orchidfan

"Under consideration " date. @DrJack54 FYI For the first time this year Pathum Thani IO had me scan a QR code for LINE which allows me to connect, enter the 4 digit hand written number above the Under Consideration stamp and it immediately tells me if the application is still pending or approved and hence, when to come in and get the "final" extension stamp. Previously had to phone in, quote this number and wait while they rummaged through their paperwork to let me know if it's arrived, and approved, and when to come in. They advised me to start checking it around Jan 10th, being the current under consideration date. Let's see if it works. (It's called somethingi like "Visa Status Check" in Line Chats)

I fly Emirates all the time to/from Hong Kong and always buy a Flex ticket which, in the case of the Hong Kong flight, is 1600 baht fee to change the date . I've used this a number of times. Takes the worry out of "missing three flight".

Ah, thanks. So she was correct. Funny how they signed and stamped many of these before "discovering" this small but important criteria !!

The thing that always bugged me about this situation was that the Oz Embassy were NOT sanctioning or stating that the contents of the Stat Declaration were true and correct, but simply affirming that you/I had written it! It was most certainly not an "Income Affirmation" Letter, (as some people seem to think) but just certifying that you were the Oz citizen who had written and submitted it. But thanks for your insight into it from someone on the "inside". I was also not aware (if in fact correct ) that Stat Decs are only for use in matters within Australia !!!

I appreciate the various comments...thanks. Yes, I suppose I could change over to a Retirement Visa and extensions using an agent....but, to begin with I don't know any! And yes DrJack54, there are financial constraints for the other alternatives. It is the only time that i/we have been messed around like this, but at the end of the day,it is just an annoying (and unnecessary ) inconvenience this time. Perhaps they ARE trying to get more people to take the Retirement / Agent route as the Marriage route yields them nothing, except the receipteds 1900 baht. At least they dropped the stupid home visit this year....although I still had to include the hand drawn map of how to find our house (same photocopied map every year).

Earlier today I detailed our experience yesterday at P Thani IMM office trying ti do a Marriage extension for about the 15th time. So, update: , late his afternoon (FRIDAY) we get ANOTHER can from PT IMM Office saying that they received the email and attached Docs regarding my wife's 25 year ago divorce to a Thai man , BUT now require the Ampur Document showing her change to family name back from the recorded married name (to Thai man 25+years ago) .. This has been recorded (Her revision back to her birth family name) in the form of her Thai Passport, Our Marriage certificate, her Thai ID card, Chanote title when the land was purchased on which our house of 16 years has stood, etc, etc......................no to forget the past 15 odd marriage extensions that have been successfully done at this same office !!! How could we have got married and her, a new passport and Thai ID card for all these years without her divorce and change of family name having been recorded in Official documents ??? My wife again asked WHY is this now required after so many years of marriage and renewals? Answer - "It's a new Law".....really ?? what Law?n Perhaps @DrJack or others might like to comment? Of course in this case she CAN'T find the requested piece of paper and so she will have o go to a local Ampur office (Monday??) and get a new printout to email to them. What a total and unnecessary pain in the butt this all is!! At 74 I don't need this crap, and no, I cannot change over to Retirement visa IMPORTANT NOTE: the Head Lady IO, who we had gotten to know over the years, sadly died of cancer a year or so ago. So a NEW Order takes over !!

Well, Imm (Pathum T) are up to their old ( and some new) tricks/hurdles. 15th Annual Extension of Marriage "Visa". Had all papers/photos required ( or so I thought), and copies etc. 3.5 hrs from arriving to finally get the "under consideration" stamp. Stupid extra forms to fill in (wifey gave some Imm (volunteer?) a few hundred baht to do them for us)... Questions like : "how long have you been married??" to wife - "how old are you?" "how old is your husband"? etc, etc. "where are you living?" Hand drawn map already provided and TM30, 90 days reports etc already in the package. Had to produce old receipt* from 2023 which states that I had confirmed with them my place of abode ( issued last year after filling in a TM28!)! - totally inappropriate form seeing as we/I had NOT changed address in 16 years. * luckily I had saved this innocuous(?) slip of blue paper in with all the other Imm junk, having no idea what it was for.. Nearly all the copies of various documents and bank statements/letter were rejected back to me and wifey had to go off to the nearby copy shop and have the whole bunch photocopied again. (do they have shares/interest in the photocopy shop? BUT then the final straw today.................. Got a call from them today, they needed copy of her original divorce paper from Thai man from about 20 years ago!......to be sent by email This she got prior to our being able to marry in 2005. Amazingly she had kept it and after rummaging through heaps of old papers, found it!! She queried the IO calling why we had to produce this now as we had NEVER had to show this in the past 15 odd years??? "New procedure" she said. How many of you expats married to Thai ladies who were previously divorced many years befo,e and still have the papers from the ampure? The ONLY good thing to come out of this renewal is that this year, for the first time ever ,they do NOT require a home visit !! Rant over..

