richardt1808

One of the criteria when assessing the application for permanent residence is the payment of Thai income tax. In order to to qualify as a 'resident' for tax purposes, you need to be in the country for at least 180 days in the tax year during each year that you are on your work permit. I'm sure that you could safely spend several months out of the country during the year with no problem, but as Joe mentions above, there would be questions if you were away for extended periods of time. If it were a BOI company, they may be more lenient in some respects, so it may be a good idea to talk to a Lawyer who has BOI experience.

Best of luck !

Every taxi and Uber driver in Bangkok will know how to get there - the location is at Chaengwattana Road, Soi 9. For Uber, just pin the location above as the destination.

Agree with Joe. You shouldn't have a problem with immigration when you arrive. Enter on your US passport and complete the arrival form quoting the first name in that passport. (Have the other passport handy, in the unlikely event of a question).

When exiting the country, you will be questioned because the immigration desk will check that your name on the boarding pass matches your US passport, so you will need to show the other passport and explain.

Perhaps when booking the ticket, you can put your US first name as your middle name on the booking, which will help eliminate questions.

I have a different view to the first response. You are permitted to work while your Work Permit application is being processed.

I recently had a vaguely similar situation. My current work permit was valid until July, but due to not receiving my new passport in time, my extension of stay expired along with the validity of the old passport; so after a long discussion with a senior official at immigration, I was advised that I had to physically leave the country before the expiry of the old passport because extensions cannot be transferred to a temporary travel document. So, I had to fly out and wait a week for the new passport to arrive, and then get a new NonB in the new passport before returning to Thailand, which, they explained, would also require a completely new work permit. So we then had to do a fresh WP application which was duly done last week and I am now waiting for the new WP to be processed.

Thus, in theory by returning on a fresh NonB, you would be doing something similar and as long as your school is happy to support a fresh WP application, you should be fine (ie you would be working while your new WP application is being finalised).

Yes, there are always varying degrees of the meaning of the word 'resident'. Just take it to mean that you should be currently staying in Thailand; which is logical since you will need to sign and submit the documents for a minor.

If you have been renewing the WP every year, then why would you have a new Non-B Visa ?

Normally, the process is that you request a one year extension of your old NonB, based on having a WP; then you have your WP extended accordingly. The dates on the WP should line up with your visa extension date.

Hi Andre,

I am in a similar situation and have also lived here for more than 10 years, so packing up and jetting off to SA to wait for the new passport would be ridiculous. My work permit is valid until June, but my passport expires in February and thus my permission to stay also expires same day as my passport. I applied for my new passport in November, so the new one definitely will not arrive before the existing passport expires. Quite unacceptable.

The South African Embassy can do two things for you: First, they have a standard letter which confirms you have applied for your new passport and which can be shown to Immigration to at least prove the validity of your situation. Second, they can issue you with an emergency travel document which is supposed to have the same validity as a passport, which is valid for 3 months and costs B 300; but it does require you to have a valid air-ticket as proof of your departure within those 3 months. With this emergency travel document, you at least won't be on overstay and when the new passport arrives, you should be able to do the transfers from your old passport without too many questions.

I will be collecting my letter on Monday and applying for the emergency travel document at the same time and then our HR department will help me negotiate the next step with Immigration.

You can PM me with your contact information and I'll keep you updated.

Best,

Richard

16GB is your RAM. Nothing to do with data storage.

You have a 500GB storage drive of which you have used 138GB and there is 362GB free. Simple

Hi,

I have also lived in Thailand for more than 15 years. I work in a large Thai multi-national company and there are several people in our Finance department who are really good with formulas and linking data from multiple excel sheets. With regards to actual macro programming, I thought I was the only one in the country who could do that - but I now know that, including you, there are at least two of us !

Advanced Excel is not something I have seen taught anywhere here and I think that the biggest reason is probably because Thai finance people generally don't speak English very well, so doing a little self-teaching via Excel forums is beyond their level of capability. It also boils down to the way most Thais are taught. Thai education focuses on 'rote memorization' ie. a learning process that involves repeating information until it's remembered verbatim. This means that Thai students are often brilliant at recalling lists of facts or reciting complex theories which have already been taught to them. However, they are often NOT taught how to think for themselves and come up with unique and untried solutions to problems. It is very unusual to find people who can 'think out of the box'. I am generalizing here, but I'm sure you get the point.

