Richard007

Thanks for your ideas GinBoy2 and Equatorial.

I want to ship 12 boxes of household goods, currently in storage, from Las Vegas, Nevada to Bangkok. I have started to research companies that can handle this and there are many options including shipping companies, freight forwarders (air or sea), and moving companies, so it is a bit overwhelming to pick a company. Does anyone have experience shipping or moving boxes from the U.S. to Thailand and can recommend a reputable and reliable company that can handle the entire process from door to door including customs clearance in Thailand? Please do not suggest that I get rid of this stuff. I already thought carefully about what I wanted to keep and not keep. I spent many months selling, donating, recycling, and tossing 95% of my belongings before I put the remaining “keeper” items in storage and started traveling full time. Now that I am done with the nomadic lifestyle and signed a lease on a condo in Bangkok, it’s time to move these boxes. I have a healthy budget for this move and I just need a reliable company that can handle this in a way that is stress-free for me.

I have 12 boxes of household goods, currently in storage, that I want to ship from Las Vegas, Nevada to Bangkok. The total weight of all boxes is ~400 pounds (180 kg) and total volume ~100 cubic feet (2.8 cubic meters). I have started to research companies that can handle this and there are lots of options including shipping companies, freight forwarders (air and sea), and moving companies, so it is a bit overwhelming to sift through it all. Does anyone have experience moving/shipping boxes from USA to Thailand and can recommend a reputable and reliable company that can handle the entire process from door to door including customs clearance in Thailand? Please do not suggest that I get rid of this stuff. I already thought carefully about what I wanted to keep and not keep. I spent many months selling, donating, recycling, and tossing 95% of my belongings before I put the remaining “keeper” items in storage and started traveling full time. Now that I am done with the nomadic lifestyle and signed a lease on a condo in Bangkok, it’s time to move these boxes. I have a healthy budget for this move and I just need a reliable company that can handle this in a way that is stress-free for me.

I’m happy to report that I received my Notification Letter for Qualifications Endorsement, exactly two weeks after I filed the application online. Since I am currently in the U.S., the next step for me is to apply for an e-visa at the Royal Thai consulate here in the U.S. I created a draft e-visa application and am not sure how to answer a few questions. The application asks for my arrival and departure dates. Right now, I do not know the exact dates as I have some other traveling to do before I can get to Thailand. Can I put estimated dates on the e-visa application? Is this something that airport immigration in Thailand cares about, i.e. do they look at your plane tickets to confirm the dates match what’s on your e-visa application? As of now, I have not booked a flight or accommodation for my arrival into Thailand but these appear to be required entries in the e-visa application. Any suggestions on how to address this? Again, does airport immigration compare this information against the e-visa application? Regarding the required document indicating current location, is a current bank statement which shows my address in the U.S. acceptable? FYI – I did send these questions to the Royal Thai consulate but have not heard back yet, so I’m curious to hear what others here did for their e-visa.

Thanks for your comments Thailand J and Pib. I will post how it goes for me including timeline and document requests as I think this will be useful information for future applicants.

Hello everyone, I have read all 100 pages of this very interesting thread, so thanks to all of the contributors! I just applied this week for the LTR WP visa. I assume that all of my documents look good to BOI, since my status changed from “Pending” to “Consideration by Government Agencies” less than two days after submitting my application and I did not receive any requests for more documents / information. To those of you who have received LTR WP approval recently (within the last 6 months), how long did it take you to go from “Consideration by Government Agencies” (Step 4) to visa approval (Step 8)? Also, please note if your process was delayed at any point by requests for additional documents that you then had to gather and submit. This information will be very helpful to us "newbies". Thank you!

Hi 818Pilot, 3.5m baht is not nearly enough for me to feel comfortable. What if you are in a serious accident, let’s say a hit and run where you can’t collect from the other driver, and then you are then put in the ICU for a month or two or three? I can imagine the costs could end up much higher than 3.5m. Also, I would bet some cancer cases could run up a bill much higher than that, depending on which medications/treatments are involved. In addition to lower age-based inflation on premiums and a better legal/regulatory environment, I like that the US and EU issued policies have much higher upper limits on coverage than the Thai policies. This is important to me since I also plan to travel to other countries where medical expenses run higher than Thailand. I am looking at a minimum of USD $1 million coverage to feel comfortable, and going from $500K to $1 million coverage does not increase the premium that much because few people rack up medical expenses above $500K in one year. I am willing to spend a little more for the peace of mind.

VisitorsCoverage and IMG have been recommended for visits to the USA. I have not used either so cannot vouch for them. Links below. https://www.visitorscoverage.com https://www.imglobal.com/visitor-insurance

Sheryl, that’s super helpful information. Thanks so much for taking the time to type all this up.

scuba, that is a good idea to seek out someone competent in the insurance/billing dept. to see if they can shed some light. According to April’s written policies, “In case of hospitalisation, you benefit from direct billing service, subject to prior agreement.” but I’m not sure how that works in practice.

818pilot, thanks for sharing that information. That website falls under the “Corporate” tab not the “Individuals” tab. I wonder if the same networks apply to the Individual plans? Just curious, did you ever have a large hospitalization claim with April (i.e. >$2,000)? If so, which hospital was it and did April hit you with a 20% deductible?

Here’s an update for anyone interested in April International (France). I sent April my list of 6 hospitals in Bangkok and asked them to tell me whether or not each of the hospitals listed below charge Reasonable and Customary costs (Yes or No). They refused. I asked April to confirm that none of the hospitals in Thailand would trigger the 20% deductible because the cost of the treatment exceeds local standards. They refused. The only useful comment they made was the following: The costs have to be not much higher than local costs, it’s all. You have to inform yourself as expat if the prices are similar to the local hospitals. I cannot tell you YES or NO for each one. So, in conclusion, April does not currently maintain a list of hospitals in Thailand that are in-network or a list of hospitals that are out-of-network. Whether or not the 20% deductible applies is a case-by-case basis depending on the charges by the hospital for the claim and whether or not April determines that those charges exceed local standards. To avoid the 20% deductible on a scheduled hospitalization, the patient will need to go through the “Request for prior agreement” process with April. If that process indicates that a 20% deductible will apply, then I believe the patient could switch to a different hospital that charges less. It is definitely an issue to be aware of with April, but it only applies to scheduled hospitalizations. The 20% deductible does not apply to urgent hospitalizations due to vital emergencies.

Sheryl, thanks for sharing that information. I do not have access to the Member Guide as I am not a member yet.

keithsimmonds, thanks that’s good intel about Bangkok Pattaya Hospital and Jomtien Hospital.

Etaoin, thanks I will ask them to confirm that none of the hospitals in Thailand would attract the 20% deductible for being out of network. Regarding the booklet, if there are certain conditions that apply only to certain countries or zones, then that information should be spelled out in the booklet, just like they list every country that is included in Zone 0, Zone 1, Zone 2, Zone 3, and Zone 4 in the booklet. There is nothing in the booklet about the 20% deductible only applying to certain countries, so from a legal point of view, it can apply to all countries if they choose to do so. Same thing goes for the April network. I did not expect that the April rep would give me the wrong information but unfortunately, I can confirm that there were multiple times where the information the sales rep gave me directly contradicts what is written in the booklet.