jimmybkk

Same thing happened to me a few days ago - bought 8 chicken thighs from Tesco Lotus, came straight home, put them into a brine solution as soon as I got them home and kept them in the fridge and they never lost that rotten food smell. Hey Tesco Lotus, how about you stop selling rotten meat...!!!

Thanks for your input Mike.

Hi All,

I am in the process of renewing my British Passport and my Non Imm B visa/extension of stay expires in November. I have a few questions I'd be grateful if the TV experts can advise on:

1. When I receive my new passport am I obliged to immediately get my visa transferred into my new passport or can I carry around 2 passports and get the visa transferred when I renew my visa in November?

2. If it's Ok to carry 2 passports and wait until November, would I be able to travel overseas before then? E.g. Get the re-entry permit stamped in my new passport whilst the visa remains in my old passport?

3. If I need to transfer the visa now, is this something that can be done at any Immigration Office or does it need to happen at Chaeng Wattana?

4. The last time I was in this position (10 years ago) I did a border crossing into Cambodia carrying 2 passports and they transferred the visa into my new passport at the border. If I need to travel overseas before November is this something I could do at Don Mueang or Suvarnabhumi before I fly (i.e. get the visa transferred to my new passport and get a re-entry permit at the same time)?

Many thanks in advance.

4 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Your extension will only be done to the date your passport expires. You will have to apply for a new extension then.

That has been in effect since August of 2013.

Thank you for the prompt clarification ubonjoe. Much appreciated.

Hi All,

I am on a Non-Imm B visa and I have a work permit also. My visa/extension of stay expires at the end of this month and is in the process of being renewed/extended, as is my work permit. I am using an agent. My UK passport expires in November and my agent is telling me that the new visa/extension of stay will only be valid until the date my passport expires, and that once I get a new passport I will need to go through the whole process again, i.e, in November. Can any of the TV experts confirm if this is true?

Many thanks in advance for any advice and suggestions.

14 hours ago, james2m said:

I know this is an old post. Got any recommendations for lawyering up in BKK. The last lawyer I dealt with pursuing debtors was as proactive as a sloth. I’ve got a number of pre-dated cheques which have started bouncing so I want to get some proactive help. 

You'd better not take my word for it alone, but if you're within that 90 day deadline period I wouldn't bother with a lawyer yet. I dunno how it is in Bangkok but in Pattaya the cops told us we could make a report with them prior to the 90 days expiry and they would keep it and only file it when we instructed them to do so. If they will allow you to do so I would advise going down that route, if not then just make a prominent note in your diary of that deadline date so that you don't miss your date at the cop shop, and let the debtor know about your intentions.

Sorry, can't advise on a lawyer in Bangkok, but if the sums involved are large enough it may be worth splashing out on one of the international law firms.

Judging by the state of those legs, before you do anything I'd suggest you grab a flashlight and get under the table to get a visual on that "slate" bed. Unless you checked it out when they were installing the table and are 100% certain that it is real slate, you may be in for a nasty surprise. Cheap tables often have wood, granite or even concrete beds, and if you find that it ain't slate then any work you do on the table is just throwing good money after bad. Better to swallow your pride, accept that you've been sold a dud and move on. You can still have some fun with it but you can forget about it ever being the table of your dreams...

In the event that the bed is genuine slate and (hopefully) at least 3/4" thick and you decide it's worth persevering with, then I'd suggest you look for a company that does acid dipping to remove the old coating from the legs. Not sure if they exist in Thailand though. If you decide to do it yourself then the least strenuous way I have found is to buy some paint stripper, apply it with a brush all over, wait as long as it tells you on the tin and then go at it with a pressure washer.

1 hour ago, rwdrwdrwd said:

My kid got his in 10 days - get down there asap and get the process going.

That's great to hear. Thanks for that.

Many thanks to all those who have taken the time to reply and offer advice. There's some great info here and if 3 weeks is a more realistic ballpark for when we may receive the passport rather than the 6 weeks mentioned on the gov.uk website then that is the route I shall be heading down. I looked into the Certificate of Entitlement for Right of Abode as an option but it seemed to be the most expensive route.

