oldcpu

I've been playing more with the TimeKettle W4 pro. GROUP USE with Timekettle W4 Pro: We have a Thai friend of my wife's over for a few days, and they are mostly only chatting with each other in Thai language. On occasions when spending time in the same room as them, with the earbuds on, and if I set the Android Timekettle app (on my smartphone) to "Listen and Speak" (but in listen submode) , any words detected by my smartphone are translated to English , and the translation then sent to the Timekettle W4 pro earbuds. Its pretty good and gets most of the conversation, but not all. There are limitations: (1) Thai-English is an offline language, so there is about an 8 second pause by the time the Thai is converted to text, translated (using an online translation database) and then sent to the Timekettle W4 bluetooth earbuds, and (2) If i want to speak (when in this 'listen-speak' mode, I need to press 'speak' on my phone (or tap somewhere on the earbuds - I haven't figured that out yet) and then any English words I speak are translated to Thai language and come out the smartphone speaker. Again, there is an 8-second pause (about) and while I am speaking and while the 8-second pause (to translate from English to Thai), any Thai spoken is not translated to English, and (3) If set to "listen" in the "listen-and-speak" mode, there is no voice identification. This means all voices in the translation to English sound alike and one has to make an educated guess as to whom in the group stated what in Thai language. (4) the translation is NOT perfect, but for certain I do get a large amount of what is being stated. Reference 'Thai dialect' I can't comment knowledgeably on that. My wife is from the south of Thailand, and her friend is from Bangkok. According to them , they definitely do NOT converse with a northern isaan accent. (5) if anyone thou (other than myself wearing the earbuds) speaks English, the Timekettle in their effort to translate English-to-English (going through a Thai-to-English conversion) comes out mostly garbage. THAI news on TV using Timekettle W4 Pro My wife was watching Thai news on our TV. I was able to use my earbuds to listen to almost all of the Thai news broadcast, with Thai translated to English. ONE-ON-ONE - each with an ear bud in an ear (using Timekettle W4 Pro) One on one use is where the Timekettle really shines. I put the right 'on-you-ear' earbud over my ear, and my wife's friend put the left 'on-your-ear' earbud over her left ear, and we had a decent conversation. Further, our maid (who only speaks Thai) was at our place cleaning, so we tried out the TimeKettle W4 pro with her. Again, I put the right 'on-you-ear' earbud over my ear, and our maid put the left 'on-your-ear' earbud over her left ear, and we had a decent conversation. The maid was most impressed. She has English, French, German, Russian and Chinese clients whose places she cleans and our maid wanted to know how much the Timekettle W4pro cost. Of course, the price was FAR beyond her budget. But THAT had me thinking, and I ordered a relatively new earbud that is 1/5 th !!!! the cost, that does translation, and if that works, I plan to give such to our maid as a gift. Soundcore Aerofit 2 I ordered the Soundcore Aerofit 2 earbuds (as noted above, intended as a gift). They are 1/5th the price of the Timekettle W4 Pro. These Soundcore Aerofit 2 earbuds are known to have very good music play back, and until recently had NO translation functionality. However recently Soundcore pushed out a firmware upgrade to these earbuds to give them an online translation functionality, where early reviews suggest it does a decent job in translation (in comparison to competition). If they work moderately ok, at 1/5th the cost of the Timekettle, I will give these to our maid as a gift. Unfortunately they won't arrive until mid-January next year, so they are more likely to be an Easter gift than a Christmas gift. The Soundcore Aerofit 2 earbuds do NOT have the Timekettle's 'one-on-one' mode, which is the mode that the Timekettle is mostly known for. Also i believe (albeit not certain) the Soundcore also don't integrate with the phone, allowing phone-calls, and social media vocal chats to be translated (unlike the Timekettle which allows such) . ... But I can't be certain yet. I will check this out when these less expensive earbuds arrive. Again, the Soundcore Aerofit 2 original claim to fame was good music quality, so i am rather curious (and skeptical) as to how well it will work with audio translation.

