kinyara

The lag time for me going to make the appointment in mid January was 2 weeks. As posted above by Safety First you only need your passport and licence with you first trip, full documents on second date.

If you mean reserve an appointment online, then yes it can only be done in person.

I'm not saying it's potentially millions but it's a reasonable market. I know many 50+ retired/semi retired/self-employed people who used to come for the Nov-April period when the visa situation allowed it. Now they restrict themselves to at most 90 days with the allowed 1 local visa extension. If longer was available they would take advantage of it, and this is a group who I would say have decent spending power in general. 60 days extra from just 1 person is equivalent to the average length of stay of 10 tourists from the near Asian markets regardless of comparative spending rates.

Australia was 16th in visitor numbers last year, and you're accusing TAT of being clueless.

A lot of the adverse news stories here, isolated as they are in the proportional grand scheme of things, are more like personal nominations for a Darwin Award as opposed to being events materially affecting other tourists. Judging by the continued/renewed popularity of Pattaya it would seem the hundreds of thousands of visitors who have trouble free enjoyable trips are capable of making that distinction.

Some decent posts at last, I wonder how many of the hysterical have actually sat down and done a ballpark calculation of how little tax they are actually likely to be liable for here. I already knew from a few minutes back of a fag packet calculation after looking at the local allowance and rate thresholds my liability is negligble and not worth busting a gut over. I'm more interesting in clarification of the technicalities, such as my relevant Double Taxation Agreement, and I've no doubt that will be clear by the time I have to file in March 2026 in my case.

That's one option, for me it was more practical to transfer in enough pre 31st December 2023 so that no further transfers were required in 2024. I figure that buys me 1 and 1/2 years for the specifics to be clarified. I've already got a TIN from working here several years ago.

No idea, but it has passed me a few times in the Pratumnak/Dongtan area and I'm sure there have been different people driving it, it's one you tend to notice.

No I meant it would have cost me around 1,500 anyway for everything doing it myself including petrol, so I was paying an extra 1,500 for the agent obtaining the documentation from immigration/doctor certificate, online test and them picking me up and driving me out there and back a couple of times from my place. I don't know if guys using agents for renewal/extensions have to be there, I do immigration myself.

RIP. Having wrestled with the visa choices in my late 40's as the ability to stay long-term became harder, I'm always a little surprised when you read of situations where young people have managed somehow to achieve that, in this unfortunate guy's case presumably for some time since his 20's.

Don't know when you last went to the driving licence place but if not recent you might be pleasantly surprised next time, as I say I noticed a big improvement since my 5 year gap when I did indeed do it myself. Believe me I'm the last person who would use as agent without carefully considering the extra cost/benefit to myself and I would never try and persuade anyone else either way. This is the first time I've ever done it for anything for a couple of main reasons mentioned, but also in pure money terms I think factoring in a couple of petrol trips it would have been around an extra 1,500 baht, which I looked as 300 baht a year given the 5 year term. Paying circa 13,000 baht annually for a visa renewal to a place I can walk to in 10 minutes is a whole different ball game and not something that even enters my thinking.

Correct, from what I've observed an agent knows what they are doing and speeds up the process often handling multiple applications, in my case the person was assisting 5 people in total. Seating was not at a premium because 1 extra person was there, unlike the situation in the main body of the Jomtien immigration office. I don't speak Thai and haven't found language a barrier at immigration, and to be honest the clueless sorts that I've observed having a problem, if they are accompanied are accompanied by a local who appears to have even less of a clue than them. I thought a lot of agent activity re immigration meant the foreigner doesn't physically have to attend the office so there is no additional burden on the limited space.

Are you worried about your safety here, what particular thing is it that you fear from the time you get up in the morning until you're tucked up safely in bed every night that would make the safety in other countries at all relevant to you ? Are you thinking of moving to London or New York ?

Was up there yesterday renewing my 5 year car licence and was impressed how much better it was organised compared to the last time I visited - I wish immigration would follow suit and only allow those applying for something into the building rather than the girlfriend/family outings that clog the place up. I do everything official myself but this was a rare occasion I decided to use an agent for convenience. It's not every year and 2 trips out there now door to door service and avoiding a crowded high season immigration office for the residence certificate were the justifications to myself.

News report today says the guy is Sri Lankan and he left the country 2 days before the authorities visited to check everything out at the residence yesterday.

Tune in for another riveting episode of Jackanory from Captain Fiction.

We've gone from the Armageddon of a couple of years ago to normal service resumed, some close some open for any number of reasons, nothing to get excited about. The only significant difference of note I've seen is all the Cannabis shops taking up the empty units.

" Why do you want to go into the police son, is it because you want to solve crimes and enforce the law " ? " No Dad , I fancy being in charge of running the country's airports "

Interesting : TAT - 35 million ( 27 million Non-Chinese + 8 million Chinese ) Ministry of Sports & Tourism - 40 million Looks like TAT are the realists again like the last 2 years.

You don't gain anything delaying your passport renewal, I'd apply asap. With the 7 days after leeway on your 90 day report you've still got until 14th Feb to submit at worst.

What a bizarre take on the situation couldn't disgree more. Everything about his return and procedure to release just reinforces the fact that the contitutional/legal/justice system is being used/manipulated more than ever for political expediency by the establishment elite.

The decision on Pita's shareholding case is due this month, not sure I'd be viewing the Chidchob decision in isolation in this instance.

Even though I've got my driving licence I still rather travel with my passport internally, it could be something as simple as my bank card being eaten by a machine and needing to get cash across the counter.

😁. It's a popular spot. I remember during the quiet times of the recent past just further along on Dongtan I came across on my morning walk a full crew filming a martial arts scene for a Thai TV programme/movie. There were a few people around but the crew were very relaxed regarding the curious onlookers like myself that were there. Strange watching the action without the soundtrack. 😁

There are quite a view GBR variation options in the nationality box, friend of mine inadvertently hit the wrong one and got rejected although the rejection message actually informed him that was the problem and he re-submitted. 😁