arithai12

I don't know about US and Thailand (or UK in this context), but I do know that in my EU country there are complicated taxation levels which depend on whether the beneficiary is a spouse, direct discendent (or ascendant), parallel such a siblings, and finally highest for non-family. In some cases a tax-free franchise can apply up to some amounts, so that for low amounts no tax will apply as you seem to have experienced. Taxation for real estate con be hefty, but that's obviously not the case here.

Discovered? Apparently? You seem to have been a close friend, but were you in contact recently? Did he inform you that you are supposed to execute his will? Why was this will located in the UK and not in Thailand? Do you have any idea if there could be a newer will "to be discovered" somewhere? Who said that the one in the UK is valid in Thailand "apparently"? Which language is it written in and who are the witnesses? It seems your old friend didn't give a damn. Why should you? I mean, good will and honor to the memory of better times are commendable, but is it worthy? You don't mention how many beneficiaries. 2M B minus expenses and taxes is not a lot of cake if the slices are many. Only you know the answers. If going ahead, a Thai lawyer would probably be a good idea.

As the author so clearly demonstrates.

+1 Bangkok Hospital CM OP, this guy might be the right one to dissuade her. He's not after the money per se.

How many turns and blind curves and busy intersections and ups-downs on that road?

Do you really need an answer to that, or are you just fishing for likes? The majority of tourists (what TAT counts as tourists) do not originate from UK, and those who would travel only on BA or nothing else are probably close to zero. If you want to pick at TAT go ahead, try something better though.

OP, not sure if you want pointers to sports actitivities, or "attractions" like just walking in a park. If you include both, the list is very long. About the 700y that you mention, it is kind of dead in the daytime (hot) apart from the pool. Which is old and often not too clean, but includes not just a 50m pool but also a 5m deep diving pit. Changing rooms and showers/toilets below are a bit run down, but ok. It's 30B for member, 60B non-members. The building also has an open air (covered) gym. The rest of 700y includes lots of facilities, from badminton to basketball to petanque to indoor courts. There was a 400m athletics track but they started renovating it during Covid, not sure what's the status now. Come 5-6pm, the most popular activity is jogging/running along the 2km course, be prepared for lots of people especially at weekends. Cycling is possible but not ideal since they have many speed bumpers. There is also a long (~5km?) reserved path which extends outside the 700y complex, with designated lanes for bycicles and joggers. Unfortunately most people don't get it and mix one with the other, and often scooters use it too. Evening there are lots of food/drink/accessories small stands.

If you look at the picture at the top, they should open at 9am. They do have a 1 hour lunch break. I had my lunch first, then I was there about 13:30 I guess, very quick.

I am not sure what a butterfly farm is and what you are looking for, however if you visit the Siam Insect Museum in Mae Rim they have lots and lots of butterflies of many types flying inside a few large enclosures where you can walk around, sit down, and chances are they might land on you. Highly recommended not just for insects, they have lots of interesting animals that you can also hold on your hand with the help of a staff. Close to Chiang Mai, also the Queen Sirikit Botanical Gardens, the Tweechol Botanical Garden and the Royal Flora are worth a visit.

I doubt you will obtain a pink ID card already if you are just starting your 1 year extension. Even if free medical is not an option, however, the card offers many advantages IMO, and you should definitely look into that eventually. This was one thing for which I did use an agent, and I was happy with that.

I tried the Central office today for re-entry. I had my form/copies all in order already, I was in and out in 2 minutes, great service and all smiles. A few days ago I had tried at Airport main office, the girl at the re-entry counter was doing nothing but I had to get a queue number first, that took 30 minutes, a stressed officer gave me one for the afternoon which would have meant sitting there for one hour looking at the wall, I said no thanks.

OP didn't say if he has a valid re-entry permit. If he doesn't have RE, then his extension is automatically void and he will be granted the 30d visa exempt which is what he needs - to be extended by 30d. If he does have it, he needs to ask the IO to ignore it. Best cover the RE with a post-it sticker to make sure that the IO gets the point. I think he will succeed.

Same branch, 5 minutes or less, and 100B, year after year. Perhaps our differing experiences are in what we request? I have a fixed deposit account with 800k + accrued interests, orange passbook, separate from the checking account (blue passbook). There are never any transactions on that account. All I do is ask for "letter for immigration", they know. Immigration is happy, I am happy. ps: as you know you will now have to use the Chang Pueak / Thanin branch as KSK closed down.

