My Friend Same

I live on Soi 1 behind the hosital. I walk to Sukhumvit in the mornings and up to about Soi 11. It is quiet but I always seem to see a tourist farang couple or 2 walking around. The thing I ask myself is <deleted> are they doin here? Is this their idea of a joyous holiday? High levels of idiocy I think

Nice pics.

It's such a shame that so many posters on Thai Visa call for bloodshed.

It's very strange that these people calling for bloodshed are not banned.

I wonder why ?

The perfect thing to do is to draw a borderline around Issan and make it a separate country. Then all the Issaners can live and breath amidst their tire fires. This would be a perfect solution. I know that the vast majority of Bangkonians and Southern Thais would support this

Yet another brainfart idea by this government. Public holiday I suppose means banks will be closed as well? I have a wire transfer coming in for my 1-year visa extension. Carefully planned to arrive 1 day before the seasoning requirement by Thai Immigration. Now it will arrive 1 day late and I won't be able to renew my 1-year extension without leaving the country, paying for the airplane ticket, the new visa, hotel, etc. What a joke.

Instead of FIXING the problems, they are RUINING the country even more, since stock exchanges will also be closed.

Way to go, clowns.

Who's the clown here? I think it's the guy who cut his wire transfer too close. LOL

I overstayed 50 days around 7 years ago. Airport guys pulled me aside and made calls checking me out thoroughly. When I came back in a few days later they pulled me aside again and made more calls until they took my phone number and let me leave. I did not enjoy the situation but do know that multi-year overstayers have had no problems but my personal feeling is that Thailand should blacklist the people

yeah, I stayed for 10 years on tourist visas and entry stamps. easy peasy

Just got back from Vientiane with a FREE double entry tourist Visa. Got there at almost 11am on the 11th and picked up Que #484, there were about 100 people ahead of me. Took a little over an hour. Only thing new that I haven't read here before is that the Consulate want you put where your staying in Vientiane and a phone number on the visa app or they won't accept it. Mai pen rai, people just shared info with those that didn't already have a hotel room. Pick up was the usual, start the next day at 1pm everyone pretty much done by 2. And the race to the border begins.

Bottom line is everyone I saw that applied for a double entry tourist visa got it for free with no problems.

cr

I miss those days of waiting behind 100 people in the hot sun. So much fun fun fun. then the border cram jam the next day. Oh the fun memories

I had an awesome dream last night where an agreement was made to make Issan a separate country. It was a fantastic dream that I so much wish would come true. Makes perfect sense really

The bottom line of this so called "nightmare" that the OP encountered in Samui had nothing to do with bribes or illegal activities. It was as Lopburi said, the OP had a Fund book, which would not be accepted at immigration offices around the country so it was denied. Then to rub salt in it, the OP carts in some "attorney" to tell the Samui immi people what the rules are. Case closed

Wow, awesome report. Good news indeed just a tad far for some people to make the trip. Just need to find some bargain Perth fares

May the Euro go back under 90 cents on the dollar where it belongs

Yes pal, get your marriage extension instead of retirement to lower your financial requirement. Makes best sense

You can get a 1 year multi entry o visa from the Thai consulate in Hull. You can apply by post and will get it back within a few days. This gives you 90 days permission to stay every time you enter Thailand.

If you are over 50 and can put 800,000 Baht in a thai bank. Permission to stay with a single entry o can be extended for 1 year. That way, you don't have to do border runs every 90 days, but you do have to report to immigration.

http://www.thaiconsul-uk.com/

Yes HULL England is THE PLACE. I recommend this place to everyone I know so they can get a super easy visa for visiting friends. It's super lucky that HULL is there for easy visas because NO consulates in the USA will give this interesting visa. PERTH Aus is the only other consulate in the world known to hand out these 1 year visas for visiting friends. I think All persons worldwide with a Thai visa problem should go to this HULL place and get their super easy visa. I wish I had gone there in my 10 years living here on tourist visas before I got married and got a legit visa. If I could turn back the clock, I'd have made a yearly trip to HULL to get this 1 year easy peasy visa. This would be a great idea for thai visa dot com to start a visa service to HULL for these visas as so many people need them. I remember thaivisa had a service to Penang to get visas but this would be far better for people to obtain these great visas. A thaivisa company could set up travel and lodging arrangements for HULL. I bet business would boom off the map. It would take some work but would be so benefiacial for so many visa people not fitting the mold of working in Thailand, being married and under 50 years old. There are so many people in this group that a service for them would be so beneficial for the visa runner people, lodging people near Hull and Hull itself

Honestly after weeks of looking for a nice wedding band in Bkk - as in not that yellow soft thing they use there but durable white gold, we just gave up and bought it overseas. You might have had some luck around Paragon or Siam Center but...

You're sayinig you can't find wedding bands in Bangkok? I find that very hard to believe.

Try World Gems. They have a huge store in Bangkok. I haven't been to the Bangkok branch, but I picked up some very nice wedding bands at their Pattaya branch.

