Red Phoenix

A friend of mine applied for a 1-year extension of stay more than 2 weeks before his Permission to stay of his 90-day Non Imm O Marriage Visa would expire (9 Nov). The Imm Officer at his KhonKaen Imm Office, accepted his application and told him to come back 30 days later on 8 Dec to get the approval stamp. He also told my friend that he was not allowed to leave the country during that under consideration period, and if he made a domestic trip that he could not go to far as he would have to be able to be at home within an 'acceptable' time-frame (not specified) when Immigration would conduct the home-visit. So the above means that he is kind of home-bound for 7 weeks. = = = My questions: #1 - Is 30 days for the 'come-back' date standard? I seem to recall that at some offices the under consideration period is only 10-14 days. #2 - Not being allowed to leave the country and make longer domestic trips while his Permission to stay from the 90-day Non Imm O Marriage Visa had not expired yet (9 Nov), makes it quite inconvenient to apply for the 1-year extension long before its expiry. Also I do recall some posts in which applicants that had to make a trip abroad were allowed - after explaining the situation to their Imm Office - to apply almost 2 months early AND leave the country during their 'under consideration' period. I realize that it will depend on Imm Office leniency, but in my friend's case 70 days home-bound, just to be available within short notice for the Imm Office visit is very long. #3 - It seems to me that contacting Immigration during the 'under consideration' period and requesting to make a trip abroad or far away domestic for a specific period, should be possible when reasonable as long as it allows the Imm Office sufficient time to conduct the home visit, before or after that trip. #4 - What if the home-visit takes place early, say next week. Would that still imply that he needs to be available at short notice during the remaining weeks before the stamp-collecting date (8 Dec).

~ OK, apologies - my mistake...

~ You correctly state those date are for excess deaths ASSOCIATED WITH COVID-19. But this topic is about trends in all-cause excess mortality, and the insurance industry is therefore worried about the implications of rising mortality trends as that will lead to much higher life-insurance pay-outs (as premiums and pay-outs are based on stable mortality).

Insurance companies rely on mortality figures for their life-insurance actuary tables, and one of the main sources they use is the CDC Wonder database. < https://wonder.cdc.gov/ > So I seriously doubt that Insurance NewsNet, an Insurance Industry publication, would publish fraudulent data.

~ Yes, that's what The Our World in Data graph shows. But why then this HUGE difference when compared to the CDC data for the same period?

~ The two graphs feature a different period. But when selecting the SAME period [January till May 2023] it is indeed striking that there is a huge difference in overall mortality between the CDC-data (the dotted black line for the featured period) and the chart from Our World in Data. The only explanation I can think of for that striking difference would be that while the CDC compares the Jan-May 2023 mortality figures with the same period in 2019, that the graph from Our World in Data uses another 'baseline period' to compare the US mortality with.

Were they also required to show proof of onward-travel plans (e.g. an onward flight reservation booking in less than 30 days after their VisaExempt entry)?

" Despite some signs that excess mortality rates are declining, life insurance executives and actuaries believe the numbers are alarming and could continue to drag earnings and surge death claims for years to come. Excess mortality is the difference between the total number of deaths for a specific time period and the number that would have been expected. The numbers were naturally forecasted to climb during the pandemic, but some industry and health authorities are concerned the rates haven’t greatly diminished as COVID infection rates have declined. " ... [Samantha Chow, global leader for Life, Annuity and Benefits Sector at Capgemini, the giant multinational Paris-based consulting company]. said there’s a real question of whether the insurance industry can sustain the enormous payouts the excess mortality rates will dictate." Source: https://insurancenewsnet.com/innarticle/excess-mortality-continuing-surge-causes-concerns Graph from the CDC featured in the report. https://insurancenewsnet.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Younger-death-rates-900x502.png

Probably a misunderstanding of the Imm Officer. I presume he was under the impression that you had 400K on your bank-account, and that you asked whether it was Ok to take out 15K. Of course taking out money as long as you do not fall below the 400K tresshold is always OK, and so your call might have put him on the wrong foot. In case you made it clear that you had 430.000 THB on the account, the Imm Officers answer doesn't make sense.

