Lee4Life

I ordered a pack of four oil filters and received two, I was upset but you definitely fared worse!

You haven't heard of the SoiDog Foundation evidently, do a search on them and include "animal cruelty laws Thailand" and see what you come up with.

The wife has severe asthma, so we run two purifiers, one Altec Pro 1 and one Altec AL3. They are both automatic and sample air quality and adjust function accordingly. Two things I am aware of: If you set the units side by side and turn them on the automatic function settings, the AL3 will come up with consistently poorer air quality levels and turn itself on higher function modes than the Pro 1, in fact the Pro 1 hardy ever turns itself up to a higher function level. We took a video of the two machines working side by side and then sent the Pro 1 back to the factory on their recommendations after talking to them on the phone. At first they said it was defective and they would send us a replacement, then they sent us our old unit back and when we called them they said they could find nothing wrong with it. The other thing is that we have been trying to buy a new filter for the smaller AL3 unit for nearly one year, I ordered it on Lazada six times only to have the seller cancel the order because they do not have it. Currently we have been waiting for a call back from Altec for nearly three weeks. I am not degrading the company, just stating facts.

evidently you missed the resurrection part?

I think describing a grub or caterpillar of some type, not an insect (yet). The one that comes to mind is called a "mah-noi" by the locals here in Isan. (translates to "puppy"). You can find them eating your favorite plants and shrubs, they never eat stuff you don't like.

I believe you are correct, the wife's relatives refer to muzzle loaders as "Puen Gap" (Cap Guns)

Why bring this old news back up? These articles are back in the news almost every year...yet nothing changes, there's no enforcement.

actually it's the fault of the bedbugs which made the mattress unbearable to sleep on???? Those things are dumped everywhere up here in Isaan too, killing off the bedbugs would solve a large percentage of mattress dumping in Thailand.

I drove a 90's HiAce for years, didn't just transport family members but friends from back home and the wife's relatives from both Thailand and Laos. Once in a while an officer would check everyone's paperwork but that was it. Did it on an international driving permit. When I first bought it, I didn't change the Bangkok plates to the Isaan province we live in, I got stopped at nearly every police checkpoint. Then a Thai friend told me I needed to change the plates to our province, I did so and then the police at the checkpoints stopped pulling me aside.

When we are back in the States we get scam calls from people with Indian accents, or from digitally produced voices to disguise their accents. At least here the Thai authorities seem to be able to do something about it. Back home citizens voted in a "do not call registry" that was supposed to stop scam calls and sales calls, but the telemarketing corporations took it to court and it was ruled to be "unconstitutional". (freedom of speech!)

The OP is asking about the long-term retirement visa, your link is for the long-term residency visa, are they the same? the residency visa article mentions working in Thailand, retirees can't work, right?

The headline says, "how worried should we be?", leading one to think the following article may explain the severity of the newer Covid strains, but alas...nothing!

The last few times my neighbor applied for his extension based on marriage he was required to bring a picture of he and his wife sitting together on their bed in their bedroom. Not sure at all if that is really a requirement?

your friend only needs to keep proof of insurance handy on entry like UJ said, then they will need to do a TM30 report to local immigration within 24 hours if they stay at a private residence, (hotels and guest houses do that for people). They will also be required to do a 90 day report to local immigration every 90 days. The 90 day report can be done online.

UJ is correct, I did exactly what he said last week. The only thing to be aware of its that while you get stamped in for one more year from the day you re-enter, if you exit without a re-entry stamp neither your visa nor one year entry stamp will be valid. A multiple re-entry permit is 3,800 baht and keeps that from happening. If you are going to stay in Thailand for the whole year the entry stamp is good for then no need to buy a re-entry permit.

One of the things I love about Thailand is their great respect for the elderly.

"tucked between the actual visa and an extension" ? That doesn't make sense, I'm not applying for an extension, which technically is called "an extension to stay". The only way I knew this method of "extension" is that the immigration Officers told me about it. And the benefit is not just keeping money in a Thai bank. The benefit of getting the extra year on a one year O-A Visa is not having to do the additional paperwork a new visa or extension of stay requires, and on top of that is less expensive than either a new O-A or an extension of stay based on retirement. (basically the price of a trip across the border and back and a re-entry permit). Call it what you want, but it can't be done without the original O-A Visa, so I'll call it an extension of that.