For the record, when my gf was pregnant (late 2007) I made a call to the British Embassy to enquire whether obtaining a British passport for our child would be easier if we were married, which is what I had heard was the case, and was advised no, it used to be easier but the rules and regulations have changed and now it doesn't make any difference whatsoever.

Thanks once again to all who have responded. I have learned a lot and appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experiences.

Hi All,

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere - if so please direct me to the correct thread assuming it is up to date.

I am planning on a trip to the UK with my Thai gf (not married) and our 9-year old. I didn't get round to getting a British passport for our child as yet, and since I would like to make the trip to the UK within the next 4-5 weeks I don't think there is time to get one now because the gov.uk website says I should allow for 6 weeks for a first-issue passport.

My original intention was to post here asking if anyone could offer advice on whether it would be possible to apply for a UK passport for my child whilst we were in the UK and if there were any advantages in doing so, e.g. faster, cheaper, easier etc...  However, I just read on one of the pinned posts here on TV, and have also just read on the gov.uk website that a UK visit visa application will be rejected if the applicant has right of abode in the UK, although the pinned post here suggests that it's possible that the visa application may slip through and get processed OK anyway. However, it would presumably not be a good idea to be in the UK with a child on a visit visa making an application for a UK passport for the child, so I think I'll scratch that plan.

So, my questions now are:

1. Has anyone got any recent experience of taking a child back to the UK on a visit visa even though technically the child would be entitled to Right of Abode in the UK?

2. Has anyone recently applied for and received back a child's first-issue UK passport? If so, how long did it take door-to-door?

Many thanks in advance for any advice offered. Feel free to PM me if you'd prefer not to make it public.

On 13/01/2017 at 8:39 PM, sirmud63 said:

when you do it in the oven like that ,try a lite sprinkle of brown sugar over it . simply awsome .

Sounds good - I will try that for sure.

It doesn't improve the quality of the bacon you're buying, but if you don't want your streaky bacon to shrink and shrivel up you should place it into your frying pan when the pan is cold. A tablespoon of water added to the pan gets a nice result also.

Personally, I'm a big fan of cooking bacon in the oven - laid out on a baking tray with a tablespoon of water and away you go... takes about 30 mins which gives you plenty of time to deal with any other prepping you have to do.

10 hours ago, kannot said:

How do you know it was "exactly" the same pit  viper? Did it have a tattoo you could identify it by? or does it answer to its name? These are very common in Thailand Ive had 6 over the last 3-4 years........Malay pit  vipers are lazy and wont move

OK, Despite the sarcasm you are correct. I cannot say with 100% certainty that it was "exactly" the same snake, but I've had 5 of these in my yard over the past 10 years, i.e. an average of one every 2 years. So when I see one and I lose track of it and then see another one 2 days later less than 8' from where I saw the previous one, I suppose it is possible that 2 Malaysian pit vipers happened to be passing by my place within 2 days of each other and they both happened to come in and take a rest in my yard, but I think it is unlikely given their infrequent appearance over the years. As you correctly say, they are lazy and won't move, so i'm gonna stick with my assumption that in all likelihood it was the same snake.They are also very aggressive and kill more people in Thailand than any other snake. If you get bitten by one you need to get to a hospital fast - if you don't you will most likely lose the part of your body where you were bitten or else you will die.

If you want to offer assurances to people that they are safe to just direct a snake like this off their property and they shouldn't worry about it coming back, that's up to you, but from my own personal experience I am not so sure that is the truth, and I prefer to err on the side of caution where these things are concerned.

Attached is a pic of the first one I came across - it was night time, it was motionless and coiled up in the shadows about 4 feet away from where my dog was sleeping. They're not a big snake, and coiled up it was not much bigger than the size of a mosquito coil.

NB I never said they were the most venomous, I said they were the deadliest, i.e. more people die from getting bitten by these things than any other snake in Thailand. Apologies if that is incorrect.

I've had to deal with 5 Malaysian pit vipers over the years, and on one occasion I caught sight of one in my front yard at night, and it got away from me whilst i went to get a decent light. Sure enough, 2 days later it was in my front yard again, so it's not strictly true to say that they will always move on somewhere else if you just usher them off your property.