The good thing about buying there is that you'll get a guarantee certificate which allows you to trade it in anytime for something of equal value. If you want a new ring, or you get a divorce you can just trade it in for something else. They'll clean and polish it anytime for free, or repair it if damaged.

For example, an 18k gold ring with single 0.16 ct diamond (for the wife) cost 28K. A large 18 ct ring for me cost 22K + 1K to expand it to size 72.

Ouch that hurtz. My wife and I vowed to not buy in Thailand due to Thai quality issues (thai and quality are oxymorons) and because big ticket items here are almost always at least double price from USA. We decided to buy online at Overstock. Taxes and Thai duties are outrageous but overstock includes them in the price and guarantees that will be all you pay. It worked out. We got her a 14K white gold .33 ct diamond for 15K baht late last year including all import duties. This way we know we have a quality strong ring with no Thai quality issues. So even with exhorbitant taxes and duties, the price is still much lower than here and we know we got quality. ]

My ring I had from a previous marriage so wife bought me a yellow plated band from online Thai site for 300 baht. strong as ox and looks great

My wife says that type of account is similar to a CD. So as I stated earlier in this thread, if true then the Immi guy was 100% correct to deny the visa

I guess that's ok if you live right next to the border but sounds like a hassle to travel to and fro every 15 days. As crossy says, double entry visas from vietiane make more sense

No offence to the poster,but it sounds to me his attitude or the way he replied to the imigration office on the day re 'getting his lawyer"was what undid him too.The only way to be is humble in these offices.

You might not have seen my early message. After I had sat for several hours and smiled and calmly spoken to three different Immigration people and they had rudely told me to leave, I asked if my lawyer could come in and interpret, as something was obviously lost in translation. It would be fruitless to threaten any government official in any country, but perfectly acceptable to request that a lawyer at least assist you with a legal matter. If I have a problem with the police I'm not going to sit and argue with them. I will let a lawyer discuss the problem with them. If they had simply said, "We are sorry but Thai Immigration is no longer accepting these accounts because ..., I would have understood and accepted it. I haven't included all the negative things that were said to me, which made me feel more and more like I was being singled out by somebody on an ego trip.

such a long thread,for such simple answers.See my post no.75.Its not a big deal.You just did n't have the required amount in the correct account.Its not difficult to get back your retirement extension, and you've had much good advice about different ways to go about it.Good luck and get to it!

agreed, that's the bottom line here it sounds like. Mountain out of molehill

i know the guy down there for 8 years but my 1900 marriage visa last year cost 5000, i knew that before i went.

The fee is 1,900 Baht. Why would you think it OK to pay 5,000 Baht.

It is beyond me.

I paid 5,000 Baht the first time out of ignorance.

I then joined Thai Visa and found out that the fee was 1,900 Baht.

I paid 5,000 the next year because I knew I was leaving Samui shortly and in the future would be dealing with honest people.

Exactly LB! Don't ever ask Immigration how much the fee is. Just complete the form and put 1900B on top of it. If they ask for more tell them no problem but your embassy needs a copy of the receipt. If every time you went to the bathroom somebody handed you 5,000B, how many times a day would you go? If everyone is giving them an extra 5K, you can see why they keep it up until one day it spirals way out of control, and how much will they ask for in ten years? Get the picture?

By the way, LB, did you find any honest people???

I think perhaps the best solution for those having such nightmares in Samui is move outta there. Sounds like that's what LB did. My applause for that. What's the attraction down there anyway?

Can we details about exactly what took place. where, how, what you were trying for, what docs you had etc

Did you get a 1 year visa or 3 months?

Awesome, hope to hear a good report back

Yeah, I dont know what that 2500 baht thing is that the OP is talking about in Penang. I also thought that if you have an extension, they will deny another TV. I dont know whats going on in KL for those visas but PP cambodia are supposed to be issuing as well as Vientiane Laos

For marriage purposes, I would not base my decision on where my wife is coming from.

Or her race.

Or the colour of her skin.

...

It's critical for me, for marriage anyway; but also doubly important is level of education. I lived with an Issan girl for 3 years and the thought of marrying her never crossed my mind but that was purely due to her lack of education. Thai chinese were never girls I could even live with let alone marry

I'm all for staying away from Thai Chinese and Issan for marriage purposes

Hi, I did this many times

1. tuk tuk from bridge to town is 250 baht

2. the Aroon Residence hotel is pretty good. email em and maybe you can get the 1000 baht rate

3. just get to embassy at 8-8:30 am

4. picking up passport is around 12:30-1pm

5. pay embassy in baht

6. you can download the form. I think from Laos embassy (thai emb) site

7. I never used agent so cant advise

8. get a van on thai side of bridge for 200-250 baht per person

9.

In terms of numbers, there is far more Isaan girls, North Thailand, or South Thailand girls than Bangkok Thai Chinese girls getting a degree these days.

They're actually the middle-class...

actually in almost all countries, in terms of numbers, the bulk of the population is in the lower class so Issan girls would fit there based on that.