rwilem

Yep, I just made one now, to get a preferred date and time. It's just for backup, in case something goes haywire with the online submission(s). Best case scenario is online results in APPROVED and then I just go back in to the appointment system and cancel it.

Wow, amazing story, thanks for sharing that. Yep, good call. And as you say, the rest is history. Or, as back in the day the American radio news/commentary great Paul Harvey would say, "And now you know the rest of the story."

A bit off-topic to the main point of the thread. Just wondering, how does someone have, how do you end up having two valid passports? Has to be an unusual situation. (Seems in the end they didn't allow you to keep the second one?)

There is an appointment system in place and you can book an appointment for doing the 90-day report in person. Really makes it smooth.

When is your due date? And when did you submit the report that the system shows is PENDING? And to clarify, for in-person reporting there is a 'grace period' of up to 7 days AFTER the due date, during which time you can submit it without being fined.

Had not thought of that. Seems like that would be an ideal way to go to sample localphone. Yeah, about the search, some agonizing...I hear you. Well, getting my U.S. TextNow number getting zapped, then Skype going down, you're out in the wild, U.S. number-less and no call-out ability, when things had been running on auto-pilot for years. On the True tourist Sim, the link didn't show, or maybe I missed it, what the initial outlay is for buying and funding it. And the costs for extending it, keeping it funded. But certainly 1 baht a minute calling to the U.S. is decent, and I would venture that the call quality should be better than VOIP.

Interesting.... I guess you'd have to get a 'tourist sim' and set that up. Lot of questions, though. How long is a 'tourist sim' going to be valid for? Forever, as long as it's funded? Not a lot of info at the site, but I'll look for it.

Wow, good to know. I didn't try that, just had the idea on the back burner after reading accounts of that process. I'll not pursue that method, no. After getting some call-out service, I'll be covered. I may just wait till my next trip to the U.S. to get a Voice account, get one on the up-and-up.

No, not accurate. There's no 'citizenship test' for acquiring a Voice account/number. (And it is available in some other countries in addition to the U.S.) In the U.S., to make an account you would have to be present, or fool google that you are (VPN), and have a U.S. mobile provider phone number able to receive the code to confirm the account.

So far, seems like it's tough to beat localphone's basic rate for calls to the U.S. I've contacted support at Mytello, to clarify if a purchase of a block of minutes is a one-off buy (with minutes having no short-term expiration period) or if it's based on a recurring monthly subscription model (with the minutes valid for only a month.) Received two conflicting, opposite answers from the same rep. First, he said it was a monthly subscription, the minutes do expire. Your subscription would be renewed. OK. Then I pointed out some info from the same 'U.S. rates' page on their website at the bottom, the details, which said the opposite, that your minutes don't expire. Brought that to his attention, and he changed his tune immediately. 'Yes, it's a one-time buy, not a subscription, the minutes don't expire.' So which is it? Doesn't inspire much confidence. That's for Mytello. Have contacted localphone support with a couple pre-buy queries, no response yet. If you want to make a test call with all these calling outfits seems you have to sign up first, get an account. I guess easy enough, but... Oh, well. Seems the top contenders for replacing the Skype call-out function are localphone, Mytello, Yolla and Viber. And one more that I came across yesterday, DialHard, which is web-based, no app. Want to look closer at that one. Will have to get something in the next couple days, as my Skype subscription is gone now. Ended yesterday or Sunday. No more Skype. Had a 16-17 year run with them.

Yeah, looks like your count is accurate, if counting April 4th as day 1 of the new time frame. But it doesn't matter. Could look at it this way, you got a one-day 'bonus' on your 90.😉

