Red Phoenix

Yes, they do. But it's well worth to buy a 3-day entry-card for the Angkor Wat temple complex (it is absolutely impossible to see everything in those 3 days). Also you are not obliged to take the 3 days in one go, but can do a rest-day or alternative trips in between.

Yes indeed, an absolutely unforgettable experience. I have been 3 times already in last 6 years (each time for 5 days) and still haven't seen everything, and will surely go again. Note: If you take the 1-day 'Grand tour' that can be quite busy, but there is also a 1-day tour that does to the lesser visited temples, and they are at least as magnificent as the better known ones.

I queried him about this PM and he replied that his passport is still valid for 8 more years and has 30+ empty pages. Note: I edited my OP and added that info.

A recent thread on the Visa Forum featured the experience of a Canadian senior citizen that was denied LEAVING Thailand at the Ban Pakkard or Ban Laem Thai-Cambodian border-crossing. The thread got 54 responses < https://aseannow.com/topic/1295224-denied-permission-to-leave/ > before the background was fully clear and the strange reason for him being denied LEAVING Thailand as he was told that he could only leave Thailand by AIR. = = = OP is already +5 year on an unbroken chain of Permits to Stay based on his Non Imm O-A Visa, and in those +5 years he never left Thailand. He wanted to do a quick border-run (leaving Thailand and re-entering VisaExempt). His Permit to stay was still valid for 2 more months, he had NO overstay or any criminal record nor a Re-Entry Permit that would have blocked him from re-entering VisaExempt. Edit: And his passport was still valid for 8 more years with 30+ empty pages. The reason for the border-run was simply that he wanted to 'kill' the Permit to stay from that Non Imm O-A Visa, this in order to get rid of the mandatory Non Imm O-A required Health-Insurance policy. He would after having crossed the border, simply return VisaExempt and then apply at his local Imm Office (SriRacha) for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa (retirement) and subsequently apply for the 1-year extensions from that Non Imm O Visa without the need for the mandatory Non Imm O-A Health-Insurance policy. However, the Thai border-Immigration Officer at the crossing told him that he could NOT leave Thailand by land, because he stayed already more than 5 years in Thailand on extensions of his Non Imm O-A Visa, and THEREFORE could only leave Thailand by air! There were many border-runners at the border-crossing, and all of them - including everyone on the bus with which he came - crossed the border and returned VisaExempt, except the OP because of the above reason. I have previously NEVER heard about being denied to LEAVE Thailand, so it would be interesting to receive info whether this is an actual border-immigration rule. and if so providing the link to the Police-Order or other Thai Immigration rule/regulation that prohibits you from leaving Thailand at a land-border and forces you to book an outbound flight.

@Jack1988 > I PM-ed you a comprehensive Guideline I wrote on how to register an address on the IO TM 30 website and notify Immigration of any foreigners (including yourself) staying at - or returning to - that address by issuing on an on-line TM-30 notification.

To prevent crimes against tourists that wish to stay long-term in Thailand and have the means to do so, he could start weeding out the Jomtien Imm office where the Dragon Lady runs her criminal racket...

The Wall Street Journal sent shock waves through the financial world Saturday night when they reported that the FDIC seized nearly $14 billion in foreign deposits at Silicon Valley Bank in the Cayman Islands last March, mostly from Chinese investment firms, which had been waiting to gain access to their funds. It’s not happening. And that sends a clear message to those owning the more than $1 Trillion Foreign Deposits at Chase and Citibank. A U.S. Debt Crisis Looms... https://healthimpactnews.com/2023/14-billion-in-foreign-deposits-at-silicon-valley-bank-were-not-bailed-out-more-than-1-trillion-foreign-deposits-at-chase-and-citibank-as-u-s-debt-crisis-looms/

That's actually what happened when I requested a Residence Certificate at my SiSaKet Imm Office as I wanted to apply for a Thai drivers permit. At Immigration they told me that they needed a Request Form from the DLT. So I went to the DLT where they made a Request Letter for Immigration at no cost, and DLT only needed my Passport (to ensure my name would be taken over correctly). With that Request Form I went back to Immigration where they provided me the Residence Certificate (also at no cost). And then I returned to the DLT and had the plastified cards with Thai drivers permit (for car and motorbike) issued in less than 1 hour (including reaction/color test) > total cost - 360 THB. Luckily the DLT and the Imm Office were less than 5 minutes drive from each other.

