sumrit

The UK and Thailand both use the same TV system (PAL) and the same electrical system (220V), so technically it will work.

The UK uses PAL 'I' and Thailand uses PAL 'G'. The video sytstem is the same but the sound frequencies are different, although this can usually be changed in modern TV's software settings. The other difference, and main problem, is that the UK only transmits its signals in the UHF waveband whilst Thailand uses UHF, VHF(low) and VHF(high) wavebands. Ths requires a different tuner (sometimes two tuners) and a lot of extra circuitry in the Thai system. In UK sets there are usually spaces on the circuit boards where the extra components should be but it would be too expensive to have them added and cheaper to buy a new set.

I am automaticlly logged to TV in on my main PC downstairs and on my laptop in the bedroom and am logged in to both at the same time when they're both turned on. This also works for Skype. I have the same Skype account automaticlly logged in to both PC's and when they are both on I can be talking to somebody on one PC and my wife can talk to somebody else on the other one at the same time. Using Skype to Skype and/or Skype to phone in any combination we can talk to two people at the same time, using both PC's logged into the same account.

people with 90-day visas must report to Immigration and give their place of residence as each three-monthly date falls due.

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Surely when we do our 90 day border runs and give immigration our address in Thailand on the arrival card we are doing just that.

Help anyone please?

I will be arriving in Pattaya in 2 weeks, and want to open up a bank account, as a falang, with no address in Pattaya can l do this, ? (l Live in the UK)

Thank you in hope

Mr Tumnus

Try the Siam Commercial Bank on 2nd Road of Kasikorn Bank on Beach Road next to Burgerking. I live in Thailand so have an address but either bank asked for proof, they just wanted to see my passport with a visa in it so come with a visa from the UK.

Hi All,

I am moving out to Pattaya sometime in the next 6-8 weeks, and am considering shipping some bits and pieces out from the UK. Does anyone know of a company or has dealt with this who can offer some advice please.

Many Thanks

Have a look at this website . I found them after I had already shipped my things to Thailand so I haven't used them but they certainly look much better than any other shipping company I could find when I was looking.

Normally i'd just walk into T.V.airbookings as they are pretty high profile but I know if I do that I'm probably going to be paying top wack for a flight to the UK. So does anybody have any suggestions on less greedier travel agents or the best way to book a flight to the UK?

Iusually book on line with either Expedia or Airline warehouse. They're both travel agents in the UK but two of the few where you can book the outward journey from Bangkok to the UK on line and they both cover most major airlines.

will it be hard to get after two v/v refusals by the way the g/f no longer works at her job i am sending her money to look after the house etc

So the embassy were correct in thinking that your g/f doesn't work at the place who gave her the offer to return.

It will be hard to get any visa if they suspect her of lying on a previous application but under normal circumstances it will be considered but with different criteria. Your relationship and your ability to support her without recourse to public funds will be under greater scrutiny and obviously a reason to return is not relevant.

Does she want to live in UK or does she want to visit, whatever she told the embassy in the interviews will be on record.

Thanks again mahout angrit

silly thing to do in hind sight but she left her employment 25/05/07 her application was prior to that she had to wait a month for a interview the embassy phoned her employer and he told them she had left and her b/f was looking after her.she/we only wanted a visit i was going to retire in thailand in the near future

How soon in the future do you intend to retire in Thailand? I retired here in Feb 2006 and live with my girlfriend. So far she has been given two visit visa's to the UK. The first one was in July 2006 (6 months after I came here) and the second was a couple of weeks ago. She doesn't work and doesn't own property in her name. The UK Embassy accepted that I would be financing both trips and her reason to return was simply that she lives with me and I live in Thailand. She didn't have an interview on either occasion but before the first application they telephoned me (not her) to clarify a couple of things first. The second time we didn't even get a phone call.

