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Balance

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Everything posted by Balance

  1. Two things help me: 1. About four hits from my pipe with Gigabud (from Prik Pot) in it; 2. Spend 30-60 minutes doing yoga stretching and strength exerices. You can certainly do both. Great sleep.
  2. Just create another ATM account (no cost) and sign up for internet banking. You can then transfer money from the non-ATM account (it is more secure according to the bank) to the ATM account. U.S. SS transfers your money to the BKB in New York and the branch forwards it to BKB in Bangkok. The money arrives in my account the same day that SS sends it.
  3. 1. What is the "correct" size, and how is it determined. Is it weighed before serving to th customer? 2. How did the owner know where the customer lived? 3. The owner claimed that the customer's post directly caused a deline in customers. I assume that she had fewer customers and assumed that it was do to the post. Wishing that something would be true does not make it true. Advise to the owner: Get a gram scale and publish the service size in all places that customers would look at. You could have your staff to to other resuturants and buy some food and then weigh it. This will tell you if you serving less or more that your competitors.
  4. Yes, thousands do operate every day until they don't and people get hurt. I think it is fair to say that Thailand does not have a good record of maintaining things: housing, commercial buildings and airliners, roads, etc. Mechanical things that are in continuous usage have to be maintained, and if this is proactive maintence, it means inspections; taking things apart and making sure that tollerances are being met, xraying critical high stress areas for cracks that cannot be seen, and proactively replacing parts at regular intervals. Next is the difficult task of drafting written maintence shedules and assigning responsibility to employes to see that they are carried out and that supervisors take their oversight responsibilites seriously. Many of these steps obiously did not happen at Don Mueany.
  5. If the money spent on corruption was directed at the construction, people could get a safe house and it would most likely not cost more.
  6. My Social Security transfers go from the SS adminiatration to Bangkok Bank in New York and then to Thailand. Since the bank knows where the transfer came from, that should be a sufficient Source of Payment that could be matched up with the annual annual SS benefits letter that the embasey refuses to acknowledge. The trick now is to get the bank to issue a letter to that effect.
  7. Airbus is owned by a number of countries and private interests. But the United States does not have any ownership and hence can not sell one to the Thai Air Force. If the artical was implying that the Air Force wants the U.S. to buy it for them, or provide financing, it is poorly written, and the U.S. Airline companies would have something to say about it. Bottom line, it would never happen.
  8. Are you already married, and if so where did this take place?
  9. When I got back in September, I was told by immigration that since the consulate would not certify the the SS benefits letter, they would not accept the payment letter as authentic, and therefore you had to have money in the Fixed account. Later, I was told that after one year on the marriage visa I would have proof that I get money every month and that the I did not have to have to keep money in a Fixed account. But understand, these rules change weekly and they are not published anywhere. They also vary with the immigration office you use. I would go ask the immigration office.
  10. I was here on a retirement visa from 2011-2016. My wife and I got married in 2016 and then she applied for a Green Card at the Embassy. This was granted in July 2016. We then moved back to the states for 5 years which turned into six. This was to satisfy the five year joint residency requiremet for my wife to be my beneficery when I die. We returned to Thailand at the end of Septemer 2022. I came in visa exempt and they stamped a 30 day visa. I got a 30 day extention and at the same time started the process for a O based on marriage. In Chiang Mai, the first thing you have to do is deposit TB 400K in a bank (mine is BKB). There is no exception to this, save maybe if you are on an elite visa coming in. You then get a certication letter from the bank that you have the money in a "Fixed" Account." My current understanding that you have to leave the money in the bank for one year, After that there is no requirement since you have proved that you get at least TB40K every month. But it could change. As you wind through the process, make sure to bring your Thai wife with you every time you go to immigration. If she is familiar with the process, let her do most of the talking. They are trying to confirm that you are not in a "sham" marriage. The reason for the 5 year joint residency requirement is due to thousands of Vietnamese women paid Americans to marry them and get them to the states where they disapeared. I really am not sure why the Thais are so concerned about this, but money is at the root. Someone at Thai immigration told me that they would prefer if I applied for a retirement visa again (more money required in the bank). When we finally got our home vist from immigration, a lot of time was spent explaining a new rule, that I still do not understand, If you have no experience doing this, I would recommend that you have a law firm or other entitiy walk you through it and do all of the paperwork. It will run you TB20k to 30K. I used Siam Legal, and they got it done. Good luck
  11. Keep it simple. If you can, get an invoice for the amount you need to transfer. Keep in mind that Thai banks generally froun on sending hard currency. I had a sea freight bill that had to be paid to get personal effects out of customs warehouse. Do it at your Thai bank. Bangkok bank probably has the most experience.