I have no complaints about this though, as I love the fact that many of my colleagues sit in absolute awe at my ability to complete tasks in a matter of minutes that normally would take them days to do; or how my team of workers are continually able to come up with new and better ways of solving simple problems that they simply haven't taken the time to think through in a logical fashion. It is skills like these that help to make us indispensable and we should enjoy the fact that most others don't have them.

Be aware that if you change the colour of your car to a new colour, you need to have your records adjusted at the Land Transport Department and you should have a valid reason for doing so. A friend of mine had to jump through all the loops and he vowed he would never do it again.

Thanks for the great suggestions guys.

We had an electrician over who was great. He replaced the breaker with a 10A one and did current draw test, plugging items in one-by one. The wife forgot to ask him if the screw on the old breaker was loose, but I opened up the panel again when I got home to check the others. He must have tightened them all as they were all rock solid. The receptacle in the old breaker was black and slightly pitted, so It looks like it was indeed a loose screw.

Many thanks !

Hi,

I had the same thoughts as you a while back and was trying to choose between a 525 or Mercedes C180K. I spoke to my wife's uncle, who runs a car dealership upcountry as I thought his opinion would be particularly helpful. His advice was:

If you are buying second hand, you are safest with Honda and Toyota in terms of reliability, repair costs and re-sale value. Mercedes is okay, provided you can find a good private mechanic. BMW, in his opinion, is like a crying baby. It continually demands attention and no matter how much money you throw at it, there will always be some new problem the next month. I went with the C180K and it served me very well for 5 years, but I did take a huge knock on the re-sale value.

There are thousands of BMW for sale around Thailand, and almost zero demand because of the reasons mentioned above. Unless you have your own diagnostic unit, or a really reliable private mechanic, I would forget BMW here. But, if it is less than two years old and being sold with Motor-plan - that's another story.

Cheers

Your post sounds like the breaker has tripped and you did not notice that some device/appliance is off, no dead plugs?

That would be strange indeed. Are you sure you have checked everything?

Hi, thanks for the reply. I did a quick check when it first tripped last night, but I will do a thorough check of every socket and appliance as soon as I get home.

It is rather weird

It looks like that circuit is drawing a lot more that 20 amps, the insulation has melted when the circuit tripped causing a surge of elecricity to arc as the breaker closed the circuit, what are you running on that circuit?

You need to find out exaclty what is running on that circuit, things to look for is Air conditioner and hot water system as they should have a separate 25 amp breaker each.

what else do you have that will draw more than 20 amps?

Let me know.

Hi,

I traced all of the circuits when we first bought the house. This line runs only to normal outlet sockets in 3 rooms. The following items are the only things that are connected:

LCD TV

VCR

Cable TV Set-top-box

WiFi router

2 lamps

All our AC units, stove, laundry equipment are each on different separate circuits; all with their own breaker. I will double check to see if there are any sockets on the same line which I may have missed, but we were really rigorous during installation of all high-current items, so its definitely nothing like an AC unit.

Good morning all,

On the weekend, one of the breakers in our house tripped and on opening the panel, I realised it is not a straightforward case of an appliance tripping a breaker. As you can see from the pic, the wire from the second (20A) breaker has actually fried and the insulation has melted. This indicates to me that the heat was coming from the breaker itself, and not a short elsewhere in the wiring. Any opinions from electrical gurus on this ?

Background info: Although the breaker is rated at 20A, the only things running on the entire circuit was a 42" LCD TV, a cable TV set-top-box and two lamps. The house was built by a very reputable Thai building company 4 years ago and we have been in it since day one. The wiring is very professional - European style with proper earthing on all circuits. Do I just replace the breaker and see if everything runs okay ? (obviously we will need to trim the burned section of wire and feed it so that it reaches the breaker).

Thanks for any ideas !

In my opinion, you cant go wrong with Honda in Thailand. The dear network and standard of service is excellent, and Honda have the top resale value. For a family run-about, going second hand will save you a ton of money and you will be able to 'buy-up' in terms of features.

Look at unseencar(dot)com and you will find plenty of one-or two year old cars there at significantly cheaper prices than new models.

The actual fees charged by the Labour department have already been given in a post above. However, many companies use agents or Lawyers to execute all of the required steps as it is a very time-consuming process with loads of documents required and many hours standing in queues. My company has HR staff who are well qualified and able to all of the tasks, but because of the pure time involved, we prefer to just pay an agent to do the job as it saves a lot of headaches and many of the agents have a good relationship with the officials concerned so things just go smoother.

