OJAS

Yep, matches my experience in obtaining a TIN a few weeks ago.

Any follow-up as to whether she actually made it on to a return flight to Blighty yesterday?

Which makes me seriously wonder whether this so-called affidavit could, in fact, amount to some phishing attempt on their part aimed at targeting foreign retirees' bank balances.

Might prove an issue for the OP when said passport needs to be renewed, though. I was informed by a particular Bangkok Bank branch I was using that my new passport details could only be registered at the branch where I had opened my account. That said, the OP should, of course, only need to make a trip from Chonburi to Chiang Mai for this purpose once every 10 years!

I was also told this when I did a transfer last week. Looks like Wise are now, for some mysterious reason, delaying THB transfers to BKKB until a few minutes after BKKB's daily 14:00 account crediting routine. However my transfer was duly credited to my account at 14:01 the following day, so I'm sure that yours will likewise be duly credited to your account around 14:00 tomorrow (Wednesday). I subsequently initiated a token transfer to check whether my latest experience was a one-off, but it would appear that it is not. However an extra 24-hour wait for a Wise transfer to be completed is really no big deal for me personally.

Sounds to me from his location details that it's CW.

"We will grant your request if you file tax form in Thailand" Just one little flaw with this argument, I think, in addition to the points made by @Raindancer and @Mike Lister in their replies. What if your remitted (at the present time) income is earned solely from non-assessable sources such as US social security payments - or, if assessable, totals less per annum than the minimum 120k threshold required for tax returns? Are you really suggesting that annual extensions might be denied to everyone who is not required to file a tax return? Pure and utter bunkum IMHO if you are!

.. 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.😟