hughden

Went down to Immigration at 0820 this morning armed with copies of everything, a decent shirt and a smile.

First surprise was that, even though it was 10 minutes before opening time, most staff were working. I was met by a man in a uniform who checked why I had come, got the ticket from the machine and told me where to go.

I was seen almost immediately and my papers inspected. I had the same lump sum as I had used last year as support for the application; but thought they might also like to see that I was also bringing in some pension funds to live off; but he handed these back to me, keeping only the lump sum letter from the bank and the latest statement, medical certificate and passport photcopies. I appeared to have not copied two pages from the passport that they wanted and the officer just copied these for me without comment.

Then to a smiling lady who wished me good morning and took my 1,900 baht and gave me a receipt, then took me to the final desk where someone else filled in a form in Thai for me to sign and told me to come back at 1500 to collect my passport.

In at 0820, out before 0840, and nothing but co-operation and friendliness. Went back at 1500 and the officer I had seen first got out of his chair, took the little card they give you and handed me my passport with a nice new visa stamp.

A painless, pleasant experience; well done Pattaya immigration!

Monty

Thanks for the feedback. I will stop worrying and keep surfing! Right now from my balcony looking at the sea having got my wireless set-up working; technology can be wonderful!

Cheers

Hugh

My line is with TT&T, my ADSL service is with Jinet, the standard 256/512 package. I assumed that any restrictions would come from the Jinet service and was asking those more knowledgeable than myself whether they had experienced/were aware of, any useage restrictions.

Apologies if I did not make myself clear!

I have recently acquired the 256/512 Jinet service and I am very happy with it; and of course madly downloading music, software patches etc.

On the Jinet site I can review my usage in terms of connection time and traffic. I was told that the usage was unlimited but I have an assigned connection time of 900 hours (which is rapidlt depleting cos I leave the connection on for much of the day. I have also read in another forum that there is a 10GB traffic limit (per month??) but can find no reference to this in the agreement I signed.

Can anyone clafify what, if any, restrictions apply?

Thanks

Hugh

I have been asking TOT for 3 years when they will make ADSL available in my part of Jomtien. The reply has always been "we have a project planned for this year/next year".

Eventually I walked into TT&T and asked them if they could install a new phone line into my condo. Took them a few days to confirm that they could; and a few more days to install the line. Got my condo maintenance guys to switch the feed to my condo from the TOT line to TTT and I was away with my new number.

Pending the arrival of Jinet ADSL (which you sign up for at the same time with TT&T, but have to wait up to 10 days after line installation), I continued to use my Loxinfo dial up and found that it connected quicker (fewer re-dials) and was giving 10-15% speed improvements; so it appears that I have a better quality phone line with TT&T.

The first evening after JiNet called me to say my ADSL was available was a four hour swearathon with beer needed for medicinal purposes when nothing worked in spite of much keyboard pounding and dire threats against Mr Gates and all purveyors of things computing.

The next morning I turned it on and it worked faultlessly. I suspect that the phrase "we will activate your access tonight" was missed out of the telephone conversation.

Since then I have had no problems and overall it was a painless process to get hooked up.

Now I am off to TOT to cancel my phone line!!

Hugh

Just a small correction, The Blind Watchmaker was written by Richard Dawkins not Stephen Hawkins. Whatever your beliefs, it is an elegant and beautifully written book which will amaze and challenge you.

Apart from donating cash, there appears to be a need for farang sized clothes, shoes etc in Phuket. Are there any collection points in Pattaya for such items?

Thanks

If you are in the Jomtien area, come up from the beach and carry on up Thrappaya (sp?) road towards Pattaya. After you go over the top on the hill there is a large showroom on the left about 100 metres past Sugar Hut which appears to sell marine related supplies as well as some exceedingly expensive looking boats.

Hugh

Gents

Thanks for all the feedback.

Yes they are difficuly to fly; which is why I need a model shop to replace the two propellers I managed to knock off and drop off within half an hour of each other!

Hhugh

Dirk

Planes; electric mostly

Cheers

Hugh

Plenty in Bangkok and one in Rayong so I am told; but does anyone know of a shop in the Pattaya area? There was one behind Big C at Pattaya Tai but it has disappeared.

