to 
|  |
TonyT's Thailand blog:
3-months in and around the country:
September 2013 to November 2013.
The application itself is done online answering a huge questionnaire. This is the easy bit…
A raft of support documentation has to be gathered including highly personal information from both Khemjira and myself. Official Thai documents and support letters have to be translated into English by a recognised translation office and stamped. She had to undergo a lengthy medical examination and In spite of the fact that her conversational English was already excellent, undergo a 38-hour English Language Course at a recognised school followed by a 4-hour written and oral examination which, in turn was followed by a 6 week wait for the results from Cambridge University in England. All this had to be paid for.
Once the online application form is submitted an appointment is made at VFS Global in Bangkok (the commercial agents appointed by the UKBA to vet applications). VFS have no say in the decision-making of visa applications, they are there to check the documents and see that the correct fees have been tendered in the form of a Bankers Draft. Once the application had been accepted by VFS Global it is couriered on to the British Embassy at Bangkok.
Applications for Settlement at time of writing take a minimum of 3 months for a decision to be made. The cost is also high at around £900; this is to fund the administration and processing and is non-refundable even in if the application is rejected.
So, I was resigned to stay with Khemjira whilst she waited for the outcome. It was as well I did as some of the additional paperwork could not have been completed without me being there in Thailand.
Furthermore, we had to stay somewhere within fairly easy reach of the British Embassy in Bangkok in case they wished to interview her or to query the support documentation. In this case, Pattaya fitted the bill as it’s only an hour and a half to two hours away by road. As it turned out, we needn’t have bothered as no such request was received from the Embassy.
Anyway, here’s the journal/blog:-
BANGKOK
Page 1
Wednesday September 4th: Check-in at Manchester Airport; unbelievably simple; no queues... anywhere... at security-check didn't even stop walking through.
Subsequent two flights of 7 and 6 hours (with 2 hour gap at Abu Dhabi) was the usual draaaaag but got to Bangkok on time, through the usual Thailand Immigration which is never swift (15 booths with less than half manned); rapid recovery at baggage-claim carousel and then into a taxi and straight to the apartment at 7pm through the usual hurly-burly crazy Bangkok traffic.
Thursday 5th: Cases dumped, 20 mins shower/shave and out for some relaxant liquid.
I must say it was good to sample the Chang beer again and, as before, it did taste rather nice but the stuff does go rather rapidly to one's head especially after a jet-lagging journey; by the way it's a healthy 6.5% ABV which is a touch stronger than the San Mig, Singha and Tiger beers (the Chang available in UK is only 5%).
Nice to see some old [lady] friends here again (Aom not too happy with one or two of them from my past though).
Friday 6th: Busy day. Aom up at 6:30 and out to Silom district for her medical examination. 10:00am back with a 100% OK and then we're off for breakfast.
Got down to completing the vast and immense on-line application form (this took over an hour) but it took a degree of nerve to actually click the "SUBMIT" button, because any mistakes or omissions cannot be undone.
Next step: online again to VFS Bangkok to book an interview for Aom for submission of documents. This done for next Thursday morning. So we'll stay in this apartment 'til 12th and then get the bus/coach to Surin and chill out on the farm.
But already we've had a change of apartment after 2 nights. Same address in Bangkok but we've moved up to the 25th floor. Some minor-works needed doing to the old one on the 18th. Pretty similar but with a balcony and TWO panoramas instead of one (corner suite). Bloody long way down I can tell you. Pretty wet and manky in BKK as well at the moment, and with at a reasonable 31ºC it's very humid. Not many mozzies this high up though.
ABOVE: a panoramic still view of the Bangkok skyline from our apartment in Sukhumvit, Nana.
BELOW: a short panoramic movie taken from the apartment veranda, including night footage.
|  |
|  |
|  |
- TOP LEFT: The apartment bedroom in Bangkok with the impressive view out of the window.
- TOP RIGHT: September is the wettest month in Thailand. This is one evening after one of the thunderstorms.
- CENTRE: Bangkok street scenes. Note the two levels of the Sky-train or BTS.
- BOTTOM: Other Bangkok streets with one photo of the Sukhumvit region at night.
Next: or Go To Page - 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30