Hi All
Happy to report that my Thai BF of the last 5.5 years got his 4th Irish visitor Visa today!  

Most old timers on the board will remember the saga of getting his first visa - which took 1.5 years to secure.

There is no Irish Embassy in Bkk - just a consulate, so the applications get forwarded to the Embassy in KL

His second visa application in 2006 went far easier than the first application. And took just 1 week

This 3rd application  in 2007 took a little longer (1.5 weeks) and was nearly scuppered by the girl in BKK who was processing the application and insisted on originals of all paperwork (despite being told on 2 previous occasions that the only orignal required was his passport) And despite him telling her she had a "black heart"!

This 4th visa application took even longer at 2 weeks, and once again hit a hiccup when they demanded more up to date bank statements from my bank. They had statements from Jan 1st-June 6th, but wanted them up to june 25th (the application date) Considering my bank send statements every 3 months this was a bit of a tall order, but i managed to work around it by sending them an e-statement from one of my savings accounts (rabobank)

So this time 5 weeks he'll be back for another month or so...
Now all i gotta do is pay for his flights and save for our disco money

Thanks as always to a certain unnamed board member for his help with some of the paperwork!

It's the first visa that's the challenge, not the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.

Congratulations! I have a question as a fellow Irishman who has not been through this process. I know that Ireland and the UK have a common immigration zone. Does an Irish visa allow entry to the UK, and vice versa?

colmx wrote:

Hi All
Happy to report that my Thai BF of the last 5.5 years got his 4th Irish visitor Visa today!  ....!

Ah, how the Irish are saving Western civilization once again.

fattman wrote:

Congratulations! I have a question as a fellow Irishman who has not been through this process. I know that Ireland and the UK have a common immigration zone. Does an Irish visa allow entry to the UK, and vice versa?

Definitely not. Although is is theoretically possible to take a foreign national with an Irish visa and no UK visa over to Belfast and then board a domestic flight to London and vice versa.

Chao Na wrote:

It's the first visa that's the challenge, not the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.

I disagree
They require all the same paperwork for the 2nd and subsequent visas as the 1st visa....

So the challenge is in gathering sufficient updated paperwork everytime to satisfy the visa officer...

Yes, the paperwork requirements are the same.

But having a record of behaving yourself on a previous visit makes you an almost 100% shoe-in for a second, third, etc., visa.  Once you've got your foot in the door the first time, the rest is a complete cinch.

allieb wrote:

fattman wrote:

Congratulations! I have a question as a fellow Irishman who has not been through this process. I know that Ireland and the UK have a common immigration zone. Does an Irish visa allow entry to the UK, and vice versa?

Definitely not. Although is is theoretically possible to take a foreign national with an Irish visa and no UK visa over to Belfast and then board a domestic flight to London and vice versa.

hi Fattman
As per Alliebs comment above it is possible to take a foreign national with an Irish visa and no UK visa over to Belfast and then board a domestic flight to London and vice versa... But its not something i recommend!

Its possible that you coulkd be charged with smuggling an illegal alien if you were discovered doing this

Although a friend of mine did it twice with a London based Thai guy...

In fact one of the reasons given by the Dept of Justice for refusing my BFs first visa was that they felt he might travel to the common travel zone (UK)

Thanks Colmx, so that means my bf would need a visa for both Ireland and the UK. He's lived in the UK before so should be no problem with the Brits, but I want to take him to Clonmel...

Chao Na wrote:

Yes, the paperwork requirements are the same.

But having a record of behaving yourself on a previous visit makes you an almost 100% shoe-in for a second, third, etc., visa.  Once you've got your foot in the door the first time, the rest is a complete cinch.

My previous boyfriend came to the U.S. on a student visa for one or two months back around 1995.  When he was ready to come to study at a university in the U.S., we both assumed that it would be a fairly simple process -- given his previous ideal behavior.

This was not the case.  He ran into a real bitch at the U.S. Consulate in Chiang Mai who flatly denied his visa application, and it required (at least) a letter from a U.S. Senator to get the denial reversed.

Your theory is probably valid in general, but general theories are always running into real events.

By the way, boy genius, that would be "shoo-in" -- not "shoe-in."

Having been in the US previously on a student visa is NO HELP when applying for one's first TOURIST VISA.  The two are completely separate animals.  And, actually, having received a US degree and, presumably, acquired connections to the US while there as a studend, could actually make the process more difficult.

Having had a tourist visa, the second one, on the other hand is almost guaranteed (if you've behaved).  An interview isn't even usually required.

Keep working at it, Henry.  Eventually you'll find a topic that you actually know something about.

My Lao boyfriend is currently here on his 4th Schengen visa, another 90 days, and all of those applications have been quick and the same procedure has been applied on all of them, day one submit application, day two call for status, day three pick up passport + visa.

I'm from the Netherlands, and it seems to me that getting a Schengen visa for this country is nothing more then making sure the paperwork is in order.

The primary reason why Colmx's boyfriend, and now the Lao boyfriend, had little trouble getting their 4th visa was that once they had received their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd visas, and the holiday was over, they didn't end up in a Irish or European jail, didn't disappear into the European underworld, and that they came back to Thailand and Laos.

If you will recall, it took Colmx's boyfriend years before his first visa success . . . the later applications slipped through like butter in comparison.  Colmx's boyfriend proved himself as a legit tourist, and Colmx proved himself as a honourable sponsor.

Although I'm loathe to achknowledge it, Chao Na/Boygeenyus made such a point in this thread pages back (though in his usual anti-social style).

Cheers ...


PS & aside ... how come Chao Na has not been banned (once again)?  That's the normal MO here.



Last edited by Smiles on Mon 14 Jul, 2008 9:12 pm; edited 1 time in total

Because Chao Na has not broken any forum rules.

I'm jealous... I'd like to bring my BF to the USA on a tourist visa but after 9/11 things have gotten tough. A Thai basically has to have big cash in the  bank and a "professional" job in order to get in. My BF has his own shop but  he certainly doesn't have big savings in the bank.   If another American has  had luck getting his BF into the States since 9/11, let me know. (It probably depends on which b*tch ones runs into at the visa counter.