heretostay

Thanks guys.

Yes, he is the legal father. (The US required a paternity test, which was positive, before issuing the child a visa.)

Let's see if my buddy wants to go down any of these routes.

Thanks again!

My buddy is 36 and a US citizen. Three years ago he fathered a child with his then-girlfriend, who is Thai. The child holds both US and Thai passports. The parents do not live together but the father has liberal visitation rights.

What options are open to this guy in terms of visa/extension? He doesn't have a job right now. Can he stay without working, based on being the Thai child's father?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give us on this.

I agree with lopburi3. You don't need an agent. It can seem baffling and overwhelming at times, but all immigration departments and all countries are! Deep breath, prepare for the worst (a very long day and, as you've already learned, failure), and keep calm. The officials at immigration are professional and speak fairly good English (which is not the case in many other countries where only the local language is used at immigration). The procedures are clearly defined and often printed out (in English). I went in to change my visa type a year or two ago and got a clear list of the required documents, and it worked the first time I submitted the application.
With that said, be sure to look very carefully at any document you submit beforehand, to be sure it's complete and accurate. If there is anything wrong with it (e.g., the bank mis-typed your account number in the balance confirmation letter), it'll be rejected. (Been there, done that.)
Sorry your kids have to go through another round but sure you'll be fine on your own. Let us know back!

Thanks all.

Will check with the Thai passport office when we apply for the kid's passport, but your comments seem to say that just signed letters and copies of the parents' IDs will allow me to take the child out of Thailand.

For entrance into my home country, well, if the kid has a visa, I don't think they'll raise any objections, but will be sure they know the nature of the visit, as well.

Again, thanks for your replies.

Thai friends have asked me to take their child (now 2 years old) to my home country for periods of several weeks each year to bolster the child's English fluency. I am a primary care-giver for the child, along with the parents, who both work full-time.

What documents do the Thai immigration authorities require so the child can travel abroad without his/her parents?

Thanks for any help on this.

Don't let anyone deter you - The Glacier Express (Zermatt-St. Mortiz) is breath-takingly beautiful and a unique experience. Be sure to have lunch on the train (you many not actually get a choice).

Sure Switzerland is expensive. What isn't these days? But no one has built a railroad like The Glacier Express. Worth every franc.

Happy travels.

In the evenings (except Mondays), there is a stand with such t-shirts on Silom Road very near Soi 4 - can't remember if it's just before or after the soi, but certainly within 100 m. I always notice it - they have a Clockwork Orange motif that always gives me the willies...

Hope you find what you're looking for.

I had a similar but different problem with my laptop keyboard - it decided to activate the Windows key (the one with the Windows logo, between Fn and Alt keys) which has all kinds of strange consequences - and the only solution was a new keyboard, which my laptop manufacturer provided at no charge (Fujitsu), as the machine was still under guarantee.

I'd try a new keyboard if I were you.

Good luck and let us know, please.

Hi,

For my 2 satangs, I would just suggest to you - since you seem to be first-time visitors to Thailand - that if there is ANY trouble upon departure, be sure to remember what you read in the guidebooks about Thai culture: conflict is NOT accepted behavior.

So if they say anything about the extra day, just give them your best smile and a nod of the head - you don't have to say anything at all, as there is nothing to say. The ball is clearly in the immigration officer's court, so let him/her manage things. As others have mentioned, you might just get off without a fine at all, otherwise you might have to pay some small fee. Chances are that if you get agressive or beligerent (and it doesn't take much), the fine will go up, up, up (and who knows what other problems they could create for you). There is no need to try to explain anything, just stand there smiling until they tell you what to do. (If you really can't help yourself, a short, "I'm so sorry," would not be misplaced nor misunderstood.)

OK,enough rattling. Enjoy your stay and, as we say around these part, don't worry, be happy!

So I went to the social security office (on Silom Road) to get things going. I learned the following:

- Employees of private language schools are no longer allowed to register in the social security system. ull stop! I'm not altogether convinced that Thai employees are similarly persona non grata, but we foreigners certainly are.

- I could have signed up as a private member of social security (not through an employer), if I had done it within six months of leaving my last job (it's been a year). The M39 resgistration form clearly says this, so I think it applies to Thai people as well.

- I then asked if I could sign up for social security if I were here on a retirement visa/extension and the official clearly said that that would be out of the question.

Fortunately, my employer has a group policy with a good health insurer, so I have some coverage; not sure what I will do when I retire, but I have a few years to figure that out.

Thanks again for your help everyone.

I've searched myself over the past five years but never found the fluffy Gold Toes socks. With that said, I think they would be too hot for this climate anyway.

Thanks everyone.

