Mark123456

Hello Khun Mark12345 and Lizard2010!

Thank you for all your complements! I do suggest, however, that newcomers to this site could use a little history from time to time instead of reading just the posted bitchin' and moaning posts in their need for information about the details working with the local Immigration office. It helps to understand some background to the hassle.

Hello, also, Everyone Else,

Here is a report of very recent experience at the Chiang Mai Immigration Office at Promenada.

The new Foreign National Information Form (copy attached as used in the CM office), according to two officers with whom I spoke, has been in use nationally since the beginning of July. PLEASE NOTE CAREFULLY the information on the first page of the form, because many people may HAVE TO DO SOME HOMEWORK before they go to the office to do business.

The use of the form appears to be a work in progress. There is no form number, and it is hard to find on the net. One officer's interpretation of what is a mandatory entry may differ from another's, but the (Promenada) officers working on retirement extensions, re-entry visas and 90-day reports had what's posted here to do. I should add that the officers themselves were not happy but resigned to dealing with the form.

Specifically (randomly),

1: I repeat, DO YOUR HOMEWORK before you go to the office to get the information you need, especially contact and residence information

2: You will need an additional passport photo, miscelaneous passport size of any colour.

3:

• Ignore all references to "Recording Person" in paragraph 1. That's Thaiglish for the officer helping with the form and others such as agents filling the form out for clients. That portion will be completed when done or recorded.

• Information on social media (noted as "optional") was not required, asnoted on the form.

• People who did not have sufficient information --- other than contact information --- were not being pestered.

• Bank account information, although obviously pertinent in the case of retirement visas and extensions was not demanded or asked for in the case of an extension of stay where the information is relevant, nor was it asked for at other points.

• Some questions left blank were acceptable or where "None" was entered, such as "Frequently Visited Places or Premises." (They are not interested in how many girl or boyfriends you might have unless, of course, as contacts in paragraph 2.7.)

• Provide the address information but never mind the awkwardness of the restricted nature of the lines where address information is inserted. Addresses can be complicated. Just be clear about the address.

Please understand that your mileage will certainly vary. Actually, it really isn't that hard to fill out this form once you get to it. The significant information that really is useful, in my view, is the contact information although many may not have immediate friends to refer to. Information about parents names? Although it seems quite unnecessary, that might help in rare cases with positive identification of individuals. The laugh of the day was having to fill out TWO of the forms minutes apart: one for the extension officer and one for the re-entry visa. Note: You might need more photos! Come prepared.

Being prepared helps with the whole application process. The extension officer took less than five minutes to review the forms. It is worth being careful ahead of time. If you are not prepared, you are given the chance to go get what you need and return. Getting a new photo, however, dragged, since an officer in training was on duty who struggled with the task. Still, the total initial processing time was well within 10 minutes. The completed application went in the basket which, after just a a couple were placed there, was carried for the final approval by the chief. They were okayed in less than ten minutes --- primarily since more processing is done at the place of the initial interview than before.

The usual bunch of complaining people (and at least one person harrassing staff) were there, but in my view there is much less to complain about EXCEPT the awful uncomfortable wait at the dawn of day for the office to open. That problem has not been solved, but the system in place --- short of pre-booking on-line (not currently available) or using an agent --- does work reasonably well with some consideration for people, such as allowing applicants (once they have quota numbers) to return later in the day if they have high numbers.

On the day I attended, there were roughly 30 in line for retirement and medical extensions, 10 for re-entry permits, and more than 50 for 90-day reports at 08:30. When to go? Your mileage will vary. My advice is go early --- like 06:00 --- and take a book. Extensions? Twenty a day! Only one officer (with an assistant). There are three quick-order places open from about 07:00 serving a variety of food so you won't starve. Not bad, either.

There were two "visa agents" at the head of the line, each with one customer.

I visited the visa agency (G4T --- or whatever it is called) located next to the copy shop next to the office. Both of those services opened at 7:00AM. My view of the agency was that it is very amateurishly managed. No price list posted or available except provided verbally. Others can provide this information. The photocopy shop worked very well.