I went to Ban Laem and there were two people without visa's wanting 30 day VOA stamps. They both bought 200 baht onward bus tickets from the tour guide and neither of them were asked to show any money at all when we came back into Thailand. In fact the only problem was for me. They originally stamped my passport for 30 days instead of 90 (non imm O) and just laughed and corrected it when I pointed out their mistake. By the way on another thread I had been talking about a friend who had ended up on 6 months overstay because he had been going to Sri Racha immigration instead of doing visa runs. He came with us yesterday to Ban Laem, just paid his 20,000 baht fine and got a further 90 day stamp without any problems.

It's OK here in Chonburi.

A slightly different problem with my UK bank that cost money. For about ten years, while I was living still in the UK, I regularly transfered money from my Lloyds TSB account to a Thai account. As well as paying the UK charges I was always asked if I also wanted to pay any charges from the Thai bank, and this I always agreed to do, and about a week after the transfer I would get a letter from Lloyds saying they had deducted the Thai charges of usually about £20-25 from my account. When I moved to Thailand as well as making sure money was sent in GBP I also said I would pay the Thai charges here in Thailand. I then found out that the maximum charge from a Thai bank was just 500 baht. Lloyds TSB had been overcharging me by £15-20 each time for years.

Just one more UK bank rip off we need to be aware of.

And the Bangkok Post were right in saying that combination of results was highly unlikely..........all three teams drew. So I'll predict the Bangkok Posts predition for next week ' Real Madrid must do no worse than both Barcalona and Seville in the LAST round on matches to garantee bocoming champions'

He's just scared they won't let him come straight back because of the overstay.

As long as he has paid the fine and exited legally I do not believe he will have any problem

re-entering the Kingdom.

Cheers, I've told him that as well as other posters on here. And he's not got any other choice now has he.

The new credit cards here in Thailand have a micro chip built into them so they can not be copied. When I left the USA 2 years ago I noticed some people had the same type of cards maybe it is something to look into.

We have had chip and pin cards in the UK for quite a long time now and all transactions have to be completed using that method in the UK, however all cards still have the metalic strip on them containing all the relavent data and the banks will allow transactions to be made abroad using the 'metalic strip' method so people should be aware that although these cards are more secure in the UK they are not secure anywhere else in the world.

Firstly you cannot renew a visa at an embassy,

only get a new visa

They checked everything then stapled a form into his passport stamped to say he could remain for a further 90 days (only the form was stamped, not his passport). In March of this year he went back and they did exactly the same thing, stamped to say he could remain until 12th June. He went back this morning but when they looked at everything they told him he should have been leaving the country every 90 days.

It sounds as though he has a multi-entry visa, not a 1 year retirement visa

and SOMEONE screwed up really badly in the Sri Racha office when they allowed him to do a 90 day report.Possibly the screw up was at the airport when he arrived?

What date and period of entry is show on the entry stamp.

Anyway, that is neither here not there now.

He just needs to fly down to Penang and back on AirAsia, all in one day will suffice.

On re-entry to LOS he will get another 90 days.

He should then look at extending this stamp for a whole year to avoid problems in the future.

1. 'Renew' was just my way of saying he went back to get a new visa. Sorry if it was confusing.

2. As I said he told the thai lady at the embassy in Sweden he was going to retire in Thailand and he thought she had told him it was a retirement visa when in fact she had given him a one multi entry non imm O visa to enable him to get an extension based on retirement here in Thailand. He is adament though that she did tell him he only had to go to immigration every 90 days and not go to the border.She even told him he had to use form TM.47.

3. He arrived back in Thailand on 25th September 2006 and in December, because I was about to do my own visa run, he shew me his passport and told me he only had to go to immigration. Itold him then he had only got a non imm O visa and needed to do a visa run. He decided to go Sri Racha immigration a couple of days early in case I was right.

