Rob Browder

Would you consider the Adelson family and Peter Thiel to be among that ilk? I would - the same as the "left" flavors of the same. Those figures are very, very influential inside "Team Trump." Check out who Trump's Chief-Of-Staff worked for. Skipping the long-tangent on that ... Look at the soft-power dynamics. As Marco Rubio (neocon) stated, USAID was not "aligning" to Dept of State priorities. They had been tasked with a bunch of "woke agenda" stuff, which allowed Putin to become the world-leader who stood for "family values" - ridiculing Europe and the USA on these issues. This was also hurting military-recruiting inside the USA. All that is happening, is the strategy for US power-projection is being changed, and a bunch of "old tools" are being discarded. Don't kid yourself that "we the people" suddenly matter to the Rulers. If we did, the foreign-worker visas and traitor-trade would be ended, and the only "tax breaks" being discussed would be on those with under $100K/year in income.

Trump promised a 35% tariff on Mexico to "bring our factories home" in 2015/16. He then signed a trade "deal" which obliterated that. Now he has "re-framed" tariffs to be about drug trafficking. We had those tariffs since the founding of the USA, to be sure manufacturing was done in the USA, to support American workers and American independence. This - and countless other examples of him reversing his stated policies- shows Trump has no principled positions. Just ask the foreigner-replaced tech-workers he invited on stage in 2016, promising to end the replacement of Americans with H1B, OPT, and other visas. As POTUS, he continued to do the bidding of the oligarchs - bringing in more "efficient" (cheap and obedient - see Vivek's and Musk's comments) replacement workers.

Treasury payments should be public. It's our money. My beef is it isn't simply being made public. Social-security to individuals should not be public, but it's not national-security that John Doe gets a SS check. Credit-Reporting agency data on individuals is available.

Options: 1) First, just try returning at that border-crossing, after staying out 3 days. Yours would be the 1st report of a denial in this situation. If they deny you, walk back and cancel your exit from Laos. Don't argue, as it was reported they give you an official-denial if you make a fuss. 2) Try returning via another land entry point to Thailand from Laos, instead of NK. There is a bus from Vientiane to Savannahket, for example. 3) Pay immigration's agent for "guaranteed safe entry" and return by air. I would not try to return via air without that, given they are making a problem, and you go to immigration-detention at the airport if denied-entry there - is a higher stakes gamble than simply "walk back to the other country," if denied-entry at a land border. Airport Agent options: https://aseannow.com/topic/1345519-safe-entry-services-bkk-airport/ https://aseannow.com/topic/1336926-setv-metv-still-around-now-that-visa-exempts-are-now-60-days/?do=findComment&comment=19217493 It is possible that folks were happy to just stay out 2 nights and come back. I would have LOVED that option when I was under-50 and not married to a Thai (yet). if they are upping the stakes, that may be to encourage an agent-van service for "same day return" appearing at this crossing soon.

From memory, was one of the Bangkok airports. If your friend's entries are spaced fairly evenly, and short-stays, it is unlikely he will have an issue. If he runs the full 60-days on those visits, and especially if adds the extension, there is a greater chance of problems. But, there is are "services" which allow unlimited visa-exempt entries by air - even back-to-back - see: https://aseannow.com/topic/1345519-safe-entry-services-bkk-airport/ ... and ... https://aseannow.com/topic/1336926-setv-metv-still-around-now-that-visa-exempts-are-now-60-days/?do=findComment&comment=19217493

They significantly changed the financials for the Non-O Retirement extension a few years back. They obviously don't care about "abuse," because there are dozens of agents, who advertise publicly, who facilitate skipping the financials entirely, with Immigration's cooperation. You can thank Immigration 100% for the changes, whose only purpose was increasing the flow of money into their pockets via agents. This "blame our fellows" bit is like when the mafioso in the movie shoots the hostage and says, "See, look what you made me do." And, again, knowing that Immigration works this way, and can change the "rules" at any time, is not "scare-mongering" - it is being prepared. If one can afford agent-money, it is very unlikely one needs to be "scared" at all. Even less so, if one is prepared to leave Thailand for somewhere else, if things change more dramatically.

Not "scaremongering" - rather, Being Prepared. They already changed the retirement-extensions once without warning, and no grandfathering, a few years back. I am not going to predict when that will happen again - when Immigration decide too many people can DIY it, and they want to increase agent-business to line their pockets. The DTV is putting a dent in their racket; some guy just got hassled at the airport on only his 2nd VE entry, after returning to his home country in between - IO told him just one VE per 12-months (new made-up rule). Just Be Prepared for how Immigration operates, and any problems they create are solve-able. My advice is always - have a "Plan B," including other countries - and never put more $$ into Thailand than you can afford to lose.

Immigration only wants their cut of the action. Just use their "safe entry" service by air, or van-agent by land, and no problem to do them back-to-back forever.

It's the other way around. The requirements get more difficult to encourage agent-use. Those using agents will be the ones w/o new "challenges," though the rate could always increase. I budget with the expectation that next year immigration will force me to pay an agent, at double the current "agent rate," though I fully-meet the current requirements. When I don't have to, that's "extra" money to spend on other things. I have stayed in neighboring countries before, so would not be completely "fish out of water" if forced to move by a more drastic change in retirement extension requirements. They can make up anything they want at the drop of a hat - "grandfathering" be damned (like they did before with DIY retirement-extensions, to generate more agent-business). That said, current trends seem to be moving more towards leniency (see the DTV), than the other direction.

If that included a new bank-book with my name printed in Thai script, I would do it.

