TerraplaneGuy

1 hour ago, Martyp said:

Aetna Thailand is one of the companies on the tgia website 

 

https://longstay.tgia.org/home/companiesoa

 

They should know all about the immigration requirement and be able to provide a certificate if you don’t already have it. Check the first page of your written policy documents package. Talk to them about renewing your policy early before you go to Immigration or about syncing the dates.

Thanks I’ll ask them.  Meanwhile does anyone have experience extending an O-A at Chang Wattana recently and being asked for this certificate?

1 minute ago, ubonjoe said:

Not sure how it would work. If you have a existing policy the may be able to adjust your policy date to fit your extension date. I recall a report of one of the companies being able to that by crediting the last month to the new one.

 

I think that requirement was meant to be for applying for a new OA visat at a embassy.

I think the change was only meant for applying for visas at a embassy and entry to the country using one issued on or after October 31st. But some how many offices think it is for extensions.

A number of third-party websites do say this medical insurance requirement applies to extensions as well as the original OA visa.

16 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Does your health insurance meet the requirements to do the application?

 

More info is here. https://longstay.tgia.org/home/companiesoa

You will need a certificate for the proof. 

When is you extension due?

Thanks.  I don't do my extension until January.  Do you know how long the certificate remains fresh?  By the way I already see a possible problem because my policy year starts in March but my extension expires in early February.  So the policy I can have certified will expire about a month after my extension date.  I won't be able to show insurance all the way through the following year.  I wonder how they expect us to deal with this?

I note the law you quoted is strange in that it refers to "buy a Thai health insurance online" which doesn't make sense since many of us buy it at the local office in person (as I do at Aetna) and why would Immigration care how you buy it, but I suspect it's either sloppy drafting or translating.  Presumably they mean get the certificate online.  I looked at the certificate.  So I have to download the certificate and take it to Aetna and have two of their directors sign it?  What a nuisance for them (and me)!  

1 minute ago, ubonjoe said:

Did you extend a entry from a non-o visa or or a non-oa visa?

I a non-o visa you do not need to worry about having health insurance.

My original visa is Non-immigrant O-A.

I understand that it's now necessary when getting an extension of stay for retirement to show proof of health insurance (minimum B40k oupatient, B400K inpatient coverage).  I go to Chaeng Wattana for my extensions.  If this requirement is now in effect (please advise if it's not) can anyone please tell me exactly what documentation is required?  Do you have to bring a full policy document, or is a coverage card good enough?  I have Aetna (formerly BUPA) Thailand health insurance and on their phone app I can display all my coverage details but I assume Immigration wants some paper.   

On 11/28/2019 at 3:36 PM, mngmn said:

I cared enough to leave Thailand for good. And yes before the TV dogs start baying, I'm certain no one misses me or my money.  It was a personal decision to improve my life expectancy.

Understandable decision.  Can I ask where you moved to?  I've been thinking of leaving Thailand for the same reason (been here 8 years, air just gets worse) but it seems there's no place in Asia that has significantly better air, other than Japan and Taiwan.  I use the waqi.info  site which gives easy-to-see 12 month AQ history for everywhere.   (I don't trust the Malaysia info, which looks quite green, because they only recently started monitoring PM 2.5 and it still looks dubious to me).

On 11/23/2019 at 2:23 PM, Shengen said:

I have air purifiers in every room of my house. I've tried several brands. Most larger air purifiers come with the humidifier option. When purchasing you need to consider the size of the room you want to use it, some are suitable for 10m² and others for 25m², etc. Also, have the salesman show you how to open it up and clean it. Some are completely washable whereas others you need to buy disposable filters for. LG is the easiest to buy filters for as they always have them in stock at the Lg shop in the mall. I've found certain LG models, Hitachi and sharp easy to clean. All the pieces are numbered and it's written what you wash with water and what you just brush dry. One older LG model (I gave it away) was overly complicated to clean and I had trouble closing it, it opened like a cassette player. So the best thing is to test it out in the shop. I really think they make a difference in improving air quality. My filters are always looking really dusty so I'm sure it does something.

Thanks.  Which LG model do you think is good?  Also, what mall is your LG shop in?

2 hours ago, Captor said:

Why is the humidity increasing when starting the a/c? It should be decreasing when the air is getting colder. Sounds strange. Is the a/c 100% OK and sift proof in all 3 rooms? Sounds like humidity (warm air) comes in. Or the room itself is leaking in air from outside when the air pressure in the room gets lower than the outside as someone here mentioned.

Aircon apparently sometimes increases humidity because the cooling process condenses water and then the fan blows it back into the room.  That’s why some systems give the dry option which shuts the fan off when the target temperature is reached.   But basic systems keep blowing all the time.   

But as I mentioned. In my case I don’t think humidity is the main issue causing an increase in particle readings because my aircon doesn’t change the humidity so drastically as to account for the big change in particles.  

37 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

That is not a normal system in Thailand.  Are you sure it does not draw air from outside the room as sounds like a central air system which would involve ducts of cooled air.