Its not so relevant to me directly - but something rather to note when others ask questions (and when I am tempted to answer). While I am on an LTR-WP, I keep most of my money outside of Thailand, and for years I have been living off money brought into Thailand when I was a non-tax-resident to Thailand. Further, I am lucky that my passive income (from outside of Thailand) greatly exceeds my ability to spend it, and hence i am always dipping into money saved years back - which could be relevant if and when the time comes to restart remitting funds to Thailand. But I know there are many others not as fortunate, there are others who live from passive income pay-check to pay-check, and its useful to know how the Thai RD (and how BOI interpet) the tax rules regarding the LTR visa - perhaps more out of my curiosity and my desire to very accurately assist. I am thou, tempted to contact BoI. I note in the past, they have not always been 100% consistent in detailed aspects ... and they will at times change an assessment when they eventually see such in a different 'light'. .

Assuming such is the new BoI interpretation, I suspect it matters little to most LTR-WP/WGC, as we do not by any stretch live month to month on our income, but rather most of our assets, investments and cash are outside of Thailand. It makes massively more sense for our income to be deposited outside of Thailand where there are better investments Hence its a simple matter of book keeping to show money brought into Thailand was earned many years in the past. Only those who barely qualified for a LTR visa may be affected and need to pay close attention. I suspect if the remittance timing is as you suggest and state is a BoI assessment, it merely gives more support to a more financially sound strategy, to not bring one's money into Thailand immediately ( given superior investments are available outside of Thailand). Still, I would like to see a link showing this change in BoI assessment of RD tax policy for LTR-WP/WGC holders. If these LTR holders do not bring their money into Thailand in the year it is earned, IMHO, that will do less service to Thailand than it would otherwise would if they brought their money into Thailand right away.

Interesting. Was this a direct one-on-one email reply to you, or is it from some BoI public link that can be shared? In the past, going back 18 months, BoI were saying very different things, noting all foreign remitted income tax exempt. Thailand being Thailand, things do change. However given what you advised, that you state you heard from BoI, is not consistent with what BoI claimed in the past, a public link showing such is their new changed assessment would be helpful.

I agree with Jingthing and DrJack54. What Jingthing stated about Double Tax Agreements between Thailand and the source country of your income is very relevant. Let me give you an example (where for this and other examples i assume one is a Thai tax resident). In the case of the Canadian-Thailand Double tax agreement, any Canadian sourced pension or similar (retirement) remuneration, is ONLY taxable in Canada, and NOT in Thailand, even if one remits such a Canadian sourced pension to Thailand to the expat tax resident of Thailand. There are no relevant tax credits involved. Simply put, per the Canada-Thai DTA, Thailand can not tax such Canadian pension type income and hence per Royal Decree-18 such income is exempt Thai tax (and hence not assessable) even if brought into Thailand. However other Country DTAs, for some pensions, ONLY Thailand has taxation rights on such pension. (and in some cases both countries where tax credits get involved). Case in point, German-Thailand Double Tax Agreement, where a regular citizen's German pension (not a civil-servant, and not military), may be taxable in Thailand if remitted to Thailand and if the person's income exceeds the Thailand Tax filing threshold. However German civil-servant/military pensions remitted to Thailand to expats in Thailand are not taxable in Thailand (as long as one is not a Thai citizen). These things can get complicated. So may be no simple answer if you look for details - dependent on your situation. I recommend you look up the DTA of the country of your source income with Thailand, and then I recommend if you have questions (as those DTA IMHO are difficult to read), post questions NOT on this subforum area, but rather on this forum's "Property & Finance >>> Jobs, Economy, Banking, Business, Investments" subforum area.

