TallGuyJohninBKK

I agree... I have no idea why they're doing it... at least for me today, and certainly for others at various points in the past. Some people here seem only to be able to think in absolutes... Either they must always require it or they must never require it... Unfortunately, in my experience, Immigration has never been so consistent in that way, office to office, and officer to officer. YMMV.

No, my reports on that issue over the year have varied...if you'd actually been paying attention. The first time (2019 or 2020) I was asked for it, after not providing it. The next year I provided it on my own without being asked. Last year I did NOT provide it as a test, and wasn't asked. This year I did NOT provide it as a test, and was asked.... Is it any wonder that there's confusion and conflicting reports on just what BKK CW is doing with this. From my report last year (2022): "1. Although I had copies of my latest 90-day report receipt and TM-30 residence form stapled inside my passport just in case, the IO handling my retirement extension application didn't ask me for copies of either, unlike a past visit to BKK CW two years ago. But I'd bring them anyway, just in case." https://aseannow.com/topic/1272406-2022-trip-report-for-retirement-extension-via-thai-bank-deposit-at-bkk-cw/ Which, turned out to be good advice in my case for this year's return visit.

My recap above also noted that LAST YEAR I too wasn't asked for the TM30 at BKK CW... This year, I was.... YMMV.

Not paying attention again... As stated above, it was the retirement extensions officer handling my application who raised and required the TM30 photocopy... not the documents check officer.

When the officer first asked, I thought she was asking to see my rental lease, which I had with me as a standard precaution... So I pulled it out and showed it to her... And that was NOT what she wanted... When I then asked, "Do you mean TM30", she replied yes, and I pointed her to the TM30 sheet stapled in my passport, which she unstapled and copied for my extension packet. YMMV.

I've heard tin foil hats are very effective in preventing the spread of cashless societies.....

And a LONG silence ensues..... ????

The Thai government giving a more or less free, one-time handout of digital money as a political bribe of sorts hardly equates to fomenting a "cashless society."

So my wife is "registered" for government purposes at her family home upcountry. But we've lived together in Bangkok for 10+ years... So the upshot I'm hearing here is... she'd be entitled to get the money, but couldn't spend any of it in BKK, and would have to travel 600 kilometers north to do so?

Really??? Within 4 km of the house? I'm guessing there must be some strange logic in that... But for the moment, it escapes me.

