TallGuyJohninBKK

Skatewash, I wonder, is doing the IRS mailed transcript route you mention any different/better than just providing the bank/brokerage a copy of your most recent IRS tax return filing, which hopefully is using the person's U.S. mailing/residence address? But when banks and FIs get hinky about these kinds of things, they usually seem to ask for things that are specifically residency based -- such as home utility bills, home insurance policy, home phone bill, etc etc. Perhaps voter registration as well.

Was it your Schwab brokerage or bank account that was frozen and/or where the U.S. physical address request arose?

If you don't mind me asking, what FI made that very helpful offer of assistance to your Thai wife to handle POD issues in the event of your passing? Even though my Thai wife is fluent in English, she's not fluent, at least not yet, in dealing with or even understanding U.S. financial institutions and all the processes that arise in a POD scenario.

Ahh, I went back and re-read the original Schwab letter you posted in your OP... It appears to have come from Schwab Bank, and not the main Schwab brokerage arm, and thus pertained only to your BANK account(s) with them, correct? And not your Schwab brokerage accounts. Although, if I got a letter like that from Schwab Bank, I'd be a bit nervous that they might eventually end up taking the same action on the brokerage side. Obviously, hope they don't for your sake.

What were the options they gave you in the letter you cited in your OP for confirming your U.S. address? Possible to satisfy their request?

After the original post above, I looked online and couldn't find any current reference to a "Duke's" restaurant at a mall in Hua Hin. Is the new "Living Room" place you mention run by the same people behind the prior Duke's? And, is/was the former Duke's in Hua Hin related to the original Duke's from Chiang Mai?

That's correct... as far as BKK CW's policy re accepting bank income letters.

The link you posted above seems to no longer be available, fyi.

Report: COVID-19 vaccines saved US $1.15 trillion, 3 million lives A Commonwealth Fund study estimates that, through November 2022, COVID-19 vaccines prevented more than 18.5 million US hospitalizations and 3.2 million deaths and saved the country $1.15 trillion. The modeling study estimated hospitalizations and deaths averted through the end of November 2022, at a time when 80% of the US population had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. ... "Without vaccination the U.S. would have experienced 1.5 times more infections, 3.8 times more hospitalizations, and 4.1 times more deaths," the authors wrote. (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/report-covid-19-vaccines-saved-us-115-trillion-3-million-lives Two Years of U.S. COVID-19 Vaccines Have Prevented Millions of Hospitalizations and Deaths It has been two years since the first COVID-19 vaccine was given to a patient in the United States. Since then, the U.S. has administered more than 655 million doses — 80 percent of the population has received at least one dose — with the cumulative effect of preventing more than 18 million additional hospitalizations and more than 3 million additional deaths. The swift development of the vaccine, emergency authorization to distribute widely, and rapid rollout have been instrumental in curbing hospitalization and death, while mitigating socioeconomic repercussions of the pandemic. (more) https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2022/two-years-covid-vaccines-prevented-millions-deaths-hospitalizations

The caption writer has an interesting sense of humor relative to those depicted in the attached photo:

Wow... so sad! NancyL was a longtime and active member of the forum, and AFAIK, did a lot especially to assist elderly foreigners living in the Chiang Mai area with care issues. I had a few instances to interact with her over the years on a couple of different issues, and I always thought she was a wonderful, caring woman who had devoted a lot of her retirement years here to helping others. She will be missed, and the farang community here is worse for her loss.

Except, about 10,000 people per week are still dying of COVID around the world, including about 2,500 per week in the U.S. alone. And a lot more COVID hospitalizations on top of those fatality numbers. https://covid19.who.int/?mapFilter=deaths The pandemic isn't gone or finished. We're just benefiting, for the time being, with Omicron variants that are overall milder than Delta before -- but still killing and sickening a lot of people. As for the shots, I believe they're heading toward clinical trials of a combined flu and COVID vaccine that would become a seasonal standard for people in the higher risk groups, including the age 60+ folks. Age alone is the single highest risk factor for bad COVID outcomes. IMHO, AZ's vaccine, with its very rare but potentially serious blood clot issues, simply got beat out by the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA vaccines, and now has the added competition from the non-mRNA Novovax vaccine.

