linglop

What achievements?

The chinese embassy visa office has moved to 5th floor Thanapoom Tower, New Phetchaburi Road. Makkasan and is open from 9 am to 5 pm. A lot more staff at this new location and today instead of usual two hour wait, I waited five minutes for tourist visa. Price of single entry visa for Brits has risen to Baht 1600 from Baht 1100. The office can be easily reached by taking Underground to Phetchaburi station and a 38 bus going north to Victory Monument or a 38 bus going south from Victory Monument.

Make sure you have hotel booking, return air ticket from Bangkok and copy of your savings account plus passport owners page, retirement visa [if you have one] and reentry visa [if you have one]. The application form V2013 can be downloaded from Bangkok Chinese embassy website.

Best of luck - you will need pots of it if you are going to the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok.

I had to get a business visa there about 18 months ago. I ended up visiting 3 times. The first time all the application paperwork was as close as you can get to being thrown at me by the obnoxious woman on the other side of the glass.

Even a tourist visa is a farce. You have to show that you have already booked a flight and hotel before they will even consider the application.

If you google it you will find multiple threads telling you all sorts of tales of woe. You have to be there at 0700 waiting in a queue, sweating in the BKK heat until 0830 to be let in to get a number and then you queue again, they don't announce the numbers and you have to be on the starting blocks and paying attention to get to the right window. Then the interrogation starts.

Arriving any later in the morning and you have no chance.

Check for your self all the paperwork you need, letters of introduction, contract, flight and accommodation details etc and make sure your employer provides everything correctly before even thinking about going to the Embassy.

They had a large sign in English, Thai and Chinese stating no agency applications will be dealt with....as with everything in LoS. They even have a seperate queue for the agency people who have large bundles of applications and passports. Mostly, for Indians, Thais and some Filippinos ?

I cannot think it has got any better since I applied, probably worse. Like I already stated - get the employer to get it right and you will get there. On your own - you will struggle.

Here below is what you have to go through for a tourist visa....it also shows you the correct building to go to....it looks like a run down old office block and it is.

http://migrationology.com/2011/07/how-to-get-a-china-visa-in-bangkok/

Leaflets in Mandarin? I doubt it. Think you mean Simplified Chinese.

Forms A and B are no longer valid. New form V2013 is applicable to both Thais and foreigners.

Three hour wait to submit application on Tuesday 5th November.

Signs on walls still mention forms A and B so correct documentation still a mystery. Best stock up on the following:

Passport

Photo

Form V2013

Return air ticket

Copy of last chinese visa, if any

Bank statement/copy of savings account book

Hotel booking [or invitation to stay supported by chinese national's id card]

If on retirement visa in Thailand, copy of retirement visa and re-entry visa

Copy of id page in passport

Seems the embassy less strict than earlier in the year for issuing a visa for a trip from Hong Kong to Shenzhen

Cashier opens at 0900 hours and shuts down around 12 noon - this applies to paying for and picking up the visa on the third day

For the scanner have a look at Vuescan website.

My experience using Windows 7 for an old HP Scanjet was to download Vuescan and install drivers from the HP website for Vista.

Only after trying it out did I pay for the Vuescan installer.

The British Airways office in Rama IV Road, Bangkok is closed. You are required either to book your ticket on the internet [www.ba.com] using a credit card or telephone the BA Bangkok call centre on 001 800 4415 906 and pay for the ticket through the Siam Commercial Bank. You do not need to bank with SCB.

The call centre is open Mondays to Fridays from 0830 to 1200 hours and from 1300 to 1730 hours, except Thailand public holidays.

Some members may be interested to know you can obtain a visa for china if you have a return ticket from bangkok to hong kong rather than somewhere in mainland china. All the above requirements apply.

Today the average waiting time was 2 minutes per ticket number so if for example you are No 50 its a 100 minute wait.

Note that the Chinese embassy in Bangkok now opens at 0900 hours and closes at 1130 hours. There is a large queue at 0900 hours so get there early!

Additional paperwork is now required for a visa application, the requirements today being:

Return ticket to China

Hotel booking or signed letter of invitation to stay with a friend plus copy of friend's ID card

Copy of passport page which shows passport details

Bank statement

Application form A [and application form B if you are a farang]

Passport photo

Passport

Obtaining a visa is now nothing as easy as it used to be: alternatives are Hong Kong and Macau where this nonsense doesn't apply.

