« Prev Page 106 of 108 104 105 106 107 108 Next This topic is locked Go to first unread post 2690 replies to this topic

[theoldgit]

7by7, on 2009-11-27 19:14:29, said:

Most airlines will provide an escort service. Just ask when checking in.

Wow that's a good service, I remember Virgin used to offer an onboard massage in Upper Class, but they have stopped it now








Sorry 7by7, couldn't let that one go.

[paulyturner]

Just had notification from VFS Global that the application is ready for collection, this is it guys, unfortunately i wont know until this time tomorrow whether the application is refused or not, the most sleepless night ever is ahead of me and Aom is petrified,its like the last ten minutes of a rugby match though isnt it? you just have to keep on going, knowing it'll be over soon one way or the other...

[tjthai]

Good Luck Mr & Mrs paulyturner

[fluidfusion]

paulyturner, on 2009-11-30 16:41:00, said:

Just had notification from VFS Global that the application is ready for collection, this is it guys, unfortunately i wont know until this time tomorrow whether the application is refused or not, the most sleepless night ever is ahead of me and Aom is petrified,its like the last ten minutes of a rugby match though isnt it? you just have to keep on going, knowing it'll be over soon one way or the other...

Best of luck to both of you, let us know when you find out.

[jack31]

good luck pauly turner i will have my fingers crossed for you. We will be going through the same stress after we submit our application on friday afternoon.

we have just got to get the affirmation legalized by british consular thursday am then off to the Thai MFA in the afternnon for them to stamp the document before we get married friday morning. we have a 14:45 appointment fri afternoon to submit the application. I am petrified too i just hope its a yes.

does anyone know if i can pay the visa fee with my debit card. i know you can pay with cheque or cash but i prefer to pay with plastic

thanks

[mjperry]

jack31, on 2009-11-30 18:22:41, said:

we have just got to get the affirmation legalized by british consular thursday am then off to the Thai MFA in the afternnon for them to stamp the document before we get married friday morning. we have a 14:45 appointment fri afternoon to submit the application. I am petrified too i just hope its a yes.

does anyone know if i can pay the visa fee with my debit card. i know you can pay with cheque or cash but i prefer to pay with plastic

Just a heads up with your tight scheduling, you do know that the British Embassy affirmation to marry takes one day to process and then the MFA is no longer offering the same day express document legalisation anymore unless you have a pressing reason and then have to sit in front of the head of the department and request this. We went to do this recently, we had our 1 month old son with us and that was considered a good enough reason to not have to travel back to Chaeng Wattana again and she let us do same day, other foreigners in front of us in the queue to meet the big boss were getting turned down without good enough reasons and told to return the following day.

*deleted incorrect info about Embassy* VFS only accept bankers drafts or cashiers cheques for visa fees

Martin

Edited by mjperry, 2009-11-30 18:41:18.

[jack31]

mjperry, on 2009-11-30 11:31:33, said:

jack31, on 2009-11-30 18:22:41, said:

we have just got to get the affirmation legalized by british consular thursday am then off to the Thai MFA in the afternnon for them to stamp the document before we get married friday morning. we have a 14:45 appointment fri afternoon to submit the application. I am petrified too i just hope its a yes.

does anyone know if i can pay the visa fee with my debit card. i know you can pay with cheque or cash but i prefer to pay with plastic

Just a heads up with your tight scheduling, you do know that the British Embassy affirmation to marry takes one day to process and then the MFA is no longer offering the same day express document legalisation anymore unless you have a pressing reason and then have to sit in front of the head of the department and request this. We went to do this recently, we had our 1 month old son with us and that was considered a good enough reason to not have to travel back to Chaeng Wattana again and she let us do same day, other foreigners in front of us in the queue to meet the big boss were getting turned down without good enough reasons and told to return the following day.

*deleted incorrect info about Embassy* VFS only accept bankers drafts or cashiers cheques for visa fees

Martin

hello martin

thanks for your response appreciated.

i am concious its going to be tight but I have already had it confirmed with the british consular that they will action my affirmation the same day which will be thursday. They put this in writing which I will obviously print out. she even give me the counter name and persons name to go to.

Assuming this gets sorted thursday morning i will head straight over to the thai mfa early afternnonand pay the 800 express fee. if they say come back friday i will do this first thing friday morning when they open. Once tha has been doen then head to the local amphur get married before appointment at regent house last afternoon

how does that sound

[uaelaelil]

Good Luck to the both of you paulyturner

[paulyturner]

Thanks everyone for your kind words of support, been a nervous wreck all day! watch this space now and i'll be feeling either elation or desolation at around 6am!!

