rodroy

On 11/16/2016 at 4:12 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

The items above I agree about.

 

The ones below, I don't:

 

-you have a confirmed inbound and outbound reservation

[we didn't, because we were awaiting her getting the visa or not  And no one asked her about that at all. ]

 

-you have sufficient funds to cover living expenses

[my wife brought all kinds of financial docs, both her own and mine, but the staff asked for and looked at none of it]

 

-you have a valid requirement to return to your home country

[I don't know what a "valid requirement" means in this situation. In our case, my wife has a multi-year Thai employment contract with substantial penalties if she breaks it. But again, they weren't interested to see that).

 

Supporting DOCS are a must: itinerary, hotel confirmations, rental car confirmations,"

[We had none of that other than our stated plan for a 1+ week trip to visit my father because, again, it all depended on her getting the visa. And, we weren't asked documents regarding any of that.]

 

As I said above, other than the basic verbal interview questions, the only two things they seemed keenly interested in in terms of supporting docs was the letter of invite from my father, and my own history of Thai retirement extensions.

 

Obviously, everyone's application is different, so the Embassy officers may well ask for different things in different situations. I can only speak to our experience in the past couple months.

 

Holding a valid reservation does mean a ticket but an itinerary with flight nos, dates and routes.

You have no idea what was reviewed by visa officer before the interview took place.

The fact your missus had a job waiting for her to return is exactly the compelling need to return.

The most important concept is that visa officers are not there to assist you but keep you out if you dont meet their requirements!

3 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Assuming you're talking about a tourist visa...

 

My wife was approved for her first one a few months ago. She is employed regularly, but the consulate staff weren't particularly interested in that.

 

They were seemingly focused on two other things:

--the formal letter of invitation that I had my father in the U.S. write on behalf of my wife and that we submitted as part of her application.

--the fact that I've been resident in Thailand for many years with a stable history of retirement extensions of stay.

 

BTW, since you mentioned visiting relatives (without specifying whose...) the tourist visa application DOES ask if the Thai applicant has any (I assume they mean blood) relatives or knows anyone living in the U.S. My wife doesn't, but I'm guessing yes answers to either of those questions might raise some doubts.

 

PS - My wife also doesn't own a house or any property in her name, nor is she inordinately wealthy.

 

The main things any embassy wants to know:

-that you know where you're going and why

-who by name you're to visit

-you have a confirmed inbound and outbound reservation

-you have sufficient funds to cover living expenses

-you have some legit connection to whomever you are travelling with

-you have a valid requirement to return to your home country

Supporting DOCS are a must: itinerary, hotel confirmations, rental car confirmations, full address of where you'll spend your first night.

Sorry, but the thermal gradients in southern Thailand are a two bladed sword! The abnormally high temps accelerate the hydrocarbon generation processes which produced hydocarbon accumulation in young miocene reservoirs as seen in the gulf of Thailand today!

These high gradients make the existence of deep hydocarbon accumulations unlikely as the high temps at these depths cook off the recoverable oil and gas!

These high temperatures make the exploitation of any hydrocarbons expensive as there are special metallurgical needs for tubulars and other production hardware! Its for deep pocketed operating companies!

How many mentally deficient/unstable tourists are arriving here ?

Or is mentally deficient a generic term used by the local gendarmes for a "stone-cold who dunnit"?

At least 25 years ago 2 Thai laborers were arrested in Saudi for smoking during Ramadan!

Thai government asked for their release and repatriation!

Saudis went hardline and refused.

Thai govt instructed police in PATTAYA to arrest every Mid Eastern person smoking, sitting at a bar drinking or in a restaurant eating in daylight hours booze or no booze!

They got about 60 of assorted nationalities but a bunch of Saudis.

A trade was arranged and the 2 locals came home.

The 60 were released after appearing before a judge brought in from NARATHIWAT!

One word, "ASEAN"!

IMHO, how far would people go to save their children from jail? I most would certainly go all legal means possible to minimize the length. Re this case it seems a total disrespect and disregard and a massively lax sentencing.

I guess this comment will be scorned upon..

Of course, you seen to want to forget the other side of the story. Are you not rather outraged by her and her families attitudes.

Put it another way, if it was your wife, children, mother... who were killed in similar accident, would you just brush it all aside and comment: "IMHO, how far would people go to save their children from jail? I most would certainly go all legal means possible to minimize the length".

