sandyf

4 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Things have certainly changed within the past year. They closed the Thai immigration booth at the train station in Malaysia.

There have been many posts about it since it happened.

Please supply some sort of valid reference, all the sources I have looked at are still showing things as they were.

Please also explain if you enter Thailand through the road border post, how do you get back into the station to catch the train.

17 hours ago, SpanishExpat said:

So if there is a border control directly at the train station it`s well hidden, as there were no signs at all.

You are right about that. It is downstairs at platform level and only available to those travelling into Thailand by train. Opens about an hour before a train departs.

I went through there about a year ago to Langkawi and despite what has been said it would appear that nothing has changed.

17 hours ago, BritTim said:

There are no longer any trains that cross the border from Malaysia into Thailand. There are effectively two stations, one on the Malaysian side and one on the Thai side. Trains on the Malaysian side are quite frequent. There are only a couple of trains a day on the Thai side, and it is probably not worth trying onward travel by train into Hat Yai. Bus or shared taxi is usually more convenient.

Why don't you read what has been said before posting rubbish. Thai trains have never stopped crossing the border into the Malaysian station of Padang Besar.

As I have previously said my ticket is from Padang Besar, not Padang Besar(Thailand), to Bangkok and that journey originates in Malaysia.

34 minutes ago, SpanishExpat said:

Crossed that border last year in September. After getting off the train, you walk over the bridge to the Malaysian border. Stamp out, walk 5 min trough no-mans land, until you get to the Thai border. I know that there`s also a train on the Thai side, but no clue from where it departs. 

After exiting to Thai immigration building there are

- motorbikes to take you to the market where the mini-buses to Hat-Yai depart

- the regular bus to Hat Yai (crossing the street next to the police station)

- private transfers to Hat Yai/ Airport walking right when you get out of the immigration building (I bargained 1000 Baht, as I was with a friend who had a regular luggage and we were in a rush)

 

That would be the case if you intend to travel by road in Thailand. There are 2 stations, one each side of the border, the one on the Thai side is mainly for Thais that want to get off. Also looks like from the man in Seat61, border control within the station is still the same.

There are now two stations at Padang Besar, but here we're talking about the main (and original) Padang Besar station located on the Malay side of the border where Malaysian trains meet Thai trains.  The other station is called Padang Besar II and it's a tiny local halt on the Thai side of the border, only served by a few Thai trains.

At Padang Besar main station there are Malaysian and Thai border controls located inside the station building just a few metres apart, you go through one and then the other depending whether you're travelling north or south.

https://www.seat61.com/Malaysia.htm#Padang_Besar_station_information

On 1/18/2020 at 1:57 PM, vogie said:

Of course the SNP speaks for the majority of Scotland even though the majority of Scotland voted to remain within the UK, and it's not a very democratic way of running an area of the UK.

You conveniently omitted that the majority of Scotland voted to remain in the EU, of course that lies outside the brexiteers version of democracy.

30 minutes ago, recom273 said:

Where was the immigration desk last time, were both Thai and Malay on the platform and you just hopped off the train, stamped in and out? 
 

if so, it’s not like that anymore, they have moved It to the new immigration building  - I haven’t used the train for a longtime - but I ride outwards on the odd occasion.
 

There is a recent post in the southern forum, with times and info that might help.

If you haven't used the train for a long time how do you know there is no immigration on the platform.

There is a platform that the Thai trains leave from and you had to pass through immigration to get on the platform.

I ask again, if you have to leave the station to leave Malaysia and enter Thailand, how do you get back to the station in Malaysia to catch a train into Thailand.

I know what time the train leaves from Padang Besar to Bangkok, it is on my ticket.

I do not know what you mean "you just hopped off the train, stamped in and out? "

Last time we got off the Hat Yai shuttle, went through immigration, walked out of the station and caught a taxi.

Years ago when we went to Butterworth we got off the train, went through immigration and got back on the train. Since 2016 all Thai trains terminate at Padang Besar.

On 1/18/2020 at 11:39 AM, brewsterbudgen said:

The British Embassy has nothing whatsoever to do with passports or visas. 

