Robert24

I have obtained a 2 entry tourist visa from the Thai consulate in Vientiane with the following key dates:

Visa issued: 6 Oct 2015

Entered Thailand: 7 Oct 2015

On Visa it says "ENTER BEFORE 5 Jan 2016"

Is my assumption correct that I have to use my 2nd entry before 5 January 2016 or is this only applicable for the 1st entry.

Thanks for the clarification.

I can't believe some people still don't know about Thailand Elite...

The program is already 13 years old.

---------------------------------

The program is NOT the same program that was started 13 years ago.

That program effectively died years ago and went bankrupt, except that a different government and a different group of politicians revived it by pumping more public money into it.

I am not opposed to the program, I just think that on the basis of its history anyone depending on the program is walking on very thin ice.

I do believe that based on Thailand's spotty political history there is no way to be sure that 5 years from now this new program will have either he funds or the political support needed to keep it going.

From what I hear they are having financial problems again keeping it going even with the new "slimmed down" benefits package which is much less than the original package they announced years ago.

It is up to you, but based on history, I don't know if this new PE visa program will still be around in 5 years or not.

As the Thai bargirls say, "Up to You".

I'm considering getting the PE Visa not because of the perks but because of the ease of stay in Thailand. That's the main reason I'm considering it, it will help me to stay without doing visa runs until I can get a retirement visa. In my opinion the perks are more of a side benefit, but I'm no expert, just someone who is likely to get the PE Visa next year when my current visa runs out. I'm just tired of doing visa runs or looking how many exempt stamps you have and having to worry about whether you get questioned by immigration on my next entry.

Ive found some Thai women VERY arrogant , like they really are something special, the last one was renting a room from a friend of my Wife 's and hadnt paid the rent for 2 months, I was asked to evict her, I met her i n the lift and said she hadnt paid her rent, she looked down on me and grunted as if to say , who the <deleted> are you telling me.

10 minutes later I was telling her she had 5 minutes to get her stuff out or I would be chucking them out the window, the "hi so" then became the " its not fair" sob story, i didnt give a sh*t and out she went, stuck up little cow

probably not a hi-so girl though....

just your perception in my opinion. It's true that people have more money given that the middle class has more disposable income. But not much of a change in terms of culture in my opinion. What's changed is more the trends, i.e. interest into Korean bands etc.

I would guess that they have remembered another easy way to make easy money, or another way to annoy a foreigner

or both

you're required to carry your passport or approved copies of same. guests have certain responsibilities beside crying.

Please show me the police rule or the legislation that says non-Thai's must carry their passports with them at all time. And just in case you forget, non-Thai's includes citizens of Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, China and Myanmar.

well it's not about what the law exactly states. If you are in this situation as described, you have the option to pay 500 baht and get on with life or to go to the police station, waste plenty of hours and possibily you walk away at the end without a fine. But only maybe, maybe they will still insist on a fine...

My recommendation: sometimes here you have to pay a small fine and move on with life. Avoid problems in this country, especially with the police. Maybe next time carry a copy of the passport and try it that way..

the same thing happened to me recently and they accepted my driving licence. I think they were specifically checking for underage drinking. I did have my passport in the car outside the pub.

Do your due diligence , i think when all your visa and setup costs are accounted for and you take into account that Phuket tourists numbers are no longer a reflection of the boom years the obvious will come to you, be careful.

i am a elite card member under 50 and not married the 500.000 is the same amount i would spend on visa runs for 5 years (i dont do mini buses) basically i paid my visa runs upfront its not alot of money if you have it

The only issue I have with the TE program is the inherent unreliability and unpredictability of the Thai government and all its various parts, including by extention the TE program.

There's a well-advised saying for farangs in Thailand: never pay in advance for a product you've yet to receive. For me, that advice applies in the case of the TE program.

If TE has provided a visa for those who have purchased it in past years up to this point, that's great. Glad it worked out.

