Bastian

It takes as long as it takes ... One could argue that the entry clearance section should employ more staff, but doing so would mean that for large parts of the year they would be sat there twiddling their thumbs with nothing to do; and as a taxpayer I'm sure you would not want you taxes to pay for that.

That the staff is overworked or that it is merely a busy time of the year cannot be a satisfying reason for delaying the processing of applications indefinetely.

Consider, that the waiting period for a visa is a kind of forced separation for couples. While one of the - at least implied - obligations of the state is to protect and preserve the sanctity of the family, the executive branch of government is tearing families apart by forcing upon them long periods of separartion and long periods of separation are rightly a ground for divorce recognized by courts.

If the govenrment does not (want to) commit enough staff to work through the complicated procedures prescribed by the laws they enacted, then they need to change the law to simplify the procedure.

she could not get a visa from the immigration office, as visa by definition are only issued by embassies and consulates abroad.

she could probably cross the border to maesai with just a copy of her id card, but afaik she would not be allowed to travel south.

if she tried to travel south with public transportation (bus or pick-up-taxi) there is, i'd estimate, a 80% chance each, that she will be controlled and pulled from the bus at the police stops south of maesai and maechan, but if you take her with your motorbike or (rental)car, the chance that you will be stopped drops to maybe 1%. to be totally safe you could circumvent the police stops by taking a track around them.

depending on how long she is allowed to stay in thailand by crossing the border legally, you might also consider having her cross the river away from the official crossing, i have been told it costs 100-200baht, and go back the same way.

or off course you have her go to yangoon, get a passport, a visa and let her fly in.

Just to build you guys up and put some pride about the efficiency of your bureaucratic apparatus back into you: In January my spouse applied for a visa to settle in Germany, still no word from the embassy, an inquiry with the foreign office in Germany revealed, that she will have to wait at least four months, likely longer. After three months she could sue the german government for delay (and even have the cost of the trial picked up by the german taxpayer), but even then it may take up to two more months.

It has been a year or so ago, but the last time I travelled there where busses going every 2h or so from Ekamai to CR, not VIP though, but all direct.

I have no Idea about guesthouses, but I see a few signs advertising rooms for 150-250 outside of town.

I just read about the new busstation, will they be having an opening ceremony?

You could find a lawyer to help you sue your father...

A unique way of doing it...sue the b@stards!!

Well, he is either with you or against you.

But I would agree with you that a DNA-test might be sufficient to proof Thai Nationality. Although possible only in cases where nobody has legitimised the child. If someone else then the biological father has ligitimised the child I'm not sure if proof of nationality by DNA-testing would be allowed.

DNA tests are often used to prove descendancy (and thereby elgibility for Thai citizenship) of hill tribe people in the mountains of the north, where births have not been properly recorded, partly because of the ignorance of the hill tribe people, partly because of the less than perfect work of the local government officials.

The Thai Citizenship Project is doing the Lords work in helping the hill tribe members pursuing their right to Thai citizenship and btw they are looking for donations for their DNA testing fund, so if you feel charitable and want to help a little, go and have a look at their their website.

They may also know, what to do in case of an uncooperative parent, so give them a call, they are very experienced with the laws concerning citizenship and you get practical, reliable information without having to pay a lawyer.

Section 7. The following persons acquire Thai nationality by birth:

(1) A person born of a father or a mother of Thai nationality

If the OP had a child (other parent not Thai) before the Thai government acknowledges his Thai citizenship, but later the OP actually becomes Thai because of his descendancy, would his child then also get Thai nationality, because the OP was Thai all along, only he lacked the documentation or would a child born before the OP holds his Thai passport in his hands have no claim to Thai nationality?

You could find a lawyer to help you sue your father if he refuses to help you. It may be convenient to sue him in a US civil court, to force him to help you or you sue in a thai family court and have the court determine him to be your father.

Try to collect evidence for his refusal to help you or by the time the court summons him, he may deny that you ever even asked him to help you.

These Rohingya know pretty well that they have no legal means to enter Thailand. For me the "Violation" of their human rights is just a false accusation to gain publicity and possibly refugee status.