Yeah, who knows? I set up the new account on the laptop, via the google web site, and got going on the Voice set up, again via the website. But when it came time to confirm the code, it fizzled. I was actually looking at Sim cards on ebay and noted at least three sellers who were offering activation, or 'pre-activation' of the cards and shipping them out. That idea popped up here in these forums, a post from a year or so ago? I don't know if the poster actually bought the Sim card he was discussing, but I did. The Ultra sim, $3/mo plan, 100/100 T&T, 100 mb. I went, I guess, 'Cadillac'? The seller would activate it and add $35 credit to the card, so if you stay within the monthly limits it won't need to be 'topped-up' for another 10-11 months. (Have to see what additional taxes, charges, are applied to the monthly drawdown of the credit.) So that $35 is reflected in the cost I paid, which was a tad under $90. And the card was activated, account established up-and-running after getting here. How that's done, I don't know, but it's done and working fine and I've got management of the account now. Some other Sim 'activator-sellers' activate the card before they ship it, and get a number in an area you may not want. The seller I bought from got me a number in my preferred zip/area code. Great to hear it's worked out except for that hiccup you mentioned. Yeah, I'm gonna get that set up. The entire thing that I have experienced, my 'main' number held for five years from TextNow getting zapped, because using it from here violated the TOS, and then about a week later, the news of Skype's pending shutdown is a double whammy. I feel like taking a 'shotgun approach' to covering me to be able make calls when you need to call out to the U.S.

And have you noted your 'next due date' on the APPROVED pdf file? (Was it 'counted' 90 days from the date you submitted it, April 4th, I believe?)

This is correct. Ideally you want to do the online report on the first day you are allowed to. And that is two calendar weeks before your due date. Either that day or the next one is the best time to do it. The email, don't wait or look for it. (May end up in the junk folder, too.) Note your due date. Going to the date two weeks prior to it and doing the report that day seems to be the path to APPROVED land!

I don't know about that subscription. My read from what's being reported is that it's not going to be an option, at least in my case. I don't have credit. I have had a monthly subscription, of some kind, whether it be a 'world' or 'U.S. subscription', unlimited calling, for 16, 17 years. They're not renewing those subscriptions. People who have credit, who have used Skype that way, they might be able to do something within the Teams app, but even that seems unclear at this point. Teams is geared for more for business and corporate customers. The individual customer who wants to make 'calls out' is not really welcome there, that's the consensus emerging from what people are reporting. Did you use the Tello app? Do you make an overseas call first calling a local number here--as some of the outfits seem to operate--or you dialed directly to the overseas number? Many (maybe all?) of these providers and/or apps give you a chance to make a sample call. Good idea to do that before deciding to go ahead with a purchase.

First, great reply, thanks! I did this a couple weeks back. On the laptop, VPN, in conjunction with a friend standing by in the U.S., ready to receive and relay the code from his mobile. (I didn't have a U.S. mobile number, more on that in a minute). In real time, just prior to the code being sent to his phone a popup scam warning message appeared on his end. I said, 'hey, just go ahead, disregard it', he did, told me the code which I inputted on my end here. Nothing. Failure. Nothing 'registered', and I don't have an idea where it went wrong. My friend was not really enthused about making another try after that. Yeah, it did it all. Sideloaded the app in preparation for getting an account, and did the set up of Voice on the laptop, had even chosen the U.S. number. But it failed, for whatever reason, along the way. The code receipt/relay point was where it seemed to come apart. I then learned about acquiring a 'short time' number or SMS service to facilitate receiving the code directly, to set up a Voice account while outside the U.S., but haven't/didn't pursue it. This! Yes, and I have done that. In a roundabout, but direct way. Again, the friends there, just about everyone has an iphone, and they are locked to their postpaid service provider plans. (AT&T seems to the carrier of choice.) Mention Sim cards to them, activating there, mailing to me here...nah, it's not gonna fly. They don't quite grasp the concept, but nothing they ever have to think about, right? But I don't think they'd be able to activate an Ultra, or T-mobile Sim, anyway, and I realized that. (I've never had a 'contract' phone service, always unlocked, a 'free agent' so to speak, going prepaid, just my preference. So swapping Sims is something I do. So I kind of forget about limitations imposed on many provider customers in the States, friends among them. 'Oh yeah....you couldn't do it, anyway.' Good news is on ebay I bought that same $3/month Ultra Mobile Sim you are talking about from a seller who was able to activate it there, in effect providing the activate there and send to me here service. Just got it, just got it set up, and I plan soon to try to get a Voice account using that Ultra Mobile number for receiving the code. Maybe today or tomorrow I can try that. Great to have the Ultra Sim, but still need the Skype replacement for my needs. (Because the Ultra sim is limited in minutes, and for those times you are 'waiting' in a queue, you wouldn't want to use it. (And calls received count against the monthly limit as well.) One catch about Voice, though. It seems is they can dump you if you are not careful about usage from overseas. Exclusive usage from overseas could be dicey, or maybe not. I don't know. But some people have lost their number over this issue. So in that regard it's not fail-safe as Skype has been. I will try out one of the call-out apps that utilize wifi-calling. It's worth buying minutes or credit and take a shot. Talk360, I think with them you can buy a batch of minutes at a single time, and they are good for 18 months. 250 baht for 740 minutes, they offer that. How it all works in actual usage, maybe just make an account, buy that and find out.

