apalink_thailand

Oh the irony!!

After all the posts here about the violent Thais and the not to be trusted Burmese, what an anticlimax if the culprit is a fellow Brit .

Another news reports that this other fellow is German. The Thai News reporter bolloxed up the name. His surname is "Ware"

Yeah what about the motorbike gangs like the Outlaws in Bangkok? They dont count?

Aren't they just a dirty bunch of has-been greasers who like to think they are in charge of something mainly because they (used to?) provide security for the boiler room boys?

They are very similar to some Thai thugs that get mentions here in that they have to hang out in a group because one overweight-middle-aged-balding-on-top-with-a-straggly-grey-ponytail is useless security on his own.

Nope, the Outlaws are much more than greasers. You may be referring to some of the benign MC's that just like to ride and many of whom raise lots of money for charity (Jesters for example).

Yeah what about the motorbike gangs like the Outlaws in Bangkok? They dont count?

And the boiler house boys which are also linked to the bike gangs. However, they are smart enough to kick back money to their protectors.

I've been doing this for years and it works just fine.

Interestingly, I recall when Taksin first took office, he replaced the head of the Customs Dept and the Revenue Department and suddenly the coffers were filled. I suppose they were later emptied but I do recall at the time we all gave him a big thumbs up for this momentous effort. The cycle renews I suppose.

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As I have posted before I have been spending my leave periods in Thailand from my job offshore for close to five years now and have always entered with a stamp at the airport, never had a problem. Reading some of the comments here makes me wonder why I should even bother to expose myself to all the hassle of applying for a marriage visa or marriage extension.

Actually what advantage or benefit does it give me or does it just, as the post before said, just waste my leave days with a load of paperwork that I don't really need.

I have managed to set myself up with a bank account, medical insurance, car and house are in the wife's name, what else is there that I don't have already that the process is going to give me

Not being sarcastic, I am looking for genuine responses

Was just talking to a mate about 2 hours ago about a similar situation. He has been in Thailand for 18 years or so, was working offshore in the GOT for the first 14 years of that. Work permit and extension of stay so no problems. He has moved on and is currently working in Indonesia, 28/28. He comes in on visa exempt even though he is married because his rotation doesn't give him enough time to finish the process for the dependency visa (marriage). That is what he is lead to believe anyway.

Not sure how much he has talked to immigration about this, you would think there would be some leeway given under these circumstances.ed to

Not true. I am on 28/28 and managed to get it sorted before leaving for the next rotation. I went to HK, got the visa (planned all the docs well in advance though), cam back and used a service to get me the one year visa. It was all done with time to spare.

Thanks. I know Singapore embassy is tough, but I had to come here for other reasons as well. The well known, "rude" lady was not there, but still no luck. This is a very good example of the lack of conformity. I wasted much of my very valuable time to follow the rules, and was to no benifit. My time of work is 10 weeks. One again I will end up trying to do a visa run, as my flights are already booked for my return to work.

I too work offshore and last month, made the move to get the O visa (marriage). I recommend that you go to HK. The Embassy there is very helpful and friendly and they processed the visa within 24 hours. If you PM me, I can send you the details of the fixer I use in BKK to get the next step sorted, which is the 1 year visa. This service cost me 25K (just under) and covered all visa fees, bribes etc and I did not have to go to Immigration office. Its legit, so don't worry about that. If you do it yourself, you will be running about, back and forth to Immigration wasting your precious days off.

It's legit? Leely?

Yup, did it last month. Leely.

Thanks. I know Singapore embassy is tough, but I had to come here for other reasons as well. The well known, "rude" lady was not there, but still no luck. This is a very good example of the lack of conformity. I wasted much of my very valuable time to follow the rules, and was to no benifit. My time of work is 10 weeks. One again I will end up trying to do a visa run, as my flights are already booked for my return to work.

I too work offshore and last month, made the move to get the O visa (marriage). I recommend that you go to HK. The Embassy there is very helpful and friendly and they processed the visa within 24 hours. If you PM me, I can send you the details of the fixer I use in BKK to get the next step sorted, which is the 1 year visa. This service cost me 25K (just under) and covered all visa fees, bribes etc and I did not have to go to Immigration office. Its legit, so don't worry about that. If you do it yourself, you will be running about, back and forth to Immigration wasting your precious days off.

I'm interested in the world of investment, but have to be honest...I know nothing about it, but I'd like to learn.

Can anyone recommend a website or book where I could learn the (very) basics...preferably related to Thailand if that's even an issue.

If I had spare cash to invest, I would go for the safer option with lower returns. At least until I become an expert investor, of course. :-)

Try investopedia.com. Quite good.

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Is it me or does anybody else read this as saying it was natural death by using the words passed away? What was the cause of death? If an investigation was in progress surely someone can answer that already. My sympathies for the chap but many unansered questions.

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Hope its not one of these tainted bucket cocktails again. I heard they put mozzy repellent in them for some reason.

I have a feeling that this guy means what he says. However, its a huge task and one that will get him many, many enemies. I do not see the jails filling up with corrupt civil servants and cops though. The hand slapping and the "inactive post" is the usual punishment for them.

Maybe people are fed up with be treated like second class citizens and are moving to countries that want their economic input. Or its becoming to expensive and regulated , and of course all the visa crackdowns and nominee company crackdowns may be forcing people out, Thailand is still a great place but its losing its advantages one step at a time.

Tend to disagree. Thailand is just ridding itself of the riffraff.

What I want to know, is this Taiwanese company and it's directors so naïve as to transfer 4.6 million baht to the scammers accounts?

