriage with my thai wife for more than 2yrs now and all is very good.

There seems to be so much importance attached to her obtaining a UK passport before we move to Thailand completely.

She tells me " its so we can travel/visit other countries" but I am not so sure we will be visiting other countries.

Why do you think so much importance is attached to obtaining a Uk Passport for my Thai wife?

Caravelle

ps. we currently reside in the UK

[sbk]

Well, you could ask her directly to be sure but I suspect it has something to do with feeling secure. Perhaps she wants to secure her future or the future of possible children? Perhaps she thinks she might prefer to live in the UK and wants to make sure she doesn't close any doors. Also, be aware that it is extremely difficult for Thais to obtain visas to other countries, such as Australia, NZ, the US and Canada.

Personally, I think she is being quite smart to plan for the future.

[Boo]

I agree with sbk, I am the one who convinced my my thai husband to stay in the UK until he gets his passport as I also want the freedom to travel between the two countries or elsewhere without applying for visas. Also any kids we have will have 2 passports & I don't want to be restricted by my husband having to get visas to visit my father in Spain for example.

He in turn will look into my obtaining thai citizenship if we relocate to thailand in the future but a UK passport opens up too many doors to not sacrifice a few years out of your life for the future IMO.

We may not even move back to LOS but a UK passport means we could live in other european countries instead of the UK if we choose.

Your wife may also want to protection of a UK passport in case you decide to leave her or die & she is left destitute. Too many reasons why but a few years isn't a lot in a happy marriage with a contented wife

[caravelle]

Thankyou for you views on this matter.

I guess having a UK passport, I don't attach that much importance to it.

But I agree that I would never part with it especially having visited and seen some other countries.

I will continue to support my wife as best I can in this or any other matter.

I guess what threw me a little was I previously had a thai girlfriend for 3yrs here in UK and she attached so much importance to her Thai Passport and Nationality. But then again circumstances were different as she was still legally married but separated and had a child from within the marriage

Genuine Thanks

Caravelle.

[thohts]

It may actually take about the same amount of energy, in your situation, for her to get a UK passport than it would be to get a visa for most countries in the world.

So, if you only visit 1-2 countries every 1-2 years, it would still save time, money, and a lot of hassle.

[cwilliam]

Hi

I have posted this topic in the general forum but feel this forum is more appropriate.

I am in a happy marriage with my thai wife for more than 2yrs now and all is very good.

There seems to be so much importance attached to her obtaining a UK passport before we move to Thailand completely.

She tells me " its so we can travel/visit other countries" but I am not so sure we will be visiting other countries.

Why do you think so much importance is attached to obtaining a Uk Passport for my Thai wife?

Caravelle

ps. we currently reside in the UK

Is she as happy as you are?

[britmaveric]

Hi

I have posted this topic in the general forum but feel this forum is more appropriate.

I am in a happy marriage with my thai wife for more than 2yrs now and all is very good.

There seems to be so much importance attached to her obtaining a UK passport before we move to Thailand completely.

She tells me " its so we can travel/visit other countries" but I am not so sure we will be visiting other countries.

Why do you think so much importance is attached to obtaining a Uk Passport for my Thai wife?

Caravelle

ps. we currently reside in the UK

Is she as happy as you are?

Well I suppose that could be the other reason if you are that cynical.

[Tarqin]

Word of warning for Boo, if you acquire Thai nationality and therefore became a dual national should you get in to bother within Thailand the UK embassy/government will refuse to aid you in any way as you would be regarded in these circumstances as a Thai national full stop.

Happened to someone I know.

Same same a Thai women with Britain as her dual nationality. In Thailand she's a Thai full stop.

PIP PIP.

Tarqers.

[Boo]

Good to know, thanks for the advice Tarqin

[samran]

Word of warning for Boo, if you acquire Thai nationality and therefore became a dual national should you get in to bother within Thailand the UK embassy/government will refuse to aid you in any way as you would be regarded in these circumstances as a Thai national full stop.

Happened to someone I know.

Same same a Thai women with Britain as her dual nationality. In Thailand she's a Thai full stop.

PIP PIP.

Tarqers.

No great loss though. Embassies rarely are able to do to much apart from hold someones hand and give you a lost of lawyers if indeed you do stuff up somehow.