4. At Sri Racha immigration they just completed the bottom portion of the TM.47 and stapled it into his passport, not just in December, but again in March' they couldn't have looked in his passport properly so IMO yes they did screw up big time, but then after I had told him about it he should have made a point of showing them his visa to double check everything was alright. So IMO he also screwed up, an expensive mistake. At least when they did realise the mistake they let him go home and gave him the chance to put things right.

When I went to see him this morning he said he was going to go to either Penang or Singapore next week. He's just scared they won't let him come straight back because of the overstay. When he gets back he's going get an extension based on retirement as soon as he can. It looks like his pension will be enough on its own so he won't have to transfer money over to Thailand and wait for three months but if he does he can do one more visa run before his visa expires.

The other thing that crossed my mind was why has UK frozen his pension?

As far as I know anybody receiving a UK state pension is entitled to the annual increases providing they continue to live in either the UK, the EU, a Commonwalth country or,I think, the US. If they choose to live outside of these countries they will continue to receive a pension but it is frozen at level it was when they moved. If that person were to choose to return to live in the UK at sometime in the future his pension is increased to the current rate and he will also receive annual increases whilst he continues to live in the UK. So anybody living in Thailand will have their pension frozen,however, if after a few years there have been significant annual increases they can return to the UK, declare they wish to live there again and get the increased payments then decide they prefere Thailand, return, and keep the current pension rate. This would have to be offset by any taxes they would then have to pay by becoming a UK resident again, so it would't be worthwhile for everybody.

It is gross income so he should be good to go.

Thanks for your help Lopburi3

On return he can check the retirement option - if his verified pension is the 40k indicated he will need to have about 300,000 baht in a bank account here for a period of 3 months prior to application.

When I spoke to him a little while ago he said his gross pension was about 65K baht but they stopped 32% in taxes in Sweden. Could he get a letter verifying his income from the Swedish embassy quoting his gross pension or does it have to be net income? If it's gross he wouldn't have to put money in a Thai bank and wait three months. (this would also help me when I apply for my retirement visa, and probably many others as well)

Sumrit

You say he has been staying for TWO years

So - what happened during the FIRST year?

Bill

He originally came here on a 3 month non O on an extended holiday then went back home and renewed it with a 12 month non O because he'd moved in with his gf and wanted to give that a year to develop first, so when that visa finished he went back home to sort a few things out and, as he thought, get a retirement visa to stay here permanently.

He's just come round to my house after getting back from Sri Racha (looking quite sheepish) and I've shown him the advise on here. He's gone off to try to arrange a flight somewhere as quickly as possible. He's then going to arrange a proper retirement visa as soon as he can when he gets back.

Thanks for all your help.

1. If they explained the retirement option and he was not interested it seems he may not have 800k or 65k income - but it is what he should have.

2. The only local place he might obtain a multi entry visa would be Singapore and they will require proof of 800k in a bank account (although it need not be Thailand). Otherwise he is best returning to home country or perhaps Oz.

3. As said the 90 day report has nothing to do with his stay in Thailand. They were stamping his TM.47 receipt with the date he was due to report again and only checking that, passport name/number and his arrival card. This time they noticed he had no extension of stay stamp.

4. As also said get out of country ASAP by air and have 20k for overstay fine. Immigration could have detained him but did not to allow him time to get it together so please make sure he understands what is required. I suspect he will listen to you this time.

Thanks for your help. From the way he was talking last December he had told the Thai Embassy in Sweden he wanted to retire to Thailand and he thought they had given him a retirement visa and didn't believe me when I said they hadn't. He had shown them his Swedish pension of about 40K baht per month and thought he had got away with having to top it up with any money in a Thai bank. To his cost he's found out different.

I think the Sports Editor is Roger Chrutchley...most of the BKK Post Sports articles, except for personal editorials, are rehashes of Associated Press/Reuters, etc., so I don't see how they could go wrong that much...

Also, isn't it common for players/managers to play down such moments, in order to not increase the pressure on the team? That would seem to be what they're trying to do in the above declarations...