And more below on the broader issue, which reinforces my assertion above that the Thai government is likely overselling/over-promising here: Could a nose spray a day keep COVID away? Scientists are working on fast-acting nasal sprays to block coronavirus infections — but formulating the sprays is a challenge 31 October 2022 ... "Despite their promise, these sprays have a long way to go: funding and interest from pharmaceutical firms for human trials has been limited, in part because trials to determine efficacy for prophylactics are large and expensive, says Moscona. And the sprays must achieve the difficult task of coating any surface to which a virus might attach, because once viral particles enter even a few cells, a full-scale infection can progress rapidly. ... But, Barclay says, there are no prophylactic nasal sprays except First Defence, which is designed to act as a physical barrier against common-cold virus particles." (more) https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03341-z

The problem with these kinds of announcements from the Thai government is they're typically very fuzzy -- and equally so in this case -- of just how they evaluated the supposed effectiveness of these kinds of products. The full article makes an effectiveness claim of "99.9% of COVID-19, Influenza A virus and Human Coronavirus in line with the ASTM E1053-20 standard." However, I'm guessing that's some kind of figure related to using the spray against viruses in a lab setting -- not in actual human trials that compare effectiveness of spray users vs comparable non-spray users. For example, the ASTM standard they're citing above pertains to: Standard Practice to Assess Virucidal Activity of Chemicals Intended for Disinfection of Inanimate, Nonporous Environmental Surfaces https://www.astm.org/e1053-20.html Inanimate, nonporous environmental surfaces, like tabletops, are NOT the same as the mucosa in your nose or throat.

Thai MOPH is saying there are still various free, government vaccination sites available around Bangkok for the original Pfizer and perhaps Moderna vaccines... No 2nd gen bivalent ones yet. See the following sources:

Correct! Especially since as mentioned by several others above... absolutely NO INDICATION that this new online service is available for either retirement or marriage extension holders, which I assume are the majority of long-stay types. But if I worked for a local foreign embassy or was a news media reporter, I guess I'd be happy.... :--

Indeed, it's been a years long anti-democracy campaign by Trump and his acolytes that began well before he was elected president, and has continued ever since.... Fostering distrust in the country's system for electing its leaders, without any basis for doing so. But he's been succeeding, to the extent that a good share of Americans now are suspect of the elections system nationwide. And of course, that's what any autocrat in waiting is gonna want to see happen. Americans need to wake up, and realize the Big Lie is just that, a big lie, and too many of them have been sucked into believing it. That's exactly what Biden has been correctly warning out here -- partisan politics aside.

Hahahaha!!!! MAGA Republican Trump is SOFT on crime and criminals.... especially when his kind are the insurrectionist criminals! It's gonna make a GREAT campaign commercial on TV one of these days.... Maybe we need to build a big wall around the U.S. Capitol to protect it against the insurrectionists!

You may argue that... But as your quoted source linked above reports, your contention is flatly WRONG. False equivalence -- trying to somehow equalize a violent Jan. 6 attack on the country's election of a new president vs Democrats complaining about documented Russian meddling and local jurisdiction voter restriction measures that occurred during 2016. Did Democrats launch and lose 50 plus legal challenges against the 2016 election results, despite election experts roundly saying there was no basis, and lose every single one of them? NO! Did Democrats violently assault the U.S. Capitol and try by criminal conduct to block Trump's confirmation in Congress as president? NO! Did 900 or so Democrats get arrested and criminally prosecuted for violent efforts to prevent Trump's confirmation as president? NO!

Kinda sense a pattern might be going on there...

