Nonthaburi Boy

This sounds much better than my DIY solutions.

Only two things I know of... Vinegar if that is an improvement in smell, maybe with baking soda mixed in Coffee grounds (ground beans not the instant stuff) But what has happened is that the urine has concentrated - just the ammonia (not solely ammonia) crystals left - so you'll need to help the coffee get to the crystals. Also the cat may still be peeing on it - just a little mark every now and again. Real nuclear option is to drench the chair in coffee, leave for a day, drench in water and dry in the sun. But even that may just be improving rather than resolving - depends what the cushions are made of. Probably make a nice bed for a dog.

That little yellow paper - long since lost despite lamination. I better find it or get a new one while I still have someone else to help with such errands. Thanks for the reminder. Concerning what you were told, then the wise thing is to remit to Thailand annually at the beginning of the year if you have money coming into your overseas account regularly? I’d have thought that would look suspicious and wait until later in the year, but see I would pay for that in paperwork! It also seems like it would work if you sit money in an account set aside as for transferring money for Thailand. Again, I would have imagined that as suspicious but apparently not - just a time saver. Did you move between leaving work and finding out about the tax audit? Might they have sent a notice to the address they had for you? Or was that address they had your company address because you were filing at your employer’s district office? Thanks for sharing this tale - it is really helpful, although I still think your example will be misunderstood by some, if they don’t read the second paragraph to clarify. Unless you have a clear and easily documented source of income like a pension or taxed wages, keep that account free from deposits in the same year you transfer to Thailand, or prepare for a paperwork headache, is what I am reading.

You probably know most of these and some may no longer be relevant to your circumstances - just running through what I have come across. Relocation allowance, housing allowance, home leave, school fees for kids, transportation per diem, company car (although it has to belong to the company, they can sell to you at a decent price later when fully depreciated and repeat), golf membership (belonging to the company and only ‘in lieu’ if you really are a avid golfer), other entertainment costs (proper receipt in company name). Training and education, if you want it (your employer may get an extra deduction on these as a bonus). Just off the top of my head. Some will add to your employer’s admin of course and for home leave I don’t know the details - suddenly getting that might be a big red flag. Provident fund via your employers’ contributions? Max that instead of salary. And (real trust and some basic maths needed) work at a lower salary now and compensate by boosting your salary in last year of employment to take fullest feasible advantage of the 50% deduction on the statutory termination payment. Narrative support, including a promotion, might be needed for this. Getting to another level of dodgy and requiring more maths: gifts to your wife (if company pays tax at significantly lower rate than you) and wife employed as consultant for fixed periods of time (not risking triggering obligations to her as employee). Really not suggesting this but it might trigger an idea. Not at all dodgy, but maths heavy, you could also look at whether switching to contractor or even independent contractor status would help (whole other world of possibilities). The answer is probably yes, but only worthwhile if a fair amount of money is involved. Personally I am too lazy/ honest to do any of this stuff but looking back now at my tax bills vs my remaining assets, and knowing how common (even expected) it is, feel as much regret as pride. Of course once you start something like this you need to keep a close eye out for law changes. Companies get caught out by that (and ignoring the details) all the time. Can’t be lazy.

Ghosting is the norm. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Actually, even shortlisted candidates may not be contacted nowadays, depending on the process. That’s a bit rude but it seems to be increasingly the way. However, if you have a degree and are capable with MS Office (basic qualification for most office positions) it’s possible something is wrong with your resume. If you lack either of those you should consider remedying it if you can. Using the same resume you used in Canada may not be a good idea. Try to think what people in Thailand are looking for. Just for example, it’s completely fine that it’s in English (actually that’s normal) but try adding your name in Thai, with your Thai nickname + “nong” - assuming you are relatively young. Consider adding information that is none of their business and they are not supposed to consider when recruiting (but they do). And maybe put your statement of intent in Thai and English. If you don’t have a statement of intent or similar, make one. Your name and resume is a bit unusual and they may wrongly assume that you are not what they imagine they are looking for. If you don’t type Thai fluently, only apply for positions where this is not going to be needed. If you do, emphasize that. Post on a Thai forum - or a ‘Thai returnee’ forum. You’ll get better advice for the current market. Also, networking is still the very best way to get started - and once you get started you won’t have this issue again. There are jobs out there for you. 25 years ago I could have told you what they were but I’m old and out of touch now.

