billd766

Hi

Just a quick question if anyone can help.

If i am successful with a settlement visa for my wife do we have to remain in the UK for 2 years or can we come back to Thailand when we please or will this make her visa void?

only plan to come back maybe 6 to 8 weeks a year so we can see friends and family.

cheers jim......................

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I think that she has to stay in the UK for 9 months every year and she will not be able to run the 2 x 3months that she is allowed back together (ie 6 months).

The UK embassy in BKK has an email address that you can write in to for clarification, but I can't remember what it is though you can find it through Google.

When I had to renew my support visa in September our son was in hospital and my wife stayed with him. We got the hospital to write a letter explaining the circumstances and Immigration granted a 2 week extension. I suspect that the same will apply here though a month or 6 weeks may be needed.

I remember a few years ago a very light plane travelling around the world with 2 (count them) 2 people on board.

They took the record.

Hot air baloons have gone around the world as well.

But this flight had the maximum fuel laod and only 39 people on board.

What will impress me is if it can do the same trip with a full load of passengers, crew, baggage and a fuel load of fuel in a good commercial time regularly.

Otherwise it is just another commercial advertising stunt and little else.

At 60 most blokes are shooting blanks, if anything at all.

Ever thought of checking DNA

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Hi Kurgen

I am now 61 and my Thai wife was 40 on Tuesday of this week.

Our son is 15 months old.

DNA?

It worked for me.

You don't need a car inspection at Land Transport to re-tax your car.

You should be able to re-tax by post.

If you want to move the registration to KPP then you must first apply in Bankok and they will inspect the car and send the papers to KPP.

Then you have to go to KPP office for another inspection to get it registered there.  Not sure about cost so will let someone else answer that.

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Thetyim, are you sure about this mate? When i transferred the car rego from Bangkok to Chonburi, i didnt have to go to Bangkok . Did it all in Chonburi.

billd766, might be easier if you wait untill you need to renew your license for the change of address on license.

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Thanks for the info guys.

I have to go to Bangkok next week so I will get a friend to come with me to the Sukhumvit office and see if they have any idea. My licence doesn't expire for another 3 1/2 years.

This has been discussed extensively earlier. I just add what I always say - get a Dtac GPRS Edge aircard, or Edge capable phone connected to your computer.

Not that great for surfing multiple sites at the same time but "straight" download speeds are impressive - 120-140 kbps seem to be the most common in the past few days and it goes upto 200 kbps when downloading music off P2P.

You can use Google Earth - impossible on dial-up or simple Gprs.

The only downside is that Edge covers only Central Bangkok.

Another option is Hutch aircard - it's slower but covers all of Thailand, and it's a lot cheaper.

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Actually this is not correct at all.

As you say, Edge only covers Central Bangkok, Orange up country only covers the main roads and the cities, Hutch and CDMA is fine again in the cities and on the main roads.

That leaves about 80% of Thailand on DTAC and AIS.

Probably 60% of the population live in this bit and a lot of them don't have access to a land line anyway.

This is what I do for a living worldwide and the average cell site covers about a 10km radius, less in cities where there are more sites and a bit more in the flat country. Hills and water affect the signal a lot.

The cost of an average cell site including buying or renting the land, building works, tower errection, fencing the site in so nothing is stolen, power and then the equipment cost is around $75,000 to $100,000 and that is for a small site. Add in running costs, site expansion for more customers and maintenance (it does happen) and then you find out how much a network costs.

Then every 4 or 5 years new technology comes along and if you are lucky you can

use some of the existing buildings but the rest of the equipment has to be paid for.

Lucky you. We have been waiting for over 2 years for a line.

I use AIS GPRS at 350 baht for 120 hours a month. Best times are early morning and mid afternoon and sometimes later in the evening but not always.

Well I just finished my breakfast - two yummy salabao moo sap with sweet chilli sauce, that I managed to get by chasing the little dude on his motorbike hooting my horn to get him to stop he was going so fast!!!  And a big mug of coffee.

And what a bargain too!  5 baht each - I am set to go for the day.

So, what exiting things did you have for breakfast today?

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1/2 a fresh melon and some toast.