Absolutely outrageous that the Chiang Rai Immigration office tells you to apply for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa (retirement) at the Embassy in Vientiane, Laos (700-800 km from where you are staying). I looked at the Chiang Rai Immigration website < https://chiangrai.immigration.go.th/en/frontpage-english/ > and the Homepage is about their High Standards and dedication to Customer Satisfaction! ???? And there is even a link for the 'Change of Visa' process that you want to do. So I think that you had the misfortune of talking with the village idiot Officer there, and that going back and requesting to talk with the Officer in charge at that office would quickly solve the matter. Anyway, you would indeed need to 'kill' the Permit to Stay based on your current Non Imm O-A Visa first, in order to be able to apply for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa (retirement), and a quick border-run (without a Re-Entry Permit) would provide you with a 30-day Visa Exempt entry from which you could then apply for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa < that's the change of Visa process >. In case Chiang Rai Immigration are adamant that they will not allow you to apply for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa (retirement) when applying from that Visa Exempt entry (you would need to have at least 15 days left on your Permit to stay), there is another alternative. > Do you have any friends in other near-by provinces, that would be willing to issue a TM-30 that you are staying with them? It's almost no effort to do this (and you can even do it on their behalf). And having done so, you could then apply for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa (retirement) in the Imm Office of that nearby province. And once you got the Visa stamp in your Passport (after the under consideration period, which can take up to 2 weeks), it would then be a simple matter of relocating to your actual address, where you could then at the end of the 90 days apply for the 1-year extension. I hope this will not be necessary for you, and that it will be explained as a 'misunderstanding' after you talked with the Officer in charge of the ChiangRai Imm Office.

When the 'fixer' Visa Agent got your 90-day Non Imm O Visa (retirement) and 1-year extension of stay, at an Imm Office in a different province than where you are residing, your 'official address for Immigration purposes' is in that different province. Which means that you cannot apply for any service at your own provincial Imm Office, as you are officially not residing there. So you would need to 'relocate' to your actual address by informing your local Imm Office that you moved there. Obviously the Imm Officer when looking at the stamps in your Passport will know exactly what happened (i.e. you using a fixer Visa Agent to dodge the +800K financial requirement) but he/she won't 'rock the boat' as that might backfire on him/her. Once your official address has been regularized, you can then do your 90-day reports (confirming that you are still staying at that official address). ALSO note that you would not be able to do your next 1-year extension at your current Imm Office, when having used a 'fixer' Visa Agent. This because you would not be able to provide evidence that you kept the required funds (800K/400K) on your personal Thai bank-account for the duration of the 1-year extension, which was the condition under which you received your Permit to stay. The ONLY way to get rid of the fixer Visa Agent service, is to exit Thailand without a Re-Entry Permit, so that your current Permit to stay is being voided. You can then return (e.g. Visa Exempt or when having applied for a Tourist Visa or Non Imm O Visa at the Embassy/consulate of the country where you exited) and start from scratch, but this time doing it fully legit.

When returning to Thailand and planning to apply for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa (retirement) at the Jomtien office, you are advised to enter on a 60-day Tourist Visa (when you do not have the +800K already on your Thai bank-account). Entering VisaExempt and still having to open a Thai bank-account and transfering the required funds from abroad, is perfectly possible at any other Thai Imm Office when applying for that 90-day Non Imm O Visa (retirement). But at Jomtien they deliberately bended the rules, such that it requires difficult hoops to jump through when wanting to do this without any Visa Agent help.

You can only apply for a Non Imm O-A Visa in your home-country or country of residence. And you can only apply for a Non Imm O Visa in Thailand after having entered VisaExempt or on a Tourist Visa. This thread is about the rogue Jomtien office making it deliberately very difficult for new arrivals that did their research and entered VisaExempt wanting to apply for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement, like the immigration regulations explicitly foresee. But Jomtien by requiring 60 days seasoning of their +800K funds on a Thai bank-account - instead of funds available on day of application - deliberately drives them to the 'easy solution' of a Visa Agent. It's a pure money-grab/extortion scheme, and I cannot understand anyone defending such corrupt behavior at that office.

