JamesPhuket10

@DrJack54 I think there is an online site where I can apply for a new British passport as my current passport will expire in March 2026 but I will extend my non 0 visa in February 2026 and so I should apply for a new passport now. I am currently staying in Phuket. If you have any info on how and where to apply for the new British passport I would be grateful if you could pass it on to me. Thanking you in advance.

So what are you complaining about?

If he was touching an elephant in a photo does it mean he is also trying to sell that as well?

Well that says more about you than me I see. I suppose we all mix in different circles with paths never crossing.

So if the wife goes and he has a 30 year lease, the wife family can only get the property if the lease expires or he is dead, I would not want to be in that position, it sounds a bit risky to me.

Quite a few years ago I was visiting a friend of 30 years in CM, we went out one night and got back to 'his' house at 3am ,we had a great time, lots of beer involved, I had not seen him form many years at the time so we were celebrating. It is a massive house of 7000 sq ft internally, two rye of land and a full size swimming pool, massive lawns and flower beds, long driveway, not in the sticks but on a guarded gated development. Driver, gardener, two full time conchais. The next day in front of me his wife said to him, 'if you come home late again I will sell the house.' He had also bought a house in Hua Hin used when the smoke season arrives in CM. Plus two houses in the UK rented out. I would never get myself into that position. His wife has never worked, it was all paid for by his hard work but he did not reply to her as he did not have a leg to stand on. I live in a house in Phuket owned by my Thai partner which she bought herself. The deal is I pay for all of the electricity bills, the food supplies and other such things, she cooks at home at she says it is heathy ,New Zealand beef/lamb etc, this arrangement balances things out. We are just about to put the house in a will in my son's name as he has a British and Thai passport (he has a business in New Zealand), that way if she goes first I can not be kicked out of the house by her lazy family. If I go first then the will can be changed. My property is rented in the UK together with other monies which are safe, thus we are financially independent of each other which is a healthy way to be. Neither of us are human ATM's 😃

For all my extensions so far I requested bank statements via my Bangkok Bank app which are emailed to me, I print them out and also copy and print all of the pages from my bank book, I get an official verification letter from the bank on the morning I go to the immigration office in Phuket and they are always accepted.

I have just use one account in Thailand, with an iphone banking app etc how can you make a mistake, it is all there in black and white right in front of your nose? How difficult can such simple things be? As for one of the comments where a wife or girlfriend used an ATM card to withdraw money from the farangs account thus putting it in deficit, that can not happened is my case as my partner has her own money she earns from her own business. Why is it in Thailand most guys seem to pay everything for their Thai girlfriend/wife when the rest of the world does not? Are they on hire purchase or something similar.

Never mind, there is another one around the corner waiting to use her spell on you.👍

Do you think educated, professional Thais integrate with uneducated up-country women from Issan for example, of course they do not, they ask me why do so many farangs go with such women, my response is that is the only level of women they have come across due to the places they visit and the circles they mix with. That is not my attitude but the attitude of Thais, there is a very pronounced hierachical social division in Thailand which is clear to see.

So if you ate Italian food, Indian food, McDonalds, and a host of other foods from around the world you will also have acclimatised with Thai culture as Thai culture in cites is similar to cities around the world world in that they are cosmopolitan as far as dining is concerned. I can not see the point of moving from a first world country, living in a shack in the back of the beyond and living on 50 baht meals, the locals eat those as they have no choice, not because they want to, Thais with money eat better. Give me international Phuket anytime. Do you think when Thais go to work or study in the UK they eat shepherds pie, roast beef, fish and chips, soups and hot-pot, broths etc because they are in England , of course they do not, they mostly eat Thai food.

It is also strictly not legal to do that, houses can be purchased by a company if they are meant for rental or a resort etc but not for living in yourself, true many people have done that but if the tax man wished to investigate it, it would be seen as fraud.

I am not being negative or nasty in any way but if he spent 20mill baht on a house then he paid for it but can not own it That is something personally I would not do, unless of course he has a child of his own who has a Thai passport (even if it is a dual passport) who he could buy it through as it will be passed onto the child at his death anyway as part of the inheritence.

I have a non-O visa. (Not O-A, I do not know what an O-A is?) I got a 90 day visa in the UK and had to show I had at least £10,000 in an account in the UK for at least six months with bank statements. This was then extended to a year in Thailand and no medical insurance needed. Make sure the Google maps overhead picture of your house is clearly displaying the latitude and longitude coordinates otherwise it will be rejected , well that is the case in Phuket at the immigration office. The 800k has to be left in the account for three months, then it can reduce to 400k and then two months before you apply again it has to be 800k.

I am not sure which part of his comment you are disagreeing with, he is stating it is dirt cheap to live in Thailand and detailed his very cheap costs compared to the UK. What is it he does not know what he is talking about?

Why are the kids in charge of your house, if it is your house?

That sounds like a good idea changing the visa from marriage to a retirement status in order to avoid the home visit. All they require to prove you live at the address with a 'retirement visa' is to have a picture of your standing outside the house and pointing at the number on the door or wall, oh and a printout of the latitude and longitude of the house on google maps. I took the TM30 with me on the last visa extension visit and they said it is no longer required. I will take it with me again on the next visit as we never know if the requirement have changed between visits.