Legally, it is possible to come in on a visa-exempt, then get a 30-days tourist-extension, then get the 60-days wife-extension after that. But there is no enforcement of consistent rules at immigration offices in Thailand, so whatever the head-honcho at your office "says" is de-facto the effective "rules."

(duplicate post)

Agree that 400K minimum bank-balance would be better.

I would not have done it, except so that I could get into the Thai-Health system after my job ended. That's a massive savings over private insurance, especially as one gets older.

So, you DIY'd your Non-O 90-Day and 1st Year of extension. I see no reason an agent would have a problem doing your next 1-Year extension. If it was your FIRST 1-year extension after a DIY Non-O 90-day, then maybe an issue - but I doubt it.

Seasoning for 2 months before a 1-year extension application is standard for "in the bank" funds, though we sometimes see reports of offices demanding 3 months (happened to me at a remote-office). Some require a minimum of 400K for 'combo' applications - some won't do combos at all. If I had to guess from what you reported, your office want the 150K for 3 months. I'd show up with more in that account (200K+), seasoned the full 3 months.

Were you planning on using land-borders or an airport for additional visa-exempt entries? Even with an METV, you could be hassled, depending on where you use it. If going the visa-exempt route ... If land-entries, you will need to stay out a night or two when bouncing to Laos, possibly showing a ticket to your home-country (figure fully refundable one), hotel-booking in Thailand, and 10K Baht cash, upon return. Alternatively, pay an agent/van service to do same-day returns via Cambodia - possibly also same-day via agent at one location near Chiang Mai to Laos. If bouncing by air, on the 2nd entry you would need to have a flight-out + hotel booking + 10K Baht to show. Starting with the 3rd entry, you would need to start paying an agent for "pre-cleared entry" to return without risk of being rejected-entry.

I would apply in Cambodia vs Laos, based on recent reports.

Exactly - which is the problem. So, under Trump (as with previous POTUSes) Americans will keep getting poorer due to a labor-market so flooded, that wages don't keep up with inflation. Sure, there are "job openings" - but few pay enough to live beyond "hand to mouth." Then, they say "Americans don't want THOSE jobs," when the problem is the pay, not the occupation/work. Employers will say, "But I can't pay more, because my competition is hiring foreigners who will live 10-to-a-room" - which is why the laws prohibiting employing illegals must be enforced, and the work-visas stopped, to stop this cycle of poverty.

Homan the "hardliner" has already walked this back to the same old "Bad Hombres Out" policy of Obama. Trump was even MORE liberal (i.e. "weak") than Obama on the border - opened the child-detention facilities by exec-order, etc. Trump just "talks tough" on illegal-immigration. So, if they are NOT an illegal-alien who is helping depress-wages and take jobs from Americans (Trump hired them, too) - and therefore getting into trouble with the law to get money - then they might have problems. Trump and the MSM-Right media will make as much noise about those deportations as possible, to DISTRACT from the fact that the vast majority of Americans whose lives have been destroyed by immigrant-replacement and falling-wages, are as a direct result of the so-called "good" immigrants, who will not be targeted. MSM-Left will act like these involve mass-deporting "good" immigrants, and show lots of crying people. See "Tag-Team" - avoiding the primary issue Americans want resolved = their Careers back at Middle-Class pay. Trump also backed Musk's play to INCREASE legal immigration, even as the numbers show Americans being fired by the tens of thousands by the same companies hiring foreigners via those visas - and that the "jobs recovery" post-covid was almost entirely net foreign hires. Neither "flavor" of MSM will talk about that very much.

Interesting. ~ two years ago, I had that problem with one of my SIMs, but not the other. They are different providers. The SSO law is here: https://www.mol.go.th/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/07/social_security_act_2533_sso_1.pdf ... but I think the one you need is for your "rights" to a yellow-book / pink-id. I think the best thing for your case would be something from the SSO stating you need it to apply for the benefits. Maybe your local SSO office has something in writing. Hopefully the hotline can assist.

I got this too - "name must be in Thai script." All the banks said it was illegal for them to create an account w/o my passport # as the ID. Maybe the Rayong SSO office will still let you register a "farang" bank-account for payment, so do not have to pay at 7/11 every month - are purportedly more friendly there.

For money - because that money employs Thais. The oddball drunk is not new, but a fraction of those coming in. We just hear about more of it now, thanks to everyone having a video-camera in their phone/hand + social-media.

Agree - but wise to have one's documentation ready. "Outliers" are most bad-reports - until it happens to you. An IO questioning why the DTV was not obtained in the foreigners passport-country doesn't seem surprising for Thai IOs, who seem to think coming here to spend money too much/often is some sort of "grand conspiracy against Thailand." The closest thing to this report was from some Russians coming back with a DTV from Cambodia - asked to show proof-of-payment to the consulate for the DTV (receipt), then were let in.

At a border near Chiang Rai, one report indicated they were demanding (of non-agent customers only) the overnight (or 2) in Laos, a flight "back to your passport country" and proof of payment for it, to bypass the "rent a ticket" system. Anyone flying-solo on border-bounces should be prepared for a "worst case" - a fully-refundable ticket to one's passport-country + rental-accommodation for the next stay in Thailand + staying a couple nights in the border-country. This is what I always did (now on retirement). I often stayed overnight somewhere mid-way in Thailand on the way back, as well. Getting up at 4AM for a high-speed minivan ride at 5AM is not my cup of tea - makes me nauseous. If they did them at a reasonable hour, it would be more appealing. If I had to do this in the future, I'd make my own way to the border-crossing the day before, spend the night, then meet the agent-van at 10AM at the border.