Balance

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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!!!!