[rainx]

Thankyou for you views on this matter.

I guess having a UK passport, I don't attach that much importance to it.

But I agree that I would never part with it especially having visited and seen some other countries.

I will continue to support my wife as best I can in this or any other matter.

I guess what threw me a little was I previously had a thai girlfriend for 3yrs here in UK and she attached so much importance to her Thai Passport and Nationality. But then again circumstances were different as she was still legally married but separated and had a child from within the marriage

Genuine Thanks

Caravelle.

I agree with you that people tend to overlook the advantages with which they are born while the disadvantages are highly noticeable.

Take a taxi driver, for example. I always eat at a cafeteria where I work, and I never noticed until a taxi driver pointed out to me that on Mondays food sellers are not permitted to set up their food stalls on the sidewalks. The taxi driver was hungry and on Mondays it is such a challenge for him to find a place where he can park his car to eat. Whether food is sold on the sidewalk does not affect my everyday life so I never noticed.

For a Thai passport holder, especially a single Thai woman, obtaining a visa is usually a pain in the neck. You book your flights and have to pay for the ticket by a specific date. For EU, you have to book and sometimes pay for accommodations in advance. You have to get a letter from your employer in Thailand, who might be very busy, to verify that you have a good reason to return to LOS. If you currently don’t have a job, be prepared for rejection and spend your between-jobs holiday instead in Thailand. The embassies may take longer than usual to process the visa. When you go to the embassy to pick up your passport, you are told you need additional supporting documents. Sometimes by the time you get the visa, the deadline for purchasing the ticket has already passed, and you might have to pay for a ticket that costs 50% more. If you change the dates of your arrival, you might need to rebook your accommodation. Going back and forth to gather all the documents can be especially frustrating for people who do not live in Bangkok.

It is therefore advisable for Thai passport holders to plan their trips well in advance, but sometimes you went through all that and a week before departure, an important meeting at work comes up and you are asked to attend. Besides, when there are many constraints and careful planning is required, you lose the spontaneity that should go with leisurely activities such as holiday travels and spending time with loved ones.

Because Thai women have bad reputation, sometimes the visa is denied, of course, even when there is no criminal record whatsoever. I have heard of a high school student who was going to travel to the US with her family for vacation; she was denied a visa, and the family was not told why. I have attended meetings where professionals from different countries are invited, and some researcher cannot attend because somebody at the embassy screwed up the visa, and by the time they finish taking care of it, the meeting would be over.

Schengen visa can also be a lot of fun. You have to apply at the embassy of the country where you will enter first on your trip. In addition, you have to apply at the embassy for the country in which you plan to spend most of your time on the trip. So if you are going to go to Paris for 2 days and then go to Madrid for 5 days and then back to Bangkok, do you apply at the French or the Spanish embassy? If you book a flight to Paris and plan to spend a day there and then in the evening travel to Rome where your hotel is, which embassy do you go to? Sometimes you obtained the Schengen visa from the “wrong” embassy and have to go back to that “wrong” embassy to cancel it before you can apply for a new Schengen visa at the “right” embassy. Hope and pray that by the time you get the visa, your flight has not left already.

For American-Canadian border, your American friends want to take you with them across the border for a day trip. “Oh, you need a visa to enter Canada? Sorry. Guess you can’t come with us today then.” I guess it is the same with the UK-French border.

Occasionally some officer at the embassies makes mistakes. (As some of you already know, the UK Embassy and Italian Embassy are notorious.) Your visa was never denied, but the officer (yeah, that fat woman, as some of you might have already met her) at the UK embassy told you Canadian Embassy had once denied your visa and accused you of lying on your UK visa application. You go: “What the hel_l? I’ve never been denied a visa. If my application was ever denied, I would have known.” When you ask the fat woman what makes she thinks your visa application has been denied in the past, she tells you (translated from Thai to English): “I can’t tell you how I find out, but I do know.” Then when you go pick up your Thai passport with a UK visa stamped on it (probably after the lady realized she was wrong), no apology is given.

The queue at the embassy can be long, and some immigration officers are so rude to Thai people. (I don’t know if they are rude to foreigners, too.)

