Hugh Jarse

I doubt we will get to know the reason why this plane crashed inexperience ,poor maintenanceor whatever. RIP Noppanon.

Heard all that before.

They are very good opening centres and compiling reports of their future intentions.

As about doing any real work or policing, it's out of the equation.

Just another set up to justify some extra salaries and also sounds good for the ears of the USA or EU condemning Thailand for their human trafficking problem.

So lets hear your ideas about trying to resolve this menacing problem!

"The strategy commits us to providing a more professional, modern and streamlined service for British Nationals who require access to notarial and documentary services."

Absolute BS, as comment no. 19 says - such double-speak it would be harder to find - anywhere!

Making us send our pension statements, copy passport pages + having to go a Thai Post Office to buy a sodding money order for > 2,400 baht to pay for the damned letter, by very expensive EMS to BKK; and then having to wait 10 working days, at least (!), before we get the damned letter back to take to Immigration to renew our extension of stay!

Yeh! That's a really modern and streamlined service - my ass!!

I've always found the staff at the consulate here in CM very courteous and efficient, with the letter being ready the next day - nice and easy, but now what are they going to do? As others have said, unfortunately it would seem to herald the end of the consulate here.

There are thousands of Brits retired in the north of Thailand, not just in CM.

Are they going to increase the staff in BKK to cope with the flood of extra work they're going to have to take on board? I doubt it very much.

This is a pure cost-cutting exercise.

This is appalling - with all the additional pensioners coming here to retire to escape the crummy UK, thus relieving the UK govt of millions of pounds in support costs, such as the NHS and numerous Social Security benefits we could claim, they should be making the CM consulate a FULL consulate, like it used to be and like the US consulate is today.

Who are these bean counters in Whitehall? Unqualified, sycophantic morons it would appear. Certainly not anybody with the rudiments of economics or accounting.

Agree, I too have always found Consular staff, helpful and convenient to get paperwork done and I will be sorry to see it go.I understand that the rent on the BC and Consul's tiny office is peanuts. The UK economy ,with its £90 billion debt-and growing- is now a basket case so unlikely the FCO will improve services to UK expats. Trade and aid is their top priority not service to its nationals. The UK's embassy in Bangkok is the pits in terms of service. They will hive off this work to their favoured private companies as it is more cost effective and that is the bottom line for a government desperate to get out of the quagmire of debt that it is now facing and likely to increase.

Probably government intervention along the lines of what has been happening in Phuket recently.

About time.

If there is one thing that really irritates me about Thailand it is the cartels and monopolies. They are everywhere.

So where do you get a deck chair or sunbed to lounge on ? What a killjoy!

I transfered money from my SCB account to my HSBC, UK account in 2013, they charged me 2,000 baht.

To do a similar transfer from a UK bank to SCB account in Thailand costs about £17. so 2000 Bht baht seems very high.

Plenty holiday, almost zero live. I don't understand why anybody would tie up a lot of capital in Thailand.

Money laundering perhaps or family commitments, or escaping the ruinous USA ,UK ,Euro tax regimes. Finer weather conditions, usually friendly local peoples, good and lucrative business opportunities, to say nothing of the fantastic variety of food, disco dollies and numerous other delights if you would only take your blinkers off. By the way what do you mean by: 'almost zero live' HAve a great 2015.

Might as well close it permanently, the limited use it is now.

Disagree, whenever I have been there staff have been competent ,friendly and provided useful help for : Notary services, inc. verification of UK income etc., help with lost passports, stranded without money as well as providing useful information about crisis situations. Clearly you have never needed assistance ,but this litttle office is worth keeping open.

Why would some guy give 300,000 dollars to a hooker? Blows my mind.

Exactly, there is more to this than meets the eye.

"However, a friend just told me she went last week at 3.30am and there already was 6 persons standing there ..."

rubbish. she's pulling your leg!

An Immigration Dept official at yesterday's meeting advised us that he was sleeping in his car one night, and the first farang arrived at 2am. The reason was that the farang's 90 day report was left to the last day.

