Holiday Visa advice for Thai National to UK

[mike1967]

Can anyone give me some good advice please? I've been coming to Thailand for 8 years, have plenty of visa stamps in my passport. Am looking to make a holiday visa for a girl I've been seeing for 3 years now. There's lots of conflicting advice around. I've not applied for a visa before. She works in Pattaya so I appreciate this may make things more difficult. Some idea of cost would be of help too please. Key visa are asking for 30,000 baht. Is this good or not?

[theoldgit]

First of all allow me to be a tad pedantic, you can't  "make a visa" for a girl you know in Pattaya, if she wishes to visit you in the UK it's her that is the applicant, of course you can assist her.

 

She needs to satisfy the Entry Clearance Officer, the person who makes the decision on her application, that her application to visit the UK as a tourist is genuine, affordable and that, on the balance of probabilities, she will leave the UK at the conclusion of her visit.

 

In satisfying the decision maker that her proposed visit is genuine your girlfriend should outline why she intends visiting the UK, what's she going to do when she's there and how long she intends to stay. If she's paying for the trip then she needs to prove that her proposed trip is affordable, she needs to submit details of her finances, if she employed she needs to provide pay slips and the like. If you're paying for her holiday then it's you that needs to provide evidence of affordability, bank statements, evidence of the source of your income and the likes, but also why you are providing financial support for her application, evidence of contact over those three years would also help, proof of visits and phone calls/emails and such would help in this area. Probably the most important thing she needs to satisfy the ECO is, and often the most difficult, is that she would leave the UK at the conclusion of her holiday. To do this she needs to demonstrate her ties to her home country, employment or education, together with proof that leave of absence has been granted, her home here in Thailand and any other strong ties.

 

The fact that you've been visiting Thailand for eight years probably adds little to her application, and the fact she lives in Pattaya wouldn't preclude her, many Pattaya residents successfully apply for visit visas to the UK.

 

As to whether to use an agent, it's a matter of personal choice, most applicants don't feel the need to use the services of an agent, but some do like the comfort of doing so, most queries can be addressed via this forum. Whatever she decides, it's still her application and it's her that has to supply all the evidence. If I felt I needed the services of an agent I would only use Thai Visa Express, who are also based in Pattaya, they are sponsors of this forum and give a lot of advice on this forum, they are registered with OISC and whilst being registered isn't a legal requirement here in Thailand as it is in the UK, to be registered with the OISC the advisor has to demonstrate that they're competent to provide immigration advice, as far as I'm aware Thai Visa Express are the only advisors in Thailand who are registered. The figure you quote seems pretty high to me, the actual application costs $119, about 4,000 Baht.

 

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

[mike1967]

Okay, that's great thanks. Yes, I had realised it was her application, bad wording on my part.