Presnock

my bad! sorry

What has been told since the very first article appeared - we go thru the same thing and we are all told again "nothing is final YET! Until they do the final and we see that this is posted in the Royal Gazette, it could say something good or bad for no one or for everyone. Let's wait until the final is approved and then we can act based on our own situations.

Also, we have been told we only must get a Thai tax id number when we have assessible income...key here is assessible.

you might want to wait as pensions might not be considered "earned income".

as Mike said do some reading, the OCED July 2023 agreement says that all the 138 signatory nations MUST trade banking data on tax residents, even China signed on!

90-day reorts, tm30 reports, yearly report, inhospital health insurance premiums, etc...just wait as more and more "scooter" riders are on 60CC bikes or bigger.

well, if your investments are over the 120K or 150K baht then you might have to pay on that but definitely nothing on the SS due to article 21 of the DTA between Thailand and the US. Check out the charts for needing a Thai Tax ID number.

also at such an age, he could not have been a teacher for long enough to draw a pension of $80KUSD for the wealthy pensioner LTR visa in my opinion since I really have no idea about the salaries and pensions of UK folks.

I will be the first to admit that I know nothing about the evisa fm a Thai embassy overseas and this from lopburi3 saying that "1st extension has to be for the reason the visa was issue" so best to get either an agent in CM best to use Star VIsa as trusted unless others know another good one. Good Luck!

after about book 20 Lee Child started co-writing with his son I think - slightly different but not much. Have you watched any of the "Reacher" TV series - at least they opted for a guy the correct size according to Child's description. LIked the 4-year series...now awaiting the next year. If you like the demeanor of the Reacher character, on Prime movies there a multitude of Korean movies with the same demeanor character. The Korean drama movies are unlike most Asian movies/series, very little emoting with some great stories. My daughter taught herself Korean language while she was studying Chinese in school (5years) and was getting awards for being a great Chinese-language student/teacher. She scored up to level-4 in the annual Korean govt global test and only hasn't gone further as self-taught needs someone to speak to and listen as well as expository writing of that language. I have read all the Reacher books...saw the movies but a star half the size of the Reacher character just didn't wow me at all.

as you may have noticed already from others, if you have a retiremnet "o" and not an "o-a" then you do not need insurance. I currently am on a retirement "o" for 19 years already and never once was I ever questioned (in Chiang Mai or BKK) immigration about insurance. Like I said, if you qualify for an LTR, you can come and go without 90-day reports, and only do a basic tm30 once a year. The in and out doesn't need the re entry report but LTR can come and go without doing that and use the better arrival and departure lanes when doing that. Cost over 10 Years if one does exit and return regularly is even cheaper. Just a suggestion. I have a home in Chiang Mai so if you have any questions, let me know.

You must be over 50, retired US govt right? If so you should google the Long Term Visa (LTR) if your pension is over 80K USD a year. The benefits are much better under that visa than the o retirement or OA retirement and a lot less documentation is needed and readily available from OPM.

FYI, not sure if you qualify for the Long Term Visa (which according to the 2024 benefits of BCBS,) should be accepted locally as the hospitalization if "unlimited". You should be able to print out those overseas benefits of BCBS (FEPBLUE), especially since it is a US government health insurance package! If you need more info just drop me a note via this forum .