A note to ThaiVisa Admin: I suggest that some information at the top of the pinned topic be changed!

The only reason I commented on your earlier post was because you seemed to be casting aspersions on anybody who wasn't on an annual extension. I don't consider I have ever participated in any 'dodges' when applying for the various different visas that have enabled me to stay here for 12 years without ever doing a yearly extension. The visas I have applied for and been granted were all offered by the Thai immigration authorities and I have complied with the rules regarding each visa. They have computers, they are well aware of how much time I have spent in the country and how much time I have spent outside the country. If they had a problem with my activities, I am sure they would have let me know by now.

The only people who seem to have a problem with people like me are foreigners on annual extensions. I will actually be applying for a non-imm 'o' visa in the near future but I won't be extending that either. If anything, you should be pleased that many of us choose to avoid visiting the local immigration office. If we didn't, you might have to get up even earlier to be assured of your place in the queue every year

Anyone who thinks Thailand is still cheap to live in is kidding themselves!

I don't agree. I've not lived in another country where I can live comfortably on 1k Pounds a month. There's no taxes apart from sales tax, no community charges, utility costs are exceptionally low (monthly: water - 100 baht/gas - 70 baht/electric - 1,000), diesel is half the price of the West, food is exceptionally cheap in markets and the like (40 pounds a week feeds two people more than comfortably) plus the quality is usually extremely high plus entertainment costs are inexpensive (have you bought a movie ticket in the UK recently). It all depends on lifestyle and how you want to live.

What about import tax? At 30% + for most items, they don't really need many other taxes. I expect the customs & excise office is a huge contributor to the government coffers.

Edit: Actually only around 6% of the annual tax take according to a chart I just found. That surprises me - maybe it's just me buying imported goods all the time

Edit 2: Although, when you compare that 6% to the UK figure of 0.4%, it is relatively massive.

Remember the import tax is charged on the "landed cost" which includes the freight.

Yes I know that. That's the same in the UK and every other country though, so it doesn't alter the fact that import duties make up an abnormally high percentage of the government's annual tax take here.

As is normal practice, they apply 30% (or whatever the applicable rate is) to the CIF total, then 7% VAT to the new total. It's an immoral practice that is carried out globally. I call it immoral because you are actually being taxed on a tax when you import goods into almost any country.

How would you go about soundproofing a room?

@SoiBiker and @Mark123456 I appreciate that we have a differing of opinion, but breast feeding in public in view of other is both disgusting and immoral. Our Church in Chiang Mai has very strong views on this, and if we saw this in public we would take great offence and if need be report to the Royal Thai Police

I hope it's one of those sects where you're all planning to commit suicide together.

And the inalienable right to bomb any country with small brown people in it?

@SoiBiker, No of course I am not, but a feeding mother is not unlike someone who needs to urinate. A bathroom is never far away, or would you suggest someone who needs to urinate just do in public.

Would you like to eat your lunch in the toilet?

Why would you make someone feed their child in one?

We needs to agree to disagree I think. I am not after an argument here, just some Christian decency. There is absolutely nothing wrong whatsoever with breastfeeding a child in a bathroom.

Christian decency - there's an oxymoron if ever I heard one.

@SoiBiker, No of course I am not, but a feeding mother is not unlike someone who needs to urinate. A bathroom is never far away, or would you suggest someone who needs to urinate just do in public.

What kind of religion encourages people to persecute hungry babies and breastfeeding mothers? I take it it's not a judeo-christian based faith? If it is, could you quote the scripture on which you base your beliefs? Then again, I know that according to the New Testament, it is shameful for women to speak in church so I guess anything is possible.

Anyone who thinks Thailand is still cheap to live in is kidding themselves!

I don't agree. I've not lived in another country where I can live comfortably on 1k Pounds a month. There's no taxes apart from sales tax, no community charges, utility costs are exceptionally low (monthly: water - 100 baht/gas - 70 baht/electric - 1,000), diesel is half the price of the West, food is exceptionally cheap in markets and the like (40 pounds a week feeds two people more than comfortably) plus the quality is usually extremely high plus entertainment costs are inexpensive (have you bought a movie ticket in the UK recently). It all depends on lifestyle and how you want to live.