Tomorrow will be fresly picked pineapple from the land and more toast with Earl Grey tea. I can't get into coffee really.

My wife does not wake up until after the first coffee and a Marlboro lite. She is cutting back on the smokes but it is hard.

About a year ago I moved from Bangkok to upcountry near Khampaeng Phet and I really ought to re register my car up here and change the address on my driving licence.

If I don't then I have to go back to Bangkok every year so that the Excise department on Sukhumvit road can inspect the car before I get the new tax for the year and it is a pain.

Does anybody know how to do this?

Thomas

I am in Thailand.

I actually don't care about BST in the UK and if the time on my TV postings is not correct, then Mai Pen Rai.

A good point! I have found that men that truly have the need for Viagra and other such medications to be smokers, and your post supports that. This is based on my observation of working with men for ED. The ones that did not smoke often had 90%+ improvement after therapy. Very few non smokers had less than 60% improvement. The men that should the least improvement tended to be smokers with only 10% to 40% improvement. As smoking is a major player in CVD, this all supports the same. This finding is based on roughly 300 men I have worked with. Just another good reason to give up smoking. However nicotine will make you want to give up sex before giving up smoking.

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I acually gave up smoking 35 years ago.

Been married twice, one child from each marriage. I still think that sex is over rated.

RDN Posted Today, 2005-10-29 22:39:02

QUOTE(billd766 @ 2005-10-15 16:10:55)

...Sorry about that but I needed both hands to spell with.

*

No problems Bill, you spelt it correctly - w, i, t and h. blink.gif

I do have an extremely active and agile probocis as well.

billd766.

You are obviously better informed and more eloquent than I. And I therefore direct OP to refer and act upon your informed response.

Blimey O'reilly. I see you have a friends daughter working in the Inland Revenue. Enough said!!!

You know what billd766. I haven't understood a word.

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Most of the information I have offered is from 12 years of experience in talking with the Inland Revenue and the National Insurance people.

If you are tax exempt in the UK and you have a pension that you pay UK tax on there is a chance that you can claim the tax back.

I did last year and it worked and I am going to again this year.

Also the Inland Revenue offer an online taxation claim form and if you pay normal tax and you are overseas you can do it that way.

The last tax year I overpaid by £60 and got a refund about a month after I filed my claim.

billd, do you know if the pension is frozen from the time you become non-resident or from the time you stop paying, i.e. possibly 65.

For example. I am 50 next year and hope to retire to LOS. I have 33 qualifying years paid up so far. If I pay another 11 years I will have the full 44 qualifying years. Obviously i wont get paid until I am 65 but will I get the monthly pension based on the amount it is when I leave the country or will I get the monthly amount of what it will be in 11 years time?

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As far as I know you can change from paying class 1 contributions to class 2 or class 3 depending on your status. I was based in the UK but from 1992 until the present time I have been working internationally. It meant that I was permitted 90 days a year in the UK with a maximum of 180 days in any tax year. This did not include the day I arrived or the day I departed, any training courses in the UK were exempt as was any medical treatment.

This made me tax exempt except the international company that I worked for introduced "hypothetical" tax at the UK rate to pay for any taxes I incurred working in another country. However I was never able to obtain any details of tax paid anywhere.

I went contracting in 1998 and the Inland revenue agreed that I could pay the lower NI contributions at the class 2 rates.

Now I will try to copy some of the other posters information to see if it can help.

Posted Today, 2005-10-28 01:32:58

From the horse's mouth:

http://www.pensionservice.gov.uk/

The best information you can get and they are very helpful.

Seen all,learnt nothing Posted Today, 2005-10-28 09:07:30

To clarify a few points made by other posters.

UK state pension is payable to anyone who has minimum 11 qualifying years of National Ins. contibutions (currently slightly different for women). Pitifully small pension though. If OP has been in continuous full time education or employment he should have about 16 years, so already OP could be entitled to a small pension at 65.

Max pension is obtained with 44years. Between 11 and 44 is on a sliding scale.

You can continue to make NI contibutions whilst in Thailand. Current rate 6.95GBP/week for Class 3 for we idle ex-pats (in some circumstances working ex-pats can pay lower Class 2 but don't know details so I won't guess). You pay annually, or less frequently as you can defer payments for any tax year up to 6 years.

