Waraporn was visiting Denmark for the third time when in 2005 she met Martin van der Muts in Copenhagen. Soon their relationship became more serious and before Waraporn returned to Thailand they had planned to get marry next time she came to Denmark. Having visited Denmark three times before and never overstayed, it would be no problem to get a new visa – or so they thought.
“When we applied for the next visa for Waraporn to return to Denmark, we were pleased to tell the truth,” Martin explains.
“In the field where you are asked to indicate the purpose of the visit, we happily wrote: “Getting married”.. and I had prepared the requested guarantee sum of 57.000 kr.
Then they waited. Two months passed without any news. Finally, Martin called the Danish immigration authorities and asked to the case.
“To my surprise I was told that the application had already been denied. When I asked on what ground, I was told that she belonged to the “high risk group” of applicants who were likely to overstay their visa,” Martin says.
Martin tried to explain that they had no intention of overstaying. After getting married, his wife would return to Thailand and then they would apply for family re-unification the straightforward way. That didn’t make any difference.
Denied a chance to marry in Denmark, Martin and Waraporn then decided to marry in Thailand.
“We have been planning for our wedding for close to one and a half year and now it seems that this is the only way, we can make it happen,” Martin says.
“I have prepared all the papers and the legalization process is done. So our wedding is now set for this Monday,” he proudly says.
Next step will then be for Martin and Waraporn to apply for family re-unification. And now, Martin is pleased to add that time finally seems to be on his side..
“The Danish immigration authorities have recently been forced to accept, that if the person applying for visa has been living and working – or just looking for work – in another EU country for a minimum of ten weeks, then they can no longer deny the re-unification,” he explains.
“Now I am just worried that the immigration authorities will manage to set up new obstacles in our way before we get a chance to apply. But then we will have to find ways to overcome those too,” he says confidently.
With a dry humour he adds, that unfortunately he didn’t fall in love with a Brazilian. Then they would have have had no problems at all.
“Well, they don’t seem to realize that love is something you cannot manage with immigration rules and regulations…”
