saanya

Hi,

I have an extension on an ED Visa. The extension lasts until mid-2011. I stay in Nong Khai most of the time and fly down to Phuket when it's time for my 90 day report, then return here. Most of the time I drop off the written class work that I scan each week for my teacher to review. Basically the process has been working great since my wife takes care of the other part of my course in terms of spoken word and vocabulary.

But now we wonder if I need to report to Phuket for the 90 day report or if Nong Khai Immigration is possible. (not through the now infamous "Mr. Happy" of course, we already know about him).

One thing I know is that when I report in Phuket is simply have no issues ever, I write everything in Thai and speak to them in Thai and we usually just chit chat about random things as they issue this or that stamp. I am usually out of there in less than 10 minutes.

Is it too far fetched to think Nong Khai Immigration will have an issue with me using the typical form and just reporting there?

My wife and I plan to get our marriage paperwork before my extension based on ED visa expires so in the mean time it's justabout saving money on the flight from Udon to Phuket & back.

If it's too risky or seems way out of line I'll just pre-book as usual on Air Asia and do the normal Phuket report.

saanya

Don't b so quick to be sucked in by any of this. It's a trick at best and a tragedy at worst. mark my words.

well I wire from bank of america to The yellow bank here all the time and its usually 1 day. Was the amount over 1 mil baht? I forget the exact number but larger amounts you have to go into the bank and sign a form saying what its for and they will then release the money. If you go in and ask, you have to tell them it was a big amount or they will just check your account and so sorry no money yet.

I also sent from here to BofA yesterday and it the money was in BofA this morning:)

It was only 2,000 USD/ 62K baht.

The account at my US Bank is from San Francisco, CA going to a bank in Nong Khai in Nong Khai province. And yes it's the first time sending, I don't think it was a SWIFT # but instead just the bank routing number and my account #.

Bank of America is pretty much the largest bank and probably owns several square blocks of downtown Manhattan in NYC, so it's probably not Hicksville.

It looks now as if there's a problem and I'll treat it as such with both banks and see who's not set properly in the transaction.

It sounds like the "Yellow Bank" is good at this from what I have read in the post, and is known as Ayuthaya. SCB (call ThaiPanit?) is probably known as the "Purple Bank".

Probably will go at 9:30AM. I'll get all sorts of info from BofA tonight when they open in NY at 9PM (9AM their time).

It'll likely take about 9 times being transferred between different departments till we hit upon the correct "foreign remittance" folks.

Maybe we'll set up an account in Yellow bank and see how it goes, maybe Purple bank is only best for topping up phone cards, paying True, and buying Airasia tickets.

-saanya

Hi,

I wired money from my Bank of America account to my Thai SCB bank last Thursday afternoon and chose the 1 day option.

It's Wednesday now the next week 10th and it's still not here. The staff when I visited the SCB branch I opened my account at played dumb and said they had to call Bangkok, and even that failed because it was "lunch time".

After taking our number and saying they'd call us back they never did.

Bad service and uninformed responses can be expected, so no surprises there. But now it's probably time to learn how to get to the bottom of it and that means telling them how to do their job so they can use their status as an employee to work toward getting a real answer for us instead of just going the "graeng jai" route with their peers and simply not being 'too proactive".

Do I first call my Bank of America and verify it went through and it's exact status? My online account shows the transfer is "complete".

What's the SBC branch in Bangkok's number, -do they have a wire transfer department? Is there specific staff to ask for or a certain way to phrase the question to avoid getting a blanket statement of "it normally takes a week" and then having that turn into "it normally takes a week or so".

Right now I know very little but after paying 1K baht to have a "one day" transfer I feel somewhat "taken advantage of". My wife knows that's real money we could have spent on something useful instead of corporate financial runaround.

Next time we won't be so stupid. Luckily I'm not on the hook, this was just money to put down on a truck and the longer it takes, not a big deal. But it's the principle of having waited patiently and not seeing any result at all that's forcing me to turn to my peers and ask how you do it.

Perhaps I should be switching banks then, both in the US and here. Probably much better set of options -how do you do this, what banks do you know and trust for this kind of financial task?

Thanks indeed for any replies, -certainly much appreciated.