Billd is incorrect. There is no govt proposal to increase retirement age to 70 (sure they'd like to though). Govt. want to encourage people to voluntarily work longer and in return for deferring payment of state pension they will get a higher pension (or maybe it's a lump sum). They will not pay NI contibutions on reaching 65. This may even have started.

I was not sure if there was actually a proposal on the floor or if it was just a discussion. I have been out of the UK since 1991 and I am not as up to date as I should be, mainly because I really don't care about the UK anymore.

The rate paid at age 65 is same for someone with same level of contibutions whether you are resident in UK or Thailand. It is then frozen for Thailand residents (i.e. no cost of living increase).

This I do know through the Pensions department.

Baht Simpson Posted Yesterday, 2005-10-27 22:16:32

billd, do you know if the pension is frozen from the time you become non-resident or from the time you stop paying, i.e. possibly 65.

For example. I am 50 next year and hope to retire to LOS. I have 33 qualifying years paid up so far. If I pay another 11 years I will have the full 44 qualifying years. Obviously i wont get paid until I am 65 but will I get the monthly pension based on the amount it is when I leave the country or will I get the monthly amount of what it will be in 11 years time?

There is a difference between non-resident and ordinarily resident. and as far as I remember non-resident basically means you have quit the UK and ordinarily resident means that if your work is done overseas due to your job requirements then you are ordinarily resident if your company had work for you in the UK.

A fine line distinction but tax exemption comes into it somewhere along the line.

I have been working overseas since 1992 and I have forotton how it happened but it is possible.

At the end of the day you can use the pension service website to learn about your NI contributions but you have to go to your income tax office to learn about being tax exempt.

Hopefully that makes things a little clearer.

Please accept my apologies if I am not totally correct as NI and Income tax is a minefield for anybody to walk into.

My friends daughter in the UK works for the inland revenue and even in her office nobody knows all the answers.

Never put property in the wifes name

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Unless you trust her. Then you can buy up tens, hundreds, or more rai of land, no worries.

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And of course if you do not trust your wife then why did you marry her?

Four years ago I was carrying 400,000 baht in my bag from the Bangkok bank near Sathorn to the Ford dealers on Sukhumvit 62 to pay the deposit on my car, but my bag was never further than a couple of inches away from my body, and last month I gave my wife 200,000 baht to put in her bank and I know she had a death lock grip on her bag.

We were lucky plus no toilet stops.

Hi guys, this may seem like a silly question to those of you in the know but here goes...

Im thinking of staying out here and working as a teacher, at this point I do not know how long for. Retiring out here sounds great but if I work out here until retirement age (what is retirement age here?) will I still be able to draw my U.K. pension? Im 31 at the moment and was wondering what the situation would be as if I stayed in Thailand I would not be making U.K. contributions.

I imagine the answer to be a definite "No, obviously" but Im under the impression that if you are a waste of space on job seekers all your life in the U.K. you will still be entitled to a pension! If that is true then would I still be elligble to a U.K. pension? Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Welshtony.

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Actually Tony the answer is yes with reservations.

To qualify for a UK state pension "at this time" you need to have paid in to the Social Security fund a total of 44 years worth of contributions and these can be class 1, 2 or 3 and you will receive a state pension which can be paid into a UK bank or even by cheque to you over here. However the cheque will take some time to clear.

Also your pension will NEVER increase as there is no reciprical? spelling agreement between Thailand and the UK as there is with most EU countries and some others.

I am 61 and there should be very few problems for me as I have paid up all my contributions.

However in your case at your age it is like predicting the lottery numbers 5 times in a row correctly.

