14th December 2012 Vientiane, Laos
Embassy set-up progressing well
It has been a few weeks since my last blog so time for an update on our progress in re-establishing our Embassy in Vientiane and on what we have been doing more broadly. As for our Embassy set-up, I think it important to highlight that, while we had the formal opening of the Embassy by our Foreign Secretary, William Hague, on 5 November, we still have a lot of work to do to complete this important project. We have set ourselves a deadline of end March 2013 to have everything in place everything in place.
Currently, we are working on two key priorities. Firstly, renovation works at our new Embassy building (the former Australian Embassy building on Rue Nerhu) which involves a tender process for the works, overseen by our Regional Technical Works Office at the British High Commission in Singapore. Our aim is to have completed this process and for building works to start early in January with completion in March. For the time being, we continue to operate out of temporary offices. Our second key priority is recruitment of six locally engaged staff to help deliver our objectives in Laos. We advertised for these positions during November and are currently sifting the applications (over 100) to shortlist those we wish to interview in early January. We aim to appoint staff by the beginning of February. This will give an important boost to our capabilities though the new staff will go through some induction and training in the initial stages. But we will have our team in place and in good shape by the end of March. Aside from these key priorities, we have also been working on other important aspects of our set-up such as security for our staff and assets, medical arrangements and other Embassy processes. More broadly, we have started to build up the traditional front-line work of the Embassy. Since presenting my credentials to the President in October, I have undertaken a number of introductory calls on Ministers of the Lao government, including the Prime Minister. We have taken part in a number of events and meetings relating to development priorities in Laos, the environment and human rights. We are also developing our links to the British business community in Laos with the goal of establishing a British Business Group in due course which will serve as a forum to share ideas and experiences in doing business in Laos. Our aim is to increase the UK’s business profile here over the next couple of years. These are all important first steps in establishing contacts and networks as well as for developing areas of work to pursue in the coming months and years. It may all seem pretty obvious. But having been out of Laos for nearly 30 years, we need to re-engage with our stakeholders and, crucially, to develop a clear focus on delivery of the British government’s strategic objectives in Laos and the broader region.
Hello Phillip,
Great that you are finally setting up in Laos. I wish you the best of luck in your new posting.
Just wondering, now that Britain is increasing it’s diplomatic presence in Laos, will you be working more on persuading the Lao government to respect basic human rights, for their own citizens, but particularly for British nationals living in Laos?
Life with my long-term partner here is plagued on a daily basis by the state constantly imposing it’s ideology on our private lives, particularity laws against unmarried cohabitation. All we want is the freedom to choose on private/family matters, and to be able to be together without fear of arrest. Is that such a big ask?
Suffice to say, the situation is now so bad that I’ve decided to give up my right to a family life and leave the country.
Be great to hear your view on such issues, and any plans you have to address them.
Many thanks.
Thanks for this suggestion. We would be happy to facilitate a Remembrance Day Service going forward which is important to commemorate especially with the 100th Anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War in 2014. Could we arrange a meeting with you in the coming weeks to start the ball rolling?
Apologies this was meant to stay together, if she travels to Bangkok to submit her passport she would then not be allowed to travel back to Laos as she would not have her passport or her residence/work permits. So her passport situation is exactly the same as a Lao National, in fact probably worse. If she came on her Thai ID card she can only remain in Laos for 3 days and could be arrested for working without a work permit. Its possibly a fairly unique situation but your advice is much appreciated! Thank you
Thanks for your comment. Just to clarify. Although the Embassy in Bangkok is able to prioritise applications from Lao Nationals, the applications must still be made in Bangkok at the Visa Application Centre there. We will not have the facility to accept applications at the Embassy in Vientiane though we are looking into the possibility of having a mobile Visa Application Centre in Vientiane a few times a year.
However, I have checked with the Embassy in Bangkok and they have said they would be able to treat your wife’s application in the same way as from a Lao national given the logistics are the same. She should just make it clear when making the application that she is resident in Laos. Of course, the 3 day turnaround cannot be guaranteed as each application is assessed on its merits. But hopefully this will make the process a little easier.