Kind regards...

-saanya

I need to stop off at immigration to pick up some papers in Phuket and wanted to make it easy on myself, and just stay at a hotel near the airport, arrange a car/motorbike rental for the AM.

I arrive 7PM and depart next day 300PM. Are there any recommendations? I guess I can stay in Phuket town as well but just curious about near the airport.

Alternately, there's no problem just staying near Phuket Immigration, any hotels near there you'd recommend? My budget is about 400-600 baht and can go up to 800-1000.

How about car rentals at Phuket International Airport?

This seems the best move, it's probably going to beat getting a taxi to the airport the next day, but who knows. Main thing is the hotel.

I paid with AMEX, Thai issue.

OK, is that from a particular bank? Understandably if you don't wish to reveal it that's OK.

saanya

Hi,

My Thai wife and I tried to use two of our bank cards but neither worked, and my foreign CC company and Airasia are in dispute, so what used to be easy as pie, booking flights online in advance for a nice discount, is now somewhat mired in, shall we say, <deleted>.

We can start another bank account somewhere easily enough and get a check card, but any of you using a bank currently that fits the bill in Thailand, e.g. book online at airasia.com or even nok air, and pay successfully within the last 30-90 days?

I know there are probably 2-3 banks this works for but the 2 we have dont. : )

Anyhow thats so much for advice!

-saanya

so where is he? No one updates about this? it's as if he simply disappeared into the prison system with no information whatsoever.

well, we went to Kon Kaen Ram, and initially were impressed, the staff took us in quickly and had her in an ultrasound room within the hour. after urine, blood tests, and ultrasound, she was admitted, we paid for a single room, and were also impressed by the level of service.

But, it seems like the General doctor really could not make any headway, and was sort of obtuse as to our insistence on getting a specialist.

We reinterated that was the purpose of our visit in the first place, and some of this difficulty I can chalk up to my wife's insistence that it's OK to just show up places without an appointment, as when she called Kon Kaen Ram they assured her she could just show up.

My instinct says that put us into a normal triage, where really, we could have skipped soe of it, and moved on to a specialist.

Unfortunately, the specialist actually is based out of Sri Nakharin. And missed his first stop with us, causing us to stay another day.

When we voiced irritation at being made to just wait under no guarantee the fellow would show up, he spontaneously appeared, and gave a very short exam.

We had a CT scan done of the area affected as well, her right side lower abdomen, as well as the left.

They said everything "seemed normal" even though the english language readout on the CT scan said it "revealed a lesion perhaps due to a __(drained/damaged?)__vein. I asked that we get copies of all the paperwork and my wife said that would be impossible, but I think it's normal to get such paperwork, or copies of it, to be able to bring it around throughout the course of the diagnostic phase.

They kept acting like nothing really was wrong, but she's been in severe pain, and had other doctors swear up and down she has a kidney condition, and not that it's affecting her bladder and urinary tract.

We finally got an appointment with the Urologist to run some kind of scope into her urinary tract to see more what might be amiss, as well as another appointment for her to drink some barium and have her colon scanned.

She's got blood in her urine now, which was never there.

The two issues she has seem related, she always knew she had a kidney issue for the last 5 years, but now a new issue over the last year crept up, a persistent pain in her side, right above her pelvis.

When you look at medical drawings, this is right where the urinary tract passes by under the affected kidney. But she says you can feel the swelling and perhaps even something more.

Could this be colon cancer forming? We want to rule it out, thus the barium drink/scan, I don't know if it's an Xray or what kind of scan.

My feeling though is that the doctors appear pretty clueless and almost in denial. This is what makes me think cancer.

I'm not sure why, but they seem to really deny anything is out of the ordinary, they said her left kidney was the one that was swollen, even though it's her right side kidney and abdomen where all the pain is. When asked to explain this, they could not.

She says if we go to Sri Nakharin we will be made to wait endlessly because it's a govt facility. I don't care about waiting, I care about a solution.