Another Airasia annoying experience : I tried yesterday to book a flight from Hong Kong to DMK for my wife on AA. The MOVE app was a nightmare ~ defaulting to Thai language constantly etc. Agree with others that their chat bot is useless.....no other "contact us" options provided! Finally got to the Payment page. Entered my BBL Be1st Debit card details, got an OTP from BBL, submitted it and got the "proceed" message. BUT AA app just went into "loading " mode forever. Finally cancelled and called BBL Customer Help line. Nice lady with good English checked what I had done and confirmed no funds had been deducted . She then dug deeper to find the problem and ,after a few minutes " advised me that the "merchant"....AA do not accept the BBL Debit/ Mastercard!!!......a fact never mentioned on their Pathetic Move website ! BBL Customer helpline were most obliging and helpful. I then proceeded with a new booking using a BBL Mastercard Credit card.... This worked fine and payment was made and ticket issued! What a bloody waste of time ! Only used AA as they land at DMK,. .... nearby to our house. Using BKK means B600+ taxi fare and 1hr ride home. Btw....checked bank accounts online later and nothing was taken from my account for the first abortive booking attempt. Also, add ons, like insurance were NOT automatically added but required customers to tick these IF you wanted them. Last time with AA.

Strangely enough I got Covid (back home in Thailand) about a month or so ago after a few weeks stay in Hong Kong. Nothing during to 4 year pandemic ! Have had 4 vaccine jabs, 2x Pfizer, 2 x Moderna.....last in early 2023 (74yo so in the "high risk", BMI 23) Only noticed sore throat, slight cough and bloody awful headache. All in all, only lasted 5 days,then gone. No dizziness, lethargy or aches (well, no more than usual ) I'm assuming that I was well protected during the "dangerous " years, with the immunity finally fading away. I'm glad now I had the vaccs and boosters. Seems to have worked for me.

Quote,"All quiet on the Western Front" And if while we young men are fighting in the belief that we are preparing the way for the new democracy,

When I attended a private boy's school (100 yes ago ) I recall our old and wise Latin Master informing we bright and restless young men that amongst the first words of Latin ever translated were: "The youth of today are not what they were in my day" 2000 years ago?!?

As I said previously, I messaged Wise regarding the apprehension being experienced here. They replied by email confirming 100% that the new account details are correct and any advice by our bank (Westpac) is INCORRECT. Personally I do not have a "wallet" with anyone, I just do a normal bank to bank transfer from Westpac ("Retired 55+") account to Wise in the Payee list (which I have edited to now reflect their new AUD account. Wise's response has been very good both by email and offer to call them direct if I still had any questions or queries. My next transfer will be my pension on 24th, some of which I send to Hong Kong and some to my Thai BBL account. So we'll see how that goes.

I agree that, at our age, we don't need things like this sprung on us when a bit of well timed, advance notice, giving each of us easy access to our "new" account details, with a changeover timeline /date would have made it far easier. I'm sure things will settle back to normal in due course. BTW, I've sent them (Wise Support ) a strongly worded message pointing out the above, and how many expats here in TH, using their services, have been left bewildered by their tardiness, especially in the light of their respected Aus banks ,like Wespac, informing us that this 'most likely ' fraud !!

