Balance

I was in Thailand between 2011-2016 on retirement visa. My Thai wife and I moved to the U.S. for six years, coming back a few weeks ago. I have applied for a marriage visa and will get a 90 stamp at the end of this month. Can I renew my now expired Thai licenses, or do I need to start over? Can I apply after I get the 90 stamp? I am not sure this is temporary marriage visa or just an extension of stay on the exempt tourist visa I got at the airport, which was extended for 60 days already. Thanks

My wife (Thai national) and I are returning to Thailand next month. I tried to get a STV 90 day tourist visa from the Thai Consulate in Los Angeles. However, the e-visa application required a field for my departure date, and I do not have a departure date or a ticket out since we are relocating semi-permanently. So, I am going Visa exempt and will get a marriage visa when we get there.

My wife and I are returning to Chiang Mai after 6 years in California. The U.S. Department of State has a page that confirms that U. S. citizens are Visa Exempt and can get a Visa upon landing. I tried for over two months to get a STV 90 day Tourist Visa from the Thai Consulate in Los Angeles. It was all to no avail. I am sure that the UK is on the visa exempt list, but the best bet is to check for your Foreign Service folks and confirm it.

To "explain" what is going on here will be the subject of at least 100 books in the next few years. Some cliff notes: America was founded on the belief that the country belonged to white northern European men and only white property owing men could vote. Slavery was not only at the economic center of country, but also served to control the slaves through the plantation system. Over the past 70 years, or so the demographics began to change. This started in California where the large growers could not find enough 'white' field hands and lobbied to have the immigration laws changed for the agricultural interests to allow Mexican labor free assess to the border to work the west coast fields. The population measurements clearly meant that by 2040 whites would in the minority, and that it would be impossible for the GOP to win national or even state-wide elections. So, why did they think that Latinas, Blacks, and Asians would only vote for the Democrats? Largely, this was based on a combination of paranoia of "other people coming to get to get us" used my GOP candidates to scare their base and the reemergence of a classic color based racism. Soon, race defined what you could do, how much money you could make, where you could go to school, etc. Perhaps 30 years ago the Republican party decided to make the fear of others the only thing that mattered in running elections. Enter Donald Trump, a longtime grifter and paranoid narcist who understood how to organize the 25% of the republicans at the fringe of the right wing; remnants of the Kul Klux Klan, the American First Fascists left over from WWII and other groups with similar ideologies. The GOP decided that if they could not win voters and there were more of the 'other voters' that them they would simply rig the electoral system and rule as a minority. They are trying to convince their folks that American should not have been a democracy in the first place. This process was played out throughout Trumps tenure as President. When he lost the 2020 election, the Big Lie was created to convince his base that he did not lose - it was stolen. In the American Courts this has not worked, and Trump and his folks are facing trials that could put them all in prison for sedition, and other charges. That is where we are right now. My Thai wife come back to the states in 2016 to meet the 5 year residency requirement so she can get my Social Security survivors' benefits. We are moving back to Chiang Mai in Setember.

Posted from California. The U.S. spends lots of money posting speed limits, and you have to take tests, etc. There exist lots highway patrol cars but I do not see many on the highways. In most places highway speed limits are posted as 70 MPH (115kph). On a typical 4 lane highway, speeds in the left lane are generally 85-90 MPH; the next lane, 75, the third lane 55-65. Tractor/trailer rigs speed limit is 55 MPH and is generally obeyed because of GPS monitoring by the companies and the risk of loosing a $100k/year job if you get caught. I drove for Lyft in San Francisco for 18 moths before COVID and it appeared to be a much more dangerous place drive that highways. I rode a Honda 150 PCX in Chiang Mai for 3 years and the most dangerous thing I encountered was sand on commercial driveways.

YUP!!!!

Nothing necessarily goes wrong if you are physically and cognitively able to operate the motorbike and PAY VERY CLOSE ATTENTION to what is going on around you.

Could be handled in a very simple way, but amending the DUI laws to state that if a driver leaves the scene of an accident, they will be charged with DUI, or the charge for leaving the scene will carry the same jail time as a DUI.

I don't think that any of the "covid" insurance plans cover anything but covid. The issue is that covid does not kill you; in is not the cause of your death. pneumonia, kidney failure, liver failure, among others are the causes of death. So what happens if you die of pneumonia, and you had asthma, an underlying condition? Three guesses and the first two don't count.

I have had three COVID vaccinations and will be getting a 4th in about 2 months. The chances of me contracting COVID at all are very small and hospitalization is virtually never necessary. The recommended policies noted above are NOT available to people over 74.

I got a retirement visa in 2011 based on my Social Security statement that showed I received more than 65,000 Tb each month. Each month the money was transferred to Bangkok Bank in New York showing my account number in Thailand. The money was almost always deposited with 2-3 days.

Another brilliant statement completely devoid of meaning.

According to the WHO, the U.S. is 55th world-wide regarding the percentage of people with two jabs.

So, the government has announced a public policy goal of attracting "rich people" to visit and presumably to retire in Thailand. What they fail to understand is that rich people do NOT like to pay more than other people. If this goes the wrong way, Thailand can kiss the rich people goodby.

Can you capture the water that is leaking and use it for something? If not and you don't find a solution, there is always the option of shutting off the water into the tank, then running the tank down as low as you can. If you can find a decent plumber or someone from the tank company have them redo the internal connection and make sure that the external connection is made for the internal one. A matched pair, so to speak. Of course I do not know if the tank is on the ground or 25 feet in the air. Best of luck.

Having asthma or not is beside the point. COVID is a repertory virus and most deaths are do to the lungs simply failing. So, there is less much less risk in getting a shot and have a few side effects that getting COVID, full stop. FYI, I have moderate asthma and have twice daily hits from my inhaler. I got vaccinated 5 months ago (we are living in the US right now). I had some side effects that lingered for a couple of weeks and then was fine.