It is very clear that it is required to have proof of an onward flight to an international destination within 30 days of arrival, when entering Thailand by air without a Visa. True, it is seldom checked by Thai border-immigration when arriving at one of Thailand's main international airports. But that is most probably because the airline is required to check whether you have such an onward flight reservation when you are boarding your flight with final destination Thailand. And yes, some airlines do not check this. But considering that being denied boarding due to not having such onward flight reservation, it is highly recommended meeting that requirement. = = = Also it looks that the requirement is mainly enforced (by the airlines) on long-haul flights, and that for short flights from neighbouring countries into Thailand that it is almost never checked. But what about entering Thailand without a Visa using a LAND-BORDER? I have never heard of anyone being refused entry for not meeting that proof of onward travel requirement, when entering Thailand VisaExempt using a land-border. So I presume that onward-travel requirement is only enforced by the air-lines on long-haul flights. Is that correct, or can you be denied entry for not meeting that requirement when arriving by air from a neighbouring country or when entering via a land-border?

~ ChatGTP is already on the AseanNow Forum - just click the 'ChatGTP' tab (starting from left it's the 6th one) on the black ribbon at the top of the page. The current version on AseanNow is ChatGPT v3.5 Turbo. Version 4 coming shortly. = = = Note that that v3.5 is not browsing the Internet in real-time, but is consulting its huge database. Hence it has no access to information after 2021, so no use asking about recent events or developments. Also its database is limited to 'trusted sources' from mainstream media. Finally, when quering ChatGPT and you are not sure whether its response was correct, it is useful to challenge the system. It 'apologized' a couple of times to me, when I confronted it with an incorrect response. Grok having real-time access to X (former Twitter) would be a far better tool than the current v3.5 version of ChatGTP.

~ The Reuters statement is indeed correct that "the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant of the coronavirus, which was dominant in the U.S. for much of this year has since been overtaken by other variants as the virus evolves." But what they do NOT mention is that end October that XBB 1.5 subvariant now only occurs in 0.6 % of cases The Oct. 28 report of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) contains an overview of the reported genomic sequencing < see attached graph >. Source: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions Reuters also mentions that the updated shots that are currently rolled out in the US are "single-target vaccines aimed at the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant of the coronavirus", which is on the way out to become extinct (currently only 0.6 %). THAILAND > When applying for the booster shot be aware that Thailand doesn't have any of the newer, monovalent boosters that have been rolled out recently in the U.S., UK and elsewhere... They can still provide you with the PREVIOUS covid-jab, which was a bi-valent aiming at two variants BA.4 and BA.5 as well as the original strain of the Covid-19 virus. Needless to say that these variants are already extinct.

Dr Jack is correct. It is NOT the Visa that is extended, but it is the Permission to stay that you received when entering Thailand, that can be extended. Most Visa are SingleEntry and are your 'entry ticket' but once you entered Thailand that Visa is used, and the extensions that you apply for relate to the Permission to stay you received when entering on the Visa. Note that a MultipleEntry Visa stays valid until its expiry date, but also here when applying for an extension at your local Imm Office it is the Permission to stay that is extended.

Note that I added one more sentence to my original response.

When entering Thailand on a 90-day Non Imm O Visa (be it for reason of Retirement or for reason of Marriage to a Thai national) there is no option to extend it only for 1 month. You can however apply for the 1-year extension of such Visa at your local Imm Ofice. When you entered Thailand VisaExempt or on a Tourist Visa, you have the option to first apply for a 30-day extension of stay before applying at your local Imm Office for a 90-day Non Imm O Visa (for reason of Retirement or for reason of Marriage to a Thai national). You also have the option when being married to a Thai national, to apply for a 60-day extension of stay for reason of visiting your wife, and this can be done before or after you applied for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of marriage.