I actually got irritated at one point and asked if this being a private hospital (Kon Kaen Ram) meant we had access to just about any specialist or procedure without having to wait long, and the staff all seemed to catch on, and looked at the doctor knowingly. Basically, the culture that pervades govt work doesn't fly well at a private venue. You could see in their eyes that these nurses knew the ins and outs of why these doctors from Sri Nakharin coming into Kon Kaen Ram operate the way they do. They (the doctors) expect a typical Thai to be used to being told to wait, that every-thing's OK, and just to take some pills.

And, if the patient insists something really is wrong, all that's prescribed is some IV treatment for a few nights and some more meds. After a while the patient will get sick of laying around and go home, basically undiagnosed as to the real issue, with zero paperwork.

Back home I can almost predict what would happen. They'd request the records from the other past facilities and doctors, see the history of kidney issues, and recommend appropriate treatments.

Is it wise to simply switch over to Sri Nakharin and find someone who won't just say "everything seems ok"? How could a woman who's had a 7 year history of a problem basically be told "nothing seems wrong"? We spent 32,000 baht.

The general practitioner seemed to wear the same clothes everyday without changing, and it seemed like we really had to get on his case for the 5 minutes a day he'd show up that we were serious about seeing a specialist. Was he just holding onto commission or something? He couldn't even read the CT scan paperwork in English and contradicted it saying something was "abnormal" by saying "it's ok, that's normal, no problem".

I wouldn't normally write this much, but after 3 days in a relative fog with them, we fell it's reayy just the couple MD's we saw that seemed to be lacking, the facility and service itself were top notch. When we requested the CT scan, they had her in and out of there in an hour, and had it scheduled two hours after we requested it.

I really like their service model, but could it be that the few MD's who work there have not the vision or depth of expertise to really get my wife past the preliminary triage phase toward some level of in depth diagnosis and treatment?

It almost seems like we should skip Sri Nakharin and try Bangkok or even exit the country, or at least start tapping the social network of other patients in country who can elaborate on their experiences and what to do.

We will pay the taxi fare to go back in two weeks, first to KK Ram for the urology exam, and then perhaps consider a visit to Sri Nakharin.

My wife has agreed from now on to not follow her Thai instinct to not schedule things, agreed we should research, contact by phone in advance, and make and keep appointments, from here on out.

Our failed trip this last time to uncover the problem may well have to do with the system itself not being equipped for rapid response to such issues. 3 days and 2 nights might have seemed like a lot to us, but to them that might have been barely enough time. ok, time to stop writing, thanks for any advice. Time to research how we can get copies of her records form the last visit, I need to at least make a list of the tsts done so far and get a copy of the CT scan that told of the lesion.

Is there a name for the MRI Center? I'd like to contact them as well in sort of prep for our visit.

I would also like to search out temporary housing just in case we end up having to stay for an extended time.

I think based on what's been written, and my wife's opinion, Srinakarind would be a first stop.

I have studied Thai for a long time as well and even though medical terms are hard to understand, I have enough vocabulary to work through it.

Anything beats the options we have in Nong Khai, which are limited to a large extent.

This all appears to have started with her taking medication for migraines, which did damage to one of her kidneys.

We made the mistake of her taking an Ibuprofin a few days ago and that hurt her for hours, and prompted an in depth discussion to make a plan to go to Kon Kaen and take care of this.

This is what I was hoping for, and what I think the real value of a resource like Thaivisa is.

Thanks a lot for the advice gregb, TerryLH, citizen33, khunBENQ, jazzbo.

It's good to hear because it gibes with exactly what my wife said, but was slightly lost in translation.

The info regarding the nature of each hospital is especially valuable, I'm a former combat medic myself, and it's exactly the stuff I was looking to find out.

She mentioned Sri Nakharin, and I had her read what you all wrote, so now we have a much better plan.

I am lucky she's as educated as she is, it's allowed for us to plan what do to in an effective manner.

Thanks again, I'll report here the specific information about the depts and perhaps names & numbers where relevant.

-saanya

My wife has been suffering a kidney condition, and staying at the local hospital where we live for 12 days on an IV just seems to be profiting the local hospital and not fixing her condition.

The general doctor has little to offer, obviously.

I would like to take her to one of the major cities either Udon or Kon Kaen, and get her an MRI, as well as on track with the proper medical treatment.