Was successfully able to obtain my new annual retirement extension and an accompanying reentry permit today out at BKK CW. OVERVIEW: And although I had everything correct and in order on both counts, the day was one of the worst I've experienced at BKK CW in my many years of living in Thailand. It was a tale of very good and very bad. The retirement extension part went surprisingly quickly and easily in about an hour from the time I sat down to wait at about 9 a.m. with an L section queue number of 24 (and they already were serving #10 at that point) until I got my stamped passport back about 10 a.m. But the reentry permit process was an entirely different story, where I started out at 10:10 a.m. with literally 100 people in queue ahead of my number (I was #171 and they were at about #70 when I sat down to wait), and didn't get my stamped passport back until 3 p.m. (almost FIVE hours after starting that process), at which point there were still 130 more people waiting to get their passports back from the reentry permit area. I had thought about trying to schedule an appointment on the Immigration website for one or the other of the two services.... But both were fully booked up for about a week ahead of time, and I was in a hurry to do my renewals, as I wanted to complete them before any potential increase in the bank deposit financial requirements for retirement extensions (something Police Gen. Big Joke has recently publicly talked about proposing to the new incoming Thai government). So I went ahead without any appointment today on my own, and ended up paying the price for that decision, at least as regards the grueling experience in the reentry permit section. Lesson to be learned, if planning to schedule an Immigration service appointment at BKK CW, try to book it well in advance. Just by way of comparison, for the prior 4 or 5 annual cycles at BKK CW, I typically have been able to start when the Immigration Office opens at 8:30 a.m. and be done with both extension and reentry permit by or before the noon lunch break. But got nowhere close to that today, and I have no idea why the reentry permit section was so rammed as it was. RETIREMENT EXTENSION: Everything pretty much as usual there and not seemingly as busy as it's been in the past. One important highlight to note: I intentionally did NOT include a copy of my 5-year-old TM30 residence report in my retirement extension paperwork packet as a test case, and the officer handling my case specifically noticed I hadn't submitted a copy and asked me for one (even though the one I had was already stapled into my passport along with an old TM6 airport departure card (which the Immigration staff told me I didn't need to keep anymore and could discard). The officer also told me I needed to include the copy of the TM30 along with my latest 90-day reporting receipt (which I had included already) in my future extension applications. Last year, the same folks didn't ask me for a TM30..... One thing that I found kind of interesting... Because I had free time to wait in the retirement extension area before my queue number was called, I decided to go down to the so-called Document Check cubicle just behind the front customer service counter and have the officer there look thru my paperwork -- something I'd never done before. And as I said above, all of my paperwork was fine (the checking officer didn't call out the absence of a TM30 copy), but she did order/organize my documents in a specific way, which I'll list below just for interest's sake: In order: --my original passport and my original Thai bank book. --the completed TM7 form, with my photo pasted on the reverse side and my phone number written at the top of the reverse side of the sheet. --the 4 single-page signed misc. statements and Immigration rules sheets. --photocopies of my passport facepage, original visa page, and most recent entry stamp page --photocopy of my most recent 90-day reporting receipt --printout of a map showing the directions to and location of my home. and finally, --my original Thai bank letter (no more than 7 days old) confirming my 800,000+ Thai bank deposit, followed by photocopies of my bank book pages covering all activity for the past year. And the bank book itself needing to be updated with some transaction on the day of my Immigration visit, and that last update reflected in the last photocopy. --all of the above signed with my signature toward the bottom of each page. I mention the ordering in particular because when I saw down with the retirement extension officer a few minutes later, she made a great point of telling my wife in Thai that my paperwork was in "perfect" condition (other than the missing TM30 that she had already received from me) and how she wished all her other customers organized everything so completely and correctly... So, she was happy, and I was happy, and I quickly went on my way. Other odds and ends: --wasn't asked for a copy of my last TM6 airport departure card, which used to be a staple item of retirement extension paperwork, until the government stopped issuing them to incoming air travelers. And the Immigration Officer I asked told me I could throw away my old TM6 and wouldn't need it any more. --was able to file my new retirement extension application more than 30 days in advance of the expiration date for my current extension, so BKK CW is still sticking to their policy of allowing you to apply up to 45 days prior. --Immigration fees remained unchanged for my two purposes -- 1,900 baht cash for the retirement extension, and 1,000 baht cash for the single entry reentry permit. TRAVEL: For the second time, the wife and I took the BTS Light Green Line from Central Bangkok out to the relatively new Wat Phra Sri Mahathat BTS Station, which is at the intersection of Chaengwattana and Phahonyothin Roads. From there, it was about a 20 minute and 70 baht taxi fare both in the morning and in the afternoon to/from the Government Complex. The best exit to take at that BTS station is Exit #1, where you emerge on a roundabout that leads to Chaengwattana Road heading in the direction of the Government Complex. We left home in central BKK about 7 a.m. and arrived at the Government Complex at about 8:20 a.m. after the long BTS ride and then the ensuing shorter taxi trip. The one thing that made me a bit nervous about going via that BTS station is when we were walking toward Exit #1, there was only ONE taxi parked waiting along the curb, and I was afraid someone else was going to grab it first leaving us waiting... But everyone else coming out of the BTS Exit 1 this morning had other travel plans, and we were able to catch the lone waiting taxi. The trip via BTS and the Wat Phra Sri Mahathat Station (along with the ensuing taxi) is probably somewhat cheaper that our normal default means of travel to BKK CW, which is taking the BTS Light Green/Sukhumvit Line to the Mochit Station, and then a taxi from there to BKK CW. Unlike Wat Phra Sri Mahathat, there are always dozens of waiting taxis at Mochit..,. But the ensuing longer taxi fare there, and potential expressway tolls, make it a somewhat more expensive trip. But also usually a quicker one overall than the 1 hour 20 minute duration of our trip today. TRAVEL PS: I noticed the new Pink Line elevated rail line that's almost complete (but not open yet) running along Chaengwattana Road and also intersecting with the BTS Sukhumvit Line's Wat Phra Sri Mahathat Station. So some months into the future, if government promises are kept, you'll be able to transfer from the BTS Green Line there to the Pink LIne and use it to travel along Chaengwattana Road to a station just a bit beyond the current Soi 7 entrance to the Government Complex destination, meaning a taxi trip there is no longer required, if that suits you.

