Lacessit

Zelensky has said he is willing to negotiate with any Russian leader except Putin. And who can blame him, given the number of times Putin has reneged on commitments?

I'm a law-abiding person, and I always pay my bills as soon as I get them. I can sleep soundly at night accordingly. The scenario you are presenting assumes the "senior official" is always going to be that. I can remember some years ago there was a new broom at the top of Chiang Mai Immigration, and some hasty retirements resulted. I don't know if that resulted in revocation or denial of visas and extensions, but there was a fair flap going on with some expats. . I guess there are a lot of foreigners here that use such agents out of economic necessity. There are probably others that get their rocks off flouting the system even though they have enough cash to satisfy the financial requirements. The first group might get a bit of sympathy from me if things go pear-shaped, the second would get none whatsoever. Som nam na.

I guess you have never looked at the prices listed at the entrance to most Thai national parks. I don't complain, if I think the differential is too greedy, I don't go in.

Find out if you can rent there. If not, walk away. If you can, it's a good opportunity to see how the land lies. All owners want to sell quick. That should not hurry you into a decision.

I have no doubt there are many folk who do not meet the financials. Evidently, your posts endorse dishonesty. I have found ubonjoe is the go-to authority in this area. As a previous post of yours was abuse, and effectively calling me a liar, you are on ignore now. Goodbye.

Pompous. I am not talking about reputable agents. Obtaining extensions based on retirement without satisfying the financials is IMO dishonesty by the client, the agent, and the approving IO. Please provide data from Immigration stating no-one has ever been deported due to failing to meet financial requirements.

As I understand it, agents deposit 800K in the client's account to meet the funds on deposit requirement a day prior to application, then withdraw the 800K immediately the visa or extension is approved. A compliant IO is bribed to look the other way, and in any case can always fall back on the official excuse of exercising discretion. I used to know a guy who described his visa extension process that way, he paid 30,000 baht to an agent for each retirement extension.

I did use a legitimate agent early on here, until I worked out using my time instead of theirs resulted in a saving of about 6000 baht. I am not suggesting people do not use legitimate agents, because they do ( usually ) save time. I am suggesting people who use non-legitimate agents and their evasion devices are at risk of either fraud by the agent, or deportation. As sure as night follows day, if an agent or the IO that the agent is bribing is caught, it will be the client that gets thrown under the bus.

I have to traverse Chiang Rai to do a 90 day report in person. While it is true there is 7 days grace for the 90 day report, I'd rather not push it. Each to his own, I have found online reporting very easy with no need to battle Thai traffic.

There are legitimate agents, and those who bend the rules via various stratagems. If a corrupt agent or IO gets caught, it's the foreigner that will catch most of the flak. There's actually no hard data AFAIK to say how many foreigners get booted out of Thailand on this basis, and I would doubt Immigration is going to publish it. IMO saying deportations of this nature have never happened is like denying climate change is man-made.

I would never use the f-word in front of a Thai, they know exactly what it means and to them it is highly insulting. Although they do have a fairly extensive vocabulary of swear words of their own. I'd have to agree rudeness is much more an attribute of foreigners.

I found border runs became a major PITA, which is why I got a retirement visa. As they say, up to you.

I'm not sure I can agree with the first sentence, I've seen Thais do some very rude things to others, depending on where they think they are in the social spectrum. The last two sentences, completely agree.

It is preferable to do it a few days before, sometimes the first report is rejected for some undisclosed reason. As I understand it, one can report up to 14 days before due date, although the next report date gets adjusted accordingly.

I have been on a scooter for over 10 years now, accident-free. I must be doing something right. Yes, it is a high risk activity, all the statistics say so. However, defensive driving can minimize the risk. With my retirement visa, I minimize the risk as well.

It usually is; however, it takes about a minute to do yourself online, once registered. After that, simply print out the new form with the next date, and staple it in the passport.

Yes and no. I once bought 5 kg of beef for a village party, quite expensive. By the time a cousin of my GF had finished making a stew, the liquid part of the stew could have doubled as paint stripper.

Try 6 hours, I am a witness. I have also had two Thai women go into a secondhand shop for 4 hours, and come out without buying anything. According to them, they had a wonderful time.

Thainess: The ability to queue at a government hospital for hours without rioting. The ability to give incorrect directions about two-thirds of the time. The ability to tell anyone what the interlocutor thinks they want to hear. The ability to sleep at any time in any body position without benefit of a bed. The ability to have extraordinary physical flexibility, even obese or elderly Thais The ability to consume food over four or five hours. The ability to converse with a friend for a similar period. The ability to lie convincingly, and be unembarrassed when caught out. The ability to be Olympic - class fence-sitters. The ability to regard the most abjectly incompetent driving of vehicles as perfectly normal.

A couple of inconvenient facts: Stalin killed about 6 million Ukrainians during the Holodomor of 1932 -33, and replaced them with Russians, mainly in the Donbas and Luhansk regions. Theft of the richest Ukrainian soil by stealth. When the Nazis invaded during World War II, they were greeted as heroes. Kyiv surrendered without firing a shot. The Ukrainians very quickly found out being trampled by a German right-wing jackboot was no different to a Russian left-wing jackboot. It did give a succession of Soviet leaders the convenient label of Nazis for a country that simply wanted to be shot of both versions of tyranny. History is written by the winners. It is novel Russia is attempting to rewrite history on social media via an army of trolls. Make no mistake, Russia is losing. Badly. Poorly trained and led troops, with lousy logistics, are being slaughtered on the battlefield. It's a pariah state with a ruined economy. With its size and resources, it should be one of the most prosperous nations on the planet. I don't know which is more depressing, the lies you are posting, or the thought you may actually believe them.

You need to speak with a Financial Services Officer at Centrelink, they give unbiased and knowledgeable advice on such a situation. Make an appointment. Don't take the advice of the run-of-the mill employees . Your age pension will reduce as a home-owner. There are also tax implications, if you are classed as non-resident in Australia your income from assets AND any pension will be taxed at 32.5%. In your shoes, I would rent out the Australian house, and rent in Thailand. Return to Australia within every 183 days so you can continue to claim you are an Australian resident for tax purposes. Invest any spare capital in blue-chip shares that pay fully-franked dividends. My policy is to tell Centrelink and the ATO as little as possible. Everyone's circumstances are different, good luck.

You may be right, I won't care.

RIP Fitz, one of the originals.

It costs me 1900 baht at Immigration, and 200 baht for a bank letter to renew my retirement extension. OTOH, the opportunity cost of keeping 800K baht on permanent deposit might make the OP's proposition worthwhile. Minor point - the OP needs to work on his math. 6 months at his proposed tariff is approximately 12,000 baht, not 10,000.

I am not disagreeing with you, IMO drug use should be decriminalized. You are correct in stating the adulteration of pure drugs with other substances for profit is a major problem. Prohibition did not work with alcohol, which if anything is a worse drug than many of the illegal ones.