Digger

Thanks Digger, excellent points, including re-iteration of cd-4/8 vl counts.

Our original poster didn't mention money I don't think but the point is well made anyway. My son started HAARTS at <35 cd4 >450,000 VL. He is now stable <100K and >350 which is what we aimed for. He also started HAARTS on azt, ddI, Saquinovir, at that time costing around 38K baht per month.

We moved him over the GPOvir when it became available as he and saqunovir II softel caps were not good friends. Now he is ion excellent health, and past his 6.5 years survival point. Looking forward to February, when we celebrate his 7th year since diagnosis.

Welcome to the fray. Happy New Year, as is ours, thanks to "his nibs".

If I understand your VL level correctly. you say its at less than 100,000 - just out of curiosity how long has he been on current regime? Normally you would expect to get to undetectable within 6-9 months from what I understand i.e less than 50 (yes single numbers as opposed to thousands) - anything which is bordering around 100,000 after a lengthy time is considered a non effective treatment. Fantastic improvement though in CD4 count - 350 is considered well into the safe zone.

I think an excellent reference site is www.thebody.com and look at questions posed before and also have the opportunity to pose your own. Fantastic information and far easier to understand than most HIV related sites in MHO.

I think you make a very interesting observation, albeit indirectly prices. If your son started of with a treatment costing 38,000 baht or thereabouts, the newer and more effective regimes (notably Stocrin and to lesser extent nevarapine) + 3TC have really tumbled in price in Thailand. They are approx 20% of what you would pay in the west. When the Thai producer finally gets the Combivir copy right, prices will come down to approx: 6,000 baht per month for the complete treatment programme which is a major improvement and a realistic option considering that the side effects for most people are either non existent or minor irritations. It is recognised that the majority of people on these latest treatments are living full and complete lives, able to work in almost any job and living life to the full with forcast life expectancy near to a normal person.

Im sure you are rightly proud of his achievements.

My girlfriend has tested positive for HIV. She would not take a second test to confirm the result and has gone home to stay with her parents. Does anyone know where we can go for help/information either in Pattaya or at her home in Bruiram? What is the cost of Anti-Retoviral trestment in Thailand and could she get any help if she could not afford them

Going back to the original question, yes there are treatment options in both Pattaya for sure and I suspect Buriram as well.

Of the private Hospitals, Bangkok Pattaya has specialist HIV doctors on staff - I do not know of any others that do.

In terms of treatment, the Govt issued drugs combo is NOT considered the most effective in almost any scenario. However, if you have no other options (i.e money) then this is certainly your best option. If you have money available, then depending upon viral load and CD4 counts most experts in Thailand will recomend waiting until CD4 level hits 200-250 range and then starting on a combination of Combivir and Stocrin. Combivir is a twice daily single tablet and Stocrin is a once a day single tablet (or 3 smaller capsules). The cost for this treatment is approx: 12-15,000 baht per month from the top private hospitals, lower from Govt clinics. These are both the 'genuine' drugs produced by the original manufacturers. Thailand has a licence to produce a copy Combivir which would drop the price considerably however there is concern that the lab poducing the copies is not at the right level of quality. This is the notional "mercedes benz" of HIV treatments currently and consistently applied in the Uk and USa. If however the patient has a very high viral load, Hep B or other complications, different strategies may be suggested.

In my opinion however the bigger problem she will face is actually coming to terms with this and doing something about it. You may suggest private healthcare as she will likely feel that she is less likely to run into someone she knows at the hospital and that the treatment will be better. Half the issue is getting into the right frame of mind to handle this now and in the future. That is where a sympathetic doctor is the best help she can get at this stage and keep undertaking regular CD4 and viral load tests (which can be very expensive at around 6,000 baht for a VL test, Cd4 is much much cheaper).

Hope this helps

Morphic - I would guess your only option is to get a Elite Card for 25,000 US$.

On an aside, I think this comes up a lot with Brits (and I am one of them) that can really take advantage of not being tax resident in the UK, have investments their (UK) such as stocks and property generating income on which they dont pay tax so long as they stay out of the country. Unfortunately I am not smart enough to do this and always be watching over my shoulder so I have a job in Thailand to and am happy to pay tax however you can really milk this system if you want to.

As for the continued "long term stayers" I think the Elite card is smart option to go for assuming of course you have nothing to hide back in your home country (criminal records etc) that would exclude you from qualifying.

My expereince is that Amex has the best policy of welcoming new customers PROVIDED you have had another amex card somewhere else in the world. I transferred my card account from the UK with no trouble at all. You do though have to have a long term visa and work permit.

I have also arranged a local Citibank visa card but I much prefer the amex product. Citibank is not very western in its thinking here in my opinion.

Hope this helps

If your setting up a business in some kind of accomodation offering - should be quite easy to come up with 4 employees. Perhaps along the following lines:

Your GF - property manager

another person - maid

another person - gardener

another person - driver

There you have 4 people. So long as your paying them a salary albeit small and they do exist, then you should be ok. Assumes of course that their are some kind of jobs that these people would need to do but of course driver is for picking up people to see the acomodation. maid to clean the accomodation and gardener for looking after the gardens of the accomodation. whether they are doing the job from day one is I believe something not so critical - after all I could think of 30% of the people in our office who do nothing all day!!!!

Hope this helps.

I do not work currently for a BOI approved company. We use the One Stop Service by virtue of our registered capital which is over 30,000,000 baht. The company I am considering moving to is neither BOI approved or likely to have registered capital in excess of 30,000,000 baht - they do however have sufficient capital and employees to grant another work permit.