That is incorrect. BOI - at least to me - has stated that "the exempted income must be earned and brought into Thailand in different calendar years" As I note , there is dispute on this. Some still maintain the foreign remitted income (to be tax exempt for LTR-WP/WGC visa holders) must be remitted to Thailand the following tax year only, and ONLY that year, No other relative year. And they claim any other year (such as current year or 2 years later, when remitted, is not exempt tax if on LTR-visa). And they point to wording in Royal Decree 743 which they claim backs up their interpretation - where they claim there is one relative year, and only one relative year (relative to income earning year), that the tax exemption applies. I don't interpret the Royal Decree wording on LTR-WP/WGC tax exemption that way (where I see such an interpretation as incorrect), but rather I am more in line with with BoI. My view is that the phrase “derived in the previous tax year” in Royal Decree 743 refers to how Thai tax returns are always based on the prior year’s income, not to a restriction on which year’s foreign income qualifies. I believe the Decree is intended to be consistent with the normal tax assessment cycle (where it references the Thai tax law) rather than creating a one-year limitation for an exemption. My opinion is foreign income brought into Thailand while holding an LTR Wealthy Pensioner visa is treated as exempt as long as the visa is in effect. The alternative interpretation, which limits the exemption only to income from one single prior year (when filing a tax return), does not (in my view) align with the timing in how annual tax reporting assesses income for a tax return.

I think Dr.Jack54, when he notes $80K US, is referring to the nominal income needed to get a LTR-WP visa (with no money invested in Thailand). Reference the Thailand assessable income threshold for filing a Thai income tax return, to my mind it is not 100% straight forward. My understanding (which may be wrong), is based on my understanding of current Thai tax law, any expat who qualifies as a tax resident (staying in Thailand for 180 days or more in a calendar year) may be required to file a Thai personal income tax return if their total gross assessable income from all worldwide sources (AND remitted to Thailand in that calendar year) exceeds 120,000 Thai Baht for that tax year. Note the word "assessable" income. Double tax agreements can in cases make some remitted to Thailand foreign income not assessable. Income not remitted to Thailand is not, at present time, considered assessable income for Thai taxation purposes. I think (albeit not certain) this single threshold applies regardless of marital status or income type (employment, business, rental, etc.). While certain administrative form instructions mention other figures for married couples, I believe that this THB 120,000 assessable income benchmark is the definitive legal filing obligation for an individual tax resident. ... I type that with a qualification - noting i could have that number wrong. But ... but ... again, note the word assessable income. This is key and there have been massive (dare i say endless) debates on this forum as to what is assessable and what is not assessable income. The view of most (all ?) LTR-WP and LTR-WGC visa holders, is that any foreign income brought into Thailand is NOT assessable income, per Royal Decree 743. Even that view has some who very strongly disagree, as some claim (assuming there are no relevant Double Tax Agreements) that the tax exemption only applies to one year of foreign remitted income (specifically income from the previous tax year) per their interpretation of the Royal Decree 743. They claim income from any other tax year is not protected by the Royal Decree 743. Others (on this forum and also Thailand's BoI in their statements) and myself (for example) disagree, and we believe it applies to all remitted forum income (if on LTR-WP/WGC) and not just exempt for strictly one year of income. I also note, even some very specific Thailand sourced income is not to be included in the assessable income category for deciding if a Tax return is needed. Case in point ? if one receives large amount of interest from a Thai bank, where that Thai bank previously deducts a 15% withholding tax on the interest, then according to Thai tax law, the tax obligation for that interest is met, and it need not be included when considering assessable income for assessing if a Thai tax return is needed. I suspect many are not aware of that (or even disagree with such) I think it fair to say, there is a LOT of discussion and debate on this topic. I don't think this sub forum the place for such a discussion. My recommendation, if you wish to dive further into it, is post in the finance section of this forum, and not on this immigration subarea of the forum. You likely will create a VERY lively discussion in any such post, as it pulls out the trolls and all sorts of interested parties. Best wishes in your deliberations.

It depends on LTR- Visa type and depends on the income source. If the income is Thai sourced income from inside Thailand, then yes, if you exceed the required assessable income threshold for filing a Thai tax return (from Thai sourced income) you have to file a Thai tax return. If on an LTR-WP or LTR-WC and your only income is foreign sourced as covered by the Royal Decree ( and any Thai sourced income is less than the tax filing requirements), then no you do not.

