NanaSomchai

Good call.

What are they (the Thai immigration) going to do to her anyway? She probably "looks" Thai, she most likely speaks Thai fluently and very much likely-so have also a Thai ID card on her. Even with an expired passport she probably could get in regardless. Unless she has criminal records and is wanted for questioning in the Kingdom, they kind of have to let her pass through. The Thai constitution warrants it. That is correct the US laws are very specific and pedantic, but then again the law is the law. This. 1000%. Get her enrolled, make sure no documents are missing, every documents are properly accounted for, every forms have been dully signed, copies of whatever statement they require, I would even go as far as waiting for the first monthly payment to arrive in her bank account THEN only afterwards hit the road. Money is number one, besides she WORKED for it, she EARNED it.

I am very much aware of dual citizenship being a very common situation (as I hold a triple citizenship), my concern is the UK one. That is 100% correct, factual and accurate. The airline needs to make sure her mother qualifies for a 100% guaranteed entry into the Kingdom of Thailand before embarking the flight otherwise she would have to be sent back to the UK (or back to the point of origin/departure) at the expense of the airline, showing a valid Thai passport will reassure the airline the passenger has pretty much a guaranteed access to Thailand. As I have strongly suggested and advised her above, once entering Thailand, she should queue up at the Thai citizenship line with the other Thais and show her Thai passport and preferably ONLY that one, she will get instant access to the Kingdom, a Thai immigration stamp with the date will be applied to her Thai passport then she's on her way to collect her luggage, no questions will be asked. Again, the less the governments know, the better. The Thai government doesn't need to know she's also a British citizen. Do. Not. Show. Your. British. Passport. Correct. Factual. Accurate statement. She is a Thai citizen returning home, as long as; the passport has not been altered in any ways (scratched, watered down, glued, deteriorated in any ways), the passport is valid, the passport RFID embedded chip is readable and the passport bares at least one remaining empty blank page, she's good to go. This. I cannot stress how important this is. Do not shrug this off. She needs to figure out what her pension rights are prior to her departure back to Thailand, even if we're looking at 200£ a month (giving arbitrary numbers again), she needs to look into it above anything else, get the payments rolling in ASAP then only after that, start booking her tickets and arrange her return to the village. Money is number one.

I believe I had caught something nasty as well, could be COVID-19, could be anything else, it was well about 2 weeks ago, it started on Sunday 2, almost immediately I had the following symptoms: The first 3 days: - Short breath. - Excessive coughing. - Dizziness. - I could not tolerate loud music or noises through my right ear. - I could not sit in front of the computer more than 30 minutes at a time, my eyes would get sore/burn immediately. - Sleeping 16 hours a day, 3 days in a row. - I could not eat or swallow anything, also had no appetite at all. The next 3 days: - My breath slowly returned at the dire cost of intensified coughing. - Dizziness was gone but was shortly replaced with joint pains. - I could tolerate music or light from the computer screen again. - I slept a lot less, maybe 12 hours a day which is still a lot more than usual. - I was hungry all the time, no matter the amount of food intake and kept eating, eating, eating, I found myself anecdotally eating 2 large pizzas back to back. - I could smell things again, but lost the sense of taste; neither coke, tea, coffee, tomato sauce, chocolate, nearly everything tasted like plain water, it was an odd experience. On the last day, Sunday 9 everything returned to normal, food started to taste normal again. The only downside after this was another 3 days of continuous non-stop intense runny nose which ultimately stopped on Wednesday 12 while coughing intensified again. We're now the 17th and I find myself coughing every day every now and then, every other symptoms have been gone since Wednesday 12 (including runny nose) and I'm back to sleeping 6 hours a day, which is my normal sleep pattern, no pain, no side effects, nothing. This was awful to me, I'm still unsure what it was but am glad it's gone, I am not jabbed with any vaccines/no boosters or anything, I treated myself with oral morphine intakes of 30mg on the first very intense days. Also what stroke me as a very strange thing is that I had no fever at all during the whole thing although I felt cold the first 3 days. Again it might not have been COVID-19 but if this was a "common cold", then it has to be nastiest cold I've ever caught in my life. I'm glad it's over.

yada yada 'thermometer not the cause of the fever, yada yada breaking it is useless yada yada.

Right, but then the UKVI and any subsequent UK/British government offices/branches with access to the UKVI database would know with certainty that she left the UK on that specific date, which then could have negative ramifications on her benefits claims in the future, remember she's only 6 years away from being eligible for retirement pensions. Which is why in this particular case I would strongly advise against leaving proofs/tracks/evidences/trails all over the place that she departed the UK at all. Driving her through Dover, Kent then taking a PMO ferry across the English Channel into Calais, France which from then she is a 3 hours drive away from CDG Paris airport would leave far less tracks of her departure from the UK specially post Brexit as the EU and UK do not share any database unless requested by respective authorities. I'm sorry if I'm sounding all secretive, borderline paranoid but I do not have any trust into our current governments specially post Brexit. She might be seen as a naturalized British citizen, at least for the time being... but with xenophobes like Johnson and Patel at the wheel, well... the future of those having dual citizenship doesn't bode well, but yes, I digress. My two cents. Edit: For what it's worth she can also fly CDG to BKK on Qatar Airways.