True, a lot of people do not know what so called AI is (real AI does not exist at the moment), they think it invents things when in fact it analyses patters in the info we feed it and gives us a more detailed insight into the info we have.

I just spent five months back in the UK as I bought an apartment there to rent out. It is a two bed, two bath flat 80 sq feet, 30 mins to London by commuter train, two mins walk to the station, it is now rented for 76,000 baht a month (I pointed this out to show how expensive the UK is). Food is expensive. I went to a restaurant with a friend, I had 6 beers, we had a single course meal each, she drank two cokes, bill was equivalent to 4,900 baht. Not a five star restaurant, it was in Chelmsford, Essex. Cigarettes (I smoke very occasionally with a beer) are 645 baht a pack. Petrol more or less twice the price as it is here. Costs here, house rent/mortgage is zero. Three bed detached house on a private estate in Kathu, Phuket. Service charge for street lights and maintenance, garbage collection, security guards etc, 6000 baht a year. Water bill 100 baht a month for two people, two showers a day each with powerful water pumps, the meters are attached to the house hence no mark up in electricity or water bills. Gas bottle for cooking is just over 500 baht every six months. Electric, 2500 baht a month, air con on all day and night when in the house. Home wifi, super fast 650 a month including free film channels and TV channels. Netflix about 500 baht a month I think. In addition I just signed up with AIS unlimited data on my iPhone, paid one year in advance, 1800 baht for the year. Food, hard to say, I buy 1.5 kg of filleted North Atlantic salmon every month, the price is down on a few years ago from 680 to 480 baht a kg from Makro, salmon steaks. 1000 baht a month on petrol for the car. 3000 baht a year for car servicing. Home cooked meals eg massaman curry, spaghetti bolognaise, made from the joints of NZ/AUS beef and lamb from Makro, I would not eat the local fatty meat hidden in street food and the like. Tuna, veg, beer, vodka etc, inc in the total food bill of about 10,000 baht a month for two people. (It varies). It is dirt cheap to live here. I do not have medical insurance as I looked at the cost and the low amount of cover we get, I will pay cash if needed. I have over 2 million baht in instant emergency cash available and over 6 million baht in credit available. I am not saying this to show off but such an amount might be needed in an emergency before I can get back to the UK for free medical treatment. Someone might say in the UK we will not be covered for free medical treatment as we have lived away for years, this is a false rumour, as soon as we say the words "we have moved back to the UK" we are covered, they never ask anyway as we just show our NHS number which is permanent for life. Proof of this is this year after being out of the country for 2.5 years I went back, I had to change doctors as I had moved area, I did this via the NHS app on my iphone and saw a doctor at the new surgery four days later, no questions asked. I think when some people have to move back to their own country due to ill health etc later on in life, many of them will not be able to afford to rent or buy a house there.

Yes, from 2025 we waited inside. My first visa extension was in February 2023. The procedure was similar to your experience above. I arrived after 2pm intentionally as I missed the early morning rush, the papers were checked after about five minutes of waiting outside, it took one minute to check them, I was given a card with a number, twenty minutes later I was inside, documents checked in a few minutes, I was given a time to come back the next day I returned the next day at the appointed time, two minutes later I had my passport handed back to me. That was my experience of 2023, 2024 and then the new office in 2025. The office in 2025, I had to wait 10 minutes to get my documents pre checked, then wait in the office for 20 minutes, then in front of the officer for ten minutes, I went back the next day at the appointed time, as I went to the front desk I was handed the passport with a huge smile from the clerk, the visa extension and the multiple entry visa was in my passport, done all at the same time. It did cost an extra 700 baht 'service charge' to do them both together but was well worth it.

A question. My British passport will expire at the end of March next year. I have to extend my non-0 visa again in February 2026. (Retirement). I think the passport has to have a years validity left before extending the passport? How do I apply for a new visa while in Thailand? How long does it take? Can it be done online? I suppose I then have to go with the old passport and the new passport to the immigration office and have the current visa extension put in the new visa. Thanks in advance for replies.

No, he probably drove at a safe speed in his own air-con car to the immigration office and back as I and many others do. 👍

Yes that is what I do. It takes one hour once a year at the local immigration office in Phuket. All my forms are in WORD format and are already filled in on my computer, I just have to change the date on each form and that is that once a year, a fifteen minute job. The 90 day reporting takes two minutes to do online and the TM30 about the same amount of time online. The amount on deposit can drop to 400k and then I top it up with money from the UK via a Wise transfer two months before the visa extension is applied for, the rest of my money and assets stay safe in the UK under my control.

@pgrahmm You said "I started a long answer twice....I got interrupted & I guess they timed out....So going basic...." It has happened to me in the past so I select the text I am writing at intervals, then press the right side of the mouse and copy the text, that way if I lose the comment I can open a new message window and paste the text without having to rewrite again. Copy and paste basically.

You get AL who is AI's brother to become a boyfriend and report back on the fun and games he has with her. 😄