Scam near UK Visa Application Centre

[LaaMok]

I am applying for a tourist visa for my girlfriend to go england for 4 week holiday, I followed the instructions carefully, got all the mandatory evidence/infomation and as much extra evidence I could get. The one I struggled with is no bank statements, as my money goes through a business account under a thai name. But I thought never mind I can prove that i live here with the stamps on my passport and the utility bils are under my gf's name. My name is also on the house rental agreement.

 

I booked my appointment for the next day, when we got to the building, we got on the second floor and get ushered into an office next door, which i thought was an official office to help us get our paper work together.

 

We sat down and a thai guy was looking through our paperwork and said that without the bank statements to show my earnings, its not going to be possible. I said that it never said it was mandatory and i have good reasons. I also pointed out that my gf has enough money in her account to get by in England.

 

He said to me that we had a 50/50 chance of getting through, then after he spoke with "the boss" he then said it was 20% chance. He asked us to go into a little office to have a word with the boss as she can help. I still thought this was part of the uk visa company.

 

She basically tried bullying my gf into believing that my application had no chance. She told my gf as she has never left the country before, its extremely difficult to get the visa.

 

Then she started on me, I pointed out that i lived here so it should be easier and i have evidence in the passport, she said many farang have b visa's and laughed it off, i said to her i have entry/flight stamps to prove it, she quickly moved on...

 

She said i am wasting my time/money and that i should pay her 25,000 baht otherwise i will be waiting 2 months to get my visa, as it will fail. She failed to mention if an application gets failed it probably wont take the full processing time. (at the moment 4-6 weeks)

 

She started talking down to me and trying to bully me, making out I am stupid, but i just said no thanks, I am happy with my application.

 

 

Getting visa application plus evidence together is super easy, its just tedious and takes time, it reminds me of doing nvq level 3 at school, basically where you try and get as much evidence together that is possible. But most of its a load of crap, who emails/sends a letter to there girl these days, quite often there are no phone records as people now use cheap numbers to call each other.

 

I seen a lot of people walking straight into this place thinking it was the official office, i bet loads of people get ripped off!

 

To make it worse, the people in the scam office, took out my passport/copies from my gf's application pack, slipped in my bag and they quickly ushered her off hoping we didn't notice, luckily i noticed it and got it back in, this was my main piece of strength i thought.

 

 

The service staff in the actual official visa place will go through your application and if you don't have enough they will tell you, as they don't want to be wasting their time or yours.

 

Tourist visas are around 4000 baht.

 

 

I do recommend that people start getting evidence (for settlement visas) early on in the relationship and build up the folder over time, you may never need it, but it will be there for when you need it. I would never use one of these people, I think its important to get someone that has a good reputation like azzey68 on the forum. Otherwise I can see that these people charge loads and mess things up. They ask for 80,000 baht to help with settlement visa and make out that they can get it 100%.

[BangkapiBoy]

I hope she gets the visa. Good you pointed out the scam at UK visa application centre.

[MickyBangBang]

I know a fella who paid about €600 to a Thai company to do everything for his GFs holiday visa application. I went on line and down loaded the form and sent off with all the paper work and with fee's and it only cost about €30.

[LaaMok]

I know a fella who paid about €600 to a Thai company to do everything for his GFs holiday visa application. I went on line and down loaded the form and sent off with all the paper work and with fee's and it only cost about €30.

 

They use scare tactics, it really does pay to do research to realise you don't need help if you are time rich.

[missinginaction]

Fortunately we live in the age of the Internet. This allows us to share experiences with others and use others experiences to help ourselves.

 

I got a visitor visa for my misus and then a settlement visa. I used this and various other forums for all my research. I never once considered using a Visa agency, as I don't think they could offer me more than I could find out myself. But, mine were straight forward applications. I'd imagine if you're circumstances are a bit out of the ordinary then you may need help/advice.

[equium]

i got my then girlfriend,now wife a visa,only the six month one last year.

 

i thought i aint paying anyone 30,000 baht to do it for me.

 

first thing i did was downloaded and printed off the application form and the guidence notes.

 

i was working for a company here at the time but living there,long story,basicly 3 weeks in thailand 1 week in the uk.i had wage slips to show my income handed in 3 months,showed a water,electric,gas bill in my name at my uk address,3 months bank statements had £20,000 in there so i thought no problem with that i can show i have funds to support her for 6 months.all the stamps from my passport and my picture page.

 

we had also booked lots of hotels where we had traveled round thailand for the previous 6 months,had booked thru octopus.co.uk and they had a record of them all,printed them all of put in the application.

 

opened a joint bank account here put 150,000 bhat in it,they know we will come back to get that.

