ukrules

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.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that.

So there was no mention of filing a tax return this March? I mean, if you go an get a tax number - they are going to expect you to use it aren't they? And they are definitely used every March.....

We all know there's a prescription for everything in the US, what surprises me is that there's both a Doctor and a pharmacy inside the Whitehouse.

Interesting. The new 'memo' became effective on Jan 1. Is everyone expected to go out and get tax id numbers before March which is the end of the tax year here?

Normally they issue some kind of receipt / statement but I would imagine every country will do it differently. In the UK it's called a P60.

I guess it's been a while since I left the country as I've still got one in my passport

I find these houses with huge rooms a bit off putting knowing that I will have to wait quite a while for the AirCon to do its job every time I turn it on.

My mother has this "perennial rhinitis" which causes a lot of runny nose on and off all year around. As far as I'm concerned it's a diagnosis of last resort, you're allergic to many things all the time is what they told her. As far as drying it up they banned the most useful non drowsy medication for OTC sale here in Thailand which was Pseudoephedrine but you can get it from a hospital with a prescription apparently - and this stuff really works if you take it at the right dose. I will add that I found the right dose for me to be something different to what was on the packet back in the UK. There are other decongestants but in my experience they don't work so well. Things like acrivastine but you've got to watch out for things that can make you really tired on the antihistamine side of things like 'CliniCold' which was a common brand around these parts a few years back. They gave my mother Fexofenadine which doesn't really work too well. You can develop an allergy at any time and age, I went 40 years without any common allergies then one summer I started to get hayfever in the UK, when I came over here it disappeared. I blamed the huge tree outside the house I lived in.