I understand that the present UK government wants to:-

a) gradually increase the retirement age to 70 for men and possibly for women as well

b ) they want you to take out a private pension scheme as they want to cut back on the pension benefits as much as possible as the pool of security paying in is being exceeded by the pool of people taking their retirement pension and these people are living longer so the government will need more pension funds from a smaller workforce.

c) A different government in the UK may change things but in your case there may be another 6 or more elections and who knows what party will be in power then and what their policies could be.

d) companies don't want people to work for 50 years and then draw a pension from the company for the next 30 or so years so they only want a hardcore of permanent staff and contract out if necessary or even export jobs to another country. A prime example is LloydsTSB bank. I live in Thailand and I cannot actually speak to anyone in my branch in Jersey as I cannot get a local number. I ring the phone bank and more often that not I speak to a very nice lady who is actually in India and can't help me anyway.

At this stage in your life you are too far away from retirement to even think of government pension plans.

There are other threads on this forum dealing with teaching, what you can or cannot do, how much salary etc.

There is one today and with the current exchange rates and a good degree you could make between £500 and less than £1000 a month.

Best of luck and I hope that this makes things a little clearer.

Altrernatively google UK pensions and see what you come up with.

It seems from your post that you live in a condo. Does it not have a facility called a kitchen or even a fridge where you can prepare your own food?

The ones I used to live in always did.

Alternatively think of it this way. Don't eat and don't get fat.

Go hungry, millions of people do every day and they don't have a choice.

I feel so sorry that you are in this situation.

I am 61 and I have NEVER hit a woman in my life no matter how mad I ever got.

I talked about it to my wife and she said that if I ever did hit her one of two things would happen.

1 She would walk away instantly and come back with friends to take her stuff or

2 I would never be able to sleep at all for the rest of my life because of what she would do to me at some point in time.

What I suggest to you is that when your friend is relaxed and happy explain both scenarios to him. Also invest in what used to be caled a Louisville Slugger or more commonly known as a baseball bat. If he should be so foolish as to hit you again smash one of his kneecaps and he will NEVER do it again to anyone.

I know what I have suggested is wrong but believe me it is effective. After all you are only defending yourself against his violence.

Well it is an interesting situation and a good idea for your niece to stay and help.

I live up country with my wife and 15 month old son and I used to work away a lot.

We have an old friend who lives with us and her 3 1/2 year old daughter so my wife is not without company. However last month we had another friend and her 3 month old baby, now gone back, my wife' brother, sister in law and their 3 year old son, now also gone back.

This week we have my wife's niece about 15 staying for a while as it is the school holidays, her nephew 12, another brother and her Mum and Dad. All of them except the niece will be going back this week.

Fortunately we have a big 3 bedroom house, a smaller one and 15 rai for us all to fit in so it isn't too bad, though I find early morning around 0630 and after 2100 is a nice quiet time.

Also we have to take a couple of the dogs to the vet to get them neutered as we now have 7 dogs and 9 puppies but some of them will be gone soon.

The biggest problems we have are toilets though we do have 3 and I am thinking of replacing the washing machine with a commercial one next time as we seem to go through a lot of water.

My advice to you is to take on your niece and live with the rest of what happens. You will gain a lot of Jai Dee which down the road a while will come back to you. You will also be able to say to yourself I put something back into my adopted country by helping a young Thai girl get a better life.

Not all of the stories you read on TV are horror stories and there are a lot more you don't read about because they are happy and contented people and have integrated into their local community and a lot of the time nobody realises that they are farang because of it.

Go for it is what I say.

I must admit at times though I am thinking of building an air conditioned toilet with some books and an internet connection at the bottom of the garden and it will only have ONE key.

I married my Thai wife and explained to her that part of her wifely duties was to keep the place clean and tidy.

I now have to beat her with a big stick twice a week and she still fights back and wins.

What should I do now?

You can eat off MY clean floors and I am a wizard at ironing. Sometimes the dogs eat my cooking but usually they go and eat at a neighbours house.

i thank you for all your relpys but there is some replys that dont understand my question. I love my girlfreind very much and we are like best freinds and i also get on very well with her family. the question was that if my girfreind god forebid should die before me how can i hold on to my house. the other part of the question is that in order to marry i have been told that i have to sign a document giving up my protection to the house as morgage holder. you see when anything should happen to me my girfriend will have no worrys in the world as i have left a will in the uk that will give her half my works pension every month untill she dies and also the property and the car. the problem is what will happen to me if my girfreind should go before me. i think the only good answer is that i should change the property into a company name in the 1 year time limit that you said. i could also get my girlfreind to make out a will and leave the property to my neice who is half thai and half western and is 17 years old so she can have propery in her name.  I know you may think this is selfish on my part but who is going to look after my future no one and there is a lot of people who have lost everthing. my girfreinds family are good people but it would very foolish to have your future in someone elses hands. it is only commonsense to take this action so i will go and talk with a thai lawyer to see how i can get round this problem. the rights i was taking about was that as a morgage holder no one can sell the propery without the other. i do hope this letter has helped others who might have the same problem. thank you all.

