drm200

I arrived in Thailand on a flight from Manila to Bangkok on May 1.   I assumed that I was given a 30 day visa free entry on arrival.  I was planning to go to Pattaya immigration tomorrow May 23 for a 30 day extension.

However, upon looking at my passport this evening, I find that they only gave me a stamp valid until May 20.    I have a flight leaving Bangkok for Amsterdam on June 21.

So now I am wondering, what are my options when I go to immigration to get this sorted out.

I have been a frequent visitor to Thailand, but have not been in the country since late October of last year.   I have never had any kind of issues in the country.

There is no need to pay 1% up front with 2% annual charges today ... unless you want to lose your money.

You will find lots of hype around active management funds ... but the truth is that they do not outperform over the long run when their 2% annual charges are taken into account.

I personally, would avoid country specific emerging market etfs. These will get slaughtered when interest rates rise. I would argue that the good performance of the Thai etf for the last few years is due to ever lower world interest rates.

It is easy today to find funds with annual fees of less than 0.3% .... Take a look at Vanguard etf's. You can buy a Vanguard emerging market etf if you really want emerging market exposure.

I think a better investment for a nonprofessional investor is just to buy VT (vanguard world etf). This has annual expenses of 0.2% .. and tracks the world market (all regions and all company sizes). You will sleep better at night ... and over the long run you will outperform 95% of the active funds.

I had pretty poor eyesight .. I was near sighted and couldn't really see details in anything more than 10 feet from me ...So I had lasik done in 1985. I was so happy to see the bikinis on the beach with out glasses ... and swimming and seeing ...

So, I've been a satisfied customer ...

Some problems for me ... in dim lighted situations, I see small "halo's" around bright lights ... My brain tends to tune this out and I never think about it. In bright light there is no problem.

It's now 31 years later ... and I have developed dry eyes about two years ago .. and must use eye drops. I can not say this is related to lasik vs age (I'm 61) ... And in the last few years my eyes are failing to read the "small print" ... Again, this is probably age ...

I would do lasik again "in the blink of th eye"

But use a reputable doctor .... you can not afford to have this screwed up

I am an American with an engineering degree. While working in Michigan, I was repeatedly asked if I would teach math and engineering at night for one of the local universities ... I eventually agreed. The state of Michigan allows people with "technical expertise" to be teachers. So I started teaching classes at night. Every semester the university would throw me into where ever they had vacancies .. and i would end up teaching a different curriculum. AND while I was doing this, I was accumulating credits which eventually made me a licensed teacher.

So, in the USA it is quite possible to teach at a university without a degree in education. And I believe my students would agree that they got what they were paying for. And it was legal. And it is done all the time.

I second the motion that free proxy servers should be avoided.

You are using a proxy server in order to have some security/privacy. But many of the free ones are known to be harvesting your personal data as you use them ... So rather than gaining security/privacy .. your data is breached.

I pay about $50 per year for a VPN that has world wide servers ... I routinely connect my laptop using hotel wifi. Using a VPN provides another layer of security while using hotel wifi.

Another vote for google voice. I have used it for years .. All calls to US are free ... I don't use 800 numbers too often but never had a problem. But most companies have non 800 numbers also ..

I am 61 and am eligible to begin drawing social security soon. I calculated the break-even age for my situation and found it to be near 78.

So financially it may be better for me to wait, if I live longer than 78. Regardless of that, I am going to begin drawing social security as soon as possible ... Financially, I do not need it now. But I figure that if i die before I am 78 .. I will have more to pass on .. because I've spent less of my own money .. So I'll take the money now.

The decision is that simple for me ...

I just use a simple spreadsheet .... Make a row for each security .. then have a column for each month of the year .. and then input the current dividends for each security into the months that they are paid out (and skip the months with no dividend).

Now autosum the columns and you have your cash flow by month.

Of course you will need to occasionally update the dividends when they change ...but they rarely change more than once per year. I've been using this method for years and I probably only spend 20 minutes per year updating it for dividend changes (I probably have about 50 items paying dividends or interest)

You can use either Microsoft Excel or LibreOfficeCalc (which is free). I used Excel in my work life ... and now use LibreOffice in my retired life.

I retired in 2009 and have been travelling/living in hotels since. I've been to Thailand numerous times using a few tourist visa's but mostly flying in and obtaining the 30 day stamp at the airport

In the future, I plan to spend considerable time in Thailand ... maybe 8 or 9 months per year. I do not plan to rent/buy a place to live (at least at this time) ... and prefer to continue to live in hotels exclusively.

