Presnock

if you have been here for 15 years, when you renewed your passport, didn't your embassy need that old passport to process for the new one ? just asking as before I just went to the embassy to renew it but now I understand that they want it done by email for form and then registered mail for the old passport and form. Just asking

FYI, I note that many people use a friend's or relative's address in the states when they are opening or keeping a bank accout open.. This could in fact be lying to the feds in an attempt to circumvent the law. I am not trying to intimidate anyone but all should be aware of this fact. The State Department Federal Credit Union will open an account for you. There are other banks too that I have seen mentioned here that will open an account for you even with your foreign address. And, don't forget the FBAR if you are an AMCIT with a foreign bank account.

racyrick, I too am an Americitizen and had the same problem years ago (when the Justice dept in conjunction with many other foreign countries had a law changed so that amcits or other countries too, forced foreign banks to report the country of that foreigner's local account - you might have to change your local bank acct too) anyway, the way around it is for you to join the USstate dept federal credit union. You do have to be an employee of the govt or any thing like that, just an American citizen, but they will require you to join one of a list of US groups ( I joined the American Citizens Overseas) where you will need to pay a yearly or lifetime fee but some of those organizations are fairly cheap. I have had an account with this bank (sdfcu.org) for 3 plus years and have had no problems. You can get various credit cards, service etc with no problems other than they don't work weekends and are on a US time sched for daily work. When I transfer funds monthly, it costs 30 USD no matter how much I transfer and I get it in my local account the next day. sdfcu transfers funds daily that are transfer messages are received by 8 AM est I think. Anyway, they will provide you with a list of services etc if you email them at sdfcu.org.

Went in BKK Hospital (C/M) for my yearly flu shot and dr recommended that I also get the shingles vaccine - not overly expensive and age 75+ so I opted to get it at the same time. No problems about 2 months ago.

The $ USD index has increased almost 10% this year. As mentioned above, at some point, it will come back down to earth and the $ will then be back to 30 or below before too long. Depends on politics, both local and the world, weather patterns wiping out many countries plans - look at China today, first they had the WUHAN virus and came up with a vaccine. But through lockdown and their vaccine, they stopped it cold there. But then the variants started - now the last that I saw, one vaccinated with the Chinese vaccines were 5 times more likely to get a bad case of the COVID variants. So then once the variants hit China, they locked down again but that became more and more widespread affecting the pipeline for other countries manufacturing processes. Now they and other countries are being hit by the violent shift of weather - today China issued a warning to 167 cities of a high heat wave and asked companies to shut down and conserve power. In addition, they reported several days ago 166 rivers in 33 counties had disappeared totally. Many well known rivers are drying up around the world, plus many lakes too are fading away. Who knows what exchange rate we will be facing in the coming months when the winter storms begin hitting the northern hemisphere and shutting down countries. Good luck to all as I have been here since the 1997 - 57 baht to a $ days but before that even I was here when it went to 20 baht per $ many years before that. If one is one the borderline for staying here based on income then good luck with that. I feel sorry for all and hope all can survive.

did mine online...got an email from CM immigration on Sunday telling me it was due the next day. So I did it on Monday and received the success immediately and then on Tuesday the new printed date for 90 days in the future. Can't beat it as it is a lot easier and quicker than before. Haven't had any problems since they went to this new system. Just remember, to use the on line you must first register and get a immigration generated password. Is simple too.

club rental not that expensive. since you want twilight or maybe night golf, check those courses in the areas you will visit to see if they have night golf too. Bangkok Golf used to have night golf, I played many a day and night rounds there!

as several people have mentioned, anything coming from a foreign bank or organization has no meaning for the normal IO, the 12 monthly statements of foreign transfers must come from one of the THAI banks. Plus you would normally need to update your bank book on the day you do the extension request and some IO's ask for a copy of "all" pages of the bank book. As I previously mentioned, I do the monthly transfers and used to provide a lot from my stateside provided which this year the young IO just handed me all those documents and only used the local bank letters. Less than an hour total at immigration.

I do the monthly transfers and have done so since the US embassy ceased to provide a letter. and I do my extension in Chiang Mai which may or may not be different but, used to provide immigration with tons of documentation - i.e. statement from govt retirement income, letters of advice from my bank indicating what they sent each month, letters from Bangkok Bank indicating receipt of my money each month (12 individual payments, one each and every month), letter from bank indicating that I was the sole user of such account. This year, the immigration returned all documents from my overseas contacts, only wanting the Bangkok Bank letters. Guess they got tired of reading all those other documents. Bangkok Bank indicates on the twelve deposits that such are from overseas and is a must. The only sure way for you to know exactly that they might demand, you might visit with the immigration office there and ask/show them what you have or whatever you must have to do an extension. Good luck!

I spent 7 years in the Philippines and now 25 here in Thailand. I opted to retire here due to 1)no volcanoes erupting (yet), 2) minor earthquakes seldom only 3) no typhoons every year. But I speak Tagalog and Thai so the language doesn't impact me. The food to me is much better in Thailand. However, I also was an avid scuba diver (over 500 dives) and Thailand can't even begin to come close to the number of super clear water (can see the moon clearly at 140 feet deep at night of course). As a hasher, there are a lot less snakes in the PI so that was a plus too. Golf for me was a lot cheaper in the PI but that was 30 years ago so... Either way, I loved the PI and I love Thailand. I do read that immigration activity for the PI is better than here, but the last couple of years here, immigration has gotten a lot easier for me - no change other than I can't get an Embassy income letter but that just saves me about 50 USD a year plus the visit there so even that got easier. Either country can be almost heaven in my opinion and I also have lived/worked in many EU countries, some African and many Asian countries and overall, Thailand is still my choice for retirement.

Oh this is great! Thanks Joe for sharing this tidbit, I normally just refill all the info and this can save me a few minutes anyway plus don't have to concern myself with fat finger mistakes.