Agree with all the comments about not killing the harmless ones - most people have mobile phones and internet access - easy enough to do a search for what kind of snake it is before you decide to kill it. Personally I prefer not to leave one of those pit vipers alive if I find it around my house. They say that snakes will only attack if they are hunting for food or if they feel threatened... well, they reckon the pit viper is Thailand's deadliest snake and I feel threatened by those things so I feel that killing them is the sensible thing to do, rather than risk the lives of my family and pets.

From my experience I have found that the best tool for taking on a dangerous snake is a length of hose pipe around 3'-4' long, preferably filled with sand.

Sorry - double post....

I looked at buying a 2nd hand car on finance a few years back and ultimately I came to the conclusion that it just didn't make any sense at all. Have you had a good look around the car tents? You get very little bang for your buck with 2nd hand cars here. I don't want to put a dampener on your plans but here's my prediction:

You might be thinking of spending a couple of hundred on it but chances are that'll creep up to at least 250K once you see what's out there... then the car tent guys that will offer finance to foreigners are looking for 12.5% p.a., so over 5 years you're looking at total cost of 400K for a 250K motor that in your home country you probably wouldn't pay more than 100K for... and because it's so old you find out that you won't be able to get 1st class insurance on it... then you (or probably your missus) sees that the Nissan March or Mitsu Mirage only costs 380-390K brand spanking new... with free insurance for 1 year... and a 3 year warranty... and finance available at 2-3%... so that seems like a much better idea... except that once you get to the showroom you find that the bottom of the range models with prices that start with a 3 don't come with bumpers... and they've all got manual gears... and your gf can't drive or doesn't want manual, she wants auto... and they're only 2-door... so now you're looking at around 470K... but you've already decided that 2nd hand isn't the way to go, and your gf has smelled that new car smell... and you've had enough of driving round to all these car showrooms and standing there like a goose while your missus does all the talking... there's no turning back now so you figure what the hell... let's get this over and done with... you'll take the Nissan March and since you're now in a spending frenzy you'll upgrade the wheels to a nice set of alloys and pay the extra for the built-in SatNav... so now it's 500K... and after much uhmming and ahhhing over which colour you're gonna have, with great relief that all the decision-making has come to an end you announce to the salesman that you're gonna take the 4-door March with automatic transmission in cobolt blue and you'll be upgrading the rims and taking the built-in SatNav too... Phew! What a relief...! Except... the salesman decides that now is the time to tell you that you're looking at an 8-month wait for the Nissan March...

Well, that's kinda the way it went for me anyway... except I was buying a pick-up and my missus wasn't involved.

If you're gonna go down the 2nd hand route you really need to pay cash I think. But hey, that's just my opinion and I stand to be corrected... Good luck with it all anyway.

I would've thought it was obvious - those lines are there to create uncertainty, and any RTA's involving uncertainty require adjudication, and adjudication is an essential (and sometimes lucrative) part of any road network. You really need to stop asking so many questions about this kinda stuff... it's becoming really bothersome...

For the Lazada one that Charlie suggested, in the specs down below it says it isn't frost-free, but it doesn't seem to have a freezer compartment, so who knows...

By way of an update...

Went to Bangkok to get a copy of my passport certified at the British Embassy, which was painless - parked in Wave Place across the street and was in the Embassy for around 1 hour.

Informed the agent I was using I had obtained a certified copy and a few days later we all (me, gf & child) went to the local Amphoe, which for me was next to Banglamung Police Station on Sukhumvit, around Moom Aroi Restaurant/Cholchan Resort. Whilst there killed 2 birds with one stone - got myself officially recognized as the father of my child and also got a Thai ID card for my child.

Left the rest for the agent to arrange. She took care of everything about my work permit renewal and i just had to make one visit to Immigration in Jomtien for the renewal of my visa/extension of stay. Got a 30-day extension and have to go back on the 30th to get another 11 months.

What was kinda interesting is that I thought I would be switching from a Non-Imm.'B' (Business) to a Non-Imm.'O' (child dependent), whereas what transpired is that I still have a Non-Imm. 'B', but instead of the 'B' visa being based on having a business, it is now based on having a child dependent, which, according to my agent, means that I only need 2 Thai staff for my work permit and that there should be no more visits from Immigration in Bangkok.