Dear Phillip,
Thanks very much for your prompt reply, very useful.
There are many British and Commonwealth ex Servicemen in Laos, would you intend to arrange an event for Remembrance Day in Vientiene, this year, as it would go down very well with us all.
Again best wishes for a successful term in Laos
Regards
Steven
I should mention that we would be applying for a non settlement visa to allow her and the children to have a holiday to the UK in May, and that she was recently issued a 10 year multiple entry visa to the United States of America from the US Embassy in Vientiene rather than Bangkok, on the grounds of residency. here.in Laos.
Well done for getting the embassy underway and very best wishes for the future role that the UK can play in Laos, I first came here as part of the Landrover G4 event in 2005. I have been resident here in Vientiene for 5 years in Humanitarian Bomb Disposal, and as a contractor to the MOD in Afghanistan, now operating in Papua New Guinea but still resident in Vientiene, Laos. My wife is Thai and also resident in Vientiene with her own business here, she holds a residency permit and work permit for Laos, as do the children who are British Passport holders. Does the 3 day visa application route you refer to apply to her or does she still have to travel all the way to Bangkok, as it is difficult for her from both a business and family viewpoint?. My understanding of the visa process is that the application is made in the country of residence, which in her case would be Laos?. I look forward to your reply.
Regards Steven Christie
Hello, this is great news that you are setting up an embassy in VTE.
I am presently in Laos & would like to know when would be the earliest opportunity that you could supply me with a ‘Certificate of No Impediment’ to marry & would this be the only document I would need to marry in Laos as far as the Uk Embassy is concerned?
Kind Regards
Thanks for your comments and questions.
On the visas point, I’m pleased to say that the UK Border Agency at the British Embassy in Bangkok will prioritise non-settlement applications from Lao citizens by placing them at the front of the queue. They will aim to process these within 3 working days. However there is no guarantee of this as some applications will take longer than others due to individual circumstances. It is necessary for the visa section to retain an individual’s passport throughout the visa processing period. This prioritisation applies only to visa applicants who are nationals of Laos.
Settlement applications can take up to 12 weeks to process therefore these applications will not be prioritised. However applicants from Laos are permitted to withdraw their passport once their application has been submitted so that they can return home. Once the UK Border Agency are ready to make a decision on the application a request will be sent to return the passport to complete the processing.
On the question of a Certificate of No Impediment for marriage purposes, the Australian Embassy in Vientiane will continue to issue these for UK citizens until we are fully operational in March. An application can be made at the Australian Embassy in Thadeua Road. This is the only requirement from a UK perspective.
Philip Malone
British Ambassador to Laos
Many thanks for your reply Philip.
Greetings,
“Might the low number of requests not be connected to the obvious difficulty of doing it? We certainly didn’t proceed once we saw what might happen.”
I concur with Vic’s sentiment. I have a girlfriend in Vientiane who I would dearly love to bring to the UK for 3 months, but a friend told me what a nightmare it is attempting to obtain a visa in Bangkok, so I have left things for now as I noted that the UK Embassy was re-opening in VTE. I must say that I am a bit disappointed if the embassy is not going to be processing visa applications.
This set-back apart, best wishes with the new embassy,
Jez
Hello Phillip, like Vic, another former VSO in Laos, I too am very happy our embassy will soon be up and running. I am also married to a Lao woman although when we have been to the UK my wife has managed to get a visa in 3 days by asking very nicely and impressing the people at the office in Bangkok somehow with her Lao style dress sense. However we live in Luang Prabang so including the costs of flights to Bangkok for 2, we have to spend about a 1000 US$ to do organise a visa alone. Needless to say, if my wife could do this in Vientiane, it would be a real bonus.
Hi Philip,
I am currently writing a fiction novel where the protagonist ends up I’m Veientiane in roughly March/April of next year. For purposes of complete accuracy would he be able to get in there then with no passport and have a check done on him? Also will it have holding cells?
Very random I know, but I hope you can help.