But, along the way, the TE program was headed toward being shut down at one point under one government, their offices were barely staffed and there was talk about people potentially having to file lawsuits to get refunds. In the end, it didn't come to that., as the government once again reversed its course.

But, it just goes to show the inherent unpredictability of government policies and programs here, with new governments and new ministers coming in every year or two, each with their own ideas of how things ought to be. And the most recent news reporting on TE in the BKK Post showed that it's still a financially troubled program that's not meeting its revenue targets.

So, if someone who's not eligible for a retirement or marriage extension of stay wants to plunk down 500,000 baht to in essence buy a promised 5-year visa, more power to them. But at least, go into it being an informed consumer and be aware of whom you're dealing with, and what's occurred with the program since its inception.

Yes if you come to Thailand to seek political stability you are in the wrong country regardless of what visa you have. But one of the great things is that there is the 5 year option @ 500k which something a bit more predictable. Both in terms of someone seeing themselves staying in Thailand for that long.

But one thing I've learnt as well over the many years in Asia is that you shouldn't overreact to political instability in Thailand. It's been that way for a long time, foreign investors are still here and are not deterred by that.

Immigration here in Chiang Rai has been a blessing.

Nice friendly treatment and the longest I have ever been there was about 30 minutes. (One anomaly- Once I had to go back again to pick up my extension because the person who has to OK everything had not yet arrived.)

So if one doesn't live a long way from an immigration office and the office is well run and friendly... aside from going through the airport faster and maybe a ride to the airport and back in some cities, I still don't get the benefit vs. the price.

that may be the case if you are over 50 or working or married or have children. If you are below 50, not working, not married, your options are fairly limited hence why people are attracted to the PE visa option.

this program is totally crazy and useless, for 500K i will pay 5 years home rent in Cambodia or the Philippines and 3 yrs rent in Ecuador or Peru.

I could settle in penang for free with the social visit stamps and rent will be less then 6K a month.

if someone bought a property under his name he s entitled for 5 yrs residency in Portugal, Spain and Malaysia M2H

you could sell back the property if you wish.

only fools will throw money at a blue stamp in passport, reminds me of one company who wanted to sell people lands on the moon .

thanks for the comments. Yes, well aware of the cost of living. Will inquire about the GIP directly but was wondering if anyone else has gone through that set up (and again, more interested in Option B stories where you simply invest without doing the entrepreneurial startup route). Again, I'd rather stay in the LOS (heck, all of my real estate is here save a couple of small holdings in the US), but these next 5-10 years are somewhat of a dice roll as to where the country will be headed. It's easy to hope that we'll keep doing these shakeups every 6 years without any 'real' change, but when family and children are involved, I have to get Plan B and C set up.

understand where you come from. Have a look at Malaysia as plan B. Life is more comfortable there than in Singapore. Granted not as good as Thailand but some good options to stay long term with the MM2H program.

a few points from my point of view:

- permanent residency in Singapore is not permanent. They will review your status (can't remember how frequently) and if you don't meet the requirements anymore, you will loose PR.

- Singapore is a great place to work but not necessarily to live. It's relatively small and after a while you will start traveling out of Singapore on weekends/holidays because you will have seen most of it. I mean it's a small island after all.

- Cost of living is significantly higher than Thailand. Consider at least 5-6 times more. Some examples: rent/housing. Expect at least to pay S$ 6,000-7,000 p.m. for a decent place. (THB 150k-175k pm). If you don't like condos, plenty of townhouses available. If you buy, expect at least a budget of S$ 1.5m++ for a decent place. Food is also considerably more expensive. (expect for simple dish in food court to pay at least 4$-5$ (100-125 baht)

- cars are very expensive. expect to pay roughly 2-3 times more than in Thailand.

- school tuition are also about 4-5 times of what it is in Thailand.

In summary, in my opinion there are places with better quality of life than Singapore. Granted it's a clean and safe place, good healthcare (but expensive) but highly populated, relatively small place. Also bear in mind that the anti-foreigner sentiment has been growing in Singapore given the large number of foreigners residing in Singapore.