Indeed, the new employer is a private language school. I had heard that they are no longer obliged to register employees (even Thai employees) with social security, and the above post confirms that (thanks, TerryLH).

OK, I will attempt to sign myself up at social security. Anyone know exactly which documents I'll need?

Hello all,

I used to be in the Thai health insurance scheme through my previous employer and was fully satisfied with the services of the hospital I was registered with.

Now I have a new employer and they are avoiding all of my questions about government health insurance; to keep a minimum coverage, I've signed onto my employer's group health plan with a private insurance company. (It's minimal, but better than nothing.)

My question is this: is the employer obliged by law to register me (as an employee) with government health insurance? (Yes, I have a non-immigrant B visa with extension and a valid work permit through this employer.) If not, can I register directly with the social security office?

Thanks in advance for any information and advice.

I am now working for a commercial language school where I have been told that employees of such language schools are no longer eligible for health insurance via social security (ประกันสังคม). Can this be right? I hold a non-immigrant B visa with an extension to stay based on employment, plus a one-year work permit. I was covered in the past when I was working for a government university... have I lost that right?

(My employer has offered a group plan with a private health insurance company, so there does seem to be a solution, but I would rather use the government plan - call me stupid if you want!)

The big career change combined with the expatriation move are major life changes and not to be taken lightly. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst. I did it: five years ago I gave up a career in management information systems in Europe and moved to BKK, where I have been teaching EFL. So far, so good, but it required planning and continual adjustment.

Some advice:

- Yes, take the 4-week TEFL/TESOL/CELTA course - it's all about teaching (not so much about English language) and was very helpful for me, as I lacked any formal education training

- Read up on Thailand as much as you can - check out the Bangkok Post and Nation newspapers on the internet

- Get ready for culture shock - you will be a victim continually (and I still am, five years down the road); Bangkok is not like living in London or Berlin or Paris or San Francisco - this is Asia, Southeast Asia, Thailand.

- Be clear to yourself about what you are trying to do with your life; have clear goals and don't get distracted (there are so many distractions here!)

Good luck and welcome to the club!

Hi,

To answer the initial question about income tax in Thailand:

It's 10% after a number of deductions:

a. 150,000.00 baht deduction for everyone (recently raised from 100,000)

b. 40% dedution with maximum of 60,000.00 baht deduction for "expenses"

c. another deduction of about 30,000.00 baht

At 45,000 per month x 12 = 540,000 income

Deductions a + b + c = 240,000

Taxable income = 540,000 - 240,000 = 300,000

Tax = 10% of taxable income = 30,000 (per calendar year, tax form and payment due at end of March of the following year)

Hope this helps.

The Thai company functions as a supplier to the Greek company, right? The Greek company is the customer.

Customers regularly send their people (buyers, technical specialists - anyone at all) to visit suppliers (even in other countries) to meet and improve the relationship between the two companies, and to inspect the "production line" (in this case the software development team).

Your Greek engineer is spending two weeks liaising/coordinating with your supplier in Thailand. He will explain things to the Thai supplier's team about the Greek company's new requirements, review past glitches/problems, inform about new rules, regulations, and standards.

He should have with him an overview schedule of who he is meeting with each day and the topics to be discussed. It would be best that he NOT have any training materials in his bags, as that could be misinterpreted.

For such business visits, I don't think a visa is needed for European Union nationals. (In all my years as an international businessperson, the only visas I ever got were tourist visas, and those only for countries without a visa exempt program like the one in Thailand.)

Every multi-national company in the world does this sort of thing. Low profile. Don't carry materials that could be misinterpreted. Remember, this is a coordination trip only.

Good luck.

I did the "change nationality" thing a couple of months ago - left Thailand on one passport, flew to Singapore where I got a visa in the second passort (at the Thai embassy on Orchard Road) and flew back to BKK. Piece of cake, really. You'll need to show a ticket out of Thailand during the initial duration period of your new visa. (I had bought a one-way ticket to KL on Air Asia for about 1200 baht - that did the trick.)

The embassy in Singapore requires you to apply in the morning of a given business day and then requires you to pick up your passport on the following business day. Impossible to do in a single day, difficult with a one-night stay. Do yourself a favor and plan on a two-night stay.

With that said, Penang may do a one-day service - I read that on this forum at one point. You may want to check into that.

Good luck.

Yes, there is a sign announcing the works hanging from the bridge (south side), saying the closure will be for a month starting 1 September.

Hold onto your hats - this is going to be h o r r i b l e for those of us who live around Ratchayothin!

This may be off the subject, but...

Why does everyone consider Love of Siam a gay movie??? (This is the gay section of the forum, right?)