That is not entirely true, if you have a problem with a passport or visa application you can ask the embassy for assistance.

I know from experience that they will intervene if the situation justifies it.

17 hours ago, recom273 said:

Be warned you now have to go over the bridge and walk through up to immigration, through no-mans land, it’s a bit of a trek, there used to be a desk in the platform. 

Can you clarify a bit, I am going in a couple of weeks. Last time I went about a year ago, you came off the train, through Thai immigration and then Malaysian immigration/customs and made your way out or to Malaysian trains. Bit the same coming back, all done on the platform.

If you have to leave the station and enter Thailand through the road border post, how would you get back to the station, it is inside Malaysia.

When I went before, from Malaysia into Thailand, immigration on the platform was only open for an hour before the Hat Yai trains departed.

13 minutes ago, vogie said:

The SNP wanted out even before the Brexit referendum and I have no doubt that if the EU referendum had been reversed, the SNP would still have hankered after another referendum and another and another. So in that respect it made no difference, it just gave the SNP an even bigger stick to beat the rest of the UK with.

But a generation is not long to wait for your indy2, 25/30 years is neither here nor there in the respect of referendums.

Like many brexiteers you push the view that the SNP speaks for Scotland, that is the role of the Scottish parliament, there appears to be some difficulty in differentiating between party and parliament.

Fortunately it is irrelevant what view you take, it will be the view of the Scottish parliament that will decide the way forward.

2 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Correct me if I am wrong but VFS have only been doing this passport business since early 2014, no?

 

Maybe you are including a Thai partners UK visit visa application experiences over at Regent House in your claim of 10-year of VFS misery?

You made the first post without thinking about it. Yes you are right, VFS started on the passports March 2014, and it wasn't without problems at VFS.

I have done 8 UK visitor visas, 2 at Regent House, also Spain, Malta and Canada where VFS have been involved many of which have incurred problems. The Canadian visa was done directly with Canadian immigration but unfortunately you cannot avoid going to VFS to get the visa put in the passport. Took 10 days for the Canadians to approve the visa and then 3 weeks for VFS to have it put in the passport. It took so long it crossed a rate change and I got about 100 baht refund but would rather have gone without the aggravation.

Obviously some have been ok but with a history of bad experiences I am quite entitled to say so, or do you also dispute that.

On 1/16/2020 at 9:08 PM, TheDark said:

We marry for life, until death do us apart. 

 

Yet many, perhaps most, marriages end before that once in a lifetime commitment is over. 

 

When situations change, the original deal becomes invalid, it's often best to reevaluate where we are at and act accordingly. That reevaluation happened with Britain leaving one union. It changed the whole marriage between Britain and Scotland. 

 

It's fair to allow Scotland to ask it's country's citizens, what they want to do and with whom they wish to continue their journey. 

Exactly, the outcome may well be the same as 2014 but it is up to the people of Scotland to make the choice.

The reality is that the EU could never support Scottish independence as long as the UK was a member of the EU, that is about to change.

The UK signed up to the UN charter.

While the UN Charter serves as a kind of world Constitution and article 103 is unmistakable in stipulating that the Charter prevails over all other treaties, the political narrative does not always conform to this legality. There is a degree of “fragmentation” in international law, which States invoke self-servingly to apply international law selectively, violating general principles of law -- not by accident, but deliberately and calculatingly, just to see whether they can get away with it. 

Even though self-determination has emerged as a jus cogens right, superior to many other international law principles, including territorial integrity, it is not self-executing.  There have been many legitimate claimants to the right of self-determination who have seen their right denied with impunity by occupying powers.

https://academic.oup.com/bybil/article-pdf/48/1/443/6704778/48-1-443.pdf

On 1/16/2020 at 5:07 PM, Monomial said:

Whether it was part of the document or a personal comment by its author, it is clear that it was considered to be a "once in a generation" choosing of paths.

So like Bojo you think a personal comment should be legally binding on the nation.

