Thread: Applying for a Spouse Visa

Post 2.

cyrille : " Unlike the pm from Ed ."


Ed has been good actually !

Wasp

Thank You Norton .


Wasp

All of this produces a question which is highly interesting to me .
Have any of you ever had an application for a Non-Imm 'O' turned down ? Whether for Spouse or Retirement ??

And if you have had a Refusal ....... on what grounds was your application denied ?

w.

^ never

Originally Posted by Wasp

Have any of you ever had an application for a Non-Imm 'O' turned down ? Whether for Spouse or Retirement ??

Not I.
My retirement application was an emergency, Covid arrived at the same time as my work permit expired. Udon Thani Immigration was in melt down. An agent fixed it for a fee. All my renewals have been straightforward, no agents.

Originally Posted by Wasp

ever had an application for a Non-Imm 'O' turned down ?

Nope.

^ During Covid, I found the immigration office in Sakhon Nakon to be very helpful and got extensions to my tourist visa without any problem. We phoned beforehand and asked what documents to bring. Only required marriage visa and my quaranteen certificate (as in I had done quarantine and allowed to travel)
I also found the doctors and nurses very helpful during thar time. I sent temperature readings twice a day and they visited every 3 days to check on me.

Originally Posted by Wasp

Have any of you ever had an application for a Non-Imm 'O' turned down ? Whether for Spouse or Retirement ??

Never as well.

Originally Posted by Topper

Reading this thread reminded me that my wife turns 50 at the end of the month so we both now can get a retirement visa via an agent.....but we'll probably just stay here.

How are you and Mrs Topper finding living in the P.I? compared to Thailand if it's not to personal of a question. Curious to know. And advance happy birthday to Mrs topper

Originally Posted by Joe 90

I heard Cyrille got refused and had to pass a brown envelope on account of his conviction for interfering with a camel in Saudi during the month of Ramadan.

Any other time of the year and he would have git a round of applause, he just fvcked up on the timing.

Smethwick schoolboy error

It's all about the timing. For sure.

I did'nt think agents did marriage visa's simply because you have to be there in person, i recently did a marriage visa 1st March in Jom Tien, it took about 50 minutes all told, and it was banged out as usual, in fact the bank letter took nearly as long and we got there early before the bank opened, the wife took care of all the paperwork, bless her, so when we got to "the Dragon's den" she went through all the paperwork as usual so i was relieved when i saw the paper clips come out it meaning they were excepted.
Home visits took no more than 10 minutes had a visit every year since it started next year will try for the retirement extension through an agent, at 85 yrs old it's getting a bit much now, need an agent to cover the extra 400,000 needed plus the running around required!
First post so hope it's not too long winded and is of some help!

Seems a bit pointless to me i using an agent for a marriage ext. if you both got to turn up at IO. (JomTien in my case) in fact i was under impression an agent would'nt do a marriage ext. for the reason i have said you've got to be there in person, so other than thr paperwork and maybe money in bank needed, you may as well do it yourself, i'm on my 10th ext. by the way!

Originally Posted by mutznutz

Seems a bit pointless to me i using an agent for a marriage ext. if you both got to turn up at IO. (JomTien in my case) in fact i was under impression an agent would'nt do a marriage ext. for the reason i have said you've got to be there in person, so other than thr paperwork and maybe money in bank needed, you may as well do it yourself, i'm on my 10th ext. by the way!

Thank you for taking the time , mutznutz .
A few people ( such as yourself ) have got me thinking I should be less apprehensive and simply be careful . Check what they want and take more than that . So you ( and they ) are making me abandon the agent and just get into it .

Thanks again .

Wasp

Originally Posted by Wasp

Check what they want

There ya go.

Originally Posted by Wasp

Check what they want and take more than that

As long as you have the 400k in the bank, then yes DIY.

^yes, plant the idea into her head so that she can get used to it - if that's what you intend to do.

I assume that this will happen when your kids are grown/ have finished school. You can go for the retirement visa (SRRV - info at pra gov ph). You'll have to deposit 10k usd in a bank for that. Alternatively, you can be a long term tourist. (many ppl do that) At the moment, you+wife can enter PH & get 30 days free. Then keep extending your tourist visa until 3 years then you'll have to do a visa run. However, there's an Immigration bill under review in Senate now, so those things could change when it's approved & becomes a law.

You could also do 6 months each in Laos/ PH. For this case, you can be on a tourist visa.

Good luck in your future plans.

Originally Posted by Wasp

Thank you for taking the time , mutznutz .
A few people ( such as yourself ) have got me thinking I should be less apprehensive and simply be careful . Check what they want and take more than that . So you ( and they ) are making me abandon the agent and just get into it .

Thanks again .

Wasp

Isn't it more what...virtually everyone is saying?

With a marriage visa (ie a Thai on your side already) and if you're able to satisfy all the conditions, then how does paying XX,000 baht make sense?

^ It's the fooking Chinese messing things up as I recall and I agree with Katie. Three years on a tourist visa, it costs around 10,000P to renew every six months, you can open a bank account to transfer money to easily without any of the hassles of Thai immigration. There's literally any kind of lifestyle you want to live at a fairly low cost. I've been watching videos of northern Luzon and there seems to be a good vibe in places like La Union and surrounds.

^yes. The Chinese were the reason why the PH govt froze/ discontinued one type of retirement visa. There are several types of retirement visa (SRRV) and there's a category for those who are 35 y.o and above, then another category for 50 & above, another type for ex-military. The 35-above visa, the target was mainly USA ex-military ppl who retired early. (I think USA military allows retirement after 20 yrs of service. So if one enlisted at 18, he could retire at 38.)

The problem was that there were many Chinese men (who were still young and fit enough to fight - in their late 30s to early 40s) who were coming in and getting that type of early retirement visa. Given the political situation, the PH govt (esp some senators) said that those Chinese men could pose a threat to national security. They cited the case of pre WW2 wherein Japan sent out men to PH (as businessmen, etc) to assess the situation (and presumably gather Intel). Then after Pearl Harbor bombing, PH became a colony of Japan after a few months.

So the PH govt stopped issuing the 35-above retirement visa. This was in 2021, I think. Covid also happened, so the Chinese were unable to travel out of their country.

++++
Re: La Union or Pangasinan, I think they are good as laid-back places for retirement in Luzon. There are large hospitals in San Fernando, La Union and in Lingayen, Pangasinan. One can choose a place near the beach (if that's what one wants). Also, they're only a few hours away from Baguio if one wants cooler climes. They're also near Clark Airport (but there are fewer int'l flights via Clark).

cyrille :

Isn't it more what...virtually everyone is saying?

With a marriage visa (ie a Thai on your side already) and if you're able to satisfy all the conditions, then how does paying XX,000 baht make sense?


Well ....... there's no point asking for peoples thoughts if you then go and ignore them .
And people have said it can be a hassle and that its worth ( in their opinion ) handing the stuff over to an agent and avoiding such hassle .
I listened to these people - because they've gone through the process . Others say their experience is that you don't need an agent at all .

I'm simply grateful for the time people take to give their view .

W.