scorecard

Interesting post. I am not a believer and never will be. When meetings/events etc., turn to 'god' 'jesus' I just sit and be quiet. I've had a few occasions where the master of ceremones etc., have targeted me, pushing me / insisting i change my attitude and 'believe'. Perhaps the worst was when my management consultancy company was appraoched to give extensive advice and redesign of a large organization structure. The contract was signed, several preliminary meetings happened but I could never get an answer as to what products/services the company was involved in, but assurances that 'you' get a good surprise. I will admit I was hesitant whether to proceed with the work, but a big fee. Day 1 - 50 people in the room from the client organization, new leader appears and motions for all to get down on their nkees to pray, 5 folks are called up to hold my hands and put their hands on my shoulders etc. Leader now lordly thanks god for bringing me to their organization and tells god I have promised to bring new light to the organization. Turned out it was a US based 'save the Children' type organization. At the end of day one 30 minutes of prayers with me again being the focus. I totally respect all faiths but I didn't appreciate what had happened. And it didn't bring me even slightly closer to being a believer. Additional comment. At the several preliminary meetings 2 of the participants from the client organizational were very rude to my own staff and at one meeting, held at a hotel, unnecessarily quite abusive to the hotel staff who had done nthing wrong. No much for 'love they neighbor'.

A slight correction; for Thailand there's no such thing as a Permanent Resident visa. Some years back at an immigration discussion with foreigners a senior Thai immigration officer explained it like this (he spoke perfect English): - Thai citizenship, automatic at birth if one parent (or both) are Thai citizens. Foreigners can apply for Thai citizenship, difficult to achieve, very small numbers are approved. Not that expensive. It's for life, after approval there's no annual renewal, no checking, no 90 day reports etc. no need for exit/re-entry stamps. This is NOT a visa, foreigners approved get a standard Thai passport. - Thai Certificate of Residence, also known as Permanent Resident or PR. Not easy to achieve. For 99% of folks who get PR the primary item required is working in Thailand with a Thai work permit for 3 consecutive years, or more, and proof of paying all personal taxes and lots more, applicant must be holding a Thai work permit at the time of applying. Very high rejection rate (there's a maximum number which can be approved each year, for most countries it's 50 maximum but total approvals per country always well under that number. When I applied, for my birth county the maximum per year was 50. Actually approved was 5). After approval there's no annual renewal required, no checking, no 90 day reports etc. Holder must have an exit/re-entry permit. This is NOT a visa, PR is issued for life. Holder gets a small Certificate of Residence book which immigration stamp, same as holder's passport, every time the holder departs and returns to Thailand. The stamping is automatic, there is no interview or renewal of the PR status. Expensive. - Various Visas - Visas have a start date and an expiry date. Some visas can be extened but the extenion will have an expiry date. Some visas can be renewed, holder must submit an application for renewal, usually with copious attachments, and wait to see if the renewal is approved. I got my Certificate of Residency (PR) 26+ years ago so I'm not up to date with which agencies offer help with gaining PR. However several such agencies advertise their services here on ASEANNOW occasionally. One or several will possibly repond soon. Suggest google 'agencies in Thailand for Thai Permanent Residency?', this search will bring up many search responses which might give some valuable further information.

OK but in some villages there's an annual membership fee and a fee every time the facility is used.

Interesting post. I'm wondering how all of that (and many other posts) relates to 'do you believe in god?'

Seems you're way out of tounch with how the police work / what they fcus on / who they don't focus on in this country.

No I don't believe in god. Virgin birth? Not possible. Magic? No, because magic can be explained rationally. Rise from the dead after three days? Not possible. After 17 thousand replies still not convinced.

You write so much unrealistic rubbish.

My question though is what does a 16 year old kid in school need with 10k.... buys Chang and fake JW for dad for a few weeks.

Why do you ignore the point that the mc driver who ended upon upon the bonnet is very probably trying to stop the driver from fleeing?

No No, it's brake failure.

I wonder how much you know about how the DVA psychiatrists assess PTSD / the levels of PTSD etc., and I wonder if you knw that PTSD is not one specific item, it's usually several 'sub factors'. Overall these sub factors make up a PTSD confirmation. E.g: panic assessment, anxiety assessment, depression assessment, fear of violence, fear of torture, fear of kidnap, flashback, affect on wive / family, and more. The reality is that the interviews / discussions with psychiatrists is mostly done with several psychiatrists (I belive it's 4 or 5 qualified and very experienced psychiatrists) and in some cases it's ultimately a panel of psychiatrists; sometimes sitting together in the same room, sometimes alone and each giving their opinion by using scaled very well defined definitions. And then a final average but with each psychiatrists having the opportunity to challenge the 'level' indicated by other panel members. Further from my understanding somembers of he psychiatrists panel have strong military experience and/or they have military advisors instantly available to answer pertinent questions. In other words it's not a one on one quick interview with the psychiatrist making up questions as the discussion proceeds. There also a self assessment which is thorough and assesses the self diagnosed levels of affect on the persons lifestyle and more, It's compared to the very carefully structured assessments of the psychiatrists, which can produce more challenges and requests for deeper self assessment. I rather doubt the serviceman being assessed would be able to fake PTSD.

Yep, and add: come in to pay the 10Baht (if you really want to), whenever convenient, or we can send a senior out to your house to pick up the cash or you can pay the officer by QR code.

Most expensive imported brand please, textured and imprinted with little butterflies and perhaps even a couple of muted colours.