It’s not a central (whole building) system.  It’s a condo tower and each condo unit has its own system.  My compressor is outside on my back deck.  It serves only my unit.  What I am wondering is whether possibly it draws air from one room to the other within my unit.  It shouldn’t because the whole idea is each room has its own control so you can cool one room while leaving the others uncooled.  And that does work.  But I wonder if somehow there is air leakage within the system as between rooms, allowing dust to move from one to another.  That would be a fault because it would also impede the cooling process and I haven’t noticed that.      

51 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

You have a very small BR of 10 square meters with a fan on all the time, an air cleaner and and air conditioner?  What size is the air conditioner might I ask?  Where are you located?  Much better to test meter against outside air that is being measured and reported than inside buildings.

 

 

I don’t know how to measure the aircon.  It’s one big system that serves 3 rooms, each separately controlled but pumped from a big outdoor compressor.    The outside air is not the issue although I measure it too (these days it’s usually around 45 which matches the AQI website showing around 130 for my area, Chong Nonsi). The two scales are different as you probably know (the monitor shows raw particle data).   The monitor works well.  

7 minutes ago, Beggar said:

Many aircon filters will not work for very small particles. But recently I saw a new Samsung aircon with Hepa filters but extremely expensive.

But where are the particles coming from?  The purifier had the particles down around zero and then the aircon seems to have ADDED more.  That suggest the aircon is bringing in outside air.  If it’s not, it wouldn’t matter if the aircon has a HEPA filter (which I’m sure it doesn’t, just standard filters).  The room would remain clean if the aircon is just re-circulating and cooling the air.  

10 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

Actually 10 is not that bad (AQI 42 good) - suspect it has more to do with air circulation than anything else - with AC on air is moving much more than just the air cleaner (assume that is AP-12 rather than 1).  Try different positions in room for the meter.

I do find a reading of zero a bit suspect - have you used outdoors and checked with what other stations are reading?  

I don’t think that’s it.   I didn’t mention but I have a separate fan on all the time at a constant level and the aircon doesn’t add that much to the overall turbulence.    As for zero reading it is accurate.  In the sense that of course it can’t really be zero but it’s close enough.   I’ve tested this monitor in many other buildings and it normally never goes down below about 7 BUT it does go to zero in a rare office building that is known to have exceptional AQ.    The important point I think is not zero vs 1 or 3 but the difference between non-aircon readings and those with aircon, which are very different in my condo.  

10 minutes ago, Beggar said:

You say that the humidity rises when you switch on the aircon. This mostly happens at the beginning when the aircon is still wet from the last usage. At this time it might also blow out a lot of dust and other things. But what happens if the aircon is on for a longer time? 

The test I did above had the aircon on for about 40 minutes and at the end the AQ was bad (over 10).  So either you're right that it blew out dust in the first few minutes and it was so much that even after 40 minutes AQ was still bad (if so, strange because I don't notice any big dust blow-out and I'm quite allergic), or it continued to blow out a moderate amount of dust for a longer time; either way it seems strange because I've been using this aircon regularly and as stated just had the filters cleaned.

I posted this on another thread but this is probably a better one so hoping to get comments. 

Has anyone noticed that running aircon impairs AQ?  Here's what I found:

I recently bought a Hatari HT-AP1 purifier.  In my bedroom (about 10 sq m) it reduces PM 2.5 to zero running the fan at the lowest level (1).  But when I run the aircon, PM 2.5 goes up to 10 or more within 30 minutes or so, with the Hatari still on the same fan level.  When I turn the aircon off, PM 2.5 goes back to zero.  I changed nothing else in the room besides the aircon.  I've repeated this experiment several times and the results are the same.

The only other variable I could think of was humidity, which I know can fool the particle monitor.  I noticed the humidity did rise with aircon on, from 61% to 66%.  But that doesn't seem enough to account for such a big jump in PM 2.5.  AND when I turned off the aircon, the PM 2.5 dropped to zero while the humidity was still at 64%.  So that doesn't seem to be the culprit. (BTW I'm using a SNDWAY 2.5 monitor which has proved quite accurate in many settings)

I've read that aircon does not bring in outside air.  My aircon is a supposedly good Daikin system, with the compressor etc. outside on the deck and the indoor cooling vents flush against the upper walls of my rooms.  Just had the filters cleaned a few days ago (before the above tests).

Does anyone understand why this happens?

Getting back to indoor AQ:  Has anyone noticed that running aircon impairs AQ?  Here's what I found:

I recently bought a Hatari HT-AP1 purifier.  In my bedroom (about 10 sq m) it reduces PM 2.5 to zero running the fan at the lowest level (1).  But when I run the aircon, PM 2.5 goes up to 10 or more within 30 minutes or so, with the Hatari still on the same fan level.  When I turn the aircon off, PM 2.5 goes back to zero.  I changed nothing else in the room besides the aircon.  I've repeated this experiment several times and the results are the same.

