WyrldTraveler

The learning curve is steep.  Tuition is paid regardless of origin or economic status.  You start from where you are.

It is the latest anti-smoking campaign.  People now avoid smoke.

On 6/20/2019 at 12:29 AM, rumbo1 said:

Would this also mean anyone arriving visa exempt or tv and planning a 1900 baht 30 day extension now have the added expense of having to pay for a change of return flight details ?

While it would require a short-term commitment of funds, one could buy a VERY EXPENSIVE one way FULLY-REFUNDABLE ticket to show proof of onward travel and then cancel after arrival for FULL REFUND.  Your flight does not need to be round-trip, but you must show proof of onward travel.  One can always state that the later round-trip departure was for convenience; it was cheaper to pay for a 90-day stay than a 30-day stay, etc.

On 6/19/2019 at 4:02 AM, nickmondo said:

So is it possible for me to go to Immigration early February next year to renew the visa 4 months early?  therefore changing my annual renewal date?

Anybody actually done this sort of thing (rather than just giving opinion) 

Anything is possible.  If one reads the forum  (and pays attention) one will likely notice that

things  that worked last month, last year or five years ago may no longer work. Everything is changing in Thai immigration. Because of this, the best people to ask are the officials who actually have the authority to make the decision: the officers at Thai immigration.

Government officials are there to provide a service to the public. If you treat them with respect and compassion for the miserable situation in which they are forced to work, you may discover that you can actually get service.

A good rule of thumb to follow is that officials are more likely to do what is easy. On the other hand, you may have caught them on a day when they were reminded that the agency earns fees for providing services and they are more inclined to do something which will cost you money. It is impossible to know which situation you will get on any given day.

If it was predictable, it would not be exciting. If you prefer boring, don't rock the boat. If you want to live in interesting life, go out there and do things, try things, and see what happens.

Otherwise, you are wasting everyone's time.

Superiority is judged by the receiver, not the one offering information.  If personal experience is superior in the eyes of the reader, so be it.  If reading a book by some degreed intellectual (I am one also) is better, so be it.  If watching a video by some random blogger is better, so be it.

Everyone is ultimately responsible for their experience.  If you do not like what I offer here (for free) here on TV, kindly petition the management for a 150%  refund.  They may double it.  To maintain appearances, if nothing else.  Such is Thailand.

If one wants to play mental masturbation, any thread is fair game.  I won't waste my time.  Cuenca is a nice town.  It's not for everyone.  Some people enjoy NYC, but not me.  To each their own.  I serve only to sharpen your focus; I have no agenda other than to provide honest service to clients.

No matter where you are, you will die someday.  You may go quickly, or you may take ages.  Some say that it is a personal choice, while others are not so forgiving.  Your reality is, well, yours.

Own it if you will.  Or blame others for your fate. 

Internet voyeurism flourishes.

I had a very gay colleague in University in the 90's from Mexico.  Discrimination is likely BS.  Otherwise, it would be going backwards.

As for medical costs, don't expect the Cleveland Clinic for 36 USD per month.

If you can't afford to travel in the third world full time, you can't afford to relocate.  Your income is too small, or your priorities are simply wrong.  Anyone who puts Netflix before healthcare deserves what they get.

As for costs, you have to go there yourself.  I am amazed at the BS about needing $3K/mo. to have a comfortable Ecuadorean lifestyle when I pay $200/mo for an overpriced one bedroom apartment all-included.  I can't spend $3K/mo in this village without illegal drug use (which I don't do anyways) but even then it would be difficult. 

If your sex life at this age is all-encompassing, maybe you should look at your priorities?

Small countries usually court all large players in the "Great Game" in order to hedge their bets.  A rare display of smart politics.

6 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Most immigration offices would do the extension with a 3 day overstay. You will pay a overstay fine of 500 baht per day.

 

If you are proactive, simply going to Immigration and informing them of what you are doing can ease the process.  Some officers 'punish' overstays by making them wait until the end of the day before they process the paperwork.  By being friendly and cooperative, you might get timely service and get out of there before lunch.