What about import tax? At 30% + for most items, they don't really need many other taxes. I expect the customs & excise office is a huge contributor to the government coffers.

Edit: Actually only around 6% of the annual tax take according to a chart I just found. That surprises me - maybe it's just me buying imported goods all the time

Edit 2: Although, when you compare that 6% to the UK figure of 0.4%, it is relatively massive.

Learn to trade and you can join in the raping!

If you donot likethe prices here go homeand see how you will likethem. Iam going back to the states in august I can imaginehow much they have went up

The only things I find cheaper here than in the UK are eating out, property, electricity, and water (and probably Internet). Admittedly those are all very important, especially property as we all need somewhere to live, but a lot of the food (in supermarkets), alcohol, good quality electrical equipment, reasonable quality clothing, and anything else I buy on a regular basis all seems to be cheaper back home. Basically if you want quality it's usually imported and therefore costs a fortune.

EDIT: There are probably loads of other things that are much cheaper here I just don't happen to buy them or do them.

Good to know. Cheers!

I haven't tried 3BB fibre. I have TOT fibre and 3BB ADSL. I took screen shots of task manager at 6pm to show them - you can see the download speed running steady at 15mb before taking a vertical drop at exactly 6pm and then running steady at 2.9/3mb - that's throttling, not a sudden increase in traffic. I thought TOT fibre would be more stable but it's far more erratic than the ADSL line - generally bounces around from 8-20MB during the day, and I mean from one second to the next, not over a long period of time. Still it's not a huge issue. If I have large files to download I never bother trying between 6pm and midnight nowadays.

You don't need butter, buy the fruit that's cheap.

Limes are at a very low price at the moment, 10bht for 5 large.

Pancakes with lime and sugar.

Cold water with ice and a squeeze of lime.

And a new coffee shop opened last week near me.

Everything is 30bht a cup (or glass).

https://www.facebook.com/banpongcoffee

I need butter: I'm not fond of dry toast.

I've had one or two gristly steaks in the Central Festival branch but mostly their New York steak is OK. No idea what it has to do with New York but it's usually tender and doesn't taste too bad.

3BB do have a much more responsive customer support team than TOT but they also limit download speeds between 6pm and midnight - a 15MB connection will slow to around 2.9MB or worse. I understand why they do that, but I hate the fact they lie about it.

Nope, given the poster said "...a credit card works with only the funds in yoru account?" - then I would have guessed the same as mki8

Its an easily confused term in this case.

Sojuncoke, a debit card is easily obtainable if you can get a local account, and further to that, you can get a 'virtual' credit card such as Kasikorn's Web Shopping card...just with a basic account

I use my Kasikorn K-Web Shopping Card for all of my travel, flights, accommodation and online credit card purchases. And it only needs me to have the balance in my K-bank account

Yes this is what I meant guys. when online websites (Lazada) and apps (Uber) ask for a credit card, a debit card does not work.

That's strange. I use my UK (Visa) debit card on Lazada and loads of other sites - never had an issue with it. I doubt it would be accepted if I wanted to hire a car but works online for everything else.

From that page -

To apply for a card you should:

Be able to provide at least one landline telephone number and a valid email address

I have a UK address but nowadays they tend to want to call you before activating credit cards. I suppose I could do it next time I'm over there.

Picking my nose, farting and having a crap and a pee is natural and so is having sex, but I don`t do any of these in public.

As I said, I couldn't care less what other people think, especially those who appear to be a few sandwiches short of a picnic. If you honestly think that crapping and breastfeeding in public are comparable, you need help.

For those of you that don't know Feelee and Durian Rider .............

Rumoured to have split up recently.

Actually this is a fairer representation of Durianrider:

And yes this lunatic and all his hangers on are in Chiang Mai goading everyone to get politically active on the locals. To teach them the errors of their eating habits and running amok.

I loved the video where he's in TOPS and he punches out the display, just to impress his you tube audience, much to the shock of a couple of Thai onlookers.