The main drawback of that 1-year ME Non Imm O Visa is that it only provides you with a 90-day Permit to stay on entry, after which you need to leave the country, and of course can immediately return which will provide you with a new 90-day Permit to stay. You are not 'binded to some specific date' - you can exit Thailand at any time during that 90-day Permit to stay and will receive a new 90-day Permit to stay on re-entry. There can be no doubt that when you often travel internationally that the 1-year MultipleEntry Non Imm O Visa is the best available option. No need to invest or park funds semi-permanently on a Thai bank-account, no need for 90-day reports, and - Super Bonus - no need to ever visit an Imm Office...

Guideline sent PM, and you are welcome.

Another alternative is to do a border-run which would provide a 30-day permit to stay on entry (when necessary followed by a 30-day extension of stay), this in order to achieve the Jomtien 60 day seasoning requirement for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement.

There is also another option (if you meet the requirements) that would allow you to stay in Thailand without setting a foot in the Jomtien hell-hole Imm Office. https://aseannow.com/topic/1294207-non-o-visa-retirementsavann/#comment-18067685 The link above confirms that you can still get a 1-year MultipleEntry Non Imm O Visa for reason of RETIREMENT when applying for it at the Savannakhet Consulate. The main document for such application being an official PENSION statement for an amount that meets the requirements (+65.000 THB monthly). The OP of that link successfully used a letter from the Australian Government, Department of Veterans'Affairs STATEMENT OF PENSION that his pension exceeds 65,000 THB a month The main drawback of that 1-year ME Non Imm O Visa is that it only provides you with a 90-day Permit to stay on entry, after which you need to leave the country, and of course can immediately return which will provide you with a new 90-day Permit to stay. When you exit and re-enter Thailand at the end of that 1-year Visa you can thus get 15 months of stay out of that Visa, with no need for 90-day reports, nor semi-permanently parking funds on a Thai bank-account or visits to Immigration.

Yes, when you enter Thailand on a 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement, which you acquired abroad you have sufficient time to open a personal Thai bank-account and transfer the funds from abroad and have them seasoned for 60 days before applying for the 1-year extension of the Non Imm O Visa. However, when you enter Thailand VisaExempt, providing you with a 30-day Permission to stay on entry, you won't have sufficient time - even if you apply for a 30-day extension, to season the funds for 2 months (and surely not if you still have to open a personal Thai bank-account and transfer the funds). That's why in ALL other Imm Offices in Thailand you only need to provide evidence of those +800K on your bank-account at the moment of application for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement. Jomtien actually forces Newbies arriving on a VisaExempt entry that want to apply for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa, to do a border-run after having opened their bank-account and transfered the funds, otherwise they won't be able to meet that @#$%^ 60-days seasoning Jomtien-only requirement. As I wrote in my previous comment, it is also clear WHY they do this > as it drives Newbies to Visa Agents, and the corrupt Jomtien officers will indirectly benefit from the 'brown envelopes' they receive via that channel. Like Al Pacino said in 'Scent of a Woman' > If I were 30 years younger I would go back there with a flame-thrower and burn the place to a crisp....

Like the OP wrote, Jomtien by requiring 2 month seasoning of the +800K on your personal Thai bank-account when applying for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement, makes it very difficult for Newbies arriving on a TouristVisa or VisaExempt, to meet that requirement when they still need to open a Thai bank-account. One option for them is to do a border-run after they have opened the bank-account and transfered the required funds from abroad, as that will provide them with a 30-day VisaExempt entry which can be extended with an additional 30 days, thus meeting that Jomtien-only requirement of having seasoned the funds for 2 months at initial application for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa. The reason for that rogue Imm Office behavior is also clear > it drives Newbies exasperated by these shenanigans to make use of a Visa agent, which guarantees some 'brown envelopes with content' for the corrupt Immigration officers at that rogue office.

I will not do so for two reasons: #1 - Me sending it PM ensures those who are in need of the info receive the latest version on date of request. #2 - I update all my documents based on the comments/suggestions I receive from users, and am also happy to answer any questions users have on TM-30 relating to their personal situation.

Did sent you by PM the Guideline which addresses how to check that your notification was received, and generate a print-out.

