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On 3/16/2018 at 1:33 PM, Tocher said:

8. Proof of TM 30 from landlord registration of aliens which you get from the office underneath Immigration. Other people have been charged 100 Baht for this but they forgot to charge me.

I was just able to do the online TM30 registration of myself (being condo owner, therefore my own landlord), as a result I got an Excel document with Thai characters that my PC cannot display properly, the first line in it is shown as "Çѹ·Õè 25 ÁÕ¹Ò¤Á 2561" and the next few lines look similar...

Should I bother to print it out with real Thai characters, most likely by using a Thai person's PC, and bring it to Koh Samui Immigration for my next one year extension, or is the proof that is available on site as mentioned in Tocher's comment the only thing that is needed regarding the TM30?

When I did my 90 day reporting a few days ago I was given back my passport with this information:

# 1 to 9 were needed in the previous years already.

# 10: I have read about "Drawing Map" on thaivisa.com before, but was never asked to do it so far. But I guess it's easy to do.

# 11: "Notification of the Residence" has been discussed earlier in this topic. They really seem to want to have that one now and I will need to figure out how to do it, as a condo owner on an island where normally no condos can be sold legally. Oops! Samui Immigration did accept my purchase contract instead of a rental contract in the previous years.

# 12: "A form of visa extension condition (Imm.2)". I have no clue what this is. A google search brought up the following topic where there is a link to this very topic I am posting right now, but I couldn't find it.

Is it related to # 11?

I entered my online reporting on 2nd January 2018, since then it has been in "pending" state. Now I just called Koh Samui immigration and got told "cannot do online, must come to office". OK then, I do another inter-island day trip there from Koh Phangan where I live, my deadline to avoid a fine is this Friday.
 

I'm now seriously considering setting up a pro forma address in Surat Thani city where I have friends and then see if the Surat Thani immigration office is more "online-friendly" than the one on Koh Samui. This would mean a longer day trip there for the yearly visa extension in April and then ideally do all 90 day reportings online.

Does anyone have experience with online reportings that got approved by Surat Thani immigration recently?

Is there a real risk that immigration actually comes to check if I really live in Surat Thani? 

On 1/7/2018 at 10:49 AM, ubonjoe said:

I don't think they are processing online reports. Others have reported they did not get an approval for theirs.

Since they don't accept mailed in reports it does not surprise me they are not accepting online reports.

Yes, unfortunately this seems to be the case now, but in October 2015 and in July 2016 I got my online reports approved by Koh Samui immigration. When I called them last October and asked about my pending report I was told that online reporting wasn't working - after I successfully submitted my report online. 

On 1/7/2018 at 10:49 AM, ubonjoe said:

I don't think they are processing online reports. Others have reported they did not get an approval for theirs.

Since they don't accept mailed in reports it does not surprise me they are not accepting online reports.

Yes, unfortunately this seems to be the case now, but in October 2015 and in July 2016 I got my online reports approved by Koh Samui immigration. When I called them last October and asked about my pending report I was told that online reporting wasn't working - after I successfully submitted my report online. 

Did anyone here get their online 90 day reporting approved by Koh Samui immigration recently? Mine seems to be "forever pending" again, like 3 months ago. ?

8 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

It does not matter which office you report to do the online application. But whether it is processed at your local office or not is another issue.

It seems that Koh Samui Immigration hasn't been processing them recently, at least not mine (post #3387).

After waiting 16 days in "Pending" status I went there today and did the reporting personally without any (other) problem. Even a form is not needed there anymore, just giving them the passport and then 45 to 60 minutes waiting time is enough. But it always involves an island-to-island day trip for me, so hopefully they will start approving online reportings again in the future...

My 90 day reporting is due today, I did it online on 1st October (the first time it worked in only one try for me...) and since then it has been in "Pending" status.

Now I just called Koh Samui immigration and explained my case. The lady told me "I think cannot do online long time". WOW!! She told me that I needed to go there (I mostly did this in the past when doing it online didn't work) or by post (I never did this so far, but once asked for the address and was told "cannot").

Last October I had another "forever pending" experience and sent them an e-mail but I never got a reply. About twice in the last 27 months the whole online reporting process did actually work for me incl. their approval.
 

Did anyone get an online reporting approved by Koh Samui immigration recently or earlier this year?

Thanks a lot khunPer for your kind replies. 

My initial idea was to do the health check at First Western Hospital on Koh Phangan, but they told me it must be done "at a government hospital", therefore I was wondering if anyone had some experience with a health check from the Government Hospital on Koh Phangan accepted or not accepted by Koh Samui immigration.

It's good to know that Koh Samui Immigration normally only accepts the visa extension 1 week before it is due. Last year I did it 2.5 weeks before and it was no problem, but things might have changed or it depends on the officer / weather / whatever...

I can't recall anyone ever saying "Ko Pan Yan" (or "Yang") until the early 2000s, when everyone new that I met had started pronouncing it with a Y - Ko Pan Yan.

Thanks a lot, Rob, that must be it!

I'm not sure, though, if only Leonardo DiCaprio mispronounces the island's name in this movie or other actors who talk about it, too. In this case it might be the movie's director or screenwriter who is to blame that since about 2000 zillions of backpackers and other ignorant folks make themselves look like fools when talking about "Koh Phan Yan / Yang"...

Even Google knows this and brings the correct results for mispronounced search terms.

Shouldn't you be calling that khrung thep mr picky?

Sure, as long as it's also pronounced Krung Thep and not "Kruy Theb".