Thanks for all the help and advice offered here from elviajero and ubonjoe. Much appreciated!

The agent I was planning on using to take care of my visa change from Non B to Non O is telling me that before I can go to the local Amphoe to be officially recognized as the father of my child I must go to the British Embassy in Bangkok to get a copy of my passport certified. Does anyone know if this is correct?

You should ask at the Amphoe. They will have their own criteria and will tell you exactly what is required.

Good idea. Thank you.

The agent I was planning on using to take care of my visa change from Non B to Non O is telling me that before I can go to the local Amphoe to be officially recognized as the father of my child I must go to the British Embassy in Bangkok to get a copy of my passport certified. Does anyone know if this is correct?

It's not the end of the world if I do have to go there and do that but when I just tried making an appointment at the embassy via their website the earliest date I can get an appointment is the 23rd May...

I don't think the UK embassy will certify a passport. They will only do a certified copy, See: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/notarial-and-documentary-services-guide-for-thailand

The Amphoe may also want a translation of your photo page of your passport and the translation certified by the MFA.

How old is your child?

You will not be changing your visa class from non-b to non-o. It is not possible to do that. You will only be changing the reason for your extension.

Yes, getting a copy of my passport certified is what I have been told i need to do - just the photo page to prove that I really am a British national. I spoke to the embassy this morning and they advised that I need to make an appointment online. I was kinda surprised that the earliest appointment I can get is almost 2 weeks away...

My child is 8.

The agent I was planning on using to take care of my visa change from Non B to Non O is telling me that before I can go to the local Amphoe to be officially recognized as the father of my child I must go to the British Embassy in Bangkok to get a copy of my passport certified. Does anyone know if this is correct?

It's not the end of the world if I do have to go there and do that but when I just tried making an appointment at the embassy via their website the earliest date I can get an appointment is the 23rd May...

Many thanks for all the replies.

elviajero: Sorry, I get confused with some of the terminology but yes, I believe you are correct, I have a 1 year extension of stay based on work. It expires at the end of May.

I'm definitely on the child's birth certificate - what else would I need to prove I'm the father? The mother will consent to whatever, but do I have time to arrange it all or do you think I will need a trip somewhere? If I need to go somewhere, where would you suggest?

Regarding the income of 40K per month you mentioned - is the salary I am paid by my company locally OK for that?

Thanks once again to all who have taken the time to respond..

How difficult it will be to legitimize your parenthood will depend upon the age of your child. It can be done at at an Amphoe it they are 7 years old or over if not it has to be done at the family court. See: How To Gain Parental Rights As A Father

You can use your income from working to meet the 40k baht income requirement. You will need have your work permit and proof by way of tax payment and your tax return.

If you can't get the one year extension due to not getting the legitimization done you could apply for a 60 day extension to visit your child or get a multiple entry non-o visa to give time to get it done.

Thanks very much for the info ubonjoe - much appreciated..

Many thanks for all the replies.

elviajero: Sorry, I get confused with some of the terminology but yes, I believe you are correct, I have a 1 year extension of stay based on work. It expires at the end of May.

I'm definitely on the child's birth certificate - what else would I need to prove I'm the father? The mother will consent to whatever, but do I have time to arrange it all or do you think I will need a trip somewhere? If I need to go somewhere, where would you suggest?

Regarding the income of 40K per month you mentioned - is the salary I am paid by my company locally OK for that?

Thanks once again to all who have taken the time to respond..

Hi All,

I have a small business here and I am a full-time employee of that business. For the past 6 years or so I've been on a Non-Imm B with work permit, and recently the yearly visa renewals seem to be getting more and more problematic. By comparison, the work permit renewal is a breeze.

I have a child with my Thai gf and I believe that I have the option of getting a Non-Imm O and also having a work permit. It sounds like switching to an O would save me loads of trouble with all the paperwork that having a B entails, and that very little else would change. Am I missing anything? Is there any downside to going from a Non-Imm B to a Non-Imm O for someone in my position?

Thanks in advance for any advice, and if this has already been covered in another thread then please could you point me to that thread.

Cheers,

Jimmy