Make it hurt the only way to get this this family's attention : a million baht per hour of community service unfulfilled!

paid to her victims!

The parents are promoting this travesty by accusing the probation officer of threatening her when the were doing their jobs!

Also who registered the Honda using plates of a Toyota pickup in what surely was a tax dodge!

Great group of entitled role models!

No wonder this kid turned out a mirror image!

Consider this! The oil which is being sold as gasoline today was no doubt purchased 6-10 months ago at either a fixed contract price or on the spot market!

The oil was purchased at the wellhead and the required transport by tanker to say Singapore or Thai refineries!

You are purchasing 'old' inventory in most sense of the word! You certainly dont by gasoline based on spot prices!

Also ask the Gov't if they have dropped the excise taxes on each litre of gas which makes up 55-60 % of the cost at minimum!

All is not as it seems superficially!

"Ivan Todorov Ivanov". Sounds like a real Canadian name to me!!!

EH?

The government was building the firewall using state-owned CAT.

But all internet traffic has not been required to be routed through it as yet; just CAT users I suspect.

When CAT starts expanding its storage capacity fivefold or more beyond its current needs, that may signal the government's readiness to move all internet traffic through the Wall.

Once the gateway firewall is required, VPN will not circumvent the wall. Likely the government will then require registration of VPN users including user ID and password so that it can check content. You'll be told that you can trust the government to keep your personal and corporate information safe.

That's not to say a hypothetical Wall can't be jumped. Requires a smart phone. Plenty of discussions on the internet for that process.

Seem to recall that all International traffic is routed through a CAT server!

Traceroute confirms that!

Maybe I'm wrong!

Being able to take a civil case against someone for a criminal offence still seems weird to me. The families are "lucky" that a tragedy like this did happen in Thailand, rather than my home country of NZ, where the families of the victims would have received nothing (Or very close to it). And even though she acted irresponsibly (Texting while driving + No licence), if she were in NZ I'm not sure if her criminal sentence (A suspended sentence + community service + forbidden to drive) would necessarily have been harsher either, given that she was only 17 & has no previous convictions etc.

When she previously appealed her suspended sentence, I was pretty appalled at her for wanting to reduce what was already a very lenient sentence, but knowing her family will also have to pay 30M THB, it actually seems pretty harsh (I know her family is rich, but the law should only give a small weight to this, imagine if it were just a family of poor or modest means instead).

It was an accident, she didn't do it on purpose.

She didn't do it on purpose but:

She knowingly drove whilst underage, without a licence, and presumably uninsured. Condoned by her parents.

She apparently chose to speed and there seems a possibility she was texting or on the phone at the time of the accident.

She chose to act in ways which put others in danger.

She, and no one else is responsible for this accident, the deaths of nine people, and others injured and bereaved.

What price do you put on human lives vs the we wanna do as we like young hiso brats?

Makes you wonder what part mommy and Daddy had in registering an illegal Honda as a pickup truck no doubt to avoid taxes!

Window to their collective souls!

Jailing the girl would serve no useful purpose other than revenge satisfaction for some of the TV members. The parents are to blame and rightfully they are being forced to part with money, something that is well understood in this culture. As for the girl 12 months minimum community service attending accidents and cleaning up the mess and looking after accident victims would be more appropriate.

Perhaps if it was someone in your family who died in such a crash, you would be happy for her to serve only 12 months community service... most people on the other hand would prefer a more substantial punishment.

I think considering her age and what looks like a complete lack of parental control and the encouragement to break the law, I would be more inclined to target the parents than the girl. Jailing her wouldn't achieve anything constructive.

Interesting that some people are making a big issue out of this yet ignoring the red bull affair which was blatantly criminal from the outset.

Possibly its the body count in this case?

No mention that the car was registered as a pickup truck and those famous pictures of her texting leaning on the wrecked Honda!

Spoiled brat living insulated from reality!

12 months working nights with Por Tek Tung might better serve as reinforcement training !

If Mommy and Daddy intend to dodge their responsibility the court should impose a lein on their assets!

Double headed bad decision!

No, never been and don't have plans to go there

This whole chain of events is weird, maybe more information we don't know yet would make it better

Why so many fake passports?

Did they plan to admit this bombing or not?

How long was this planned for in advance?

Who picked the target of erawan shrine and why?

Who gave the order to do it on that particular date? etc etc....

