BritTim

The cost might be 3,500 baht if you apply for it through the Sydney consulate, I guess.

Living on the farm would be no problem. However, as a foreigner, it is absolutely forbidden for you to do any work as a farmer. That raises the question of where your income will come from. The income that can be expected as a subsistence Thai farmer would be little enough, but it does not seem you would even be able to get that. You are in a very difficult position. Your wife is, apparently, unhappy in Europe. However, that one million baht in savings you possess is liable to evaporate very quickly once you are living in Thailand with no income, and a wife and son to support. How old is your son? Even if using Thai public schools, there is some cost involved in getting your son educated. I really fear you could become another Westerner whose family falls apart in Thailand, with no income and without enough money even to return to home country. Consider talking, together with your wife, to a marriage counsellor. You need to find a way forward that is acceptable to both you and your wife, and that is based on more than wishful thinking.

It has always been possible to find agents who could process retirement extensions at Chaengwattana without financials. However, for a number of years it was very expensive. Talking recently to an acquaintance (I only run into occasionally) who is dialled into the grapevine on such things, I understand the price in Bangkok has come down substantially. It is still more expensive than allowing the agent to send your passport up country for processing, but now only by about 3,000-4,000 baht or so.

This is akin to (in normal times) having a certificate from a doctor to the effect that you are seriously ill and not fit to fly back to your home country. The immigration official turns around and says you are quite fit enough to travel by ambulance to the border, and leave Thailand by land. That might be technically true, but it is unreasonable. Similarly, in the spirit of the Covid extensions, a genuine inability to return to your home country ought to be sufficient to qualify. The intention was never that you be able to prove, not only that you could not return to your home country, but there was no other country that would allow you to enter. Assuming the OP is truthful about his current situation, he ought to qualify for the extension.

Application for a Non O visa and one-year extension inside Thailand using an agent is expensive. If you are aged over 50, switch to retirement. The cost will vary depending on the immigration office through which the agent processes the application. The risk is very low, but those who believe the risk is zero are deluding themselves.

Yes. It is pretty simple. You make an appointment with Thailand Elite to get a fresh five-year visa affixed in your passport after your current five year visa expires, either as you re-enter Thailand, or at Chaengwattana.

Thai immigration law appears to be silent on this particular issue. In practice, it does not really matter. Whatever immigration rules the child is deemed to have violated, there are no penalties assessed until the child is at least 15. I assume that the child would have a UK passport, and have regularised their status long before then.

Those on an STV are not eligible for regular extensions, and they cannot apply for a conversion to a Non Immigrant visa. In this respect, they are similar to those on visas-on-arrival (I do not mean visa exempt entry) or transit visas. That said, Covid extensions, like medical extensions, are not regular extensions. They are intended to deal with exceptional circumstances where the Covid-19 pandemic creates a situation that prevents your normal return to home country. Many are granted Covid extensions when they could return to their home country, but prefer not to. This is widely tolerated. What is amazing about the OP is that they 100% qualify based on the extension's original intention. He has a statement from his embassy saying that the authorities will not give him a slot for the mandatory quarantine on his return. Without that, how is he supposed to leave? The airline will not let him board.

"Not detected" is more accurate than "negative", but they in practice mean the same thing. It is impossible to state with 100% certainty that you are not infected. All any test can show is that the swab analysed did not contain markers for the virus, at least in detectable amounts.

I do not think anyone will check until your arrival in Thailand. If you do not have such a reservation (included in the hotel reservation or not) the authorities at the airport are not going to be happy. At a minimum, you can expect to be detained for a while at the airport, and then likely transferred to your hotel at exorbitant cost.

While no new Test & Go applications are being accepted, I believe I am correct in saying that existing Test & Go passes are being honoured. Thus, the list is not exclusively just an historical curiosity.

If you are in Thailand on a tourist entry, there is no problem applying for an extension anywhere. If you are on a Non Immigrant entry, Immigration expects you to have a fixed address. They will take a lot of convincing that you just moved house the previous day.

I am generally slow to assume that a post is a wind-up, but this is a truly extraordinary story.

The written rules say that transport must be "to your SHA Plus certified hotel by pre-booked SHA Plus transportation". Thus, as long as it is pre-booked, and the taxi is SHA Plus certified, you should be OK.