It is quite clear that the act means 3 consecutive days. Also they are not allowed to request a medical certificate if you take 1-2 days’ leave - until you have reached the limit of 30 days in a year. Not allowed. A lot of management have trouble with this when sick leave is frequent but they need to suck it up and find other solutions. Just show them this https://www.thaigov.go.th/news/contents/details/41095 Note if you are a short-term employee or a contractor this may not apply - you might (theoretically only) have no right to sick leave and they kindly decided to give you some with weird restrictions, but that does not sound like it is the case.

Lots of choice for funds through Thai banks and they are required to use a simple questionnaire to determine your risk appetite before you invest (so the bank will explain and she can make her own decision). If she is paying tax then Retirement Mutual Funds (which include a number of index-linked funds) and Super Savings Funds (which is basically what you are looking for and are often partially index-linked too) are the first thing you should look at as they are tax-deductible, which means she's effectively starting in profit. Those weighted towards a stock index tend to invest in the Thai stock market but there are funds which have risk spread much wider. You can get information about exactly what they invest in from the banks, often available online and in English. Investments have to be held for 5 years (RMF) or 10 years (SSF) though. Often the return on very low risk funds is miserly, if any, or has been for a number of years but if combined with tax benefits it might still be a really good option. Doing more reading will be beneficial, even for the low-risk funds, and even if you only look at what they invest most funds in and google the outlook for that. Search for mutual funds OR save and invest and Bangkok Bank for a nice overview and there is a Thai version too. I'm recommending that because it's nice and clear - I haven't invested a baht with them and have no idea whether they have good fund managers or not. All banks have similar services. I deleted something which might have been misleading.

This discussion gave me an idea that we can show proof of my wife’s funds even if they are not available to her now. She cannot access these from outside Thailand - although whether someone reviewing the application would consider that is another issue. I doubt they would, although they would surely feel somewhat reassured about her financial position. Cake Monster expresses my fears - that it looks dodgy even though it really isn’t. One thing missing from that list Cookie Monster gives is that I am retiring just before we leave so even friends assume we might not be coming back! I think a multi-year visitor visa request is too risky this time around and we’ll apply for a normal visitor visa this time, and get the land ownership and arrangement of funds sorted before applying for a longer-term visa next time. I doubt we’ll use an agent this time. I think we have what we can produce and hope that, as with Old Git, it’s enough. It’s just a perfect storm and to some extent we have to just hope for the best. It’s my own fault for being complacent - my wife was telling me not to take the visa for granted months ago. I’ll be in the ‘why don’t you listen’ doghouse for a while if I was wrong and the visa is rejected! Thanks all for you advice and thoughts.

Yes, it is only two employees if you are married. I imagine they have to be full-time equivalents at least but I don't know this - I will be checking. If they don't have other jobs going through social security though, who's to know they are really full or part-time in this age of working from home? LOL re the wife situation - mine is going to insist on separation of payment though so she's getting minimum wage. If your daughter already has an established business you're surely better off looking at setting both of you up under her company, doing whatever you plan to do - provided she's okay with proper paperwork, potentially increasing capital (presumably provided by you) and potentially triggering some extra reporting and tax (VAT) requirements - that your labour would presumably compensate for. So far as I understand (letter of the law may differ from practice) the two employees for married foreigners is not dependent on the foreigner being owner or director of the business, provided you can persuade the Labour Department that your labour is needed and you are qualified to do it. If you have a role like "coordinating with foreign clients", are native speaking (native as in the clients' language of choice) and have a university degree then I know from past experience that the Labour Department can be okay with that. Of course, it's up to them whether they decide to actually be okay with it in the particular situation. Whether they are generally stricter or more relaxed in these situations is something I will be trying to find out (and generally is a big word here - I suspect attitudes may vary a bit by office). If my lawyer friends are unsure I think I will just ask the Labour Department directly - my experience has always been that they are friendly, generally supportive and up for a chat (touch wood). There are some people in this situation (or at least genuinely knowledgeable about it) posting on this forum so they might come along to add something more now if they note this - the OP's situation is different. Or start a new thread or talk to a lawyer if you get keen on it.