Sure, there is a gay plot (along with many other plots) within the movie, but that can't be the screenplay writer's main message, can it? The movie is all about love in its many, many forms, and may also be a kind of psychological study of the real star of the show - the mother! It's about her "love" for her husband, her "love" for her ghost-daughter, her "love" for her maybe-gay son... her lack of "love" for herself.

By the way, the "Siam" in the title refers to Siam Square in BKK, and not to the country.

My few satangs:

- Live and let live! Who are you/we to judge others? If they're happy to live in isolation, and they're not bothering people, where's the problem?

- It is especially hard for English speakers to learn any other language since much of our contact in the "foreign" country is with educated people who, chances are, speak better English than we do their language. This is exacerbated with Thai, where pronunciation is a real challenge for people with non-tonal mother tongues. (This partly explains why English mother-tongue speakers so rarely master a second language; it's not entirely due to the individual's laziness.)

- It is also difficult for non-Thai speakers to learn Thai because of the lack of good-quality teaching materials, methods, and tutors. This has surely improved somewhat over the five years that I've been here, but Thai language learning materials are still way behind the big European languages, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, and Japanese. (And I don't understand why most of the schools and methods for Thai language force the beginner to use phonetic symbols rather than the Thai alphabet - this serves no purpose at all - since the learner has to acquire a new and basically useless "alphabet" and blocks him/her from using his/her environment as a classroom, for example by reading signs and billboards.)

- Finally, the Thais are so accepting of foreigners. They don't seem to be bothered by the communication problems (in both directions). You wouldn't expect the Brits, the Americans, or the French to put up with any of that!

After five years here, I am still struggling with Thai language - because of my now advanced age? Surely that plays a role. My laziness? ditto. But surely there are other factors unrelated to me as an individual (see above).

My new employer insisted on a proper medical certificate - so I had to give a urine sample to check drug addiction (presence of drugs) and have a blood test to check on syphillis. Not sure how they check for the other deseases mentioned above (leprosy, tuberculosis, elephantitus) which appear on the certificate. There was no mention of HIV and I understand that Thai employers can no longer require an HIV test as a condition for employment.

I went to Paolo Memorial Hospital, it took an hour, they gave me snacks and coffee while I waited and the whole thing cost about 1,100 baht. I had checked at BNH and they wanted 1,500 baht.

I'm not sure the quickie medical certificates of yore are still being accepted?

Hi,

I got a 60-day tourist visa in Singapore a couple of weeks ago. I'd been advised by Thaivisa to have onward travel documents within the 60-day period - not within 90. My solution was a one-way ticket to KL on Thai Air Asia for about 1300 baht. I don't think you can find a cheaper air ticket to anywhere outside LOS, but maybe you can do better!

By the way, they accept visa applications in Singapore starting at about 8:45 a.m. (the form says they open at 9:15), but the pick-up time really does start at 2:00 p.m. In addition, they require that you fill out every item on the form, including profession and employer's address. For profession I wrote "Management Consultant" and for the employer address I wrote in "self-employed working from home." That worked for them.

Good luck.

Hi,

My two satangs:

1. I admire your honesty.

2. Become a "member" of the boxing gym, pay a nominal monthly fee, call it your sport/fitness activity, and don't call it coaching anymore.

Good luck.

Hello again,

A short report of my tourist visa trip to Singapore with some important details:

- I got a single-entry tourist visa for SGP$ 50 valid for 90 days, but was stamped at entry at BKK airport for 60 days only. The officer at the embassy in Singapore said they don't issue double-entry tourist visas.

- You MUST fill in the the occupation and work address items in the visa application form - the officer insisted that I fill them out (I'd left them blank); I entered "Management Consultant self-employed at home address" and it passed).

- I was asked to show an onward ticket when I applied for the visa - a one-way Thai Air Asia e-ticket to Kuala Lumpur dated just under two months after my planned arrival in Thailand did the trick.

- The embassy in Singapore is VERY nicely set up to handle visa applications. The form says it opens from 9:15 a.m. for applications but really they opened just after 8:30. In and out in a flash. On the other hand, they really don't open until 2:00 p.m. for collection, but there again I was in and out in seconds. And the waiting/queue area is air-conditioned.

- Finally, no questions were asked about my change of nationality (out of Thailand on passport of one country, into/out of Singapore and back into Thailand on a passport of a different country).

Thanks again to thaivisa experts for your kind and patient (and excellent) advice!

P.S. The Singapore airlines package deal at THB 10,300 included airfare on any SQ flight, twin room (I booked it as a single as I travelled solo) for two nights in a three-star hotel in the center of town, transfers to and from the hotel, and a few low-value freebies.