Not reported on City News was the incredible increase in farangs moving to Chiang Mai in the past 12 months. Staffing numbers at Chiang Mai remain the same. Chiang Rai has about a quarter of the expat population that Chiang Mai has, and their Immigration Dept has slightly more staff.

Seems to me that a few top Immigration Officials in BKK should do a stint here and see what it's like.

However, it was good public relations that Immigration reached out to us and explained things in a little more detail.

Is this all that materialised from the meeting? Hope someone from CEC will enlighten us on the salient points of the meeting yesterday.

CEC ??

Chiang Mai Expats. Club

"However, a friend just told me she went last week at 3.30am and there already was 6 persons standing there ..."

rubbish. she's pulling your leg!

An Immigration Dept official at yesterday's meeting advised us that he was sleeping in his car one night, and the first farang arrived at 2am. The reason was that the farang's 90 day report was left to the last day.

Not reported on City News was the incredible increase in farangs moving to Chiang Mai in the past 12 months. Staffing numbers at Chiang Mai remain the same. Chiang Rai has about a quarter of the expat population that Chiang Mai has, and their Immigration Dept has slightly more staff.

Seems to me that a few top Immigration Officials in BKK should do a stint here and see what it's like.

However, it was good public relations that Immigration reached out to us and explained things in a little more detail.

Is this all that materialised from the meeting? Hope someone from CEC will enlighten us on the salient points of the meeting yesterday.

My wife told me that girls from the South tend to marry short fat dark men with flat noses and turbans and baggy pants and girls from the North tend to marry lighter skinned tall handsome men with style and panache.

Shoe is now on the other foot. Does it fit.

Codswallop!

A post with information for Public holidays in 2013 has been removed.

23 October (Thursday) Chulalongkorn Day

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/691406-public-holidays-2014/

Well spotted, must have had a few too many Babychams when it was posted.

PS visa agents are for the infirm and wimps.

with the present squalid conditions and poor services that the immgr dept are currently serving up to the alien community

evenstevens,is very proud to be called a wimp

incidently bill 97

1010 posts,...14 kisses..(like it).. uuummm, poor track form

a very lovely afternoon to all

Agree , conditions at that dump of an office should be improved. This would not only benefit the staff there who do a great job by and large, but also the customers who pay good money to stay legal. On another matter the top dog at CNX Immigration will be speaking at Le Meridien Hotel (near Night Bazarre area ) this coming Wednesday at 10.AM Meeting has been set up by The CEC club.

You want to be sure? Get there by 5, 5:30 at the latest.

Yes I only got a few days before the visa expires so I definitely need this to be done before the end of this week.

I'll try your suggestion and will keep you posted.

I have to renew my extension of stay, based on Marriage to a Thai, soon. Would appreciate your feedback ref. the queue I should join.All the on-line bookings are full alas as this method would seem to be most efficient.

There used to be a second hand watch dealer/shop on the ground floor of The World Trade Centre, at Pratunam selling high end watches. Maybe that is an option for you so you can at least get a valuation there before deciding what to do. Alternatively list it somewhere on Thai Visa.

If properly enforced the closure of massage parlours and beer bars will add to the growing number of unemployed in Phuket. Most of these girls will still have to send money back to the village and so I see little alternative for them other than moving into the freelance environment. Higher risk for those girls and for their customers. One massage parlour I go to (no special massage available) has 8 girls...well some are properly described as old ladies. Only one of them has a certificate.

In the US, Australia, Europe the UK and doubtless other parts of the world, some basic certificate of competence is required . Its basic health and safety requirements. Nothing wrong with this surely? If you are practicing massage you need some basic understanding of anatomy and physiology otherwise the untrained can cause serious injuries. Hats off to the junta for this initiative.

I saw a Lamborghini towing a plow near nam phong last week.

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

Thats different than i see a ford tractor beeing pulled out of a deep ditch by a flock of waterbuffalos

How do you call a large group of waterbuffalos ?.