When you arrive at the airport of the country you visit, getting searched is quite common. When I was a teenager, I traveled alone with my Thai passport and was never stopped to let officers search my bags. As I entered my 20s, I have been asked at the airport to let immigration officers search my stuff more and more often, about half of the time, even though I speak English fluently, have several visas stamped in my passport, and do NOT dress in revealing clothing. I mentioned politely to an officer at the airport in Sydney that I am searched quite often, and he politely told me that it probably has something to do with the fact that I was from Bangkok. And I have learned not to take my diary with me when I travel because some immigration officers do read it when they feel like it. If you wouldn’t want your little brother to read your diary, you probably wouldn’t want an immigration officer to read it. But I guess it can be kind of fun to talk to these officers. They might even give you tips on fun things to do and interesting places to see.

And if your spouse is British, what are you going to say when the immigration officer asks you how come you never apply for a UK passport? I can easily see how some pimps/clients can bring prostitutes to their countries if the regulation is not tight. And I am sure it’s not fun for you and your wife when somebody thinks you are a client and your wife is a prostitute.

Unfortunately, criminals, sex tourists and child molesters from rich countries have more freedom to travel than an average Thai person does. Thai people are not treated like criminals; they are treated worse. What does that say about Thai people I really don’t know

Don’t get me wrong. I am aware that a Thai passport is a valuable piece of document and that obtaining permission to travel is even harder for Burmese, Chinese, Africans, etc. Since I have a Thai passport, I might have overlooked many advantages that come with it. I am curious to know what kind of challenges people with British passport, or passport of other “rich” countries, face, as far as traveling to a foreign country and getting a work permit, etc. Please feel free to share your experience.

Cheers…

[eddie eagle]

Quote from Rainx "Because Thai women have bad reputation, sometimes the visa is denied, of course, even when there is no criminal record whatsoever."

Its an apt comment but sadly for those misguided people in the world who hold such a view it only shows their ignorance. Many Europeans + Brits are ill informed and hold views that amount to prejeudice, but its all in the eye of the beholder.

My experience and priviledge of meeting Thai ladies has been very good, I have met them from all levels of society ... occasional wrong 'un but statisically that's to be expected.

I cringe for my long time TGF every time I see the UK press and media refer to Thailand plus the obligatory film clip of a gogo bar, she being Buddhist takes it in her stride "mi pen rai" and surprsingly does't hold any resentment and in fact forgives ...

Edited October 14, 2006 by eddie eagle

[billd766]

I have known my wife for over 13 years and we have been married for 6 1/2 and we have a 2 1/2 year old son. He has a British passport and birth certificate as I have but my wife has never wanted a British passport.

She has been with me to the UK, Denmark, Germany, Portugal, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Before we met she had also been to Hong Kong and Singapore.

The only time she has been refused a visa was in the early days to the UK before my divorce and that was a long time ago.

Her roots are here, as are the land, house etc plus her family and me as well I suppose as I have only my son from the first marriage and a few friends so I have no reason to return.

When I asked her she said that she didn't want one and didn't want to live in the UK for amount of time it would take especially as I have not worked or lived in the UK since before I met her.

The cost of doing so now would be horrendous as I would have to rent somewhere, find some work (at 62 not so easy), buy a car and all the rest that goes along with it.

It is much cheaper for her to get a visa and to be honest, I don't like the UK any more.

[sbk]

Quote from Rainx "Because Thai women have bad reputation, sometimes the visa is denied, of course, even when there is no criminal record whatsoever."

Its an apt comment but sadly for those misguided people in the world who hold such a view it only shows their ignorance. Many Europeans + Brits are ill informed and hold views that amount to prejeudice, but its all in the eye of the beholder.

My experience and priviledge of meeting Thai ladies has been very good, I have met them from all levels of society ... occasional wrong 'un but statisically that's to be expected.

I cringe for my long time TGF every time I see the UK press and media refer to Thailand plus the obligatory film clip of a gogo bar, she being Buddhist takes it in her stride "mi pen rai" and surprsingly does't hold any resentment and in fact forgives ...

Interesting eddie, that wasn't the way I interpreted the comment. Thai people and women in particular have a reputation amongst the consular community for overstaying their visas and working illegally. That was the reputation that sprang to my mind. Guess I am an optimist