Johnniey

23 minutes ago, Mitkof Island said:

if your unwilling to learn even basic Thai why in the heck are you in a foreign country where you understand nothing going on around you. That would drive me nuts. Seen too many lost foreigners over the years spending their days lost and disoriented. Sounds like a living hell.

Right on! And your posts lighten up my day

It's a sign from God.

Get up at 5am  and do some prayer and meditation,  enhancing your spiritual condition,  while  eradicating your anger and resentment.

1 minute ago, NickJ said:

The train never ends...Best answer,  Don't ever go.

Isaan parents greeting the new family pet. A living, Breathing. friendly...Atm machine.

Nurture it. Smile.  they flourish on empathy. and fake features of respect. HOWEVER.... when they mature. they need to be dealt with in the harshest terms. 

Sadly. there terms have lessened a bit with the Internet. 

There are some very nice idarn parents, very very  nice.  It's the  ones the same age as them,  dressed in  chang shirts and wearing a Buddha amulet who say aroi aroi, while laughing that are the  ones who need to wise up.

7 minutes ago, sead said:

Should i read this ironically?

Read it from someone who had lived here over three decades  and seen a lot.

The lonely old guys who die  so lonely,  with 6  people at their funeral.

The guys who need their wives to order their dinner.

The ones  that are verbally raped,  when by themselves.

7 minutes ago, atyclb said:

hire an interpreter and impress him by discussing genetically modified bananas and watermelon. ask him why or why not he feels the way he does about it. ask him pro's vs con's

Learn the language, not doing so  is the number one reason they won't like him.

Imagine if you had a daughter,  who took a Saudi Arabian home,  he had lived in your country for  say 2  years and couldn't speak your language,  but instead made  silly smiles and said, sanook, sabai  and poom pui  every 10  minutes.

14 hours ago, Mitkof Island said:

And where exactly did you find your lovely girlfriend ? I think that might explain your problems.

How so?

Lazy girls come from all backgrounds.

7 hours ago, anthos said:

My friend has spent enogh long years here to be aware of the worst. So it's too late to hurt feelings.

We rather expect some good humour which this forum is famous for ).

 

 

Why the need to impress her parents? They will most likely despise him, whatever he does.

23 minutes ago, JackThompson said:

 

The original issue was PR, which is difficult to obtain here, relative to most other locales, for those who are married to a local.  A PR does not grant the right to own property - a feature of Thailand which is, in my view, a good idea, as it allows Thais to retain control of their own country.  Given PR and Citizenship are nearly equally difficult for those married to a local, one might as well go for Citizenship.

 

Some "rights only come with citizenship," though PR-holders do have rights not afforded to those on "Non Immigrant" type visas - most importantly, in this context, "not being gone for over a year" is enough to retain the right to continue staying here.  

 

I do not like the sound of what you are implying as to who people are "hooked up" with.  If a "lowly" Thai's husband is booted, are their feelings of loss, or their children's, any less painful than the feelings of the daughter of a wealthy investment-banker?  Whose life and family will suffer more harm over all?  If the foreigner's wife passes, and any Thai children he has are grown, what then?  Start life over somewhere else at 60+?  That is the point of this particular thread, IMO - the potential destruction of families by not giving PR to long-stay-married (for years) relatives. 

Actually, many years ago the laws like foreigners not being able to own land was due to the Japanese buying lots of land in Bangkok. What I mean is that because of the poverty in this country, many poor women would marry for money and businessmen would abuse that if they could buy land.

If someone is over 60 and has Thai citizens dependent on him/her, then it is very easy to get a visa, even if the wife/husband dies.

Thailand is easy to navigate once you've been here for a while and know how to play the game.

1 minute ago, KMartinHandyman said:

The answer to the o/p seems pretty obvious that with permanent status would come "rights" and they don't want non-native people to supplant Thai nationals. It would take no time at all for foreigners to be controlling the country if they were allowed to own and invest independently rather than the current 49/51% business system,jobs reserved for Thais and no freehold rights.
They are the ultimate in protectionists and like it that way.

Rights only comes with citizenship. 

Maybe you haven't  noticed but most foreigners that come here are hooked up with Sakon Nakon Suki or Khon Kaen Lek.  There has to be some restrictions like having a job, which IMHO, is perfectly reasonable if someone wants Citizenship of a country.

Are you trying to say Thailand doesn't give people citizenship?

7 hours ago, JackThompson said:

 

I would guess you have not studied what it takes to obtain citizenship in most other countries.  Let's start with the country where I have citizenship - the USA.  If you were a non-citizen of the USA, and married a US-citizen, you could have a green-card (permanent residence), including the right to work anywhere (or multiple jobs), within 6 months tops.   At that point, the only significant benefit to citizenship is the right to vote in elections.  If this is important to you, it can be obtained by attending some classes and filing paperwork - nothing close to needing the level of approval that is required here (the very highest levels). 

 

A person granted a green-card in the USA can divorce, loose their job, etc, and not loose their permanent-residency.   Further, any child a non-citizen born in the US are granted citizenship at birth - even if both parents are in the country illegally at the time of their birth. 