My experience shows that this can work.  It was explained to me that the fine was "required by law"; the officer was apologetic in his presentation. 

Conversely, being a self-righteous, demanding jerk will guarantee that your case will be considered for the harshest treatment permitted under existing regulations.  Your life; your call.

2 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Did I miss something in a previous post?

You mention 'From My Manuscript'

What manuscript? What is your manuscript? Have you mentioned your manuscript before?

I'm writing a book.  As I posted previously, I am not here soliciting business.  Books are commercial activities (if one intends to sell them, of course.)  It is not yet published.

As for homophobia in Latin America, it is ill-advised to only research on the Internet.  "Boots On The Ground", live, in-person research is best as the information goes through only your perceptual filters and no one else's.  It has never been easier or cheaper to travel and explore.  Otherwise, you are engaged in mental masturbation.  If that's all you want, have fun with that. 

8 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I want to ask you if any of those applications involved the need for a police report from THAILAND? If so, can you share some details about that process for any nations that you did that for. If you don't know, Thailand is not an apostille treaty nation but nations that require documents from Thailand still need them formally officialized. 

2 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

US citizens area allowed to have 2 original passports?  Do you mean to have two USA passports?  I like the idea but I doubt that is true.  Or do you mean they can have passports from two countries?

In the event that travel is required and passport is not available (i.e. ticket to Singapore for meeting and India is still processing your business visa and have your passport until aforementioned visa is issued), a second passport can be issued at the discretion of the official granting the request.  You will have to pay for it, of course, but you can have more than one active passport in the system.

This issue arises when traveling around Israel, where other Arab states will refuse entry if you have a stamp from Israel, as another example.

In the case of the OP, who allegedly has no friends, he could have retained a lawyer to act on his behalf in the event of a crisis such as this one. 

2 hours ago, Don Mega said:

The person you qouted, is the OP.

On Page Four, some forum members may not recall the statements of the OP, so I quoted them as a reference.  This individual is obviously a seasoned traveler, so this is looking increasingly like an elaborate prank for his own amusement if he does not intend to do anything about his alleged issue, such as inquiring of Immigration if a report has been filed and, if so, the ramifications of such a report.

Having advised people professionally on relocating to Latin America in particular, I can contribute the following:

• Cosmopolitan areas are generally tolerant of homosexuality (Panama has a running joke in some circles that you have to be at least bisexual to be President) but people have a public persona and a private persona; one keeps one's bedroom practices discreet, whether you are banging the secretary at lunch (don't do it on the desk in the office) and you don't publish it on Facebook.
• Law enforcement will prosecute violent crimes, regardless of gender orientation.
• Foreigners are permitted to be weird, but not to flaunt the law.

I have held permanent residency in Panama, Ecuador and Paraguay.  One should not decide to immigrate to another country based solely on what they read on the Internet (where everything is of course true) or from rah-rah publishing houses like International Living.  One should go and spend significant amounts of time there before committing, like dating before marriage.

In other news:

Panama has announced a new program for USA passport holders which is cheap and does not require large investments, but is not a residency program.  One can stay one year and renew every year for a total of five years as a sort of glorified tourist.  It does not grant you an identity card, but you can get a driving license.  The required documents are the same for residency (police clearance, marriage certificate if married, blood test to show you don't have AIDS, etc.) and is reported to cost $100USD/year. As this is by Presidential decree, this is still a developing story.

3 hours ago, WorldWunder said:

Due to my job I keep/kept a pretty low profile. This included making any real friendships as I moved around almost monthly. Price of my Service. And I was recruited specifically because I was an orphan so double whammy. But my idiocy to not have proper backups here like I have in Singapore, UK and elsewhere was shortsighted. I assumed $300 or so was enough to get out of any jam plus I don't pay airfare due to a ridiculous amount of airline miles so I thought all would be good. But I've only gotten one actual answer to if I would be denied an extension due to the either official or unofficial alert to immigration.