Well done on getting the embassy re-opened and well on it’s way to being fully re-established! Beautiful city with beautiful people.
Ben: your question about your novel. I think it unlikely that anyone would be able to get into Laos without a passport. The immigration authorities are quite strict about the need for proper documentation as is the case pretty much everywhere.
Very glad when I heard of the opening of a British Embassy in Laos! I really think that it it a great move!
This country is very unknown to the majority of people in the UK at the moment however at the rate that things are changing for Laos I feel that this is very ignorant. Laos is a very important emerging economy and not one to ignore! As we all know the reality is that wealth is starting to move from the west to the east and whilst Laos is still very poor on paper the way that it is developing means that this certainly will not be the case for long!
I am a British citizen married to a Laos woman and can certainly sympathise with the comments made regarding the visa situation also! It is far from easy to even apply as a Laos national! Perhaps something which could be of an idea is applications in the UK Embassy in Vientiane which are then sent via post/courier to be processed in Bangkok? Bio metric information could be taken in Vientiane and the application forwarded to Bangkok for processing as it certainly is at current very difficult to apply, of course needing to travel to Bangkok and stay there for the duration of the process and decision which could of course take a long time.
I also like the idea of starting a British Business group in due course. As I mentioned I am from the UK and currently live here at the moment however the intention is to move to Laos, I will be running my own business and would be very interested in getting involved in a Business Group! That is of course unless you still have any vacancies in the Embassy which I may apply for???
It is great to see Britain establish a political presence in Laos. Also, I think it is important to establish a religious presence in Asia as well, working in tandem, with for example the Catholic Church to establish a beach-head in Laos, greater Asia, and eventually China. The Last Empress of China was a convert to the Catholic faith. There can be no dispute of the nexus between Christianity and democracy.
Best Wishes
David Thomson
Melbourne Australia
Dear Philip, it ´s nice to read from you again. I don ´t know why but it ´s always fascinating for me to see sthg. “new” growing up and developing.Esp. in this so important “project-phase”. Renovation works of this building in Rue Nehru must be an exciting challenge. For I think that it ´s always much more difficult to change the complete interior – esp. when there was another Embassy already established. This is maybe the hardest job to do, or in your words: “…a key-priority…”. So I guess that it has been also be difficult to find time for introductury calls and meetings with Lao-government ministers. To conclude : I think that this is no time for you to rush or “hurry-ups”. Your last sentence impressed me a lot : “…we need to re-engage and to develop a clear focus….”. I wish you and yr.team all the best to achieve this.
Bw , Ingo-Steven Wais, Stuttgart
Good to know this is progressing; as a UK citizen in Laos for the last 15 years it has been frustrating to always have to deal with BKK. Especially getting a visa for my Lao wife of 13 years. Gave that up last time when I learned she would have to go to BKK for fingerprint and retina scan and then would have to wait, possibly 3 weeks for the decision. With a 12 year old daughter and a 10 year old son (with UK passports) & me in full time work for WWF that just was impossible.
There are number of UK people working for WWF in Vte, and we recently got funding from HSBC via WWF UK, so I hope there could be more scope for similar things in future once you are up and running.
Best wishes,
Vic
Thanks for your comment.
It is good to hear things are going well with WWF in Laos as I know how much good work you do across the world. On visas, we are considering with UK Borders Agency colleagues at the Embassy in Bangkok, how we can better facilitate visas for Lao nationals. There are not enough visa applicants to justify the cost of a full visa operation at our Embassy in Vientiane but we are looking at better prioritisation of applications in Bangkok so they are issued more quickly or possibly to have periodic visits to Vientiane by a mobile applications unit. These issues are currently under review and we will ensure any updates are published on the visa pages of our website.
Thanks for taking the trouble to reply.
Might the low number of requests not be connected to the obvious difficulty of doing it? We certainly didn’t proceed once we saw what might happen. My wife has been to the UK 5 times before, when the process was somewhat easier.
Anyway, looking forward to updates on this.
I have to agree with Vic on this issue and hope that this issue will be addressed by the UK Embassy in Laos one way or another!