trailblaze

I am planning to visit the UK with my wife soon. I am a UK citizen living in Thailand and have been married to my Thai wife for 9 months. We have been living together in Thailand for 6 years and we have visited the UK together twice in that time with my now wife on a tourist/visit visa.

Due to us being married now I understand that we have to apply for a family visit visa. This is no problem as my brother can provide a room in his house (which he owns) and an invitation letter.

I will be paying for my wife and I to travel to the UK and any costs associated with this but because I am not based in the UK, would it be better for my brother to sponsor my wife? We both have enough money to act as a sponsor but would it be better if my brother was the official sponsor as he is based in the UK?

Thank you to all in advance.

MonsterP

You will have a lot of documents to prepare, we've done two Family Visit visas for my Wife from Bangkok twice now. A 2 year, then a 5 year after the first one expired.

YOU sponsor your Wife, not sure why you feel your brother should, being in the UK is irrelevant.

Make sure that you put on the application form that she will have enough money. I.E. For my wife's first three week trip, we said she would have £2k.
You sponsor her costs 100%.

Invitation letter from your brother, duly signed, would be needed too.
Make sure your marriage documents are fully translated, and notorised. Ours were done by the Foreign Affairs Office in Shanghai (my Wife is Chinese).

Apply for the 2 year visa first, since it's her first application. A 5 year application will likely be refused, and you don't want any refusals.

Don't forget to print multiple photos, maybe 12 per page I think, to show the stages of your relationship, right from the start.

Time and patience, you eventually get these documents translated and notorised, etc., then keep them in a safe (no joke) and treat them like gold. :-)

michali

How long are you coming over for? I stand to be corrected but do you really need a Family Visit Visa to come to the UK for a short time? My husband always obtained Visit Visas before he got his Spousal Visa. All we needed was an invitation from our son to say we could stay at his house, enough money in our account to cover our stay and a letter from his employer confirming employment and giving date on which he was expected back at work. We certainly did not need photos of ourselves. If she has had visit visas before and you can show that you are both returning to Thailand at the end of the visit, I cannot see a problem.

MonsterP

I think you might have been very lucky to get away with that one Michali :-)
Normally, photos are a 100% requirement, not necessarily listed on document lists, to show evidence of relationship. I would advise the OP not to risk that one as it's an easy achievement to print a bunch of photos on A4 paper.

Even a single visit will require nearly as much documentation, and with the stress of doing the applications, it was a big relief for us to have a visa in the passport that could be used at the drop of a hat. Stress removed.

Also, it comes down to a visa cost calculation. We were visiting twice a year, so it was cheaper to have a longer term visa of course. Also, I believe a longer term visa is good for the record.

Visa Fees for applying in Thailand (not sure why they don't list them in Baht anymore):-

Family visitors
Visa types Visa application fee (USD)
Short-term (up to 6 months, single or multiple entry) 129
Longer-term (valid for up to 2 years) 468
Longer-term (valid for up to 5 years) 849
Longer-term (valid for up to 10 years) 1150