 

she had her bank account details with her savings,a letter from her employer stating how long she had worked there how much she earned,her bank book showing it went in every month a letter stating she can have the time off for the trip and a guarantee of her job back on her return.also sent a copy of her travel insurance and a booking for the flights but stated these were not confirmed as i wasnnt paying for flights until i knew she had a visa.

 

copy of the lease on the apartment paid for indvance 6 months at a time,then you start to think what else can i send,i said when i do go back we talk on MSN,i call her using a post office calling card 0800 number dont show on the bill,i wrote a covering letter stating all this and said i would give them my mobile so they could read the texts sent, for the 1 week we are apart each month.nobody writes letters anymore do they so had none of them,we had a couple of pics together but never sent them.

 

then went to that uk visa centre paid the fee about 4800 i think it was,then the next little scam fee from them,you cant pay cash you have to buy a bankers draft,i think that was another couple of hundred maybe less cant remember,got the ticket and waited in line,she could only go in alone and hand everything over,they give you a form back some crap about what you have handed in and a line about if you havent supplied everything you may not get it,they dont tick it off or sign it like they should do.

 

anyway 3 days later check the internet its ready to pick up,go queue up again for about an hour get the envlope back,she didnt get it,i didnt have proof she had some where to stay in the uk,the bills were not proof enough. anyway i was back in the uk when she picked it up so i got on the next flight and took my house deeds with me droped them in the same envelope handed it back in paying the fee again ofcourse and the draft fee again 3 days later check on internet ready to pick up.this time she had it.surley if i have 3 bills in my name for my house i should not have to hand the deeds in to show them i own it,if it was on a mortgage a statement for that would have done also.i'm sure thats another scam they run to make more money out of you.

 

sorry its long winded but it is so easy to do yourself.

 

you really do get pissed off about the hoops they make you jump thru to bring a thai girl here when you think about al; the others that get into the uk so easy,sham marriages and such but bringing your thai girl here,we knew we didnt want to stay here we was going back but they do look down on you.

 

one more thing i will add a guy who works for the same company as me posted in china was not able to get a visa for his new wife so he said fine shove it up your ass i will go live with her,he had his visa to go there within 3 days.

[equium]

oh yeah,

we had some thai bloke follow us round all the time but we would'nt open the envelope till we got home,the 2nd time we got our envelope back same again followed us round this time we did open it and she had it,he just said OH YOU VERY CLEAVER MAN,yeah cleaver i didnt pay you.

 

the are loads of touts there and that company right across from the visa centre,they should not be allowed on the same floor as people will think they are part of the visa centrre.

 

another thing,did you notice all the flash cars out side there the mercs and bmw's make you wonder how they pay for them.

 

saying that its all fiddles i had to pay i think it was 1800 bhat for a letter from the uk embassy confirming my address in bangkok so i could register my new car,get it off the red plates.my mate said he had to pay same to renew his drivers licence,before you could just go to the immigration beareau to do it for free not anymore you need this letter in bangkok.makes you wonder how many kick backs go on here.

Edited June 6, 2009 by equium

[DirtyDisco]

I had the same treatment as Laamok first time I went,

[JASONTHAI]

Yea that place next to the Visa center likes to trick people, the only time I use them is to get a Bankers Draft which they charge you 300 Baht on top of the visa fee, this should be the only time you need to go into the place do no go for any other reasons or they will try to scam you, this place also has guys waiting outside the UK Embassy telling you that they can do this and that for you do not take up any offers just do everything yourself it not that hard

[joskydive]

Where is this UK visa centre?

[miles stewart]

The UK Visa Application Centre is located at:

Regent House, 2nd Floor,

183, Rajdamri Road,

Kwaeng Lumpini,

Khet Pathumwan,

Bangkok 10330

[miles stewart]

its a company run by thai people they send on to the uk embassy they have nothing to do with applications as such

[miles stewart]

website address

 

http://www.vfs-uk-th.com/index.aspx

[joskydive]

Thanks for that. I thought it was the same scammonger outside Jomtien Immigration but he's a brit anyway.

[LaaMok]

Yea that place next to the Visa center likes to trick people, the only time I use them is to get a Bankers Draft which they charge you 300 Baht on top of the visa fee, this should be the only time you need to go into the place do no go for any other reasons or they will try to scam you,

 

This is free if you use the bank of ayudhya bank or elsewhere up to 21 baht if paying the 34,000 baht

[brg]

oh yeah,

we had some thai bloke follow us round all the time but we would'nt open the envelope till we got home,the 2nd time we got our envelope back same again followed us round this time we did open it and she had it,he just said OH YOU VERY CLEAVER MAN,yeah cleaver i didnt pay you.