Honestly, I really wonder if the many comments I see along these lines (along with all the ridiculous "what's the motive?" nonsense) are for real or just trolling. Could anyone really be so slow? Based on the situation, it all seems pretty obvious:

Why so many fake passports: Uh, hello, were not a shirtload of Uighers just deported from Thailand to China? Were they not trying to get to Turkey? Do you think they just MIGHT need some fake Turkish passports to do so? Obviously no longer needed when deported back to China.

How long planned in advance: Again, do you think ALL of the Uighers were deported? Certainly not, so there had to be plenty pissed off comrades left behind. Wouldn't they want revenge for their Muslim brothers? Easy peasy, fly in a bombmaker (if one not already among the group), and you're good to go.

Why the Erawan shrine: countless times it has been mentioned that this site is visited by many (Buddhist) Chinese. What better site to get back at both Thais and Chinese, as well as all "infidels"?

What's the motive: hello??? Anybody home??? why do people still ask this? Hit on the head as children? REVENGE! PAYBACK!

Virtually all of the evidence points the same direction, why is this so hard to comprehend?

Not forgetting the sacking of the Istanbul consulate as a barometer of the feelings!

According to the Bangkok Post article titled " New Suspect Emerges in Bomb case"

Police LT Gen Prawut has said the suspect Maieraili was a Chemical engineering graduate from a major university in China.

He admitted to making the Bomb.

He said his boss left the day b4 the bombing from Suvanabhum airport for china and is now in Bangladesh, if so airport authorities must have some good snap shots of this man.

To me Yussufo with his hair style looks more like the bomber everyday.

The BK post also says that police identified Maieraili with the man in the yellow shirt near Erewan from unreleased CCTV footage.

Whichever way we read between the lines from media it appears the police have the bomb makers and are trying to round up the residue, however they are still trying to smudge the attack as non Uighur revenge.

It appears to be the case now that mr Yussuffo is a Uighur chinese national , graduate in chemical engineering and confessed bomb maker.

Does that embarrass China and Thailand for ordering the deportation.

So a chinese bomb maker and his chinese boss masterminded an attack on a shrine that chinese frequent to worship.

The plot thickens.

So they're not really Turkish? Poor old turks got the blame for nothing...

Some of them don't certainly don't look Chinese either...

Its a weird story so far, why would Chinese have/use 200+ Turkish passports for a revenge bombing attack they didn't even claim yet?

A Chinese looks nothing like a turk, that alone would be suspicious in itself

Ever been to western China?

Folks in Xinjiang province dont resemble Han chinese.

It's part of China on a map only!

The language is a Turkish dialect.

To say the Uighars resent Beijing is an understatement!

Mine was Bangkok!

First time lucky? Worked a charm!

All the ISPs have their detractors.

Some people slag True Online down to the ground but my experience with them over the last 5 years at my place in Asoke has been highly satisfactory.

50Mbps Ultra Hi Speed line is absolutely bulletproof and it's up 99.5% of the time - it's always fast and their customer service is very efficient

Unless its raining, after 2000 hrs or a weekend!

True work bankers hours!

Isnt Myanmar on the WNW side of Thailand?

Never seen it so bad?

Where were you in 1999 when the oil price dropped to 9 usd/bbl?

Blood in the streets then!

Companies quick to lay off blindly count on people running back to them when business rebounds!

They're in for a shock when offers are refused point blank!

Did mine in 2 days the week of AUG 1.

Pending for 2 days then approved with all documentation!

Did Kristie Kenney move up or down?

She's still in the State Department, but working in D.C. Her main qualification for diplomatic appointment has been her marriage to Bill Brownfield, who is in the State Department's South American narcotics bureau. Ms. Kenney's current post is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs for East Asia. I don't know if that is a step up or a step down. It's possible she will no longer be considered for assignments abroad, because there was quite a public backlash on her propensity for posting twitter selfies, deemed inappropriate for a career foreign diplomat.

Sounds like the American version of "transferred to an inactive post".

Counting paperclips! Prestigious position to keep the numbers for gender diversity the way Obama wants them!

This researcher fails to mention how many of these Thai ladies had been down the accepted social path with a local and have adopted the never again, been there done that philosophy!

Speaker wires are not sufficiently shielded not to pick up stray electromagnetic radiation radio, cell phone or wifi from your router if you use one!