Quoting myself here ... where i did read of someone who setup a company where they were the CEO, CFO and Treasurer ... ie a legal registered one-person company. Every year, they, per the law where they registered their company, they had to do formal minutes for an annual meeting (consisting of only themselves). In their first formal company meeting, they recorded in the minutes that they were to give themselves a monthly dividend, that on a yearly basis exceeded 80,000 USD/year. That monthly dividend was deposited into their bank every year. After doing this for a couple of years, showing they had 2 years of bank records showing monthly deposits, and they had the minutes of the meeting noting they were to be paid the dividend. Purportedly this was acceptable to BoI. The downside (which they never posted about), is that there is an annual fee for a registered company, and also, dependent on their country of residence, for those two years those monthly dividends from their company, would be taxable to their country of residence. So this may or may not be a financial restructuring suitable for you. If you think it is doable, you could call BoI and ask if a company in which you own shares (own 100% in your case) regularly pays you dividends (and you can prove by bank records) , do these dividends qualify for passive income for the LTR-WP.

To the best of my knowledge, if you can meet the LTR-WP (wealthy pensioner) passive income requirements, then no one cares if you get extra earned income from working remotely. It simply thou does NOT count toward your income proof for an LTR-WP. All they want is proof you meet the LTR-WP requirements. Your active income does NOT qualify as passive income. From the BOI web site for the LTR-WP: Minimum unearned or passive income of USD 80,000 / year at the time of application (Note that earned income and salaries WILL NOT be considered for the personal income requirement for wealthy pensioners) [note: unearned or passive income includes, but are not limited to pension, rental, realized capital gain, dividend, and interest payments ] In the case that unearned or passive income is lower than USD 80,000 but not lower than USD 40000, the applicant is required to make additional investments of USD 250,000 combined in Thai government bonds OR direct investment in companies registered in Thailand OR Thai property Insured under a health insurance covering a minimum of USD 50,000 OR currently receiving social security benefits in Thailand OR deposit and maintain at least USD 100,000 in bank account balance under the applicant’s name for no less than 12 months Many on this forum who express dissatisfaction with the LTR-WP have done so because of the health insurance requirement as much as they have expressed dissatisfaction and have struggled proving they meet the passive income requirement. So bottom line is (1) you need to meet the passive income (your earned income does not count if applying for LTR-WP), and (2) have the private health insurance or the self health insurance to BoI satisfaction, and (3) they likely don't care if you are discretely working remotely via some outside of Thailand job.

I suspect the answer is no, but perhaps others can correct me. Nominally if one is going for the LTR and is working remotely (abroad) one will go for an LTR-Work-from-Thailand-professional. For that LTR Work from Thailand professional variant, one needs to show an employment contract with (1) public company listed on a stock exchange or (2) a private company with at least 3 years of operation and combined revenue of USD 50 million in the last 3 years or (3) a wholly owned subsidiary of a public company listed on a stock exchange or a wholly owned subsidiary that holds 100% of the shares of a private company with at least 3 years of operation and a combined revenue of USD 50 million in the last 3 years. I don't think any of those apply to you based on your post (ok - I could be wrong). To qualify for an LTR-WP (wealthy pensioner) one needs to show passive income and obtaining income from working is not passive income. If you can show $1,000,000 US$ equivalent in assetts (and invest $500,000 US$ equivalent in Thailand) then maybe you could qualify for an LTR-Wealthy Global citizen, but I doubt that will appeal. It has a rather 'high bar' to reach, and it typically does not appeal to many. Further, i don't know what sort of assets are acceptable - and if this is something you would consider than perhaps others can note what they believe that ( 'assets' ) entails.