I know that. But I do not have a google voice number. Have you been able to set up a google voice account while being in Thailand? I've been trying, with assistance from a friend or two in the U.S., and still not able to get it going. If you have any advice on the steps to successfully set up a google voice account while overseas, and not present in the U.S., please advise, myself and others would like to know.

Ouch! That is far too much to contend with. When you put it like that, with all the breach of your info, well...then a bank transfer is preferable. But even that leaves me skittish. OK, I saw one outfit, can't recall off the top right now, but I can locate it, and I think it is SIP-connected. They were offering 500 minutes for $2.00. And not a monthly subscription type plan but a one-time purchase. I contacted support, asking if there was any expiry of the minutes, i.e. did they have to be used within a certain time frame or expire if they weren't used? Got a reply saying the minutes never expire. 500 minutes...that is probably enough for me to cover me for 6-8 months, if not longer. Now, is that a 'too good to be true' offer here? I'll look a little closer at that one, see what the catch is.

Thank you for your reply. I've seen your thread and posts on VOIP on the forum. You have an abundance of knowledge and expertise in VOIP technology, you are the go-to guy on VOIP in this forum. Even if some of the info is going over my head, I'm still learning a lot from your contributions. I had not really known anything about SIP until a few weeks ago. Yet, it's been around for a long time already. And seems to have a lot of potential to be the answer here, for being able to make the calls to numbers in the U.S., and at a good rate. That said, the tech seems to be more oriented toward heavier duty, for businesses and calling from computers. I'm strictly mobile, not making calls from a computer but from a mobile phone. But it is good to see some niche for mobile calling in the SIP eco-system. Anyway, the bank transfer mode of payment you mentioned here isn't an attractive option, for me at least. I'd just prefer to use a credit card. I assume there are going to be some SIP providers (or clients, is that the term?) who accept payment on a U.S. credit card. I have downloaded the Linphone app, and a couple other 'work with SIP' apps, but haven't proceeded with any of them yet. Callcentric is another outfit, and I saw that customers can 'rent' a phone number, which comes at a cost of about $3/month. OK, something to consider. If you want a number, which I really don't need. I made some of my last Skype calls yesterday. I told one customer service rep at some point during the call that I was calling on Skype, from here. She was surprised. I asked her what was showing up on her end as to where the incoming call was from. I did not hear a clear reply, and it wasn't that important anyway, as we just carried on with the business at hand. Oh yes, the scammers are out in force. Skype worked like a charm. There were even many months when I didn't make any calls, but it was worth it to have the subscription and keep it because when you did need it, it was there and was reliable. That's what I'd really like to replicate.

I have read through the posts in the other threads. And I agree, those three are among ones that look promising. Have you used any of the three? Off the top Viber seems like the one that might correspond best with what I had with Skype.

Seems to be several. Some of the friends already have a Voice account, so they're not able to make a second one, as their mobile number, which is needed to receive the code for creating the account, is already tied to a Voice account. Google limits Voice to a single account per mobile number. ("Got an extra Sim card laying around?" Haha. Wouldn't make a difference anyway. Everyone's on a 'plan' with their phone locked to a provider.) There might also be an issue of where the google account which is going to be used was created. That seems to have caused an issue, of whether a google account--not the Voice account--was created here or created in the U.S. Haven't solved that yet. Then some, especially iphone users there (and of my friends there almost no one uses an Android phone, they all use iphones) are hesitant about the whole process of making a Google account, downloading the Voice app, and making the Voice account, in whatever order the accounts are made, then receiving the code...lot of people, my friends, older folks, are just not versed in this stuff. (And my older friends in U.S. are all on 'unlimited talk and text' plans these days anyway, so the idea of the need for other calling apps doesn't really register. Even when you try to explain it.) I'll add, some people in the U.S. are just very hesitant about their numbers being used for things. I know that they have been dealing with spam calls over the years, and really have an aversion to the spam-o-sphere. Folks are just plain tired of all the spam and want to mitigate it. Understandable. Not easy to overcome concerns (unfounded or not) their number being used in this manner might result in them being vulnerable to spam calls, or worse, or a security risk. I don't know. But it's been tough to get Voice going. Not giving up yet, though.

