HauptmannUK

Strange. I received a DTV a week after it launched. No flight details given or requested. No contract or tax return requested. I just wrote a short letter on Limited Company headed paper entitled 'Confirmation of Employment' and stating I was an employee of the company. Signed it myself. I know someone who is a 'hobby vlogger' - early retired and makes 'walk through videos'. No real income generated. Just supplied a link to his webpage/online portfolio. Got the DTV. Probably depends which administrator deals with your application.....

I think some applicants are making heavy weather of the DTV process in London. There is no requirement to have the 500k THB (£11k) 'seasoned'. They just want to see something showing £11k in your name at the time of application. There is no requirement to show an income either. In my case I simply wrote a letter with our Limited Company logo and address. I headed it 'Confirmation of Employment'. 'To who it may concern. I can confirm that Mr Joe Bloggs has been an employee of this company since xx.xx.20xx.' Then I signed it. No mention of remote working, or any other details. Finances were a screenshot of a YBS account balance showing my name and address and over £11k on the day of application. Location dealt with by sending a recent energy bill. I got the visa 30 hours later. I doubt there is much, if any, checking being done at the moment. That might change of course....

Bored waiting for my wife to finish having her hair cut so I thought I would look for Toffee, the computer repairing ladyboy. Searched in Thai and s(he) popped up straight away. One of the less convincing ladyboys IMHO....

Stories and photos are becoming increasingly bizarre and difficult to make sense of.. A 'computer repairing ladyboy' and a photo of a Chiang Mai temple by the sea??

Believe it or not there are some well educated ex-pats out there. In Pattaya/Jomtien area I am friends with a retired Professor of Ionospheric Physics from the UK, a Professor of Hydrology from France and a Professor of Biochemistry from Norway who also speaks about a dozen languages including Thai, Chinese and Japanese. I suspect there are plenty more retired academics elsewhere in Thailand. I have a BSc and PhD in Physics, MSc Advanced Engineering, BA East Asian Studies and an MBA.

When you first enter Thailand with your new passport you will need to bring along your expired passport and the eVisa printout. Give everything to the IO. The IO will check your eVisa against your old passport number but stamp you in on the new passport. The new passport number will be entered into the computer and linked to the eVisa. Thereafter you just use the new passport.

You are wrong. I am co-owner of a very long established car sales and service business in the UK. We will deal with all marques but for the past 25 years we have specialised in BMW and MB cars since they tend to be more profitable. The car in question is an E46, made from 1996-2006 approx IIRC. The E46 is fitted with the troublesome GM5 body control module. When locked using the remote fob the locks are moved by the locking motors into a 'deadlock' position, completely disconnecting the locks from the locking pins and door release lever. To unlock the car from inside the console unlock button must first be pressed to operate the locking motors, to take the locks out of deadlock, and then the door release must be pulled twice to open the door (once to unlock and the once more to open the door). If the car is locked with the keyfob and the battery goes flat then the door cannot be opened from inside - obviously the power windows will not function and so outside help is needed. Pull the hood/bonnet release and get outside help to connect 12V to the B terminal to power up the system. Or the window has to be broken...... I heard that some years ago a US highschool girl student was trapped in a car and died - leading to a legal case against BMW. The BCMs on these cars are quite unreliable and we have dealt with cars that have deadlocked on the fob and then refused to unlock even with a good battery. Usually down to a bad relay on the PCB.

They want to see £11k+ with your name on it. I just sent a YBS instant access account balance screenshot. It had my name, address, date and a balance of £29k. No transactions or anything else shown. Received DTV 24 hours later.

I can't make sense of that price. If they mean 180k Kip then that's only about 250THB, which can't be correct. On the other hand if they mean 180k THB then that's a ridiculous price and there would be no takers.

I guess it would be easy enough to take one's own sheet/towel to put on the table.

Yes indeed. And many stay in the UK after the conclusion of their studies thanks to the introduction of the 'Post Study Work Visa' following Brexit. Anyway, again from the ONS website and looking at future population growth... "Focusing on the 15 years between mid-2021 and mid-2036, the total projected growth for the UK population is 6.6 million (9.9%). During this period between mid-2021 and mid-2036, the projections for the UK as a whole suggest: 10.8 million people will be born 10.3 million people will die 13.7 million people will immigrate long term to the UK 7.6 million people will emigrate long term from the UK This means that of the projected 6.6 million increase in the total population, 0.5 million (8.2% of the total projected increase) is projected to result from the higher number of births than deaths, and 6.1 million (91.8% of the total projected increase) is projected to result from net international migration."

