skatewash

Honestly, that's the best way. Signup for a motorcycle class in the US, in many jurisdictions passing the the course gets you a state driver's license with proper endorsement for motorcycles. Take that to AAA and get a International Driving Permit (IDP) which is merely a translation of your English driver's license into English, but importantly it unambiguously indicates that you are qualified to ride motorcycles and for that reason is worth the $20 it will cost. What you will learn in the US in a motorcycle course is how to ride/handle a motorcycle if you have no previous experience. It will also teach you all the laws in the US. When you get to Thailand in addition to driving on the other side of the road you will learn with observation and experience what laws Thais follow and which they do not. Generally, in the US people follow the rules but don't have good situational awareness while driving. It's the opposite in Thailand, Thais have good situational awareness while driving but don't follow the written rules. There are informal rules that are followed you have to observe and learn them. You can arrive in Thailand with none of the above, but then I strongly suggest taking a motorcycle course in Thailand and possibly as a result of that get a Thai motorcycle license or go to the Land Transport Office to get your motorcycle license. I like this website for explaining the process of getting a motorcycle license in Thailand: https://motogirlthailand.com/riding-thailand/

That's true he doesn't have a file. That might indicate they aren't too concerned with the map and photos anymore. Nonetheless, I will have both with me just in case they are asked for.

I've never had them hand the map back to me. What may be going on is that they pull your file when you see you. If they see a map in your file they may not be very interested in a new map if you haven't moved. That would explain perhaps why there was nothing said to me last year when I forgot to bring map and photos in front of house numbers -- they may have had them from previous years. I can see why they might want the hand drawn map. I have a devil of a time finding businesses but especially residential addresses in Thailand because they use that non-sequential plot number/house number address numbering system. After all they can use google maps too but that service is not so great for the last 100 meters or so (because of the unusual Thai address numbering scheme) so a hand-drawn map could be very useful. All that said, I have never had Phuket Immigration visit me at home in 8 years of getting retirement extensions.

My understanding is that the FIRST time you extend a Non-O or Non-OA you can only extend for the reason (retirement, marriage) that you gave when you obtained the visa. If that's true (and I'm not sure it is) then you might be able this year (the second time you will have extended your non-OA) be able to change the reason from retirement to marriage. Something I would ask the volunteers (either in person) or email them at http://piv-phuket.com/home/contact-us/ Ask if you can change the reason for the extension from retirement to marriage the second time you apply for an extension of stay from your Non-OA. I'm not 100% certain you can change the reason for a Non-OA derived extension of stay from retirement to marriage (I know you can do that for a non-O derived extension). If you can make this change you will get two immediate benefits: 1) marriage extensions do not impose the health insurance mandate, so you would not need to purchase Thai health insurance to meet that requirement. 2) for the new marriage extension you would only need to show 400k baht in a Thai bank 2 months before application and until you get your final approval for the extension (about one month after application). Then you have full access to the money (until next year two months prior to your application) and you can withdraw as much or as little as you want, there is no minimum balance requirement for marriage extensions for the remainder of the year. Marriage extension: http://piv-phuket.com/long-stay-extensions/marriage-m/ At Phuket Immigration having a map to your house and pictures of you standing outside your house with the house number showing are requirements also for the retirement extension (see retirement extension near the bottom of the page: Last year I forgot both of those things and they let it slip (didn't even mention it) but I'll bring both the next time. If you're not able to switch to a marriage extension as discussed earlier and you wish to make the switch from a Non-OA to a Non-O visa to avoid the health insurance mandate, I believe you need to exit Thailand without having a re-entry permit. In other words, you want to lose your current extension of stay based on a Non-OA visa and come back to Thailand with a Non-O visa or come back visa exempt or with a Tourist Visa and obtain a non-O in Thailand from immigration. I think if you have a valid re-entry permit when you leave Thailand it may cause problems in getting a new non-O visa from an Thai embassy or consulate, and also cause potential problems when re-entering Thailand. If you have a valid re-entry permit and try to enter Thailand wanting a visa-exempt entry I think they may require you to use your re-entry permit instead (in general, immigration doesn't seem to like when you have multiple options to enter the country and they will pick the one you can use and deny your right to use the other option. Seeing a valid re-entry permit in your passport they would stamp you in on that and not allow you a visa-exempt entry). So, if switching from a non-OA visa to a non-O visa you want to leave Thailand without a re-entry permit so leaving cancels your current visa and allows you to apply for a new non-O visa. I, also, don't dread my encounters with immigration. I don't like the uncertainty, of course, but if one researches the requirements the whole process seems much less mysterious.