I use an external USB drive to connect to a portable DVD player to play TV series in various formats.

My Acer external USB drive works perfectly but a new Toshiba external USB drive does not work at all. The latter works perfectly when connected to my desktop, Both drives are USB 3.

Any ideas why this should be?

So if I fly to Hong Kong and want to visit Shenzhen for an afternoon's shopping only, how do I get a visa?

Perhaps Mr Kent might like to consider the outrageous cost of renewing a British Passport if resident in Thailand. Cost is around GBP 180 for a 48 page passport. [Cost of renewing if resident in UK is GBP 90]. This figure includes GBP 20 for two DHL envelopes, one from Hong Kong and the other from the UK.

The Hong Kong envelope contains one credit card receipt and one sheet of A5 paper. Clearly the Brits in Hong Kong could have used the cheaper registered airmail.

Secondly just why does it take so many weeks to renew a passport?

If you are a Brit, next time you are in the UK, I would suggest Rutland Productions for super 8 to dvd. Google that company for information.

Furthermore, Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung commented that the Interior Ministry can exercise its authority to discharge the Bangkok Governor owing to his inefficiency.

the invisible one returns from oblivion to chastise others for their inefficiency???

.

Spot on!

From today's Nation:

CP All apologises for goods shortage

The Nation October 22, 2011 7:08 am

CP All Plc today issued a statement to apologise all clients, as shelves at many 7-Eleven outlets are left empty despite high demand.

Banyat Kamnoonwat, assistant vice president of CP All, attributed the shortage to severe flooding which blocks transportation of goods, the lower production by some suppliers, and the historical spike in demand.

"The company is trying to fix this problem. For example, we are ordering goods from provincial distribution centres, securing more bigger trucks and looking for substitute goods. We believe that these measures would help ease consumers’ difficulties to some extent. Once the water subsides, we’ll do everything to restore the goods availability to the pre-flood level," he said.

May the victims rest in peace.

The Chinese Government now require farangs to complete two new forms comprising six pages when they apply for a visitor's visa. That's form 2011A and form 2011B. These are available for download from the internet or to pick up from the embassy. Cost of a six month multi-entry visa remains at Baht 2,200 for all farangs, except USA citizens. One passport size photo is required.

Nearest underground station to embassy is Rama 9.

I am planning to fly to Jinghong China from Bangkok or Chiang Mai.

Does anyone know if there are direct flights from Bangkok or Chiang Mai, if so which airline?

Many thanks

Well, as promised, I returned to Nice Delice today, Bua Khow market day, to see how the place is coming along. Well I'm happy to report that what was good before is still the same and a few of the kinks have been ironed out. Let me start out by saying that the negative reports on this thread I just can't fathom. I think it's really a case of some farangs living in Patts walk around with a bubble of negativity surrounding them and it effects anything and anyone they come in contact with. They don't seem to be happy unless they are slagging on someone or something or some aspect of living in Thailand/Pattaya. Whatever...rant over and on with my follow-up visit.

The main problem for me last time was the air-con was not effective and it was somewhat warm and uncomfortable. I had to instruct the staff is angle the air-con louvers downward onto the customer seating area. On this visit, it was cool and comfortable from the moment I walked in. All the staff were friendly and helpful as before, including the owner (who indeed has a dumb-bell piercing) and his wife. The cakes were as delicious as before and even the coffee had improved (but still not the best in town). For all the kee-niow folks who are always worried about services charges, I can report that there isn't one. As for the report of a 10 baht charge for milk with a coffee, I can't confirm or refute as I always have a capo-lon, which doesn't require additional noom. (However, in case any of the kee-niows are worried that they might be charged for sugar too, I can report the free sugar and equal sachets, and napkins too, are provided on all tables.)

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words:

Went for a coffee and cheesecake on Sunday and very happy with the experience. A great addition to Pattaya Tai and so conveniently located for Tukcom

The warning bells had been ringing for a long time, with a number of posters saying they were having problems.

Both offices of Fair Properties were permanently closed when I went to rent a condo on 25 October 2010.

Dramatic headline grabbing, no new detail padded out with the usual dialogue......any person with an imagination could easily have penned that article

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that's it then is it all thailands men...sorry 'man' in black are now unmasked..........you should read what I wrote....not what you think I wrote...

er....

Dramatic headline grabbing, no new detail padded out with the usual dialogue......any person with an imagination could easily have penned that article

er.....

As long as 3-4 minutes?