UK Tourist Visa for my Thai GF - Help!

[mrh79]

Hi people,

Im looking into getting my gf a 6 month visa for the Uk. Ive done a bit of research, and know all about whats needed, such as proof of my job, home, bank statements, phone records, photos with each other, etc etc...im pretty hopeful, i have money, a job etc, we have evidence of our relationship, communications etc... my question really relates to the payment im expected to make...

Ive searched online and the actual visa costs about £67 or 3500 bht. However an agency called visa world consulting company (which isnt dodgy and works alongside the uk border agency and shares their offices in Bkk) wants 29,000 bht.

Now, i just cant get my head round this! Sure, they can provide a bit of advice, hints, recommendations etc... but theres still no guarentee of getting the visa if i shell out £600. Am i better to go solo, and make my gf apply in person at the embassy with all our paperwork or should i use this agency??

Any help advice is so very much appreciated!!

[Big Boy]

Hi mrh79,

Ive searched online and the actual visa costs about £67 or 3500 bht.

Looks to be about the right price.

However an agency called visa world consulting company (which isnt dodgy and works alongside the uk border agency and shares their offices in Bkk) wants 29,000 bht.

Where did you get this information? Did Visa World Consulting Company tell you? How do you know they aren't dodgy?

The fact they share the same office block, in an adjacent office does not mean Visa World Consulting Company is part of the UK Border Agency.

I've never failed to obtain a visa for friends and family to come to the UK, and have always resisted the offer of numerous organisations begging to help me. If you've got everything in order, you can do it just as easily as them.

Think carefully before you get ripped off by the vultures.

[lomuamart]

I havn't got the same amount of experience as BB with obtaining visas to the UK. However, I do remember this company when my wife and I applied for her Visitor's Visa a few years ago. (I assume it's the same company. Their office is next door to The Visa Application Centre).
We were pounced on by touts before we even entered the building and found ourselves sitting in front of some chap who went through our paperwork. I was a bit confused as to what he was there for as I'd read that staff at the VAC went through the application with you before you handed the papers and money over. I thought it might be this service.
However, it quickly dawned on me that they were agents. This chap was saying that Visitor Visas were not easy to get, even for my wife, and that she should really apply for a Settlement Visa. I told him that she had no intention to settle in the UK, so he was wrong. I wasn't going to pay him anything so he begrudgingly said that the paperwork looked OK and that was that.
A few days later, my wife had her visa. When we were frantically looking through her passport to see if she'd been successful, the vultures were hovering again. As soon as they knew she'd got it, they were inviting us into the office again. I thought the women had said come in for a drink, so I went for a beer. They didn't sell that, but guess what? There was a travel agency who wanted to sell us flight tickets. We declined again.
This agency is not working with The Embassy or VAC - I'm sure of that. They've taken the opportunity to start up a business that looks like it's working alongside the people that matter.
Not having used them, I can't vouch for their acumen, but I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole and I've read countless complaints elsewhere on the internet about their business practices. They might well be able to help, but they can't guarantee success and if you're up to speed on what's necessary, I would do the job yourself.

[PET]

I do not know any so called visa agency working with the embassy and charging such fees as you indicate.

I presume you have been to the website ukinthailand.fco.gov.uk/
if not go to this page and then onto 'Visas for UK ' and then onto the 'VFS website'

This gives you all the information and in my experience providing you have the information that is required, and you seem to know what this is, then there is no problem with getting the visa.

[Big Boy]

Hi mrh79,

I have a friend here in Bristol who didn't take my advice, and used one of these agencies (not necessarily Visa World Consulting Company). He signed up with them in 2005. After making him and his wife (yes, they are married with a daughter) jump through various hoops, and repeatedly charging him for each service, his wife and daughter are due to arrive in the UK next Friday.

He got in so deep with them, it was always a case of just one more hoop to jump through, and they'll be coming. Many of his friends, me included, started to doubt his intentions towards his wife. Every hoop cost a stack of money that he never had.

The final hoop cost him £8000 I think - I did write on the forum asking if anybody had heard of this requirement at the time.

All's well that ends well, but his daughter has been without her father for 4 or 5 years, and he is basically spent out.

I hope you're getting the message.

[STEVE G]

Basically these kind of agencies try to do business by obtaining visas by using corruption on local employees at the embassy or consulate, that's why it costs more.
They can't guarantee anything because there are limits to what they can get away with.

[STEVE G]

And as BB points out above, corrupt people are not always honest!

[Governor]

Ive searched online and the actual visa costs about £67 or 3500 bht. However an agency called visa world consulting company (which isnt dodgy and works alongside the uk border agency and shares their offices in Bkk) wants 29,000 bht.