The cost is not likely to be significantly more than that. You just have stuff like social security and some extra accounting/ payroll costs but nothing that is going to put you off, from the sound of it. Things to think about: If it's a foreign-owned business, your sideline has to be a business that isn't restricted. I am afraid I have no idea about cleaning services, but that was only an example.. Same applies to your consultancy business too though. Hiring minimum wage workers might not be easy if you want to keep them (and you do if possible because otherwise you'll not have four employees and there is a very clear paper trail on that via social security). Related, unless you know the people you are employing and know the arrangement suits them, you might find your side business more troublesome than you expect. While you are correct that a company can operate more than one type of business it is going to be pretty obvious to people what you are doing and you can't predict whether the officials who come to inspect your place of business and approve your work permit, etc. will be bothered by that. I am going to do something similar in a few months but the 'sideline' is related to my field (and my clients will often need that service too). Plus I am married here so I only need one person doing that/ checking email/ following up with contractors and an office maid. It's a lot less daunting to maintain and I'll probably hire my (retired) wife as a back-up employee. Personally, if I had had to hire four not really necessary people I would follow the above advice and talk to somebody experienced and reputable (but not too reputable perhaps). Actually, even though I seem to have things worked out I am going to talk to somebody anyway - they are friends, but I'd still talk to someone if I had to pay a bit.

5-year but we are thinking maybe just a normal visa now. Apply for longer one next time when we have things in order.

I have suddenly started worrying about my wife's UK visa application. Never worried about any visa application before but have realised our circumstances might look dodgy if the wrong person views the application. Basically, we have just been complacent. I was originally going to apply for a 5-year visa (because now we are semi-retired we'll visit more) but now I am worried about any visa at all. Am I thinking too much here? Probably but how do I approach this. A visa refusal could really mess up our life. I'm giving too much information in case anybody sees anything that might help. Apologies for that. The main points are in bold. And yes, if I had thought for 10 minutes about it when we first decided to go we wouldn't be in this situation. It would have been easy to work around. The situation is: Married and living together here for nearly 25 years Wife has no income and little apparent money available, even though she is actually well off Long story #1 but although my wife is not short of funds she was involuntarily early-retired last year and right now the funds are all tied up. So she doesn't have much available cash right now (honestly, I was shocked by how little, but I should know her have = spend ways better by now). She's living off regular transfers from me until some fixed-term deposits mature, starting next year. Our money is mixed up/shared and we never really pay attention to who has what - as long as she has enough stashed away she tends to give me the rest so she won't spend it and I transfer to her on request. For that reason, we don't have a joint account. So I thought I'd just be her sponsor and end of problem, but I retire here the week before we travel. I have a well-paid job in Thailand but I am retiring just before we go to the UK. Now I suddenly realise I don't have any apparent reason to return and I can't ask HR to say I have. I could just get them to say I am currently employed with them without mentioning the retirement. I've been here for over 30 years. She doesn't have proof of ownership of our home. We built our home of nearly 25 years on her family's land here in Nonthaburi and the land has been subdivided so that she can be assigned ownership of our portion. However, (long story #2) that process hasn't yet been completed. So it seems complicated to make our house evidence of a reason to return. I have plenty of available funds including some of hers. I know I shouldn't resolve this by transferring funds to her. Is funds alone enough to be a sponsor. Although I know I shouldn't resolve this by transferring funds to her I thoughtlessly transferred THB 150,000 to her last week. This is from a much larger sum I got from work and is genuinely for her for the trip to the UK... but I realise now it just looks suspicious. She has a currently valid 5-year Schengen visa and frequent travel to Europe, Japan and Africa, mostly pre-covid but two trips to Europe in the last year fortunately. She has not visited the UK for over 10 years because we always meet my family here in Thailand or somewhere in Europe and the UK visa has been a PITA for a while now. Prior to that she visited quite a few times and we were married there long ago (didn't stay) but circumstances have obviously changed. We'll stay with my Mum (visiting her as many times as possible before she loses her faculties is the real reason for travel) and she'll write a letter to state that (not the bit about losing her faculties) but she's pretty old now and she will be 'wintering' in Spain with my sister when the application is being processed. I really don't want to use her as sponsor - it'll stress her. One brother is still in Australia - back in January but currently doesn't have a home in UK (although he owns a house it is rented out). Other brother and sister are too far away/ abroad. We could lie and say we are staying with brother in Norfolk but then why are we flying into Edinburgh? Plenty of nephews and nieces but they don't meet the family test - complicated to prove relationship if asked and a bit awkward (but doable) to ask them to act as sponsors.

