OJAS

More likely it will bring her sleepless nights with its constant croaking, I think!????

Not holding my breath, personally.....☹️

Definitely check this specifically and in advance with the airline you'll be flying back to Thailand with, if I were you.

Well the fact that "this kind of info is found at many websites" indicates to me that pigs will fly before any proof to the contrary comes to light!

Please let us know next Monday (on the basis that last Monday was a bank holiday in the UK) whether they were, in the event, as good as their word!

Maybe that has something to do with the Royal Mail strikes referred to by @youreavinalaff? And/or to last year's major hack of their website which, I gather, is also still impacting negatively on their international delivery services? And/or to a leisurely attitude taken by customs officials at either (or both of) the UK and Thai ends in clearing international mail destined for us? And/or specifically in the case of Life Certificate requests to DWP's apparent policy (judging from the postmark on the envelope containing their latest request to me) of routing these to us through some sorting office on mainland Europe, presumably with the aim of minimising their postage costs?

Or alternatively you could phone 'em!???? https://www.gov.uk/international-pension-centre Yep, those parts of The Great UK Government Machine we expats have to deal with from LOS really are at the cutting edge of advanced e-comms technologies, aren't they?????

Having got heartily sick and fed up to the teeth with having to wait around 15 minutes for my laptop to boot up following the installation of each and every Windows 10 update requiring a complete restart, I have finally taken the plunge and migrated to Windows 11. It appears to be a considerable improvement over its predecessor in that regard in my case: for example the rebooting process following the installation of the 2023-05 Cumulative Update Preview for Windows 11 Version 22H2 for x64-based systems (KB5026446) only took 2 minutes and 40 seconds in the case of my laptop, when compared to MS's estimate of 4 minutes! So definitely a case of goodbye and good riddance to Windows 10 as far as I am concerned, I think!

The following link seems to be working OK:- https://tm47.immigration.go.th/tm47/#/login

Apart, possibly, from jacking up minimum financial requirements and/or making all those seeking retirement extensions subject to the mandatory health insurance requirement regardless of which category of non-imm visa they originally (or most recently) used to enter Thailand, it strikes me that the scope of any new MFP government's room for manoeuvre would be severely constrained by the 1979 Immigration Act. The question would then arise as to what priority they would attach to "reforming" this Act (by which I mean making life as difficult for us as is humanly possible - notwithstanding the "heroic" assistance which HM Government back in the UK is already cheerfully providing in that regard as far as we Brits are concerned, for instance). In the short term at least I don't see this as being a tip-top priority for any MFP government - in the way that it hasn't been for any government here in LOS over the last 20-30 years.

Unless, of course, you are a retiree who originally entered Thailand on the basis of a non-OA visa prior to October 2019 (assuming, of course, that Phuket hasn't by now fallen into line with each and every other office in LOS by insisting on a suitable 3m THB health insurance policy as a condition of granting annual retirement extensions for such original visa holders).

Maybe this "initiative" could explain why long waits at that particular office are now commonplace as a result of officers being presumably diverted en masse from processing extension of stay applications, 90-day reports, etc to gleefully conducting witchhunts against foreigners.

An appropriate description which IMHO can also be levelled against other parts of HM Government - e.g. HMPO when it comes to passport renewals from Thailand. Makes me seriously wonder whether HM Government as a whole really is actively striving to make life just as difficult for us expat Brit retirees in LOS as is humanly possible - in accomplishing which aim it would, of course, find itself being eagerly aided and abetted by its Thai counterpart.

IMHO your unfortunate experience serves as a general reminder to us all that it would probably be better to rely on reports of a new Life Certificate exercise on here in order to spur us into taking the necessary action, in preference to awaiting the receipt of a specific request from the IPC. For example, @theoldgit first alerted us all to the latest exercise on 31 January in the pinned Pensions thread - and his posting certainly got the alarm bells ringing in my case!

Every couple of years or so.

Would it not be easier for you to go to Chiang Mai instead? As far as agents are concerned, the services of Key Visa are used by many Brits here in LOS at passport renewal time. Google them for further info. But this thread is, of course, primarily about the Australian passport renewal process and, as a Brit, I am green with envy about the ease and grace our Aussie cousins are faced with at passport renewal time, when compared to the bureaucratic hoops we Brits are forced to jump through - which in my case a few months ago necessitated a couple of stressful all-day trips to a rundown office building with an extremely silly name tucked down some obscure side street in Bangkok with what looked like some elevated railway running along it (although there were no obvious signs of any stations where you could actually get on and off trains). ????

This strikes me as more of a rehash of existing changes affecting account holders living outside the UK which have been around for some time, as opposed to new changes which could lead to account closures.

Name me a country that doesn't. Why are you singling out the UK for demonisation?

Definitely no problems when exiting and subsequently re-entering Thailand at the airport. However, come the time you need to submit your first 90-day report after your return to Thailand, there is, in theory, the hopefully remote possibility that some nit-picking officer at your local office will spot the missing report due on 22 May and slap you with a 2,000 THB fine as a result. The 7-day grace period after the due date does not, in fact, exempt you from the requirement to submit a particular 90-day report if you will be exiting Thailand during the 7 days in question.

And yet there are constant complaints on the Thai visas forum about the amount of paperwork required by Immigration here in LOS in support of annual extension of stay applications. Strikes me that this is a fraction of the amount required in support of 6-month UK visit visa applications if this particular case is typical! In this connection I can certainly recall the mountain of paperwork which needed to be generated in support of a 6-month UK visit visa application for my Thai wife back in 2009 (which thankfully proved successful) - when compared to the relatively minimal amount of paperwork I have been required to provide in support of annual retirement extension applications!

In that case it is, I think, all the more important that he has at least 20,000 THB (or equivalent value in other currencies) cash on him when he next seeks to enter Thailand.

Sorry, misread you and @blackshadow. This is the relevant email address:- [email protected] That said, probably better to contact them initially via the secure messaging link quoted by @Moonlover above.

THE PENSION SERVICE 11 MAIL HANDLING SITE A WOLVERHAMPTON WV98 1LW UNITED KINGDOM (Not shouting, that's how it actually appears on the return envelopes DWP send us!)

Many thanks for this link - which has spared me a long and agonising phone call to HMRC to clarify my Thai wife's entitlement to the UK personal allowance, such as @billd766 has recently experienced! Agree 100%. If we have close family members back in the UK who by the normal run of things are expected to outlive us, it might IMHO be best to get them involved in wrapping up our UK affairs generally in due course, particularly where these affect our Thai spouses. To this end I have provided my sister with a note outlining what needs to be done at the UK end after I pop my clogs (including relevant contact details), which I strive to keep up to date.

Equates to around 40,700 THB a month by my reckoning at present exchange rates. Well short of the 65,000 THB monthly minimum requirement for an annual retirement extension, of course!