The purpose of the interview is for the clearing officer to get a better understanding of the Thai national, their circumstances and reasons for applying for a visa to travel to the UK.
Most Thai girls would never have been interviewed in this capacity before and will find the whole situation very frightening. Some questions they may not understand what is being asked or even the full meaning of the question.

The answers given during this UK immigration interview will determine whether the visa will be granted or refused. It will be easy for a Thai girl to get confused because of the language barrier and then come across as if they do not know much at all about the UK sponsor. This would then bring the visa officer to the conclusion that there is not a real relationship between the Thai national and UK sponsor. This happens all of the time.

The UK Visa interview

When a Thai girl is called for an interview and as a result is refused the UK visa, many of the UK boyfriends contact the embassy to express that they are not happy with the outcome and ask why they were not interviewed as well as the girlfriend. They feel that they have been hard done by as they did not get an opportunity to talk to the visa officer.

The simple fact of this situation is, the visa officer will only interview the person applying for the visa, as the visa is for them to travel and enter the UK. The UK boyfriend is a sponsor and has no reason to be called to interview.

The best situation is to avoid an interview and this can be achieved by making a solid application that is laid out in a way that the visa officer understands. Get the application right and there will be no reason for a UK Visa interview.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand has released figures showing tourism to Thailand is down this year. (2008) and at the same time immigration laws in the UK and Europe are getting tighter.

The impact of this double wammy will really be noticed with the relationships held between Thai girlfriends and UK boyfriends.

The problem is that for one of many reasons the UK Boyfriend will not have the resources to travel to Thailand, maybe he has money concerns, or the price of travel etc and to make matters worse it is now more difficult for the Thai girlfriend to get a visa to travel to the UK or Europe.
Immigration is a real issue in the UK and the politicians are promising reform and change, the end result is that legal migration becomes more difficult with the Immigration officer at the Bangkok embassy going over every application with a fine tooth comb. Any mistake made or document missing will result in the visa being refused.

A visa is obtainable for all Thai girlfriends to travel to the UK

With the correct help a visa is obtainable for all Thai girlfriends to travel to the UK, as long as the Thai girlfriend understands what documents are required and what to say in the interview.

Thai girlfriend speaking to her UK Boyfriend

The good news is that the internet is getting faster in Thailand making it easier for the Thai girlfriend to speak to her boyfriend in the UK using Skype or video messaging, making the distance between them much shorter.

If tourism isnt going to pick up in 2008 or 2009 we just hope that the Thai girls manage to get a visa to travel to the UK, maybe this is the best way for the relationship to grow.