PadPrikKhing

I watched the video about six times in a row to try to discern why he swerved, and I'm convinced too (that it was a deliberate swerve). I think he was <deleted> off that the victim's car emerged from the right side of the other truck they were both passing and that she was going to pass him. Probably meth-addled road rage.

Where are you gettiing that U.S. info? The Canada prices are amazing if true... but in California, the cheapest 1/8th ounces you can find from dispensaries are usually $35, making it $10 per gram. The dispensaries also don't like to sell whole ounces unless they are of some schwag they're trying to get rid of. Anything that's decent, they only greedily dole it out by eighths and give no breaks on ounces.

Perhaps if its name had been Clean Young Sailor's, this fate could have been avoided...

Holy khrap, and there's the answer I knew was there somewhere. You can even use a county report. Wow. Thanks.

I'm not there yet, but... it'll be: the next meal, working on music, writing, reading, listening to music, just enjoying the gorgeous scenery of a new place (probably Ao Nang area).

Right, thanks. I believe that's what I'll do too.

Right, but if I succeed in getting a bank account right away like within a few days of arriving, it will all be good, no? I've been recommended an agent who I'm told can easily help me get the bank account. I don't mind paying for that if it's a reasonable fee and saves me from running around and burning a lot of time trying to do it by myself.

Thanks Joe, but is there any advantage to applying for it from the consulate before leaving? It seems like the way of going over visa exempt and then getting the Non-O from within Thailand is the most often-recommended way.

Thanks sqwakvfr. I was spacing out there thinking that it's immigration... right, it's the consulate I would be needing to convince, if I were to do it. Like I said, I'm really not intending to try for an O-A, it's just that I never got this question nailed down from way back, and it's always bothered me. Though admittedly it's irrelevant if I use another visa route. My plan currently is to go visa exempt, move immediately to find a place to rent and get a bank account; then get an extension on my exempt entry, do the bank business, apply for the non-O, then eventually get the retirement extension. Another option would be applying for a 60-day tourist visa as the first step, but if I do that I'll have to do the whole EVisa thing, which reports seem to indicate is a big hassle, on top of the Thailand Pass process. It sounds much easier to enter visa-exempt. The only downside of visa-exempt I suppose is that it's 30 days less time in-country overall at the early stages, but with 30 days initially if I get a bank account immediately, let's say within the first week in country, and then transfer the funds in immediately too, that would still be getting that in place within the first 30 days. (Bear with me, I'm going through this in writing so I can get it straight in my mind.) Then I can get a 30-day extension on the visa-exempt entry, if I'm not mistaken. Then, before that 30-day extension runs, I apply for the Non-O visa. I'd be able to show the 800K for that, and with the 90 days I get from that, it would be no problem to show that the money sat for more than 60 days when I go to apply for the 1-year extension. Do I have it all straight?

In case anyone might be imagining I was a thug running around with a gun, I wasn't. I was working as a private investigator during a time in L.A. when there was a rash of violent carjackings going on, many resulting in murdered drivers. I had resorted to carrying in my car (without a permit, yes) as protection.

CANSIAM, thanks for your reply. I have never heard of any "Pardon Document," I wonder if this is a Canadian thing. My understanding is that all I can get from FBI or my state's DOJ (which are highly linked agencies of course) is a printout of my raw criminal record data. I've done this already to test this, and it shows... well here, I'm just going to post redacted images of what I'm talking about. This is what they sent me. Definitely not a "verification letter" of any kind, it's raw DOJ data.

Well as I said, I already did obtain an FBI check, and it did show the charges. One of them had been dropped/expunged right away by the DA at the time, so it has been expunged since 1995, yet it showed up. These things stay on there forever, I already determined that a long time ago. What I want to know is whether Thai immigration understands what expunged charges are and will they act accordingly, or will they deny the visa application pedantically upon observing that there is something at all in the record. The requirement on the LA consulate website is defined as a "Letter of verification stating that the applicant has no criminal record." This is tricky semantically, because it sounds like that is saying that they will only grant the visa to people with a clear and empty record. I don't really have "no criminal record" since I have expunged convictions, but it is legally free of convictions. Also, the Thai definition is saying "letter of verification," not "printout of federal criminal record data"—which is what I got from the FBI—but FBI and state DOJ offices don't issue "letters" to my knowledge... a letter sounds like something a human being would type out to inform another government in the form of a declarative summary. That would probably work well for me if I could get it, because in that format I think they might have to say that my record is clear, or at least say something like "these two existing convictions have been expunged by the court and should be disregarded."

OP, would you mind describing the police clearance document you got from Canadian law enforcement? I'm American, but I have a specific question about these for the O-A. I'm probably not going to go the O-A route, but in case I need it as a backup option I really want to know about this. (Please see the new thread I just posted in this forum for more details about what I'm trying to have clarified.) Thanks

