khunjeff

There is no requirement for 800k in the bank at any point in the LTR process - not at the time of application, and not at the five year point.

No. The instructions state specifically that if you're on a retirement extension, the cancellation will be done at the immigration office connected with BoI on the day of application - it does not have to be done in advance at the issuing office.

Yes, you would think the fact that the word "Resident" is in the name of the visa itself would make this pretty clear, but I don't think the people who dreamt up this fee actually have any idea what categories of foreigners exist in Thailand.

Decades of overcharging westerners with no concern, but overcharging Chinese? OH MY GOD!!

The Chinese company Tencent has owned a large minority stake in Shopee for years, but is gradually reducing its ownership percentage. Shopee's Singaporean parent company continues to maintain voting and ownership control of the company.

I'm not aware of any pool at Benjakitti, but there are pools at Benjasiri and Lumpini parks.

For whatever it's worth, he says in a video that the story was misreported, and that the time was actually between 11:30 and 11:45pm.

Sorry, I didn't see this follow up question until just now. I'm sure it's too late to help you, but yes, the parking entrance is on Ratchawithi and is well marked (though the path to the garage entrance once you're inside the compound is oddly convoluted). I hope your visit and vaccination went well.

Wow! This astounding news must have been uncovered by their top investigative reporters... ????

I've stayed at Ko Kradan. It's nice enough, but is hardly the best beach in Thailand, let alone the world.

The processing times mentioned in the OP are for domestic applications. Ever since passports began being printed in the US for overseas applications - over 20 years ago now - the State Department has always recognized that Americans in other countries have an urgent need to have a valid passport at all times, and have therefore expedited processing of applications from abroad, even when there were terrible domestic backlogs. Normally, that has meant that the embassy or consulate submits all of the application information (including photo) electronically on the day of application, and the passport is printed at a US passport center and sent back to the embassy by DHL or FedEx the same day (which is possible due to the time zone difference). The passport is received by the embassy within a few days, checked for errors, matched with the applicant's mailing envelope, and sent out, for a total processing time which is typically about two weeks. @ProbPossConf mentions above having already waited nearly a month for the new passport, which is very unusual. It's certainly possible that overseas applications have slowed a bit, but they will never take nearly as long as the domestic applications that you read about in (accurate) media horror stories.

I was there a couple of weeks ago for the bivalent booster, and they have parking inside the building - you can take the elevator directly from the garage up to floor 12A for the vaccination. With the parking stamp from the vaccine center, the parking fee is 20 baht.

True, but Chuwit also said (after this extortion incident) that this was part of a systemic moneymaking scheme, complete with quotas, set up and supervised by a very senior policeman. Even though he actually identified that senior policeman by name and position, the accusation was immediately "forgotten" and does not appear to have ever been followed up on.

A convicted felon who is the son of a fugitive convicted felon...a typical Thai political dynasty.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/national/40019492

Congratulations on getting your visa! May I ask what type of insurance (or in-lieu-of-insurance) documentation you submitted?

Good to see that the authorities are still laser-focused on the most important crimes, rather than wasting their time on silly things like reckless driving, fraud, or corruption.

"The Army also spent 7.5 million baht last year for tests on 757 of its GT200 devices, which were reportedly conducted to support its lawsuit against the supplier." Wow, still sending good money after bad. It's been acknowledged that the devices are completely fraudulent, and all you have to do is open each one to see that they are hollow plastic boxes containing no electronics or machinery of any kind, and yet they somehow managed to spend 10k baht per device to "test" them ????

The story as presented is utterly incomprehensible, but I'm pretty confident that gems selling for $52 million are not "worth $1 billion".

"a legal vacuum exists when it comes to the use of cannabis" Or, to phrase it differently, the use of cannabis is not illegal! Some other areas where "a legal vacuum exists": - speaking French in public - wearing hats - snoring - eating pretzels

Uh huh, sure...

Well, the yellow line is nowhere close to one meter from the edge, and I feel fairly confident that she didn't intend to faint. What surprises me is that the fall from the platform didn't leave her seriously injured - that's a hard drop onto steel and concrete.

Assuming the business is properly registered, eliminating rent-seeking middlemen would seem to be a net gain for consumers...but a loss for the middlemen themselves, of course.

The article is mostly utter claptrap. In Bangkok, street stalls, small restaurants, and even mall restaurants always have many Thais - usually office workers - eating alone. It's totally normal, and no one bats an eye.

Umm, that's explained in some detail in the actual article... Exactly. In his quest for 15 minutes of fame, the eminent attorney seems to have completely overlooked the fact that none of these people are actually attempting to impersonate students - it's like the difference between putting on a pilot's uniform for a Halloween party and putting one on to try to access the secure area of an airport.