Any reputable company would not pass this charge back to their staff as it is a tax-deductable expense for the business, but many companies don't seem to have a problem with doing it. It is not illegal, and since you have already agreed to the deduction, you don't have much recourse now. Fees are not refundable, so the short answer to your question is, no.

It's all very well blaming the drivers - and I agree that drivers in Thailand are amongst the worst in the world. But, a lot of the blame also goes to:

1. The police for never enforcing traffic laws

2. The metropolitan authority. Many crossings don't have any warning signs or traffic lights.

3. Idiotic pedestrians themselves, who simply don't bother to keep a lookout when they are crossing.

I have taken some time to read your post and also your replies to some of the other posts.

I see a big inconsistency in your story: On the one hand you say that you are simply 'helping' your gf and that she has the skills and ability to do the job; and that you will just be providing guidance and money. BUT you are the one posting all the questions on this forum, and it is clear that actually your gf does NOT have the skills and ability for this, or else she would have done the research already and she would have the answers for you.

It is clear that you are an essential part of this business plan because you are the one doing the research and will be the one who does a lot of the planning and important duties for the proper running of this business. You are not permitted to do any of this on a Tourist visa - you will require a work-permit. Note: even unofficially 'helping' your gf would be considered as work, so it is a must. Any suspicion on the part of immigration that you are in fact working, while pretending to be here as a tourist will result in you being denied entry, or possibly being deported if you are found to be working, so if you have serious intentions about stable future here, you will seriously need to make sure that you have the correct visas and work permits. And no, just being married to a Thai does not automatically entitle you to this. I think that the visa issue is going to be more of a problem for you than the business side, so you need to factor this in your planning.

In order to get a work-permit, you or your girlfriend will need to establish a Thai registered company and employ the required number of staff. Then you can apply for a work permit, either as a company manager or director. If I remember correctly, the actual job of 'Tour Guide' is a restricted occupation in Thailand, so you would need to make sure that your job description is something more to do with company admin etc.

Best of luck

It doesn't matter what the vehicle type is, one of the golden rules for highway driving is that one should, at all times, try to match the speed of the cars around you. When we are all travelling at a similar speed, the risk of running into a slower vehicle is much lower. That is why minimum speeds are also enforced in most first-world countries. There is nothing more dangerous than a stationary or slow moving car on a highway.

Now, also factor that a cyclist is totally unprotected. In the case of an accident with a car or truck, there is nothing between his body and 10 tons of fast moving metal, except a cycling vest and a plastic helmet. One mistake and you're dead.

It just takes just a second of lost concentration on the part of a truck driver for his vehicle to move a few centimeters into the other lane - and those cyclists are all toast!

Whether or not Thai traffic law permits them to use a highway instead of the frontage road, I'm not 100% sure, but what I am 100% sure of, is that if they valued their lives, they would be as far away from the main highway as possible. Forget about the frontage road even - take the scenic route; enjoy the views and arrive alive.

In my opinion, the key point is not so much the fact that the car wasn't assembled in Thailand, but rather that you have on your hands what is now a 10 year-old car, and it stands to reason that maintenance costs will begin to kick in and escalate. From this point on, the longer you keep it, the less value it will have and the harder it will be to eventually sell it when you are ready to buy something new. The fact that it is an import, only exacerbates the maintenance costs involved and if it were me, I would definitely be looking to replace it.

Honda has an excellent re-sale value in Thailand and you should have no problem selling it on the second-hand market and buying something new, or at least newer. I sold my 7 year old car a few months back by advertising on Taladrod (dot) com which is a website for private sellers. I got 300,000 more than what the dealer was offering as a trade-in, so I was able to get a new Honda for cash.

beTV was showing absolute rubbish and unlimited repeats. Anything new would be a step up!

Go to RC Groups here: www.rcgroups.com/forums/index.php

Scroll down to the forum called Multirotor Talk and spend a week reading up as much as possible.

You can probably pick up a Phantom 1 or Phantom 2 off ebay for around 500$ and there are plenty of camera gimbals sold separately too. The video from Phantoms is borderline professional if edited well, so that may do it for you. Post your questions in one of those threads and you will get advice from plenty of guys who spend a lot of time on this hobby. If you go to the DJI website, you will find loads of videos and tutorials too which will give you plenty to think about before you part with your money.