Read it again........after looking at it a few times I made sense out of it. It is supposed to read " In the unlikely case that they LOSE at Zaragoza. (Not win at Zaragoza.) they will still be champs if Barca lose and Seville draw.

I read it as meaning they will be champions tomorrow if they win at Zaragoza, Barcalona lose their game and Seville fail to win. All three things have got to happen for Real Madrid to become champions tomorrow. Thats the way it looks if you look at the league table (they play 38 games).

1 Real Madrid 36 11 4 3 29 17 11 2 5 32 20 24 72

2 Barcelona 36 14 4 0 39 10 7 5 6 32 20 41 72

3 Sevilla 36 15 2 1 41 12 6 5 7 23 22 30 70

As he will have this extra expense and his visa will need to be renewed in September any way are there any neighbouring countries to Thailand where he can get a new one year multi non imm O visa or would he still have to go back to Sweden for that? cheers

Auch! Looks to me that he will need to head to the airport (not land border) and leave country. He should not get caught in Thailand. At airport he will pay the max overstay fine which is Baht 20.000 (last I checked). Considering he has "saved" 3 border runs he is actually only about Baht 14000 in red on this episode.

Maybe a cheap Air Asia flight somewhere?

When he returns (before 20th Sept 2007 of course) he will get 3 months stamped in.

Of course he could also decide to fly to Sweden to slap that embassy girl around, or sweet talk her into a new visa despite old one not expired...doubtful though.

That fact that 90 day reportings were accepted in Thailand is really not relevant - 90 day reporting is not in any way connected with the legal visa stay the way it works today.

Cheers!

Will they stamp his passport as overstayed and will he have any problems getting back into Thailand because of it if they do?

Hi, I need some URGENT advice for a friend of mine. This guy is 66 years old and comes from Sweden and has been living with his gf here in Chonburi for about two years now. Last year he went back to Sweden for one month and renewed his visa while he was there at the Thai Embassy. The Thai lady there told him his just had to report to immigration in Thailand every 90 days and fill in a TM.47 form. He came back to Thailand in September last year. When I saw his visa it was a one year non imm O and told him he had to go to the border, not immigration, every 90 days but he insisted he didn't and in December (a few days before he had to in case I was right) he went along to Sri Racha immigration with his passport and his completed TM.47 form. They checked everything then stapled a form into his passport stamped to say he could remain for a further 90 days (only the form was stamped, not his passport). In March of this year he went back and they did exactly the same thing, stamped to say he could remain until 12th June. He went back this morning but when they looked at everything they told him he should have been leaving the country every 90 days. They took the form out of his passport then told him he had a serious overstay problem, explained the retirement visa option to him, before telling him to leave. He asked for the form from his passport to be returned or at least a letter from them stating that he had been coming to them to get a 90 day stamp but they simply refused to give him anything and told him to leave. So now all he has is a passport with a one year non O visa in it and a stamp from the airport saying he arrived here in Thailand on 20th September 2006. He's got nothing else so it just appears that he's on 6 months overstay.

Although he should have double checked when I told him he sould be doing border runs he went to immigration at Sri Racha not once but twice at 90 day intervals and they balls up both times, but now he can't prove it.

WHERE DOES HE GO FROM HERE?

High Speed Internet via cellular in Isaan? Dream on, baby.

Try a GPRS modem, but it's dial-up painfully slow.

Otherwise, check around your area for wifi signals. Maybe do a deal (or not) with the source. But would likely need a good antenna / booster. Hawking HW8UDD is good.

It's not that dumb a question now that EVDO has been rolled out by CAT in all the provinces not covered by Hutch CDMA... - i.e. Lots of places upcountry now have faster mobile internet than Bangkok (which is Hutch).

Might be worth finding where the local CAT office is, and asking if there's a way of trying it out, but getting your money back if there's no connection where you're staying...

Good suggestion. I don't know about Chaiyaphum but they have it in Korat and it works very well.