May I remind the other posters that "wetbacks" crossing the border from Mexico into the US are also not really popular there ?

The Rohingya may or may not be thoroughly informed about Thailands immigration laws, keep in mind they probably have not had much of a higher education and in Myanmar reliable information on anything is kind of hard to come by in any case.

You should also consider the motivation, while illegal immigrants to the USA from Mexico are motivated by money, the Rohingya are running for their lifes as the junta in Myanmar seeks to wipe them out. That ofcourse is not Thailands fault, but tough luck if your country is adjacent to an oppressive dictatorship.

Sorry, if my post lacked politeness, it may have been, that I was quite tired, when I wrote it, or it may be, that my nationality is natively impolite, at least I have often been told so by british host families.

So, please, any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

At the airport we had little time, because we needed to check in and then proceed to our gate, also one of us had to take care of our infant, so we did not explore all the possibilities right there and then, I merely went to the tourist police.

They werre supposed to call me this morning, to tell me if they found out anything, but I have not heard of them. I have allready come to grips with the fact, that we will have to acquire replacements for our lost items. I just wonder why they care to have these cards at all in the taxi, asking passengers to memorize the information upon it, if they are useless.

Thank your for your kind help.

Today at 1730h my family took a blue taxi from the Chaleena hotel to the airport.

We forgot our trolley bag in the trunk and the driver took off before we noticed the missing bag 10s later.

The name of the driver as displayed on the card in the taxi was Mr. Sompan in roman letters, thai letters started with so-sya, mo-ma and then somewhere at the end a no-nin. The number on the card was 19590, I remember it, because I used it as an example to point out to my spouse how to use the digit sum of an integer to test divisibility.

I tried the tourist police office at the airport, but they were rather pessimistic about our chances of getting the bag back, their first suggestion was to make a general anouncement over the radio. Obviously the number on the card in the taxi is useless to them.

Is there some kind of taxi authority and what is their number?

What does the lease arrangment say happens in these circumstances?

The contract says nothing about it. What does the law say, I wonder.

Hypothetical case:

Farang A leases land from a thai national B for 30a with prepaid option of leasing another 30a.

A pays 1000000 baht, the contract states 500k for the first term, 500k for the option on 2nd term.

A has a house build on the land for 2000000 baht.

2a into the first lease term the government decides it needs to build a road or airport on that piece of land and expropriates B.

Does A get any compensation from either B or the government?

Since I have had no responses to my original post so far, I'll state the two questions I asked in it again:

...Is that a good idea?...

...Could I work at all without having a degree or should I forget about it?...

If I get ignored again, I'll shut up for good, I promise :-)

actually to cover 120d you need 9 visaexemptionstamps, as they count the first and the last day, so you only get 14d periods.

you are systematically neglecting the opportunity cost of the time you spend, but never mind that.

How to gain parental rights as a father when not married.

If the mother is not married, the law makes no such assumption. The fahter must be named on the birth certificate, but that is not enough. Anyone can be named on a birth certificate as the father, without that person knowing him. Therefor if the parents are not married the law wants the father to confirm he is indeed the father. In Thailand that is done by the fahter registering the baby himself.

If someone else registers the baby, the fahter didn't legalise the baby and he is not considered the legal father of the baby.

So remember, if you are not married and want to be the legal father of your child register the baby yourself at the amphur. Registration of a newborn has to be made within 15 days.

lol, I should have known that earlier, would have saved me four months and 15000 baht. The hospital staff was just too eager to help and did the registration for us. Well, in the future we'll know better and choke off any effort they make trying to 'help us' with the paperwork.

Issue resolved.

The honorable court's decision became available yesterday.

I took it to the amphur office and after a few hours they issued me my ทะเบียนรับรองบุตร.

My native language is german, but my command over the english language is quite good, partly because back in high school my parents always used to send me to a language school in Brighton during the summer break, partly because I have been listening to some vile, hate-spewing american talk show host three hours a day, five days a week for the past six years.

I had been studying economics at a University in Berlin and already 4 semesters of my 6 semester course for a BSc under my belt, when during a visit to Thailand I fell in love with a native and suspended my studies to live here with her. I am technically still enrolled, just taking one vacation semester after another.

