OJAS

A cautionary word for those who, like me, are aged 70+ and/or disabled, though: the priority lanes which we are entitled to use only seem to take us to Zones 1 or 3 and not to Zone 2 where, as already said, the re-entry permit office is located. That's certainly how it appeared to me when I flew out from BKK to Europe on 16 June (having fortunately already obtained a re-entry permit at my local immigration office).

What is definitely the major overriding concern for us Brits in renewing our passports from Thailand as far as I am concerned is the bloody rigmarole we're subjected to in achieving this end. To the best of my knowledge no other Western nation requires its Thai expats to make not 1 but 2 potentially difficult physical journeys to a rundown office building with an extremely silly name tucked down some obscure sidestreet somewhere or other in deepest, darkest Bangkok or to its Chiang Mai equivalent, or forces them to shell out an extra 5,000 THB for an agent to spare them these enforced route marches!

It is important for your daughter to check specifically that she is staying at a hotel which has provided the local immigration office at which she will be seeking the 30-day extension with the notification needed to comply with TM30 requirements. Without such a notification her chances of obtaining such an extension at that particular office will probably be zero.

You chaps certainly seem to believe in the "moaning minnie" approach to expressing your gratitude to @Red Phoenix for his efforts, don't you?????????☹️Is asking him by PM to send you his note really that much of a big deal? Even if he were to post his note on the open forum it would probably soon get lost in all the subsequent noise on here! And heaven help anyone relying on the Search function to try and track it down!????

Yep nothing - and I mean nothing - must be allowed to get in the way of demonising Thais on here, must it?

Yes.

Kindly provide specific examples of the stats to which you refer. Or are you in reality relying on popular Asean Now mythological folklore? And your suggestion that comparisons between Thailand and Western countries are silly is IMHO a perfect illustration of the anti-Thai mindset which is so pervasive on this forum.

Unfortunately your valid points are unlikely to cut any ice with those on here who hold each and every Thai person in sneeringly patronising contempt with their brazenly arrogant "Me Mr Ultra-Superior and 1,000,000%-Perfect Westerner" attitude, and who always deploy the same old "Off Topic" excuse whenever anyone has in their eyes the temerity to tar Westerners with the same negative brush as they gleefully do Thais.

So presumably there are other offices which require maps to be provided for retirement extensions, although I can't recall any reports of them on here. Certainly I've never been asked for one by Rayong (although I do always include a map in my "just in case" bundle of supporting docs).

More to the point as regards this particular thread, how are Phuket when it comes to issuing residency certificates? Do they issue them free of charge and without the need for any "special requirements" to be met, as they are supposed to?

As I have already intimated, I believe that their main focus as far as we expat Brits are concerned is, in fact, on making our lives here in LOS just as difficult and miserable as they humanly can be, regardless of our sexual orientation!

It has always been a mystery to me as to why CW insist on the provision of any sort of map for retirement (as opposed to marriage) extension applications. Do they actually make use of any of them for home visits? If not then this strikes me as pure roguery for pure roguery's sake (and IMHO on a par with Jomtien's requirement for those using the 800k method for retirement extensions to return after 3 months with evidence that the balance hasn't dipped a single satang below 800k in the meantime).

Out of curiosity did the Aussie Embassy provide this service at one time? If so, did they publicise its withdrawal to you and your compatriots in the way that their British counterparts most certainly did not in the case of us Brits? Makes me wonder whether we might here be talking about a deal struck between the Immigration Bureau and our embassies similar to the recent one regarding the need no longer for embassies to issue letters authenticating new passports.

Might there be immigration offices who are flatly refusing to issue residency certificates? Certainly mine (Rayong) did for a while, although I gather that they have now started issuing them again. But I agree wholeheartedly with your comments about the British Embassy. IMHO we expat Brits can be forgiven for believing that their principal role as far as we are concerned is in liaising enthusiastically between relevant parts of the UK government (in particular FCDO, HMRC, DWP and HMPO) and its Thai counterpart (in particular MOFA, MOPH and the Immigration Bureau) in developing a strategy which has the sole and avowed aim of making our lives in LOS just as miserable and difficult as they humanly can be. And non-Brits might reasonably be able to draw similar conclusions in the case of their home country embassies.

The Pogues' "Fairy Tale Of New York" was certainly an odd choice of tune to cavort freneticly to. Wonder how this renegade pair of "Come Dancing" aspirants coped with the long slow intro to this particular song?????

This all happened just up the road and barely 1 km from where I'm staying with my sister at the moment. We heard a loud thud inside her flat around 6:50pm local time followed by wailing sirens which seemed to continue from emergency vehicles rushing to the scene for an eternity. When we eventually ventured outside we found ourselves inside a police cordon and were told that, if we crossed it, we wouldn't be let back in.

What "legal proceedings" need to be completed locally before he can be whisked off to the IDC?

But a referendum was, of course, held in 2016, when the majority voted for the UK to have nothing more to do with that 20th Century dinosaur relic called the EU. So can I take it that, consistent with your belief in democracy, you are applauding the fact that the UK is no longer being forced to write blank cheques to enable the autocratic elites who are responsible for running that shambolic organisation with minimal regard to democratic principles to live extravagant lifestyles in gilded palaces located in Brussels and Strasbourg?

Yep, let's shower our love on Pitchfork, Bellfield and their ilk by awarding them peerages, knighthoods, etc, right?

Indeed it says absolutely nothing about what is IMHO the most vital piece of personal information relating to its holder: namely the date when their current permission to stay in Thailand is due to expire.

Most certainly when compared to its British counterpart (His Majesty's Passport Office), as most Brits who have had to endure the agonies of renewing their passports from Thailand (myself included) will probably readily attest to!

And what I found particularly galling was that, in common with their counterparts worldwide, they were more than happy to sit idly by while ol' Boris was, gleefully and with much fanfare, cheerfully giving away vaccine doses deemed surplus to UK requirements, to find their way into the arms of any Tom, Dick and Harry across this great planet of ours who wasn't a British citizen!

Mostly of little relevance to the routine needs of local expat retirees, I think. They have completely thrown in the towel on (e.g.) providing an income confirmation service and witnessing State Pension life certificates - in other words genuinely useful services to the local expat retiree community.

As far as us expat retirees are concerned, Bill, it has become clear to me that the Embassy regard their key role these days as acting as a go-between in developing a joint UK/Thailand inter-governmental strategy aimed at making our lives here in LOS just as humanly difficult and miserable as they can be. The imposition of cumbersome bureaucracy on us over the past 10 years or so in the areas of passport renewal, proving that we are still in the land of the living for State Pension purposes and legalisation of UK documents as alluded to above is, I think, clear evidence of the UK government's gleeful enthusiasm for the development of such a strategy.

Could you not have downloaded these from the Immigration Templates pinned thread to spare you at least 1 chaotic trip to Jomtien? Or is it the case that they have their own special version of the TM7 which they always insist on being used?