One way to check if your transfer will be coded FTT if you have online banking with Bangkok Bank is to go look at the transaction online. If it says International Transfer you know it will be coded FTT in your passbook. If it says something else, you know it won't be.

Thanks. The question which is better WISE or SWIFT can only be answered in the context of how much money you are sending in your transfer. As this post explains generally Wise is better for smaller amounts where a big fixed SWIFT wire transfer fee can be avoided. However, in larger transfers the Wise fee (because it is never capped) can approach and overtake the big fixed SWIFT wire transfer fee even though the exchange rate for Wise will generally always be better. The question can only be answered definitely by doing a comparison for a specific amount on a specific day. Wise makes it easy to do the comparison, but you have to piece together the cost of doing the SWIFT from your bank, which will have cost components of SWIFT fee charged by your home bank, exchange rate, and Thai exchange conversion fee (0.25% of the amount transferred, capped at a minimum of 200 baht and a maximum of 500 baht) charged on the back-end by every Thai bank (as authorized by the Bank of Thailand).

Not to be the prophet of doom, but even if Wise were doing nothing for us at all, a certain number of Wise transfers would be marked by Bangkok Bank as FTT. When that happens we don't know if the transfer was going to be marked FTT anyway (by following Wise's general algorithm) or whether Wise took notice of the special "tagging" and purpose of transfer and because of that changed something to make sure that it got marked as FTT. We only know that when it's not marked FTT that the special handling didn't happen.

Fitness-to-fly certificates haven't been required of anyone flying into Thailand for months already.

I always puzzled about how technically speaking a transfer from a Wise Bangkok Bank account to a customer's Bangkok Bank account was considered by Bangkok Bank as an international transfer (FTT). If Bangkok Bank decided to reconsider how they are labeling that transaction it could be very bad news.

Yes, it seems as if J&J is one of the lower performing vaccinations in terms of the duration of protection. However, there's still no place in the world where one jab of J&J is not considered to be fully vaccinated. Going forward things may change, of course.

Reporting standards are very sloppy in Thailand. What government officials sometimes say is not very precise. A lot of shortcuts are taken. Thai is a high-context language while English is a low-context language. It's easier to say "you must have 2 jabs" when what you really mean to say is that "you must have the number of jabs the manufacturer of your vaccine recommends to be considered fully vaccinated, which for J&J is one, and which for all other vaccines is two doses." There is no place in the world where one jab of J&J is not considered to be fully vaccinated. This includes Thailand. The article also states that one must have a RT-PCR within 72 hours of ARRIVAL in Thailand. This horse has been beaten to death already. The rule that has been enforced has always been within 72 hours of DEPARTURE. The people making these statements are very sloppy and imprecise. The people writing the articles based on these statements aren't any better. The result is that what gets reported in the media is an almost unrecognizable facsimile of the original intention. Given that, there's no reason to believe that there has been an official change from DEPARTURE to ARRIVAL. It is much much more likely that it was said mistakenly or reported mistakenly. In Thailand we have to wait for the dust to settle and the corrections to be made and the misunderstandings to be rectified before getting too excited by the news.

You know this how? Why do you believe this?

Where have you ever seen it said that Thailand doesn't recognize the J&J vaccine as being fully vaccinated? I mean other than three times already in this thread. The rule Thailand has always observed and every other place in the world is that if you are vaccinated with the number of jabs the manufacturer of your vaccine recommends you are considered fully vaccinated. J&J is a one-dose vaccine. All other vaccines require 2 jabs. Thailand has always recognized this. AseanNow commentators, not so much.

Thailand has never treated having one jab of J&J vaccine as anything less than fully vaccinated. Not sure why you don't know this already.

To be considered fully vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson's vaccine one needs only one jab. Thailand has always recognized this from the beginning. The Phuket Sandbox recognized this from the very beginning on July 1.

Thanks! Most of my interactions with Phuket Immigration aren't that dramatic or memorable. That doesn't seem to be the case with some people, though. ????

