ericthai

illegal immigrants that are working are not going to restaurants and buying unnecessary things. They buy enough to survive and then send the rest of the money to their home countries. So really not that much consumerism and a lot of cash outflow. Most if not all are working under the table so they not paying taxes and since it appears they aren't working if they get sick or hurt they get free medical care, if they have kids they are going to school. So they are utilizing government programs without any contribution. To allow illegal immigrants in the USA is a slap in the face to legal immigrants.

I don’t know look at a few of his other topics

Yup, My wife has about 8 or 9 Thai girl friends in the US and same only 1 or 2 came in properly, the rest did the same overstay and get married.

Sorry dont understand you statement about having a family? What does having a family have anything to do to make someone want to come to Thailand? I didn't have a family before moving to Thailand. My company moved me to Thailand when I was much younger. Most of my friends in Bangkok at that time were young too (early to mid 30's) none of them had families or were married before coming to Thailand.

Sorry... but this is exactly why they are so strict on visas. You applied for a B2 visa which means a visit not to live, work, or study in the USA.

I'm not a big Trump supporter, but do I like Harris, no! I was ready to give Harris a chance and listen to what she had to say. However, after her Fox interview where she didnt answer one question... not one! and only bashed Trump. Her answers were all the same. he's very bad you need to vote for me, even though I cant even tell you what I'm going to do and change from what Biden did.., but nothing, just laughs and blaming trump for everything. I'm very saddened that the US only has these options for president. Is a civil war coming? I certainly hope not, but it doesn't look good. If trump looses I'm worried what will happen, but if he wins I'm not sure if that is good for America either. OP so you're saying if someone votes for Trump they are stupid, what if they vote for Harris are they idiots? (Calling someone an idiot implies that they are completely lacking in intelligence or common sense, while calling someone stupid may simply mean that they made a foolish mistake)

Actually the exchange rate is much better than when I first came to Thailand. Back in the early to late 90's it was 25 baht to the USD. I loved the time during financial crisis (97-99) the baht really lost value. The highest exchange rate I got was 53 THB to USD, if I recall correctly this was around early 1998. This was a great time to be a visitor. However our company lost 10 contracts that were in place at the time and our work in SouthEast Asia had greatly declined. Luckily for me my company kept plans to move me to Asia.

Sorry, I need to disagree with you on this. This is not going to disappear, It's been over a decade and it's still in the headlines. This case is still brought up in one of the forums at least once a week. So, I really don't see this disappearing, now will they be found guilty? that all depends on how the fat the envelopes are or their connections.

i work with insurance companies in the USA and they still have fax lines and accept faxes. It's still a thing!

it all depends on the fax machine. Some fax machines use regular paper just like a printer.

hmm.. ask her what she meant?? I dont think anyone here can tell you what she was thinking.

Covid is a SAR virus which Thailand went through the SARS outbreak back in the mid 2000's. If you recall they were taking everyones temperature when entering Thailand at the time. It's called COVID 19 as an abbreviation for 2019 novel coronavirus, not that there were 18 different variants before it. The 2002–2004 outbreak of SARS, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-1), infected over 8,000 people from 30 countries and territories, and resulted in at least 774 deaths worldwide.[1] The outbreak was first identified in Foshan, Guangdong, China, in November 2002.[2] The World Health Organization (WHO) was notified of the outbreak in February 2003, and issued a global alert in March 2003. Initially, the cause of the outbreak was unknown, and some media outlets reported that an influenza virus was a potential culprit.[3] The major part of the outbreak lasted about 8 months, and the World Health Organization declared SARS contained on 5 July 2003. However, several SARS cases were reported until May 2004.[4] In late December 2019, SARS-CoV-2, a coronavirus in the same genus as the one that caused SARS, was discovered in Wuhan, Hubei, China. It spread to other areas of Asia, and then worldwide in early 2020. This strain causes COVID-19, which has caused the COVID-19 pandemic.[5][6]

why are you calling yourself a Farang??? we are expats! Don't understand why you think that. Visa exempt was just increased to 60 days. They just created new visas that make it much easier to stay long term. Visa fees are not expensive. I owned a few companies in Thailand and never had an issue, actually with the one company the Thai government worked with us to develop new products. Before you start saying Thai is 51%, I'm from the USA so was able to own more than 49% (which I owned 60%, had 1 thai partner and expat partner) As for feeling like an ATM, that all depends on your situation. If you're the only income in the family then you are the ATM. If you knew this from the start, well...

