OJAS

And a particular thanks for the heads-up as to what this maintenance is all about. How I hate it when websites tell me that they're down for maintenance without providing any explanation as to what this supposed "maintenance" is all about - as, for instance, I experienced last Saturday when I tried unsuccessfully to access the French Embassy Bangkok website (during the daytime to boot, I should hasten to point out)!????

I personally think that we need to await specific reports on here from anyone who has actually been required to file a fresh TM30 at Jomtien upon their return from foreign trips, before deciding whether or not any procedural change has been made at that particular office. How reliable a track record does the Pattaya Mail have when it comes to accurate (or otherwise) reporting? That said, Jomtien do have previous form when it comes to rogue requirements, as stated by @Liquorice. For instance, in the case of non-O conversions for retirement they require supporting 800k bank balances to be seasoned for 2 months, in contravention of the official rules stating that no such seasoning is necessary. And when it comes to regular annual retirement extension applications based on 800k in the bank they require applicants to return 3 months to the day later with concrete evidence that their account balances haven't dipped a single satang below the 800k minimum in the meantime.

You have got to be kidding, right! Bet you're a national of a country which doesn't subject its expats in Thailand to the rigours of the dreaded With-It Tower Passport Renewal Experience every 9/10 years or so! I would strongly advise you to take the considerable time out needed in order to learn, mark and inwardly digest all the contents of the following link so as to fully appreciate the convoluted bureaucratic nonsense we Brits in LOS are faced with at passport renewal time. More than just "a little paperwork" involved, I think!! https://www.passport.service.gov.uk/overseas/information/thailand/renew/adult

Not to mention that he would also require a police report to enable him to replace his existing passport (which would be classed as lost and stolen) once back in the UK in any event. Even if his wife were to hand him back his existing passport once their return flight had touched down at LHR (or wherever) it would, to all intents and purposes, be useless for future foreign travel if HMPO had already taken steps to cancel it electronically in the meantime, most likely as a consequence of his applying for an emergency travel document. The link below sets out how he needs to go about obtainng such a document from the British Embassy in Bangkok: https://www.gov.uk/travel-urgently-from-abroad-without-uk-passport He should IMHO definitely alert Immigration at the earliest opportunity particularly if, as a result of all this shenanigans, he looks like overstaying on the existing 30-day visa-exempt permission to stay presumably granted to him when he entered Thailand. Although he would, in theory, be eligible for a further 30-day permission to stay this might, in practice, prove easier said than done to obtain on the basis of an emergency travel document - and definitely impossible, I would say, if he was in complete limbo without any formal travel document in his possession at the time he otherwise needed to apply for a 30-day extension.

If you're that concerned, why not take along a TM30 completed by your wife when you next apply for an annual extension, but only produce it, together with her tabien baan and ID card (originals + copies as previously advised), if IMM specifically ask for it? You might need to brace yourself for the possibiity of being hit with a small fine (typically 800 THB or thereabouts), but, depending on how long ago you last stayed away from your current address, this would be a risk you might have to run by filing a completed TM30 sooner rather than later in any event.

Agreed - the French certainly seem to have been able to secure representation for their foreign expats along these lines in their National Assembly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constituencies_for_French_residents_overseas

Just 1 omission from your comprehensive list that I can think of, Bill, relating to the cumbersomely bureaucratic procedure which has been inflicted on those needing to get UK official documents legalised for use in Thailand - spelt out in all its "wondrous glory" in the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5b173648e5274a190383bc14/Legalisation_info_June_2018.pdf

And these 38 provinces are.......?

I was under the impression that it was low-pressure systems which brought rain.

Yep, the French doing maintenance on their Bangkok embassy website is something to be fulsomely praised to the highest heavens as being the very best thing since sliced bread. Whereas the Thais likewise doing maintenance on their Brussels website is, in the other hand, to be roundly condemned in the strongest terms. Right?