If, as I suspect, they are, I'm not sorry for them loosing the money.

A similar scam was in the news recently. Apparently they spoof an email address for a partner company here in TH that is doing business with the company in Taiwan. There is inside information (accomplices) gained about a business transfer (possibly fairly routine) and the scammers intercept and ask the Taiwanese to change the TT account to the scammers account in Bangkok. A savvy accountant will pick it up right away but some don't.

Two questions.

1 has this woman ever given you reason not to trust her?

2 what is her credit card debt like? It sounds like she likes to shop.

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Thank you Mario, I have no intention of leaving Thailand, so will turn the UK company down

There is a special kind of Non-B visa that is intended for business travellers to Thailand and I believe its valid for one year. Technically you are not working but you should be able to attend trade shows as a representative under that visa scheme. I believe these can be obtained at Thai Embassies in Europe. You would need proper paperwork from the company explaining why you need the visa.

I have never experienced this attitude in the past 3 years so i was very surprised as well by their hostile behavior this time

Out of interest, how were you dressed? Shorts and t-shirt? Flip-flops? Not being condescending (or suggesting that the OP was dressed improperly) but there is actually a law that you must dress respectfully when going into a government office (I will try to find the actual law but it does exist).

Many of the officers get annoyed at servicing sloppy looking foreigners and in the past, would not even allow "hippies" into the country. I notice every time I go to a government office where Farangs are obtaining services (Amphur, Immigration etc), I see that most of them (90%) are in shorts, t-shirts and flip flops.

I recommend to all that when you visit a government office, especially in these difficult times, that you dress properly. Long sleeve shirt, trousers and shoes. I have never (in 24 years) been given the kind of treatment you received but I am careful to dress well, be humble and smile a lot.

I am told that new rules may apply now on the 5-year license renewal and that the documents list and procedures may have changed. I need to get mine sorted by next week and it would appear its going to be another wasted day in the Government office on Sukhumvit.

I could use a documents list please.

I am going back to work overseas on the 18th of August and my licence expires on the 20th. I am back in mid September and was wondering if that is too late to renew? How long past the expiry date can you go without having to start from zero again?

Last news abotu Pattaya I read before this - is that the Pattaya looks empty. not only Russians are gone, any other nationality numbers are down as well and there's no way of knowing by what %. I don't believe the the Thai statistics for a second!

I was staying at the Pinnacle Resort last weekend, which is popular with Russian tour groups. The place was at 20% occupancy. Personally, I was extremely happy about this but I can understand that the hotels are suffering. That area is often full of Russians.

 

 

Ban travellers from West Africa......!

Many that come to Thailand are scammers anyway...no loss!

 

Some of us work there and rotate back to Thailand. But thanks for the sentiments. 

 

 

I understand and appolgise,  my comment was not meant to cause any disputes....

There's a very compelling article on the CNN website that clearly states that Ebola can easily be contracted on aircraft........

It's becoming a very serious concern to the world.....and to those, like yourself that do work there and commute, then precautions must be taken.

 

You are quite right. Last month at work, I did notice a sign up on the wall about the Ebola virus. I work considerably south of the danger area but as you said, the disease could spread easily via contact with and infected persons bodily fluids perhaps in the aircraft toilets. I will certainly take precautions.

Ban travellers from West Africa......!

Many that come to Thailand are scammers anyway...no loss!

Some of us work there and rotate back to Thailand. But thanks for the sentiments. 

 

An education VISA is for learning Thai. After two education visas and presumably two years of tuition, your Thai should be good enough to cope with questions asked by Immigration. I am not saying you are one of the guilty ones but there are many staying in Thailand on education visas who are abusing the system. I personally know of two such people, both over 70, who openly boast that they are only required to attend a single one hour lesson per week and that there is no test of knowledge of the language. Second and subsequent education visas should be issued only after the student has demonstrated a knowledge of Thai comparative to the length of study. In addition the establishments offering these visas should be monitored very closely for performance.

There is no requirement to study Thai on an Ed Visa. Plenty of people are studying English, Japanese or another language, or cooking, Thai boxing etc. Some are taking a degree at a Thai university.
 
 

 

Erm...why then would the Immigration Official test his ability to speak Thai? 

What if you are studying Muay Thai?

 

Do you get to demonstrate your new found skills in the immigration queue?

LOL, like that one.  

 

 

Most of us so-called "old timers" worked LEGALLY and had work permits so no need to go border running. Most were running foreign international companies and helping to mentor young Thai professionals to become executives in these companies. The sexpats, criminals and useless tax dodging "here for the beer" English teacher types came much later. 

 

Thank you for bringing a fresh breath of hate and stereotyping, to remind everyone of your white superiority primacy. This thread needed it badly.

 

White superiority ? Huh? Because I (and many others) worked here LEGALLY and helped in the development of local Thai managers (which is what happens in developing countries in the early years) that makes me a white supremacist? Do you realise that foreign companies invested here with 49% ownership (yes, they want their interests managed by a foreigner) and helped to take Thailand from a mostly agrarian economy to industrial? No of course not, you are here for the beer.

The problem here is that the OP is not very clear about what happened.

 

We are left assuming that he applied for an extension of stay for the and that that extension of stay was refused following an interview to see how his Thai is progressing.

 

We are assumming that the ED was for the purpose of learning Thai, yet the OP says nothing about taking Thai lessons at all so perhaps he thought that the lessons were optional.

 

Being refused an extension and being refused entry are very different really, a refusal gives you 7 days to leave Thailand, but you can come back for a different reason

He was tested by an Immigration Officer for his Thai language skills, not his calculus skills. It seems pretty clear to me.