UK trip with my wife

[colinchaffers]

I'm from the UK and married to a Thai national, I have been living and working in Thailand for 2+ years, I have moved completely out of the UK so dont own property, my pension is off shore and my bank accounts are closed. My wife lived with me in the UK 3 years ago for a year as I obtained a UK spouces visa. We would like to return for a 1 or 2 holiday, can anyone suggest the best way forward in terms of the visa?

[bobrussell]

ILR will probably be considered to have lapsed as your wife has been absent for more than two years. Your options are limited to applying for a visit visa.

As long as you can show a reason for the visit, it is affordable and reasons to return there should be little problem. The most critical IMO is to show reasons to return. It is very important to demonstrate that you have a settled life in Thailand.

The prime concern may be that this is to be used to bypass immigration rules so don't take anything for granted!

All done on-line via visa4uk website.

[7by7]

Have a read of UK visit visa basics; the links contained therein are out of date but the essentials are stil valid.

See also Standard visitor visa from UKVI and the links from there.

Any further questions, feel free to ask.

If you provide evidence of your immigration status in Thailand and that you and your wife live together there then I don't see a problem; assuming you can afford the trip and have somewhere to stay in the UK, of course!

BTW, Bob; the residential qualifying period for ILR three years ago was 2 years, so as the OP's wife only lived in the UK for 1 year she wont have obtained ILR and her spouse visa will have, obviously, expired. Even if she had obtained ILR, as she hasn't lived in the UK for over 2 years it would have definitely lapsed; unless the OP is an employee of HMG stationed outside the UK.

[colinchaffers]

Many thanks both, looking at the guidence it looks as if we can only apply for a "standard visitor visa", with the documents needing to support my wifes return to Thailand and that we have the money for the trip. As my wife does not work can I include my financials like bank accounts, clealy we would have to prove our relationship etc. I was going to provide a covering letter of our timeline of our relationship, good idea?

We have a one year old son, I was going to get him a UK passort for the trip, can this be done in Thailand? the UK passport application on the website is confusing and I'm not sure of the process, any help would be good .

[theoldgit]

A copy of your marriage certificate should suffice together with details your joint ties to Thailand, property ownership/rental and details of employment here should be sufficient enough to satisfy the decision maker that you're in a subsisting relationship and that you're both likely to return.

Details of your bank accounts will be sufficient to prove affordability.

By all means write a short letter of support, but given that you're married, she's previously lived in the UK and your both now living in Thailand I wouldn't have thought that there's too much need to go into too much detail of your relationship.

Yes, your son can apply for his UK Passport here in Thailand, in fact that will negate any problems he might face if he applied for a visa, I haven't been through the process but I understand it's pretty painless, maybe someone will answer your question directly, but there have been a few posts on that subject.

[brewsterbudgen]

Many thanks both, looking at the guidence it looks as if we can only apply for a "standard visitor visa", with the documents needing to support my wifes return to Thailand and that we have the money for the trip. As my wife does not work can I include my financials like bank accounts, clealy we would have to prove our relationship etc. I was going to provide a covering letter of our timeline of our relationship, good idea?

We have a one year old son, I was going to get him a UK passort for the trip, can this be done in Thailand? the UK passport application on the website is confusing and I'm not sure of the process, any help would be good .

I applied for my 1 year old son's UK passport and it was fairly straightforward. I ended up using an Agent as I don't have a UK birth certificate which I thought might complicate matters, but it didn't seem to. If you have your long-form birth certificate, it's just a matter of completing the form, proving your address in Thailand, your wife's details and son's birth certificate and dropping it all off at VFS in Bangkok. My application took about 2 weeks to process. You have to pick up the passport from VFS (unless you use an Agent to do this for you).

[colinchaffers]

Many thanks, looking at the "supporting documents" it says you need to provide a selection of family pictures, did you do this? and what language marriage visa did you supply?

[7by7]

Err. what list are you looking at?

From Visitor: supporting documents guide

Section 4: documents you should not send unless specifically requested
This page provides guidance on the types of documents that are not required to consider your application.

photographs (other than passport photographs required in section 1)

That UKVI guidance does say that any document not in English or Welsh (wonder how many Welsh speakers there are at the Bangkok embassy!) should be accompanied by a translation certified as per the guidance.

However, anecdotal evidence suggests that on many occasions they have not insisted upon this for official documents such as marriage certificates.

Your choice.

[colinchaffers]

One or two of our (Thai) friends would like to join our trip, they would have to make their own applications, but is there some way of tying us together as a group, or just mention it in the "other" information on the application form?

[7by7]

Parents and children applying at the same time can 'combine' their applications in the sense that they only need one set of supporting documents and can make one appointment to submit them and have biometrics taken. They still need separate application forms and fee.

For others, each applicant needs to make their own application and supply their own set of supporting documents. They may be lucky enough to get concurrent, or even simultaneous, appointments, but I wouldn't bank on it.