[coyc2]

I am amazed and handed in our UK settlement visa application on 13th November 2009 and it passed in just 10 days !!

It was prepared by ourselves (a lot of hard work by us but we saved a lot of money) and as she had her our house, a degree and previous checkable work history and I hit the criteria it helped - we handed in about 8 kil0 of documents !!

no interview !!

Record speed and I hope others are fortunate for a quick favourable result.

i do have one question - Its valid from 1st January and looking at flights they are expensive in new year but theres one taking off on 31st DEC at 8pm - my wife is worried the immigration in Bangkok airport will make a problem as its the day before but the plane would not land until the 1st !! I look at it that the first is when she can enter england but dont want her to have any problems. Any Advise - will she be okay ?

Thanks

[coyc2]

mjperry, on 2009-11-30 11:31:33, said:

jack31, on 2009-11-30 18:22:41, said:

we have just got to get the affirmation legalized by british consular thursday am then off to the Thai MFA in the afternnon for them to stamp the document before we get married friday morning. we have a 14:45 appointment fri afternoon to submit the application. I am petrified too i just hope its a yes.

does anyone know if i can pay the visa fee with my debit card. i know you can pay with cheque or cash but i prefer to pay with plastic

Just a heads up with your tight scheduling, you do know that the British Embassy affirmation to marry takes one day to process and then the MFA is no longer offering the same day express document legalisation anymore unless you have a pressing reason and then have to sit in front of the head of the department and request this. We went to do this recently, we had our 1 month old son with us and that was considered a good enough reason to not have to travel back to Chaeng Wattana again and she let us do same day, other foreigners in front of us in the queue to meet the big boss were getting turned down without good enough reasons and told to return the following day.

*deleted incorrect info about Embassy* VFS only accept bankers drafts or cashiers cheques for visa fees

Martin

I did it last month and had no problem getting them to do the express in one day - my wife spoke to the big boss for about 30 seconds and they let us - the normal counter staff said no first then we asked them agaan about 10 minutes later they let us !!

She lives in bangkok and it was a ball ache travelling to embassy twice, and this office but cheaper than paying some agency !! The worst we found was after we married she went to change her house book (like mortgage deed) to her new married name and we queued for twohours then the woman just crossed out her old name and wrote her new one !! we could have done it !!

Best of luck

[mjperry]

coyc2, on 2009-12-01 04:06:35, said:

I did it last month and had no problem getting them to do the express in one day - my wife spoke to the big boss for about 30 seconds and they let us - the normal counter staff said no first then we asked them agaan about 10 minutes later they let us !!

She lives in bangkok and it was a ball ache travelling to embassy twice, and this office but cheaper than paying some agency !! The worst we found was after we married she went to change her house book (like mortgage deed) to her new married name and we queued for twohours then the woman just crossed out her old name and wrote her new one !! we could have done it !!

I guess as the case with these things when having to ask the big boss it depends how she is feeling that day and how busy they are, literally every foreigner in front of us in the queue was getting turned down, I was so sure she would to us too, but she took one look at our son in my arms and started signing, she even wrote approved because of our son.

Ha ha, it does seem daft they just cross out the old name and miss and manually write mrs and her new name, but the important thing is they update her details on the central government database so she can then get a new ID card made

Martin

[paulyturner]

We were refused and to say im devastated is an understatement as I sit at work waiting for Aom to fax over the letter of refusal notification, i'm at a loss to where it went wrong at this stage and numb to the core. I can only surmise its her previous imm history.

I'm finding this hard to deal with right now, and just pray that I have reasonable grounds for appeal.

[7by7]

Very sorry to hear this.

If you want any help/advice then if you post the refusal notice (removing any names etc.) we may be able to help.

May I suggest that you start a new topic to do this, as it could get lost in this one.

[tjthai]

paulyturner

So sorry to hear you got a refusal.

As we are in the same position (different reasons - stepdaughter refused in our case) all I can really say is get the appeal faxed to the AIT as soon as possible. Hopefully the refusal notice will be more informative than ours and you can work out what the actual reason for refusal was. I do hope that you can address this reason without too much difficulty. Send the additional documents to the embassy and then I am afraid it is a waiting game....again!

I wish you the best of luck.

TJ

[jack31]

paulyturner, on 2009-12-01 08:51:12, said:

We were refused and to say im devastated is an understatement as I sit at work waiting for Aom to fax over the letter of refusal notification, i'm at a loss to where it went wrong at this stage and numb to the core. I can only surmise its her previous imm history.