Received a tip from "a concerned citizen" eh? Snitching at it's finest.

Not if she exits using her British passport in say London Heathrow but then submits her Thai passport to the immigration officer at the Suvarnabhumi airport, as a Thai citizen entering the Kingdom with her Thai passport she is exempt from any form of immigration control therefore there would be no need for either a return ticket or a visa to enter the Kingdom.

You're welcome, that was the intent. Would the pension age be the same in England or Scotland? 6 years is very close to "the finish line", she's almost there technically speaking. It is possible or at least it should be possible, but again as I've stated with the current government and it's mindset, I would not be surprised if things change for the worst. Precisely. Your mileage may vary. Honestly with her being so close to retirement age, I wouldn't dare the devil. As the saying goes "Don't fix what isn't broken". That's where you need to chime in and help her in any ways you can. Honestly, I'd hate to be the one breaking it to you but after nearly 30 years spent away from "home", it is safe to assume that the UK is now the place she should be calling home. I understand the appeal/need/desire to return to the home village to stay with her family but in reality once you've taken off the rose tinted glasses, there are so many drawbacks to living a rural life after a good 30 years, things have changed a lot as well in Thailand (many not for the better) and even in the village everyone has their own life to take care of and carry on. Plus after 30 years in the UK, there's a very strong chance a couple of months in, she might feel "home sick" and may want to return to her home... in the UK. There you have it, it feels like a runaway or a quick not-so-well-thought getaway back to Thailand, where she will ultimately be facing other issues once the novelty has wore off. It looks like you need to step in and carry your mother on your shoulders for the next 6 years at the very least. Probably not the answer you were looking for, but it is what it is. There you have it. This entire thread just took a new turn, sure she can relocate to Thailand by all means, she is well within her rights to do so, but she has more to lose in the process than anything to gain from it. What you need to do is seek other venues and see what your options are within Ireland, Scotland, England and the likes until she reaches retirement age and the pension payments start rolling in, based on how much she has worked/contributed to the UK society her pension would most likely afford her a decent retired life in Thailand, let alone in a rural village where rent isn't an issue. Yeah no, the thing is 30 years is a long time, things change, people change, I do not know the extent of your family and the relationship she has with them but I wouldn't trust anyone even from my close family to "help me" with things in my daily life, specially not after being gone for so long. Again I hate to play devil's advocate here but if she's genuinely convinced that extended family relatives are going to help her over a prolonged period of time (until her very end?), she's probably fooling herself off. What I would do between all this COVID-19 stuff, the upcoming political turmoil Thailand might face within the next year due to yet another rigged election and the uncertainty of where our World is headed, the best thing to do is; stay put. Play the clock for the next 6 years, get the retirement paperwork stuff done then retire to Thailand. This is clearly not the right time to do it. But then again that's just me.

What I would do is, use a different approach. Based on the few tidbits of information you gave us, I assume that your mother is either near retirement age or already retired, what I would do then is apply for all the retirement benefits/pension she would be entitled to in the UK, get the weekly/monthly payments rolling in, then "drive" to a neighboring country such as France, Belgium or the Netherlands then fly from there to Thailand using her Thai passport. That way the Department for Work and Pensions in the UK is still inclined to think your mother is still living in UK, reaping the (very few) benefits it has to offer while living abroad in Thailand cashing it in using her debit cards anywhere in the Kingdom. With the current openly racist and xenophobic "elected" government in the UK, the last thing you want to do is give Tories any info/intel either about you or your whereabouts, anything that might be used against you to jeopardize either your rights to live/abode/work/study in the UK or anything that can be deemed detrimental to your benefits income. But again that's just me. You need to talk about those things with her above anything else. TL;DR: Don't tell them you have relocated outside of the UK, they don't need to know. The less they know about you, the better.

As far as I'm aware, there is nothing that needs to be done; just make sure she enters the Kingdom with her Thai passport and that's literally it!

But then again these areas are not really Thailand, are they? Same here, I can't fathom guys living all their life in an urban (or at least suburban area) in their own country, ending up moving with some uneducated sex worker they met in a sleazy part of Thailand back to their village. That's just beyond comprehension for me. Correct and that severely limits your options, Pattaya, Phuket or Bangkok it is. Same here, proud (ex)-resident of Pattaya City. I'd rarely ever need a reason to leave the city, even a trip to Jomtien south or Banglamung north felt like sailing in uncharted waters. Fine as well. Even using visa on arrivals or extensions back to back all year around including the occasional visa run to a neighboring country and then... all of a sudden they started cracking down on everything and on everyone for "no reasons"...

Oh trust me in Thailand it can even get worse where; you can get a visa regardless of the Thailand pass or vaccination status but then you get denied entrance to the Kingdom by any immigration officer (of any rank), your visa voided on the spot bearing a huge "CANCELLED" stamp then you are either escorted out or deported out of the Kingdom. It's not the majority of the cases mind you, but I've witnessed it happening.

Wishful thinking eh?

JOE FERRARI SAYS HI.

