UK citizen has died, help needed getting Thai wife and son visa to attend funeral

[Argus Tuft]

Looking for any advice, running into a few brick walls

A close friend passed away suddenly in the UK on the weekend where he lived and worked.

Thai wife and son are in Bangkok, and we as friends of our deceased mate and his family are trying to get an urgent visa for them to get over to the UK ASAP

SO far we understand that to apply for a visa they must be registered, but after doing the registration process and email is supposed to be sent. Nothing has arrived. This happened for both his wife and his son.

So they tried to make an appointment to walk in to the embassy in Bangkok, but to do this they need to be registered.

Going in circles here.

The funeral arrangements cannot be made until his wife and son are present in the UK or at least confirmed to travel. Its been several days now, they are totally distraught by our friends passing as it is - and the lack of any progress in getting a visa sorted for them is just making matters worse

We cannot locate a telephone number for the visa centre. How can we talk to someone to expedite this?

Can someone with experience or knowledge please kindly share some advice

[laolover88]

Ouff. Really difficult. Do the wife and son have passports? Does the son not have, at least a UK Passport. If not UK they will need Visas. Has she got a Marriage certificate?. Can she get a Death Certificate? Is there not an Executor in the UK?

As far as I can ascertain(not far) the best course of action would be to try and bypass the whole bureaucratic process and appeal to the Embassy on "Compassionate" grounds. Get the documentation. What's all this about 'Registration"? Nonsense

[Argus Tuft]

Wife and son both have Thai passports, wife has Marriage certificate

No UK passport for either of them, they were all based here and the husband went to the UK for work and back here for holidays

Death certificate will come eventually but having to wait for that in order to expedite a visa application seems totally the wrong way around. They need to be there in the UK now, not next week after getting the death certificate.

No contact telephone for the Visa service centre, and no idea what number to call to talk to somebody at the embassy.

Anyone who can get me a telephone number for someone to talk to to explain this situation and get some help - please PM me

[steven100]

call the embassy and ask to speak to the UK ambassador for Thailand ... explain the urgency and circumstances , and see what their approach is , after all they issue everything.

[tolsti]

Mark Kent is also on Facebook

[whiterussian]

Embassy closes 4:30pm here... 9:30am UK time

[laolover88]

Try these

https://www.gov.uk/government/world/organisations/british-embassy-bangkok

If no success I would ting the FCO in London

King Charles Street
London
SW1A 2AH

Email[email protected]

General enquiries switchboard020 7008 1500

Consular assistance020 7008 1500

[Argus Tuft]

Mark Kent is also on Facebook

Is that this page? https://www.facebook.com/ukinthailand/

[tolsti]

https://www.facebook.com/mark.kent.71?fref=ts

[theoldgit]

It's very doubtful if you would get any joy from Mark Kent or even the Consular Section, they tend not to get involved in things like this, different departments and everything.

I doubt very much if the FCO in the UK would be of any help either, the FCO and UKVI are totally separate, FCO the Foreign Office and the UKVI come under the Home Office.

There is advice about how to address the issue on the VFS website, if the applicant has visited the UK of some other countries in the last few years then she could apply for priority or super priority processing, but they cost. There are also procedures if the applicant doesn't qualify for these services, and there have been reports of these been successful in the past.

• What should I do if I need a visa in an emergency?

  • Before contacting UKVI check if you qualify for any of the user pay services such as super priority or priority visas that have quick turnaround times and apply as per If you do not meet the conditions, please apply for the standard visa category and pay the relevant fees.
  • You may then email/ contact the International Enquiry service with the application details (case reference GWF number, complete name or passport number). Should your case qualify as an emergency, the team will get in touch with you. All other cases will be dealt with as normal.
  • Please note this service is available only in case of a serious medical emergency or an unfortunate event in the family that requires immediate emergency travel and should be evidenced with the application. This service is not available for business emergencies.

  Note: All applications will still need to meet the immigration rules in order to be granted a visa.

http://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/thailand/frequently_asked_questions.html

[bobrussell]

Have you tried: https://www.gov.uk/contact-ukvi-outside-uk?

There is a charge for both the phone and live chat (last time I tried the live chat did not work!) but this 'helpline' might be able to guide you. Please note though, it is not always helpful!

[evadgib]

If the deceased has family in UK it might help if someone assumes pole position (3rd party visa applications with an explanatory note to the ECO on the back page) from there.

HTH

[brewsterbudgen]

Any update on whether the visas were received?

[Argus Tuft]

Any update on whether the visas were received?

Hi brewsterbudgen

Thanks for checking up - actually only today the applications went in online

The whole situation has been a total debacle - now we are waiting on an autopsy before a death certificate can be issued, so there is no funeral planned as of yet

Once we get missus and son off to UK I'll report back

Very distressing! And the worst thing is, we want to do a decent send off for our close friend and pay him the respects he deserves, but we cannot until the funeral arrangements are made

[brewsterbudgen]

Any update on whether the visas were received?

Hi brewsterbudgen

Thanks for checking up - actually only today the applications went in online

The whole situation has been a total debacle - now we are waiting on an autopsy before a death certificate can be issued, so there is no funeral planned as of yet

Once we get missus and son off to UK I'll report back

Very distressing! And the worst thing is, we want to do a decent send off for our close friend and pay him the respects he deserves, but we cannot until the funeral arrangements are made

Good luck. My girlfriend's visa application was dealt with very quickly (issued within 3 working days) so I would hope under the circumstances, they should hear even more quickly.