Pronto2

I can recommend ANS tailors. They have two locations in Bangkok. The one with which I dealt was located in All Season Place on Wireless Road. Quality materials, excellent and responsive service, quite recommended. https://ansintl.net/

Additionally, when I received the new passport I noticed that the "date of issue" (as stamped on the passport) was only 4 days after the application package had been received in Bangkok. I figured then, as another poster verified, that the application must surely have been forwarded electronically to the U.S. for processing there and the remainder of the time was all for the time it took to return it to Thailand. Really, quite excellent service.

This past May/June --- mailed application package to Bangkok. Received passport back here in Chiang Mai exactly 3 weeks from the day the application was received in Bangkok.

Ah, that may well explain the less than cordial encounter I recently had with a Western staff member there. I had been working with a Thai staff member quite satisfactorily during a couple of visits relative to a visa matter. But one morning, while waiting a few minutes for the Thai staff person to become available, the Western fellow approached, without introducing himself, and in a rather brusque manner asked what I was waiting on. Your comment that he could not “spell the word customary service” hits the nail squarely on the head. Exactly! I’m happy with the Thai staff, not so much this “visa manager”.

Has anyone else had difficulty recently in successfully delivering the U.S. Social Security Form 7162 to the SSA p.o. box in Wilkes-Barre, PA? Some months ago, I (like most other U.S. retirees) received the form, signed it, and put it into Thai Post EMS. With tracking I could note when it reached the U.S., but there it sat in "international arrivals" or some such designation, just collecting dust. Thai Post did fine; but the pathetic USPS simply lost the envelope or just gave up. Now, of course, I've received the "second notice" from SSA, and now after the month(!) it took to arrive here, I now have 15 days to get this second one over to them in Wilkes-Barre. Has this happened to anyone else and, if so, what deliverly method did you use? I understand that the couriers (DHL, FedEx, etc.) will not / cannot deliver to post office boxes. I have actually found the physical address of the SSA in Wilkes-Barre and am wondering and considering courier-ing it to the office rather than the po box. Thanks for any help from anyone else who has run afowl of the bumbling USPS.