YetAnother

people that have lived here a long time and seen many govts come and go tell me this is normal behavior; current govt persecutes formers

professional thieves; often making their living preying on tourists or those looking like tourists

expect nothing, get less; we need these refreshers (not that we have to like them)

there was a story not long ago (bangkok post i believe) where an immigration official came out and 'ruled' that volunteer teaching was a visa violation as it resulted in an indirect benefit; ouch; it does follow tho if one remembers that immigration officials are police (RTP) and Not lawmakers; they can interpret those laws any illogical way they wish

notrub; that might not work; my government pension from the usa is direct deposited into a bangkok bank account; that account is a special account (sorry i forget the title of such an account)  that was hard to setup, took a while and was attended by confusion; they are special accounts (perhaps due to govt agencies involved ?) ; i was directed to do this by the largest govt pension in the usa (social security);there are a number of restrictions on those accounts; cant just withdraw and deposit and transfer like other 'normal' accounts; o and extra fees;

it does appear however that it would be as rock solid as possible to verify income 

lop; you are correct there is no requirement in usa; i wanted it recognized in order to simplify survivor rights in assets ,make filing with the IRS married-filing-jointly as legit; and to accelerate the citizenship process (USA) for her; recognition of married accelerates it; that acceleration worked , actually worked Faster (!) than the regulations indicated

very slightly off the main topic ...we all know there are asset-based and income-based financial requirements; 800K in bank and 65000/month for example; over the years i have heard that some immigration offices will entertain a 'hybrid' of the two; so a pension qualifies for some part and money in the bank qualifies for a part; anyone know how all that really works ? 50 % each ?  

a key point is 'certified translator'; not just anyone; in my case, many years ago, i went to a 'full service' international agency in chiang mai, star visa, and they arranged all forms and the translation; we gave them the thai marriage document and they handled everything else including the forms that the USA consulate next door needed (to recognize the marriage in the usa); after all that then we secured a 'fiance visa' from the hong kong usa embassy and then went to the usa for years; note if you go for the spouse support visa here, you will need documentation that you are married here

by inferring 'anything a thai can do' , which seems the intent of the law, then about the only things we can do are eat (prepared by a thai), personals in a bathroom and sleep

ah yes and lest i forget : the quota system practiced in thailand regarding acquired citizenship; as i understand it , there is an annual quota by country;
each country is given a pro-rata share ; example if there are 1680 openings and 168 countries , then each get a share of 10;
that puts india, china, usa on the exact same footing as Grenada and The Maldives; that makes sense ? i understand it is administrative 
convenience but it lacks thought

thai politics  a never-ending tragi-drama; entertaining , sure; but pity, really; happens everywhere ? perhaps to a degree but thailand is really a wide outer orbit;

not proud of it but when my nephew graduated from high school , he asked my opinion on what path to take; at that time; 5 years ago, i said 1) corrupt politician 2) corrupt police 3) corrupt beauracrat;

he wanted to be a teacher but i told him thailand does not have an education system

spouse-support visa: 400,000 baht or 40,000 baht monthly income (but we cant work in any high income job)
retirement visa: 800,000 baht or 65.000 baht monthly income ((but we cant work in any high income job))

so the support 2person visa, the spouse support, requires half what the one person (retirement) visa does 
? that is backwards
the 65000 monthy for one person would qualify that person for upper middle class; why is the money so high ?
the new 10 year visa, the 'permanent resident' is not 10, it is 5 and it isnt permanent and the financial requirements
 including insurance are preposterous; shows the current immigration law-makers are as foolish as the old ones

last year the then new number 1 immigration guy (remember they are all police) introduced a new odious form saying it's purpose was for tourist safety;
1) tourists do not fill it out
2) the interview and his 'logic' were in thai; the form is in english ;only
3) if that official thinks we are tourists living here all these years and never leaving, then we are all in trouble

criminalizing defamation is an awful idea; even removes the focus on whether the defamer was right or not

the usa consulate in c mai issues a letter with their new passport indicating that the new passport is an official legit 'document'; then i took the old passport, the new passport and the letter to thai immig for my most recent 1 year and no issue; they did however photocopy every page in the old passport and i had to initial all of them; i had added pages to the old passport so there were a LOT of pages

Hoss: i bought land and am building a house in chiang saen; been researching around there for a couple years and altho the prices generally have increased, there are still bargains;

the relatively new bypass to downtown has increased prices right directly on it but i bought just off that collar and am very happy with price,neighborhood,house building costs,nearby amenities;

C saen is just outside your 40 ( it is 60) but C rai city continues to spread north and that extra 20 on high speed highway from C saen means 10 minutes