I'm finding this hard to deal with right now, and just pray that I have reasonable grounds for appeal.

pauly i am sorry to hear your news. i am devastated for you because i know what your going through. like i said ours is going in on friday and i just hope we are going to be ok but you never know. look on the positive side and remind yourself its a glitch. once you got the refusal letter strt a thread here and the main players will no doubt advise you what to regarding the appeal. all genuine cases normaly get approved on appeal and i am sure you will be ok.
good luck mate

[paulyturner]

Thanks guys, I'm going to start a new thread and hopefully someone may help, its not an easyone i dont think as my darling wife has made a royal cock up re previous passports, although if i'm reading the rest correctly then the actual main reason appears to be that I didnt prove that my overdraft is an authorized one, easily sorted with a letter from my bank and a serious bit of saving up, ironically if i hadnt been shelling out thousands on the immigration stuff i'd be in credit, ahh well que cera cera..am worried about the previous passport issue tho.

I'm basing this on the fact that in the section 'The entry clearance officers decision' it seems to relate more to the issue of recourse to public funds which is quite ridiculous given its surely easily provable i have never once in my life sought these funds and im not about to srater now!

[ridgydidge]

It's been a while since I posted so here is a brief summary of my situation. Applied for settlement visa in April and I came back to the UK in May. My wife got refused (accomodation and my work). Got about 70 pages of evidence together and Appealed. Got a letter in September from Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in England saying 'Appeal was lodged on 17th August 2009, The Tribunal directs that you (the ECO) to send all the evidence of application etc back to the UK by December 7th.

As it's now the 1st of December I thought I would ring the embassy to see what was happening. The woman told me that the evidence had already been sent back to the UK and that it still hadn't been reviewed locally, the review should be done by the 20th December.. I then phoned the Tribunal office in the UK and they told me that they hadn't received the bundle yet, but it was common practice to sometimes send the bundle back to the UK before it had been reviewed....

Anyway, the 'December 7th' date which I have been clinging onto as a last hope seems to be meaningless... So do I sit and wait until the 20th and call the embassy again? Do I book a flight back to Thailand and spend Christmas, January and February with my wife in Thailand (assumming the application isn't overturned) and wait to hear when the UK tribunal date is before deciding whether to start a new application? Or do I freeze my arse off in the UK knowing that the visa will eventually be granted and everything will be ok?

I'm so sick of waiting and not being able to plan anything. It's been going on since April... and I feel like I'm going mad..

[lovednb]

We applied on the 26th november for a fiance settlement visa. Just checked emails yesterday and apparently a decision has already been made and the passport has been ready to collect since the 1st Dec (so much for the 75baht text message service). I wish I had checked my emails sooner as we could have gone to collect it earlier. Instead we have had to wait all weekend and I fly home to the UK tonight so he will have to go and pick up the passport himself.

My concern is how did they make the decision in only 2/3 working days, does this look bad? I handed in everything they asked for and more. The only potential problem may have been that we are planning to live with my parents, but they own a large 5 bedroom house and 2 of the rooms will still be unoccupied even when we move in, and we have lived here before when he visited twice before.

Aaarrggghh the stress and the waiting. He will be at the VAC office collecting his passport as I touch down at Gatwick on monday.

Has anyone else received a decision in such a short time, be it a positive or negative one?

Good luck to all in the same position.

[sumrit]

lovednb, on 2009-12-06 13:39:44, said:

We applied on the 26th november for a fiance settlement visa. Just checked emails yesterday and apparently a decision has already been made and the passport has been ready to collect since the 1st Dec (so much for the 75baht text message service). I wish I had checked my emails sooner as we could have gone to collect it earlier. Instead we have had to wait all weekend and I fly home to the UK tonight so he will have to go and pick up the passport himself.

My concern is how did they make the decision in only 2/3 working days, does this look bad? I handed in everything they asked for and more. The only potential problem may have been that we are planning to live with my parents, but they own a large 5 bedroom house and 2 of the rooms will still be unoccupied even when we move in, and we have lived here before when he visited twice before.

Aaarrggghh the stress and the waiting. He will be at the VAC office collecting his passport as I touch down at Gatwick on monday.
THas anyone else received a decision in such a short time, be it a positive or negative one?

Good luck to all in the same position.

Before this years madness most straight forward settlement visa applications were processed within a week and, from memory, it had been that quick for at least two/three years. Two friends I helped when they're wives applied nearly three years ago both had they're visas in three days.

