OJAS

.. which as far as we expat retirees are concerned appears to amount to little more than liaising closely with various parts of the UK (FCDO, HMPO, HMRC and DWP) and Thai (Immigration Bureau, MOFA, MOPH and now TRD) governments in developing and implementing measures which are solely aimed at making our lives here in LOS just as difficult and awkward as they humanly can be.

Just beware, though, that your new retirement extension will be dated 12 months from 15/10/2024 rather than 31/10/2024.

What's so ridiculous about sparing State Pensioners here in LOS from the ordeals of the ritual which DWP insist on inflicting on us every couple of years or so in just about the most cumbersome and awkward manner imaginable to mankind, merely to prove that we are still in the land of the living?

I was talking about the discontinuation of the Embassy's LOCATE system in the bit you were replying to, not the discontinuation of their income confirmation service!

Plus scrap the ban on selling booze during election weekends (from 6pm Saturday and all day Sunday). Applies to non-voting foreigners as well as Thais. Presumably it was introduced so as to minimise the risk of VUI (voting under the influence??

Yes, I registered my details on their LOCATE system several years ago - mainly because this was a condition of receiving their (sadly long-ceased) income confirmation letters! Unfortunately the Embassy saw fit in their infinite wisdom to discontinue this service, supposedly on the grounds that very few expats were using it beyond those needing income confirmation letters. However they made virtually no effort to encourage its use in other areas. For example, one inducement which they could IMHO have easily offered was that, as a result of registering ourselves on LOCATE, never again would we be subject every couple of years or so to the torture of cumbersome DWP bureaucracy in the form of the dreaded life certificate. That alone would surely have resulted in local State Pensioners signing up in their droves, even if they did not need an income confirmation letter each year for Immigration purposes!

In the case of UK (as distinct from Thai) government entities, the answer is clearly "no". But if the Embassy are sending a consular letter to whomever and for whatever purpose in any event, then why can't they simply run off enough extra copies to send to their HMG colleagues in HMRC, DWP, etc who might also have a particular interest in our passing (e.g. so as to get pension payments stopped)? Hard-pressed to see how this would result in ginormous extra effort for Embassy staff!

Indeed, the only part of The Great UK Government Machine which appears to have any concerns about us State Pensioners locally popping our clogs is DWP, which is presumably why we are required to provide fresh life certificates every couple of years or so. Why the Embassy seem so unable or unwilling to pass on to their DWP colleagues the info needed to enable pension payments to be stopped upon the death of a particular pensioner without the need for us all to be periodically subjected to this cumbersomely bureaucratic nonsense truly escapes me.

The odd rogue office has, over the years, insisted on a 30-day "under consideration" period for retirement extensions. Not aware of any recent reports on this being the case, though.

In that case what word would you use to describe the funds transfers which Mr OJAS in England regularly makes to Mr OJAS in Thailand via Mr Wise, which include taxable assessable income (in the form of the UK State Pension since this is not covered by the UK/Thailand DTA)? I look forward with bated breath to being enlightened by your Solomon-esque wisdom on this clearly crucially vital point for me personally.

Sounds to me like you've been using the Wise app to initiate your transfers. Once your money ends up back in your Canadian bank why not try initiating an online internet transfer instead? I've personally dumped their app in view of the cumbersome verification nonsense they now seem to be insisting on. In my experience the verification process involved in initiating online internet transfers merely involves you re-entering your password every now and then!

All the more so since Drury replaced Tyler at Sky Sports! https://awfulannouncing.com/soccer/peter-drury-sky-sports-premier-league-nbc.html

I strongly suspect that there are quite a few of us on here who are envious of your blissful ignorance of the existence of Mr Drury!

And these 2 pathetic posts were presumably the best that your brain could come up with, then, were they?

Based on my personal experience of flying from LHR to BKK just over a month ago, you will definitely not need to stand on the train from the new to old terminals at BKK, provided that you have pre-booked wheelchair assistance, as strongly recommended by @RetroGTAndrew (I, too, have mobility issues which make it difficult for me to walk long distances at airports). In my case I was met with pre-booked wheelchair assistance immediately I had stepped off the plane, and the assistant wheeled me all the way to where I met my wife in the old terminal. I was not forced to stand on what was a crowded train from the new terminal. Hope that this sets your mind at rest on this particular issue.

A rather excitable football commentator! A few of his "gems" are on the following YouTube video:

Only KTB and SCB have ditched their internet banking services as far as I know. You may therefore wish to consider opening an account with 1 of the remaining banks which still offer an internet banking service during your upcoming trip to Thailand.

Indeed. So much for the claim often made by passport-issuing authorities back in our home countries that passports are produced according to international standards! And it is not just a question of acceptable mug & photo sizes but also acceptable background colours - which vary from country to country as well. Unfortunately the one thing which agents seemingly cannot help us out on in dealing with cumbersome passport renewal procedures is in obtaining mugshots which fully satisfy the ultra-fussy requirements insisted on by the passport-issuing countries back in our home countries.😟

So what might the double taxation agreement between Denmark and Thailand have to say on where taxes on your Danish pensions should be paid? A pretty crucial point which needs to be checked, I would have thought - particularly if the TRD are coming after you for tax!

My local tax office issued me with one this morning!

According to the following official RD link (which dates back 10 years!), TIN applications should be submitted at your local area revenue branch ofiice (the lowest tier in the hierarchical revenue office structure), or, alternatively if you live in Bangkok, your area revenue office: https://www.rd.go.th/english/21987.html I can now vouch for this on the basis of personal experience, having today obtained a TIN from my local area revenue branch office at Klaeng. One particularly important point to note is that the L.P.10.1 form for individuals is only available in the Thai language, so it is IMHO essential that you are accompanied by someone who is fluent in Thai when submitting your TIN application in order to assist you with its completion. Fortunately for me, my wife was on hand to ensure that all Thai script equivalents of t's were crossed and i's dotted!😊

Indeed. Most other offices would have simply told the OP that the only course of action open to him would be to do a border run, re-entering Thailand with a 60/30-day visa exemption which he would then need to convert into a 90-day non-O visa before resuming his annual marriage extensions. In any event, doing a border run might, in practice, prove easier said than done in the OP's case since I recall from other postings from him on here that he has not insignificant mobility challenges.

If the Thai government were ever minded to unilaterally ditch DTA's, then they had better IMHO brace themselves for swift retaliatory action from our home country governments, in the form of travel bans and the freezing of Thai assets held in our home countries, much like those which were imposed on Putin and various Russian oligarghs in the wake of his Ukrainian "special military operation". Once Thai hiso's with sizeable frozen assets in our home countries start squealing like stuck pigs, we can but hope that this might finally knock some sense into the government on this whole matter.

So what is actually going to happen on this date? Will you be issued with a new 1-year extension of stay for marriage, as people on here seem to be assuming? Or might you instead first be required to obtain a fresh 90-day non-O visa for marriage in accordance with the following link? https://www.immigration.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/6.FOR-PROVIDING-SUPPORT-TO-OR-BEING-A-DEPENDANT-OF-A-THAI-CITIZEN-SPOUSE-VISA-NON-O.pdf Either way, you are, I think, extremely fortunate to live within the catchment area of an immigration office which seems more than willing to bend over backwards in helping you out of your little pickle!

Brazil might have a thing or 2 to say about that, though.