MRtommyR

5 hours ago, Bredbury Blue said:

I have decent but BASIC Thai language skills, listening is better than speaking. By that i mean i can get comfortably go round on my own, order things, explain my requirements, understand most of what is said to me, etc. If i listen to the Thai news though, i struggle to follow it as there are many words and expressions i am not familiar with.

 

Everything i had read said the Thai language part wasn't difficult so i thought with a few months Thai language practice before the test i should be good to go, so the the wife and i went to get the forms and ask some questions in November last year at Chaeng Wattana. That was it really, we wanted a set of forms and the wife was going to ask a couple of very simple questions.

 

The lady on the desk though was having none of it. She gave me a right grilling in Thai, when i tried to speak in English she wouldn't permit it. I really struggled with the speed she was talking to me and some of the vocabulary. She basically destroyed me. Honestly, this turned in to being my worst experience with a Thai in all the decades i have been here (and before anybody chips in, yes i know i should be fluent in Thai by now - wish it was that easy though).

 

When my wife tried to assist me by jumping in to the conversation, the lady on the desk was having none of it. She basically reprimanded my wife.

 

To cut a long story short we came out of the Chaeng Watthana Immigration Office feeling like we'd received a right good slap. I decided i would study Thai seriously and we'd go back, my wife decided that no way was she going back. So thank you to the lovely lady on the desk.

 

The outcome was that i will now not bother with trying to get Permanent Residence and will stay on a non-O Support Thai Wife until i pop my clogs!

 

I hope that my BAD experience might be helpful in answering the OP's question "My Thai language skills are VERY rusty. Is this likely to be a problem?".

 

 

 

 

I may have met your friend. I have submitted my application (or my lawyer did so I didn't say much except smile and give my fingerprints), and am waiting for my interview date. I was called in a couple of weeks ago to help the officer write up my life story in Thai and they gave me some "interview preparation", but I have the feeling they were trying to intimidate me. They conceded my Thai was not bad and even wrote the same on the form, but basically kept giving me the impression my application wasn't strong enough. (I'm married, have been employed for 6 years, decent salary, young-ish etc. etc.)

Officer: Why do I want to get permanent residence?

Me: For stability because I have my home here, a wife, a job, retirement savings etc.

Officer: It's not your home, it's your wife's home so that's not a reason

Also my financial donations to charity and a school didn't seem a good enough answer to the "how have you contributed to Thailand". I don't know what they are expecting, perhaps for me to build a hospital single-handedly or go to the border areas to help force back some refugees.

My description (which was very detailed and in Thai, which was not easy for me) of what my company did was also not exactly the same as what was on our VAT registration from when the company was set up 15 years ago. Which company doesn't evolve over 15 years??

I was also warned about not sitting politely or not speaking to the panel with sufficient deference.

Anyway so this had put me off and left me apprehensive. I'm expecting the interview later this month. I will post a report on how it goes!

4 hours ago, Buffy Frobisher said:

And so peak hour will now extend an extra couple of hours. That shoulder becomes an extra lane and is very necessary between 7-10am on the Chalong Rat expressway, which, without it, will become a parking lot. If there is an unexpected breakdown traffic moves around it, and emergency vehicles are always given priority by drivers using the shoulder. As always, not very well thought through, though the concept is sound. 

I disagree with this. The main cause of traffic jams is driver behaviour, not traffic volume. Changing lanes suddenly forces drivers behind to break, causing a ripple effect.

This is constantly  an issue in Bangkok due to lanes suddenly disappearing, traffic backing up for U-turns in the outside lane, etc. Everyone trying to undercut the traffic by driving up the emergency shoulder ultimately has to move back into the main lanes when they encounter an off-ramp, bridge, concrete block, traffic cop with a whistle etc. Keeping them out in the first place will improve flow. It is well illustrated in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHzzSao6ypE

If they would only make drivers study this instead of silly colour blindness tests then things might improve

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Many TAT offices, he said, pointed to the return of foreign tourists to Thailand in the FOURTH quarter. Previously he was bullish about the third quarter that begins in June. 

Is this a different third quarter to the more well-known one that begins in July ?

On 1/25/2021 at 3:45 PM, Surelynot said:

True...he can open the account in his name (if he is British) and put what is considered to be her money into it..........of course you do have currency conversions and the problem of trust.....probably not worth the hassle at the end of the day......just a shame to miss out on ISA allowances which are amazing.

 

Maybe one of the reasons for me saying don't listen to anyone on here....especially me!!!!

At the risk of going off topic here, eligibility for an ISA is based on residency, not nationality. If a Brit based in Thailand opens one he has to sign the declaration that he is a tax resident of the UK which is passed to HMRC. They will find this very interesting if you are claiming non-residency on the other hand in order to avoid paying UK tax on your worldwide earnings. Proceed with extreme caution!

Almost meaningless. Wasn't March 18th when stock markets were at the lowest? If they picked a date in January before the pandemic started you could probably write the headline "pandemic wipes billions from the riches of the world's wealthiest"