~ A study that would make prof Neil Ferguson proud. ALL Ferguson's pandemic projections turned out to be 10 to 1000 times off-the-mark, but they didn't miss their intended fear-mongering target. The 'researchers' of the current vax-propaganda study were smarter than Ferguson as the 381.981 US-deaths they claim that were 'preventable' can not be checked. Comparing covid-19 death statistics with countries that were significantly less vaccinated or with communities within the US that did not vaccinate (e.g. the Amish) would provide a much more relevant study than this modelling exercise.

Uninsured Americans can still get free Covid boosters https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/19/covid-vaccine-boosters-uninsured-americans-can-find-free-moderna-pfizer-shots.html

Johnson was a weak man bowing under pressure from the fear-mongers, most of whom had an agenda. Just look at Sweden, the lone rational voice, that refused to lock-down and close schools. And history has of course proven Sweden right.

Yes, she is a brave doctor by publicly stating that the Emperor has no clothes.

~ Yep, your simple solution is the way to go: Wear a face-mask to protect yourself from getting covid, as catching covid can lead to developing 'long covid'. And in mean-time get your booster-shots because although not optimal, these also provide you with some protection to catching covid (although the main reason for taking them is that the shots allegedly diminish the risk of hospitalization or death when catching covid). A fitting quote here by H.L Mencken: "For every complex problem, there's a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong."

When reading the posts on this thread it might look that I - and a couple of other dissident voices - are lone nutters rejecting the 'protection' that the Covid-19 booster jabs provide. But from the uptake figures in US it looks that 90% of the population is not interested in getting another shot. 3 weeks ago already Politico reported "... about 8 million individuals have received an updated XBB Covid-19 shot, Ilse Zuniga, a spokesperson for HHS, told Prescription Pulse. The figures come from providers and distributors that have voluntarily reported vaccinations to the federal government because the CDC halted Covid vaccine tracking when the public health emergency ended in May. The mRNA shots from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have been available for roughly four weeks, and Novavax’s protein-based shot received a green light earlier this month. By comparison, the Biden administration estimated that roughly 13 to 15 million people ages 12 and older had received an updated vaccine at this time last year. ... " Source: https://www.politico.com/newsletters/prescription-pulse/2023/10/17/vaccine-makers-prep-for-sluggish-demand-00121873 So if demand continues at the same pace, that would translate into about 30 million shots this year - less than 10 percent of Americans. And the head-line of that Politico article < Vaccine makers prep for sluggish demand > indicates that investors have clearly reached this conclusion too, which is one of the reasons why they’re fleeing Pfizer, Moderna and BioNTech, which supplies Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine. Note: The other reason of course being the score of court-cases that are being launched, to hold these companies accountable, and which when successful would bankrupt all three.

Crickets!

When you are staying in a Hotel/guesthouse, you can ask the reception to provide you with a copy of the TM-30 notification that they need to make to notify local Immigration that a foreigner is staying at the premises. Without that TM-30 notification chances are high that your local Imm Office will not provide you with any service (in your case the 30-day extension of stay).

@rabas stated: "No the general definition of vaccines didn't change nor did the science of immunology, which you don't seem to underatand." That was incorrect, as the CDC 'refined' (the term you used for changed) the definition. You can argue that this is 'irrelevant', but it surely is not and I will post later WHY they had to change it, and this had everything to do with the EUA authorization for the covid-19 mRNA 'vaccines'.

You either have short memory, or need to do better research... Here the earlier CDC definition for 'vaccine' and 'vaccination' which fitted the traditional vaccines (August 26th, 2021) Vaccine: A product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but can also be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose. Vaccination: The act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce immunity to a specific disease. And as they realized that the covid-19 inoculations would not provide immunity, they changed the definition in September 1, 2021: Vaccine: A preparation that is used to stimulate the body’s immune response against diseases. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but some can be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose. Vaccination: The act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce protection from a specific disease.