ukrules

-5000 - so you somehow became overdrawn - that's a negative balance right?

I know I got a letter issued along with my new passport which is somehow required to get the current entry AND extension stamp moved over to the new passport. I'm not sure if that letter is only regarded as being valid for a certain amount of time. But I will say - probably best to do the transfer sooner than later once you get the new passport as you never know what's going to happen at immigration when you go.....

A wise decision, always allow room for the unexpected.

Too late to get a new passport now, they will almost certainly just issue the visa up until the expiration date of your passport. So do this first, then get a new passport some time this year, move the appropriate stamps over to your new passport and your new extension date will change in 2025. I had this issue with a Thailand Elite visa, in hindsight I really wish I had renewed my passport at the time even though it still had about 2.5 years left on it because it was a real pain for me to do it the lazy way. Unless of course you live in a country which still produces passports and issues them in the local embassy.....

Apparently so.

Yes, there's been a number of reports of people being mysteriously arrested at the airport before they made it onto the plane. Did they all have no money to pay the fine or are the Phuket Police intercepting these passengers before they get to immigration? Or are immigration simply making up the law as they go, saying oh - that's far too many days to just pay a fine - so off to prison you go?

I wonder if it's the fabled 'Thairannosaurus Rex' 😁

That's expensive, it's 3000 Baht per KG. The 8000 Baht 'fine' suggests they over ordered and had 2.6 KG of uneaten food which is a massive amount of food. What are we talking here? Chicken feet soup or steak & lobster?

Interesting, I have a 5 year Thai driving license and had no idea they would accept that as an ID - they didn't mention it in the support ticket but I only specifically asked about the visa type. Maybe I'll give it a go at some point in the next few weeks. I will add for future readers that the verification process is very prone to failure unless you do it on a mobile phone with a decent camera and use their app instead of a webcam. Did you do it on the phone ?

They told me they will accept the Thailand Elite visa but my problem is the foreign id card / driving license. My UK license expired, I got a new one but it's sitting on a shelf in the UK....so I can't verify at the moment. I'll have it mailed out - however this is not an optimal solution for people from the UK as we don't have ID cards and you're not supposed to renew your driving license while living abroad and I can't be bothered to get any of the other options - too much hassle right now.

It is.

I got a new passport a few years back and didn't bother updating my drivers license, of course I went a week after my birthday to get a full 6 years and I'm not going back to that place any time soon. Hopefully the miserable witch who seems to run it will be retired by then.

I popped along to the local immigration satellite office here in Hua Hin on Monday afternoon, it was 5pm, just wanted to do a 90 day report which takes about 1 or 2 minutes. The screen was turned off so they were done for the day and there must have been 50 or so people sitting around waiting. I spoke to a couple of them who were waiting around and they said the machine had been turned off just 10 or 15 minutes prior to my arrival. Out of curiosity I asked how long they've been waiting and one guy said he pressed the button and got his number at about 11:30am - so they had been waiting for 5 and a half hours already! I'm pretty sure they left the building and carried on with their day before returning and didn't literally sit there for that long but it shows there's a problem inside the country as well as on arrival - and this is sleepy old Hua Hin! The 90 day report can wait, I was early anyway so I'll take my passport with me each time I pop into Bluport on the off chance I can get it done without a wait - but if it's anything like this when I go again then they can shove their 90 day report up their arses and I'll skip it.

Did you get back into Vietnam or not?

Right, so you're complaining that it was a little too dirty for your standards. How dirty is acceptable. When I rent a little palace that comes with servants I expect them to do their job.

That would be a first 😁

What kind of concert was this, was it a large commercial venture of a band playing in a big pub type of deal? Why were they arrested and deported? Many people receive a fine for working without a permit...were they planning on doing it again or was it just a one off? This whole incident is weird and the apparent heavy handed tactics by the 'authorities' are raising an eyebrow here.

Ok, good to know.

You know I heard that the term "Government Pensions" is not clearly defined in the treaty. Some say it's only pensions paid to people who worked for the government, others say it's both pensions paid to government workers and the 'state pension' - who's right on this?

That's what I would have thought, imagine there being say 2 million Baht sitting in the account and you need to go shopping, what are you supposed to do?

Interesting, do you own a holiday home here and come from Northern Norway by any chance? Likely not because there is a reason they start coming in October and it's still pretty cold in Jan / Feb.

Anything that makes things much easier for 'snowbirds' who come in the winter will make a big difference. They should allow a 90 day entry stampt and a 90 day extension of stay but I'll bet the extension remains at 30 days. That will be better than what they have now but it's not suitable for people who want to come for 5 months every year and there are a lot of people who would stay for 5 months but only stay for 3 as they don't want to do a visa run to a foreign country, and I don't blame them. So their maximum stay is determined by a tourist visa 60 day entry and a 30 day extension right now.

Did they issue you a TIN for next year?

Right, the last time I left was in late 2019 so that explains the difference. I've just been extending in country since then.

Yes, no doubt. The question is what happens next if people who weren't previously registered go along and get a tax id and they see you've been living here for the last 10 years with no TIN, maybe bought a house or apartment, etc ? Maybe you sold your main house in the UK which would of course be taxed at a zero rate and then wired a load of the money into Thailand 5 years ago and bought a 10 to 15 million Baht apartment in a year when you were tax resident but didn't have an id. Will they go looking? Because if they do I suspect they're going to find a lot.