Presnock

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.

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.

Actually, here in Chiang Mai they seem to have finally admitted that they have been collecting way too much paperwork. Over half of the documents I had were given back to me as they only need: from the local bank, 2 documents one indicating it is my account only, and the 12 monthly transfers from overseas plus of course a copy of my updated bank book. Nothing was needed to verify my retirement nor any banking statements from the US. easier and easier it seems to me after 17 years of doing these extensions.

When you decided to do the 90-day online report, did you register and get a password? Was it your first time doing a 90-day report? I just di my third 90-day report via the online method. Absolutely no problem. I got an email saying that my forwarding of the info was accepted "SUCCESS" they said and then I waited on day and had another email with the new reporting date for the next 90-day report. This sure is easy and costs nothing but a few minutes typing. In my opinion it is now much easier than it used to be for all immigration visits - I have been doing them for 17 years partially in Bangkok and now in Chiang Mai. I only wear long pants once a year now - getting easier - some day maybe won't have to think about it at all.

For generations the US citizens have had hundreds of millions of firearms of all types but, since the VN era, parents have failed as a whole almost in the raising of their children properly. The newest are more opinionated, lack morals of any kind, no religious feelings, spoiled rotten and just to much of a ""me first and only" society. Too many of them feel entitled to benefits of all kinds yet have done absolutely nothing to deserve any benefits. I read that Maine has the strictest gun laws but the lowest killings. This is also true for many major cities including Chicago. It is just about impossible to confiscate over 300 million firearms so more extreme laws against bad users of firearms should be passed to incarcerate those individuals for the rest of their lives. That is my opinion anyway and I am a gun supporter though I don't need an AR-15 or the like, just a shotgun!

but by then the junta wasn't ruling as they had an "ElEcTiOn"...

similar effect on the 90-day report which shouldn't be affected by the date of one's extension but mine was, I did my 90-day report in late April as required, on line and when I received the immigration form, it indicated that instead of 90 days I had to do the next 90-day report on the date of my extension in mid-June. Since we can do it on line fairly easy now, I'm not really concerned but...

according to the news that I saw yesterday 31 May 2022, that number has increased to 224 mass shootings as of yesterday so you still have to add at least this one. I too am an American, believe in the 2nd amendment but not in letting immature teens allowed to buyany firearm, let alone an AR-15. I had a gun as a teenager, given to me by my parents and only got to shoot it with their supervision until after I had completed my military service. We make everyone who wished to drive a car, complete drivers' training and then pass a test and they must have he license that have done so. I fail to understand the useless politicians we have that cannot pass a law fixing this problem, and while they are at it, the immigration problem, - they seemed to pay more attention to the lobbyists - oh yeah, legal bribery so that they can hopefully win re-election and continue sitting on their butts getting nothing fixed!!!!