She will likely lose a kidney, but it's better than losing her life over it.

Any serious recommendations are truly appreciated.

Note and Warning: This post is serious, comments offering debate or foolish wisdom won't be appreciated, nor will jaded criticisms of the medical care here.

We know where we are, we know where we live.  We know what to expect.

With that, any advice or insight you have have could help save us and perhaps someone else some heartache and lost days and nights.

-saanya

A guy I know went the other week for a 90 checkin on an ed visa and he said they did a bit of an interview in Thai, to see if he was learning anything. He didn't mention anything about papers from the school, but better safe than sorry. They seem to love paperwork.

what office? I keep hearing this story but it seems to be a rumor more often than not.

I have been on this "extension of stay based on education" for some years now.

You only need to fill out the 90- day report.

It's for TM 47 or something like that.

It just has your name and address, it's only purpose is to verify your address, and that you are staying for another 90 days.

There is no cost.

It takes 5 minutes.

Anyone saying you need something more does not know the rules and is likely not on such a status.

90 day reports are used for many "extension of stays", the staff reviewing them really don't care much about the details of your stay because 90 day reports are handled by basic staff who are not certifying officers.

What province are you in? It helps to know because we all have details for each immigration office and can say with some small measure of certainty what's a good idea to bring based on the officers we know at that center.

The rules however for 90 day are just your passport, a filled out 90 day report (hey why not do it in Thai, I do, and they love it, doing it in english just makes you look like you aren't really studying).

It is not big deal to to clean the filters yourself, unless your are disabled. I do it myself every few weeks and it takes only a few minutes. Most hotels in Thailand are pretty useless or too lazy to perform this simple task.

yeah I cleaned those, they were really corroded but spiffed up easily.

i still smell water from someplace in the unit, it looks like it circulates water, so I will visit the unit outside, which seems to be where the water goes in and out.

i bet if I open it there will be some maintenance container or something...

just have to make sure there's no cobra hanging out

Almost any place that sells AC units will be able to service/clean your unit (maybe not the supermarkets).

As a guide, we have paid as little as 200THB per unit for servicing, but found a company (Sattahip) that charges 500THB but they do a fantastic job - including taking the whole thing apart, cleaning and re-charging the units with coolant - so we use them annually.

AC units do not circulate water. However, quite a lot of water is formed inside the indoors part of the unit by condensation. This water should drip into a pipe that takes it outside (by gravity).

Sometimes the installation is done poorly and condensation water stays inside the unit (as it can't flow uphill) causing stale smells.

Other bad smells can be from small animals (particularly jing joks) dying inside.

I wouldn't recommend DIY, other than cleaning the filters every couple of months.

When I check into a hotel I always clean the filters and man-o-man does it work better. Your problem itn the old houses is the drain pan collecting water could be plugged drain pipe or poor installation as one poster mentioned. Also the coil will collect dirt and mold can grow on the coils as well. just look around neighborhood should be someone in the business who can clean the unit for you. After cleaning you will think you have a new unit.

So I went with getting the professionals to come and clean it. They said before 12 Noon, which I knew would actually turn out to be 3PM, so I went and did all my usual daily errands and came back at 2:45PM, and sure enough they rolled up at 3:07.

I love that I have been here long enough to understand the concept of time here. And yes, the cost of 500 baht.

They took the whole thing apart and sure enough, in many places, standing water, I took some of it in a glass to see it, and it's most certainly the culprit for my throat illness.

They cleaned the outside unit and the inside unit, ran a pressure hose to clean out the condensation hose, and various other tasks using about 3 unique bits of equipment. Took about 30 minutes all told, but was very involved and professional.

Now, the thing operates like new, there is no smell, and the sound is much quieter and i'm sure the power usage will go down slightly.

From a hygienic standpoint, this is nice to have done. I called a few places that sold the exact same unit and found their service teams that way.

Apparently, certain manufacturers have special equipment for servicing that hooks up to the systems, and training is involved.

So while a cleaning lady can get at the filters and clean those, to actually purge the unit of mold and other stuff, you'd be better off with the service techs coming with their special equipment.

While this doesn't focus entirely on Thailand.

