Presnock

I myself find it strange that there are so many of you anti-maskers constantly complaining about anyone still wearing a mask whether it be due to increases in COVID or pollution. Why are you so concerned what others are doing?

Not sure where you are doing your report but, for info on Chiang Mai, I did mine this morning. I arrived at immigration (near airport) at 8AM and they begin checking documents outside by 8:20 AM. They continually announce what is available there TM 7, plus two acknowledgements of overstay and visa and all must do these two acknowledgements (they announce that all the time). At 8:20, they began checking documents. When one arrives, they are given a queue number, mine was 13 and I waited 10 minutes and was called and presented my document What is needed? I do the monthly deposit method for retirement O so I need a statement from my bank (3-5 days normally) updated bankbook (mine was updated night before) available with copy of every page made, plus the bank letter stating each of my monthly Foreign transfers of at least 65000 baht, copy of tm30, copy of latest tm47, and copy of my landing card. I realized several weeks ago that I would be doing my extension of stay so went to the immigration site to make an appointment which they indicates will mean about half an hour at immigration) however, the earliest I could book an appointment was over a month in advance and I would have only 1 day remaining just in case I had any problems so. I went to the bank, got the monthly FT, and updated bank book the night before I would go to immigration and requested the bank to provide a "bank statement", usually has to be done at the main branch, not where ever one might have an account. So Although I had the other documents I had to wait 3 days to get the bank statement and then went to immigration office. The bank deposit letter, is good for 7 days according to the immigration officer. One my documents were checked outside immigration, (2 minutes, they pass it to a senior guy/girl who checks again and then 5 minutes waiting, then he directed me to go inside and get in the queue line for the O windows, which I had to wait another 10 minutes for as several others were already there. Then the IO checked my documents again, gave me a queue number (17) and said go wait down there (windows 7 and 8). I did so, and only had to wait 10 minutes or so and my number was called. They took my documents and 1900 Baht and told me to sit down and wait. I waited about 20 minutes, and had my picture taken and then within 5 minutes I had my passport with the extension approved. All in all, I spent about a total of 90 minutes at immigration without an appointment and there were a lot of people there so no problems for me. Sure seems a lot easier than it used to be as I have been doing this in some form since 2005 when I retired. Again, this was Chiang Mai and the monthly deposit retirement o type. Good luck to all.

retired here 20 years ago and during the entire time, I have received mail regularly without any problems. This includes banking, official US govt and some private. If I did miss anything then it obviously (to me) wasn't that important. Of course, I have used several addresses here, but either Bangkok or Chiang Mai and possibly since they are major hubs in this country then that might be why I never had any problem (that I know of). I also have sent quite a bit of mail but never had any problems there either.

when child was in primary school (2-3 year waiting list to get in), numerous Farang English speakers as teachers then school could make more money on kindergarten so they dropped the 7-12 grades and got rid of most of the Farang teachers. When my child came home with an English homework on pronouns, I checked the instructions and noticed that in the 15 sentences, 9 did no even have any pronouns meeting the requirement. I wrote a quick note to the Thai teacher and sent it back the next day. My child said that the teacher did nothing with the note so I visited her that afternoon and asked why didn't she just check with one of the Farang teachers. I was informed that the school director makes up the homework and tests and that the Thai teachers can't change anything nor can they check with the Farang teachers for correction. I then met with the school director who spent 20 minutes telling me all her academic credentials and awards and I said I wasn't interested in those, only in correct English language lessons for my child. She said she was an English expert and would not change anything. We transferred shortly thereafter and later learned that the waiting lists grew much shorter. When students learn strictly from rote method only, progress may seem good but ceases to move forward shortly thereafter. Fortunately, some professional teachers in some schools are changing the regular process and we luckily found both in CMIS. Seems at least some of the international schools can control their curriculum and their teachers.

Actually you are all correct in your analysis of this problem. Look at the statistics of all the so-called advance countries like the US, Uk, Australia, other European countries, China, etc and you will note that the number one problem today is diabetes and fat people. Look at the western and Chinese tourists now flocking to Thailand and one can see that fat is the current mode of way too many folks.

Not sure where your immigration office is but mine is ChiangMai and I had the same problem last year and again this year in that like you my 90-day report was done online in April. Last year and this year, I only got an extension before my next due date on the date of my 1-year long stay date in June. I see no problem though as I will go my yearly extension and then again online for the following report in June.

well look at the US and after O's statements telling all to get a college degree in order to make it, but he forgot to say get a degree worth while but instead they got a lot of big loans and now are awaiting Biden and the Democrats to pay off their loans. Whatever happened to responsibility for one's actions? Obviously not not just here.

CM also started asking me to provide a copy of every page of my bank book. easy enough to do so no problem.

NEGATIVE, when over 25 when I go outside, I wear an N95 or N99 mask, over 100 I don't do anything outside. House has an air purifier in every room which we use every day the AQI goes over 25.

Previously, in my younger days, I ran 5-10 miles daily. Occasionally I too would get a sore throat and then I read a healthline note...dehydration can do just that. Then everytime I got or even now get a sore throat I can usually think about my daily habits and drink water! sore throat goes away! Just saying...also daily beer will dehydrate one even easier. A healthy lifestyle with daily alcohol negates any positive actions! even a small amount. Just saying...latest studies indicate that no matter how much or how little, regular alcohol drinks are NOT healthy.