Recommend to consider Malaysia as an alternative for a plan B option to Thailand if you want to stay in SEA. Alternatively if North Asia is an option, I personally liked living in Japan. Expensive as well, but clean, safe and a big country. If you can bear the cost of living, I'd choose Japan any time over Singapore.

@dasboot: my recommendation would be to pay the fine as soon as possible on Monday and move on. You did a number of things wrong, so frankly a small fine of 1500 or 1800 baht is not much at all. I previously had to pay a fine despite not having done anything wrong. Sometimes you better write off a few hundred baht then getting into discussion/trouble with the police.

No, I think it must be just your office environment. Thais are in general polite and treat others with respect. Maybe you should change jobs and go work somewhere else.

Either you never worked with Thai or have poor understanding .

Yes they smile, and then casually drop in conversation how much money bf gave or how much they spent on something.

Usually with someone who they know do not have the money .

Not sure how you call that respect ? But it's said with a smile so yeah, would polite

I've worked with Thais over many years so it can't be that. So it must be that I have poor understanding according to you:) I think you would fit right in, in the office environment where the Op is working.

No, I think it must be just your office environment. Thais are in general polite and treat others with respect. Maybe you should change jobs and go work somewhere else.

Right, unless very radical changes were to occur in Thai politics and society that would allow for such changes. However, don't look for anytime soon for that to occur. I'd bet my money on China becoming more open to diversity before Thailand does.

Anyway, Thailand is not even inclusive when it comes to other Asian races living here. Certainly not Indians of course, but not even Asians who look more similar to Thais, such as Cambodians or Burmese. Chinese, Lao, intermarriages between Thais and these and other groups have, over time been allowed to assimilate but new arrivals will not be any more likely to assimilate than richer westerners or Asians from richer countries like Malaysia and Singapore.

Not that anyone would want to in mainland China but I think it is a lot easier to become a permanent Thai resident and citizen than in China. Correct me if I'm wrong.

If I had to list countries that had an ethnocentric problem it would be Korea #1 and Japan #2. Thailand would be quite a way down on the list.

fully agree with you. In terms of Ethnocentrism I would put Japan as #1 by far, followed by Korea than China. Thailand is a quite open society and open to foreigners and I would put it ahead of Malaysia and Indonesia in terms of their openness to other foreigners and other races. Malaysia and Indonesia accept you but are not as open minded as Thailand. Thais are probably a bit opportunistic but who blames them. They also like mixed blood Thai with White Westerner which people in other Asian countries do not like, i.e. China, Japan etc. They are all very proud to be 100% Chinese or Japanese, they would not want to be mixed. Also Thailand is more open to Westerners than Singapore for instance. So overall in Asia Thailand is probably one of the best places for a foreigner to live (both Westerners as well as Asians) in terms of inclusiveness and openness.

If people don't believe, go live a while in China or Malaysia or Japan - I'm sure you would change opinion rather quickly.

My wife's niece went to the state school in Chonburi. She is now studying clinical medicine on an international English speaking course at a university in China and she was awarded a scholarship on her first year results. She did fairly well at school but was not at the top of the class. It is not all bad.

While in the mean time 100 000 doctors working in Thailand can not speak a word of English and prescribe antibiotic for muscle pain.

well all the Thai doctors I know are had contact with, do speak English quite well.

Last year, my family visited a national park/rainforest walk in North QLD (owned by aboriginals) and an island on the great barrier reef. We were with a family ofThai friends who were visiting from their home in southern Australia. For park entry and the island transfers, my family paid LOCALS rate and our friends were charged about 20% more.

good example. I have 2 more:

1) Anyone been to the Singapore gardens by the bay? Realised that locals pay lower rates than foreigners?

2) Anyone been skiing in Switzerland? Realised that locals get a significant discount on the skiing tickets?

