Some varied replies. Most were inciteful, some boastful. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences.

For my partner's visa we did indeed provide a letter from her employer and other documentary evidence above and beyond what the visa officials required.

She's been living in the U.K. with me for a couple of years now, so we are looking at doing the renewal.


@TWY's quote;
Our application was initially declined but this was proven to be an administrative error on the processing side (the name of the administrator who declined sounded Filipino, not that that necessarily had anything to do with it). We appealed and after 5 months and 29 days, the original decision was overturned,...

Our visa application was also declined. The caseworker treated the submission with indifference and made inaccuracies which delayed the visa considerably. In the decision notice they had the date and the result of my wife's English test wrong. I had to go to the appeal courts and waited over twelve months to get the hearing. This was 2017. It took a further 5 months for the government to acknowledge the appeal court's decision.


....and @Pseudonomdeplume 's quote "...if you lose, the agreement is void: Scam. And, you will pay the fees upfront, for good measure (to be reimbursed). I can just imagine what the contract would look like: Henceforth, forthwith heretoandfroinstandingupsideout...
The problem would be written vs verbal, and a dodge will have no qualms with morals. What's the one about a dead lawyer and dead skunk on the road?"

Absolute nonsense from @Pseudonomdeplume there. Perhaps she/he should put down their plume for good.

ofparadise wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:57 pm

Phnom Penh Pal wrote: ↑Tue Jul 13, 2021 8:09 pm Would you pay an immigration specialist to handle your partner's visa to the 'West'?

Some would not even consider moving back to
the 'West' (Austrailia, Europe, Canada, the U.K. or the U.S.)....

I've got a lot of distain for the solicitors. Also I've heard from a handful of people who have bad experiences with them. The majority will take your money and give you poor representation.

If you want a job doing well then do it yourself is certainly true, but you have to know that the onus is on the applicant/appellant to provide all the evidence. So hundreds of hours of research and implementation. This can impact your full time job and home life.

Seems like an odd question. Only you know what you are willing to spend on. Some people spend $500 a spin on the roulette wheel. Some won't part with even a dollar for a beggar with 7 legs.

@ofparadise /of parasite. If my question was odd, your reply was odder.

As @Bubble T said ... (if you use someone or you yourself have a) solid understanding of the law, legal precident for appeals, and most importantly who understands the specific phrasing to use when highlighting key facts in your cover letter then you will absolutely improve your chances of getting the visa approved..."

I'm guessing your keyboard does not work right because if not, you seemed to have cut off my reply to fit your narrative.

Anyways, this is how you quote someone... you have to select the whole msg... I know it sounds hard. You'll get the hang of it.

ofparadise wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:57 pm

Phnom Penh Pal wrote: ↑Tue Jul 13, 2021 8:09 pm Would you pay an immigration specialist to handle your partner's visa to the 'West'?

Some would not even consider moving back to
the 'West' (Austrailia, Europe, Canada, the U.K. or the U.S.)....

I've got a lot of distain for the solicitors. Also I've heard from a handful of people who have bad experiences with them. The majority will take your money and give you poor representation.

If you want a job doing well then do it yourself is certainly true, but you have to know that the onus is on the applicant/appellant to provide all the evidence. So hundreds of hours of research and implementation. This can impact your full time job and home life.

Seems like an odd question. Only you know what you are willing to spend on. Some people spend $500 a spin on the roulette wheel. Some won't part with even a dollar for a beggar with 7 legs.

Personally, I would even pay a tuktuk driver to handle my visa, if he passes my interview and give me the proof that he could handle it. So yea. Do your due diligence, conduct your own onboarding interview, and pay if your confidence in the firm hits the threshold you set for yourself. And ensure that they are implementing your plans. They are your experts, but you are the architect. (I hover over them )

You hire monkeys, you reap peanuts. Hire lions, and you eat gazelles for dinner.

Only you can figure out if it's a monkey or a lion.

Phnom Penh Pal wrote: ↑Mon Jul 19, 2021 12:21 amSome varied replies. Most were inciteful, some boastful. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences.

Was mine the one that came off as boastful? If so, I apologize. For the record, her salary was actually fairly low, but her employer + travel history helped.

In my experience:
1-Anyone with a salary of 1k+ has made it over as a tourist to western countries no problem.
2-Anyone locally married/getting married has made it over (France/US/Ger/Can/Aus) regardless of income and/or assets.
3-Anyone who has gotten a tourist or other visa from a "developed" country (Schengen/US/Can/Oz/NZ/Japan etc) and didn't overstay will be approved to most other countries after that.
4-Anyone with a child has made it over (similar to #2).

I helped a Khmer girl in my home country get her Khmer husband to immigrate. Took 12+ months but he made it over and was a taxi driver with no stable income. She went back to marry him and accumulated photos etc. It was WAY more paperwork than as a tourist and definitely overwhelming for me. Another friend has actually encountered a lot of issues though.

Similarly, another Khmer friend who lives in my home country asked me to look over some family members' tourist visa application which had been rejected twice. It was her aunt/uncle (retired) and her cousin. They had used a local agency. Upon checking docs, I noticed they had fucked up pretty majorly... He used to sell used cars, so they had collected a bunch of bills of sale (of dubious legality), but none were organized. As in dates didn't match/weren't chronological with random years, no government stubs and so forth. More importantly, they had put his stated yearly income as a monthly income, which then worked out to like 300k/yr... But obviously even the original income (25k/year) was also an exaggeration. They probably thought it was best to state a big number, but the best is to be HONEST. I mean, meanwhile, the daughter worked at a hotel for $350/m. Just doesn't add up from a government's point of view (why is your daughter making $350/m when you supposedly make 300k/yr?). Meanwhile, the mom was seen as a risk as she had no assets (all in the father's name) and no job. Also, the furthest they'd been was Dubai, but again, no visas required for Khmers AFAIK. It was all a bit of a mess, but the company hadn't helped their case by accidentally putting the yearly income as a monthly income... I suggested they wait a year and travel a bit more. Even with a letter from their family members/workplace, they'd been turned down.