  12. Your wife would have to have a 10 year green card to work in the U.S. It took me 4 months to get one for her at the U.S. Embasy in bangkok. USCIS would not give her an initial two year card because we have not been married for two years before going to the U.S.
  13. My comments are based on my recent experience with Immigration in Chiang Mai. Yes, you only need ThB 40,000 per month, but first you have to deposit ThB 300,000 in a fixed account. I lived in Thailand for beginning in 2011 on a retirement visa. Then, the couselate would issue a letter that my U.S. Social Security benefit was a certain amount (greater that 65,000 per month, so I did not have to put 800,000 in the bank. We then moved to the U.S. after getting my wife a greencard and were there for six years. We returned two months ago and I came in on an exempt 30 day tourist visa as my retirement visa had expired. The first thing that was required is that I deposit 300,000 in a fixed account. But the important thing is that the process was easier because I came back in on the tourist visa. I have been told that generally immigration does not not look kindly on Farang getting to reduce the fixed account amount. I would also pay a good immigration law firm for an advice consultation. There is also a minimum amount of time you need to have been married and registered. And of course many of the rules change depending on where you are. Good luck.
  14. I moved to Thailand include: I married a lovely Thai women in 2014; I could swim dalily in a nice 25 meter pool 10 months a year (setting aside the burning season here in CM); I would have time to read (I converted to digital whenever available becase I can't handle print in 9 point type, or 10 point for that matter, and they are cheaper.); Thai food; and finally and very important, being able to get therapudic Thai massage three hours a week. I can do all of those things and more because the only social media I use is gmail and Line (at the insistence of my wife), and going to visiting, in person, with friends. History will record that Facebook and the others did more to damage being social than anything I can think of.
  15. No, I am not. But given the too bad things to do, it is most likely the lessor of the two. The point I was trying to make is that the cheap booze has to be done away with.
  16. Get rid of all of the cheap rot-gut being MANUFACURED in Thailand and imported. Why? (1) to start with; It is probably responible for a over half of traffic deaths and serious injuries as well as domestic violence. It is not called rot-gut for nothing as it rips up your stomach, not to mention the damage done to kidneys, liver, and intestines, to name a few organs. Replace the rot-gut in the shops selling it with regulated and TESTED weed under 25% THC. Price it under going street prices. Weed does not cause an known problems with the body outside of alergic rare allergic reactions. It also slows down most drivers. No, I do not know how it does this, perhaps by reducing competitive urges. The government saves billions in health care costs, gets rid of truly dangerous booze, and initiates the first step in common sense regulation. At the same time it leaves in place canibus shops that generate tax revenue and create jobs. Just some thoughts
  17. Does the use of the income method after the first year also apply to a marriage visa? Does it make a difference if Bangkok Bank could issue a letter stating that I had five years of monthly payments from U.S. Social Security before my Thai wife and I went back to the states for 5 years to satisfy requirement for her to receive survivor's benefits?
  18. I seriously doubt that the government and private companies pay the same salaries regardless of where they live or what the cost of living is in the area. It does not work that way in the U.S. The only hourly rate I know of for sure in our massage person who charges TB200/hour and comes to our home.
  19. If the husband dies, the French <deleted> should pay her ThB 30m, and they should serve 10 years in the worst of the Thai prisons, though I doubt they would last two weeks in gen pop.
  20. I did it about 8 years ago through the Manila folks but I was on SS and had already had Part B and was reinstating it. The payments were deducted from my SS benefits. Without the payment coming from SS benefits, I am pretty sure the payment would have to come from a direct U.S. bank transfer. I believe the FBU can do that but you would have to give them your routing info and your account number and I am not sure they would want the responsibility. Bank wire transfers and pulls from your account, not pushes, which means that someone would have to have a PoA to deal with SS. The FBU can do it all if you start start taking your SS benefits.
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