You will encounter many such things all over the world. Don't get upset. Either accept it and move on, or go somewhere else. Nothing to do with racism.

Ah and in Thailand I can often get the same rates as Thais when I show my Thai driving license.

I think experiences such as these are for the maladjusted. Ex-pats or locals. Ex-pats and locals. People not thinking about money and or sex all the time, will not have many of the experiences shared here on TV. They won't need them. They're normal, mature , comfortable with themselves, adults. All shapes. sizes, colors and countries. Moving nicely through life.

A real weird lot of posters on this forum who continually bash the Thais ,The elite, the rich, the governmenmt and other posters of this forum. Maladusted and sad beings. Thank god i never meet them. I must live in a different world to them. I never have any such problems as many farangs seem to have whilst living here. I have been cheated by Farangs, but no Thais.

I have been cheated on numerouse occasions by Thais,usually for small amounts, however on a few occasion for larger amounts, this being with the complicity of the Thai so-called justice system. Yet I have never been cheated by a farang,so what does this prove.

It proves that many countries have lower integrity standards in Asia, incl China, India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines etc. If you want to move to a country with high integrity standards in Asia, then move to Japan or Korea.

Whilst I sometimes wish, Thai business people or in general would adopt some of the mentality from Japan/Korea, I also know this won't happen. So best to move on and not complain too much about it.

For 10 years I have been sharing my time between Vietnam and Thailand and pay modest rent on both Hanoi and Bangkok. I enjoy the best of both worlds which are very different as are the people. When I initially moved to Hanoi I invested US$50k in a yearly term deposit account @14%. That has now dropped to about 8%. No trouble at all opening a bank account in Vietnam unlike Bangkok where I tried bank after bank only to be knocked back on some specious grounds. Finally after advice from an expat friend I managed to open a savings account with Bangkok Bank but use this only for funds transfers because of the low interest rate. I have never had any problems with my Vietnamese investment account and they have always paid the yearly interest on time and without fuss. This is for information only and I am not giving advice. My life's experience has taught me that buying property with my own money but with someone else's name on the title is a mugs game.

Was the term deposit account on which you invested $50k in $ or Vietnamese Dong?

no racism here. Just 2 private companies having tiered pricing... Just move on and go somewhere else. I bank with Kbank and BBL and both have the same conditions for Thais and foreigners.

I recommend you don't spend time and energy on things you cannot change. Just move on.

On a positive note, compared to other Asian countries I stayed before, Thailand is quite open minded when it comes to foreigners.

totaly agree with it being quiet, and those "holier than though" clowns on here, shut it ok. it has been quiet even before christmas. and even the "sexpats" as you will call them are ALL CHEAP CHARLIES just ask the girls,- they sit in the bars i frequent all afternoon/nights clutching a bottle of LEO or CHANG.and never buy a "lady drink" drink, just ogle the girls, some ladies exist only on "lady drinks" they are not all "on the game" . i know a friend in cowboy who in 3 days had not had one lady drink. so no money for 3 days. (now some idiot will come on here and say "tell her to get a job in a factory" )

I'm not suprised Western tourism is down as Thailand is no longer such good value and people are realizing.

Like a beer at a Bangkok bar for 120-150 just way too expensive as you can get the same thing for a third in neighboring countries. It's only a matter of time before all those that were going to visit have visited already so the numbers stop increasing. Additionally most tourist are repeat visitors like myself, who have been here 20+ times. The only reason I come is because this is a hub for Air Asia, otherwise I don't find it competitive with neighboring countries in terms of friendliness and value for money, and it has a lot of downsides and annoyances like the fact they censor the internet or refuse to change money because I forgot my passport. These things make me not want to come here.

respect your personal view on Thailand, fair enough. But for me I still like see Thailand very differently. I travel a lot and I'm always happy to come back and call Thailand home. I don't pay 120-150 baht for a beer, all the nice places I visit, beer and whiskey is still very cheap, actually cheaper compared to most places I visit and travel to. Most things are a lot cheaper here and service is still good most of the time.