The only other variable I could think of was humidity, which I know can fool the particle monitor.  I noticed the humidity did rise with aircon on, from 61% to 66%.  But that doesn't seem enough to account for such a big jump in PM 2.5.  AND when I turned off the aircon, the PM 2.5 dropped to zero while the humidity was still at 64%.  So that doesn't seem to be the culprit. (BTW I'm using a SNDWAY 2.5 monitor which has proved quite accurate in many settings)

I've read that aircon does not bring in outside air.  My aircon is a supposedly good Daikin system, with the compressor etc. outside on the deck and the indoor cooling vents flush against the upper walls of my rooms.  Just had the filters cleaned a few days ago (before the above tests).

Does anyone understand why this happens?

Any updates re Chaeng Wattana?   Has anyone done a recent extension of stay there without having filed a TM30 (other than people who never left home all year so weren't required to)?

Any updates re Chaeng Wattana?   Has anyone done a recent extension of stay there without having filed a TM30?

Just researched a bit about the Indonesian fires causing smoke in Phuket, seems it's an annual problem around September.  Although it still doesn't look as bad as the bad weeks in BKK.  Only went into the "red" (AQI over 150) one day this September in Phuket town.   It might have been worse at beaches according to the official quoted in The Star. 

 https://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2019/09/23/thai-popular-resort-island-phuket-shrouded-in-haze-caused-by-indonesian-fires

16 hours ago, Old Croc said:

...

However, it is Thailand, and people do burn rubbish indiscriminately at times which can cause temporary localized problems. Also, as stated, smoke from the Indonesian fires can sometimes drift this far north and cause problems for a few days. This has happened a few times in my 10 years living here.

 

Rubbish burning seems to be the AQ wild card throughout Thailand. I’ve heard the same about Koh Samui.  If you have bad luck with neighbors they can smoke you out regularly.  That’s the small scale stuff but it can be bad.  Then there’s large scale waste incinerators which are also bad.   How about around Karon and Kata, any reports that burning garbage is a problem?

15 minutes ago, JimGant said:

...

Kind of a strange setup -- no tax incentive to earn more than 20000 bt in interest, since if you cross 20000, the whole amount now gets taxed. Would seem smarter to just have a 20000 exemption on all interest earned from savings accounts. Probably from the same office putting out guidance on OA visas and insurance.

I see how you conclude that but I suspect that's not what they mean.  I think they mean that if you receive more than B20,000, the amount in excess of B20,000 is taxable, not the whole amount starting from the first baht.  A literal reading could indeed suggest your interpretation but as you indicate it just doesn't make sense.  Not only would there be no incentive to earn over 20K, there would be a strong incentive NOT to.  If you're at say 19K already you'd pull your money out of interest-bearing accounts to avoid the "claw-back" that will descend if you cross over 20K. That can't have been the intention.  It's not the way tax exemptions work, and I think it's just imprecise drafting, which is certainly not unusual in Thai statutes (and I'm assuming that we're looking at an accurate translation of the Thai which may not be the case).

I'm thinking of re-locating from smoggy BKK to Phuket (on the coast somewhere) to get better air.  But there's not much historical air quality info about the island (aqicn.org only has records back to this past June).  Has anybody been monitoring it for the last couple years?  I've seen news reports that sometimes there is smoke from Sumatra that creates very bad air in Phuket.  What's the year-round air situation there?

4 hours ago, JimGant said:

... the bottom line is that one's bank interest is not tax exempt. ...

Can you tell us what your authority is for saying there is no exemption from income tax? Mahjongguy says that too but also gives no authority. Whereas the authorities I cited above state clearly that there is such an exemption, for the first B20,000.  I suggest you look at the Sherrings link I gave: https://sherrings.com/interest-income-personal-tax-thailand.html 

You can see they clearly distinguish between 3 kinds of interest income:   1. exempt from income tax; 2. not exempt from income tax and there has been no deduction (i. e. withholding); and 3. not exempt and tax has been withheld at 15%.  So the first category is what I'm talking about, and I believe it's the first B20K, which is backed up lower down the page where they talk about the new rules for savings account interest.  And they refer to the legislation that I linked above, and that also states there is a B20K exemption (with no mention of withholding).  So if you you think this is all wrong, I'd just like to know your authority for that.

Could be the Aircon in which case they must have quite a filter.  Don’t think it’s the traffic because earlier I compared the reading in my condo, which is just down the block, with no Aircon on.  Humidity and particle reading were similar to the street even though I’m 24 floors up and farther back from the street than this office lobby, and there’s a much better seal from outside air in my condo than this lobby.  I do think the lower lobby humidity (maybe resulting from the aircon) must be a factor.   

I understand humidity affects readings and not sure there’s a good way to factor that in.   I was just outside and got a 2.5 particle reading of 30 micrgm on the SNDWAY.  Coming into an office building lobby it dropped to 7!  Huge change.  I don’t see air purifiers but I do see humidity dropped on the SNDWAY from 75% to 59%. I wonder if that’s what accounts for the big reading drop.  

1 hour ago, JimGant said:

The 20k exemption is exemption from withholding, not exemption from the Thai personal income tax. The Thai to English translation was incomplete in excluding the the word "withholding" between tax and exemption. Mahjongguy has already nailed this. 

Do you have a link to what Mahjongguy wrote?  What you say appears to conflict with the sources I quoted above.