British Embassy in Bangkok

[Rooster]

You need to hide the Chinese Snake-Head gang to smuggle her into your country, or Coyote gang in an American term.

[Ian]

All you posters complaining below - ought to consider that just maybe the British Embassy knows more than you do.
Consider this :
You have to be very careful marrying a Thai. That expensive "dowery" (really a bride-price) is just the beginning !!

Be very aware : 1) few marriages between
Thais and farang last. In Germany the divorce rate is something like 90%.
2) a major reason for this is that the Thai family tries to screw the farang husband for as much as they can get out of him (including with threats of murder, which is very cheap in Thailand) - aided by Thailand's laws banning foreigners owning almost anything in Thailand.

[Dave E]

Here is an idea Peter.

The UK has a list of countries that have reciprocal Visa agreements.
Thailand will have a different list.
Find a country that she can easily get a Visa to, that also has an arrangement with the UK.

Have her go to the neutral country and extablish residency and passport. Usually takes about 30 to 60 days.

I did this with a Russian girl through Barbados to the US a few months after 911. It's perfectly legal.

[RICH]

Yes, what a brilliant idea, take them to the High Courts and sue them all. Unfortunately we are all banging our heads against the concrete wall around the Embassy. It is only the whim of the ECO which gets you the visa or not. NOT as in our case twice now. MPs too have no status out there, as I have found to my cost. I wonder who has ever got a visa successfully and what the hell you have to do to get one.

[MS]

You all seem to be moaning about your girlfreinds of wifes not getting a visa!! My wife got hers on the first go and has been living in the Uk for 6 months already. Next year she will get Permanent residency. You see what you have to understand is that if your wife or girlfriend does not have a good education or come from a good job then you stand very little chance of getting a visa. This is mainly down to all the middle aged idiots who meet a bar girl and fall in love and decide they want to bring them home.!!! So its not actually down to all th illegals entering the uk!!
I had to get all the paper work and 6 months bank and payslips from the uk aswell but the main part of her getting a visa was that she studdied at Kaesetsart university (1 of the best in thailand) and was earning around thb 40,000 per month. THis seriously helps things.

[Rooster]

Well, it is a form of discrimination. What is wrong with bar-girls, uneducated girls, or girls with low paying profession? Do you think that there are no educated bar-girls? Well, we are not talking about a matter of fairness or what is right, now. British colonies had been full of mostly rejects from UK. A few poor Asian girls would break UK banks or social fabrics since your Diana girls are over Europe and other places also.?? Love has no border or boundary. I knew many Thais and foreign men with uneducated wives, and they are happier than I am.

[RI]

You seem to imply here that you were married in Thailand before your wife was allowed her visa. I note too that she had studied and was earning 40,000 bahts. Surely if you were married she had a right to a visa anyway. Or did she come on some other type of visa, such as a settlement visa, you dont make it clear in your email. My complaint is that there is this discrimination about the ones who have low education previously but are trying to better themselves by coming to the UK, have a good sponsor, have all the boxes ticked on the application form, have backing from a british MP but still get rejected which has happened to my girlfriend (who is not a bar girl) twice already. I'm totally sick of the attitude of the Embassy.

[Jo]

My girlfriend is a Thai university student and I am a Brit living in Bangkok. I have taken her to the UK twice on tourist visas and once each to Spain and the US. (The US embassy gave her a 10 year tourist visa.) She is not from a wealthy family and doesn't have a lot of assets but did have the minimum B200k in a bank account deposited over a period of time before the first application. The US embassy didn't even look at her bank book. I read all the various embassy requirements very carefully before each application and provided detailed documentation on both of our backgrounds as well as invitations from hosts with copies of their passports and evidence of their addresses. I attended all the interviews with her. On each occasion she was given the visa immediately after brief interviews to confirm some of the details in the documentation. I have no complaints at all except that the American Embassy is very hot and queues there are long and that the Spanish Embassy requires notarised documents from a host which cost me 200 euros. The British Embassy came out absolute tops in terms of efficiency and courtesy for my money. I also have nothing but praise for the consular section. If you look at British Embassy web site you will see that they are looking for a company to outsource some of the visa work to. I hope they can maintain the same standards.

[Peter Larkin]

Gents,
I am a UK based Immigration adviser and provide assistance to foreign nationals wishing to enter and / or stay in the UK. We are regulated by the OISC (the Immigration Services Commissioner). My 2 top tips are firstly provide all of the documents the embassy are looking for and secondly tell the truth. The whole issue of Visas is very emotive and the decisions taken are very subjective. I have been considering offering Immigration advice to people in your position including if necessary attendance at embassy interviews. Does anyone offer this service and is anyone interested? Please feel free to contact me on the above email for advice.

[Ian]

Yes - but Rooster : you are ignoring the very real fact that these bar-girls slip through a loophole. Namely - Thailand bans foreigners from owning almost anything, whereas the farang countries allow Thais to own everything. These bar-girls simply exploit their farang husbands as a career move. No Western government is ever going to want such people in our countries.