coastguard

I don't think you need a special account of any kind. I have used my regular savings account to get my visa extension without any problem.

Any farang man in Thailand has been there, done that. If you get out of it without breaking the bank, you've won. I think of my own experience. I shared some very real intimacies and good times with my first girl, only to be disappointed it. But I considered it to be a cheap lesson for this farang. Learn, survive and move on.

American here.

Has anyone had any experience with them? Recommendation?

I am marrying my Thai girlfriend and she need to get an International Taxpayer ID (ITIN)

Any advice would be appreciated. Cheers.

FWIW. I've always found older people that retire somewhere new (like Thailand or Hawaii, or Florida, etc.) are open to friendship. That said., I have two great friends here, meet outside the bar, at ex-pats club meeting. But, I agree it is hard to make friends, more, just acquaintances. When you are old it is impossible to make old friends. Accept that. But, it is really important to connect with someone, anyone, life is short. Depending on just the wife/girlfriend is easy, but not the best idea. We are all different in out need for friends. I, for one, have found closer friends here that I did back home. Back home, it was mostly women/lovers. I think it is easier to make mates here. My best friend in the US was a woman, not a lover, here it is a man. Ah, we are all different.

Must have affected a lot of cars. My Honda H-RV also required a new fuel pump as part of a recall. This is an important safety recall. Get it checked.

They say up to 15 business days, that is 3 weeks. But, my own experience was about 7-10 days.

OP mentioned using Acrobat as default browser. I've always used MS browser (IE) since someone posted that only that worked. Anyway that works for me, most of the time.

For my daily internet I've always used Chrome. Never tried using it to do the 90-day.

Ah, Joe is right as usual. It was my visa renewal that was 10 days late (not 90 day report). I stand corrected, sorry.

The fine used to be 500/day with a 4,000 maximum. I paid that when I was 10 days past due.

I am informed today, that I need COVID insurance for almost the entire year (until my re-entry permit date, March 2022).

My travel agent says it will cost 24,800 baht!  Has anyone else encountered this problem? Any thoughts?

I wonder if I go the ASQ route if the same requirement would apply. Damn, it costs more than my hotel for two weeks.

Desperate for help.

Besides the supply of vaccine side of this problem, according to the missus, the Thais are afraid to get the sinovac. She says it is available to the elders in her village, but they won't take it because of the rumors on social media, etc. They are even more suspicious of the astra zenca vac because it is associated with you know who.

Phuket is reporting over 70% Vaccinated with at least one dose. Depends how you count. I predict they will reopen whatever the number is, or just make up a number to justify it. I think they realize their economy is on life support, and this is there last chance until 2022 to try to at least regain some tourism income, and save some jobs and companies.

Agree, that only expats trying to get home will be putting up with all these restrictions. That said, I am one such expat that is daring to try. I have a hotel booked through a travel agent, that does "all-in." That means COE, insurance, covid test, etc. I may be a fool, but I think it will all work out.  I agree with most here, that very few true "tourists" will be coming. I feel bad that Thailand is killing off their tourist businesses, upon whom so many Thais rely upon upon for jobs.

I just checked the site and for a USA citizen for 30 days the cost was 2,540 baht.

Well, today they confirmed the change from 7 days to 14 days. Still sounds better than quarantine in ASQ hotels, with only one hour a day allowed outside.

OP here. Per travel agent in Phuket,  the COE procedures on the Embassy website will be updated mid-June. He also confirmed that transit through BKK to Phuket is allowed as long as you stay in the terminal. 

I asked about getting the COE processed in time for a July 1 arrival, FWIW, he said they (immigration?) are promising to turn it around in less than the 15 business days cited on the website. Still, it all makes me nervous.

The government is betting heavily on this working. I'm confident they will "say" they met the 70% vaccinated target no matter what the reality is. And they don't want the negative publicity they will get if they don't pull this off. They know there is a lot riding on this working. On the other hand, this is Thailand. They are good at shooting themselves in the foot!

I'm hoping to do so as I return from the US. I don't see much info about what to do exactly. I know I need a COE, etc. But will I be able to just fly from BKK into Phuket and stay at any hotel? Just book it as usual?

I'd think I would have to somehow be categorized as being restricted to leaving Phuket before my 7 days are up.

Or will there just be some sort 7 day restricted visa stamp in my passport?

Or is the likely answer, nobody knows!? Any ideas?

Replying to original post:

Here was my experience the last time they did this (January).

We needed to drive from Rayong to Roi Et (long drive).

We went to Police station in Rayong to get a travel permit. It was busy, but they had an outdoor waiting area.

It took the Mrs. a long time to fill out a lot of forms. We needed two travel passes, one each.

Altogether we were there an hour.

On the journey (both ways) we were never stopped to show the permit even once.

BUT, arriving in Roi Et, they came to the house and asked for the permit, and took our temp, and told us things to do to be safe (that we already knew).

I think we were supposed to quarantine, but we didn't (my bad). We were there less than a week and staying in the house the whole time would have been almost impossible (we needed to go out for food for example, and beer, 5555).

FWIW that's what I experienced last time. Cheers

Not sure if this is the right place to post this info. I have tried to be open-minded re: the Sinovac vaccine from China, But I recently read this making me VERY skeptical about it:

So far progress has been slow.  Gao <deleted>, head of China’s Disease Control, said that 142 million first doses had been prepared, but that was still less than 10 percent of the country’s population.  He added that there was also strong resistance in China to vaccination, especially amongst the medical profession and highly educated people.

"Soon" in Thailand means anything from 5 minutes, to an hour, to a week, and I guess in this case a few months.

I'm the original poster. Wow, this thread really got off track. More about permanent residency than about whether you know someone who was kicked out. While PR is interesting, perhaps it'd have been better to start a new question/thread just about PR.

In answer to my original question, It seems there are only a very very few cases that people know of. Kind of what I thought. Thanks for all the feedback.

Let's hope that post COVID we retirees will be seen as even more worth retaining given the lack of tourists. I feel I am more appreciated already!

How many guys get punched in the face on an average night in a working class area of, say, Manchester? And middle of the night, and drunk, and.....?