Of the dozen(s) of translation devices,I only read of one that claims to do that, and I have not read of it in any of the top reviews. So I discarded and deliberately forgot about/ignored it. Where I live in Thailand a weak internet signal is relatively rare.

i have been playing a bit more (with Thai-English) translations with the Timekettle W4 Pro translation device. i wanted to try out the capability of these Timekettle W4 Pro earbuds to translate a voice phone call. It took me a LONG time to configure (to get this working) due to a setting on my Android phone that was blocking the phone call translation of the app. It took me over 2 hours to realize a sort of system setting (related to permissions) was causing the issue. ... i.e. a permission that was NOT in the nominal permissions list. I tested with my Thai wife. On an Android phone, there is an 'overlay' permission or an 'on top of' setting permission (which is bloody difficult to find) that needs to be set for the Timekettle to translate a phone call, where the person calling me speaks Thai (and I hear English) , and I speak English into the TimeKettle's mic (and they hear Thai speech). Its not ideal. Again there can be up to an 8 second delay before the translation starts. BUT if one puts many pauses between words, and speaks slower, the translation (over the phone) works significantly better - where one does not experience the 8 second delay. Also, both parties can be talking at the same time (but being certain to insert many pauses) and the translation works for both, simultaneously. The translation is not perfect, but its mostly ok. I also had the translation working with a voice call over the Line app. Again, the translation is NOT perfect. Some Thai words/expressions my wife used simply made no sense when translated. Fortunately massively more worked than did not work. I want to try with other phone apps using voice call functions (such as WhatsApp) but my wife had some other things to do, so that will need to be tested on some other occasion. Over all, I am moderately pleased. I will thou, if i answer a phone call, have to ask the Thai speaker to both speak very slow, and also ask them to insert many pauses into what they say, in order to get a better translation. The plus side to this, is it now opens the door better to communicate with my wife's family, if i need to do so when my wife not available. Until now i have relied on Google translations of Thai text, pasted into social media Line app and copied out of Line app. I now have a voice translation possibility. I do want to qualify this by saying this is far from perfect. Obviously it is far better if one can speak some Thai.

I am on LTR-WP. I was also denied a tax ID from local tax office as I am bringing no money into Thailand ( I brought a lot in many years ago when I was a non resident). The tax office noted my Pink ID # could be my tax ID if they activated it. But they saw no cause to activate it yet. For foreign and home country financial institutions that are demanding a Thai tax ID ( where I have same issue as you), I give them my Pink ID # with added caveat that it has not been activated yet as a tax ID. They have all accepted that # with no issue.

I have an LTR WP. The LTR # ( nnn/66) was printed clearly on the LTR. Recently for my TDAC I printed something like nnn/66-LTR-P where nnn/66 is my LTR number. I can't 100% recall, I may have put the # after the letters.

