consultancy visa service for foreign nationals. I spent a lot of my time looking carefully at the area and people�s needs and doing due diligence before my commitment to become a �specialist� visa consultant. My team at Key Visa Co feel totally at home with the expats & foreign community and we endeavor to make every visa application a hassle free venture for our clients.

We understand the problems clients face and we make every effort to support them until satisfaction is reached. We are the official immigration advisors for the Pattaya Expats Club and I offer a lot of my time giving free advice to newcomers and expats in Pattaya specializing on retirement and long stay visa applications. I am offering a weekly advice clinic in this newspaper and today I am focusing on the most commonly asked questions by our clients.

Q, My friend has told me that there is an option to acquire a non-immigrant O type visa 12 months multiple entry in Malaysia. Can you confirm if this is correct? A, Yes your friend is correct; at the moment they are issuing the nonimmigrant O visa one year multiple entry in Penang, Malaysia but like all visa types it is not available to everybody. You can only obtain the visa if you have the following criteria and documents, you have to be married to a Thai national with a marriage certificate, you need 400,000.00 Thai baht in your Thai bank, you need a signed copy of your wife�s identification card, you need a letter from your Thai bank confirming your name, your account number and your current balance in your bank account (when you go to your bank just explain the letter is for a visa and they should understand) you need to take the original bank book and your original marriage certificate to Penang with you making sure you also have photocopies signed by yourself and your wife.

Q, I have recently lost my passport and I have to fly home in one week. I am obviously worried what can I do and what is the procedure? A, Unfortunately, losing passports seems to be a common trend. The first thing you have to do is visit your nearest police station and make a report to the officer. They will in turn give you a copy of the police report. You then contact your embassy or consulate or if your embassy has a website you can check the documents required and the fees for the passport before you go there in person. It will make it more simple if you have a copy of your old passport as verification. Most embassies will issue an emergency one way passport so you can at least get home, but you must take your outgoing travel document with you because the emergency passport expiry date tends to be worked around the date you are leaving Thailand. If you have a long stay visa and you have time to wait for a new passport all well and good.

Q, I am in the process of obtaining a three month tourist visa for my Thai partner to visit Australia with me I have recently submitted the application but we don�t want to travel to Australia for another 2 months. If we get the visa, does this mean we shall lose two months of the visa? My friend got his Thai partner a visa to the U.K. and the visa started as soon as it was awarded and put in her passport, can you advise please? A, Good luck with your application, the Australian embassy work a little different to the British Embassy. When a tourist visa is awarded by the Australian Embassy they tend to give the applicant a set period of time, usually 3 months to utilize the visa so the applicant must travel to Australia within the stated period and then the 3 month tourist visa starts when your partner arrives in Australia, but please always check the details printed on the visa stamp.

Q, I have just returned from a visa run to Penang and this is my second tourist visa issued from the consulate in Penang, but they have stamped on the visa don�t comeback to Penang for another visa. When I contacted my agent in Penang who o