Illegal immigration into the UK (which everyone is focussed on) is almost insignificant when compared with LEGAL immigration. Legal immigration has rocketed since Brexit, when the immigration rules were changed. "In the year ending (YE) December 2023, the provisional estimate of long-term immigration to the UK was 1,218,000, which is broadly similar to our updated estimate for the YE December 2022 (1,257,000) (Figure 1). Looking at the historical picture, until 2019, EU nationals were the larger component of total long-term immigration, whereas since 2021, when the new immigration system was introduced and free movement ended for EU nationals, the majority of immigration now comprises non-EU nationals. In our latest estimates for the YE December 2023, non-EU nationals accounted for 85% (1,031,000) of total long-term immigration. This is similar to levels seen in the YE December 2022. The top five non-EU nationalities for long-term immigration flows into the UK in the YE December 2023 were Indian (250,000), Nigerian (141,000), Chinese (90,000), Pakistani (83,000) and Zimbabwean (36,000)" https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/longterminternationalmigrationprovisional/yearendingdecember2023#:~:text=In the year ending (YE) December 2023%2C the provisional,1%2C257%2C000) (Figure 1). So the UK Home Office are issuing around 23000 long-term immigration visas PER WEEK - about ten every minute of each working day...

I thought this oddball poster MalcolmB was British? Back in May he claimed he was set to marry a 46 year old Thai prostitute he'd met at a massage parlour in London and then come to retire in Thailand (having visited Pattaya once 'a long time ago')?

Its a long time if the aircraft a/c is not working. I was once sitting on a plane at apron with no a/c for about an hour and it quickly becomes very uncomfortable. Also strange that Thai have no contingency plans - normally full-service airlines have a list of hotels ready to contact, meal vouchers etc.

I have a DTV and its clearly multiple entry, 180 days per entry, five year validity. I highly doubt Thai Immigration will decide to invalidate the visa or retrospectively impose additional entry requirements - although I suppose they could do that with ANY visa in the event of a coup, war, terrorism etc.... In-country extensions are a different matter though and they could be awkward and e.g. ask for evidence of ongoing 'soft power' activities, supporting funds, etc.

Not always, unfortunately...

Facebook reviews are always subject to the whims of the page controller and are of very limited value IMHO, most businesses would remove negative reviews. I only ever review on Google. Some fake reviews there of course, but you can usually pick your way through. I eat at CC Jomtien sometimes and agree its a bit mixed, although never tried steak. Actually the Thai food there is not bad - the lemongrass salad with raw prawns is very nice at ฿99.

Things could get a bit hairy over the rest of the year. Lots of stock markets having a wobble (Japan down 6% over last couple days). US Fed and BoE likely to trim interest rates further. Wife and I sent large sums of GBP to THB couple of weeks back at 46.6

So my wife called the London embassy for me and spoke to several people there about 90 day reporting. Their understanding is that DTV does *NOT* require 90 day reports and a visit to Immigration office is only required for extension. Obviously they are not Thai Immigration dept but I thought I would report it anyway.

Try a psychologist.

I'm not sure if this thread is supposed to be a joke or not but 51bpm is just fine. Mine is usually in the range 48-55bpm resting. My son and daughter about the same. If it goes up with a bit of activity then no problem.

Yes, I would think they do have to report (Section 37 Immigration Act) but I think Thai Immigration need to inform DTV holders. E.g. put a note in the eVisa email message or a note in passport on entry.

I recently obtained a DTV eVisa from the London embassy giving me 180-day entries to the Kingdom. I've been visiting (and sometimes living in) Thailand for more than 30 years so I am aware of the need to do a '90-day report' to immigration if staying for more than 90 days. The thing that concerns me is that there is nothing amongst the DTV information on the embassy website, or indeed on the eVisa itself, that mentions a 90 day reporting requirement. I suspect that the majority of those entering the Kingdom with a DTV will not have stayed for more than 90 days in the past and will not be aware of the reporting requirement. Their only interaction with Thai Immigration will be when they are stamped in to the country. I'm wondering how this will play out. Or maybe DTV is exempt from 90 day reporting?

I find it curious that he was a crane operator 'in Asia'. Presumably not in Thailand because he wouldn't get a work permit for that.

I don't see a risk any different to the other visa types. They may stop issuing the visa at some point but I'm sure they would not cancel visas already issued.