Almudena

You can go by yourself by train to Nong Khai. Walking from Nong Khai station to the border there are visa companies that can assist you with the paperwork and hotels. Or if you want an agent to do it "all-in", then I would suggest that you contact a Pattaya/Bangkok agent and they can pick you up from outside Khon Kaen bus station, (providing they use the Nong Khai checkpoint) as they must pass it on route.

That's incorrect! COR from Pattaya and renewed both bike and car licenses in a remote driving test center in Khon Kaen province within 45 minutes of arriving no problems at all. In fact the test center only conducted 8 renewals during that particular day.

From my personal experience of dealing with different immigration offices, Khon Kaen immigration office is one of the better ones. Just a shame they'd moved out of the bus station, which was very handy.

Can the re-entry permit be purchased at any Immigration office in the country or only where the tm30 is registered? Reason being, want to visit the islands of Satun shortly and may but not sure yet fancy a nip over to the Malaysian islands as well. TIA

Don't worry, the visa agents have found away around the BBL issue.

If you're already on a long term extension, you should still be able to open one up yourself. Just need a resident certificate from immigration and pop down the bank yourself. It's the folks here without a long term visa that will have difficulty. From my past experience last year, I found it impossible myself to open a BKK bank in Pattaya. Just before I left the branch the girl whispered in my ear and winked "Use another branch in Chonburi province". Went up to Chonburi city the next day and the account was opened within 10 minutes and wasn't forced to but their insurance either.

Other agents in other provinces can help opening an account, but they won't help you unless you using their visa services as well.

All of us retirees already on retirement extensions will have already got a Thai bank account. It was the renewals that was concerning some of us.

Correct! I know of two western women in the village, married to Thai blokes, have children together and now they hold Thai passports. Also they didn't have to show the 400K in the bank when they were on marriage extensions.

I don't think that's an issue, it's the 65K per month method that they want to see that's coming in from abroad. If you use an agent, tell them that you already have 800K in the bank as their fees will be cheaper than having them loaning you the money.

Correct, but If using a Pattaya agent, it's cheaper to have a local Chon Buri Bank account as for the agent to transfer 800K in and out to an account in another province and back into their accounts means hefty transfer fees. Even with the hefty transfer fees, it's still cheaper to leave the 800K in the UK and use the interest to cover the agent fees.

You can open another Bangkok Bank account in another province and keep the old one, meaning you'll have two accounts, I did this myself last week. The Bangkok Bank in Pattaya refused to do this saying that you can only have one account linked to one passport. I then called them on 1333 and they said it could be done. Went to another branch in the province of Chonburi well away from Pattaya and walked out within 20 minutes with a new passbook, both accounts linked together on the banking app and was offered but not forced to buy insurance. Being retired means not working and free to move around wherever you want in Thailand. The visa extension can be renewed at any immigration office (at their own discretion).

It can be done, I went from a non-ed to a non-o myself. First talk to your local immigration and ask if it's OK to put 800K in to the bank for 3 months prior the change of reason on your non-ed or use an agent. Note, some immigration offices can do it and some won't, as it's at their own discretion.

Depends on the day, officer etc. Every time in the past coming back via an airport, some officers had commented by the number of stamps in my passport and I've told them straight that I'm not working here when I can earn 4 to 5 times more back in the UK and spend my earnings here in Thailand. Then they just stamp my passport, give a smile and let me thorough.