If it is true what you say that most visitors/tourists are repeat visitors/tourists doesn't that speak for Thailand? Why would you come back if you don't like it? I wouldn't travel here just because it's an Air Asia hub. Why can't you travel from KL instead or Singapore?

tourist numbers are up but as people noted they come from different countries with different interests. It's obvious which country has the biggest growth potential for Thailand. And if you have a business that caters to them, you will do well.

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

She has a temporary job,tell her to quit and get the hell out of there!

You should be able to help her with finances and tell her to go somewhere he will not find her.

change simcard,close facebook and just be smart.If she is not willing to do this for herself then you can not help her.

Does she have any family?Thai people will tolerate a lot but i know of families who would put an end to this very fast!

There are rther things she could do for self defense but get out of the situation and survive is the first step,lawyer up later.

She only has elderly sickly parents who live quite a distance away, she can't involve them. She loves her job as a IT Microsoft product teacher.

I do read domestic violence is quite prevalent in Thailand. She tells me that people don't want to get involved in man/wife disputes. Even once when she called the police he grabbed the phone and told them it is just a husband/wife dispute. Is this true??

Yes, many people will ignore violence in a husband wife dispute unfortunately. So why isn't she telling people this is not her husband? People would not ignore a woman being attacked by a strange man at the market. The police wouldn't ignore a home invasion and rape. Why didnt she tell the hospital that man is not her husband? That that man is a stranger who attacked and tried to rape her?

This story makes no sense at all. Why would she put up with a stranger invading her house, raping her, beating her, etc for some crappy temporary job? Are you sure this man isn't her husband?

She tells people he is not her husband but he disputes it and people do not know if it is true or not, so they don't get involved. He just tell them she is his bad wife.

She has made a minor complaint last year at the police but the file just got "missing" and she later heard the Police commander who is this man's drinking buddy took care of the "problem". After that she was warned that he is a drinking buddy of her college director too, this makes her worry about losing her job.

The first time she went into hospital he played the caring husband, stayed the night while her son stayed to protect her. Next morning she got ready to discharge herself as she was not going to put up with it. He promptly paid for the hospital like the "caring husband" before she could contact me to help her pay. I told her it is right that he should pay as he got her there in the first place, but she was adamant that we should give his money back him to stop future problems. Second time round in hosp[ital now they think he is her husband, because he paid the hospital the first time. Crazy, crazy. This time again he played the caring husband, gifts, food but only for a day then he left her alone. I paid for her to get out.

Why doesn't she tell people? She is a very traditional woman, I had to go through the whole chaperon thing the first time I visited her. When I dragged the story out of her why she is injured, you know what she did? she apologized to me profusely as if it was her mistake that it happened to her. I took quite a while to get it across to her that it is not her mistake. She is ashamed to mention it. I think some of the responses here have had no experience of traditional Thai women and their values.

She does not put up with it, he hasn't raped her because she put up a fight which caused her internal bleeding. She does the best she can with no support only the support of her son. He has fought and kept the man away from her on many occasions.

Her job is not a crappy job, she enjoys her teaching immensely. Last year after I helped her sort out her short term debts she was so upbeat that she even enrolled for her masters in order to help her get a permanent position.

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Maybe get in contact with the Paveena Foundation and see if they can help:

Thanks for this, much appreciated. I will pass it on to her.

Agree the Paveena foundation is a good point of contact. They can help her even if it turns out he is the real husband. I recommend you go to the Amphoe office when you come to Thailand to double check she is really not married to him. Also the police officer can't ignore her complaint even if he is the drinking buddy. If you come, I recommend you go with her to the police.

Agree with the red flags. The circumstances and lack of action of her environment and police do indeed point to the fact that this might be her husband. Otherwise there would be plenty of people taking action and for sure the police doesn't turn a blind eye to such criminal offenses.