I didn't say anything like that. A theatre of war has many scenarios, some soldiers see / experience the ultimate of shooting other people and seeing their buddies killd and maimed. Others in a war zone see other aspects of these scenarios; just one example, doctors and nurses at front line aid stations / surgical stations and field hospitals, and they know it's the result of a violent indiscriminate war. There's many more examples but here's one more related to a military field hospital. Several very young (age not the key point) enemy soldiers captured by allied forces and brought to the nearest field hospital for medical check and medical attention, as required by the geneva convention. Within a few minutes the enemy soldiers are transferred from the military police to a section of other soldiers called in, they are in camp on a rest for a couple of days. As soon as the MPs are gone, the soldiers now guarding the prisoners of war decide to punish the enemy soldiers who are in hand cuffs and within a few minutes (until the MPs can quickly return) the guarding troops have severly bashed the faces of the prisoners of war using their rifle butts and broken their ribs, backs, legs and arms. For all concerned this is prettty stressful and disturbing and for many will this scene will remain for a long time. For some it will generate panic and anxiety and deprssion issues, which never really go away.

As are you.

What is TT?

OK, but I suggest there's a good lesson here; People who produce content about visas should be real and serious experts and be careful what they write ensuring there's no chance of misunderstanding, misinterpretations, and beware of words/titles which could produce misunderstanding.

From Michael Hare earlier: "Having said that, I don't believe that there is a category for PR that is based upon marriage to a Thai. The requirements are visa, tax and education for the most part. Being married to a Thai may help, but isn't the basis for PR." ------------------------ I recall at my 'immediate' interview the snr., imm. officer said 'work permits' show that the applicant has actually been working in Thailand for an extended priod, but the interview should then go further and establish whether the applicant has, over an extended period, been working in a profession / position etc., which is contributing to the development of Thailand and establish that advanced professional knowledge/skills are being passed on to the Thai colleagues in the work situation. In my interview this did get a lot of discussion. In fact my agent called his Thai wife (senior position at my company) and the snr., immigration officer asked her to give examples of my work outputs and the knowledge/skills required and asked for examples of transfer of knowledge etc. The lady from my company offered to get 2 of my staff ready to talk to the imm. officer on the phone the next day. That was all agreed, then he went back to earlier discussion points and asked me to explain further in detail. Then at the end of the interview the imm / officer said "I'm going to cancel the call tomorrow, I've convinced there is good / valuable knowledge and skill transfer."

NOTE: The original poster hasn't commented further / hasn't responded to provide any clarifications.

"Quotas remain the same..." That's my understanding also, going back 26 years. The year I got PR the total number approved from my birth country was 5 (five) applicants.

The original headline: "Prevent your retirement visa in Thailand from expiring". But Is that possible? A so called retirement visa (there is no such visa with that specific title in the Thailand system) has an ultimate expiry date. Do whatever to try to prevent expiry but you can't ultimately prevent it's expiry. However the holder can apply again and must submit most of the same backup paper work and then wait to see if it's approved. Misleading headline.

"Applying for a re-entry permit as soon as you obtain your retirement visa in Thailand is a prudent and proactive approach to securing your residency status." Using the term 'residency status' can cause confusion and misunderstanding. Some folks would assume this means permanent residency which is not true.

The point about being married to a Thai lady / having Thai kids and how that relates to gaining PR seems to be a question mark. I got PR 26+ years ago. I was appraoched by the husband of a Thai work colleague who wanted to change his career and become a PR / Citizenship consultant. He mentioned I would be his first client and that he had some knowledge of the subject but assisting me would also be his major learning experience. The consultant (spoke advanced English) had already establshed that by the letter of the law the applicant had to prove he had held a Thai work permit and had paid all personal taxes for 3 yesrs at the time of applying. The consultant had also learned that Thai Immigration were not accepting applications unless the foreigner could prove 7 years of WPs and peraonal taxes paid. In fact I had more like 10 years up and I had luckily kept all the documents. We went to the old Immigration office on Soi Suan Plu and submitted the documents. As we were walking out a senior officer approached us and in perfect English said "Do you have about 2 hours to have your interview right now?" I said YES and he took us to another room. The interview ws total English. I asked 'Will there be a Thai language interview later". The office laughed and said NO, PR is not a language test. That of course has changed. The Immigration officer was very professional and friendly and a good listener and he said several times 'don't hesitate to ask me any questions. The officer shared that PR is about 7 years of WPs and taxes all paid. Hold ing WP at the time of pplication, Work which contributes to the development of Thailand, Advanced education and proof of some type of growth investment to support old age, personal attitudes and behaviors. My consultant asked "Is there any advantage for the applicant to be married to a Thai lady?" Answer: NO because PR is about YOU, not about your marriage status. At the end of the interview the officer said "I am recommending you to be approved and I can pretty much guarantee you will be approved but you will need to wait until very late this year to get the appproval document. A twist: both my consultant and his Thai wife were well qualified and well experienced chemical process engineers. Not long after my PR submission they were both offered very senior positions in the US (same location) with a very professional / high performance chemical giant, with very big salaries and benefits. They accepted.

"Overall these items are far from difficult and don't take long and are not subject to investigation etc. " Well said!

My family (son, DIL, eldest granddaughter and myself) have used aliexpress many times (a wild guess 50 times) here in Thailand, In Australia and in China. Never had any difficulty or confusion or wrong payments, always delivered on time. No hesitation to use them again.