When my wife had her first visit visa around four years ago (when the VFS centre first opened) we put the application in on Monday morning then flew up to Chiang Mai the next day, on Tuesday. As we got off the plane the ECO phoned me to query something, then said 'that's fine then, you can collect the passport tomorrow (Wednesday)'. Now that WAS good service . And for her her last visit visa nineteen months ago (I know it was a family problem and we had to fly quickly) we put the application in at one o'clock on the Monday lunchtime and somebody from the VFS centre actually phoned me at twelve the next day to tell me the visa was ready for collection and that she was phoning to give me enough time to collect it that afternoon. That was EXCELLENT service.

I've probably been one of their biggest, and most frustrated critics over the last few months but let's hope this means they're now getting back to the sort of times we used to see.

Good luck.

[Jaggg88]

ridgydidge, on 2009-12-01 19:13:29, said:

It's been a while since I posted so here is a brief summary of my situation. Applied for settlement visa in April and I came back to the UK in May. My wife got refused (accomodation and my work). Got about 70 pages of evidence together and Appealed. Got a letter in September from Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in England saying 'Appeal was lodged on 17th August 2009, The Tribunal directs that you (the ECO) to send all the evidence of application etc back to the UK by December 7th.

As it's now the 1st of December I thought I would ring the embassy to see what was happening. The woman told me that the evidence had already been sent back to the UK and that it still hadn't been reviewed locally, the review should be done by the 20th December.. I then phoned the Tribunal office in the UK and they told me that they hadn't received the bundle yet, but it was common practice to sometimes send the bundle back to the UK before it had been reviewed....

Anyway, the 'December 7th' date which I have been clinging onto as a last hope seems to be meaningless... So do I sit and wait until the 20th and call the embassy again? Do I book a flight back to Thailand and spend Christmas, January and February with my wife in Thailand (assumming the application isn't overturned) and wait to hear when the UK tribunal date is before deciding whether to start a new application? Or do I freeze my arse off in the UK knowing that the visa will eventually be granted and everything will be ok?

I'm so sick of waiting and not being able to plan anything. It's been going on since April... and I feel like I'm going mad..

My GF's application was refused in August and somebody at the Embassy convinced her it would be better to apply again rather than appeal as this would be quicker. I jumped up and down screaming they just wanted more money from me but she convinced me otherwise. We re-applied on 27th October and it was granted in two weeks. I suspect re-applications are just checked on the area you fail. A more expensive option than appealing but am glad she talked me into it as we are now settled in the UK and planning our wedding in January. We both wish you the best of luck with your appeal Ridgydidge.

[lovednb]

Yay!
We have the visa. Applied for on the 26th November and received on the 1st December. That was only 2 and a half working days. Is that a record. Im so pleased we can actually print the wedding invitations.
Thank you so much to eveyone who helped me out over the last few months especially 7by7 who always gave usefull advice. We really appreciate it.
Im off to celebrate !!!

[jack31]

Guys - We have just recently got our settlement visa in 1 working day -




I would like to share my experience with you as I have gained so much from this board these past 10 months & I thought it was only fair I take time out to give something back.

First of all I would like to say a big thank you to both 7by7 and Sumrit who were both instrumental in setting up my wife’s settlement application. 7by7 has loads of knowledge and is a nice guy and Sumrit gave me some great pointers which I am eternally grateful for. Apologies if I ramble on a bit but I want to ensure everything is covered to help other BM



Ok here we go. Last Thursday 3rd December I went to the British Embassy to get my Affirmation to marry stamped which cost 3074 THB. As most of you probably know by now they have a 24 hour turn around but if you have mitigating circumstances which we did then they will do it there and then which is what happened to us. I dealt with an extremely efficient & professional Thai lady who works at the embassy who was also fluent in English her name is Porowan and if anyone else on here wants a quick turn around on their affirmations then email her prior to going to Thailand and I am sure she will help you. If anyone wants her details then email me and I will be happy to give you them.



The affirmation was legalized within 1 hour so I then headed off to the plaza opposite the embassy for the affirmation to be translated in to Thai. There was a very small office on the first floor run by a couple of young Thai girl’s who were helpful but did charge 350thb for their services. The translation took 40 minutes as they promised but whilst in the office I discussed my next steps which were to take the affirmation to the Thai Ministry of foreign affairs to be legalized. "Note they have now moved to the Laski district which is an hour from the British Embassy in a taxi".





The lady who translated my document told me they no longer offer the express same day service which would have caused us major problems because we had a 2.45 appointment the following day at regent house to submit the settlement visa application. I told her she may be wrong so she went to their website which indeed confirmed what she had told me. I was not going to take no for an answer so i called the Thai MFA and spoke to a Thai gentleman called Anon who was understanding and said not to worry he will arrange for the express service if I come very early Friday morning. I took his details and Friday morning we headed off at 8am to the Thai MFA.