The OP is asking forum members about an Immigration decision.  Only officers of Immigration can answer these questions as they are the only ones qualified to do so.  Possibly a good psychic or fortune teller could, but those are increasingly rare.   As no forum members have identified themselves as officers of Thai immigration, it should be glaringly obvious that no one is answering as no one is qualified to answer the question, with the one exception of the poster who thought they had an answer. (People sometimes make honest mistakes, I believe we can all accept that and move on.)  We can guess, we can postulate, we can relay stories of past experiences, but nobody appears to be an actively employed member of the Thai immigration authority.

It appears obvious to many forum participants that obtaining the funds and paying the obligation appears to many as the easiest way to resolve the alleged 'report' which may cause difficulties. OP appears to be unwilling to explore these avenues. 

OP has not expressed any willingness to communicate directly with those authorities which can provide definitive guidance.

OP might not have any 'friends', but that term is relative.  Expats are a fairly easygoing bunch who are often willing to help people out when they are in a bind, because we are comparatively few in number and strangers in a strange land.  Maybe making a 'friend' for a week or so is too threatening.  We don't know.  I don't do diagnoses of paranoia as I am not a licensed medical professional at this time and do not play one in the media, either.

If OP is truly a member of the " 'shadow arts' special projects club" of the US defense establishment, he may be able to reach out to JUSMAGTHAI or the Defense Attache at the US embassy, but it sounds like that was long ago.

Either OP can go talk to Immigration or he can resolve the payment issue and obtain proof to show that the alleged report is without merit if any issue is brought up, neither of which appear to be acceptable to the OP.  We have a threat which may not be credible and a re-entry dispute which may never materialize.  At this point this is beginning to look like an exercise in wasting time to me.

Being able to provide documentation (i.e. withdrawal receipt from bank, request on company letterhead, etc., even if own company) as to the source and purpose of funds at destination is very useful.  It is not uncommon for a ship's captain to pull out US$25K from the safe to pay for fuel as the port does not accept VISA or MASTERCARD. 

There are US laws outlawing 'sturcturing', which is to design a pattern of withdrawals to not trigger automatic reporting under the Banking Secrecy Act of 1984 and so-called PATRIOT ACT rules. 

The Basel III Accord outlines Anti-Money Laundering rules for the banks, which are often codified into national laws to allow governments to enforce these rules on the banks.  This means that regular folks sometimes get caught in the dragnet, since there is no difference between you carrying US$50K in cash and a bank courier carrying US$50K in cash.

While it may be illegal to have a smartphone recording any conversation in one's pocket during an inspection, one never knows when it might have been convenient.

I did not realize that NetSpend was a card issuer.  My apologies. 

Five minutes of research shows that NetSpend allows DirectDeposit, which has an account with ABA routing number and Account number, which is what you need to set up any interbank transfer. 

Set up a DirectDeposit automatic payment to the card at $500/month or whatever and you should have a funded card which can be used to make Moneygram transfers with no problem. 

US law provides the same legal backing to voice authorizations, scanned written and faxed authorizations.  As a long time customer of the credit union, they can make exceptions to the 'rules' due to special circumstances.  They may not be able to FedEx or express the card as a third-party may be generating the card, so no surprise there.  But they can authorize a new transaction over the phone/fax/etc on the managerial level.  They can certainly verify that you are in Thailand from your transaction history.

There is also the possibility of contacting NetSpend about a one-time funding by bank transfer if the Direct Deposit route fails.

Immigration can be very helpful if you are patient, polite and are proactive about your situation and sincerely ask them for their wise counsel prior to becoming an illegal and having to pay a fine.  "Is it possible to get a one-time extension while this is resolved?"   Most farang are rude, self-important jerks and we see their stories here on ThaiVisa regularly.  Don't be that farang.

This is rapidly deteriorating into a "pay attention to me" scenario as OP does not appear to be thinking rationally anymore.