Any advice gratefully received

Hugh

The Retirement Visa and the Multiple entry visa are two separate visas. Once you have the Retirement Visa you fill in a separate form for the multiple entry visa.

I did both in BKK but I would imagine you could do both from overseas; or arrive in Thailand and then apply for the multiple entry visa.

There appear to be no extra requirements once you have the Retirement Visa, just fill out the application and give them 3,800 Baht (and a photo I think; not sure why they wanted that!). I had my passport back within 10 minutes with the multiple entry stamp. Basically it is just a way of extracting more cash!

Hope this helps

Hugh

You should be able to use a credit card (Gold or otherwise) for international purchases; I used an SCB standard card for 3-4 years buying from the likes of Amazon with no problem.

However, I did have problems with purchases being declined locally; usually when I was around 75% of my credit limit for the month. I never received a satisfactory reply from SCB. They screwed up a number of other services and in the end I closed my account and credit card and moved to HSBC.

I am seeking a maid to do cleaning and ironing at my condo. Any advise on where I might find one (avoiding the obvious ribald responses please!).

Thanks

Hugh

As anywhere; location seems to be the key. Prices have been rising over the past couple of years and still are; but that does not mean they will continue to do so. Beach front is more expensive than other locations; but maybe more price secure in the long run and there is a limit to what is allowed to be built by the sea now.

I bought a 252 sq metre condo for 6.7 million over 2 years ago and could probably sell it for twice that now; but I bought as a place to live and not as an investment which I would suggest is the safest way to approach property purchase in Thailand.

My understanding is that you are allowed to remain in the Kingdom for seven days after your work permit related visa is cancelled; so best to get all your paperwork ready and then apply for your retirement visa as soon as your other visa is cancelled.

In my case, my company cancelled my work permit; then had to wait for three or four days for a letter before they could cancel my visa; and it was from this latter point that the seven day countdown started; although I got my retirement visa within a couple of hours of having my other visa cancelled. I will admit I do not really understand the relationship between a work permit and the visa that goes with it; but they do seem to be different things!

Hugh

Cost was 1900 Baht. Once I had the visa I went to another counter and obtained the optional multi-entry visa by filling in form TM8 and supplying another photo. Cost for this was an additional 3,800 Baht.

My medical came courtesy of my previous employing company who arrange a medical on completion of assignment and I just asked the doctor for the necessary form for a retiremen visa application. Charge from the bank for the various forms; but suspect those costs will vary by bank.

I have checked the visa every day since and it still sits in my passport!!

Hugh

Having had my work permit and visa cancelled at 1400; I arrived at Immigration at 1500 and by 1520 my passport was stamped with a one year visa, Another 10 minutes for the multiple-entry stamp and that was it!

All staff involved helpful and smiling and no problems. Had done an earlier visit to collect the form and the guidance note which listed what I needed. Made sure I had all the right documents, multiple copies (and multiple photos which was useful cos I needed one for the visa and one for the multiple entry); wore a shirt and tie and smiled as sweetly as I am capable; seems to be all that is required.

Thanks to those on this forum for advice; now I must go and kiss my visa again!

Hugh

Someone once told me that what a Thai lady is looking for in a relationship is "security" (maybe we all are). From the relationships I have had here in LOS that seems to make sense; and it is as much to do with emotional security as with evidence of providing material security.

I live next to the Conrad hotel. For the last couple of months there have been armed guards. For the last couple of weeks we have had spot checks of vehicles entering the area. For the past couple of days we have had..... a fire engine parked outside the hotel!!

Presumably there is little confidence of actually stopping a terrorist attack; but some excellent pre-planning to extinguish the resulting fire quickly so that the APEC delegates will not be troubled by smoke on the BKK skyline!!

Enough!! I am off to the beach tomorrow and will be back when the nonsense is over!

Gents

Thanks for the advice. One more question if I may: After I cancel my work permit; do I have to apply for my visa on the same day, or is there some form of grace period?

Cheers

Hugh

I have been living and working in Thailand for the past 4+ years; under an employment visa obtained by my employing company.

Later this year I will be retiring and plan to remain in Thailand by means of a retirement visa.

I would be grateful for any guidance on how I would apply for such a visa from within Thailand; for example do I need a police report from the Thai police as I would require from another country I was coming from?!!

In summary, where do I go to apply and what do I need to provide?

Many thanks

Hugh