While ‘no’ is the correct answer nowadays, it is possible that if your card does get blocked (which will very probably be because of dodgy transactions suggesting someone has your card details, not because you are using the card overseas) if it is a permanent block you will need to have the card app on your phone to get access to your new card and will only be able to use it by scanning to pay or for online payments. Only relevant if reliant on your card for more than convenience. And in that case you might want to check how long a temporary block is (mine is two days) and if/how you can undo such a block.

Many thanks. This and the above are helpful as if there is hope I’ll keep my flights, try to work it out with HR and maybe even ask an officer about it when we go to renew the permit/ get a new permit in November. And sorry for being so slow to respond. It was a crazy week. Got my team back working in the office for the first time (first time ever for some!) and of course there is a positive test result by someone we all had contact with on day two of the return…. This excuse for @scorecard too - but it really was a busy week.

A belated big thank you for that.

As things stand now I will be back in the UK on the date that an offered (and unexpected) three-month extension to my employment contact after retirement expires. For ‘long story’ reasons, changing my family’s flights or persuading my employer to terminate earlier may cost me very dearly (100k baht up). My understanding is that the requirement is that I go to go in person to Labour Department on the day my employment ends to cancel my work permit and (since it is the One Stop place) cancel my current visa extension valid to August 2023 at the same time, and replace it with a 7-day extension. If so, I see no solution to this other than to take the financial hit. My questions are: Firstly, might my employer be allowed to return my work permit without my presence or might I be allowed to appear in person late, four weeks after my work permit is returned, and pay a fine, without affecting my ability to get another work permit. Secondly, does anybody know if it would it be possible to request a change of the reason for my current visa extension to ‘based on marriage’ prior to submitting the paperwork for my next work permit extension in November? i.e., kind of decoupling my visa from my work permit. My current visa extension is until July 2023 and is based on employment. Or would that change mean I would require a new work permit, rather than an extension? I would be requesting a visa/ visa extension based on marriage after my return from the UK anyway and have leave to use up, so the time for paperwork isn’t a consideration .

Haha… fair enough - I write like a lawyer sometimes. Two options and nothing new, which is why I actually responded to you in agreement but adding that a having a return next year, which the OP mentions, technically meets the Finnair requirements. “Still, I’d get a cheap onward ticket or clarify what evidence I need to show that I am not atourist. That scenario (return flight next year with no visa) is something that could be clarified with customer service - it’s a chat bot, but apart from the time they were re-scheduling all of their flights due to the Ukraine conflict I have got through to humans on first or second attempt and got the answers I needed.”

Yes, and I quite regularly fly with Finnair and can tell you their requirements (clearly stated online through their travel requirements tool, which gives more than just covid requirements and is very useful - you don’t need to ask customer service) are that tourists must have a return or onward flight. If they accept you are not a tourist you don’t need that - when I use them my return is to Thailand so I don’t have it. I’ve never been challenged or questioned, but it’s pretty obvious from the stamps when you open my passport that I am not a tourist so others’ mileage may vary. Of course it is possible they won’t be bothered, especially if you have a return flight some time in the future - the stated rules do not specify ‘return flight within x days’ and they are a pretty relaxed airline in my experience. Still, I’d get a cheap onward ticket or clarify what evidence I need to show that I am not a tourist. That scenario (return flight next year with no visa) is something that could be clarified with customer service - it’s a chat bot, but apart from the time they were re-scheduling all of their flights due to the Ukraine conflict I have got through to humans on first or second attempt and got the answers I needed.

