JackGats

I have a one-year extension to be renewed by May 2nd. And I am not paying any rent or accommodation right now while I am out of Thailand.

I was watching the "Thai Consular Online" youtube vid. At 0.51 it says "Fill in accommodation details - Upload paid booking". I guess this "paid booking" is not the 1st quarantine night but something else. How am I expected to fulfil this uploading requirement? I'll be traveling for 3 and a half months (until the expiry of my visa). Last thing I want is to waste money on advance bookings.

The one I got is a 13-digit TIN for the CRS and FACTA. The Thai give you one if you tell them your overseas bank require one. At least that was what I was told to tell as a reason for asking for one and it worked. If you tell them you need one to pay tax in Thailand they might tell you "you don't have to pay tax in Thailand". When I filled in the W-8BEN form for my EU broker in order to get the 15% rebate on US withholding tax, I needed to write down this my "Thai TIN". If it also serves as Thai national tax number, so much the better because it is a simplification compared to many countries where the national tax number often differs slightly (typically including some additional digits). I will broach the subject again with my Bualuang man. It is dumb to be paying withholding tax in Thailand and not have that linked to my tax number.

In the COE system the insurance had to cover the (remaining) validity of the visa/entry permit. If your visa expired 8 months after landing in Thailand, you needed 8 months insurance (even if your onward flight was 3 weeks after arrival in Thailand). It is not how long you intend to stay that matters, but rather how long you are entitled to stay once in Thailand.

Rollout the booster shots and open everything, period.

"I never pay a woman for sex, I pay her to leave in the morning" (Charly Sheen?).

What I would like to see is a scrapping of the Thai embassy step (COE, TP) for holders of visas. This is really the limiting step. Passengers who turn up without the required paperwork can simply be fined on arrival (have to pay for the test and/or the insurance at a premium compared to the pre-flight online rate). I propose FOA (Fine On Arrival). Thai airport police should love it.

The TIN is an number for information exchange between countries. For instance if you have revenues in a UK bank, the UK bank sends the data to Thailand using your Thai TIN (what Thailand does with the info is Thailand's business, at present Thailand can't probably be bothered). I have shares yielding dividends in Thailand. I asked my broker if instead of "tax number of recipient = 00000000" my Thai TIN or some Thailand Taxpayer number couldn't appear on the slip. I got the usual irritating Thai answer, ie "no need to worry about that". That's one of the things that irk me most about Thailand: it's near to impossible to obtain paperwork to show back home to your home bank or taxman. Note: I could get the (international) TIN no questions asked but as far as I know this doesn't mean I have or am entitled to a Thai taxpayer number.

800k was (and still is I think) the requirement on a Thai bank account for visa renewal. What you are quoting is money on a bank account anywhere, can be in Thailand but also Belgium etc. Plus, this is for getting the original visa, not for renewal. Of course maybe the requirement for the original visa used to be 800k too, don't remember.

Yes, I remember an article months ago explaining this was by far the biggest threat, ie a Coronavirus that would thrive and mutate in wild animals, ready to jump back onto humans with a vengence. Domestic animals and pets were considered less of a hasard as they coul be monitored.

So what about if you lose your passport. Do they let you hang for 11 weeks?

Having too much cash piling up on my EU bank accounts, I was toying with the idea of buying a condo in TH. With so many hurdles however I have nearly given up the idea alltogether. Not being allowed to buy property on my terms is one of the reasons that might push me out of Thailand in the future.

One month per top-up. Even if you top up 10k Baht at one go, one puny month.

I wanted to install Samsung Pay on my snartphone to go cashless in Thailand. Guess what, my Galaxy 10+ is not supported by Samsung for Samsung pay! I wanted to set up Rabbit Line with my Bangkok Bank debit card but it said something like "not available in your case".

The big problem with the Thai Pass is that you still have to obtain a Thai Pass (COE by another name) before traveling to Thailand. Thai Pass ON ARRIVAL would be fine thank you.

This is true and it is the point the media make most often these days. However the narrative has changed a few times. A few months ago the narrative was "nearly all hospitalised people are non vaccinated". Now the narrative is something like "ok, a lot of vaccinated patients in hospitals, but mostly very old patients", or alternatively (in countries where the vaccination rate is very high): "no wonder most patients in hospital are vaccinated, since most people in the country are". In the end, what matters is how many people get severely ill in spite of being vaccinated (forget the unvaccinated, let's say they deserve it). But if you get full hospitals in spite of a successful vaccination campaign, that's bad whichever way you interpret the stats.

The virus flares up for 2 months, then rests for 2 months, then flares up again for 2 months, etc. REGARDLESS of everything that is done to prevent it fron recurring. The only good news is that vaccines seem to prevent severe cases. I hope the latter is not just an illusion.

I'd have thought what really counts is what your local Thai embassy publishes on its website. Once your local Thai embassy gives you the greenlight, you're good to go.

Covid explodes for 2 months, then subsides for 2 months, repeat, repeat, repeat ... It does this regardless of lockdowns, curfews, openings or closures, vaccines (though the latter may save lives).

That is nothing. The big hurdle is the COE (if you need one, which I think you do). When you (try to) apply for a COE you'll understand what I mean.

COE has always been from the 1st flight/boarding in case of indirect flight. That's the coutry you are coming from. Anyway, you get a COE on the basis of a specific flight. If they give you a COE for a flight through South Africa that's their responsibility, not yours. Or did you mean flying to TH without a COE? I don't think that's possible yet.

Star Alliance had a policy of allowing any changes of the return flight free of charge, even in economy. I availed myself of that policy when I flew back with Lufthansa from Brazil in January and from Thailand in July. You should check whether that policy is still in place for your dates

Well, I don't have only one criteria. There's more to life than porn & sex. For instance, social interaction (talking to people) is important to me. That's why I was considering resettling to Colombia, where I can talk for ages with women on Niteflirt while doing lines.

I'll still jump through the hoops in January like I did last year so that I don't lose my extension due end of April. However, I am not going to do that every year for the next ten years. If this doesn't stop I'll get serious about finding another country.

Problem is car-renting. In many countries the car rental will only accept a credit card, even one with only a token sum as credit (for instance you can go down to only -100 dollars on the card, otherwise you have to transfer money to the card account). But it has to be a credit card, not a debit card.