Pib

Specifically where does it say above? You got a weblink? My quick review of the US Embassy - Bangkok website shows below...see weblink and quote. It says 4 to 5 weeks for a passport renewal....it "use" to say 2 to 3 weeks but as announced by the State Department, news articles, etc., the passport issue/renewal times have slowed for various reasons. Probably manpower/contract funding issues. https://th.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/passports/adult-passport-renew/

@fvw53 Glad it worked out....that is, switching from a marriage to a retirement extension. What is your servicing immigration office? Also, you opening post indicated for 10 years you used the Bt400K deposit method two months before applying for your annual marriage extension, but in your latest post am I understanding you right that you were instead using the monthly income method for the last 5 years OR you just know if going the monthly income method at your immigration office it would have required legalization, blessing by the gods, etc.? But if you were using the Bt400K deposit method, why would your immigration ask for source of income proof.....source of income proof is usually only requested by some offices when doing the monthly income method. But of course, some immigration offices do seem to make every effort to make extensions hard and can pretty much ask for any document while others seem to be very flexible in approving extensions without paperwork which must be blessed by the gods. I did a marriage extension of stays for 3 years at CW (Bangkok) using the Bt400K and they never required proof as to the source of the income....that is, where the Bt400K came from. They only required the bank letter confirming I indeed had a Thai bank acct with X-amount in it on day X and a copy of the bank passbook showing the balance never dropped below Bt400K during the two months before the extension application date. Anyway, glad to hear it worked out. I never found the additional docs to get a marriage extension as in comparison to a retirement extension as "too much additional durn paperwork" since it didn't take too much effort to prepare that additional paperwork each year....but my servicing immigration office (i.e., CW) never made it hard. Cheers.

IMO a person should never wait until 6 or less months before renewing their passport because some countries require at least 6 months left on a passport when traveling to that country AND you want to ensure you have your renewed passport in-hand well before any important event like an annual extension of stay. Renew 9 to 12 months before especially when renewal can take numerous months. Yes, I know, that effectively turns your 10 yr passport into a 9 year passport due to renewing around a year early, but at least it can prevent major problems like not having enough time left on the current passport. There is no time limit as to how early a person can renew their U.S. passport....you can renew it years before expiration if desired.

BoI must have heard me.....as of 10am/4 Apr the LTR website is backup (for how long who knows).

It's getting harder and harder to logon......seems the LTR website uptime reliability has been going down hill....quite often down for many hours or down for days....like it was down for a couple of days very recently. And it's been down since mid afternoon yesterday/3 Apr......still down as of 9:45am/4 Apr. But yesterday, before it went down again my acct still showed Complete. As of 9:45am/4Apr2023

Yea....those are fiber optic trunk lines.

Yeap....for our regular Bangkok Bank accts where the wife or I are single owners we have the accts setup for "co-signatory" as you described above. Ditto at Krungsri Bank. Now a note for anyone with a special/restricted Bangkok Bank acct to receive U.S. govt pension payments via the ACH system like social security, military retirement, etc., you can "not" setup co-signatory for that kind of acct.

Hey, this is good in at least two ways. 1st: this will make opening a bank acct with Bangkok Bank or Kasikorn Bank easier if you have an LTR visa. No need for a letter from your home country embassy, resident certificate, etc., that Thai banks have increasing been asking for....especially Bangkok Bank. And I think it also shows Bangkok Bank and Kasikorn Bank are putting out a welcome mat to LTR visa holders as they know BoI, Immigration, and other govt agencies will have thoroughly vetted LTR visa holders and the higher than average income an LTR visa holder often processes. 2nd: it looks like the BoI is now starting to enhance the BoI LTR web site.....starting off by starting a "Manage LTR Visa" section which I'm sure will expand with other helpful info.......hopefully make it more like BoI SMART website which offers a LOT more visa practical/management info.

The medical insurance requirement if doing a retirement extension on an underlying OA visa is a bit complicated at "Phuket Immigration," but the Phuket Volunteers website has an explanation with the date of OA visa issue AND entry into Thailand being key. A set of rules & dates that can make you have to read their requirements several times in an attempt to understand (at least for my pea brain). See weblink and partial snapshot below. https://piv-phuket.com/long-stay-extensions/retirement/

While above ChatGPT response is correct, don't totally rely on ChatGPT for answers. When ChatGPT was announced on AseanNow this week I gave it a try. I asked three questions.....it got one right (can't remember what it was now).......couldn't answer one (dealt with the location of a small U.S. town....and I even gave it the U.S. state it was in on the second try)........and got one wrong (how many U.S. military services). I then asked the same 3 questions on Google and got three correct responses on the first try.

Yea....in 2019 just before and right after the change went into affect quite a few folks on AseanNow thought people issued an OA visa "before 1 Oct 2019" would be grandfathered. Grandfathering was one of the questions I asked during my meeting at CW and was told no grandfathering would be authorized although Phuket (and maybe a precious few small immigration offices) is the only immigration office that ended up allowing grandfathering. Yeap....some folks thought immigration would "surely allow grandfathering of the medical insurance for pre-1 Oct 2019 folks" as it was the descent thing to do although the policy did not address grandfathering. However, but, TIT where immigration policies can sometimes vary from immigration office to office....national standardization really does not exist....or should I say policy flexibility exists and varies especially if using a visa agent.

