Khun Yaaai

1 hour ago, Jeffr2 said:

You've got it backwards.  It was instigated by Pro-Russian separatists, who were backed by Russia.

Not really, since I was there, but I guess your goto source of information is NYT and Washington Post so don't really blame you.

13 hours ago, mfd101 said:

And always the possibility of a Russian invasion.

Lol, only if the Georgians start shelling their neighbors once again, which was what triggered the 5 day war. They got a bloody nose though, so wouldn't expect that to happen again in this generation at least.

Other than that I do think that Georgia is a viable option and my own experience of the country and the people is very positive.

44 minutes ago, Bender Rodriguez said:

sick on fridays & mondays to extend the weekend ? ????

That's usually the case lol. Or after eof year bonus payout.

12 hours ago, kingofthemountain said:

Totally misleading title for this topic imo

 

i don't see any ''loophole'' to exploit, phuket immigration or not

for the ones stranded here and unable to extend their stay on a O visa

 

The new ''special tourist visa'' can be obtained only from outside of Thailand

and the precise requirments for the obtention haven't been precised yet.

 

The obtention of a letter by the embassy isn't a loophole, it's just an option

given to the ones really unable to travel back to their country of origin, and

it's only for 30 days. It's well know now and has not been discovered yesterday

by Phuket immigration.

 

Plus AFAIK the embassy letter option is available everywhere in Thailand, not only in Phuket.

 

At the moment nothing has been put in place for the ones unable to extend their

O visa because of the border closure nor for the ones not allowed to enter in Thailand

even if they have already a visa, for example the retirees single or not married oficialy

with a Thai.

 

It's a shame the priority is given by Thailand at the few ''Tourists'' under the STV

and all the usual long stayers are totally forgotten. 

Yes totally misleading. Wasted 5 min of my life which I will never get back.

1 hour ago, NE1 said:

So your reporting is now every 70 days. 

I wonder if any of the other " make diffrerent rules up as we go along " offices will follow suit ?

Yeah, I will just hire an agent to do it for me in order to distance myself from this craziness. Which could actually be the purpose of this mindf**k to begin with.

33 minutes ago, treetops said:

Thai 15 days or regular 15 days?  It needs to be Thai, which is 14 days before your due date.  eg due date 24th September, the earliest you can apply is 10th September (tomorrow).

I was told 20 calendar days before latest. I.e. if due date for report is on the 30th then last date would be 10th to submit.
Weird I know, but that's what not one but two of them told me, and doesn't make sense since their workload is likely reduced with less foreigners to handle. But nothing surprises me any more tbh.

19 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

It is 15 days before up to the day your report is due.

That seems to have changed, at least for the IM office I'm using which is Samutprakarn. They now require the online report to be done AT LEAST 20 days before and EARLIEST 30 days before the actual 90 days.

Note that this is first hand info sourced from the above IM office today. I asked this especially since I was unable to submit the report online starting 15 days before.

4 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

Those of us having been here 5 years or longer could be given an easy pathway to permanent residency forgoing all the immigration hoopla we go through 12 monthly and in doing so he will avoid gagging every time he has to say ex-pats are useful and an aid to the economy.

 

But then he was talking "foreign workers living in Thailand and foreign students studying " not retirees. ????

Yes, it's a bit of b**ch working here for almost a decade, paying millions yearly to the Thai tax coffers just to be left out after retiring. Guess this is too hard for some ppl to realize.

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Yuthasak said that the 1997 Asian financial crisis (that had its roots in Thailand) was a disaster for the banks.

Except it didn't really "have its roots in Thailand" but rather US bankers such as Soros speculating against the baht.

Never to be forgotten nor forgiven.

21 hours ago, dmarc028 said:

Anyways, I’d like to do everything as legitimately as possible but will I have to leave the country? 

You can currently obtain a Non B visa without leaving the country (assuming that you comply with the usual requirements).

I asked the agent I've been using for many years abt it last week and the process takes abt 1 month (Bangkok). The process is in terms of paperwork is more complicated than before the border shutdown. Would advise to seek assistance from an agent who knows what he/she is doing.