The TimeKettle W4 Pro earbuds that I ordered arrived earlier today. So I immediately downloaded the Timekettle app (from the Google playstore) to my Android phone (an old Samsung A53 5G) , paired the earbuds to my phone (using the Timekettle app) and started playing with them. I note the Timekettle app only gets a 2.8 out of 5 (?) on Google Playstore, which is a rather low score. Frankly I have not played enough with the app to comment if it deserves such a low score. The app has worked for me thus far. The 1st thing the Earbuds insisted on doing, as soon as I paired them to my phone, was update the Earbud software. That took a few minutes. I then tested the Earbuds for Thai-English translations (with help from my Thai wife). To say they are superior to Google translate is a MASSIVE understatement. They are far superior to Google translate. I tried the "Listen and Play" which worked, albeit one disappointing aspect for me was for me to speak (and have my words translated to Thai) I had to press the 'speak' button on my phone (or possibly press a speak button on the earbuds - I need to learn that). Then to listen I need to press back to 'listen' (I think). I need to play with this more as I think I an simply tap on the earbud in the appropriate location instead of tapping on the phone. The "one on one" mode of these earbuds thou, is pretty good. I kept the right earbud on my ear, and passed the left earbud to my wife and she placed it on her left ear. Note these Timepro W4 pro earbuds do NOT go in the ear canal. They rest outside the ear. So they don't get 'dirty' and the 'cleanliness' concerns that I initially had are simply nothing to be concerned about. On one-on-one they work pretty good for Thai-English (accurate translation), with some 'limitations' that I will describe. Thai-English is NOT one of the offline languages. One needs an internet connection to one's smartphone for the Thai-English translation to work. I have fibre optic with a very fast internet in my condo in Phuket, and still, there was about an 8 to 10 second pause after I started speaking before the translation to Thai started (and visa versa). However its not as bad as that sounds. If one deliberately inserts a second pause (and multiple brief pauses) in one's speech, the Earbuds will use that as a cue to start the translation process. This means I could talk continuous for minutes (with only short pauses or sentence breaks in my 2 minute chat) and the Thai translation would only lag from the English language start by 8 to 10 seconds. Hence 8 to 10 seconds after I completed my 2 minute talk, the earbuds (where the Earbuds didn't wait for me to finish, but rather they started translating 8-to-10-seconds after the first pause (or sentence end) after I STARTED talking) would finish the translation about 8 to 10 seconds AFTER I finished talking. The earbuds do NOT wait for me to finish talking (to translate) and they continue translating even thou I continue speaking. To get the most out of them thou, in the one-on-one mode, it helps if one deliberately inserts a second or two pause between sentences and also even short pauses during sentences, as this really enables the translation to do a better job. I suspect the more 'brief' pauses one inserts the better. Note this is only after 30 minutes of playing with them. Hopefully I learn more in coming weeks. I hope to try these out some more (with our maid, and maybe with our security guards, who only speak Thai). I hope to try out some other languages over the course of the next few months. But Thai-English is my main use, and thus far I am optimistic here.

Smartglasses for translation: Related to this topic ... but not quite the same ... i also looked briefly (but rejected) procuring smartglasses where some smartglasses provide both audio and image (via an integrated camera) translations. The short summary is - NOTHING in smartglasses for Thai translation appeals to me. The long summary: Of course the BIG negative issue (at least big for me) is typically such smart glasses look very clunky. Very very clunky. The second negative issue is most smartglasses do not provide Thai language translation of images/scenes observed with their camera. I did find one smartglasses that supports Thai language (according to its list of functions): https://www.itourtranslator.com/products/air-translation-glasses However while for some languages the iTour Air support both audio and visual translation, its not clear that they support both. Who wants to gamble? Further, to say those iTour Air glasses look incredibly clunky (and dare i say 'ugly') would IMHO be an understatement. Maybe thou, i am being too critical. Which gets me to the third negative aspect, which was that while the iTour Air smartglasses cost somewhere around $400 US$ (on their non-Asia website) and I did not find them on Lazada and the one's on Shoppee were listed for a TOTALLY insane price of 168,000 Thai baht (although maybe not the same smartglasses - but still, who would pay 168,000 THB ? ) ... . [I note Ali-Express @ 38,000 THB for the iTour Air smartglasses is less than Shoppee, but still, crazy prices] So for the moment, I am waiting for the Timekettle W4 pro earbuds to show up (mail order delivery) and for any sign/text translations, I will continue to use my smartphone's Google translate for both audio and images/text. And after I have the Timekettle earbuds I plan to still use Google translate (with my smartphone camera) to translate text. .

Wow. I have never encountered that. I typically enter the Thai immigration line, immediately after my Thai wife. I cannot see how that ( being in Thai line with my wife) would make a difference. Hopefully your next entry experiences will be easier.

