skatewash

Yes, agree with Phulublub, click on the Back button. You wouldn't want to submit that data anyway as it's completely blank. You only need to enter data on the previous page for the mandatory fields indicated by the presence of an asterisk (*) but all those fields must be answered.

Bang Lamung บางละมุง

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eventbrite

https://www.phuket.net/directory/profile/chotima-driving-school/

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (in translation): "The world under heaven, after a long period of division, tends to unite; after a long period of union, tends to divide. This has been so since antiquity..." https://www.threekingdoms.com/001.htm

Is your GF currently in Phuket? If not, she will need to be vaccinated according to the following graphic in order to enter Phuket domestically. Will also need to have a negative covid test (rapid antigen is allowed as is the more expensive RT-PCR) and have pre-paid lodging in Phuket. After a rocky start to the Sandbox in July (largely because things weren't approved until the very last second) the Sandbox has settled down considerably. You need to prepay for ASQ Plus lodging for 14 days. See what's available here: https://asq.in.th/phuket-sandbox-hotels After you graduate from the Phuket Sandbox program in 14 days you would be able to stay in your airbnb. You would also be able to leave Phuket to see the rest of Thailand. You can also look on agoda and booking dot coms but you might want to eliminate the middleman and deal directly with the hotel (my recommendation). Your hotel will be sending you a SHA related things that you need to get your Certificate of Entry from your Thai Embassy/Consulate. Sometimes having agoda or booking dot coms between you and your hotel is an impediment. You will book and pay for in advance 3 RT-PCR tests while you are in the Sandbox. Cost is fixed at 8,000 baht total. If you wish your GF to join you in your SHA Plus hotel you should list her on the reservation as sharing the room. She may also need to wait to join you until your negative covid result has come back from the test you will take at the airport on arrival. That has been taking on average 6 hours. For that period of time you are confined to your hotel room and during that period your GF would not be able to join you. Following receipt of a negative covid result you can leave your room and your girlfriend should be able to join you in staying there. You also need to purchase covid insurance in the amount of $100,000 USD coverage. There are advantages to the Thai insurance policies as they are sold here knowing the situation on how the Thai government treats symptomatic and asymptomatic patients and some of those policies will pay directly to the hospital rather than you being reimbursed for expenses. Some foreign insurance providers will reject coverage for hospitalization if you are asymptomatic as in their opinion it's not medically necessary. For Sandboxers there has been remarkably little change since July 1. A fair number of SHA Plus hotels were kicked out of the program because they had never bothered (over a period of three years) to get a proper hotel license. The list of SHA Plus hotels given above should all be OK to choose from. If you want to know what it's like here the best source of that information is the postings of Sandboxers in the Phuket Sandbox facebook groups: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2760898210888839 https://www.facebook.com/groups/388875605677294

It seems to be official that Phuket Land Transport Office is now joining the rest of Thailand in accepting a yellow house registration book (tabian bahn) as proof of address. This is what was handed out at Phuket LTO recently.

No need to inform Phuket Town Immigration, they'll figure it out. ???? It does seem like you should only need one original residence certificate and a copy if you are doing both car and motorcycle licenses at the Land Transport Office. If you have a yellow house registration book you don't even need a certificate of residence.

It's the Asian equivalent to a Shakespearian reference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_of_the_Three_Kingdoms

Same site: https://extranet.immigration.go.th/fn90online/online/tm47/TM47Action.do?cmd=acceptTerm Click on green button to check the status of your application. Click passport information tab Enter passport number, nationality, and birthdate. Hit search (magnifying glass icon). Should be the first item in the list returned. Check that status is approved. If so, click on the view icon on far right side. Opens up your 90-Day Report Scroll down to the bottom and select the "Next Appointment (PRINT)" That will give you the receipt you are expecting and you can staple it into the back of your passport.

Well, that's good news, it's a sensible policy. One original and a copy should suffice, it always struck me as a bit silly to need two originals when you are applying for motorcycle and car at the same time and the original can be checked. I guess they routinely check you are not on overstay, up-to-date on your 90-Day Reporting, have a proper address registration via TM-30, etc. I'm not sure if Phuket is one of the immigration offices that only does Residence Certificates for applicants that do 90-Day Reporting (have permission to stay 90 days or over). Some immigration offices are like that (Bangkok, for instance) just not sure about Phuket.

I was never able to get LTO to accept a yellow book as proof of address, but I've heard that has changed and they will now accept it (as other provinces have done for years). I didn't need a medical certificate to go from a 5-year driver's license to another 5-year one. I think you need a medical certificate to get your first 2-year probationary license and then to go from the 2-year license to your first 5-year license.

Both things sound unusual to me. First time I've heard of not receiving a Residence Certificate while you wait, but her explanation makes sense as they do need to be signed off by a senior officer. The second one is great if it's true. Not sure someone working at immigration knows what will or will not be accepted by the Land Transport Office, but worth giving it a try. If true she saved you 50%. If not true, the LTO is not far from Immigration. If you have a yellow house registration book I've heard reports that they now accept that in lieu of a Residence Certificate. This is a reversal of longstanding policy, if true.