 

the are loads of touts there and that company right across from the visa centre,they should not be allowed on the same floor as people will think they are part of the visa centrre.

 

another thing,did you notice all the flash cars out side there the mercs and bmw's make you wonder how they pay for them.

 

saying that its all fiddles i had to pay i think it was 1800 bhat for a letter from the uk embassy confirming my address in bangkok so i could register my new car,get it off the red plates.my mate said he had to pay same to renew his drivers licence,before you could just go to the immigration beareau to do it for free not anymore you need this letter in bangkok.makes you wonder how many kick backs go on here.

 

 

 

Never lose sight of the fact that Thailand is phoney and built on scams from the top down.

[topdogdk]

Yes, be careful of the scammers.

 

Last time I wanted a tourist visa for my thai-GF, I went to the one behind Carrefour.

 

Paid 12.000 THB.

 

This included a new passport for my GF, visa approved within 2 weeks.

[jocky king]

Well Done LaaMok for the warning... My TG had done Irish visa six times to Ireland for only 3600 bht each time with no problems in Irish Consulate Office in Bangkok, process will take from 2 to 8 weeks depending your strength of your/her applicattions... You can easily do em yourselves rather helping out from the scam people... Now My Tg is on long term visa 1 year and renew everytime in my local police station... Because she is with me for more than 5 years in relationship.. If you can prove that you and your thai girl are in relationship for more than 2 years, you can apply for long term visa stay for her in Ireland... Now, my Tg is working full time in Ireland.

[Thai Visa Express]

Visa World is the company involved.

[Jai Namkeng se-dam]

"She basically tried bullying my gf into believing that my application had no chance. She told my gf as she has never left the country before, its extremely difficult to get the visa.

 

 

Getting visa application plus evidence together is super easy, its just tedious and takes time, it reminds me of doing nvq level 3 at school, basically where you try and get as much evidence together that is possible. But most of its a load of crap, who emails/sends a letter to there girl these days, quite often there are no phone records as people now use cheap numbers to call each other.

 

I seen a lot of people walking straight into this place thinking it was the official office, i bet loads of people get ripped off!

 

To make it worse, the people in the scam office, took out my passport/copies from my gf's application pack, slipped in my bag and they quickly ushered her off hoping we didn't notice, luckily i noticed it and got it back in, this was my main piece of strength i thought.

 

The service staff in the actual official visa place will go through your application

(THIS WOMAN WOULD NOT LET THIS HAPPEN WOULD NOT EVEN LET ME IN THE VISA OFFICE SAID "THAI LADY ONLY!"!)

and if you don't have enough they will tell you, as they don't want to be wasting their time or yours.

 

Tourist visas are around 4000 baht

 

 

 

very good advice and I posted similar warning on the other forum I am on

 

This is exactly what happened to me last year trying to get my TGF here to the Uk for my 50th

the w*nkers in that office took all the foto's out and the listed print out of email and phone records(I use Jajah and this records the history and you can print it out very easily)unfortunately I did not notice this until we got the application back

what annoyed me the most was that a woman in what looked like official uniform who was going between the two even right inside the back of the Visa office was very aggressive in the entrance of the genuine office came out to speak with us very abrupt you have this you have that ok you go in the office there etc etc and told us that the office to the left of the Uk visa place was a genuine processing center and we must go in and do everything they say and pay them the money first then she went back into the Visa office hence the comment below

needless to say we did not get her visa and we did not have a great trip celebrating my 50th in Munich at the beer festival

 

so be warned about this place that the genuine office appears to be in cahoots with!!

[cruize]

If I wanted to invite a girl from Thailand to Australia for a holiday, whats the process?

[LaaMok]

If I wanted to invite a girl from Thailand to Australia for a holiday, whats the process?

 

please start a separate thread and you will get some/more answers, and they wont be lost in a thread

[equium]

the only time i would ever say MAYBE use a visa company is if she is a bar girl as the people who employe them will not want to give a reference as its all cash work,i dont care who they are and please feel free if you are a bar owner to reply. you pay there taxes and stamp,prove me wrong,i dont know 1 girl working in the bars who got the 2000 baht from the govenment.my wife got it as she works for a real company and before she got her pay rise was entitled to it.pays her dues.bar girls dont and that is harder for them.

 

they have a way of providing all the documents to say she works for someone.

 

long timers remember the chicken farm that had 3,000,000 workers for visa purposes,say no more.

Edited June 7, 2009 by equium

[scubaadiver56]

Has anybody ever repoted this to the Embassy. Maybe they could do something to stop this or atleast post something on their website about whats going on.

[hazze]

Very usefull info.

Thanks guys.

 

I'm thinking of going this route myself.