Perhaps, or perhaps the UN has so many commissions and committees that, trying to keep a balance among member states, it is statistically inevitable that one vice-chair position is assigned to Thailand. Anyway, wishing the best in her job to the lady.

You state that you need one week... amazing, but perhaps you want to share what city and branch? I have since years a BKB 800k fixed deposit for retirement extensions, it takes no longer than 5 minutes to get the letter duly stamped, Immigration always happy with it. Chiang Mai.

I am afraid you could be right. According to a recent survey

I agree about Siam TV ???? In addition to the many official shops in every mall, there are clusters of small stands dealing with mobiles (selling new and used ones, as well as repairs). Especially if you want to feel and try an older model, they could be the right place. e.g. in Central Festival, Airport Plaza, not so much Maya. Also Icon Plaza worth a look.

I have to disagree, by experience, with those who think that our accounts are somewhere in a kind of Bangkok Bank cloud. They are accessible indeed from any branch for most operations, but the actual paper records (eg photocopies of passport, residence certificates, and so on) are physically in one location - in the specific case if they were at KSK branch, they are now at the branch discussed in this thread and already mentioned in previous threads. E.g., for those of us on retirement extension with 800k deposit, we need a letter from the bank before going to immigration at each renewal. My 800k fixed deposit was at KSK, they issued the orange passbook and the yearly letter. I went to the new location, they said they will issue said letter next time.

As others have posted, yearly extension and 90d report are not linked. If they happen to be within the same 30d/15d window, Immigration can well do both on the same day. Also note that the 90d is valid for 90 days from the day it is approved. The extension starts from the day the current one expires, regardless of which day it is approved. If you can do online 90d, I believe they remind you anyway for the next one.

What you describe is extremely tedious, if you have been doing for years I don't envy you. But more importantly, it is also NOT going to be straightforward in some supermarkets, where the price on the label on the shelf is the official one, but then there are promotions such as 3x2 and membership discounts and you cannot really know until check-out. Or viceversa, the label price includes membership discount and if you don't have it you pay the higher small print price. The mistake the OP was so enormous that it was obvious without any detailed personal notes. I am a bit surprised though that the check-out girl did not apologize (or whoever went to check the real price), but I have noticed that customer attitude might depend on the city. Places like Bangkok and Phuket are bad in that sense.

So if we catch Covid, AND are unvaccinated AND have previous conditions AND don't seek treatment in time, we might end up with serious problems on a ventilator, and the statistics are about 20 fatalities per day. Interestingly, they never tell us vaccination and pre-conditions. So what should we do more than get vaccinated and take precautions, like almost all of us already do? Stay home glued to the fear-mongering bulletin that tells us how bad Covid is? FATIGUE is the right word. By the same token, I expect you never venture on a public road since the fatalities there are of order 60/day, and there's no vaccine for that.

As in my previous post, your concept of "immigrant" seems very confused. If a person has the local passport, than he/she is not an immigrant, especially if he/she was born here. You confuse being an immigrant with having foreign ancestors. About your mention of Western immigrants from the last 50 years, how are they living in Thailand? I have been here many years, my visa and extensions are non-Imm meaning that I am not an immigrant, just a long-term guest. People who really want to have the option to become permanent residents and citizens, in this latter case they obtain a Thai passport and can buy land of course. Anyone who has been here for 50 years and is not a citizen, it's their choice. My last reply to you.

Thaksin is not an immigrant. By your same token, the majority of current USA, Australian, Canadian, S. Americans, and and and, should be considered not citizens but immigrants. If you want to imply that he is loyal to the land of his ancestors, then I remind you that the law to block foreigners from owning land is there also for the Chinese (perhaps, especially for them).

I don't know if 40M will be a reality again, but they never were people with 60d or METV. The majority of the 40M were Malaysians on short weekend hops in the South, and Chinese on group tours which got their visas sorted out by agenices in China or on arrival. Frankly, the list of 11 "documents" seems easy peasy, considering that some are just copies of pages in your passport or flight bookings. When you consider that you actually do not need to travel to a consulate in person, I'd say it's not a big hassle at all.

I am sure that every time you enter Thailand you have the full Act (in Thai language) under your arm and when you stand in front of an Immigration Officer you show them the relevant sections, tell them in their face that they have no authority, and you demand the presence of the Minister.