medina21

The tax will start at 300 and quickly become 1,000 and more. Give governments an inch and they take a mile. It's not the tax per se , it's the negative image it sends to potential customers. If countries charge a tax for visiting their countries and contributing to their GDP, why not High Street chains demanding a fee to enter their stores?

"No oversupply"? Farcical. Bangkok is awash with empty condos. In my building, completed in 2017, and in a prime location, the developer still has around 20 units to sell at a 20% discount on the original prices. I asked them if they had any units on higher floors. They said, 'no'. I now discover they have two units on my floor. You cannot believe a word the sales people tell you. Even the juristic office 

doesn't know the real figure. Add in  private sales and I reckon that 20% of the building is for sale.  I know of Thai owners trying to sell at a 20 % loss. This situation is repeated in condo towers across Bangkok. It's the same in Cha Am, Hua Hin, Pattaya et al.

I went to CW on Tuesday to get another Non O Extension of Stay for retirement. On arrival, you fill out a Covid declaration. Received queue ticket at 13:00. This has a QR code so you can check your progress using the photo app on your phone. I was number 90 in the queue. At 15:45 I gave my documents to the 'Document Check' desk, and then waited. My number came up and a second officer checked all my documents (passport, 12 months bank statement, K Bank certificate of balance, bank passbook,TM30, and hand drawn location plan of my address), asked me to sign 3 forms (minimum bank balances, overstay and one other), took my pic, took fee of 1,900, gave me receipt and stamped new extension in my passport. She did not ask to see the original of my TM30 and did not need the 'credit Advice/Receipt' form from K Bank providing details of inward transfer (some years they want it, and some years they don't). I then had to go and see a third officer who checked everything again. She looked very carefully at my bank statement whilst cross referencing the info with my passport. My balance was never less than a fraction under 700K. I was then asked to wait. My passport and bank passbook disappeared into the dark hole of bureaucracy. Twenty minutes later they were returned to me by a smiley chap/chapette. Don't try and understand the multiple checking; bureaucracy has its own logic. I was done and dusted by 16:45, but then waited 30 minutes for a taxi willing to turn on the meter. Hope this is of use to anyone about to do their annual extension. 

3 hours ago, Bogbrush said:

If you’re extending your visa in Jan 22 then your insurance needs extending at the same time - not Aug - or you won’t get a years extension, surely? The issue of you leaving/returning after extending in Jan then falls away, as your ‘valid till’ date stamped on return will be concomitant with your extension (and insurance) expiry in Jan 23.

 

Thanks for replying. I have a Non O visa for the purposes of retirement and do not need health insurance as a requirement of this visa. I have health insurance because it's the wise thing to do. So my question remains, does your health insurance to re-enter Thailand have to be valid until the expiry date of your extension, or are they just happy to see that you have a policy. 

I posted this question yesterday. Perhaps someone knows the answer today. I have health insurance with Pacific Cross. The policy expires in mid August 2022 and will be renewed. If I take a short trip from Thailand between my 'extension' renewal in mid January 2022 and the expiry of my health insurance, would I only be 'stamped in' until the expiry date of my insurance? I have read that your health insurance must match the period of your 'extension'. Hope someone knows the answer. Thanks.

How did they arrive at one million? Seems like it was picked out of thin air; it's a fantasy figure. 

This guy makes mince look intelligent. Insanity.

20 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

I've never heard of anyone being required to fill out the form twice.

 

Congratulations. 

Jingthing, me neither. I ticked the "I'm not a robot box" and was sent the form to fill again. I've received a confirmation e mail that my details have been recorded,  so hopefully I'll receive a friendly SMS within the next 24 hours. It looks like the quota was done by 09:14.

The site opened at 09:04. I completed and sent the form and received a second empty form to complete. Redid the exercise and received a message at 09:09:34 saying "your response has been recorded". Now, let's see what happens.

Apparently Richard Barrow is reporting that those with an Elite Visa are going to be vaccinated.

Kingston Kid , congratulations. I started refreshing just before 09:00 and did not get the link until 09:02:58. I took screen shots as I typed. Received message at 09:07:20 saying "sorry", "mai dai". Clearly, you need to type super fast, and secondly, it's strange that you got a link at 09:00 and I , and doubtless others, got nothing. Something smelly is going on. 

09:00 Tuesday morning and the Phyathai website didn't load. At 09:04 it loaded and I completed the registration form. Once completed, I received a message saying "This form is no longer accepting responses, and has been set to automatically closed by the system". <deleted>.

I tried phyathai2international.com at 09:00 today. Got 'server can't connect' message. Kept trying until 09:20 without success. Left it until 10:00 and got message saying 'sorry, quota for the day is full'. Now there is a message saying the quota is 100 per day!!! How can we register when the site won't load?

The site must be overwhelmed with enquiries. It won't load on my mac or on my iPhone.

Registered on thailandintervac.com just after noon. I'm over 60. When I try to make an appointment, the calendar is dimmed out from June going forward. The page says AZ and Sinovac is available. Does anyone know why the calendar is not accepting bookings?

'Analytics?' More like reading tea leaves lol.

You can't walk on the beach, but riding a motorbike on the pavement is OK. 

I renewed my extension of stay at Chang Watthana yesterday; the friendly IO made no mention of showing my passbook in 3 months to prove a balance of 800k has been maintained. I was seen at 08:30 and my passport was returned at 09:06 ???? .