Money issue- Transferwise (or bank transfer) to friend who gives you the cash from their Thai (or US) ATM card. .  Alternatively,  Walmart Moneycard and Green Dot both allow top-offs by domestic (US) bank transfer, so this sounds fishy.  OP does not provide card issuer for prepaid card, so no one else can refute their story, making OP look more and more like a Drama-seeker than an honest (with themselves, anyway) seeker of solutions, however unpleasant.

Pay hotel bill.

On 4/21/2019 at 6:43 AM, Sheryl said:

Piracetam is available here without prescripotion, brand name Mempil and others.

 

Modafinil is not available.

 

you should have your B12 level checked (cobalamin) and a thyroid panel. As people age, hypoactive thyrois and mild B12 deficinecy becoem more common and can affect memoray.

 

Also make sure you get plenty of the other B vitamins and Omega-3 oils through a healthy diet. A B Complex supplement and supplemental fish oil might be worth trying.

 

I would certainly do these things before resorting to a drug like piracetam.

 

Also make sure you are getting enough good quality sleep.

My labs are all normal - My supposed hypothyroidism was solved with Iodine supplementation, not their funny pills.  I am recovering from 15 years of opioid use thanks to the 'helpful' doctors who refused to authorize the surgery I needed.  I got lots of therapies and medications which I didn't need instead of a solution to the real problem.

I got turned on to supplements through Will Brink www. Brinkzone. com   I source through Life Extension (he's really connected with them and prices are usually decent)  for Omega-complex (primarily for inflammation) and a multi-vitamin.  I was surprised how good their anti-alcohol supplement works (the reception was a little too much 'fun' and I had a bottomless glass, thanks to the waitstaff) on the day after.

Piracetam works fine, but makes me a real jerk, something I want to avoid.  I reserve it for days when I don't have to deal with the public, or my staff. One box of 20 will last all year.

Modafinil is on my list of things I want to try for occasional help concentrating, not a lifestyle.  If I can replace Piracetam, all the better. 

On 4/21/2019 at 10:56 AM, uhuh said:

Exercising your brain helps (maybe cut back on TVF :))

Don't overdue Vit B complex, there may be undesirable effects.  The pink GPO pills are way too much for normal people,  the yellow GPO pills, one every second day, are quite safe.

A balanced diet is preferable to supplements.  

 

what's wrong about coffee? 

There seems to be some concern that I am developing an ulcer, so coffee use is automatically the culprit.  These are the same doctors who, after being confronted with the fact that I had been poisoned with pharmaceuticals by their colleagues, told me, "Best to learn to live with it."  If there is a tool I can use, I will try it.  I prefer to buy in a country with lower prices than having to deal with multiple levels of doctors and specialists and an outrageous co-pay only to find that the medication doesn't work after five doses and I have a 90 day supply which I can't use.

Unlike most TVF posters, I am not in the Inactively Retired state where I sit on forums all day making a nuisance of myself with one-word responses to posts and uninformed political rants. 

Thanks for the advice; I'm familiar with the unpleasant side-effects of niacin, among others.  Those annoying little booklets folded up into tiny squares with minuscule print are very informative.

I guess I will have to look elsewhere.

I am interested in availability of so-called  'smart drugs' or nootropics in Thailand, with or with out prescription.  One example is Piracetam, which is reported to help with memory and concentration.  Another is Modafinil/Modarliert/Provigil.

 I'm currently in Bangkok.  While doctors have advised I cut back on my original 'smart drug' (coffee), they're not very forthcoming with alternatives (possibly because they don't know.)

I'm not getting any younger and I am noticing memory and concentration problems at times, er, what was I asking?

I was diagnosed with active TB at age 21.  I was put on Isoniazid for 6 months.  (It made me hallucinate for 6 months also, but that is another story.)  I will also always test positive for TB with the skin test, just like people who had the vaccine.