PPP, you don't clarify your specific circumstances (country aiming to go to, tourism or immigration, planning on getting married or not etc). It sounds like you're trying to bring her over for good. Are your married/planning on getting married? Or just want her to visit you? Have you guys travelled together? That always helps. Or maybe a small family plot an be put under her name (they have no way of knowing the value, but it helps)?

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 6:39 pm It really depends on the situation. What's her job? Who's the employer? What's her income? Any assets? Has he/she been abroad before and returned (visas to show)?

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote: ↑Mon Jul 19, 2021 2:42 pm PPP, you don't clarify your specific circumstances (country aiming to go to, tourism or immigration, planning on getting married or not etc). It sounds like you're trying to bring her over for good. Are your married/planning on getting married? Or just want her to visit you? Have you guys travelled together? That always helps. Or maybe a small family plot an be put under her name (they have no way of knowing the value, but it helps)?

There's a myriad of questions about my wife there @Bitte_Kein_Lexus, be careful that you don't come across as an immigration official?

As you've taken the time to write two quite long thoughtful replies (which I've cropped to keep the post short) I'll try and answer your questions as best as I can.

When doing the spousal visa for immigration my wife was working at Grand Waterfront Hotel. She worked as the main receptionist, and in a much shorter spell whilst waiting for the outcome of the tribunal as bar and restaurant supervisor. I can't remember her salary, it must have been $150-$300 pcm, anyway irrespective of that with tips you could treble that. Her employer letter obviously didn't state the tips as evidence as those would be hard to show.

My wife has been abroad more than a dozen times (several of which have been with me). Loads of stamps and visas evidence this. We were officially married in the U.K. within 6 months of her arrival and she has considerable assets. For more info on my wife see the link below.

cambodian-culture-and-language/opportun ... 45175.html

Typhoon28 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 14, 2021 5:41 pm If going to the UK its simple enough to do the whole process yourself. Just take time to read and re-read all the instructions and ensure you have copies of everything exactly as they ask, after that its pretty straight forward, especially for a visitor visa.

For visitor visa yes. For settlement I also thought I’d do it all myself to save money. I’m not a lawyer but I do work a lot with formal specs and suchlike for a living so I figured it’d be fine.

The application itself was successful, but we ended up out of pocket due to a poorly documented nuance of how to time the renewal applications - paid an extra two grand for a 30-month visa to bridge a two week gap before eligibility for permanent residence.
It happened because we submitted the previous renewal application comfortably within the recommended time instead of waiting for the last safe possible moment, the timing of which is something that only a professional immigration lawyer is going to have a feel for.

If you submit too early you end up paying thousands extra, if you submit too late your residence will be at the mercy of a random officer who decides whether the inevitable overstay caused by their long processing times was reasonable - and neither one of those two dates in that range is explicitly published!

And if you don’t think something like that will happen to you, keep in mind that the UK immigration process is obscure and capricious *by design* regardless of how easy to use the online form appears.

@nerdlinger The U.K. immigration process is a Kafkaesque nightmare. Always in limbo and at the mercy of a poorly informed capricious caseworker.

The forms pose questions about you and your fiancé/wife, such as history of addresses, children (if any), jobs, names, etc.

If you pay a lawyer you still need to answer those questions, but you’re paying someone to be a typist for you. Doesn’t seem worth it to pay a lawyer to type your answers out for you.

You even have multiple online guides, and sample John and Jane Doe forms if you wanted to see what they look like once completed.

I’ve done the fiancé visa forms, green card forms and soon the citizenship form. The most annoying part is getting copies of proof of relationship (photos, bank statements, taxes, deeds, insurance, etc.). And a lawyer is not mitigating that requirement.

GMJS-CEO wrote: ↑Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:18 pm The forms pose questions about you and your fiancé/wife, such as history of addresses, children (if any), jobs, names, etc.

If you pay a lawyer you still need to answer those questions, but you’re paying someone to be a typist for you. Doesn’t seem worth it to pay a lawyer to type your answers out for you.

You’re not paying for them to be a typist, you’re paying for them to flag up things that seem perfectly reasonable and innocuous to you but could actually result in a massive pile of grief.

Phnom Penh Pal wrote: ↑Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:04 pm at the mercy of a poorly informed capricious caseworker.

Oh yeah, that’s the other aspect of it - when doing my research I found no end of stories of people who got all their paperwork right but ran into problems from a case worker not understanding something either in their own rules or in the mountain of submitted paperwork. Lawyers definitely help with this, partly by making sure things are phrased in ways that line up well with the Home Office’s internal documents and checklists, and partly by immediately knowing the right way to handle things when problems arise and reacting in time to get the original application accepted instead of finding yourself having to redo from scratch.

Oh, and fun little aside on the topic of UK Immigration - they farmed out initial paperwork processing to a private company, but in my town that company subcontracted the work to the local library.
So basically we submitted our documents to a public sector worker employed by the local government, who posted it on to another bunch of public sector workers in the Home Office, and a private company took a big fat cut of the two grand application fee for doing literally fucking nothing.