Gaccha

I just decided to calculate the Future Value* cost of the Elite Superior (20 year) extension price, one of the the old packages. If we assume that inflation will be around 2%, and that it would be reasonable to assume 6% above inflation by investing in the s&p 500, that suggests that the real cost of the visa to the user is 3,207,135 baht. ... And that is the old deal to get 20 years of visa access. The new deal-- brace yourselves-- is a true cost of 10,904,260 baht. *If you are not familiar with the financial concept of Future Value please read this link.

One can see a reason for an anticipated surge in applicants: "Update for Chinese Nationals: Chinese nationals will no longer need to be routed through Interpol for approval. This implies they can expect shorter waiting times, enhancing their experience with Thailand Privilege." [Source] But for people who are not active members of international crime gangs, the benefits of the new offers are less clear. The New: The Old:

That's impressive. I didn't know the immigration system was running a comparison check between the webcam photo and the passport photo. I thought it was just doing the fingerprint checks, and leaving the face comparison to the officer.

And there it is.

Putting aside the issue of the phishing email, as an ex lawyer, I am deeply concerned about these two acts of administrators that have caused you harm. The first act appears to be a clear case of misfeasance. The second administrator's act is a further harm from the first act. My understanding of Thai law is that you have 90 days to use the administrative courts to compel the public officials to carry out their lawful duties. Act now. Seek out a lawyer.

As you seem to be aware of the rules of hearsay, you'll know that the first exception in US law to the hearsay rule is an 'excited utterance'. I can assure you that when I read a Thaivisa member mention his friend getting prosecuted he expressed it in a rather startled, and I would dare to suggest, even an excited fashion. What's more, because what he said undermined his status in this forum, since it suggested he was living in Issan with little means to sustain a decent way of life, it also comes under the second exception to the hearsay rule: statements against interest. ( Federal Rules of Evidence 804(b)(3))

I've waited for this for at least 10 years. I have always compared the pathetic availability of learning resources in Thai compared with the resources for learning Japanese as far back as 20 years ago. As is always the case with learning foreign languages, most of the materials are for beginners to advanced-beginners, because that is where almost everyone learning gives up. At the intermediate level, there are considerably different challenges, and new resources in Thai have been very poor. Until now... YouTube has had Thai automatic captions available for a few years now, but almost all Thai TV dramas and other major channels have resolutely kept switched off the caption option. But I have noticed this is no longer the case... Combining this fact, with some superb (free) caption Apps (such as Lingovotube) is a game changer. By watching the YouTube Thai programmes through these caption breakdown Apps allows you to listen and check normal, everyday Thai language. Here is an example when a new Thai drama is played in the App: The App takes the captions fed from YouTube, and then 'curates' a smoothe delivery of Thai with English. So how should you use this? You may not be sure the best way to learn foreign languages as an adult. The key is to listen to a roughly two or three minute segment. And then listen to that segment repeatedly until you have got every word that you think you can get; this may require listening even 20 times. Then check against the Thai captions to see what your ears did not catch. Any new words should then be added to Anki or whatever vocabulary learning device you are using. This system of learning is widely regarded as one of the best ways. Do not, and I mean this most strongly, listen and at the same time read the Thai captions. This is a waste of time because your mind will not develop an ear for the vocabulary, even though you will feel like you are learning. It is even worse to read the English captions as you listen to the Thai. Good luck!

I suspect you are not aware of how broadly the concept of 'work' is defined by Thailand's immigration rules. Helping paint a friend's house, or doing some volunteer charity work, has resulted in fines and criminal charges.

Yes, that looks good to go. It is normal for a prescription to not include the PD. You can check the PD by measuring the distance yourself or ask a friend to do it.

Opposite Suan Plu Immigration Office in Silom (the main one before Chaeng Wattana started) there was a police uniforms, gadgets and pepper spray store. I don't know if it's still open. I bought a great Immigration Police polo shirt from it. I wear it... when visiting the Immigration Police offices.

Bouncing. Could anyone with the iPhone 14 please check to see if their phone has a working Emergency SOS satellite communication function. The phone can be tested by launching a demo emergency. I am almost certain that the function is disabled for Thailand, but if the phone was bought in the USA it may work. The phone is a very legitimate emergency satellite communication device, which under Thai law as it stands would require registration of every user with the NBTC. I am interested in seeing what the de facto position is in Thailand now.

Here is that case. (BBC)

"all parties involved in the act of adultery can be liable for adultery and may be sued under the civil and commercial code. Adultery in Thailand is defined as sexual intercourse between a person who is married and another person who is not their spouse." [Source]

Ex-lawyer here. I agree it'd be GBH as a matter of law. The external bleeding is sufficient for a charge of GBH through wounding. Although in practice, the charge might get diluted to ABH at the courts.

So the streamer got fined for 'voluntarily quarreling and being a public nuisance'. Nice.

Big news this week so I felt I should bump this thread. Zenni, who many of you use, have just released a range of migraine relief glasses of the FL-41 type. They are really competitive with the more specialist manufacturers. You can easily get a pair for around $90. And with a wide variety of frames and crucially, the typical cheap prescriptions that Zenni offer. $90 for prescription plus FL-41 tech is a bargain.

For anybody wondering why he would be going to a remand prison despite having already received a sentence: "The Bangkok Remand Prison is for prisoners who have cases in the Court of First Instance, but this prison also has prisoners whose cases have already had judgment in the first court and are awaiting the process for the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court." You are on remand until you have exhausted all your appeal options.

OP, take a photo of the denial of entry stamp, and explain what the "trumped up charges" were. This will help us to gather the possible ways for you to get back into Thailand. If, for example, you were denied entry for previous convictions from a street fight, then your possibility of getting back anytime soon is much reduced compared with simply using tourist visas too much. It is very revealing that you refuse to do these two things.

This is a question of risk tolerance analysis. I don't think anyone came to Thailand hoping to bring with them Blighty's extreme risk aversion.. Surely most people came to escape it. Whilst it is true that young men (around 20 years old), who have a genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia, can develop schizophrenia because of cannabis, this horrifying threat must be balanced against the reality of how safe it is for most people. The man who died here was middle aged, far outside of the risk group for mental breakdown, and indeed he suffered from no mental breakdown. Perhaps a sensible balance would be banning cannabis from anybody under 25 years old. So now it's a question of a heart attack and its relation to cannabis. It's important to keep these issues of mental breakdowns and heart attacks quite separate, or risk aversion will become the new culture of Thailand wherever Farang are found.

Really? I've never heard of the money moving from the woman's household to the man's household, such as in India. Your claim makes for an interesting sociological and historical analysis of sin sod, and the changes with gay marriage. It's fascinating because it's not legal for gays to marry in Thailand, and yet his parents are claiming by historical analogy a right to sin sod.

Your partner has to be persuaded to take it more seriously. The possibility of future limb amputation and blindness should hopefully wake him up. Start with this nice, clean NHS explanation.

Can you not simply order the bank statements via your bank app, as you sit on your balcony sipping MaiTais, and they arrive instantly as PDFs? I get statements all the time with this system. Takes a solid 2 minutes.

Big Joke took a huge risk in accusing his superiors of massive corruption. He lost his job and somebody tried to murder him. So this is a real comeback story. Here's the hero we need.

It means "I resigned" or, owing to an ambiguity in English, could also mean "I resign (there and then)".

You might sleep better if you use a white noise appliance. Huge numbers available from literal mechanical fans to noises of nature soundboxes. Or you could try ASMR, such as the "French Whisperer" on YouTube. He has 4 hour audios about everything from the history of ancient Egypt to the myths of India. They knock me out within 3 minutes.