I think I am objective, and you make the best possible case for being less restrictive towards the unvaccinated. The points you make are valid. However, let me briefly explain why I believe strongly pressing people to be vaccinated is appropriate. Absent other factors, being vaccinated makes it less likely that you will be infected. The protection is far from absolute, and the degree of protection varies tremendously based on the type and timing of the vaccine you receive, and the endemic Covid variant you are exposed to, but the reduced infection risk is real. Those who are not infected cannot infect others. In addition to the lesser likelihood of being infected and infecting others, if you are unlucky enough to be infected anyway, your risk of hospitalisation, death or long Covid is substantially reduced (again, the degree of protection depends on vaccine type and timing). That implies reduced pressure on health systems, and it implies less economic impact. Vaccination, by itself, does not totally eliminate the challenge to society of Covid-19. However, there is a tremendous difference in the scale of the challenge depending on whether 70% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated versus 95%. That, in my view, justifies measures that, in isolation, may seem unfair, even illogical ... if they contribute to reduce the proportion of the population that is unvaccinated.

We can agree on that. For the rest, my own view is well expressed in https://theculturetrip.com/asia/thailand/articles/is-it-offensive-to-call-westerners-farang/ [a view, by the way, that is backed up by the พจนานุกรม ฉบับราชบัณฑิตยสถาน (Royal Institute Dictionary)].

I partly agree with this. However, there is a distinction between "foreigner" and "westerner" in English, and the same is true in Thai. I believe @BEngBKK was specifically referring to Westerners who seem the worst offenders in terms of lack of adherence to Covid-19 prevention measures like face mask use. The word "farang" is not one that I would use in formal settings, but it is certainly not restricted to bar girls or even uneducated/low class Thais. Yes, ชาวตะวันตก (chao tawan tok) exists, but the meaning is not quite the same, and it sounds stilted in normal speech. In informal settings, most Thais would use the word farang, though not to identify a specific Westerner within range of their hearing. That would be impolite.

I do that for two reasons: I do not want to throw away money and a page in my passport to buy a re-entry permit that I may not use. In Bangkok, getting the re-entry permit at Immigration is time consuming. At the airport it takes about 15 minutes.

This study, carried out years ago, might reassure you: https://www.fire.tc.faa.gov/pdf/TN10-19.pdf. Yes, the study confirmed that both the liquid and gel hand sanitizers are highly flammable and, under some circumstances, can generate high heat. However, after extensive and careful testing, the FAA Fire and Safety Team's key conclusion is I am unaware of any serious incident ever being reported involving hand sanitizer fire or, indeed, ignition of alcohol carried in the passenger cabins of aircraft. If there has ever been any such incident, I would be interested in a link that discusses it.

That page is more convenient to use but, as you said, is not updated as quickly as the information for member airlines. It is also not quite as comprehensive. The need to enter a lot of information into the form before it shows the rules is irritating, but bearable.

If this occurred after June 2021, you should not have been required to submit a new TM30.

The rules for entry into Thailand change often, and it can be very difficult to keep track of the fine details. I have found the guide to the IATA member airlines on the rules that must be followed to be extremely useful. They are usually accurate and can be shown to airline staff in the event of trouble checking in. However, finding the up to date version of these online (especially well formatted) is not easy for those without an IATA subscription. Below, I post the rules as updated on 13th January 2022 I extracted this information from https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/world.php where the latest information can be found (in a less digestible form) by clicking inside Thailand on the provided map.

The IATA regulations for Thailand, updated on 13-Jan-2021 make no mention of any cut-off date for Test & Go. I regard this as almost certain confirmation that existing Thailand Passes issued for Test & Go are going to be honoured.

I do not know the answer to that. I remember being very surprised myself that some receive only 30 days on a tourist visa, something that seems little known. Indeed, I remember asking if it was just a transit visa instead.

While not relevant to the person who asked the question, there is one small wrinkle that modifies the generally correct explanation above. Those from some countries that are eligible for neither a visa-on-arrival nor a visa exempt entry obviously must apply for a tourist visa in advance, but they also only receive a 30-day entry on arrival in Thailand. Thus, technically, a 30-day-tourist-visa is a real thing, albeit not what everyone on here referring to one actually means. As I recall, this only applies to nationals of some African countries.