Oh and yes, your kitten was probably abandoned. I would probably have tried to wait overnight as mothers do sometimes come back some time later and she may have had to go off somewhere to get food or something at a particular time, but cats do accidentally abandon their young and it’s never easy to judge.

The kitten has had three weeks of mother’s milk so that is almost enough and you should be fine with what you are doing. Watch out for runny stools and dehydration and better if you can get some kitten formula express-delivered to you. Once the milk/formula is going in a bowl, leave clean water out too - kittens often don’t drink quite enough and I’ve never had one drink too much. Mine have always preferred the water from dirty plates - even with a bit of soap in - but I try to discourage this. You should really feed every few hours at this age so it’s a bit of a pain. And kittens can start moving on to semi-solids (continuing the formula too, less frequently) as soon as they are ready. We’ve always done that because if we don’t they steal from the older cats anyway, which is worse. Soft rice and canned mackerel in tomato sauce isn’t ideal nutritionally but it’s easily available and in over 30 years of doing this we’ve never noted much health difference between those initially fed this way and those fed special kitten food. Adding vitamins and supplements is a very good idea for young cats but your vet (see below) can advise on that. If you want to allow yourself to fall in love, get the kitten to a vet as soon as possible (probably need two trips at a minimum). If the kitten has issues then special food or pills or an injection at an early stage can make a difference. Vet will also probably advise on what supplements are needed. Having a strict and annoying vet has increased the average lifespan of our stray cats, despite them all being consistently overweight to her annoyance. And make sure the kitten’s sleeping spot is snake-proof. Noting that all this is from experience and talking to a number of vets a lot of times about practical solutions as we always have 5-8 cats around and the ‘best practices’ simply won’t work without round the clock attention and a lot of caging. Google will be your friend but read around - there is a lot of stuff that doesn’t make sense with strays in Thailand, especially if you are rurally located.

No I didn’t quite see! I think my ‘current visa’ is probably going to be relatively irrelevant and it will not ‘expire’. What will expire is my latest extension of stay, granted based on an original visa granted 30+ years ago. Now I see (I think).

Ah, I see. So that’s not quite what I thought but actually much better if I can keep my current visa until it expires. Now I know the right question to get HR to ask next time they are at Immigration - although based on what you say I think an Immigration officer answered it for me earlier this week but I wasn’t well-enough informed to understand what she meant. Thanks for that insight into how visas work - much appreciated.

So can you also change the visa from a non-o marriage visa to a non-b work visa the same way once the company is set up i.e., just submit the necessary form and documents for the new visa extension type? Actually an immigration officer suggested that I do this - get a marriage visa first - last week when I was extending my current non-b visa for the last time, but we were just chatting while she checked my documentation so I didn’t press her for specifics and imagined the change from non-o to non-b would be more complicated.

Oh, is that an aggregator site? Good to know! If they are looking for you to book through them that’s misleading to put it politely. I never use those sites except Google to get a very rough comparison. Maybe they are reacting to Google, who do the same but do not say “all passengers” and don’t ask for any personal data - unless you book through them I suppose. I always assumed # of passengers in their case was simply to check availability on that flight and at that price. But I always found all these sites unreliable - it’s been 50-50 whether the price quoted is actually available from the airline and I don’t really trust them in case I need to change or add/ subtract extras later, or the flight is cancelled or re-routed. I find my flight and book through the airline. Maybe I am missing a trick.

If online, it means the price for the number of passengers you entered in the booking form. “All” can be “1” if that’s what you entered in the booking form. Assuming you entered “2” though, it is for two people. The following seems too obvious to say, but one person’s obvious is another person’s surprise, so… However, cost of outward journey, outward and return journey and (some or all, depending on system) taxes/fees are usually added at three separate stages of the process and any prices are still only an estimate, not an offer, until you get to the pre-payment/ payment stage where the system should automatically hold the bookings for you at that price for a short time.