Absolutely not accepted as a foreigner. How odd is it that your typical uneducated average looking brown skinned Thai bargirl can move to any of the major countries in Europe, live 5 years and automatically become eligible to apply for either permanent non-revocable residency or for the citizenship in a First World European country straight away when I can spend 25 years in the Kingdom of Thailand (a Third World subpar country) spend/inject an average of 20 million baht into the economy and still have no clear path to either PR or the Thai citizenship while being mistreated by their immigration departments? Seems fair to you? There, I think I just answered the question. Anything else?

Amen.

As I'm physically there myself, I can only concur. Spain: Cádiz: Daytime weather: 20, night time: 12. Canary Islands: Daytime weather: 22, night time: 14. Portugal: Lisbon: Daytime weather: 16, night time: 11. "UK": Gibraltar: Daytime weather: 15, night time: 12. And in case you're really in the mood: Cyprus: Limassol: Daytime weather: 17, night time: 13.

This. Essentially. THIS.

Emphasis is mine. Make what you want out of it.

I'm curious to where is this actually?

That too works like wonders in court. Thanks for phrasing it differently.

Interesting "dilemma" indeed. I believe that after 15 years plus spent in the Kingdom, after witnessing scams, tricky situations, Thais siding with Thais even when the situations are plainly wrong, etc, etc, sometimes the sneaky way is the best way. Going the non confrontational way walking into your regional administration office very casually with a big smile "Can you help me set direct debit on this service?" (plus they see a foreigner so naturally they think you have money) probably works wonders rather than walking in with a grim face "I'm sorry but can you turn my water/electricity/internet off?", that smells problems right off the bat, nobody likes problems. Plus should this go all the way to the court, if a judge starts looking into the case, a case of "I did set-up direct banking to one of my accounts to make it easier to the lessee" as an argument sounds less scrupulous than "I did turn off water/electricity/internet to unease my lessee", so I believe the legal aspect matters. To the Thai courts it's always the intent behind the actions that matters rather than the act itself, proving that you had bad intentions setting up a (failing) direct debit is much harder for the courts to demonstrate than a clear "cut them rascals off!!!", good luck defending your actions in court trying to explain a (Thai) judge you have had good faith but then decided to cut off running water/electricity to a (Thai) family. On the other hand, a permanent service cut-off (due to unpaid bills defaulting payments method) is just that; a permanent service cut-off. Much easier to defend yourself in court and yet has a better effect; because even with a typical residential tenancy agreement or a recent paper slip in their hands, the lessee cannot restore the power/water to the premises, only the one with a legally binding contract with the respective administrations can. Again I'm no lawyer but after years spent in the Kingdom, you eventually get to learn the ropes, sometimes the sneaky way out is the only way out. This is Thailand.

PEA and PWA can be paid online without ever setting a foot in a 7-Eleven to pay the bills. However there are a few things you should be aware of; (I'm going to digress quite a bit on this one but you have been warned); A few years ago I rented a house to some unscrupulous people who turned they were bad apples and as they were Thai nationals they thought they'd have the upper hand should we go to court, shortly after they refused to pay the rent, honour their internet/PWA/PEA bills and ultimately refused to move out of the property when they were asked to. I could not evict them by force at the time because as they had a tenancy agreement that would have been considered as trespassing so the only way to force them out of the property was using this trick; As I still had the Thai title deed, the company stamps and was the directory of the Co. Ltd which technically owned the property, this is what I did; Step 1) Walked into a bank I had no previous links/affiliations with, I was not a previous customer of. Step 2) Open a regular debit account and deposit 1,000 THB in said account. Step 3) Go to the PWA administration and set debit for the water bills on that brand newly opened account. Step 4) Let the bank account run out of money/lack of funds/lack of provisions on it, intentionally. Step 5) Wait for the next automatic bill to default payment. At that point what the PWA administration does is: 1) They stop issuing paper bills in the mailbox (so the despicable lessee doesn't even know the PWA counter number nor that a new bill has been issued). 2) They PWA administration turns you off within the next 30 to 40 days of past due bills. Within a month those pesky squatters moved out of my property on their own because let's face it; even if it was "free" rent to them, no matter how "nice" the property is, no one wants to stay in a house that has no running water, no power and therefore no internet/TV/WiFi. Doing that was a cheeky move from my end but it was honestly the safest, no confrontational way, no lawyer fees involved and no need to wait on a court hearing date way to get rid of those malevolent people. The reason why I'm telling you this story is for you to understand that in Thailand, setting a direct debit with either of those administrations can be seen as a legally binding, self protecting, non disclosable agreement, once it's been set-up it's nearly impossible for a third party to break, the involved administration will not reveal any details to a third party despite having a tenancy agreement in their hands, so use wisely. And doing a such thing protects you by law, as the lessee has no ways to prove you did this with malicious intent in mind. In this country it's an eye for an eye and you fight fire with fire.

Indeed. How have we survived as a species? We overcome as we adapt. The best vaccine out there is our natural immunity, release the kraken, let it mutate until the most prominent strain becomes nothing more than the nasty flu it is then let the herd immunity come into play. Enough of the scaremongering and filling up Big Pharma's pockets.