You do realize, Thailand is filled with so-called "universities" in name, including many low-caliber government ones, that aren't much more than what we'd consider high schools back home. It's not like the academic curriculum at most of these places is comparable to Harvard or Stanford, and past experience tells me there's plenty of young Thai "uni" students perfectly able to balance and manage their school studies and extracurricular pursuits.

Some girls and their families choose to play the so-called "long game," which typically results in the family looking for you to fund / purchase a new house for them, car or cars and misc. other belongings -- if you want to stay with their daughter after a certain point in time... But you gotta be reeled in securely, first.

And I-Phones, clothes, cosmetics, nights out, etc etc for themselves... You know... all the important stuff!

I chat with my Thai wife every day... That's more than enough "chatting" for me! ????

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think so.... Beyond the headline reference and a brief reference in the first paragraph, the entire full linked article has absolutely no details or information at all about anything regarding the supposed Indonesian drug gang or the supposed notorious human trafficking network operating in the Sa Kaeo province. But, the article does have a terrific second paragraph where author should win some award for being able to squeeze the names and police ranks of FIVE senior officers -- who most likely had little directly to do with whatever arrests occurred -- all into a single paragraph! Glad to see they're focusing on the important stuff, and not worrying about any of the details of what the report was actually supposed to be about.

Another great Thai journalism effort that tells everyone exactly nothing about most of the pertinent details of all this: Such as: --10,000b per person or per family? --digital money meaning what exactly, some limits on how/where it can be used? --the unexplained reference from one in the article talking about being from a different province and thus not sure they'd qualify? --nothing in the article at all about where the government's planning to cobble together the money to pay for these handouts. etc etc etc.

Nice attempted deflection, but one that obviously avoids the key issue that the prosecutor handling Hunter Biden case is a Trump U.S. attorney appointee who has publicly said, and told Congress, that he has been free, and had the authority, to pursue the case as he has seen fit...without any interference.

Close enough for government work.... ????

What mattress?

Without serving any meaningful part of their actual sentence? I've never heard of that kind of exception in Thai law. Do you have a source for that that you can provide a link to?

I wonder if anyone has told them... having "MUT" as the acronym for your contest (note the OP photo) probably isn't the best choice! ????

The one standing up (I'm assuming last year's choice) looks a bit on the masculine side.... ???? But the "crouching down" tiger lady shown above does look pretty nice, IMHO.

The Washington Post is reporting that Thavisin has been elected as the new PM, via the following emailed alert: Thailand chooses compromise prime minister after military blocked election winner for months after the vote "Thai legislators appointed Srettha Thavisin of the Pheu Thai Party as prime minister after Move Forward, a progressive party that won the country's May election, was blocked from forming a government by pro-military groups. The vote coincided with divisive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra's return from self-imposed exile." And (the latter below may be behind a paywall): Thailand just chose a prime minister. He’s not the one people voted for. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/21/thailand-thaksin-pheu-thai-election-srettha/

His will be Dolce & Gabanna jewel encrusted.