It's a two-step process when applying for a different reason for the 1-year extension of your current Non Imm O Visa. #1 - Immigration will check whether you have met the conditions under which the 1-year Permission to stay was granted to you. This means that you should provide evidence - like for a regular extension for reason of retirement - that you kept +800K on your personal Thai bank-account during the first 3 months of that retirement extension, and that you kept +400K on your account during the remaining months up to the moment of application. You do not need to provide evidence that you topped up again to +800K during the last 2 months before application for your new 1-year extension for reason of marriage, as Immigration would normally except that you lowered it to +400K during those last 2 months because you would be applying for a marriage extension which only requires +400K during those 2 months. But I suggest to keep +800K on that account also during the last 2 months, in case you are confronted with an Imm Officer that doesn't play by the rules OR if for one reason or other your application for reason of marriage is denied. In that latter case you would then 'fall between two chairs' as you would not be able anymore to apply for the retirement extension. #2 - When you have succesfully passed stage #1, the Imm Officer will then check whether you meet the requirements for a marriage extension. Depending at which Imm Office you apply, these requirements can vary considerably, so it is recommended to either post a new thread on the Forum asking for the specific requirements in the Imm Office that you resort under, or visit them beforehand to hear it from the horse's mouth what is required at their office. >> Note that it is recommended to apply NOT too early when doing the switch. This because your 1-year extension for reason of marriage would start from the date of application, and so your new Permit to stay based on that marriage extension, would not anymore be your current Permit to stay date expiry date + 1 year. >> BritTim in his post just above this one is absolutely correct, that the Imm Officer would probably try to persuade you to simply do the 1-year extension application for reason of retirement, as that is far less work for them. NOTE: A small 'trick' to make it impossible for him to refuse, is to go below the +800K during the last 2 months before your application, as that would torpedo a 'regular' retirement extension application. But when doing so, you could take some 'insurance' by keeping the required difference to meet +800K on a different personal Thai bank-account, such that even if your marriage application would be denied, that you would still be able to meet the requirements for continuing with your retirement extension (as the total of the funds on the 2 accounts would meet the requirement).

When you believe - like I do - in a Conscious Universe, in a sense that everything - from a human being to an atom - is conscious, but that it is the DEGREE of consciousness that makes the difference, then it logically follows that machines ARE already conscious. And when machines are operating on software that mimics human decision processes, they will indeed develop a 'higher' consciousness than the pure material one that they currently already have. There have been several incidents recently in which AI made decisions that went far beyond on what they were programmed to do, leaving their programmers baffled and in one case even leading to the programmers pulling the switch to stop. As AI does not have the qualities that make us human, I do not believe that machine AI consciousness will surpass the level of consciousness that (some) humans are able to achieve. But we certainly are opening the Box of Pandora with these developments. And a future in which HAL - from Kubricks 2001 - A Space Odyssea - would decide to wipe out all or most of humanity based on his machine-logic/consciousness, is quickly becoming a frightful possibility.

Dr. Ashish Jha - President Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator - told a White House press briefing early September 2022 that the administration’s focus was making “vaccines a more routine part of our lives” with “annual protection.” “The good news is you can get both your flu shot and COVID shot at the same time. It’s actually a good idea,” said Jha, who is also a dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. “I really believe this is why God gave us two arms — one for the flu shot and the other one for the COVID shot.”

Hi @Sunmaster, It looks like your post shows that synchronicity is at work here... Or were you inspired by reading John Carter's long essay on consciousness, which he published on his Substack on May 11th? Considering the time difference between US and Thailand, you posted at approx same time (or just a bit later). https://barsoom.substack.com/p/the-permittivity-of-free-thought?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email The Permittivity of Free Thought Three ways of thinking about the brain’s relationship to consciousness, and what this implies for AI His long essay consists of 5 parts. First he writes about the brain and its function, then he explores 3 models of explaining consciousness: emission, transmission and permission (based on the work of Iain McGilchrist) and finally he discusses the implications of the above for AI. Although I think that his essay contains a fair amount of verbal ballast and that his message would have been more powerful if he had practiced 'the Art of Synthesis' and limited his essay to the essential, there are many worthwhile diamonds of thought in what he wrote. So I do recommend it to the other person interested in the subject (besides myself), that gave your post a Liking.

At which Bank did you open that Foreign Currency Account? And are you using it to meet the 800K/400K funds in bank requirement when applying for 1-year extensions when you are on a Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement?