Brigante7

Hi Scotty, I had the exact same problem, our son was born last September and I applied for working family's tax credits in my name only because my wife is here on a limited leave to remain visa, and as such is not entitled to any public funds, and like you got the letter telling me she had to have a NI number and so I phoned them and what is meant to happen is that when you phone them up, the person you speak to is meant to send a letter to you with a date for an interview at your nearest job centre plus and at the same time send a letter to the job centre plus informing them of the interview. What happened to me was that the person I spoke to when I first phoned up didn't do that and so everything got screwed up and we had to wait 7 months from first applying to getting an interview and then my wife got her NI number in 5 days then I phoned the tax credit office again and gave them the NI number and now the claim has gone through and we are waiting on the money coming through which should be back dated to September.

From start to finish, it is meant to take no more than 3 months, LOL, yeah right.

Good luck mate and stick in there and don't give up

Brigante7

P.S. your wife doesn't need to be seeking a job to get a NI number, my wife wasn't, we were asked why she wanted the number, for a job or to claim benefits and I said benefits and was told no problem. Seems it's a different process depending on what you want the number for.

Thank you for the info

If I want to pay my Thai wife a salary of 40,000baht a month in order to obtain a Non Imm O visa extension, how much tax would she pay and what documents would she have to provide to show the income, if any?

Many thanks

Bowing is a traditional mark of respect in Thaksin's native Thailand.

It is? And I thought it wa wai-ing. Maybe they're confusing Thaksin with being Japanese?

In Thailand people wai each other and bow to royalty. Maybe Thaksin thinks he is is some sort of king (of soccer)?

Soccer?

Do you mean football?

Only ever use Hotmail, never worried about security, have nothing worth stealing in my e-mails, have never used google for anything but use Yahoo all the time and my homepage is set to Yahoo, so yes would continue using it.

As I'm looking to buy a house and land around November, I'm hoping that the rate will rise to at least 65baht to the £ but like many things in life there isn't much we can do about it so we'll just have to wait and see.

So far my son seems to love it. He's only 11 months old so is blissfully unaware that he is different to all the other kids in the area but the attention he gets from all the women whenever we go out is amazing. They totally ignore all the thai babies when they see a chubby white one and if i had 20 baht for every mobile phone that has a picture of him on it i would be a rich man! If he still gets the attention once he is older i am sure he will continue to love it.

Hi Nidge, my son is three months younger than yours and gets the same type of fuss. It can actually become a bit embarrassing. I am not sure though how good this type of attention will be when he hits school. What have other people experienced?

Same here, my wife (Thai) & I were in Thailand for a holiday in February with our 4 month old boy and no matter where we went we were always getting stopped by people wanting a photo or just to talk to my wife about our son. I'm 1/2 Scottish & 1/2 Italian and my wife is 3/4 Thai and 1/4 Chinese so there is a hel_l of a mix going on there. My son especialy likes Thai ladies (Along with his dad), they always got a smile and for some reason it always seemed to be Thai ladies around 18 - 30 who liked our son most.

Nothing happens when you leave - but if you do not return during the validity of the visa you will not be allowed visa entry. If you arrive during the validity of the visa you obtain a new one year permitted to stay until stamp from your day of entry.

So you would have to get a new visa if you do not return during the validity of the visa?

The multi entry non immigrant OA visa allows unlimited entry/exit for one year from date of issue. Each entry provides a new one year from that date permitted to stay stamp. So if you arrive the day before the visa expires it can cover up to almost two years of stay. But for any entry made after the one year validity of the visa you must use a re-entry permit (which keeps the last permitted to stay stamp alive).

Yes. You must have a multi entry to use this system.

Yes. You must obtain a re-entry permit before exit for any entry that will be made after expiration of visa use before date.

What happens if you have a multi entry non immigrant O-A visa and you leave Thailand before the year is up and you don't get a re-entry permit?

Hi all

I was wondering if anybody can tell me if there is a minimum legal age to buy land in Thailand? My son was born in the UK (UK father, Thai mum), and will be getting his Thai passport soon and we wanted to buy land and put it in his name but he's only 7 months old at the moment and we are hoping to buy at the end of the year so he'll be 1 year 3 months.

Many thanks for any replies.

Makes the case for the Thai goverment to reduce the import tax on small diesel cars all the more pressing, not that it will happen, although the Focus TDCi is a good start.

At least the Thai goverment are not as greedy as the UK goverment with absolutely no regard for the people living in the UK, 25 years ago diesel was around 25p a gallon cheaper than petrol now it's almost 50p a gallon more.

Go to nearly any European country and diesel is cheaper than petrol.

Run away as fast as you can.

Hi all

I'm hoping somebody can answer this question.

Is the Smart car avaliable in Thailand through official dealers and if so any idea how much?

Many thanks for all replies.

My son was 4 1/2 months when we were in Thailand on holiday and we took him in the sea at Cha-Am but he didn't like it (Water to rough I think) back in BKK we put him in the hotel swimming pool and he loved it.

...the British economy is going to be harder hit than others as we are the financial centre/or ideas centre of the world basically thats all we have no mass natural resources so this credit crunch is going to hurt UK one way or another...and I can see Brown folding under pressure,....its usually the case he doesn't bother turning up for meetings but sits in his office biting his nails,....thats not leadership far from it,...the mood in the UK at moment is very negative amongst working class people and Browns Goverment are in for a hiding in the elections unless he is removed......Labour voters are stirring for change myself included I voted for Blair and John Reed who I classed as "Heavyweight politicians" but end up with Brown and Jacqui Smith who are born "Followers"

People who voted Labour or didn't vote at all have no right to complain about the state of the country.

It was my understanding that once a country had adopted the euro, there was no going back.

I'm sure somebody will correct me if I'm wrong.

If one country would step out of the Euro currency it will be an immense costly affair for that particular country, apart from the fact it will cost even more on the long run. It would cost Billions of Euro's just to make that step.

I don't see it happen that Italy and Spain, followed by Germany and France will step out of the Euro like the author of the article claims.

Nothing is impossible but highly unlikely and I see the article as a kind of wishful writing, trying to prove he's right.

In the article, he is writing on at least two different occasions about the 'haunted' feelings of the German Leaders and the people who are "saddled with memories of the hyperinflation that brought the Nazi Party into power"... What a rubbish !

I expect a little more reality from an Israeli journalist, more than 60 years after WWII ended.

As if those countries, leaving the Euro would prosper and glow immediately again; what nonsense.

The problems in those countries aren't solely because of the introduction of the Euro; they were there already in the first place, especially in Spain and Italy but not forgetting about France, whose economy has been a sleepy dull one for a long time.

I don't think for a moment that Sarkozy will abandon the Euro...threatening to leave the Euro ? Yes, probably, but not doing so.

If Spain, for instance, would leave the Euro, does anybody really think the -HUGE- problems would be over, once they have their Peseta back..? Really ?

I don't think so; Spain built 5 Million houses in the past 10 years on a population of 40 million....and they didn't built those houses BECAUSE of the Euro...The vast majority of those houses were built because prices, interest, mortgages and labour (from Eastern Europe) was cheap. Greed was another factor.

If Europe would make those currency-swap-steps back in history and have the Deutschmark back, the Italian Lire (don't make me laugh), Spanish Peseta and French Franc....would Europe be better off economically ?

I remember the time when I traveled through Europe with at least 10 different currencies in bags and wallets.....paper money and hundreds of different coins...a bluddy nightmare it was... A few months ago I did the same, traveling through 9 countries with just 1 currency: the Euro; I didn't even use Swiss Francs anymore since they accept Euro's all over.

It is planned that from 2009 onward to 2012, 9 more countries will have the Euro apart from the existing 15 Eurozone members; It is also used in 9 other countries around the world, 7 of those being in Europe. A total of 320 million people use the Euro on a daily basis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro

My opinion ? The Euro will stay and grow in number of countries, not demise.