I already have a bank account at Kasikorn and wire transfer 3 or 4 thousand USD per month to Thailand ... but only the months that I am here. I also use ATM's to transfer money from the USA. I do not plan to hold 800K baht balance at Kasikorn .. but rather get the US consulate to certify my income (which is solely dividends/interest .. about $8K USD/month).

I am currently in Bali and plan to obtain a Thai tourist visa. Sometime after arrival, I understand that I will need to convert the tourist visa to a non-immigrant "O" visa (for retirement) ... which later would be need to be converted/extended to a multiple entry "OA" visa

So my question is this:

1. Will living in a hotel (and no permanent address) be a problem for obtaining a "O" or "OA" visa for retirement?

2. I could do the paperwork in Bangkok, Pattaya... or anywhere. Is there one location that might be easier for my situation?

3. Is there somewhere posted the form/format that is accepted by the Thai authorities for the US income declaration that is certified by the US consulate?

4. I understand that one can apply/receive a multiple entry "OA" that would allow me to leave/return without getting re-entry permits. Is this possible? If so, what happens with the 90 day reporting while outside Thailand?

5. Any other problems for me?

As a note, I used my Hotel Name/address in Pattaya as my residence to obtain my Kasikorn bank account.

thanks

I'm an american and have used the US consulates several times to certify documents (including Bangkok). These were multipage U.S. based real estate contracts (7 or 8 pages). In all cases, the cost to me was only $50 total.

In each case, they bound the pages together including an additional page they used to apply their notary seal.

I suspect that the cost to you will only be $50 for your passport.

I'm using Fidelity on the U.S. side. I have the choice to send US dollars or have Fidelity convert to Thai Baht and send Thai Baht. Fidelity does not charge for the wire transfer, but they do charge for converting to Thai Baht.

I've now made 3 wire transfers of equal amounts. For the first transfer I had Fidelity convert the dollars to baht and then send Thai baht to Kasikorn. For the next two transfers, I had Fidelity send dollars direclty (no conversin) and then let Kasikorn do the conversion to Thai baht.

Using the published exchange rate for each day of transfer, I was able to calculate the following "losses" for each transaction based upon the number of baht received vs official exchange rate of the day:

Transfer #1 Fidelity does the fx convestion - amount lost in transfer 2237 baht - transfer time 3 days

Transfer #2 Fidelity sends dollars - amount lost in transfer 1002 baht - transfer time 12 hours

Transfer #3 Fidelity sends dollars - amount lost in transfer 1118 baht - transfer time 12 hours

So in my case, it is much more economical (and much faster) to send USD and not let Fidelity do the currency conversion. It appears that Kasikorn is taking about 1000 baht for each incoming wire transfer (whether they do an foreign currency conversion or not).

I've also compared the cost of wire transfer vs accesing baht using my Fidelity ATM card. I withdrew Thai baht from various ATM's and then verified the US dollars deducted from my account. Amazingly, it seems that using the ATM method is slightly better (less transaction losses) than the wire transfer. (It should be noted however that Fidelity refunds all ATM charges ... and many banks do not).

I hope this information is helpful.

I made a critical typo error in the above post with the Kaskorn Account number. The correct instructions are:

JPMorgan Chase Bank, New York (ABA021000021)

For credit KASIKORNBANK PCL, Head Office, Bangkok, Thailand

Swift Code: KASITHBK

Account number: 001-1-875101

Further credit to the account of Mr./Mrs. __________________

With Kasikorn Bank Branch: ____________________________

Baneficiary’s account number: __________________________

Wire Transfer to Kasikorn Bank

1. Kasikorn bank provides you with a SWIFT code for wire transfers to your account. This is all you need if you are transferring monies from a bank institution.

2. Institutions such as Fidelity, Ameritrade, etc are not banks and do not have the ability to do direct bank to bank SWIFT transfers. In order to do a transfer they must use a bank intermediary (sometimes called correspondant bank). They do this by using the Fedwire system (ABA system) to contact an intermediary bank who has access to the SWIFT system.

Here are the valid instructions to make a wire transfer to Kasikorn from Fidelity/Ameritrade & others who want to remit funds to Thailand. These instructions use JP Morgan as the intermediary:

JPMorgan Chase Bank, New York (ABA021000021)

For credit KASIKORNBANK PCL, Head Office, Bangkok, Thailand

Swift Code: KASITHBK

Account number: 0014 875101

Further credit to the account of Mr./Mrs. __________________

With Kasikorn Bank Branch: ____________________________

Baneficiary’s account number: __________________________

These instructions were provided to me by KASIKORN Bank in Los Angeles in response to my email to them.