timendres

It should be noted that, in general, immigration officers view the retirement extension as "easier" to process. In my experience, having done both, it is.

Interesting, since I just did that last month, and a friend did the same last year. EDIT - Oh dear. Wrong again. It was a Visa Exempt in both my case and my friends. I did not realize that VOA was treated differently. I am happy others clarified this.

Right. My bad. I forgot about that.

I believe that you needed to convert your VOA to a Non-O visa. This is a straightforward process, at least here in BKK. With the Non-O visa, you should have no problem opening a bank account.

So many things wrong with this story. The girl should be in school. The Chinese guy needs a week in Bangkok Hilton.

Spend enough time with Thai people, and you will notice they are not constantly "wai-ing" each other. You will begin to notice the contexts in which it is commonly used and/or expected. As a foreigner, returning a wai is never wrong.

My problem is not with "gay sex on TV". My problem is with the relentless, and excessive, "sex on TV" - gay or otherwise. I am old enough to remember when all that was needed was a "hint" of the sex that we now are shown in vivid detail. It often adds nothing to the story, and is simply gratuitous. Personally, I feel it often detracts from the story. But, I suppose it is a reflection of the modern audience?

In 13 years, I have never been short changed at a 7/11. At least a half dozen times, I have had to hand back money because they gave me too much change.

Sounds like mandatory fire extinguishers at strategic locations would be a good idea. I do not remember seeing one anywhere when I last visited.

A friend of mine likes The British Club for Christmas dinner: https://www.britishclubbangkok.org/the-club-event/christmas-lunch-dinner-4/ Not sure if you need a membership or not.

This. ^^^ The Thai police, while possibly having the best of intentions, are not going to be able to protect you. To be honest, most threats are never followed up on. They are psych games. But, you can never be sure. And do not skimp on the bodyguard. You need someone who is experienced and can handle the job.

Right. I was confusing that with the privilege of being able to purchase a condo without showing the funds came from outside the country. Thank you for setting that straight.

Working provides a path to permanent residence. The path is very expensive, in my opinion, for its limited benefits. You have to be sure that your salary meets the minimum (I believe 60k per month), and you need that for three years. Then you will likely part with somewhere between 300k and 1M baht to complete the process, depending on how you do it. The one big benefit for permanent residence is the ability to purchase land, if I recall correctly. As for citizenship, I am not sure, as I have never looked into it.

Unless you have a real need to work, the retirement extension is vastly superior to a work permit extension. The work permit does provide some small advantages, for instance in terms of opening bank accounts or qualifying for a real credit card. But the cost and hassle is hardly worth those small perks.

The Amity treaty does not change the 1 WP = 4 Thai employees requirement. What it does allow is for an American to own 100% of their company (minus a tiny percentage for the other required shareholders). In the case of my company, I owned 99.5% of the company, and my brother and a friend (both American) owned 0.25% each.

I have hired 5 Silprakorn graduates, and all were excellent employees. All spoke English. Some better than others, but all sufficient for work. That said, universities here could all use some improvement.

US police have no "power of prosecution". None. SEC is a regulatory agency. Hence, it can negotiate fines for breaking regulations. But anything that is criminal must be handed to a court of law. And there is no "on the spot" fines that are not illegal. This is why I inform friends that in the US you shut up until you have an attorney, but in Thailand you want to avoid getting to the attorney stage. In the US, you want to pursue justice in a court. In Thailand, you want to avoid ever going to court.

Met several Aussies here, some clients of my company, others not. All of the Aussies I have met have been really cool people. But I met none of them in a bar.

I do not know of any "pay to the police" option in the US that is anything short of illegal.

Wow.

Pretty skewed statistical sample, don't you think? What do you think the percentage would be testing patrons at an event at the temple? [ actually, now that I think about it, maybe it would be 70%! 555 ]

I believe the reason he stated he can read DM's, but not reply, is because there is an information lockdown. Simple messages from a war zone can unintentionally reveal sensitive information.

If you can find someone who is willing to assist you, 500 THB per day is reasonable.

Oh thank God! I was starting to worry that @scottiejohn was about to ignite the Spanish Linkquisition.

"this is only done through an agent" answers the question. There is no such thing as a 15 month extension based on retirement. Does not exist. Hence, whatever your "agent" was doing can probably only be done with that agent. I suspect the "immigration shakeup" earlier this year (with the Chinese mafia fiasco), caused whatever "channel" the agent was using for this to disappear. It was never a proper extension.