Have you never traveled? You're filling out a visa, which for most people means you are coming for a visit, so address would be "hotel". If you dont like the form go speak to Laos immigration about it!

for online purchases I use a website called privacy (https://app.privacy.com/) that provides a virtual credit card. It can be setup for a one time use, turn it on or off, set a limit etc. Each card is tied to the merchant you use it at so if the card is trying to be used elsewhere it wont work.

Hope this helps!! (I tried to upload as PDF file, but it wont allow a PDF to uploaded so I changed it to a jpeg)

Thank you!! Didn't know he was involved in that judgement by the courts. Yes, the dispute started up again in 2008 and didn't end until late 2011. I was living in Surin at the time and was surprised that my embassy reached out to me suggesting to leave the area. I recall the cambodians bombing a small town in Sisaket destroying a school and a few houses. There was a larger than normal military presence around Surin and Sisaket at the time.

Please tell me about this temple boarder issue you're talking about. As I recall Baker was working on getting elections in Cambodia started and which did happen, but the prince lost and Hun Sen won. Don't recall anything about a temple issue at that time when baker was involved. (late 80's- early 90's).

The weather / climate is always changing and has been for billions of years! The planet has been through 5 ice ages (without any interference from humans). The first one happened around 2 billion years ago. That one lasted about 300 million years. The most recent one started about 2.6 million years ago, and in fact, we are still technically in it. During an ice age temperatures will fluctuate between colder and warmer levels. Ice sheets and glaciers start to melt during the warmer phases. This is called interglacials. They will expand during colder phases which are called glacials. Currently we are in the most recent ice age’s warm interglacial period, which began about 11,000 years ago.

Where did I say anything about a Thai woman? or jealousy? What is this mandatory crap!! Please tell me who and where it says I have to look long term when in a relationship! When I was younger yes, I played the field and being in Thailand at the time was a blessing. It did get old after while and I settled down. However I have several friends that dont want a relationship and just want company when they want it. So what you state about always playing the field gets old is not true for everyone. OP when I said I wouldn't plan long term, I'm meaning dont rush into things like buying land, house, condo, car etc in her name. Just be careful / smart about things. i've seen some really nice guys lose everything because they listened to everything their girlfriend told them and get upset with friends that try and tell them the truth. I do wish you luck and hope things work out for you!

you're baffled why she stays?? She Doesn't have to work, has a free place to stay with meals, gets her phone bill paid for, you buy gifts, clothes for her. You might not be paying her to stay with you, but she as the easy life. There are many girls that would love to not have to work and just hang around the house and do some chores. I'm not saying this is bad thing, if you're happy enjoy your time, but I wouldn't plan long term.

Not in Thailand but there are EV pickups. EV sales in the USA are not going well. https://www.carscoops.com/2024/07/gm-and-ford-are-powering-down-electric-plans-will-make-more-ice-cars-and-trucks-instead/ https://www.axios.com/2024/01/19/ev-cars-ford-lightning-gm-chevy-blazer-cuts https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/19/business/ford-trimming-ev-pickup-production/index.html

actually it started in mid 2000's with Thaiksin. limited days (immigration used to count how many days you were in Thailand), overstay changes all of this was started and has been getting tweaked along the way.

Things were different back then. They didn't care and overstays were laughed about. You could go to just about any neighbor consulate and get a B visa with just a letter from a company saying they were going to hire you. Early 2000's things started to change.

Let me make a correction. Thaksin didn't run away he was in New York for a UN meeting when the coup took place. When the coup happened there was no jail sentence waiting for him. Also, I wouldn't say "so-called war on drugs", it was a war on drugs, a reckless war with allot of innocent people being killed in a very short time period.