There was no mention of cost (and I didn't ask) but assuming it comes at a premium.

On 7/16/2020 at 11:16 AM, moontang said:

But, how is KSR going to survive, let alone reinvent itself as an upscale tourist destination with so much emphasis on catering to teenagers, who want to drink like pigs?  

That's gonna be quite hard, given that 1) there are very few (foreign) teenagers left in Thailand who want to drink like pigs, and 2) KSR has never been known to cater for the affluent tourists.
 

There's no way (legally) the OP can transfer the WP since it's already cancelled. A new one needs to be issued involving the entire non-B process, i.e. leaving the country to apply for Visa at a Thai embassy.

If there's a (informal) way around this it certainly would involve agents/lawyers having the right connections at the labor dep and immigration. Unfortunately this doesn't come cheap.

Thailand is not an option, even Thais have difficulties entering their own country at this point.
And as others have pointed out, this is not the time to visit SEA. 

5 hours ago, MeeLay said:

1. Can I still keep my visa when my employer cancels my work permit?
2. Is the office that issues work permit still opened? I wonder if I can even apply a new work permit even if I can find a new job.
3. If both of the above fails and I stay here for 3 months without a valid visa, can I still apply a new work permit with a new employer without going out of Thailand? So, I think this would be like applying a new work permit with overstay?

1 and 2 as ubonjoe said.

On 3: the only way afaik getting around leaving Thailand is to a) switch to retirement status, provided you're 50 or older and have at least 800k THB sitting in he bank for the last 3 months (I did this switch myself 3 months ago) 

or b) find a new employer and coordinate the cancellation of the old WP with issuance of the new one (very difficult in the current situation, I know, but thought it should be mentioned e.g. in case you have a friend running a company that could take you on and just pay the gov fees)

Get an agent familiar with IO's at your location and have her/him arrange something with them. This should be possible to solve without taking the detour thru lawyers and courts, and will save you a lot of money and headache in the end.

I would advice against forging you ex's signature though, especially since they know by now you can't get it.

Did just what you're describing in Jan this year; changed reason for extension of stay from work to retirement without leaving the country.

Application for the retirement has to be done and approved on the same day you cancel your work permit. Would recommend using a trusted agent for this and perhaps also do a 'testrun' with all the necessary paperwork to get validated some days before together with the agent, since there's not much room for error once the WP is cancelled.

Everyone to Phuket! ????????

21 hours ago, from the home of CC said:

sounds like he was drunk, as many are imbibing now due to stress, like to see all bars shuttered and restrict sales to minimize stupid intoxicated behavior in these times..

Spot on. Made an interesting observation on that note in the local Foodland yesterday, had 2 categories of customers basically: cat 1) cart full of meat, canned food, TP while cat 2) cart filled up with booze.

2 hours ago, topt said:

Semantics no.......? January to March is the official filing period. If you file later than you pay a (very small) fine.  

Not this year, they've extended the deadline until end of June.

From what you're writing your WP and thus your extension of stay expired 3 months after you left in any case. So there is nothing to cancel at this point.

Some employers have the habit of putting employees who just leave without giving the mandatory 30 day notice on a blacklist which is shared among HR managers in the larger BKK companies. But that doesn't seem to be the case here since you were already offered a new employment, just something to consider for the future.

51 minutes ago, Gracas said:

I'm just waiting for the 2 for 1 sale.

That actually exists. I've seen a number of developers/agents offering this in BKK mall exhibitions. Of course they will try to make you pay premium for one of the units and the 2nd one is 'free'.

The "no logs" sales pitch is often used by VPN providers and is not necessarily accurate. A lot of jurisdictions legally force these providers to keep logs (which is hidden from the users until there's a legal reason to pull the logs).

Swiss Protonmail is probably one of the best choices for VPN, and it also comes with encrypted free tier email. Their level of VPN security is hard to beat, and this is not only relevant to prevent someone from tracking your internet activity, but also to avoid vulnerability for hacks of your devices.

His smile on the mug shot is cringe, even by usual standards around here.