Immigration officers like to make their job as easy as possible. The combination method is allowed, witness the extension you got when you followed all the rules to get one using that method. It's not surprising that the IO told you to use money in the bank next year because that is the easiest method for him to check (see first sentence in this paragraph). Up to you to use whatever allowed method you want to next year. You could have used the combination method the next year. The IO wouldn't like that because as said it's more work for him to check, but if you followed the rules it would have been fine. You should have tried that and not have been so easily cowed into not pursuing an allowed method of getting your retirement extension by the rules. Of course, if you want to have the easiest time possible in getting your extension you should consider what the IO was telling, money in the bank is a whole lot easier. Up to you. The rest of your long post while worth reading for it's amusement value has really nothing to do with obtaining a retirement extension in Phuket, but thanks for making the effort. Except for one thing. I feel compelled to comment on your transfer stamps between passports story that you have cited several times now as an example of how difficult it is to deal with immigration. I'm interested in this because I will have to do the same in a few weeks myself, get my retirement extension transferred into my new passport. I looked up the requirements to do this from the Phuket Immigration Volunteer's site: http://piv-phuket.com/others/transfer-to-new-passport/ I made all those copies suggested. That should be all that is needed. One part of which is a copy of all one's extensions of stay. That should be enough according to the volunteers so I would be confident going with just those. However, I have heard in other immigration offices sometimes people are asked to produce copies of all the pages in their passport that contain Thai stamps. So in an abundance of caution I decided to add those extra pages I hadn't included before. I will give the IO all those pages, he can pick the ones he wants, return the ones he doesn't. This potentially saves me having to make additional copies on the spot. When I go to request the actual transfer I expect he will look through the copies I provided, keep what he wants, return what he doesn't. Hopefully, that will result in a quick transfer of the stamps to the new passport. We'll see. I have also heard of some instances where the IO wanted a copy of every page in the passport, even ones that only contain non-Thai stamps and ones that are entirely blank! Now, this doesn't make any sense to me, and I suspect it's something they ask for if they are in a really foul mood for whatever reason. If I'm asked for additional copies during my meeting, I'll go get the the extra copies made (I think the price is 3 baht a copy, which would be a maximum of 300 baht to me as my passport has 100 pages). Of course, I'm not expecting this to happen. ???? I'm also not expecting to be asked for 500 baht for doing the transfer as I understand it is a free service. I think you should have declined the offer to pay 500 baht. Don't know why you were asked to do that. Maybe that's the fee they charge for people who sigh deeply and roll their eyes when they're asked to make a few more copies.