Now, i just cant get my head round this! Sure, they can provide a bit of advice, hints, recommendations etc... but theres still no guarentee of getting the visa if i shell out £600. Am i better to go solo, and make my gf apply in person at the embassy with all our paperwork or should i use this agency??

Please, don't touch Visa World Consulting with a barge pole, they are nothing more than scam artists. They have absolutely no connection with the UKBA though they will claim they are experts, they have an office next to the Visa Application Centre in Regent House and they will hover at the top of stairs next to the entrance and attempt to usher unsuspecting applicants into their room making all sorts of promises and offering all sorts of advice whilst relieving you of substantial amounts of cash. You are absolutely right in your assumption that they cannot guarantee you a visa though they may well claim they can. UK Visas actually warns about the use of these so called agents on their website.

The application process itself is is pretty straightforward and you seem to have covered most of the points that need to be addressed. As a sponsor, which it looks like you are, you have already indicated that you can provide evidence of your relationship and that the trip is affordable, you need to provide a covering letter outlining the details and length of your relationship, the reason for the trip and why you are paying for it. The most important thing for your girlfriend to do, remember it's her application, is to convince the ECO, Entry Clearance Officer, that at the end of her trip she will return to her home in Thailand. If she works or studies then provide evidence, a genuine letter indicating she has been given leave from her employers and the job is available on her return or evidence of her studies and evidence that they will continue after her return. If she owns property or land then include details.

To sum up, the application process is not difficult and there is absolutely no need to use these cowboys or any of the other vulchers circling around the VFS, VFS will actually check the form for about 200 Baht. Just make sure you do your research, which you appear to have done, and ensure that you both provide sufficient evidence to convince the ECO that the application is genuine, your sponsorship is appropriate and affordable and that she will return home at the end of the trip.

Good luck

[DSB]

I helped apply for a UK visa last year for my wife, all the previous comments are accurate. There is a desk on the left just before you enter the application area where they will check your forms for 200 baht or thereabouts.
We were invited in to the agents office, where they tried to persuade us to go for a residents visa - as we have no intention of staying in the UK, I just took the p*ss for a while.
The visa was there within 3 days, without a problem, without any agents help.

[kendo]

Well done for doing your research, so many people just put it in the hands of an agent, my advice is relax man your GF can do this herself no problem.

When i wanted to bring my GF over here i asked an old hand married to a thai for years, how easy he told me "no chance under one year of relationship" well my GF was in the U.k in five and a half months of us meeting on a fiancee visa.
If you put your heart into it it's not daunting at all it's a piece of piss, attention to every detail required for proof of relationship and you personal sercumstances.

At the interview tell your girlfriend to tell 100% the truth as they may try to ask questions to test your relationship.

A forum member on here i am in touch with has recently come back after being in thailand for a while and has told me because of the credit crunch there is a 3 month wait, backlog on visa's as a lot of expats are drifting back with there partners, as he wants to bring his girl over here also.

Kendo.

[ricardo]

My wife applied in June for a 6 month visit visa and it took 28 days.

According to a statement on the Embassy website applications were taking 4 to 6 weeks due to a large increase in demand and would be processed dependant on the intended departure date. This statement has now been removed so hopefully the waiting time is back to around 5 days.

The text she received from Regent House to collect her passport was sent an incredible 7 days after the visa had been stamped in her passport. 1 week to cover a distance of around 2 or 3 km from the Embassy.

[mrh79]

many thanks everyone. i thought the price ws a bit high, and smelt a rat. i'll certainly not use them, and i'll pay attention to all detail on my application , so every avenue is covered. thanks again!!

[Marky_Mark]

Mrh79
Do it yourself....by reading you initial post you know what is required and you have all the info.

My thai GF is in Perth (Australia) at the moment and it was quite a easy process... like everything it is the preparation you put into the application.

I included the following:-
-Covering Letter
-Application
-Stat Dec signed by J.P.
-Email copies
-Phone records
-Photos
-Passport photo copies (both of mine and hers...including stamped pages showing when i have been to thailand)
-Copy of her Thai ID card.
-Letter from her boss stating she will have her job when she returns.

If you need any help with the above dont hesitate to PM me, more then happy to help.

By the way the misses says "Mai Yaak Ja Bpai Hua Hin" English "I dont want go Hua Hin" i think she likes it here hehe

Rgds
MnK

[mrh79]

thats great, your a true gentleman!!

[beachyhead]

I had exactly the same experience as you Lomuamart took me a few minutes to realize that it wasn't part of the Visa set up and then I walked. It does seem quite usual that a lot of people don't get the visa on the first visit so don't panic if your refused and if you comply with their requests you should be fine.