Yet, the aircon units I asked about are very prevalent here. also, as an expat, you need to be able to assure your landlord you are not going to break their aircon unit, that you can take care of yourself by handling a health hazard in a way that they won't lose face or feel you are over stepping your role as a tenant.

If you ask to have it cleaned, you may notice a certain puzzled look. Handle it in the manner best suited to Thailand. Avoid the implication that "your aircon unit is drity and making me sick" and instead voice it almost like "I like to always pay to clean homes I stay in because it's in keeping with my status".

I did as mentioned above, researched the cleaners, got a quote, and a time of arrival, and noted that the landlady would call with questions and then ask for them to come, with the understanding I would pay and "be home all day".

My landlady showed up and sat nervously watching the guys take apart everything and clean it, and left only after they were done.

So the lesson from this post is two-fold, how to keep yourself healthy by knowing how to clean an aircon unit in Thailand, as well as handling it in a way your Thai landlord can preserve face.

Not one of the most important topics, just one of those small daily issues you might run into.

It is not big deal to to clean the filters yourself, unless your are disabled. I do it myself every few weeks and it takes only a few minutes. Most hotels in Thailand are pretty useless or too lazy to perform this simple task.

yeah I cleaned those, they were really corroded but spiffed up easily.

i still smell water from someplace in the unit, it looks like it circulates water, so I will visit the unit outside, which seems to be where the water goes in and out.

i bet if I open it there will be some maintenance container or something...

just have to make sure there's no cobra hanging out

Hi,

Over the past two years in Thailand I have lived in a few rental homes, the ones that had aircon invariably had an issue with it not being clean.

You can detect what smells like mold, and even after changing the filters, you have to clean it more.

But I am not an expert. It is however making me ill, and I would like to research cleaning the unit instead of fleeing to another house.

It's part of life in Thailand, lots of rental options, but you have to get a few things right.

Are there people who's job expertise (i know, using expertise loosely here) it is to clean and maintain simple aircon units so they are relatively clean?

Does anyone know about the water systems in these units, and how to clean/clear the water?

I am sure this is simple maintenance stuff, but it really does seem to have an effect on my health.

I can be in other rooms (like new hotels) with aircon and am fine, it's just these old rental homes where you are amazed the unit even works, as it starts to wrestle back to life after a few months dormant.

Geckos flee, spiders have to make new plans, mold spores detonate, all so romantic...

-saanya

Two border crossings and two extensions of stay would be required for the six month period and as you say can be limited at any time.

A more elegant visa would be a multi entry non immigrant O which seems to be best available from KL (but you could ask Vientiane) with show of marriage/id paperwork and 100k in a Thai bank account. That would do you for up to 15 months with no visits to Immigration required (only a border crossing every 90 days. If you feel the time is right any of the 90 day entries could be converted into an extension of stay.

the elegant approach does seem to be the best move, I figured i'd save some money for the moment, since that is a critical issue at this juncture, and simply test the waters on how easy it is to get a tourist visa in vientaine, and get back to the house and focused on things. a trip to KL once am ready for the non-immigrant O would be a nice addition to a small vacation, perhaps KL being our last stop before coming back home to Nong Khai.

from what I can tell, it doesn't seem like Vientaine's going to be an issue, the visas look easier to get than some other places.

Hi,

My wife is from Nong Khai, we recently submitted a post asking about how to get an extension based on Marriage, and decided to definitely follow through on it, but in due time.

She actually lives in Mi Chai, literally around the corner and down the block from the border crossing to Laos/Vientaine.

Before I get rolling with the marriage extension, I wanted to ask, how is Vientaine for Tourist visas?

I want to switch my Education Visa's "extension" which runs out this June 30th.

I have a friend from Phuket who says he's been doing this visa run every 6 months to great result.

He flies up from Phuket, bus from Udon, goes to Vientaine, gets a double entry (for free till 2011), and sits pretty for 6 months. He says it is "up to them" which I fully understand.

And taking that into account, is it going to look odd that I would choose to switch visas.

Now that I do not live where my education facility is located, this would be my legitimate stated reason for the switch, as well as the legitimate need to have some kind of time before all the marriage stuff is worked out.