I'm not sanguine that this FTT labeling kerfuffle is going to have a satisfying conclusion to Thai immigration customers using the Wise service. Here's why: This is my understanding of Wise's business model. They have bank balances at their partner banks in the countries they serve. Let's say I send a request to wise to transfer $100 from my US bank account to my Bangkok Bank account. Wise accepts my $100 which they may put in their account at a US partner bank's account, or if it makes sense to them anywhere in the world Wise thinks best. In return, Wise transfers baht equivalent of $100 (3,337 baht) from one of their Thai partner banks to my Bangkok Bank account. Suppose Wise uses Bangkok Bank to do this. For some reason I don't entirely understand Bangkok Bank is comfortable in labeling that transfer as FTT (international). I'm happy. But suppose Wise uses Kasikorn Bank (another of its Thai partner banks) to send the 3,337 baht to my Bangkok Bank account. Then because it is a domestic transfer from another Thai bank, Bangkok Bank labels that as something other than an FTT (international) transaction. I'm not happy. So a couple years ago, Wise comes up with this scheme whereby I "tag" Bangkok Bank as my Bank. I'm also told to select the purpose of "long term stay in Thailand" as reason for making the transaction. When Wise (at the time TransferWise) sees my request they alter their normal algorithm to transfer the money from their Bangkok Bank account to my bank account. It's labeled FTT by Bangkok Bank. I'm happy. But what if Wise's Bangkok Bank account is running low on funds and they have plenty of funds in their Kasikorn Account. Well, normally their algorithm would merely transfer the money from their Kasikorn Account to my Bangkok Bank account. Bangkok bank would label that as not an FTT because it's coming from a domestic Thai bank. I'm not happy. But, if Wise checks to see that I've "tagged" Bangkok Bank as my bank, then they know I won't be happy if they use Kasikorn Bank (because it will not be labeled FTT) so they get the money from somewhere else. Maybe they get the money from their US bank account, maybe they get the money from anywhere in the world (I don't know), but they SWIFT the money from their account to my Bangkok Bank account. It's an actual international transfer so it gets labeled FTT by Bangkok Bank. I'm happy. BUT, and this is the crux of the point I'm trying to make, Wise is NOT happy. They wanted to transfer the money from Kasikorn bank where they had an adequate supply of Thai baht. But instead because of my bank account being "tagged" as Bangkok Bank, they had to alter their normal business process and pay for a SWIFT transfer from the US or somewhere outside of Thailand. I assume their algorithm is fine-tuned so that it always makes the optimal business decision for Wise as to which bank account to use. In this case for the Wise perspective clearly the best bank to use would have been Kasikorn (money is already in baht, transfer will be quick as it's domestic to Thailand), but they had to do something different, something with a higher cost, because of my darned "tagged" bank. So compared to their normal customer (who accepts the wisdom of the Wise algorithm) I'm a pain in the butt because I cost them extra money when my transfer request can't be satisfied by my "tagged" bank transfer request, namely when there doesn't happen to be adequate reserves in their Bangkok Bank account. They charge nothing extra for my special service. But servicing my request costs them additional money (for the SWIFT transfer, instead of merely doing the transfer from Kasikorn) and they don't charge me any extra for this. My special request is costing them money as it's an exception to their carefully tuned algorithm. Also, I'm actually driving down their time for transfer to complete numbers. I don't know if that's important to them or not, but my special request lowers the time for transfer to complete number (a SWIFT transfer was necessary rather than a Kasikorn domestic transfer). Also, we get very upset with Wise when somehow they slip-up and the transfer arrives at our Bangkok Bank account without FTT. We call, we use the help desk's time. If I worked for Wise and wanted to minimize costs I would get rid of these kind of customers. Or charge more for the special "tagged" handling. Because frankly we are demanding service that other regular customers don't care about. Other customers are OK with the Wise algorithm. Doesn't matter to them. They care about how cheaply and quickly they get their transfer done. They don't care how it's labeled at the destination. Given the above hypothesis it becomes very understandable why we FTT-obsessed customers haven't been taken care of immediately. We cost more, we use more of their time, we complain more (about things other customers don't care about). So the road ahead doesn't look good to me. I think we will continue to be ignored, or best case, charged extra for our extra service.

Having read all that you have written on this thread I suspect that you may be more comfortable using an agent. You don't seem to be interested in understanding why immigration is asking to see certain documents. That's fine, if you use an agent you don't need to understand that. You have to have a standard bank letter identifying the account is yours and the balance. You have to have a 12-month bank stamped and signed bank statement showing transactions in your account. You are often asked to provide signed copies of your bank passbook. You should always have the bank passbook with you when you are seeking an extension (what good does it do you at home). If you're smart you make the copies of you passbook and sign them beforehand (that's what I do). If not, the document checker outside the retirement extension room will ask you to do so, or not. Easy to have copies made at immigration. That's the documentation required to prove your have an account meeting the retirement extension requirements. If your bank account you are using has very little activity in it, you may be asked to demonstrate how you are living in Thailand (because you clearly aren't using the your retirement extension account). To satisfy this request if it is made you can show another account that you do use on a day-to-day basis (that is, one that has activity). Often the officer will want signed copies of this bank passbook for a 12-month period. (I have never heard of them requesting that you supply a formal bank letter and bank statement for this account, but if they do, then you need to provide that.) The incident with your Italian friend indicates to me that's what happens when a question is asked and answered. ???? Is it really that difficult to understand that there are very specific requirements for showing you have an account that meets the retirement extension requirements. Then, if there is very little activity in that account (which is fine, by the way) you might be asked the question of how you are living in Thailand given that you are patently not using your retirement extension account. What your Italian friend answered was acceptable. I've heard of cases where the IO will ask for a copy of the ATM card. Showing an original of the passbook for the account and possibly copies of the passbook pages for 12-months works. It depends on how you do live here. Everyone does not do the same thing. The IO asks a question. The applicant answers the question and supplies some sort of evidence. The IO accepts the explanation/evidence or doesn't. Getting your extension requires you to satisfy the IO's legitimate question, and there are a number of ways to do that depending on how you do live here. The case of the UK guy from Bangkok. He thinks immigration was purposefully making things difficult for him because they wanted "backhanders." Sorry, I wasn't there, didn't talk to this gentleman but I think it's very possible he simply doesn't understand what is required, makes no effort to understand why the IOs are asking for what they are asking for, and very possibly due to this lack of knowledge and understanding misunderstands what the IOs are actually asking for. So because he doesn't want to be forced to pay "backhanders" he decides to use an agent. ???? What does he think the envelope the agent gives to the immigration office is? Looks like he paid the ultimate backhander to me, something on the order of 20,000 baht. So here in Phuket to avoid paying a backhander because he feels he is incapable of providing what a retirement extension requires, he instead pays a large backhander to his agent, who in turn give the backhander to immigration. Well, problem solved then. ???? The fact remains that you can meet the retirement extension requirements provided you take the time to understand what they are. The whole process goes a lot better if you have the insight as to why immigration is asking for what it asks for. Some people don't think they should have to bother with that. Agents are for them. I've gotten 8 retirement extensions without ever having to pay a backhander and without every having to do the ultimate backhander by using an agent. It is possible. It's not for everyone. If you're going to sit there in front of the IO making heavy sighs and rolling your eyes like a teenager every time he asks you to provide something, then the process probably isn't a good match for you and you might be happier just paying a huge backhander and using an agent. I'll leave you with this Henry Ford quote which I think is apropos: "Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right.