I'm probably not going the O-A route, but nonetheless this is a persistent and pretty important question that I never got answered months ago. Does anyone here know if A) Thai immigration authorities are able to distinguish and disregard expunged convictions? And if the answer is no, B) whether there is a version of the criminal clearance document the O-A requires that can be obtained that does not show expunged misdemeanor convictions? I have a couple of 27-year-old misdemeanors on my record that have been expunged, which means that for all legal intents and purposes, they've been dismissed and are treated as if they didn't happen. But if I were to go get an FBI or California DOJ background report, I think that report will show these convictions, though they will have the notation "dismissed in the interests of justice." In did in fact obtain my own record before I got the expungement to see what the format would look like, and it was a raw data-readout type format that did show a secondary related misdemeanor charge that had been expunged at the time (1995). So I already know that this format shows expunged items. What I want to know is, even though the convictions are expunged, would immigration simply glance at it and see that there is something there instead of a totally clear record, not even read it, and reflexively deny the O-A application? That would be my concern. Or is there a way to get a document from the FBI that states my record in a simple declarative format instead (i.e. "We have run a complete criminal background investigation on Joe Blow and we state that his record is clear of any criminal history")? If not, I wonder if it is possible to submit an addendum document with the police clearance that clarifies the issue, essentially cautioning Thai immigration "Even though you see a couple of charges on this document, please be sure to note that they are expunged under US law and should be disregarded and treated as if non-existent." Does anyone here have an example they could show of exactly what kind of document Thai immigration expects to see for these police clearance certificates?

Just wanted to say thanks OP for asking these questions. I'm going to be trying to go over in about April next year and I need all this same info.

Thanks, that's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. Unless there is a widespread (nationwide) understanding among all IOs and immigration offices that no one is to dig into any cases the "big man" signed off on, I don't want to do it. If I can get tripped up by a random IO who is just "in a mood" or is feeling the need to be thorough, and somehow doesn't know or can't tell that my extension was approved by the head honcho... that sounds like a recipe for disaster. (Unless more money to the same agent or another could fix it again...???)

Thanks, I'm still in the US so I won't get to hang out with expats until after I get there. I'm over here trying to calculate my method for getting in and staying in.

I'm only worrying now because I may want to take advantage of it, but I don't have more detailed info. If I can find out that info, and have a better idea how the method works, I won't worry. But if it's like a magic trick that I'm supposed to trust but am not allowed to know the secret of, I don't want to risk my stay in the country using it. I just want to know how an agent is going to pull off making it look like I have 800K in a bank account when I don't. Does the agent just straight-up bribe the IO? Wonderful! Whatever it is, I'm not judging... I just want to know so I can evaulate whether there is a risk of the method failing and leaving me in a bad position. I mean, if the agent simply bribes the IO and gets me the stamp/visa, but then sometime later someone else can blindside me with a demand to examine a bank book that I don't have, then the method is no good. Know what I mean?

I'm being offered this exact service, but I don't quite know what to think. Someone who lives in Thailand is offering me a referral to their agent, whom I'm told can get me the 1-year non-O extension without my even actually having the money in the bank. This is obviously very tempting, but before I could do it I'd need to know whether there is any way that it could backfire on me and leave me in a bad position later where I can't explain why there isn't 800K in the bank or something. Do these agents Photoshop bank statements, or what? I don't have moral qualms about their methods, but I need to know what the method is so that I can feel okay about being involved, what the risks are if any. I could put 800K in the bank, but clearly anyone who is given the choice is probably going to choose the way that doesn't require it. Choosing between having $24,000 tied up continuously in a Thai bank account versus spending $600 per year and not have the 800K in the bank seems pretty easy. But if it's the type of thing where I could get caught out and wouldn't have the same agent be able to get me out of it, it wouldn't be worth it. Do you know if that's something that can happen?

There's nowhere they won't venture to get the truth about aliens...

A long as they can't/won't climb several stories, I guess I'm not too bothered. I know Thailand has lots of them, but I won't go around turning over rocks and looking for them (I would have done that as a kid no doubt though).

Yeah was pretty much planning to live in a city. Have been pretty much thinking Hua Hin.

Boy, can I relate. But you're already living there. My situation is more critical... I really want to relocate to Thailand for a retirement period next year, but the thought of these things is a big problem for me, a deterrent to some degree. I have to figure out how not to ever run into one of these in my own dwelling. I'll take my chances when out and about, but if I thought I could possibly get one of these (or a scorpion for that matter) in my bed or anywhere in my place, I couldn't live in Thailand. Or if it happened, it would probably make me want to leave the country, as pussy as that sounds. So I'm going to have to live in a condo on an upper floor I guess. They don't get in when you live on the seventh floor of some condo building, right? I assume that people getting centipedes, scorpions and snakes are living in ground-floor houses, close to all that wonderful nature. It's really too bad, because I wanted to rent a house. But if there is any chance of being ambushed by these things in my bed or my shower, then I can't do it. I'll have to get something that's 80 feet above the ground.

I don't mean to suggest that anyone do anything illegal, but in theory, if one could acquire an ounce or so of decent cannabis flower "off the street" and then obtain some 95% food-grade ethanol (whatever the Thailand equivalent of "Everclear" is), one could do a simple "cryo-extraction" of the flower—a quick extraction and rapid filtration wherein the freezer-chilled ground cannabis is exposed to freezer-chilled alcohol for no more than 2 minutes (this is vital to keeping the dark gunk/chlorophyl/bad flavors, etc. out of the end product)—and be left with a wonderful light golden-green tincture for a fraction of the price of the clinic-bought tincture. Of course this would not be legal, but it would be one way to supply oneself with a bigger, longer-term, less-expensive tincture stash. One could even buy a bottle of the clinic stuff, use it, and then keep the bottle and "prescription" paperwork, then use the bottle to contain and carry around the homemade stuff pretty safely.

What about the reverse of this? If one ships a lot of stuff to Thailand, then moves back to their home country say a couple of years later, is it easy to ship a load of stuff from Thailand back to (for example) the US?