The French and IT are an equally deadly combination IMHO - in their infinite wisdom they decided to take their Bangkok Embassy website down for supposed "maintenance" all day on Saturday at precisely the time I needed to download info from it in connection with a Schengen visa application for my Thai wife! ????

The really irritating thing here IMHO is HMPO's abject refusal, for reasons best known only unto themselves, to permit VFS to offer a local payment service in THB, in exactly the same way as they are allowed to by HMPO's colleagues in UKVI in the case of UK visa applications. I'm sure that you would have had no difficulty with using your Bangkok Bank card to pay for your new passport had a local payment service been available!

@khunjeff - have now come across this unofficial link following some Googling: https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/no-etias-wont-become-operational-in-2024-eu-sources-say/ The $64,000 question, of course, is whether the EU will get round to lifting its collective finger in order to update its official website any time before May 2025 (or even before they may subsequently feel sufficiently energised as to inflict ETIAS on third country nationals). An all-too-familiar example in my experience of the EU proceeding at a pace which makes a tortoise look like Speedy Gonzales!????

Grateful for a link confirming this, please. The official EU website is still saying that ETIAS will be introduced some time in 2024: https://travel-europe.europa.eu/etias_en

So we are presumably talking about another local Phuket Immigration initiative which, I take it, is not being replicated by any other office in LOS. They are, of course, the solitary office which does not enforce the mandatory health insurance requirement for non-immigrants who originally used an OA visa to enter Thailand up until October 2019. Even though both initiatives are IMHO to be applauded, it still beats me as to how the Immigration Bureau bigwigs in Bangkok seem prepared to let Phuket get away with them!

IMHO this would all only work if the RD were to tear up each and every foreign double taxation agreement entered into by Thailand since the amounts which they would otherwise be able to screw us for by way of taxation would almost certainly amount to peanuts. And you can bet your bottom dollar that the international response to such unilateral action on the RD's part would take the form of punitive economic sanctions targetted at crippling the tourist industry upon which Thailand relies so much. Not to mention that hiso's with significant economic investments in our home countries would almost certainly find their assets and bank accounts there frozen. They alone should ensure that the RD's hare-brained proposals are unlikely ever to see the light of day in any meaningful way, I would have thought!

https://www.rd.go.th/fileadmin/user_upload/AEC/AseanTax-Thailand.pdf

And can RD tax returns be filed in English? Or is Thai the strict (& sole) order of the day?

I strongly suspect that it will be more for Nationwide to decide whether @Keith5588 constitutes a UK resident within the meaning of their terms and conditions. However, it doesn't look to me like his chances of being regarded as such are that great. That said, If he still considers it worthwhile seeking clarification of his residency status from HMRC, then the following link would appear to be a good starting-point:- https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rdr3-statutory-residence-test-srt/guidance-note-for-statutory-residence-test-srt-rdr3

Looks like the water supply to the tea urns in HMPO's Liverpool office has been turbo-charged!????

IMHO the finger of blame in your case would be far more appropriately pointed at those clowns at HMPO, whose bungling incompetence and ineptitude is presumably the reason why you didn't get your old passport back at the same time as your new one.

Sorry to hear about your cancer situation. But the sneeringly patronising arrogance which you have thus far gleefully displayed in this thread with a "Me Mr High & Mighty Ultra-Perfect & Ultra-Superior Westerner" attitude is really doing you no favours at all IMHO.

Just as is the case back in our home countries if you haven't already noticed, with many instances of expats here having their bank accounts back home, usually of many years' standing, summarily closed with minimal notice, solely on IMHO totally irrelevant non-residential grounds. A particularly sore point for us Brits at the present time, but equally true of the USA and other Western countries, I strongly suspect.

Just be aware that your initial retirement extension will be dated from when you apply for it at Immigration rather than from when your current permission to stay expires. Subsequent annual extensions will, however, be dated from when the permission to stay granted under the preceding extension expires.

I'm sure that any thread on here this time 5 years ago suggesting that the American, Australian and British embassies were about to discontinue their income confirmation services would similarly have been dismissed as rubbish. But we all know what, in the event, happened just a few months later.