Thanks

One factor not mentioned in the above thread is income level. A friend was turned down for PR because he paid very little Thai tax despite high levels of income from overseas. Income brought in from overseas was seen as unimportant and the Immigration officials said they wanted to see a minimum of 30 to 50K tax paid in Thailand p/a.

I have also heard this from the lawyer that handles our work permits when I was chatting with him last year whilst waiting at the one stop centre. He indicated that he reckons they base a large amount of the decision on how much tax you pay. He also reckons those that pay lots of tax (not specified how much), are put to the front of the queue based on his expereince. No idea how accurate this is but he is the primary immigration attorney for one of Bangkoks largest corporate law firms and I guess he as a fair bit of experience in these matters. What would be interesting is what they consider a sizeable amount of tax !!!

Has anyone got any experience of adding a second job into a Work permit booklet that is not in the same province as the original ??

My work permit is issued from the one stop centre in BKK, however potential new employer is in Chonburi. Ideally I would want to add my new employer before informing the old one but want to do this cleanly. Given the different provinces I am not sure if this can be done or if its going to be a total disaster and I need to leave the country, whilst waiting for the papers to move from Bangkok to Chonburi.

Any expereince would be most welcome.

Thanks

"Why so many Brits"

Probably has a lot to do with the fact that the British are some of the most travelled folks on this planet along with high ratios also from Australia and New Zealand. % of Brits with passports is staggering and WAY higher than most other countries. Also foreign travel from the UK is not expensive and most of the average brits can take a holiday in Thailand for approx 50% of an average monthly salary. Therefore its easy to afford it, easy to do it (London still being THE major International hub for airlines) and clearly many folk are keen to get out of an increasingly tough Britain.

By tough Britain, I mean that unless you are very capable in your job, unskilled workers are in less and less demand. Therefore many guys who cannot hold down a job in the UK, opt for the perceived easier life either of Spain or increasingly Thailand. I for one have noticed a huge influx of Brits who I would not share the time of day with let alone trust them with a dime. Many are also peeved of with the tax regimes in the UK, failing infrastructure (Transport, health service etc) and want to get out. They can generally release a huge amount of baht just by selling their house. Many of the more street smart Brits I have come across are also heavily into utilising their non resident tax status by buying, selling and renting property and paying minimal taxes. Why be resident when you can save a fortune in taxes by being non-resident and living in somewhere like Thailand.

Just my initial ideas, plus of course there are a heap of villains who would have no chance of getting a job in the UK and like the idea of a cash rules society. Easy to knock of a bank and be on the next plane to BKK.

Great information AlanW. I have also been contemplating applying for residency after 3 years of work permits/taxes/visa etc however the big concern I have is that I understand the requirement is for a level of fluency in Thai. My Thai is near hopeless compounded by the fact that I travel out of Thailand at least once a week for my Job, often for 2 weeks at a time. Therefore I get very little chance to practice what I learn and soon forget it.

My question is specifically, what type of questions were they asking in Thai and what level of competance do you feel they were looking for. I read that you were speaking for about 30 minutes in thai and the remainder in English.

Many thanks

I wanna go to Singapore to do a border run for my visa. Can I book a return flight by calling the local airline office then pay and collect the ticket at Don Muang? Thinking about either Singapore Air or Thai as I would presume that they would have a ticket counter at the airport and they probably have the most flights.

Too much to expect? Would like to know from local experience before I call them. If my Thai wife booked for her falang husband would she get a better deal? What if I said that I was an invalid or a cancer patient with 5 days to live? Everything same-same?

best regards

If you have a credit card just go to Singaporeair.com and book it online.   SQ fares are cheapest when you book on their website and they set up an e-ticket for you.  You just go straight to the check-in counter, tell em which flight you reserved, show them the credit card you used and they give you the boarding pass (or both if same day return).  No hassle, online security is fine and I have used it about 6 times with no problems.  TG have some facility but the fares are more expensive.

Incidentally, the reason why an airfare is more expensive at the airport is their is no competition.  Travel Agents are not allowed to have ticketing desks at airports. They can be near to the airport but not exactly in the terminal.

The company im question was barclayspencer.  They appear to be a very reputable company.  

Almost wish I hadn't turned them down.  

Anybody heard of them?

BarclaySpencer are well known here for harrassing expats with selling financial plans.      

Not a flame but I for one would never trust anyone to give me good advice if their whole operation operates on the fringes of legality.    I get many phone calls from guys like these trying to sell pensions etc etc and I tell them all to p**s of unless they can show me their work permit and taxes paid for the last 3 years in the country where they are based.  So far nobody has ever made it to an appointment... I wonder why?

Somebody mentioned in this thread that the 30 day visa's continue to used and the immigration officers say its OK. Others are warning that the good days are coming to an end, possibly with APEC and other world events around us.    Quite frankly, I am amazed at the relaxed attitude of the 30 day visa runners.    Surely its not beyond the wit of man, to tell you that the long term probability of no change to current practice is slim to say the least.    Of course the immigration officers at the checkpoints will tell you its OK today - because it is.  However they do not make the rules, just enforce them.   People using 30 day visa's back to back have no voice in the Thai government and as such if anyone wants to they will just change the rules.   To think the government considers these people "usefull" is naive beyond belief.

Taksins whole approach is to get more people into the tax paying community and this is an easy target.   OK many people may not be earning money here illegally and are just taking extended holidays, however I would guess that these folk will just be caught up with the bigger fish who the Government is trying to clamp down on.  Dont forget, in Thailand, things are done indirectly - the warning signs are there - ignore them at your peril is what I would suggest.