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Please accept my apologies if I offended you by saying that if you value that which is yours rather than giving it to your wife.

Should my wife die before me, unlikely as I am 21 years older, I feel fairly confident that I will be able to stay where we live and look after our son as her family and I are good friends and trust each other. It may be that the name on the title deeds will change but the land and properties will all go to our son anyway. I am starting discussions with a lawyer in the next few weeks to clarify exactly what should happen.

Also should I die first my wife will be entitled to 50% of my 2 pensions and 60% of my UK state pension until she dies. We have joint access to all monies, both mine and hers and have done so for a number of years. If she wished to take everything and tell me to leave she could have done so at any time.

I love my wife and trust her with all I have and that trust has never been shaken yet.

What we have is ours to share and it doesn't matter whose name is on the piece of paper.

I have moved from Bangkok to Changwat Khampaeng Phet and my 5 year license was issued from Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok.

How do I get my address changed to upcountry?

Also how would I get the car registered up here as well because it has to be checked in BKK every year for the tax etc.?

Thank you for your info I will give it a lot of thought. We have been together for over 6 years and the property was bought over 4 years ago with me as the morgage lender. If I have to give up my rights to our house on marrage then its not worth getting married. What about a pre nup with my girlfreind leaving me the money on the house. If you say that I have 1 year to sell it then I can also change it to company in that year. I think this is a big problem that will have to be looked into by a thai lawyer. I dont have anything in the uk anymore and its important to make sure that everthing is ok for me & my wife to be in the future. I thank you all for your help in this matter.

Well Scotsman personally I knew all about this land and house etc belonging to my wife etc and like you I have nothing in the UK anymore.

I have known my wife for 12 years, been married over 5 years and our son is nearly 15 months old,

I made the decision a long while ago that I love my wife and as far as I am concerned I willingly gave my wife the land and property that I paid for and I didn't think twice about it.

If our relationship came to an end tomorrow I would not begrudge my wife and son anything at all because she willingly shared my life with its ups and downs and didn't ask me to marry her and only spends what she neds to spend and has changed my life for the better.

I did not marry my wife just so that I could own land and property in Thailand because on the day I die I cant take it with me, and I want her and my son to have it all.

I married her for love and not for possessions.

If I have to start again without her I will survive but I wont be happy.

Land and possessions are just a means to an end, but a loving wife and family are riches beyond value.

If you have to choose between getting married and keeping what you have for yourself you have just answered your own question. Don't marry her but do explain to her that you value what you own more than her.

OK heres some more info

Serra wireless 750 aircard edge class 12 acknowledged as the fastest available GPRS works world wide and comes with pre-paid sim 40 to 56kbps has anyone used this model

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What is the rough cost and is the Sim AIS or DTAC?

If you are not 100% sure of what you are trying to do, Please P;ease don't do it yourself.

You may find that you have lost everything you ever had and your PC still may not work. Ask around the farangs near where you live for a recommendation for a good PC guy and there are a lot out there. He will save all of your data onto an external drive and format the hard drive, reload a clean copy of Windows and dump all your data back again. If you ask him nicely he will probably let you stay and watch and if he is a good guy he will explain what he is doing along the way.

I am no novice and I have done both of my laptops and my desktop one at a time and it tool me about a day for each, though having my 14 month old son around probably didn't help.

What I have done is partitioned the hard drive and put as many programs as I can on the partition except Windows and some programs which don't allow the choice of drives.

That way if you do have a C drive crash most of you data should be safe as you can format the C drive and the data will be on the other drive.

I wish you the best of luck and I hope that it works out well for you whichever way you do it.