John Drake

My Twitter/X feed is full of links to their Youtube videos, where after setting up shop for a couple of weeks they are now broadcasting to the world how they know how it's all done here.

You get what you pay for. 720 baht for what is going for around 950 to 1000 should have warned the buyer.

No. At that stage you can choose whether to go with a retirement visa/extension or a marriage visa.

It was actually worth it for your interpretation of "cop coon car."

Well, good answer. But I have always wondered why the retirement/visa's eligibility age seemed so relatively young, at 50, when the Thai government retirement age itself is 60. I've always thought they might tighten things up to bring the retirement visa in alignment with their own concept of retirement age.

"Final years" sounds like people on death's doorstep. I wonder if this could indicate they are increasing the age of eligibility for the retirement visa/extension? Remember all the commotion over the biker gangs on retirement? Maybe they want a more sedate class of "elderly."

Just a thought, but maybe you should slow down just a bit and draw up a list of everything you need to do to get the retirement visa/extension. Maybe get some practical experience working with the bureaucracy. Check out the immigration office where you will be living and any quirks it may have. You've done well to start with this message. And it's good you're finding out about the bank accounts. But unless you have severe deadlines, I would just spend some time browsing AN topics and going in person to see what requirements you're going to need from your residence's owner, 90 day notification, notice of address change, bank, sending money into a Thai bank from abroad, and finally immigration and your passport validity.

That at least would be workable. I really don't like the idea of them increasing the money in the bank past what Thai banks guarantee. What I believe is that this is yet another half baked set of reforms which nobody has bothered to test for their consequences. I'm still hoping that they do "grandfather" any money in the bank changes like they did before in the early 2000s. Back dating it like they did, then, would be fair. It would also provide a bit of a reward to those of us who stuck it out in Thailand throughout Covid.

Not a priority for me but certainly so for some. The big thing is the changes to retirement extensions that was just announced yesterday. We don't know what those are. But I've yet to see a change that made things easier for us. All these people "confused" or "laughing" at my preference for Prayuth should remember that he was a status quo politician. For those of us dealing with immigration, he was a godsend. If getting an extension suddenly becomes much more expensive or impossible (can't get health insurance), how many will still be laughing or confused?

Oh, I do wish we had Prayuth back. *No income taxes on foreign sourced income for expatriates *No changes to conditions for retirement extensions, which now appears in the works *Subsidies for electricity bills *Gave us a fully operational online 90 day notification system that works *Was able to thread the needle in foreign policy between China and the USA *No mass shutting down of banking apps on phones *Control of Covid when it counted most

Wonder if he will now be diagnosed with Long Covid. Might not appear before a court then for a long, long time.

Didn't they back date four or six years the last time they "grandfathered" retirement extensions? That is, people who had maintained their extensions for four (or six, can't remember which) years prior to the rules changes were allowed to keep the existing conditions for retirement extensions. If so, that would mean people who have maintained retirement extensions uninterruptedly since 2020 (or 2018) would keep their current requirements. If they just wipe out everybody, I wonder if that will include those people who were grandfathered with the 200K earlier? Some are still around.

Yeah, the Russian was a sleaze. Seems everybody there was a sleaze.

What if they didn't touch your wife or daughter but just whispered something? I ask, because that is the description of events as they happened. Personally, I'd think a man would have more going for him if his instinct told him to leave or avoid in the first place places that are sordid, degenerate, and potentially violent.

Why would anybody put themselves and wife/daughter in such an atmosphere? It all sounds degenerate and violence prone to me. Just looking at his FB page, which was supplied above, he has lots of posts about boxing, a picture of what looks like his pitbull, and a group picture of girls that seems to include Miss Mod. Looks like a recipe for fighting and accidental death.

How did he get an appointment? There is no option on the online appointment schedule for passport renewals.

I do remember that on the embassy website it said that those applying for a passport the first time had to do so in person at the embassy. Frankly, it would be easier if they just let all of us go to the embassy like they used to.

Might be that the words are tricky. You are not so much as "applying" for a passport as "renewing" one. Maybe that's it???

So, this place only opened a couple of months ago. Looks like this story and association will sink it. Owners must be really pleased.

Lots of information there. This guy is a thug.

Pictures tell me everything you need to know about this guy. Thug, looking for trouble.

Pattaya again.

Thank you, SCB for taking away online banking, removing ATMs, and closing so many branch offices near me. After frog marching me into using the phone app, I guess that too will be disabled, because it's in my wife's name. Prayuth was better.

Just close down Pattaya. Empty it of residents, clubs, and businesses. Leave only the beach intact. Pave over the rest and erect a temple every 100 meters.

Have my sim in my wife's name. If they take away mobile banking it will not matter much with Bangkok Bank, because they still have plenty of ATMs, online banking, and many branches. But SCB will become all but useless--closed all the branches around me, no online banking, and only one ATM about 1km away.