Skype's imminent shutdown has spurred users to scramble to find alternatives, and soon. There've been many suggestions and recommendations about what to replace it with, in these forums and comments, articles elsewhere. But many services/apps are not really appropriate, not quite geared for what my Skype replacement needs are. I've had a Skype subscription, without a 'Skype number', for years. It allowed unlimited dial-out calls to the U.S., to landlines and mobile numbers, auto-billed at $2.99 a month. Good deal, good service. I used Skype just about exclusively for these dial-out calls via the app on the phone. I don't use it on the computer. That is all I want to replace. Whatsapp, Line, Facetime, Messenger, etc., no, they don't do it. So many of the suggestions to replace Skype focus on other things. And many are geared more toward business, or promote themselves as such. I am searching only for a replacement that'll allow phone calls to U.S. landline numbers--necessary for calls to financial institutions and service companies, government offices and businesses--and mobile numbers. Don't need video calling, don't need texting, don't need other international calling (only calls to the U.S.), don't need to receive calls (so no need to have a 'my number'), don't need it to receive codes. I get it that many Skype customers who have accounts that provided them with a phone number are now in a quandary. They want to keep the phone number, understandably so, and get the number ported to a different service. I don't need to, though. Many articles what to replace Skype with tend to feature how the replacements work using desktop, rather than mobile. It's a bit bewildering trying to sort through the seemingly hundreds of options that exist. Google voice would be great, but I've not been able to successfully create an account (yet), even working together with a friend in the U.S. TextNow and TextFree (both which give users a U.S. number, by the way) are also difficult to get set up. Again, working with a friend in the U.S., but have not gotten it going. And if they are able to determine your location/device outside the U.S., or VPN use, the account gets zapped. (I may not be tech-savvy enough on these matters.) The same applies for a number of other U.S. call oriented apps, such as TextMe and Talkatone. In the past few weeks I have learned about SIP for the first time. Maybe that's the answer, but I still need to learn more about it. 'Softphones' in association with a SIP account seems a possibility. I see reports of scam operations out there, though, every time I look into a provider. It's quite a wild, wild west out in the VOIP world. If anyone knows of a basic, no-frills service/app, able to facilitate calls to U.S. landline/mobile numbers, at low rates, something that would be competitive to a soon-to-be-defunct Skype 'U.S. subscription', please feel free to share. If you've got the tip on how to get some of the above-mentioned apps set up for working here, that is good too.

On the money, it's a good idea to have it, for the just-in-case scenario. The cash doesn't have to be in baht, it can be an equivalent amount in a foreign currency. If you've got them, seven $100 bills beats twenty 1000 baht notes for ease of carry.

That's a drag. I'm assuming we're talking about CW. Even when things are running smoothly there it can take 3, 4, maybe 5 business days. Even though once in a while you get a day or two-day turnaround from submitting to APPROVED. They did announce the system was going to be down for a few hours, in the very early AM one day last week. ('Maintenance' was given for the reason.) You haven't gotten a rejection yet, so that's looking at bright side, if you can call it that. Those tend to come back sooner rather than later. Some people suggest giving them a call, and perhaps at smaller Immigration offices that works. Don't know if it would be effective at CW, but maybe it's worth a try. I've never given them a call, so can't advise there. As long as you submitted no more than a couple weeks from the due date, just hang on. Maybe by tomorrow late afternoon you can get the all-clear.

U.S. passports, 10 years from the date of issue. Concept for us of getting 'extra time' for an early renewal doesn't come into play. Again, for folks living overseas maybe it's better to think about passports being good for 9 years plus change. That takes into account a few issues. The '6 months validity' for international travel, and the time frames these days for hoops-jumping renewals. And for those living here and are inclined to remain on their annual 'extension schedule', thus getting the full year, a new passport ahead of going into year 10 on the current is a good idea. (But you could also plan the renewal to change the date of your annual extension, if you find doing that to be advantageous.)