Never really bored here. I spent 10 years (over a span of 30 Years) in Bangkok (9) and NKP during the VN days (1). I also lived overseas in 15 different countries, in EU, C.America, Asia, and Africa. I kept a log of the good and bad wherever I was. Thailand came out on top - food is great, weather is NEVER cold, people accept foreigners, no big earthquakes or volcanoes erupting (so far). I retired at 58 in Bangkok. After 9 years of "fighting" the traffic I moved to CM with my younger Thai wife and 10 year old daughter as CM has a great International School. When my daughter began university here, we rented a condo for her next to the college, rented a house on the Airport Link train as we also have 2 dogs needing a yard and still keep our CM house. I exercise at home regularly with weights and core exercises plus walk daily in the Mooban. I am 77 years old now, take no medicines, haven't even had a headache in 24 years (truly). Thailand through stores like Villamart has a multitude of veggies, berries, nuts, fruits year round so I also can eat fairly healthy and do so on a daily basis and also eat a Thai meal almost every lunchtime. My breakfast with fruit is on "soaked" oatmeal and then a Thai lunch, after my evening walk a berry, nut and seed with probiotic yogurt meal. I do not drink alcohol, nor smoke pot (never have) nor use tobacco of any type. My family is my main concern and I am happy doing whatever with them. Our daughter usually spends her free time at hour house. I enjoy reading novels usually that have been on the large number ! seller's list and chatting occasionally on this forum and with some from my high school, work days or VN (4 years in country or theater). I have been lucky or blessed almost my entire life with very few if any regrets of decisions that I made and being of an optimistic nature, am working on my Long Term Visa at this time. To me, I thought Thailand was close to paradise when I retired and I haven't changed my mind yet. I certainly hope that the majority of those that read the notes in this forum feel the same. If I ever thought that life was boring, I would alter my lifestyle or living location for sure as there are many different lands out there!

just did it myself....get a form for transfer of data from old to new on the immigration wegsite. It is free to do this. At the same time they will do like mine possibly - tm30 and 47 at the same time/ All no charge! and fairly quick at CM anyway.

I just did my transfer of data from old passport to new passport, I too am American and CM immigration NEVER mentioned the "no-longer-available" letter from the US embassy.

yes, you can carry around the old passport too but in reality, the State Department has cancelled that passport number so ... yeah for locals who knows?

The State Dept punches holes in the front cover page of the old passport as a new one is issued and they have always returned the old with the new passport. Done many times over the years

I recently received my new US passport and had a problem getting my 90-day report on line so I went to the CM immigration office near the airport, I had downloaded the form for transferring stamps from old to new passport and did mofr 47 (90-day report) twice just in case - 1 using old passport and 1 one using new passport and yes, they insisted I had to use to old passport for that process - only 5 minutes so so problem, also had to check in with TM 30 office who update they system (this office opened at 8:15 and took 5 minutes so the main office still had not opened and all my paperwork was checked prior to that opening. I turned in the paperwork to window 2 for transfers of stamps. All in all it took about an hour and a half at immigration to have all stamps transferred, the 90-day report and TM30 update so I was pleased with that and happy to have it all done. As an added benefitr of course, by doing the 90-day report on the last day of the old one, I get a full 90 days prior to having to do it again. At least the weather was cool for that morning too and there was a huge crowd there. I forgot to mention- there is NO CHARGE for either of these processes!

I recently received my new US passport and had a problem getting my 90-day report on line so I went to the CM immigration office near the airport, I had downloaded the form for transferring stamps from old to new passport and did mofr 47 (90-day report) twice just in case - 1 using old passport and 1 one using new passport and yes, they insisted I had to use to old passport for that process - only 5 minutes so so problem, also had to check in with TM 30 office who update they system (this office opened at 8:15 and took 5 minutes so the main office still had not opened and all my paperwork was checked prior to that opening. I turned in the paperwork to window 2 for transfers of stamps. All in all it took about an hour and a half at immigration to have all stamps transferred, the 90-day report and TM30 update so I was pleased with that and happy to have it all done. As an added benefitr of course, by doing the 90-day report on the last day of the old one, I get a full 90 days prior to having to do it again. At least the weather was cool for that morning too and there was a huge crowd there.

Passsports faked around the world with the US passport rating high on the "to do" list. The datachip is just an additional attempt at blocking anyone's copying of a passport.

I am no expert in this area of expertise but I know the govt - they will process your new passport form and date the new passport as your paperwork is finalized so since you ask for a new passport a year in advance, the date for the new passport will be current and your old passport has been poked and no longer is valid for use. The process BTW has been accomplished in around a month total time. Now, you have to have any immigration stamps transferred soonest. But they insist on the latest 90-day report be done with the "dead" passport instead of he new one - at least in CM.

mention the insurance company and derogatory comments gets one in legal troubles here!

Yeah, for example, the 6-year old kid taught how to shoot a handgun, takes it to school, tries to kill his teacher who puts out her hand and takes the bullet there before hitting her which kept her from dying. Eventually, because of all the public pressure, the mother of that child (the registered owner of the gun) was sentenced to two years in prison!! Finally!