For the OP ... Some years back when on a type-0A, I applied for Thai Health Insurance ( as my superior European insurance was not accepted by Thai immigration). The Thai health insurance company I applied to wanted a medical. I sent them my medical results ( I go for a medical every year as my superior European health insurance covers such medicals). But in Thailand hospitals, in the medicals report results, the Thai doctors typically recommend a number of unnecessary followup checks, to be done months later, .. checks that are medically unnecessary but make more $$ for the private hospital. While my European insurance pays for such later tests , I never go for such as its a pia and more importantly a 2nd informal opinion from my Thai nephew and niece ( both are Thai doctors) , after reviewing my medical report , advised me was such extra tests were unnecessary. They both know private hospital doctors are pressured by hospital management to recommend unnecessary tests that cost more $$ to the private foreign patient who is perceived wealthy. But because I didn’t do extra tests the Thai health insurance company ( which I applied to for my type OA insurance) inserted a caveat in my Thai health insurance that I had a precondition they wouldn't cover. Still, with that caveat I was insured by the Thai insurance and Phuket immigration accepted the insurance coverage despite that precondition caveat. That was years ago. I don't know if true today. If you are healthy enough to leave Thailand, kill off Type-OA by leaving Thailand , reenter visa exempt and apply for a Type-O ( per DrJack54 suggestion) . That approach makes a massive amount of sense to me. If you have a Thai wife then perhaps get your extension on Type OA for reason of marriage ( instead of retirement). No health insurance needed in the marriage extension case ( at least it used to be that way). Good luck.

We are a bit off-topic but I am curious, what border crossing or international airport did you enter? I have an LTR. I have entered Thailand many times on the LTR. I never had a very slow to proccess issue flying into Bangkok. A couple times ( in Phuket only) slightly slow. Why? In Phuket on one occasion ( 1st or 2nd) shortly after getting my LTR visa, the Phuket IO called another IO over to help ensure they completed permission to stay correctly. The other time entering in Phuket the IO called over many other IOs to show them my passport as they had mostly never seen an LTR stamp in a passport before.

In hindsight, back in 1998, I should have gone to a different country (other than flying to Singapore) to attempt to get a Thai visa, as it was difficult to get one then in Singapore (despite my having a good financial situation). However for me at that time, I found it very hard to obtain information on the different Visa options. The Thai embassy in Singapore was not very forth coming for information, and my age at the time being age-44, I believe I had both Thai immigration and Thai embassy staff were concerned I could be working in Thailand (I wasn't - as I had adequate funds then to retire in Thailand on a modest income). Quite possibly I did not try hard enough to find out how to get a better visa then. Doing constant 30-day visa runs in late-1998 to mid-1999 became real annoying after a while. Still, it worked out for the best, as visa runs became so annoying, I left Thailand, moved to Europe, found a great job (with good pension and good subsidized health insurance), and then returned under 2 decades later, retiring in Thailand in 2016 (much better off financially. Perhaps if i had found a better visa/means of staying in Thailand in 1998/99, I never would have left Thailand, and never would have found the great European job, and hence would be worse off today. It can even be a bit difficult to look back and predict things, despite the knowledge we have today. .

My view ... why not use both ? At least in my case, I am fortunate that the money is not an issue.

Chatting with another (not on a forum) who has an audio translation device, they claimed such can also help one learn a language. I can't confirm that myself - but i am just 'saying'.

Interesting. I am quite looking forward to using the translation device I ordered and trying it out. It will be 2 to 3 weeks before it arrives. In particular my hope is that it will allow me to actually understand and maybe participate a bit in Thai family chats and also with the occasional interaction with vendors in various shops. i also hope to be able to use it to chat with our condo security guards, gardeners, maid, and Thai technicians who on occasion come to our condo unit to do maintenance or upgrades. Hopefully , maybe with time, languages such as Thai language will be available 'offline' for translation. At present thou, based on the research that i conducted, there is no device that supports offline Thai verbal translations. If there is no offline 'dictionary', then all earbud translation devices require an internet connection either via one's smartphone (where earbuds connect to smartphone via bluetooth, and smartphone connects to the internet),. Also some earbud devices come with a separate small unit (with processor) that connects to earbuds + to-internet (either wifi or with its own sim(?) ). Hence with internet required, it could mean in some shops where smartphone reception is weak, the translation won't be so good. I guess i will learn which shops have that limitation. I appreciate you passing on your experience.

Well done to avoid the CoR (Certificate of Residence) from immigration.👍 May I ask where do you live (ie which Transport office do you go to for such)? I suspect this is highly dependent on each area's Department of Transportation office policy.