DoctorB

On 8/24/2022 at 8:54 AM, ubonjoe said:

He was applying for one based upon retirement.  It requires 90 days of medical insurance.

Not in London it doesn't. I queried this by email and was advised it was acceptable to upload a blank sheet. I actually uploaded a screen grab from the visa application site stating insurance was required for O-A and O-X (not imm-O) and was given the visa in just over 24 hours. This was in July. Just write "Not applicable" on a sheet of paper, turn it into a .jpg file and you are good to go.

5 hours ago, RobU said:

Legalisation of cannabis is an interesting experiment with a population of 68 million people. No one knows what the outcome will be. I think that other countries such as the USA and UK will be watching and taking note. To see what effect it has on 'law and order', addiction to stronger drugs, road safety (Yes I know its Thailand) and population control. It's almost as if the members of the WHO have taken part in a lottery (wealthy counries and countries of a lower civilisation level excluded) which Thailand won

I doubt that anyone in the UK will be taking note. Legalisation can only come in the UK by a vote of MPs in the Commons and that will never happen. None of them will have the courage to speak in favour. It's interesting to note that the states in the US that have decriminalised are those where the electorate can mandate a referendum on the matter. Referenda are strictly reserved for constitutional matters in the UK.

8 hours ago, rebbu said:

Correct. I used the service last December. Irish national & I applied for a non O based on marriage. 

Very easy to use Web portal & a quick & efficient turn around. 

Agreed. I too found it easy to use and got the visa in just over 24 hours.

10 hours ago, Jumbo1968 said:

Not sure what Thai Consulates are open, the Hull website said permanently closed.

http://www.thaiconsul-uk.com

They are all closed. The only way to apply for a visa now in the UK is online. The visa, if approved, is sent to your email address as a PDF file. There is no need to send off your passport any longer.

11 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

When embassies and official consulates started issuing non-o visas back in 2020 when they opened the country again for those on retirement extensions and etc is when they put in the insurance requirements.

Before that the majority of Thai embassies and official consulates were not issuing non-o visas for retirement.

The UK seems to have been an exception in this respect. I have a string of 'O's going back to one issued by Birmingham in 2002, and the last a double entry from London in 2019. It's sad how easily a good thing gets knocked on the head. I suppose one has simply to learn to do things differently. I guess the fallback is the SETV or visa exempt and then apply in country. None of the Thai companies will sell me the required insurance anyhow at 77, only Covid cover.

2 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

If you apply for the non-o visa and then a one year extension based upon retirement no  proof of insurance will be required.

Only embassies and official Thai consulates are asking for it when applying for a non-o visa for retirement.

No doubt you are right but that the embassies should do this seems a bit odd. The application website seems pretty clear. This is worse than herding cats.

On 6/29/2022 at 5:45 PM, ubonjoe said:

That is an error on the e visa site. It is not required for a non-o visa based upon marriage.

Upload a page stating it is not required to complete the application. Others have done it and their application was approved.

Or even for the 90 day retirement 'O'. See attached screen grab from eVisa site. This clearly states,STV, OA and OX.

Does anyone have relevant recent experience on the following? The welcome page for the eVisa site now says "Health insurance(s) are required only for Special Tourist Visa (STV), and Long-Stay Visas (Non-Immigration OA and OX) applications." I am trying to apply for the 90 day 'O' based on retirement. However as part of the the application process there is a requirement to upload the policy document from a Thai insurance company for the 40,000/400,000 health cover. Is this now redundant? And what does one upload instead; a copy of the quoted eVisa statement perhaps. I will be applying to London. Any sugestion appreciated.

On 6/29/2022 at 2:17 PM, Martin Brit said:

Sir if you failed to get an evisa in the UK I fear you dont know what your doing. No offence meant. That process is so easy. Clearly states what documents you need and bank statements are not one of them. Did you fail to buy Insurance perhaps. Trust me it is a brilliant and easy facility now available to UK residents wishing to have an extended stay. Don't even have to post passport anymore. It all comes back by email couple of days. Easy peasy

With respect your information is not correct. Financial evidence  is required and this can be "e.g. bank statements, proof of earnings, sponsorship letter". On the other hand insurance is not required for a Tourist Visa.

See:

https://london.thaiembassy.org/en/publicservice/84451-tourist-visa   or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYSEuy9ipDE

Admittedly the OP is less than clear about what his visa issue actually was.

11 hours ago, proton said:

I never liked weed apart from Thai stick, resin from Morocco (zero zero), the Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan were my favourites.

Ah! Those were the days. Haven't seen anything but Skunk in UK for at least 15 years. A good bang per buck ratio but definitely lacking refinement. 

4 hours ago, overherebc said:

Over .02% of the happy stuff and it's illegal. ????

Some confusion here. The limit is 0.2% llimit snd seemingly applies to extracts, ie sweets, oils, resins etc, not the plant itself. That's not to say there won't be a lot of flipping & flopping when the legislators finally get their act together. For for now  see:

https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/blunt-truth-media-keep-getting-it-wrong-on-thai-cannabis-legalization/  or

https://www.expatden.com/thailand/cannabis-in-thailand/

Sorry if this has been done to death. The official TAT site regarding covid vaccination certificates states that they should show nationality and passport or id card number.

https://www.tatnews.org/2022/06/covid-19-vaccine-guide-for-travellers-to-thailand/

The official UK NHS Covid Vaccination Pass shows only name and date of birth. Have there been any reports of people being hassled over this? I doubt that anyone would be so particular now but one would hate to be denied boarding by over-zealous airline staff.