As a health care professional, this is what happened from both sides of the interaction:

• Exposed to TB
• first 'tine test' antibody test showed exposure to TB 
• second test to rule out sensitivity to chemical used in initial TB  'tine test' chemical
• chest x-ray (baseline for comparison)
• IMPORTANT: productive cough (coughing up blood, frothy sputum, etc.) tested for active infection
• medication regime 6 months
• follow up chest x-ray in 6 months  to determine if disease progressed or was suppressed

If you are otherwise healthy and not symptomatic (fever, chills, night sweats (this is abnormal sweating - not soaking the sheets because it is 38 degrees and the AC is broken!) and a few others - you are generally considered OK.  If you feel sick, then you probably are.  TB hides in the bones, spinal column, spleen and anywhere else it can hide.

Understanding legal concepts and government is alot like studying Black Magic. 

Don't confuse Residential Address with where you sleep.  You don't register with the authorities every time you go on holiday.  The government wants an address from where they can reasonably start to track you down if they need to find you (if you are an accused criminal, or next-of-kin to a deceased lottery winner, etc.)  Nothing worth getting too excited.

Depending on your birth country, your nationality is determined by that nation's laws.  You would benefit from study should you decide to research the concepts below:

• Jus soli

• Jus sanguine

All modern nations are organized as corporations.  As such, they have internal laws which are not required to be harmonized with other corporations unless some external framework or agreement (a 'treaty') is created and enforced by involved parties. 

How these legal approaches are applied in the countries will impact your citizenship status.  In your case, you will have to look at how Thailand, Suriname and the Netherlands apply these principles.  (Also important is to look at how the Dutch Kingdom approaches your status if you are not a corporate citizen, but a royal subject outside the corporation, or a Free man born upon the Land under so-called Natural law.  Or all of the above.)  The more you know, the weirder it gets.  Your school teachers have no idea what they are teaching, but simply parrot what they were told as it seems to work for everyone else.

Thai law may require you to register and report for the draft (conscription, military service, national service) but you may be able to do this from outside Thailand via a consulate.  You may be able to obtain exemption by entering a monastic order (Buddhism is not at odds with Christianity if one approaches it as a training institution instead of a religious institution).  Once you realize that most of the components of our shared reality are fake (or imaginary) constructs, your options expand and clarity is easier to find.  This tends to irritate people who do not actively pursue spiritual study, but there is nothing I can do about that.  Seek and ye shall find, it is written.

As a training institution, monastic orders enforce discipline and subjugation of self under a greater whole, just like military institutions.  I enjoyed the military lifestyle, but did not particularly like most of the people whom I served under, nor those with whom I served.  I tend to pick better neighbors when left to my own devices.

The secret is to avoid fear.  Don't be scared.  Be prepared.

The other secret is to realize that puberty is a very bizarre time psychologically.  The brain is changing while the body is changing and we are expected to act as if nothing is happening by Society.  If our brain hormones were fluctuating in the same manner in our 30s as they do in our teen years, we would be diagnosed as clinically insane.  Anything that happens in this period in your life is really not worth worrying about.  Focus on getting through it without making any huge mistakes, like getting in trouble with the law (or getting anyone pregnant) and you should make a fine member of the human race.

40 minutes ago, alexdecasi said:

58 minutes ago, WyrldTraveler said:

Having personally visited with the staff at the Philippines Retirement Authority, I advise anyone to remain calm while researching visa options online.  You're all unique, maybe like snowflakes.
 
 
...because we know everything you read on the Internet is true, right?
 
 

What do you my mean? Could you be more explicit?

Which part?

• the part where I suggest that maybe you shouldn't depend on the advice from people in forums?
• the part where I suggest that the Earth is Flat because I saw it on YouTube?
• the part where what you read online may or may not conform to your experience with immigration authorities when you arrive in person?
• the part where I advise you to remain calm?

I could be very explicit, but explicit language is frowned upon in these forums. 

I used the border crossing into the Duty Free area at Mae Sot ages ago when I needed one, as I needed to 'leave' the Kingdom; no visa was required as I never 'entered' Myanmar.

You can upgrade to Win7 free using Infinite Rearm (totally legal) PM for details and I will get back if you are interested.