In the last few days the sale of a King Edward crown was described as a once in a generation opportunity. Are we to take it another one cannot be sold for a generation.

If ad lib remarks were fixed in law, we would be looking through the ditches.

On 1/16/2020 at 12:26 PM, Jip99 said:

What a load of <deleted> being posted on here.

 

For UK passports VfS are simply the handling agents appointed by UKPA to receive passport applications and deliver new passports.

 

The system is straightforward and the instructions are simple. 

Hardly, I have been dealing with VFS on a regular basis for over a decade and experience has shown they are nothing but a bunch of ignorant parasites. The thread title is perfectly valid.

As far as passports are concerned, VFS only came into the picture when the government in its wisdom took overseas passports from the FCO and gave them to the passport office. My passport renewal took 11 weeks and that was following intervention by the UK embassy.

The whole VFS scenario is consistent with how the UK government operates.

AND one last pazzle: the requirements list states that all documents regarding the bank letters must be

prepared and signed by the bank ON THE SAME DAY OF THE APPLICATION...( Documents under 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3

must be issued and updated to be the same date of the Application )...HOW on earth is that possible?

Some time ago my bank changed the policy on bank statements, they had to be ordered at least 24 hours in advance. When I mentioned the immigration requirement regarding the date they said the covering letter would be dated for the day of collection.

No problem at immigration even though the printouts had the previous day's date.

On 1/13/2020 at 9:50 PM, joe999 said:

Might call immigration first, or go there personally. In any case, whatever I'm told, I don't think that I can rely on it 100%, things always change....

In 2014 I applied for a new passport and got caught up in the UK fiasco. After about 7 weeks my permission to stay was about to expire so I applied for a marriage extension to get another 30 days but they told me not to bother coming back unless I had the new passport.

It arrived 3 days before the under consideration expired.

16 hours ago, melvinmelvin said:

 

yes, bad news,

 

worse news will come when foggy islands start to deviate from EU production/health/safety standards in order

to secure trade deals with the US (and others)

 

(short sightedness always win)

 

 

Quite, brexit blindness hid the slippery slope.

Even the government acknowledged it would be downhill.

The government’s own internal analysis, leaked during the general election campaign, said there would be checks on goods in both directions between the two parts of the UK. 

It also said there would be a devastating impact on the Northern Irish economy and claimed 98 per cent of Northern Ireland export businesses would be “likely to struggle to bear this cost” of customs declarations and documentary and physical checks on goods within the UK.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-deal-border-check-boris-johnson-uk-eu-barnier-northern-ireland-goods-a9283686.html

15 hours ago, LivingNThailand said:

Thank you Khun SandyF

 

I'm good with two accounts.  One income, one money in bank, with a nice cushion of money.  Good with letters confirming and updated bank balances.  What I REALLY need to know is does the bank STATEMENTS have to MATCH the balances in the Bank Books if it takes 7-10 DAYS for Bangkok Bank to get me one.  The dates on the statements will be different than the other docs.

How important that they match unfortunately will be down to the IO concerned.

I was never asked for the bank books but that is nothing to go on. I always arranged that they did but never had to cover 12 months.

It is only really the income account that is the problem and if you felt that could be an issue you could get an up to date statement on the day to back up the historical statement.

I appreciate that each time you ask it means putting the hand in the pocket.

Good luck.

16 hours ago, gomangosteen said:

What worldly topics could he discuss? 

Ship him and their whole family of parasites off to Canada, their rent-a-celebrity novelty would soon wear off.

'At Home With The Windsors' a freak show for the 2020s

Old hat.

Take it you have never heard of Wallis Simpson or seen any of the movies/TV programmes. Even featured in one of this year's Golden Globes nominations.

3 hours ago, mogandave said:

And if “...Iran’s second in command...” wasn’t a murdering terrorist he wouldn’t have been on the kill list.

 

 

That is not a particularly relevant point.

Who was the most vocal when Russia was accused of assassination on foreign soil, branding it totally unacceptable.

Who was the most vocal over the Saudi assassination on foreign soil, branding it totally unacceptable.

Answers on a postage stamp.