K2938

3 hours ago, Denim said:

The items I send are lightweight and fit in an envelope so to America 52 baht , most of Europe 48 baht. Occasionally something will get lucky , make an early flight and get delivered in a week , but this doesn't happen often.

Does this have tracking?

1 hour ago, tomm12 said:

Thank you for the reply. I fall under the over 65 group.

regards,

Since severe dengue is much more likely when you get it the second time and since the vaccination is also more effective if you already had it once (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41541-023-00658-2), you might want to wait unless you already got it once.  If not, you can get it in any EU country, but since there are two doses required with 3 months distance this would also mean two trips.

Please also note that there is a shortage of data for the efficacy of the vaccine for old people (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1477893923000583?via%3Dihub)

3 minutes ago, tomm12 said:

Does anyone know when the Takeda tak003 Dengue fever vaccine might be approved in Thailand?

You can get it in Indonesia if you are under 45

4 hours ago, Sigma6 said:

many 'normal' thai women under 30 will have one somewhere.

Not true, unless "many" means very few percentage wise

3 minutes ago, damen said:

Just get a widetech dehumidifier. you can set up the timing interval daily, weekly or monthly. The water tube outlet can connect into drain.

Thank you.  And without this?  I would rather not have something use electricity while gone

Is it possible to leave a condo in Hua Hin unattended for a few months (let's say 2-4 months) or is there too much humidity for this to be possible and everything will be full of mold afterwards?  I know that in many other places in Thailand like e.g. Phuket this would definitely be a very bad idea, but since Hua Hin has a much drier climate, I thought it might be better there.  Thank you.

1 hour ago, Misty said:

In foreign chamber talks by government officials involved in designing and promoting the program, it was mentioned that the high initial target numbers were pretty much aspirational only.  High targets were needed in order to get the program off its feet, but it didn't seem like the speakers thought they needed to be achieved for the program to be a success.

It is not uncommon in the world of public relations to try to declare a goal grossly failed not to have been meant seriously in an attempt to gloss over the failure afterwards

2 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

Out of interest what has been the take up # of LTR.

The number is very small and orders of magnitude smaller than what the BOI was originally aiming for.  If you scroll though this thread, you will find various numbers announced.  Please however note that these are only numbers of applications, not the even smaller number of visas actually granted and issued.

On 4/21/2023 at 9:35 PM, bignok said:

Paying up front for a month is not clever. Pay 2 nights at a time.

Unlikely to be possible for a house/apartment where there probably will be follow-on bookings from others.  Only viable for hotels where there are tons of identical rooms

On 6/10/2023 at 9:24 AM, BritTim said:

Go to Savannakhet Laos for a multiple entry Non O based on being over age 50. You apply in the morning of one way and have your passport back with the multiple entry visa on the afternoon of the following day. It is best to apply on a Tuesday or Wednesday (the queues are worse on Mondays and Thursdays).

Do you know what Savannakhet requires for this?  I am asking as the non-O based on age over 50 is not mentioned on their website (https://savannakhet.thaiembassy.org/th/page/cate-9736-types-of-visa?menu=5d84a44c15e39c26b400453f&p=1).  Do you need 800k THB in a bank deposit?  Anything else?  And how much does it cost?  Thanks!

1 hour ago, Pib said:

In the initial months of the LTR program BoI did accept some investment accts but no more.  Instead, it must be a cash/bank type account like a savings/current/money market type acct or even a Foreign Currency Deposit (FCD) acct not affected by stock market up and downs...

Very sad that the BOI made these changes.  So contrary to all expectations the BOI did not use the huge shortfall between forcasted and actual LTR visas issued as motivation to increase flexibility, but on the contrary tightened conditions.  The same apparently also applies to various conditions for the LTR-Work from Thailand visa.  Previously, for this it was enough if you are working for the subsidiary of a listed entity, now the listing requirement is only fulfilled if you work for the listed company itself, but not for any of its subsidiaries as most employees of a large listed group would which does not make any sense whatsoever.

20 minutes ago, opalred said:

i have been here 19yrs and its getting worse/with no control and still burning/ new smoke comes in day after day  it seems no-one police the rules / a month ago went to ko chang to get away from the smoke/but hurt leg and had to come back/in the middle of thai  the smoke was so thick you could hardly see/and believe me they were still burning the rice fields ///

Do you think that things might improve with the potential/likely change in government?  They had pollution somewhere on their list of objectives, but far down, like at number 22 of 25 and if they meant air pollution with pollution is unclear

Western Northern hemisphere winter, but you can really find this out yourself via Google

22 hours ago, JayClay said:

Who in their right mind would be in favour of legislation that makes it harder to leave the country and spend time in foreign country in exchange for no tangible benefits...?

Maybe time to also introduce exit visas like in the former Soviet Union????

15 hours ago, Lost Nomad said:

Reference:  "This new Thai visa could change your life" video by Retired Working for You.  Timestamp:  14:05

 

BOI representative Miss Kantarot states that any passive income shortfall (80K - SS amount) * 10 in a retirement account can bump up your annual total to meet the 80K passive income requirement. She doesn't state that you actually need to buy the annuity.  It seems like just by having sufficient funds in the account is "self funding" the income.  I'd clarify this when you communicate with the BOI.

Is there anybody who actually succeeded with this in real life?

10 minutes ago, retiree said:

Topping up to $80K by buying an immediate annuity that pays $40K/year with after-tax cash earns a few percent, whereas withdrawing $40K/year of taxable money from an IRA each year would cost a few times that. 

Instead of going down the costly way of buying an annuity try to convince the BOI that with your cash, assuming you have this, you can self-fund you.  So assuming you lack $40k per annum, show them that you have 5 x $40k in additional cash/funds (since the initial visa is only issued for 5 years with an additional financial verification after 5 years) or, if this does not work, that you have 10 x $40k in additional cash/funds (since it is a 10 year visa).  The BOI will probably be screaming that they need to see an annuity income, but it just does not make any sense that if this money were in your pension plan and you withdrew funds of that amount, they would count this and otherwise they would not.

2 hours ago, sidjameson said:

Think about this every day. I'm 55. I answered 3. But that's "likely" to be 10% of my remaining years. That's quite a tax.

Crazy to be willing to cut your life short by 10% for this.  There must be some better alternative

On 3/27/2023 at 8:41 PM, KhunLA said:

"double track railway will span 84 kilometers"

https://www.huahintoday.com/local-news/new-dual-track-train-line-in-hua-hin-to-open-this-year-2-5-hour-journey-time-to-bangkok/#:~:text=Once opened%2C the train line,on Monday (Sept 20).

Edited March 27 by KhunLA

Does anybody know when the 2.5 hours by train from Bkk to Hua Hin already promised for last year will become reality?

On 4/27/2023 at 6:19 PM, Misty said:

It will be interesting to see if people who hold the LTR visa have to pay this "tourism fee". 

 

I wouldn't have thought so.  An LTR visa holder is a foreign resident and is not a tourist.  Shouldn't matter whether the LTR visa holder has a digital work permit. 

Realistically, this decision will probably less be made based on any notion of "fairness", but based on how to get the most money out of foreigners.  Do LTR visa holders get local pricing for entering national parks?  Are they protected against inflated foreigner pricing in hospitals? ...

Phone might be region locked.  So you want to unlock it before sending