My question was about the reason for the pronunciation of a "y" instead of a "ng". Ignorance and Chinese Whispers as suggested above may be the answers...

There is no correct spelling for Thai names to English it is spelt how it sounds

Yes, I agree. The question of this topic is about the clearly wrong pronunciation of Phangan with a "y", not about any wrong spelling of it. It's like calling Bangkok "Baykok"...

Because not everyone speaks Thai as well as you.

My Thai is limited to maybe 50 words and I probably pronounce most of them wrong, but hopefully not as wrong as Koh Pan-Yang :-)

That's because the initial "ng" is really really hard to pronounce by nearly all speakers of European languages because this sound usually exist only in middle or at the end of words.

In additional, most people read Phangan as Pan-gan and not Pa-ngan, hence why the "pan yan" reading.

Thanks, Mole.

But I'm still wondering how incorrect "Pan-Gan" can be turned into even more incorrect "Pan-Yan" or "Pan-Yang"... Where does the Y come from?

I had always thought the usual abbreviation was KPG, right?

KPG is quite usual, but KPN is correct for Koh Pha Ngan

KPY island ??

well, KPY as in "Koh Phan Yang"... :-)))

I just opened a new topic to find out the origin of this silly pronunciation mistake.

I wonder why some people (as far as I noticed mostly native English speakers) call Koh Phangan / Koh Pha Ngan incorrectly Koh Phan "Y"ang. I'm aware that the Thai letter "งั" may not be that easy to pronounce for everyone, but "ng" is definitely very far away from "y"...

Today someone in this forum even invented a new abbreviation "KPY" for Koh Phangan, most likely based on the incorrect pronunciation. :-)

Any thoughts, especially from "Koh Phan Yang sayers"?

It is possible to do the conversion but only at certain regional offices,

They have said it is possible to do them in Hat Yai, Bangkok and Chiang Mai. But it means 2 trips to get them because they have you come back in 15 days to get the stamps after applying.

Thanks a lot, I might try this. How about Samui immigration? And does the 90 day clock start from zero when the visa is converted to non-o, or is it 90 days from the arrival date?

OP , where you from. You have time to get a non imm O

I'm from Switzerland and have tried this in Bern, but only got a tourist visa. When I complained they gave me the regulations for a non-o O-A visa which was never my idea, so I kept the tourist visa. They told me that a non-o O visa was only given to someone who is married to a Thai. Different place, different practice I guess...

I'm 50, I have the intention to park 800 K THB in a yet to open bank account in Thailand, I've got a single entry Thai tourist visa in my passport, I have booked a one-way flight to BKK (arriving on 1st December 2014) and I would like to live in Thailand on a non-immigrant O / "retirement" visa for the coming years.

Now I asked the airline if they would let me on board with a one-way ticket without any ticket for leaving Thailand and I was told that they probably wouldn't... :-( Therefore I need to book a flight to a country nearby, for example to Malaysia (Penang or KL). My big question now is: When exactly should I leave Thailand again and book a flight for this purpose? My tourist visa should give me the right to stay until 29th January 2015 and I can probably get a 30 day extension until 28th February 2015.

One of the first things to do after having arrived in Thailand is to open a bank account and deposit the 800 K THB there. I know that it might be tricky to do this on a tourist visa but it seems that with the patience to try it until a bank (employee) agrees it will probably be possible. Let's assume that by mid-December this will be fine. As far as I know, for a non-immigrant O / "retirement" visa I need to have the 800 K THB in the account for at least 60 days, therefore I should be ready to apply for this visa by mid-February.

Does it make sense to book a flight to let's say Penang for mid to end of February and apply for the "retirement" visa there?

Or is it better to try to convert my tourist visa to a non-immigrant O "retirement" visa at an immigration office in Thailand around mid-February, hopefully get it and leave Thailand 3 months later (= mid-May) to get another such non-O visa and therefore book a flight for mid-May now (still with the aim to have a flight ticket to leave Thailand before I initially travel there on 1st December)?

It's possible that I misunderstood something, therefore please feel free to correct my thoughts...

Thanks a lot for all your kind advice!

Thanks a lot, guys!

I will fly from Switzerland (ZRH or GVA) or from an airport "nearby" like MUC, FRA, MXP..

My question was not really about airlines that are lax on their official limitations (even if this may certainly help as well), but about airlines that officially transport sports equipment for free or for a fixed cheap amount.

I just checked Ethiad and found this:
"Scuba Equipment - 1 set of scuba diving equipment is permitted free of charge weighing up to 15kg"

So this confirms what Brown1950 and lucifer666 wrote in this thread.

On the other hand, Emirates' policy is not as generous:

"As per the IATA regulations, SCUBA equipment is subject to normal excess baggage charges, if it exceeds the free baggage allowance."

Thank you very much, Thongkorn and Brown1950, for your fast answers! Ethiad sounds good, but I wouldn't want to pay £200 to any airline, even if my dive gear is worth a bit more. I will fly from Europe.

Are there any other good hints?

Dear sporty travellers who are used to flying to Thailand with sports equipment, especially dive gear

(or know something about it),

Which airlines will transport sports equipment like dive gear for free or cheap (for a fixed amount)?

I found this list on the web, but it's from 2008, therefore maybe not up to date anymore:

http://www.divebuddy.com/blog/2287/airlines-dive-gear/

I will move to Thailand in a few months and will bring my dive gear (no tanks or weights). Most likely the normal baggage allowance will not be enough to include the dive gear and I would like to avoid excess baggage charges.

Thanks a lot for all your help!