We aren't here under an extension of stay based on retirement, we are here on a one year OA retirement visa from the LA Consulate. We extended said visa by exiting the country and returning on the date the visa expired, thereby getting stamped in for one more year, then purchased multiple re-entry permits. While our original insurance plan was for the old requirement of 400,000/40,000, we chose to renew it using the current requirements of 3,500,000 to avoid any problems on re-entry.

I just renewed ours with LMG, they offer O-A Longstay Visa Insurance that meets the new requirements as do many others listed in the link UJ supplied above. I have seen that if you google search for O-A Longstay Visa Health Insurance you come up with a whole bunch of information on Insurance policies that met the old 400,000/40,000 requirements. A lot of websites that "help" you buy the correct insurance are also offering incorrect information. Everyone seems to be struggling to keep up with the changing regulations and rules. The health insurance policy we purchased from LMG provided coverage THB 3,500,000 per policy per year for Inpatient and THB 60,000 for Outpatient per policy per year. I do believe that AseanNow also needs to update information provided in links in their own O-A Insurance Advertorial.

I can't even go for a walk in my neighborhood, one vicious dog comes after me and before I know it I'm surrounded by half a dozen. The meanest dogs come out from houses with either no fence, no gate, or gates that are never closed and haven't been for years.

Follow Up: I followed UJ's advice and bought one year of 100,000$ health insurance coverage. If it's purchased through LMG and the highest deductible plan is chosen it costs 14,500b. It was worth it for me because I worry a lot. We crossed over to Laos on the 16th and came back on the 17th, when being stamped back in to Thailand the IO didn't know what to do when he saw that our OA Visas expired on that day. Onec we told him that we had talked to the head of Immigration at the bridge before exiting and they affirmed that we would be stamped back in for one year, he then called them and they reaffirmed what we had told him. He then went ahead and stamped us in for one year. As for the Thailand Pass, he asked if we had it, we said yes and handed him our phones with the QR code showing. He looked at the phones and handed them back to us without scanning the QR code or reading the info. We then crossed over to the exit side and tried to buy multiple re-entry permits because even though we had been stamped in for an additional year, once we exit to go home next month then that entry stamp would no longer be valid and neither would our old OA visas. The IO on the exit side of the border said we needed to buy the re-entry permits at the main Immigration Office, so we went there and did so without any problems, the cost was 3,800b each. We now have a valid entry stamp dated for one year from now and a valid re-entry permit which supports that entry stamp. While this did take some doing, it was cheaper and less trouble than buying another one-year OA visa back home by quite a bit.

Not True, my wife's nephew was following me in a pickup, I pulled out onto a busy highway from a side street and expected him to wait for an opening in the traffic, he didn't wait and pulled right out in front of a fast moving pickup. He was T-boned and the other pickup turned over. He was ticketed by the police as the at fault driver and was responsible for the damages to both vehicles.

When I checked the the one year O-A requirements through the "visa Details" info on the Los Angeles Consulate's website yesterday it still had the 100,000$ insurance policy as a requirement. 8. Insurance – Applicant must have a health insurance for the duration of stay, with coverage for covid-19 disease with the total sum insured of THB 3,000,000 (100,000 USD) per policy year.

I have spent countless hours researching the medical insurance requirements we will need to meet on re-entry, I believe we need another year of 100,000$ coverage because we will be re-entering Thailand on the same O-A visa we received from the LA Consulate and their website states that O-A applicants at this time need the 100,000$ insurance coverage , I believe when we applied for our O-A visas last June the requirement was 400,000$ of coverage. But my wife swears that a new ordinance has been passed here and we only need 10,000$ coverage. My wife had her Thai niece call the local immigration office and their answer was "we don't know". Then she called the Thailand Pass help hotline, they said it doesn't matter what visa a person has, the requirement is 10,000$ coverage. I worry that if we take their advice then we will be forced to re-enter visa exempt and then the O-A visa we were trying to extend by exiting and then re-entering on the same day will become invalid. What a mess!

I stand corrected....I am unable to edit my reply, "unauthorized" vpn's are prohibited according to some reports, not illegal. Apologies