Anyone with information on the Vientaine visa run, let me know, I feel that it's worth simply taking care of this following week, and I can notify my school formally of my termination of the educational aspect of my visa with them, and simply study remotely while on the tourist status for the remaining hours of coursework I have already paid in for.

This seems like a good approach, any pros and cons to consider?

To be clear, I wish to exit Thailand at the Nong Khai/MiChai - Laos/Vientaine border crossing, visit the thai consulate, and fill out the proper paperwork and submit any fees to facilitate a double entry tourist visa to allow a stay of up to 6 months (knowing that these require specific visits to Nong Khai immigration or elsewhere, in case I want to avoid a certain "Mr. Happy" I have seen noted in certain posts).

thanks to mario2008, lopburi, maestro, and the others who helps me on the marriage extension questions I had.

-saanya

You will find download links for US Embassy forms here

You should make appointment using on-line system.

What marriage papers are you talking about? Have you not registered your marriage yet? If not that is another paper/charge at Embassy and that also has to be translated/registered with MFA prior to marriage registration so allow extra day or two.

yes, we'd done the religious ceremony, but nothing formal, i'd mostly stayed on another visa extension type (Education) and am now sort of gathering up the information to use this type of extension.

One of the things that's still not clear, but now might be possible to answer, is how often one might have to exit the country, if at all, given what we have discussed so far.

The people I speak to about this are not from the US, and also are a bit confused about the difference, and advantage, of being a company partner vs. working as an employee.

So they invariably classify themselves as working, triggering all sorts of complicated requirements.

As for my marriage requirements, it seems the 40k income is preferable to the larger sum in the bank.

If the exist from country can be limited, that would be nice.

I am extraordinarily close to Vientaine, my wife's home town is it's thai border crossing via Friendship bridge.

Precisely. As you are receiving that income, you will be swearing your oath truthfully. If you want to be prepared for the one-in-a-million chance that the immigration officer wants to see a supporting document from the company paying you, you can have the company's accountant or any other employee write you a letter on the company letterhead certifying that the company pays Mr. ..., holder of US passport number ..., a monthly compensation of USD ...

--

Maestro

As usual, Thanks Maestro, Lopburi and Mario2008, et al,

OK, so I guess since I have had this firm for 5 years and been on the same status as a 50% Partner, even if I was "called on it", they'd see everything was legit, and I'd have all the annoying accounting paperwork to furnish. : )

-Is this then done in Bangkok, I can fly down from Udon, etc?

And as far as the composition of the letter from the US Embassy, is that something I do myself or the embassy does for a small fee?

It sounds like they do these all the time so if I don't need to waste time writing I won't.

As far as marriage papers, I guess that's the same, a trip to krungthep, we'd have to get the formal papers as opposed to just the religious 'ceremony', etc., which I'll read up on.

Hi,

I am reviewing the possibility of switching visas to a Marriage visa.

I own two LLC firms in US.

Both have the capactity to generate a Certifcation Of Income Letter or whatever you want to call it, not sure of the nomenclature.

It can certify and prove I am paid over 40K baht per month, but how should it be worded.

I own an internet firm, and the work is done by US nationals on US soil, and I am just a silent partner and do no work.

Are there still Work Permit issues, I feel I don't need one, but just have to ask.

Also, what other issues might there be, as a 50% partner in a foreign LLC while residing married in Thailand with intent to have "O" visa?

-saanya

Hi,

I am exploring the possibility of moving short or long term to Mi Chai, which is near the Thailand/Lao border just below Vientaine.

We plan to stay in the area for some time, and I would like to use my CAT CDMA Novatel MC 727 USB Modem or my AIS Dtech EDGE USB modem w/ 1-2 Call SIM to access the internet.

I work at Thailand night times, so am used to access improving dramatically after normal internet traffic subsides.

I spoke with CAT today, and they said that my CAT CDMA USB, 'works throughout Thailand'.

On visa runs in the past, this held true, down toward Ranong from Phuket, it worked all the way to the border checkpoint and perhaps a little beyond as the final CAT cell tower receded into the distance.

But that far up north, anyone using such devices with acceptable results (webmail & moderately functional skype)?