I have now been living in Thailand near Chiang Rai for about a year and a half and my spouse and I had our first child.

For several reasons I would like to take up a teaching job, if possible in the area around Chiang Rai.

My experience in teaching so far is fairly limited, I used to tutor single students in math, but I have no experience in teaching in a classroom.

I had thought about investing in a course at a language school like this one to get certificates and some practice. Is that a good idea?

For the beginning I would be happy with a monthly salary of 20k-25k.

Could I work at all without having a degree or should I forget about it?

i did go back to the thai side to get smaller bills, i told the officer on the thai side, the burmese wanted me to change money before i could enter burma, so they kept my passport and let me back into thailand to change money, i returned after a few minutes with small bills, picked up my passport and proceeded back to burma immigration, then everything went as usual.

the money changer selling $10 for 400 baht already is sitting there, right in front of the border, it is the woman selling jewlery on the street, she just doesnt advertise.

once, comming from tachileik, i was just filling out my immigration card, when a group of about 30 farangs tourists came from burma, they reentered thailand without filling out any cards or even showing their passports, they were just herded through. i thought that was very strange at the time. their tourgroupleader must have had some agreement with the officials there. ever seen anything like that?

A German court is under European and international law bound to take the intrest of the child at hearth

So is the thai court, but that is one problem, to the court I may not appear to be the ideal father.

1) I am jobless. Indeed the terms of my visa expressly prohibit me employment in Thailand.

2) I have no property. I may practically 'own' two houses here, but only through some complicated lease agreement with option on a further lease, because the law expressly prohibits me from owning real estate.

3) I am not permanently in Thailand. I may have continually lived here for the last 18 months and plan to stay, but only on consecutive tourist visas and visa exempt entries, because I do not fulfill the requirements for any longer term visa, that would allow me to officially establish residence in Thailand.

Me, a german male, and the mother, a stateless female residing in Thailand, together have an almost five month old son.

My name is on the birth certificate, but that is insufficient to make me legally the father, I have been advised.

Until I am legally the father, our son will remain stateless, like his mother, which in Thailand is a very very very undesireable condition, that I sought to change asap. Once I am legally the father, our son will automatically gain german citizenship.

I may become legally the father under german law by visiting the german embassy in Bangkok together with the mother and our son, however, in order to successfully complete this process, the embassy requires all kinds of documents from the mother, that she neither possesses, nor will be issued by the thai government, since she is not a thai citizen; e.g. ทะเบียนบ้าน etc.

We might challenge a rejection of our application in a german court, but due to the cost and difficulty of travelling to Bangkok in the first place (she needs special permission from the amphur office to travel), we have retained that option for last resort.

I may become legally the father under thai law by visiting the amphur office and requesting การจดทะเบียนรับรองบุตร, but they will not grant that until our son is five or six years old and can talk, we would have to go to court and get a court order.

I hired a lawyer and our court date was December 9th, the honorable court's decision should have been made within a week, our lawyer told us at first, but now it has been well over a month and we have heard nothing.

Now my question: How long do family courts take to decide? Could we be kept waiting for months or years or even indefinitely for the decision? Can a higher court force a lower court to make a ruling?

As it turns out, the airport taxi stand wanted 800 baht to go to Mae Sai. I thought that was at least 200 baht too much for me alone, so I took a taxi into town instead, at 300, and then a bus (non-air, rather hard seats) at 40 baht to the border. The waiting time between the taxi and the bus leaving the station was not more than 15 minutes.

The red songthaews from Mae Sai bus station to the border are 15 baht one way. It's fully possible to walk too for those so inclined, not sure but think it would take around 20 minutes.

