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Hi all, apologies if this subject has been done to death already. im a Uk passport holder and I also have an Irish passport, I’m here on a non immigrant ‘O’ visa based on retirement, my extension of stay is due on 22 may 2023, I need to leave Thailand in September 2023 as I have a rental property in france that will go on the market after the summer season so I need to go back to sort that all out, in between all that happening I will be getting married to the gf June or July 2023 and I’m going to use my Irish citizenship to do the affirmations of marriage stuff, so I want to enter Thailand using my Irish passport I will arrive in a 30 day tourist visa waiver and then extend that for 30 days then apply for Non immigrant ‘O’ based on marriage, so how long does the 400,000 baht have to be in the bank for before applying for the non ‘O’ ? I’m then thinking of doing the monthly income method because the Irish embassy still issue letters for immigration to say I meet the monthly income demands. im basically wanting to change to using my Irish passport as it seems easier to use than my Uk one, ie: the Irish embassy issue income letters that satisfy immigration, and I can apply for a new passport online rather than going to the embassy, and my mrs will find it easier to travel with me to Europe by being the partner of a European citizen. what are the thoughts on doing this? Anyone have experience of doing the same? I look forward to your replies.

An interesting update, I usually use my iPad to do the transfer from wise, but it got damaged a while back and it is slightly bowed and on occasions the keypad can stick…I just tried transferring a smallish sum of money but using the wise app on my android phone, the transfer went ok and I got a message saying they had received my money and would pay out tomorrow by 2.13pm….I won’t know until tomorrow if it arrives with the FTT code or not but I will update tomorrow when I know. I sent the money and the reason selected was for ‘ long term stay in Thailand’ it could be my iPad playing up or it could be an Apple software problem…anyway I will report back here tomorrow

@scubascuba3 I’m going to message wise and see what’s gone wrong, I will transfer a smallish sum using your suggestion and see what I get back

My last two months transfers are just showing as ‘ from another account’ not FTT as they were showing, I’ve transferred money successfully for the last 9 months showing in my account as FTT but September and October it doesn’t

@scubascuba3 when I have transferred before and done the transfer as ‘ long term stay in Thailand’ the money would normally not arrive untill the next day, but these last two have transferred into my Bangkok bank account within 5 minutes, normally if I wanted money quickly I would tick any of the other reasons in the drop down box because it arrives in minutes whereas the long term stay one generally takes 24 hours

Hi all, for the last 9 months or so I have been sending lump sums of money to cover the 65k baht per month for my visa non O retirement so I qualify for the monthly income method, all has been fine and my transactions have been showing up as a international bank transfer, but September and October transfers are just showing up as transfer from another bank what ever way I transfer the money it does not show up as international any more, my bank in Thailand is Bangkok bank, any ideas? Have wise changed they way they do things now, I’m putting in the drop down box that the transfer is for’ long term stay in Thailand’

As usual gents, some very good information from you all, I’m on a Uk license but will now go and get a Thai drivers license as I think it’s going to make things easier for me. many thanks for all the help and information

Hi all, I’ve been living in Khon Kaen for almost a year now, I have been driving the mrs car on occasions, mostly at night or in heavy rain…I asked her if im insured to drive the car and she said yes I was insured, how do I go about sorting out my own insurance policy for a car as I’m considering buying an older type pickup just to get around in, I lived in france where the car was insured so you could have anyone drive that car if they were legally entitled to do so, how does the insurance work in Thailand?

Thank you for your trip report, it’s very detailed and of great help, I’m in Khon Kaen so I wouldn’t go to CW but it’s still good to get an idea of what’s required, many thanks for taking the time and effort to detail it all.

Thanks for the replies gents, I will look into my internet speeds and probably buy a better package, I left it to the mrs to sort it out and it looks like she went for a 30mbps deal so probably to slow

Hi all sorry if this has been done to death, I’ve got a firestick that I’ve had for a year or so, it’s been messed about with so I can watch sky sports and movies, in fact it has the complete sky packages on it, all the documentaries sports and movies etc, it’s also got Netflix loaded up so no need for a subscription, but I find on the live stuff like football or F1 on occasions it just sits there buffering to the point that I hardly use it to watch football because if it buffers it winds me up, it’s a subscription service so I pay a guy in London £70 a year and he renews my subscription. is there anything similar available here that might work better but has the same sort of capabilities as my firestick? My internet is good I’m getting 35mbps down and 28mbps up, thanks for any suggestions or advice

Hi Drjack, I’ve had a cortisone injection in the knee for pain relief, it worked well and dulled the pain but it was only good for about a week. I don’t know anything about wheelchair assistance in the hospitals here, but I’m guessing if you turn up on crutches that the hospital would get you a wheelchair ( my friend here in Khon Kaen went to a private hospital, he got wheelchair assistance and they charged him 100 baht for the privilege of being pushed in it) good luck with it all hope it goes well and have a good flight.

All sorted now thanks gents, we bought a wifi modem and got an unlimited data sim from true, all working great. many thanks for all the information and ideas and suggestions

Hi all, we have just finished building the house and recently moved in, we went to AIS as they were running a good deal on their fibre broadband anyway long story short they came to the house and ‘no can do’ I don’t know what the problem is as whatever my mrs is telling me I just can’t understand what she’s telling me..whatever it is in Thai doesn’t translate into English…we are going to the 3BB store tomorrow to see what an be done all I can make out is it’s something to do with a line ?!, it has been suggested by AIS that we buy a router and get a good data sim package so my question is is anyone using a router with a SIM card and which supplier are you using, where do you get the best deals? Sorry for the long winded questions