kimothai

Those street vendors made for a lot of congestion making it hard to pass sometimes. Mostly all cheap/counterfeit junk anyway.

Posted 19 hours ago I find the Visa Section of the Pattaya City Expats website a useful reference point in keeping up with the actual local office situation. They seem to have enough members that any real changes consistently affecting applicants are highlighted. https://pcec.club/. I always check it in advance of doing anything in Immigration for latest requirements and paperwork. Exactly. When I traveled to USA in February the Immigration Officer removed my 90 day & tm30 slips (never had that happen before). Upon return I went to Jomtien Immigration to do another tm30. Was told because I had a retirement (OA) visa I didn't need. Hmmm that surprised me but fair enough. Fast forward to June and it's time to renew/extend my retirement visa. So as always I check the Pattaya City Expats website and I read tm30's now required to extend retirement visa. I go to immigration to apply for a tm30. I explained to the Immigration girl (as I showed her the old application from February) and asked if I was previously told wrong or did the rules change? She just handed me my tm30 with a very big courteous smile. Close enough for me and even though I was a few months late - no fine. Next day to the bank for letter of deposit. Next day after that (Wednesday) go back to Immigration at 8am (30 min before open) and get queue (#3) and finished about 9. The only difference I saw this time is that the Immigration Officer made a copy of the tm30 and added it to the papers (my signature not required). Personally, I can't justify using an agent for what only takes an hour or two of your time but everyone has their own personal reasons. A couple of my friends say they don't want to expose themselves to covid - Fair enough.

Posted Friday at 04:58 AM Yes, we have attempted to call, but at $4.00 per minute we found the wait time unacceptable. I was hoping that someone with a similar situation might be kind enough to share their knowledge of same. This doesn't help you with your banking problems but I recently subscribed to Mint mobile for calling when in USA and OTP service (via roaming). A call to Thailand is $0.01/minute (not a typo-1 cent). I tested it when I was in USA -talked 4 minutes and paid 4 cents. Just FYI

I see the anti-vax folks are beating the drums about how the vaccines were a wasted effort and I'm OK with that as they are just trying to make themselves feal vindicated. I've been vaxed with a booster about a year ago. A few weeks ago at the age of 76 I tested positive for covid. I took some prescribed medicine (from BKK/PTY Hospital) and 2 weeks later all gone - negative tests. I only had a sore throat and a cough (cough lingered) with no fever. I've had allergies that have made me feel worse. I only have thing to say about the whole ordeal-THANK YOU Pfizer!

I was told at immigration a long time ago your re-entry permit is tied to the extension you used to apply for the re-entry permit. Once you update/renew the extension the re-entry permit is no longer valid.

As always it boils down to enforcement or lack of. if the police always have an excuse as to why they can't monitor the crossings. Cameras at the crossings and start a ticketing program that has teeth would be a start. Wishful thinking.

I renewed my passport last year which has a mid September expiration. It required almost 3.5 weeks from mail in date to the time I received. The ACS notified me with a tracking number when it was mailed to me. The New passports are a new generation which take longer. I think the new generation passport started around July or August of 2022.