For those of you that have not been before you need the Thai consular section and not the immigration section which is where we were told to go. We spoke to a very rude Thai lady in immigration who told us to complete a visa form. I told the Mrs that this form was for a visa for farang and not what we needed. After a long period of convincing her and the time now being 9.30am I was getting anxious. We then spoke to a security guard who told us that the consular was a 30 minute walk the other side of the site. We jumped on 2 motorbike taxis who both charged different fares which I will not go into that right now.



We finally arrived at the MFA who are based on the firstor 2nd floor i cant quite remember now. When we arrived the lady on the front counter told us we could not do the legalization today as it’s too busy. I told her I had already spoken to someone called anon who had agreed they could do it. I was then ushered in to the supervisor’s room where I met the guy I spoken to 24 hrs prior. He was a very nice chap who signed my paperwork and told me to go back to the counter and show the lady that turned us away that he had signed our form. She was not happy but agreed for this request so we got a ticket and waited just 2 minutes before being called to the counter. I gave my 800thb fee and was told to come back in 2 hours.



We had some food downstairs chatted for an hour then I decided to copy every single item in my application folder which was over 100 pages. By the time this was done 1hr 30 had passed and I went upstairs to see if our affirmation document had been signed which it had.





We then raced off to the Laski Amphur 5 minutes up the road to get married. When we arrived it was dead quiet so I was hopeful of a quick turnaround which was not to be. My Mrs had forgotten her Tabien Baan (House Registration) which meant they could not marry us. I was very pi$$ed off with her but as we all know the mai ben rai attitude come into it with her so I kept quiet. I was just thinking all that running around and preparation would have gone out of the window unless we married now. We sat there contemplating our next move when another lady called us forward and spoke to my wife. They decided if she had her id card with her then we could marry as they were able to produce a temporary Tabien Baan. My wife then went to another department to get this done and whilst she was gone I was asked to sign five documents which I had no idea what I was signing it could have been anything. It was the start of the marriage process which surprised me as Thais don’t normally plan ahead. Loads more happened whilst there including the chief officer who asked me to pay 3000 Baht for her to witness the signing of the marriage Certificates but I won’t go into right now but within one and a half hours we were married.



We then jumped in another taxi and then headed off to Regent House where we arrived with a few minutes to spare. The wife took the 7 kilos of evidence in with her and was in there from 2.15pm until 3.30pm. By the way you are not allowed in there with your wife they have to go alone. I was beginning to think there was a problem but the friendly guard told me it had been a very busy day in there today even though it did not look busy. She finally came out 3.40pm and said they asked her who had put together the application / evidence. She said she had the husband and they asked no more questions. They said that the application would not get looked at until Tuesday as they were closed sat/sun and with Monday being the king’s birthday celebrations. We paid the 75thb for the sms updates and with an hour we got the first sms at 16:40 saying the evidence had been submitted to the British Embassy.



Tuesday was quiet as expected but by Wednesday 9.20am we got the second SMS saying that the application had been processed and was ready to be collected. I thought the worst and then started to have panic attacks. We talked all day about it and my wife said let’s wait until tomorrow and see what’s happened. So Wednesday 10pm we took the 7hours bus ride from north Thailand and arrived at Morchit bus station. We had a coffee and I was a bloody mess. I got myself all worked up again and said let’s just head to Regent House. It was just 6am and my wive said don’t be ridiculous let’s go to the market. So we went to China town for a bit then got in to another taxi where the driver told us today was a bank holiday and all government offices were closed. I could not believe it and was pi$$ed off again with the wife and the stress was getting me down. We finally got to regent house at 8am and saw another farang outside with his Thai partner, there was a also a Thai guard sitting there too. He told my wife they were open which was a relief.



We sat outside the office until they opened but the guard said we could not collect the paperwork until 9am as all pickups are in the safe and locked until the safe officer arrives. The officer did arrive about 9am so the wife was ushered in and returned in just 2 minutes with the envelope. Normally its’ an A4 sized one but this was a small long envelope just big enough to hold her passport. We agreed we would open it downstairs where it was quiet but before we even got down the first flight of stairs we had opened it.



Bugger me she got the settlement visa......................12 months preparation was the key coupled with advice from fellow BM here at thaivisa.com.





Sorry for rambling on guys I just wanted to share our story and hope some of it will help others. If anyone else would like to see what evidence i submitted i created an index which I would be happy to upload it on here so please ask..



Jack

[tjthai]

Congrats Mr & Mrs Jack31

1 day....now anybody beat that?

[jack31]

Cheers TJTHAI.

Too be honest i was shocked myself and i could not have done it without the help from the boys on here.
so thanks again guys

chokdee