I bank also is Bangkok Bank but I go to my CM Bank office and ask if I can get the year's statement plus the one that it is my account only and that if I can stop in the next day at opening time and get a copy of the two documents. Update my bankbook at that time, then to the photocopy by immigration and copy each of the pages of the bank book. I have done this yearly for 4 straight years and always get the copies within 24 hours. My original account was through the Bangkok office but that was a joint account and about 4/5 years ago the immigration said I needed to have an account in my name only so did that in Chiang Mai.

I hear a lot of folks, especially farangs talking about the air pollution but I notice that none of them are ever wearing an n95 mask, some are exercising to boot. every chart I see says that when it is over 200 don't do go out of the house! I used to run regularly, living in big cities and Drs. warned me about the hazards associated with pollution. I ignored them until I came down with Bell's palsy, affecting the nerves on one side of my face...I immediately went to the doctor, checked it out, said I had an infection probably from pollution in one of my eyelids. Cleaned out 3 pockets of infection, and palsy was gone by the next day. I try to avoid any outside activity when the pollution stays as high as it has here in CM. Like I said I used to run daily, then at 65 changed to 5-10 kms a day walking. With pollution like this, I have missed a daily walk for several weeks - only going out after the storms. Hopefully we will get one of those today or soonest. Locals just seem to say oh this is normal - wonder how long it will take them to realize how it affects one's health in most cases.

34 states agreeing to change the constitution on term limits for congress men/women would be legal under our constitution and state's rights. There has been legal activity more and more recently so hopefully this will come to fruition. Seems to me it is time for a new generation of Americans to run the govt as today's politicians seem to be more interested in getting funds for reelection than for doing their job to fix our problems such as budget, immigration, illegal drug spreading, etc.

what to do? IMHO our congress should not allow any illegal immigrant to ever become a US citizen until they are a legal immigrant and the same for all of their family including any birth in the US ( a necessary change tot he law too). 2nd, those that come into the borders and claim asylum should not be allowed to remain free in the US as it takes several years for the courts to even hear their case and from what I have read, by then the US immigration doesn't even really know where any of these folks are. Our immigration laws are the easiest just about in the "free" world as so many do make it to the US and find greater opportunities than in their own country. After all, the US is a nation for the most part on immigrants but times have changed somewhat and too many crimes are now involved in getting to the US and then remaining there for innocent and criminals alike. We need greater efforts to curb drug use and control of immigrants. my opinion anyway but I am so against the US politicians as it appears to me from what I read daily from around the world politicians of almost all nations are nothing but leeches that are more concerned with being re-elected than they are in solving the problems of their countries.

Yessir, term limits a necessity...there is a group "term limits.com" that pushes just that and has had some success in getting states to agree that if enough states do agree can change that law and Congress must abide by that. As for Harris that is just a joke - if she ever became POTUS then I would know for sure that the American voters just pull out their choice from their rear end! Happy SongKran!

yea. but he did't do anything about the pandemic upsurge which trashed the world economy together with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Trump and his lies together with most of the Republican Party are destroying democracy in the US. I hate Democrats even more as it seems ALL politicians want to do is work towards re-election because stupid voters will keep them drawing a Govt check without having to fix any of the nation's problems. Biden and Trump both need to get lost and a younger generation maybe won't be so corrupt. My opinion only based on too many years of seeing the same useless politicians re-elected over and over.

as I mentioned earlier, submitted mine on Saturday, a day later than the 15 day as I didn't get the alert and by Monday AM I had my new date for the next 90 day report. No complaint from me.

this is the first time I didn't get the 15-day alert that my 90-day report was due online. So on the 14th day before it was due I logged in , did my email, password and clicked on the magnifying glass sign and the TM47 with all my data filled in appeared. I acknowledged that all was correct and submitted it and then I received an email with the filled in tm 47 saying that immigration had received it. this was 8 April 2023.

We regularly go to Bangkok Hospital Chiang Ma for whatever ails us. I too have a great insurance company but seldom use them as the cost locally is so insignificant. Due to the pollution, my daughter began getting an eye infection. Last time she had one just about every burning season that she was in school even though the school had air purifiers in every room. However, she had to walk outside between classes, and cafeteria but then they went to online due to the COVID situation so for several years she had no problem. Now she has graduated and at home but went to the mall for a movie on Friday...duh! Anyway, doctor check up and prescriptions was nothing but pocket change. A couple of years ago, I had a belly button infection - most horrible odor I have ever experienced. The local pharmacists gave me an antibiotic plus hydrogen peroxide to wash my belly button every morning and night but that if it still had that odor after a couple of days then I should visit the doctor. Went to the same hospital. Checked in visited with a doctor and after thoroughly checking my belly button, said the odor wasn't so bad and I explained that I had been using x antibiotic and cleaning twice a day with hydrogen peroxide. He said well there doesn't seem to be any problem now. He said "no charge" but if it returns, then we can explore further. Compared to what they charge in the US for just the doctor to say hi, we can be sure it is cheaper here. It might depend on the hospital too. But I am a satisfied customer. I have a lot of experience with US hospitals, my first wife died of breast cancer or I should say was killed by one of the poisons they were giving her. I know how much that 12 years of treatment cost so don't complain about cost of treatment here. Best of health to all so that you don't even have to think about it.

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.