lamyai3

Steady on!

I've got a date with Cony organised at the weekend...

Guess we should feel sorry for his predecessor, who presided over a pandemic.

https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thailand-purchases-another-30-million-doses-of-pfizer-vaccine-as-booster-doses/

McCartney's greatness is really showcased in the new documentary just out. Check out this clip of him creating "Get Back" out of thin air while waiting for Lennon to show up....

I think there's two reasons the non O-A was singled out for mandatory insurance back in 2019, irrespective of the muddled official reasoning as to why non O-A applications and extensions need insurance while the virtually identical non O extensions (affecting a much larger group of people) don't. Firstly, the government had been cracking down for some years already on the easiest and sometimes most abused visa options for several years, rendering earlier long stay routes such as repeat tourist and education visas no longer possible. Probably the best choice if over 50 was the excellent non O-A visa, which required money to be shown in an overseas bank only, and if properly used allowed up to 24 months stay, after which you could just rinse and repeat. In comparison with the other visa options available this was no doubt seen as unduly favourable, and increasing the cost of it by adding insurance was one way of taking the shine off this visa class and reducing the number of people choosing to use it. Since the Non O-A allowed someone to stay here long term without depositing a single baht it was an obvious target for compulsory insurance, as it didn't really require much in the way of proof of funds or income. Second, the insurance lobbyists in the government and the private sector both would surely like to see these requirements applied to all long stayers, but this wouldn't be so easy to achieve. In this sense non O-A holders serve as a relatively small test group for the new insurance, and whether it gets imposed on non O's at some point in the future is anyone's guess. It brings to mind the scrapping of embassy income letters for four countries, also in 2019. At the time we were told that the new rules would affect all countries but it soon became clear it was a targetted crackdown that was dropped as soon as it achieved the initial goal of stopping these countries using the income letters and have them switch to monthly transfer or bank deposit instead. In this case the underlying plan might be nothing more than to disincentivize people from applying for non O-A's and instead to switch them across to non O's and extensions.

Good to see they've thrown some extract of farang in there.

To be fair, his diligence in the mask wearing department was exemplary. He didn't let it slip below his nose once, whether clinging to the bonnet or being chased around the vehicle by the unmasked and bloodthirsty ladyboy...

Regarding the Emirates cover discussed earlier in the thread, it appears they are discontinuing this from the end of the month. https://thepointsguy.com/news/emirates-covid-travel-insurance/

"National Office of Buddhism to probe conduct..." A NOB probe should sort it out.

They just need the insurance certificate. Last year I gave the original, this year a copy was fine.

According to the Krungthep Mail it was three clinics and one Korean chiropractor. Adjustment fees looked excessive.

I got part of the initial US Pfizer batch in August / September, I guess we'll see booster doses rolled out on a larger scale from around February or March.

A copy of it is still required for every 90 day report.

The Thai Temperance League wishes to thank it's members for their participation in this poll.

I should have read the whole thread before I commented ????

They could walk 500 miles, and they could roll 500 more, and they'd still only be in Lyon ????????

According to reports a few patrons caught fraternising on Soi Cowboy have just spent the whole weekend there.

The senior officer you spoke to in L section sounds maybe the same as the one who dealt with me back then. I was one of the small number of people who got erroneously stamped in for 30 days on my Non O-A right after the insurance requirements were brought in during the first few days of November 2019. This was quite a headache to sort out (eventually got fixed at Suvarnabhumi where it was first misstamped), but in the process of trying to get it corrected to 12 months I was referred to a senior officer at CW - her comments were quite interesting. She was very pleasant with me, but when she looked at my passport she turned up her nose in disdain and said "This visa type not good, I recommend you transfer to Non O." It was as if the visa class had been suddenly rendered unfit for purpose by high decree and was no longer considered a good option. She joked with me that I looked strong and didn't need insurance, and proceeded to walk me through the steps to switch to a Non O, although the only thing on my mind really was getting my stamp changed to 12 months, especially since at that stage it was far from clear that the insurance would be required for extensions on existing Non O-As. I did think I would probably switch at some point down the line, but then 4 months later the country closed so I've had to make the subsequent two extensions on the same visa using the cheapest LMG policy (which to be fair was quite cheap). My overall impression was that the authorities, after having overhauled quite a few visa types in the preceding years, had now turned their attention to the retirement options available, and in the process felt that the conditions of the Non O-A were much too favourable compared to the alternatives. Until 2019 this visa was very easy to obtain, no money was required to be held in Thailand, and the visa was good for up to two years, after which it was easy to just let it expire and reapply. Already a few months earlier in 2019 the embassies of 4 major countries had been told to stop providing income affidavits, and the new insurance rules came hot on the heels of this. These changes were unusual in that they involved government departments beyond immigration - this was when Big Joke was Immigration Chief, and there were comments in the press at that time that even Prawit was taking a personal interest in the reforms. When the insurance requirements were announced a few months later, several of the official statements came from the Ministry of Public Health rather than Immigration, with the emphasis on unpaid hospital bills and the amount of money that could be raised through mandatory insurance. When I asked the L section officer if the insurance would apply to the Non O in future she said she didn't think so. One reason why this would be a major problem is that it would force too many older expats to leave Thailand (numbers or retirees on Non O extensions significantly outnumber those on Non O-A) so it seemed it was more of an attempt to steer people over to the Non O and extensions thereof. Of course time will tell what direction things unfold in the future, but it would be a massive own goal for a country that wants to attract retirees to expel a significant number of them with unaffordable (and in some cases unobtainable) insurance.

It must be down to the widespread availability of pornography. You can ogle this stuff for hours in Homepro before selecting a companion for the night...

I noticed were signs of activity in K Bank when I went a couple of weeks ago (my bank is next door to it). though I'm guessing they weren't fully reopened at the time. I asked my Thai friend to call the bank and check the situation, she was told that the CW branch reopened properly last Monday. Hopefully someone can verify this with an on the ground report soon but the answer she got on the phone at least was pretty clear. Think it was the manager at the nearby Central branch that she spoke with.

Don't go on 1st October, they will count this as 46 days before your extension date (15th November). Make sure it's clearly <45 days.

It was open last week.