The reason one might care about these kind of things is that the more paperwork and reporting the bank has to do the less desirable a customer you are to the bank. The less willing the bank is to let you open a bank account. 20 years ago this was not so much of a problem. Try opening a bank account now and see how easy that is.

As outlined in Chapter 10 of my book back on page one of this topic, an immigration officer may ask you how you are living in Thailand if you show for retirement extension purposes bank documentation that shows little to no activity in the account. It's not a big deal, just show another bank account passbook that does have activity. Doesn't have to be formal for this other bank account. Don't need a bank letter concerning this other bank account or a signed/stamped bank statement. Just something to provide an indication of how you are living in Thailand. It's a natural question to be asked and it's exceptionally easy to answer by showing a passbook for an account that does have activity. Doesn't have to be a lot of drama. I only mention it in my book because it's maybe a reminder to people to bring things with them to the immigration office so that you can intelligently respond to questions that may come up during your extension of stay application and can support what you say.

Kidney stones: the male equivalent of childbirth ???? If you've ever seen the picture of a kidney stone under magnification it's no wonder....

The IN transactions are the interest you have earned. The TX transactions are the part of the interest (15%) that the bank is withholding for tax purposes. If you go to your bank and have them add your Thai Tax ID to your account registration they will no longer withhold tax on interest from the first baht of interest earned. They would start withholding if you earned 20,000 baht interest. In January you can go to your bank and get the tax withholding document, file your Thai Personal Income Tax Return, and be refunded the entire amount of tax withheld. But getting your Thai Tax ID registered with the account they would not even do the withholding in the first place so filing a return for a refund would be unnecessary. Thai Tax IDs are free you just need to apply for one at the Thai Tax Revenue Department office near you (for the reason that you need to file a return to get a refund of your tax withheld, having the document of tax withheld from your bank will make it perfectly clear why you need a Thai Tax ID if asked). But to get back on topic..... If the documentation you provide immigration to prove you have followed the rules for a retirement extension show little or no activity, then it's possible, but not guaranteed, that you may be asked to explain how you are living in Thailand. Showing a passbook that shows your in and out activity answers that question satisfactorily (not generally necessary to get any bank documentation for this day-to-day living expenses account, it's usually enough just to show the IO who may want copies of the passbook. It just answers the natural question of how you're living in Thailand when to get your extension you have shown an account which meets the requirements but happens for whatever reason to show no or little activity. In making the above comments about the bank interest withholding I'm assuming you don't have other income in Thailand.

FTT foreign telegraphic transfer appears as the passbook entry for your Bangkok Bank account, internation transfer will appear as the transaction in online banking for Bangkok Bank.

Regarding the 90-Day Report, you can do online from 15 days to 0 days before the report is due. In other words, you can do it on the day it is due. I've done it that late before. Mostly I try to do it 14 days before the due date. At one point before it was changed it had to be done from 15 days before to 7 days before the due date. Then during covid that was changed to from 15 days to 0 days before the due date.