khunjeff

"He pointed out that last year 3% of all Emergency Room (ER) admissions to Thai hospitals were linked to cannabis or marijuana ingestion. That figure, so far, for this year, has risen to 17% or nearly 6 times what it was." Even the 3% figure is absurd, but a claim that 17% of emergency room admissions are linked to weed is utterly ridiculous. Studies in the US have indicated that only about 0.1% of hospital admissions there are caused by marijuana, and there's no reason to think that the situation here would be radically different. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2018/jul/06/patrick-kennedy/has-marijuana-caused-emergency-room-visits-skyrock/

Not just according to the police, but according to observable reality, as well! I lived there for a year without the police ever needing to inform me that my apartment building really existed.

"The eastern route of the Orange Line runs from the National Cultural Centre to Min Buri, covering a distance of 22.57 km with 17 stations, 10 of which are underground. It is expected to be operational in the next three years." The report fails to mention that construction is actually nearly completed, and the only reason it will take three more years to "be operational" is that this constant bickering over the spoils has pushed the project wildly behind schedule.

The fact that he finds it necessary to say this already speaks volumes.

I really enjoyed those, and they proved that the big players don't have to make cr@p.

It appears that the form is TM-95, but I don't see it on the Immigration or BoI websites - only at https://www.hlbthai.com/thailands-ltr-visa-process-explained/ , which I think may have gotten its info from the Royal Gazette. (Google locates the pertinent PDF on the Gazette website, but won't download it because - surprise - the site doesn't use correct protocols.)

"Easing of Thai Property Ownership Attracts Wealthy International Buyers" More accurately: no, it doesn't.

In over 30 years of traveling to Thailand, I have never seen all the immigration booths manned. In fact, I have very rarely seen more than half manned, even when crowds were flooding back into the duty free area. So if this is real, it would be a massive change. The last time they made this claim, I actually timed the processing for the people ahead of me in the queue. Some - presumably visa-exempt tourists - were indeed finished in 45 seconds. Many others, though (including me, with a reentry permit) took several minutes - so the idea that they can average under a minute per passenger is probably overly optimistic. My experience has been that this "help" consists of hiring pouty teenage interns to shout "passport!" and "boarding pass!" in heavily accented English at people entering the queue.

A quick note on math and statistics - 20% is not "most".

Oh, please - I'll be surprised if even 100 foreigners take them up on this "generous" land ownership scheme.

I guess Pareena thinks that if foreigners want land, they should just do like the local ruling class and take it from national parks?

I'm not worried, just overly eager ????

Absolutely grotesque - and this isn't the first time something like this has happened, either. In any other country there would be an uproar over this incredible waste, but here there's just stoic acceptance ☹️

I submitted my application on October 7, and haven't seen any change at all as of now. There were three holidays during that period, though, so technically only about 12 business days have elapsed.

Clearly, harsh action was taken against this undesirable foreigner ????

Agree totally - it's unbelievable that they would undertake a project of this cost and complexity without having figured out the pricing system in advance. Public transit systems around the world almost always have "prices that are not realistic", in the sense that fares would be unaffordable without a subsidy of some kind. Mass transit seeks to get cars off the street, provide a quick and safe way for millions of people to get to work and school, reduce pollution, etc - it's a public good, not just a business. That having been said, the way they've implemented the fare system on the BTS - where prices vary wildly depending on when and by whom the particular section of track you're riding on was built - makes zero sense. The plan that Chadchart proposed, to maintain lower fares on the extensions than on the legacy network, just continues this confusing and illogical system.

There is no requirement to get a debit card - it's completely optional.

You can withdraw money from a teller using your bank book and ID card, or from an ATM using the cardless withdrawal function in the bank's app. That does limit you to using your own bank's facilities, but it's very simple.

The same department also said that Bangkok temperatures would fall to 15c by the end of October, a prediction that no international forecasting organization agreed with. Spoiler alert: they were off by about 10 degrees. https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/weather/bangkok-could-hit-lows-of-15c-by-end-of-october

The interview waiver is essentially automatic as long as she meets the conditions listed at https://www.ustraveldocs.com/th/th-niv-visarenew.asp - basically, that she has or had a B1/B2 visa that expired less than four years ago; that she is currently in Thailand and Thailand is her normal place of residence; that her name hasn't changed; that she's never been denied entry to the US; etc. They can still ask her to come in for an interview if there's something in her application that needs further clarification, but that should be a rare occurrence. And just to clarify, none of this has anything to do with the fact that she is married to you or that you filled out the form for her. From a legal standpoint, it is always considered her application, for which she alone is responsible, and the same interview waiver rules would apply to her even if she were single.

- As noted by others, there is no passport validity requirement for a Thai returning to Thailand. - Passport issuance in Thailand has been very quick for years now. Five days should be no issue at all - people I know mostly seem to receive the new passport within three days or so. - The old passport will be returned to her, but that's irrelevant, since her K-1 was a single entry visa and is no longer valid for entry to the US. - She can enter the US with an unexpired advance parole, which she has. That stands on its own, and isn't tied to her old passport number. Tl;dr: Stop worrying and enjoy your holiday.

Anyone who has gone past either of these lines knows that these have to be partial openings, so I can't understand why none of the press coverage mentions this. Each time that opening dates were announced in the past (they all went by the wayside), the government made specific mention of exactly which stations would be serviced in the beginning and which would open later.

As far as I know, only Bangkok Bank will print a balance update in your book if there's been no activity. For other banks, nothing will be printed unless there has actually been some kind of transaction, so if you try to update it, your passbook will just be returned to you with no new entry.

I submitted my application, but am still waiting for the result - in theory, I should hear within the next few weeks. I honestly can't see how an agent or lawyer could be of much assistance, since you are just sending in your own personal financial and insurance documents, and only you know what you do or don't have.

Lots of people qualify for these visas. What the percentage is, I have no idea, but the idea was to target wealthy foreigners, so it shouldn't be a surprise that other non-"wealthy" folks don't meet the requirements. One can reasonably argue over whether this is a sensible strategy from the Thai government, but the argument of "most people don't qualify, therefore the policy shouldn't exist" is a bit odd.