2 hours ago, juice777 said:

What the hell is going on 2 months ago everyone was mocking them about the 0.2 THC thing and now you can buy Kief wasn't this known before?

 

Their plan to boost Tourism is working I am thinking of getting a job so I can have  have some of this. Kief and A massage sounds good to me. 

That' s because it was badly reported. The 0.2 THC thing related to extracts; ie no high concentrate sweets, oils etc. The whole of the PLANT itself has been taken off the narcotics list and can be be used leaves, flowers, buds whatever. Happy days!

25 minutes ago, xtrnuno41 said:

This, i think, is a device for sending a file to a screen for presentation. Wouldnt know if it can send a movie with sound.

If you need to see a movie or music, you better have a bluetooth AV transmitter receiver. I just typed this in the search lazada. However i saw, it has RCA connection and not HDMI. Couldnt find a HDMI on lazada with adjustments in search.

If you just run around with those terms, i found:

iogear gw3dhdkit wireless hdmi digital kit.

Not in lazada but on internet.

And then for sale in Amazone, like 

https://www.amazon.com/IOGEAR-Wireless-Digital-Channel-GW3DHDKIT/dp/B00630WKGI

I wanted to do similar but found no clear answer. Miracast gave a poor picture and was laggy. Bluetooth is not suitable for AV. It is low bandwidth and really only suitable for audio or file transfer. Ultimately I think you will not find anything that will give you the quality of HDMI cabling though the Amazon gear does look to be an attempt at wireless HDMI.

Sorry if this has been done to death. I am proposing to apply for a non-o visa based on retirement in the UK. This will have to be through e-visa. Conventional wisdom has it that supporting documents can only be uploaded in JPG format of limited size.  I am concerned that certain of my documents will require more that one page to display all the relevant information, and JPG is basically a single page format; eg health/travel insurance schedule, bank statements, proof of pension etc. Can anyone with recent actual experience confirm whether documents  MUST be JPGs and only one page can be uploaded at each step. Is it really the case that PDFs are not acceptable for visa applications? Also, if so, what's the work around other than entering on a 30 day visa waiver?

There seems to be some confusion here. The test for monkeypox is a PCR ( polymerase chain reaction test) not an RT-PCR (reverse transcriptase PCR test per Covid) and requires samples from suspect skin lesions. By the time skin lesions have developed it seems unlikely that the patient would be in the mood for travelling much. 

5 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

The government and goons like Anutin are largely responsible for an environment of fear at this stage of the game. This is about maintaining paranoia, control, and fear. After all, you would not want the people to get too comfortable. They might take to the streets again, and show their disdain for this thoroughly toxic, and nearly useless administration. 

 

 

And the proxy monkey business will play right into that agenda. I guess the TP will now be with us for the foreseeable future. Expect a certficate from a dermatologist to say you have no suspicious rash to be added to the required documentation.

9 hours ago, John Drake said:

Smallpox vaccination is also good for monkeypox. And smallpox vaccination lasts for a lifetime, says the people below.

 

https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/clinicians/smallpox-vaccine.html

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vaccines-lifetime-idUSN0752408920071107

Good. Then those of us who were vaccinated during the 1962 Bradford smallpox outbreak should be ok. 

22 minutes ago, The Hammer2021 said:

I only know single person prices BKK - London about 600 to 700 hundred quid return.

I've been repeatedly checking LHR - BKK return and prices seem to have almost doubled since Dec 2019. Eva restart on 1 July and premium economy is being quoted at £1800 (formerly around £900). Almost all business class returns seem now to be hovering around £3000. There do seem to be some more reasonable prices in basic economy; ie only up about 50% on pre Covid. Expertflyer.com which has a facility to view cabin seating occupancy is showing very high take up in business and first class but less so in economy. Whether this indicates a fear of infection in the more confined space of economy or that the passengers are returnees rather than real  tourists is anyone's guess.

On 5/7/2022 at 8:56 AM, mikeymike100 said:

 

 

Most of it a good read, but sadly the diatribe on Roe vs Wade and abortion apart from having nothing to do with Asia or Thailand was nothing short of excrement!

It's obvious he has not taken the trouble to read even a summary of the leaked judgement, but just responded to ill- informed shock horror press reports. In brief the judgement says that abortion should never have been treated as a constitutional issue. It is an issue for the states and their elected legislatures. It says nothing about the rights of wrongs of abortion per se. It seeks to return the issue to the people and their representatives.8

6 hours ago, spambot said:

Single Entry Tourist Visa - The problem with all admin that Thailand provide is that sometimes it does not reflect the real situation - But who knows what the real situation actually is - You are right you can book and cancel - this link below goes to Agoda and can book say the period 1st June 2022 - 1st Aug 2022 for length of STV and the terms are "Pay nothing until May 30, 2022 - Free cancellation before June 01, 2022"   - Hence book - Apply for STV and cancel - Link

But why oh why does tourism now have to be so micro managed that one has to account for  one's whereabouts in advance for every day of the visit? And this is not a Covid thing but introduced with the progressive changes leading up to the move to online applications. Oh for the old private run 'consulates' that used to return your passport duly stamped by return of post. Now 4 weeks is  the recommended application period.

Can we please clarify, are we talking about the Special Tourist Visa or the Single Entry Tourist Visa here? I have been trying to get a definitive answer regarding the ordinary single entry tourist visa and typically get 2 responses; "Thailand is a popular  destination for backpackers so a booking for the full period of stay is  surely not needed" alteratively "Use Agoda to make several consecutive hotel bookings but ensure they can be cancelled as required". Why do they make everything so difficult? I guess one can try for a visa with an initial short term booking and extend if demanded (or will they just turn you down and keep the money!?).