I believe that the collective noun is a flotilla!

Best to start looking for an appointment 30 days earlier than your actual renewal date and that gives you a lot of attempts at getting a slot.

My renewal is due September 11th, but I did it on August 13th.

Okay, thanks for this and will keep you all posted.

I am sure dates for 23rd September will be booked, I always wait

till just after midnight ,100 days before the date i require,book it,

check back later same day ,all slots are taken,I don't know if Visa

agents use this method to book all their places or just walk in,if

they do use the web site will explain why the go so quickly.

regards Worgeordie

I tried booking a few days ago for an appt. in mid. to late November to renew my Marriage Visa. All full! Perhaps one/some of the agents who make a living from renewals could enlighten us as to whether they make block bookings.

Last year I tried booking 89 days ahead and also had a similar problem. I checked a week before my expiry and lo and behold there was one slot free, which I gratefully took so as to avoid the bear pit scenario that so often prevails at this dump of an office. The staff deserve better than this too.

I read this report a number of weeks ago ,if it were to happen it would take a number of years to introduce by then there could well be another Government in power and I am sure that it would be challenged in the court of human rights. It would not effect everyone if I understand correctly it would effect those who are in receipt of a government pension retired civil servant, police, fire, military this would mean the government would be clawing money back into there own coffers it would also effect property owners who rent out there property whilst living abroad , if in the other hand you were receiving your OAP pension and that was your only income then it would not effect you , as stated I do not think it will happen for a number of years if at all if it did then I would have to consider moving back to the UK as I pay a substantial amount of tax to the UK HMRC every month.

I hope you are right as those on modest amounts of unearned income would be forced to return and avail themselves of free medical care and other state benefits. Too many returnees would become a burden on government and self defeating, me thinks. The tax grabs in the UK are becoming overburdonsome for many UK residents also. Such is the rotten state of the UK's finances.

Refer to The swimming pool Forum

Don't loose sight of the fact that older age and poor health can creep up on you, once you've gone to the trouble of becoming an expat it's sometimes quite hard to become a resident again and as the rules change over time, re attaining NHS eligibility will become even more difficult. My vote would be, unless you have substantial assets, go the 6 months in and 6 months out route.

HMRC changed the rules last year regarding what constitutes ordinary residence for tax purposes, Google it.

Instead some involved were imprisoned - the Police general sentenced to life imprisonment for the kidnapping and murder of the jewelers family.

but he is out, you know

Anyone interviewed him? A reporter from The NAtion newspaper perhaps.

Thanks for taking the trouble to post this. Most useful and helps when things go wrong and one needs to deal with local "experts". PM me if you can recommend a competent firm or individual to maintain a 16m X 6m salt pool.

Sand filters all work on the same priciple. Apart from imnor changes in design they have used the same principle for decades. Technological advances are usually limited to to the materials used in construction: fibreglass, polyester, thermoplastics, etc for the tanks, and various platsics, usually ABS for the laterals. i'm still running a filter in Europe that is so ancient it has stainless steel laterals. Some very cheap tanks have been known to split, and some brands - even well known ones - of multiport valves tend to wear out quicker than others, and the spider gaskets may not always be easy to obtain. Basically however, sand filters do the job they are designed for.

The choice of filter media is important and so is its maintenance. I've seen filters filled with all sorts of rubbish, but only genuine graded silica sand is guraanteed to provide a reasonably long working life and provide the correct level of filtration.

Zeolite, generally marketed here in Thailand as Zelbrite has excellent filtration properties and various studies claim it to be as good as D.E. In any case, it's my personal choice. D.E. is messy, needs constant attention, while Zelbrite will last for years and will certaily outlast sand by a long time before it comes to the unenviable task of changing your filter media. D.E/.filters are also expensive, and it's my guess that they are destined to goslowly out of fashion.

Crushed glass is also offered as a filter media for use in sand filters. It's more expensive than Zelbrite, but FWIW, I am not aware that it out-performs Zelbrite.