Yes, many married folks with an underlying OA visa switched from retirement extensions to marriage extensions beginning in 2019 when the OA visa insurance came into effect 1 Oct 2019. I was one of those folks. And many others killed off their OA visa and got an O visa instead to avoid the insurance since an O visa extension does not require medical insurance. I still remember well the day in mid 2019 I went to CW (Bangkok) immigration to ask about the upcoming OA medical insurance requirement change as the pending change had been leaked several months before the official change was published. I had a set-down, face-to-face 10 minute meeting with an immigration officer at CW to ask various questions about the upcoming change. One question was can I change from doing an annual retirement extension on my old, underlying OA visa to doing a marriage extension to avoid the insurance? The answer was Yes. So, that is what I started doing since I didn't want to go thru the process of killing off the OA visa and then getting an O visa. No problem in doing a marriage extension of stay with an underlying OA visa. Well, no problem if you have a good Thai spouse which I thankfully have. ???? AseanNow weblink to OA Retirement extension of stay medical insurance requirement effective 1 Oct 2019 https://aseannow.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=874628&key=3ac22c8aa0266ccc9402b52fd4b76675

Para 2.22 Retirement extension of stay of the immigration regulation specifically says medical insurance is required "if having an underlying OA visa," but para 2.18 Marriage extension of stay does not mention a medical insurance requirement and also does not mention of type of any underlying visa type. So, you will not find a reference that says medical insurance is not required for a marriage extension of stay....since there is no reference that means insurance is not required.

Just to add my ditto. I originally retired to Thailand under an OA visa and did around a dozen extension of stays based on retirement....no insurance required. However, around 2019 when Immigration started requiring medical insurance for anyone using an underlying OA visa for their annual retirement extension of stay, I switched to a marriage extension of stay which did "not" require insurance with the underpinning OA visa. Did three marriage extensions of stay with the underlying OA visa....no medical insurance required.

The Boi LTR and SMART visa websites are back online as of 31 March at 10am Thai time. Or at least for me they work. Edit: and from looking at both for a few minutes I don't see any changes/upgrades "info-wise." So the down time over the last few days was not due to upgrading info to be displayed a user....I sure was hoping the BoI was going to upgrade the LTR website to display a LOT more practical info, Q&A, etc., like the SMART visa website displays. Oh well.

This is the main BoI website I was referring to....it's up. But the LTR and SMART visa websites are down. https://www.boi.go.th/

Even the BoI's SMART visa website (below) is down as of 30Mar/7:52pm Thai time. But the BoI primary/generic website is up. In the past whenever the BoI LTR website was down (which was often) I would check the SMART visa website and it was "always" up. So, maybe the BoI is doing maintenance/combining/revamping "both" website? I sure wish the BoI would upgrade the LTR website to at least equal the amount of info on the SMART visa website as the SMART website has a LOT more info on obtaining and "maintaining" a SMART visa to include things like how to do the annual address reporting. https://smart-visa.boi.go.th/smart/index.html

As to whether to enforce laws or not maybe the RTP codes laws as: - Yes...always enforce - No...never enforce - Sometimes...with no rhyme or reason

More info/details regarding Dept of State Federal Benefit Unit (FBU) responsibilities/operations/management/funding/manpower/etc., can be found at: 7 FAM 590 MANAGING A FEDERAL BENEFITS UNIT (FBU) 7 FAM 510 INTRODUCTION 7 FAM 530 SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

Doubtful it helped. The Manila SSA FBU just happens to be a federal agency located in the Embassy, but is not part of the Dept of State which embassies fall under. The FBU is part of the Social Security Agency. Now of course the FBU would have to follow certain rules set by the Embassy, but manpower, funding, and policy is set by the SSA; not the Embassy.

Checking below Dept of State webpage will give some passport status....at least tell you if the Passport Center has completed/mailed back the new passport to the embassy. But unless something has changed if the Passport Center has already completed/mailed back the passport to the embassy, the last status a person will see on the site is that completion/mailing date to the embassy; it will not show any status after that such as the embassy receiving the passport and remailing it to the individual. https://passportstatus.state.gov/

I don't remember where I got them....I just have them saved as phone contacts now...saved when the wife and I applied for SS years back. They probably use to be listed (and maybe still are) listed somewhere on the main U.S. Embassy - Manila website. If are calling "from" a U.S. number it can make your call free since you are calling from one U.S. number to another versus having to pay like calling from your Thailand number. Sometimes when calling the numbers one or both might just ring and ring...but most of the time the interactive system answers after a several rings. Good luck....sounds like you are close to be officially recognized by the U.S. govt as an "Ol' Geezer"...and pay comes with that bestowed title. ????

Yes...keypad works. I just called 28 Mar at 9:35am Thailand time. When I pressed 3 per the interactive recording it connected me to the SSA FBU. I don't know what numbers you are calling but here are two U.S. numbers that rings at the U.S. Embassy Manila. 202-370-6497 202-370-6642

"Traisulee added that the top government agency which received the most complaints and feedback was the Royal Thai Police,..." RTP is so busy arresting themselves or covering tracks they don't have enough time to work public complaints.

Not if not registered in the Thailand marriage database.