There's another weird thing about renewing driver's licenses that you don't need to know when you get it the first time but is useful for subsequent renewals. Your first driver's license will be valid from the day you get it and will expire in 2 years time. If you let your probationary license expire by even one day you will be given 5 plus years of validity on your license. The plus is basically rounded up to your birthday. If you renew your driver's license before it expires you will just get the 5 years you are nominally entitled to. If you let your first 5-year license expire by even one day you will get nearly 6 years validity on your new license (instead of the 5 years you are nominally entitled to). I'm on my second 5-year license and it has worked that way for me and I have heard for others as well.

Your Thai National ID number should be exactly the same for both the yellow book and the pink ID card and there is an advantage to using it instead of your passport number for your driver's license(s). Passport numbers change, but your Thai National ID number never changes once issued to you.

This is a very good website about motorcycle driving licenses put together by a woman in Chiang Mai. It's specific to Chiang Mai but in my opinion does a good job of covering the process used in other Thai Land Transport Offices. Process for a car is very similar. https://motogirlthailand.com/riding-thailand/

Your first license in Thailand is a probationary license of two (2) years duration. There are separate licenses in Thailand for motorcycles and cars. Motorcycle driver's license costs 105 baht, car driver's license costs 205 baht. You can use your valid home country driver's license to skip the driving test and written test if it is in English or you have an additional International Driver's Permit. You would still need to do the physical tests (reaction time, color recognition). Believe you will need a medical certificate stating you are not subject to five conditions (costs about 100-150 baht from a local clinic) and will have to prove your address by getting a Residence Certificate from immigration (free or nominal fee, say 300 baht) or you can often use your yellow house registration book.

Ah, that I didn't know. But kind of makes sense because most places have your wife sign a consent form if you change from a marriage extension to a retirement extension. So wouldn't be surprised if your wife had to be there for the first covid extension (as you're leaving the marriage extension and going on to a covid extension). It would seem strange though if she had to be there for every covid extension after that.

Yes. There are a number of things I don't like about the marriage extension, wife has to be present to sign papers at your extension of stay application, home visits (potentially), having to make two trips to immigration to get the extension (first for the application and then return to get the extension after the month-long under consideration period). Oh, and I'm not married either so I imagine the whole thing would be awkward to say the least. ???? I do like the 50% off deal, though, compared to the retirement extension. ????

I kind of like the fact that there are multiple apps. Not looking forward to the day when there's just one app: One app to rule them all, one app to find them, One app to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them. That sort of consolidation doesn't always work out for the best. ????

And that's why I'll continue to let the 800k languish in Krungsri Bank's Mee Tae Dai account earning a paltry 1.00% APR interest. The list of things I don't have to do solely for the purpose of fulfilling my immigration responsibilities is a long one. I don't have to travel, I don't have to shop for promotional interest rate fixed deposit accounts and move money around, I don't have to file a Thai income tax return to get my withheld interest back from my Thai bank, I don't have to remember to transfer a specific amount of money every month into Thailand, I don't have to shop around for expensive health insurance that meets arbitrary Thai immigration requirements (400,000 inpatient and 44,000 outpatient coverage), I don't have to satisfy immigration enquiries into where my money comes from, and I can bring into Thailand money to live on when I want and how I want. In other words, life is simple, it's basically on autopilot immigration-wise, and I have a high degree of confidence in being able to get my retirement extension every year like clockwork with no surprises. And for seven months of the year I have 400k baht to use for emergency cash reserve which allows me to keep relatively little other cash for this purpose. If and when I ever do decide to leave Thailand I'll have 800,000 baht to help with the relocation expenses. The cost to me of doing this I reckon is about 64,000 baht each year as that represents the 8% more of the 800k I could have received if the money were instead still invested back in the US rather than in a Thai bank (i.e., lost opportunity cost). So it costs me roughly $2,000 USD for the retirement extension to stay in Thailand for another year, discounting the 1,900 baht I actually pay for the extension of stay, and the 200-300 baht I pay for the bank letter and bank statement. Doesn't seem like such a bad deal to me. As far as I can tell everything I'm doing is by the book, I don't have to skulk around when I go to immigration and I don't have to pay an agent to do my skulking for me.

My understanding of how the covid extension works: You get 60 days from the date of application for the first one and from then on you should get your additional 60 days added on to when your extension expires. In other words, after the first one you shouldn't lose any days by applying early for the following extensions. Not sure that this is true in all cases, but I think that's the way it's supposed to work. Applying for a regular 30 day extension on a visa-exempt entry or Tourist Visa is always added on to the end of when your current permission to stay expires. Same for retirement extensions. You never lose days by going to apply for the extension early.

No, the message regarding "overstay" is erroneous based on bad data in the immigration database (or the failure to enter good data into the database used to track 90-Day Reports). It's a known flaw in the 90 day online reporting app. If you check your passport and your current permission to stay has not expired you are not on overstay, despite what the app may say. You don't go on overstay because you are late filing a 90-Day Report. If you are more than 7 days late filing you are subject to a 2,000 baht fine the next time you conduct business at the immigration office. You are supposed to be able to use the online (website and app) 90-Day Reporting systems in the window of 14 days before your due date up until your due date. But due to a failure on the part of the immigration system your data might not be up-to-date in their database. Not your fault, but nothing much you can do about it, either.

Yes, I heard similar and it was enough to dissuade me from pursuing the monthly-deposit method. That and the effort required to make sure deposits were made and coded correctly every single month.

Do you use Phuket Immigration? I ask because Phuket Immigration adopted a policy where they don't ask about the insurance under certain circumstances (almost like grandfathering people who have the Non-OA from before the insurance requirement came into effect).