At the border, entry into Tachilek is still 10 USD or 500 baht - if you plan to use dollars, make sure they are in good condition as this was the second time I saw the border officials refuse a torn bill.

you should have just found transportation from the airport to the highway, there you could have waved one of the buses going to maesai to stop, they go every 20min or so. from this point to maesai the busfare is 37 baht.

walking from bus station to the border will take much more than 20min.

coming back tell the lady on the bus you want to go to the airport, they will let you exit opposite the street laeding to chiang rai university (CRU) at "new bandu city", there is a motorbiketaxibooth, they take you to the airport for 40 baht.

the burmese immigration is really picky about dollar bills, not only dont they like old ones, you also cannot come with high denominations, 3 runs ago i wanted to use a crisp new $100 bill i had just changed, they said i need to pay with $20 or $10, they could not take $100. so i went back to thailand first to get a smaller bill...

you know what a pita it is to change baht to usd? especially if you want $20-$50? i cannot find a legitimate place, that sells usd, i tried 4 exchange offices, 7 banks and finally the guy at the tmb(?) bank's counter right at the border pointed me to a woman, selling jewlery on the street in front of the bank. she had what i wanted, but the rate sucked, 40 baht/1 usd when official rate was 34.

now i allways buy my $ from her on the street at an outrageous rate, i just dont know an alternative.

my wife pointed me to an exchange office in tachileik, they supposedly change any currency, but when we got there, they said they dont sell usd.

i am thinking about having someone from bangkok send me $10 notes in the mail.

All available information about current and future events is already reflected in the current prices.

One could predict changes in price if one was privy to information about upcomming relevant events, that is unavailable to others.

For example: If you knew, that a nuclear bomb had been smuggled into NY and will be detonated there on 12/24, then you could confidently predict, that the USD will take a nose dive following the event and you could make a killing.

i dont understand all this whining about "vote-buying", even if people are bussed to the polling places and paid, isnt the ballot itself secret? nobody can check who the guy you paid to vote for you really voted for.

if you are frustrated about the situation at the airports, try Riot Police and blow off some steam by teaching hippies how to run.

happy thanksgiving btw

I dont think this would be very rewarding for the thieves if the bus company was in on it. The victims are likely to have inflated the value of the items stolen from them if they can expect compensation, be it from the bus company or an insurance. Also in case of electronics the resale value is certainly below the original price at which they were purchased.

As for the incentives the government has to make an example of the thugs (btw imo it was more a theft than a robbery, as robbery requires the use of force/violence/coercion needs to be involved), the government would probably rather have tourists travelling by airplane, also the government has their own bus sevices, has it not? So it shouldnt hurt them if their competitors appear to be screwing their customers.

In theory if I intersperse my use of the 30 day stamps with a 60 day tourist visa + 30 day TR visa extension, that should every semester on average leave a period of 365.25/2-180=2.625 days that I cannot be in Thailand.

I am confused as to how to count the days, I read, that one could stay with 30 day stamps "with a total peroid of stay not exceeding 90 days within 6 months from the date of first entry", when I try to count the days in my case I get confused and what is the date of 6 months from my first entry?

Let me go as far back as possibly necessary (all in 2008):

entered allowed until left] type of visa

02/23 04/22 04/22 TR

04/22 05/21 05/21 stamp

05/21 06/19 06/19 stamp

06/23 08/21 08/21* TR *did not leave, but extended at immi office

08/21 09/20 09/20 +30d to TR visa

09/20 10/19 10/19 stamp

10/19 11/17 not yet stamp

So if on 11/17 I wanted to reenter Thailand again on a stamp, does period of 6 months then referr to 182,625d or (as we currently are in a leap year) to 183d or to the period between 05/17 and 11/17 =184d (+1 if enddate is included) or something else?

On 11/17 I would have spent cumulatively 24(before the interspersed TR) + 59(after the interspersed TR) = 83 days in Thailand since 05/17, so I should be able to get another 30 days. However, why wasnt I allowed until 11/18 but only until 11/17, am I missing something?

When you apply for your own Non Imm Ed visa

take your family member along and ask about the Non Imm O visa

for them, saying that they will be joining you.

But I would like to know before exactly what my dependents can get, if I get an ED visa, whether they can get an O visa, for how long, multiple entry or not etc; that is the very reason for this thread, I could have always just gone to the embassy when I apply for an ED visa and asked there.

Where on the web can I find this visa type and what documents do I and my dependents have to provide to get it?