LaoPo

I hope not but then again with this spinless goverment, anything is possible.

No need to buy the program dekka. Any unlocked phone with Installer can download it in 20 seconds for nothing.

That's what I like about the phone. The original model had some shortcomings already noted in this thread - multiple sms addressees, no video camera, no zoom, no way of copying sim cards etc - but the iPhone development community have addressed all these issues and more. It's great fun checking Installer each morning to see what new packages are available to add to your phone's functionality. The value and utility of the phone just keeps increasing every day because of this. What other phone can you say that about?

Don't know, but I buy a phone that has everything I need already on it, not a phone that I have to update on a regular basis, maybe it's just me.

I was just on the Ford of Thailand website and according to that, the new Fiesta is being prepared for sale in markets around the world including Asia, what do others think of the chances of it coming to Thailand are?

Given the continuing rise in fuel prices, and fords amazing diesel engines surely it would make sense to start offering a smaller car with a diesel engines like the fiesta? Until then it looks like a diesel Focus is on the cards when I eventualy move to LOS.

I know we all have our rants and complaints ( I'm one of the worst offenders).

Yet when stories like this come to light, it makes one sit back and take stock of the things we actually have, not just the things that we would like to have.

These poor people are being exploited in the most terrible way, their only crime is to be born poor.

I for one feel very fortunate at this moment, to be sitting in my A/C office having the time to surf the web whilst getting paid.

For many of the worlds population, the very things we take for granted are only dreams that will remain dreams forever.

Stories like this are very disturbing.

RIP to all.

Hear Hear.

It's the same old story, money talks.

I just got one for xmas and it is a nice phone i dont know how to use the f@cking thing though, i cant get my telephone nos off ma sim to the phone or view the nos on the sim or if someone calls its just a no displayed no names, besides that its ace!

chris

FF, Just put the SIM that has your address book into another phone with bluetooth or a serial cable, then import or sync those numbers into address book application on your computer. Then put the SIM back into the Iphone and sync with Itunes, voila the address book contents are on the Iphone.

------------------------

Sent from my Iphone.

Why not just put your sim, with all your numbers on it, in your iphone and copy them to your phone memory or put the sim in your phone and choose your sim contacts as default contacts?

Our baby is less than a week old and we are going through cloth nappies like nobody's business.

I have never seen sudocram over here; is it available?

Is it worth getting some sent from abroad?

Good thread by the way.

Forget Sudocrem, vaseline is far better, we have used vaseline since our son was born, (Almost 7 months) never had a nappy rash ever.

It was my understanding that once a country had adopted the euro, there was no going back.

I'm sure somebody will correct me if I'm wrong.

Hi,

What is presently the easiest and cheapest way to send money from Thailand back to the UK. I am looking to send around 4.5m Baht as am moving back to the UK. I have sent money back via the bank before but I was only allowed 1 transaction per day of less than 20k USD. Is this still the same?

Secondly, if this this is still the same can go into a branch in Bangkok and send money from there even though the account was set up in Koh Samui?

Any help and advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

What about taking the funds back in the form of a cheque in THB then exchange it at your bank in the UK when you deposit in your account?

In the past the southern provinces were an independant sultanate. But there's not a single living soul alive today who can remember that situation. Thailand has changed that region since and the local people benefited from the economic developments.

And all of a sudden there's some muslim fundamentals who want to separate and go back to the old situation again. I think the Thai government should let them if every single man and woman in that region really wants to. Create a border (makes visa-runs to the south a lot faster!) and give them their independance.

...and of course all Thai companies will remove their branches since it's no Thailand anymore. Nomore GSM, 7-eleven, banks, electricity. Let them take care of it themselves, because that is what they want: independance.

Maybe then they'll realize that independence requires a lot more than building bombs, shooting budhists and shouting allah-akbar. Fact is that allah won't help them......

Exactly, if they want independance let them have it and see how long they last.

It wouldn't really matter,just buy the license.