My main gripe with Wise on this matter, is that there doesn't appear to have been any notification on their app or email previously about this AUD account number change......other than the one (noreply email) just received after my last transfer a couple of days ago. And yes, I do read every message and email (other than junk) coming my way. It took a message on their help page to finally be advised of the new "Wise Australia Pty Ltd " BSB and my new account number. And after the Oz bank strongly warned that this bsb is not being used by anyone, and it "may" be a fraud, I had to contact their Support section to have them reaffirm that it is correct and everything is ok. Someone there is seriously lacking in forward thinking/planning and customer service not to have advised us ALL well in advance of these critical changes. Ok, rant over.

Dr Jack, you probably have it sorted by now but in the Westpac app, once you've logged in, at the upper left of the "how can we help you today?" page is a drop down menu, represented by 4 horiz line, at the top of which is "Payments and Payees" . Under this is "payes and BPAY billers". Clicking this produces ALL your Payees. Down at the bottom is Wise and any current (banking) details you have in for them. At the right is EDIT, click this and you can erase and replace the current BSB and new Account number. Your "past payments" will show exactly where Westpac have been sending your past transfers. IF you don't have your "NEW" Wise AUD account details (BSB and Acc No,) a message/email to Wise will prompt a reply from them with these. But it sounds like you have all this already and are just waiting on Westpac to verify the new BSB - as others have implied. Cheers

As I exit and enter quite regularly, i use the BPs as "evidence "(if required ) to show my local Imm Office why I haven't done 90 day reports in long while. (I submit a photocopy of all the cards in chronological order). I suppose I could use the PP stamps but that would take an IO ages to scroll through and find them all! At Hong Kong I enter and exit using my HKID card, so no Imm PP entries, but I still have the BP issued by the airline (usually Emirates) to add to my collection. Let's see what happens !

Strangely, I have used Wise for years to transfer funds deposited by my (Oz) Commonwealth Super Fund into my Oz bank (their rules require them to pay out ONLY into an Oz bank account in my name only). I checked the passbook (BBL) and the deposits are coded as "Transfer from another bank". I'm on Marriage Extensions using "money...400k..in the bank" method, so do not need these to show as "overseas/international transfers". I've always selected "monthly living expenses " BUT this option has also disappeared, leaving only "personal expenses". So, for last Wise transfer, done yesterday, I selected this and it was there within a minute or so. Also it shows as just "Transfer from Another bank" I don't know if this has any beneficial implications on the proposed future tax.....not showing as an international remittance, but a local bank to bank transfer ??

In Brunei there aren't many, if any, "very poor people ". The Sultan ensures that with generous cash handouts, housing and free public services. The people love him. Taxis don't even have meters. You pay what the driver says. They don't cheat. No need to, they're well off. Not like here! Have you ever been there ?

And.on another off topic matter,...where did she earn those golden wings on her uniform. It took me a few years and many expensive flying lessons to earn mine !

How many times does it need to be stated that under the "Westminster" system, prime ministers /premiers are not "elected" by the thai people but appointed by their party. This is a (supposedly ) Democracy not a Republic . Give it a break

A decade ago now, I flew home (~5000nm) to a year 7, 50th year class reunion...ie 2013 (no wives or gfs allowed ). It was a long haul from Hong Kong back then but was forceably talked into it. So we were all, that night 63 years old. Thank goodness for name tags, but as other have commented, apart from being a bit grayer,balding and/or slightly overweight (me only graying ) I could recognize most of the (remaining....a few MIA) guys, but the "girls" were a bit more challenging ! One or two of those, we, as 12yo boys, had lusted over back then had degraded to the 3/10 category, and one or two who had been quiet and sheepishly, reserved were now raging. Quite a shock and an eye opener But overall a great experience and well worth the journey. It'll probably never happen again as we are all now in our seventies, but glad it did for we baby boomers back in 2013

It's also an Accepted trend amongst the rich !

Examples...

Thanks for that, and here some exsamples of Licences (booklets, not plastic cards)

I am aware that in the USA both License and Licence are interchangeable in usage...as a noun. However you were bluntly (and incorrectly) trying to correct another poster's reference to his pilot's LICENCE /LICENSE. I think you need to take off the US blinkers ! BTW, I'm curious,... to drive your car there do you have a Driver's license or Driver's Certificate ? Similarly, does one have a License or Certificate to own and carry a gun ? Just curious !