What I hadn't reckoned with was being asked for an attested marriage certificate, which subsequently had to be translated into Thai. My wife is Japanese, not Thai, so it was a bit of a surprise and took getting on for 3 weeks. We'd had our certificate attested in 2011 so I thought we were lucky until they announced that the UAE brought in a 10-year shelf life last year. So maybe it was closer to 7 weeks in total. I thought I'd left plenty of time but it went up to the wire.

About 5 or 6 weeks,

@S**

, but there were several UAE and Thai holidays during that period. The insurance took the longest to sort out, and forgive me if everybody knows, but it's best to get all the documents such as air ticket, police clearance, evidence of accommodation etc ready to upload because if you get stuck for 14 days, you slide down the snake, your application is deleted from the system and you have to start again.

Thanks,

@A**

. See you there.

Done this morning,

@Wann****

.

@Jan *****************

🙏

Thanks,

@Mic****

. I'll be careful.

Thanks,

@Mi**

, that’s helpful and goes a long way to explaining the amount of disagreement among people advising on which visa to apply for where and how to go about opening a bank account, the latter appearing to be down to individual branches. I’m sure we’ll get used to it but it’s something we haven’t really experienced in decades of travelling there as tourists and on business.

Not uncomfortable,

@Bra****

, just a little confused. A supposedly definitive list of required documents is published on global consular websites and then they throw in a curve ball that takes longer to get than the rest put together. If I'd known it was required, I'd have started the 'quest' a month earlier.

🙈

@ *******

n.

I’ve uploaded a consolidated HSBC statement covering three months with an average of more than the requirement for both of us. The UAE, being a tad patriarchal, puts the man’s name on the statement, even for joint accounts, but I’m submitting the same ones for both of us. Will that be a problem,

@Jo**

?