 

You might also want to look at Paraguay.  PR requires US $5K in the bank only - no wife or children needed, after which citizenship available in 3 years; you don't even need to stay in the country in the interim.  Most countries in Central and South America provide very easy paths to PR and Citizenship, relative to Thailand.  I'll leave it to others to comment on Europe, which I have not researched.

Well, as I'm already married, I couldn't get a green card easily, even if I wanted one.

Here, all I need is to work 3 years, paying tax on over 40k a month, live here 5 years and a few other simple things. 

In my country, UK, I believe one needs to pass a language test even if married to a local.

I looked into citizenship for Australia a few years back but very difficult. 

OK, so there are some exceptions like Paraguay but I'm sure there's reasons for that.

I'll stick to what I say regarding getting citizenship here, it's easy when married to a Thai. These days, one doesn't even need to be able to be fluent, or pass a test in Thai.

You should have applied for citizenship like most foreigners in other countries, you keep talking about, do.

Assuming you worked here, it would have been easy. If you don't work here, then it's pretty obvious why you can't get PR purely based on marrying a Thai. Think about it, any old guy could come here with little cash , marry Buriram Noi, adopting her kids and feel entitled to rights.

I've been married 29 years, lived here longer, have 4 grown up kids(my own) and know my rights. As I work here, I can get citizenship easier than any other country I know of.

9 minutes ago, transam said:

That letter is now on line to print off...

Ok, thanks a lot!

On 03/10/2016 at 7:02 AM, meatboy said:

i used key visathailand of pattaya,they will do everything for you,no back and fo to bangkok all is taken care of,cost 5,000bht.

to get in touch talk to DARREN.

I had to got to the British embassy to get a letter to show to immigration. Does this service do that to?

On 18/10/2016 at 1:28 PM, Bantex said:

Apply for your passport in the next couple of months as the UK issuing office is quieter at this time of year but gets busier from January onwards as most people start booking their summer holidays and start applying for new passports.

I applied for a new UK passport for my son in December last year and it was back in Bangkok in 11 days.

11 days, wow, seems too good to be  true. Mine was 18 days at around the same time and I thought that fast.

On 03/10/2016 at 7:48 AM, joeyg said:

I stuck mine in an envelope and gave it to the US Embassy at their outreach program at the Amari Hotel in Pattaya. $50 processing and I had it back in 3 weeks.  Also Americans on retirement "visas" don't need to keep any cash in a Thai Bank via the Amity treaty.  Doesn't get easier than that.  How much do UK Expats have to deposit ? Is it the 800,000 bhat?

What on earth are you on about? This is about UK passports.

12 minutes ago, Mitkof Island said:

answer: because most foreigners are trouble. I keep a safe distance. Most of my friends are Thais. I moved to Thailand to live with Thais not other foreigners. YUCK!

are you drunk?

btw, are you single? nice track there.

3 hours ago, kenk24 said:

 

Back in the 70s & 80s, that was about all they had - Nescafe, Instant... the coffee explosion is a pretty recent phenomena, maybe the last ten years or so. My nearest Tesco does not have much selection of coffee, but there is a great little specialty store that has great beans... 

More like 20 years. Also, there's always been the gafae boran, bag coffee which is the Thai equivalent and very good.

11 minutes ago, Mitkof Island said:

Sorry not stupid enough to ever hire, date or marry a hooker.

That's a pretty stupid thing to say.

Nothing wrong with hiring a hooker if nobody is hurt. I've met many here and some in Scotland who are very nice, decent human beings.

On 17/11/2016 at 11:58 AM, Peterw42 said:

Westerners who buy a great big pickup trucks to drive to BigC once a week and immigration once a year.

It's only the small members that buy these trucks. Buriram Noi and her daily, "you big much more Somchai" is a slightly more expensive alternative that satisfies the inadequacy as well.

Buy gold with it all. Save it for a few months then change to dollars, then wait another few months and buy baht.

Get a job here in the meantime.

I find it more comforting to have a blanket

Seriously, it reminds me of my home country and I get a better sleep but usually around 24C.

3 minutes ago, OMGImInPattaya said:

It finally came out...you're one of those anti-fiat currency we should pay for everything with shavings of gold economic knuckle-draggers...not even gonna engage.

erm you just did engage.

On 27/10/2016 at 9:26 AM, Farang99 said:

 

When I came here to stay in October 1998 they were about to raise the financial requirement for retirement from 400K to 800K. Those on 400 K were grandfathered, but I was two days too late!

Tough shit.

Strange, I was showing 200k in the bank in 2005, when they raised it to 400k. I thought they did the retirement at the same time. It certainly wasn't 1998.

I'd recommend any young people here to work in Thailand like me then retire in their home country, like I plan to, well at least half the year.

The pound was lower when I came here. 

When it was strong, they had it good, so did the many of the Isarn female population who suddenly got very expensive houses built for them, and of course a new pick-up truck

On a selfish note, I'm happy as I'm going to transfer cash to my UK bank to pay back the last 10 years of voluntary contributions. Also, my mother will benefit as I can send more back to her as will my daughter who is studying in Wales. 13k GBP a year seems much lower now :)

2 minutes ago, Jbsentral6677 said:

This topic has been becoming hot, good.

Screenshot_2016-10-31-00-08-44

Why is that good?

What exactly do you want to ask?

Did you click on my link? Thailand is 16th equal in the world.

BTW, are you Chinese?