Berks is also not the only county in that area of PA where the same practice is occurring. Add Lehigh County to the list: Lehigh County DA says detectives’ ballot drop box monitoring continues; Berks County has had uniformed deputies watching boxes since 2020 ... Some Lehigh Democratic leaders and other entities called the plan “a criminalization of democracy.” [Acting Secretary of State Leigh] Chapman said she, too, was concerned about voter intimidation. “Law enforcement officers, whether they be in uniform or in civilian clothes, positioned near a ballot drop box may very well dissuade eligible voters as well as authorized designated agents from legally casting ballots,” Chapman said in the letter to Martin. (more) https://www.mcall.com/news/elections/mc-nws-pa-drop-box-discussions-20220511-zu7msut75nawza6ojqpleex5hq-story.html

And that county already has garnered some U.S. elections-related notoriety in recent months: Berks man gets prison for role in attack on US Capitol WASHINGTON (AP) — A Berks County man was sentenced on Friday to nearly three years in prison for assaulting an Associated Press photographer and attacking police officers with a stun gun during the U.S. Capitol riot. ... Byerly, 55, pleaded guilty in July to assaulting AP photographer John Minchillo and then activating a stun gun as he charged at police officers who were trying to hold off the mob that formed outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. ... Leaving the rally before then-President Donald Trump finished speaking, Byerly went to the west side of the Capitol and joined other rioters in using a metal Trump billboard as a battering ram against police, prosecutors said. (more) https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/berks/berks-man-gets-prison-for-role-in-attack-on-us-capitol/article_18f61018-5174-11ed-8eeb-ebe3f583cfbb.html

Seems as though the Republican majority election commissioners in this part of Pennsylvania already were playing fast and loose with the state's election law. Court orders Berks to certify undated mail-in ballots ... The court on Friday ordered Berks, Lancaster and Fayette counties to certify the undated mail-in ballots that they received before May's primary election deadline. The court ruled that the lack of a handwritten date "on the return envelope of a timely received absentee or mail-in ballot" does not disqualify the ballot. ... The county's two Republican commissioners — Christian Leinbach and Michael Rivera — have said that they are following state law requiring ballots to be signed and the outside envelope to be signed and dated. (more) https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/berks/court-orders-berks-to-certify-undated-mail-in-ballots/article_01295442-1fe5-11ed-8e6b-27b47fcc4bc8.html The court obviously disagreed with those two Republicans' interpretation of the state's election law.

It's one thing when people just have delusional beliefs...like the various tenets of MAGA / QAnon. It's an entirely different -- and illegal thing -- when their beliefs in those things drives them to commit crimes... --in DePape's case, attempted murder, assault, attempted kidnapping, etc... --or in the case of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, seditious conspiracy, assaults on police officers, possessing dangerous weapons, etc. That's why both DePape and a lot of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists are currently (or have been) in jails or prisons. Because of what they DID... not what they believed. And it might well be worth remembering, just who's the main driver of the delusional bus they're all riding on. delusion -- an idiosyncratic belief or impression that is firmly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality or rational argument, typically a symptom of mental disorder.

But regardless of whether he was just "delusional" or really legally "insane," his self expressed motivation was clear: As reported in the federal affidavit related to the federal charges filed against him.: "If Nancy [Pelosi] were to tell DEPAPE the “truth,” he would let her go, and if she “lied,” he was going to break “her kneecaps.”... In the course of the interview, DEPAPE articulated he viewed Nancy as the “leader of the pack” of lies told by the Democratic Party. DEPAPE also later explained that by breaking Nancy’s kneecaps, she would then have to be wheeled into Congress, which would show other Members of Congress there were consequences to actions." https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/man-charged-assault-and-attempted-kidnapping-following-breaking-and-entering-pelosi-residence https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1548106/download And then more recently in further reporting: “Well, she’s [Nancy Pelosi] No. 2 in line for the presidency, right?” DePape allegedly said. “We’ve got to take them all out.” (more) https://autos.yahoo.com/autos/news/details-emerge-paul-pelosi-attack-090058873.html