Banana7

Every time I apply for a retirement extension, at Jomtien, they give me 2 pages that warn me the extension/visa can be canceled if I break the law or do something bad. The forms need to be signed and submitted with the application package. Where can the forms be downloaded ? All form titles at the immigration website are in Thai https://www.immigration.go.th/download/

18 hours ago, SidJames said:

Sue's Place is still under the same ownership but they closed down for refurb much too my dismay.

It was the last of the old school bars with very pictures of marines & old signed dollar bills all over the walls, beauty board on the walls & old fans, it was a time machine.

The place rocked when the Fleet were in town but then the whole town did

Where  is Sue's place? Where is best value place for Mexican now?

2 hours ago, friendphil said:

I BELIEVE that you're way off on the 2-3 beers per day cost of insurance.  And at that age, when I lived in Thailand, it simply was not available, at least through Thai providers, and the farang provider options that were available were simply out of reach of most farangs living in Thailand. 

A friend, 65 years old,  paid just under CAD$800 for 171 days for Canadian emergency medical insurance, with CAD$5,000 deductible, coverage CAD$10,000,000. CAD is about 22.7 baht. Doing the math, 800/171= 4.67; CAD$4.67 x 22.7 = 106 baht; Cheapest bottled beer  in a Pattaya bar is 45b. So the insurance costs about 2.4 beer per day.

There will probably be rate difference between 65 and 66 years old, but not much.

Another story about the slowing economy in Thailand

16 minutes ago, Moo 2 said:

Paper bags!? Here goes our forests. Forests burn too!

Forests grow and re-generate. Billions of trees are available. Also, paper can be recycled. Paper bags are a practical alternative.

Good prices and flight times too! 3,346B return for the selected dates.

Departure Flight:

Return Flight

Grand Total: 3,346.00 THB

1 hour ago, Banana7 said:

I hear Queretaro mexico is a decent place to live according to expatistan.com cheaper cost of living than 50% of the cities in Mexico and cheaper than 59% of other latin american cities.

 

 

Also I hear Akumal and Playa del Carmen are decent places for retirement. Akumal is about 25 miles from Carmen, much smaller, and fewer restaurants and bars. Carmen is a larger tourist destination so rents are much higher.

I hear Queretaro mexico is a decent place to live according to expatistan.com cheaper cost of living than 50% of the cities in Mexico and cheaper than 59% of other latin american cities.

Here is what many Thais think of Pattaya currently

On 11/16/2019 at 1:40 AM, CNXexpat said:

I think you don´t know what a financial crisis is. It has nothing to do with some empty hotels. In Chiang Mai are so many tourists. The streets are full. 

Well the streets in Pattaya bare at night. Here is a recent article, with comments from numerous Thais.

This weekend is an exception for Pattaya, things are very busy, only because of the International Fireworks Festival.

Below is another news article confirming the financial crisis unfolding in Thailand.

I just went to the DEE website and got the below error message. My computer clock is set correctly.

Warning: Potential Security Risk Ahead

Firefox detected an issue and did not continue to www.dee.money. The website is either misconfigured or your computer clock is set to the wrong time.

It’s likely the website’s certificate is expired, which prevents Firefox from connecting securely. If you visit this site, attackers could try to steal information like your passwords, emails, or credit card details.

What can you do about it?

Your computer clock is set to 11/26/2019. Make sure your computer is set to the correct date, time, and time zone in your system settings, and then refresh www.dee.money.

If your clock is already set to the right time, the website is likely misconfigured, and there is nothing you can do to resolve the issue. You can notify the website’s administrator about the problem.

Watch for the October manufacturing output numbers due to be published on Wednesday. They'll be down significantly, based on year over year. A Reuters poll estimates they'll be down 4.95%. September's drop was 4.7%.

Industrial goods accounts for 80% of the Thailand's exports which declined 4.54% in October 2019 from October 2018.

As I said in the original post, lots of people are returning home to small villages from the big cities because of a lack of jobs.

Further evidence of job losses is in this post:

Retailers, especially places where people buy numerous articles, still need to provide a bag or container to consumers, whether it is plastic or paper or some other material.  It may have worked at 7/11 because most people buy a low number (1 or 2) of small articles which will be consumed in the very near future.

Personally, when I shop for groceries, I'll need a bag. I don't drive a motor vehicle. I usually shop at the end of the day, after being out and about most of the day. I am not going to carry bags around all day so I can bring home several grocery articles.

If Big C, Food Land and other supermarkets don't provide a bag, after shopping and selecting 10-20 articles or about 4-6 bags of groceries, I'll leave most of articles at the cashier, and only buy 1 or 2 articles which I can carry home. 

It is a really stupid idea to not provide customers a bag, especially if their customers buy many articles, too numerous to carry out by hand.

No issue. Mine has lots, and been seen many years.

Yes prices are up. Eva's cheapest fares now do not allow you choose a seat in economy. I paid CAD$200 more this year for an economy class ticket that allowed me to choose a seat.

My guess about the CAD$7,000 requirement is that it is the prorated sum for a 5 month stay in Thailand based on marriage. The OP is staying until April, or about 5 months or a little less depending on exact travel dates.

Normally, on a marriage visa 400k is required for a year or about 33.3k baht per month. 5*33.3k = 166.5K baht. CAD is about 22.8B, so CAD7,000 is 159.6K baht. The 2 amounts seem to be close enough.

This is just my guess as how how they arrived at the CAD$7,000 requirement. I do realize that this is NOT the way a marriage financial requirement is supposed to work.

5 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

That is the old TM7 form from a commercial website.

New TM7 form.  Fillable TM7 form.pdf 135.13 kB · 2,142 downloads

 

You may want to update the form, on the back page above "NOTE", with a space for the applicant's phone number. They always ask for the phone number.

Which form to use to extend stay for a US citizen who has arrived on a visa exempt? Any instructions on how to fill-in the form?