If these people can't behave they should and no doubt we'll give all farangs a bad name. You've seen the videos of Chinese tourists behaving badly, right? These things go viral. That's what they want. You tube ratings = pocket money for them to subsist on.

Getting your breasts out and feeding your FOUR YEAR OLD child in a park in Chiang Mai to impress your you tube audience is not OK.

He's a nutter, that's for sure, and if you think that a lot of his behaviour is to attract attention in order to make more money, you've just supported his cause. I very much doubt that most Thais aren't smart enough to know a nutter when they see one, to recognise this guy as a perfect example of that, and to not assume he represents "all farangs". You should give Thais more credit. Farangs have been coming to Chiang Mai in sufficient numbers for long enough for them to have figured out that we are as mixed a bunch of individuals as any race, including themselves - they have nutters too. For you to assume that they aren't smart enough to distinguish the wheat from the chaff could be seen as an insult to them.

As regards to your other comment about her breasts, as I said, it says more about you than her. She repeatedly told the child to stop exposing her other breast and even stopped the video in order to deal with that problem. You also seem to have an obsession about the fact that the child is four, which although it seems odd to me, is not shocking or in anyway offensive. What is your problem with that, I wonder? A quick google produces this ....

The World Health Organization officially recommends mothers breastfeed until three years of age. (Yes, you did read that right!) Even the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends mothers should breastfeed "at least until one year of age and then as long as baby and mother mutually want to."

I'd be more concerned about you than the nutter in the video - at least we know where he is coming from.

Absolutely. My daughter was in her 4th year when she stopped breastfeeding. It reduces the risk of breast cancer in the mother and is good for the child's development. She didn't do it in public parks but I would not have been bothered if she did. I couldn't care less what other people think, my partner's and daughter's health matter far more than the ill-informed opinions of people who can't deal with nature. if the sight of a woman breastfeeding her child bothers you, I would suggest it's you that has a problem. (Not you as in Chiengmaijoe, that's a 'general you')

Instead of complaining about the router they give you, buy your own modem-router. Easy to set up with either an ethernet connection and/or wi-fi. The wi-fi signal has a fair enough range in the house and you can always buy a signal booster/expander/extender thing if you need it. Not expensive and easy to use. I have a TP Link Wireless N ADSL2+ modem router (model TD-W8961ND), 900 baht and change at Advice. There are probably others around that are better, but it works well enough for me on 3BB.

I'm passing on pertinent information, as an earlier poster mentioned wireless performance. And as Generalchaos pointed out, they really should give you a reasonable router in the first place. It doesn't fill you with confidence when the first thing you hear from your new ISP is that the router they are giving you is rubbish. Anyway can't I do both: complain about the useless router and buy myself a new one? It's really none of your business is it?

Another pathetic display of Thai intelligence; rules what bloody rules. These idiots give you unlimited opportunity for Thai bashing.

Yes, because youths in other countries are so well behaved.

(Every time there's another massacre in the USA, do you conclude that Americans are all stupid?)

Hello, anybody home, we are in and commenting on a Thailand are we not? Why the bloody hell are you bringing up the USA. As you asked the question, I will answer it, Americans have proven there stupidity on enough occasions to be classed as a country of clowns being led around by their balls.

I was trying to make the point that needless violence occurs in every country across the globe and should not be taken as a reason to make derogatory comments about the entire nation's intelligence. Clearly my effort was wasted on you.

Perhaps Internet forums serve a similar purpose? They allow people who think they are clever but in reality are far from it, to make stupid statements in an environment where we can walk away and leave them to it if we want.

It was an air-con bus but not VIP as far as I can recall. Stopped for quite a while for something to eat halfway there.

EDIT: Is the 900 baht mentioned earlier a one-way or return price?

_{wine in a box (if you could call it that) is a scam...many just don't know better...same for Kraft cheese at 1 thb per gram.....}

Anybody who buys wine in a box deserves everything they get.

Another pathetic display of Thai intelligence; rules what bloody rules. These idiots give you unlimited opportunity for Thai bashing.

Yes, because youths in other countries are so well behaved.

(Every time there's another massacre in the USA, do you conclude that Americans are all stupid?)