OJAS

Well, it would appear that passports are being specifically targeted by the PCS Union for further industrial action from 1 February if this ES article is to be believed: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/civil-servant-strike-february-government-departments-full-list-pcs-b1052407.html Although HMPO are not explicitly included in the ES's list of affected government departments, they do, of course, form part of the Home Office who are specifically mentioned. If this further action materialises, therefore, the recent improvement in renewal processing times does not look like being sustained in the short-to-medium term, I fear.

In particular, how much is like being compared with like, I wonder?

Sadly, your assertion does not appear to be borne out by the INRIX scorecard referred to in the BBC news item, though - according to which 156 hours were lost to traffic delays in London last year, compared to only 67 hours in Bangkok: https://inrix.com/scorecard/

Whenever it does take place we'll no doubt know well in advance when plethoras of loud boom-boom convassing pick-ups start cruising our neigbourhoods and terrorising us with their ear-splitting racket. And then on the great day itself there will almost certainly be a zealously-enforced (for all and sundry, including expats who don't have the vote) nationwide booze ban in place from 18:00 the previous day, since we cannot possibly run the unacceptable risk of having electors hauled in by the BIB for VUI (voting under the influence), can we? ????

Bit of a mystery to me as to why the good residents of Chadlington seem to have objections to humans eating in a farmyard barn but presumably not livestock animals!????

Whether this improvement is sustained going forward during the early part of 2023 at least is, however, dependent on how things shape up on the current wave of civil servants' strikes. To the best of my knowledge HMPO staff have not, to date, been specifically targeted for industrial action - but that, of course, could all change to the detriment of passport processing times. So, if your passport is due to expire over the next 6-9 months, you would still IMHO be strongly advised to set the wheels in motion for its renewal ASAP.

I agree!

In that case the only financial avenue open to you is the 800k money-in-the-bank option referred to by @DrJack54. Absolutely no chance that you will get away with a series of consecutive 45/30-day visa-exempt border runs over a 12-month period (which is what I assume you are contemplating) before applying for a 90-day non-O conversion for retirement at your local immigration office leading in turn to annual extensions of stay.

Exactly the same can be said about people in Western countries, of course.

Provided, of course, that you are prepared to be put on hold for an eternity and "serenaded" with irritating muzak until a real live human being in the International Pensions Centre picks up your call and then bombards you with a plethora of security-related questions which you must answer correctly in order to start the process!

The postal service isn't in great shape at the UK end either at the present time at least, thanks to the postal workers' strikes which show no signs of ending any time soon. But I somehow doubt whether that will prove of any impediment to DWP's overwhelming desire to rub salt into the wounds of our perpetually frozen State Pensions by inflicting the Life Certificate nonsense on us in the most cumbersomely and onerously bureaucratic manner as is humanly possible.

And, as a result of some memory-jogging (and with Google's assistance), I have now come across a second more recent incident involving a crooked Kasikorn branch assistant manager in Pattaya, which definitely did have a negative impact on some local expats: https://www.pattayamail.com/news/pattaya-fraud-victims-ignored-by-bank-and-police-stage-protest-384080 Even so, 2 incidents in 5 years do not exactly constitute "numerous" cases IMHO!

I don't think that there have been numerous cases, but I am certainly aware of one particular incident involving a Bangkok Bank branch in Uttaradit in 2018, where at least 3 customers had their accounts relieved of significant amounts, thanks to fraudulent activities perpetrated by a bent bank official. It is, however, not clear from this Nation article whether any of them were foreign retirees: https://www.nationthailand.com/national/30357034 It is, of course, impossible to eliminate completely the risk of those of us retirees using the 400k/800k method having accounts holding required minimum balances depleted through bank fraud. While we can certainly minimise this risk through having no cards nor internet access linked to relevant accounts, there is, unfortunately, absolutely nothing that we can do to guard against the predations of crooked bank employees as in the 2018 case in Uttaradit. That said, however, it is IMHO essential that we retirees using the 400k/800k method weigh up the risk of falling victim to bank fraud in this way against other risks which we face in our daily lives - including, for example, being involved in a horrific road accident while en route to our local immigration office to apply for our latest retirement extension.

I would strongly advise you to open a new dedicated account for the 800k, like I (and quite a few others on here) have done. There have been numerous instances reported on here of those using their day-to-day account for this purpose (which I assume is what you are planning to do) inadvertently finding the balance dipping below the required 400k/800k (depending on the time of year, as referred to by @Liquorice above) minimum, with obvious dire consequences at extension of stay time! And definitely have no card nor internet access linked to this new account either IMHO.

Are you doing so on the basis of a non-OA visa obtained before October 2019? If so, would be interesting to know whether Phuket are still waiving the mandatory health insurance requirement for such original non-OA visa holders.

In which Thai bank? If Bangkok Bank, then provided that you have selected the "Funds For Long-Term Stay In Thailand" option for your Wise transfers, this should result in these being classed FTT (Foreign Telegraphic Transfer) in your passbook. You might also wish to download and print off the Wise transfer confirmation PDF's for each of the transfers in question (assuming that these total at least 800k) so as to show a trail from your home country to Thai bank accounts, on the off-chance that you will be asked to prove their foreign origin - although, as already said, this should be unlikely in practice.

So it might be a tad difficult for you to provide a 3-month statement (which should IMHO be obtained at the same time as your account confirmation letter)! Maybe you need to start making periodic token transfers of, say, 100 THB into the account as to show some activity on it for statement purposes? That's certainly what I do in the case of my dedicated 800k account with Krungsri - the first transfer a week or so before I go to the immigration office for my retirement extension and the second 6 months later.

So does this really mean that Buriram Immigration Office will no longer issue extensions of stay for retirement to anyone who isn't the proud possessor of the "hallowed" Yellow House Book? Absolutely disgraceful if that is, indeed, the case IMHO - as well as being another office to add to the "rogue" list, I think. ????

No Special Measures for Chinese Visitors In stark contrast to the Special Measures bureaucratic nonsense which were was in place for Western visitors this time last year, as succinctly summed up by @gearbox So why are the Chinese being treated more favourably now than Westerners were then? The $64,000 question, I think!

I strongly suspect that HMRC would respond to any request on the OP's part for a statement by drawing his attention to the convoluted process known as the Statutory Residence Test (SRT) as already referred to in this thread - which, I think, is what his bank was driving at through his reference to an "HMRC directive". https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rdr3-statutory-residence-test-srt/guidance-note-for-statutory-residence-test-srt-rdr3 Broadly speaking, it strikes me that, in order to satisfy the requirements of this test as far as establishing UK tax residency is concerned, the OP would, first and foremost, need to spend at least 183 days in the UK during a given tax year - a prospect which would presumably be totally unacceptable to him. The fact that he is only liable to tax in the UK on his public sector occupational pension income as a result of the UK/Thailand Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) is completely irrelevant in this context. The OP might be interested in learning that, when I received a similar request from my UK bank a couple of years ago, I responded by declaring that I was a tax resident in Thailand, even though I only paid tax on my UK public sector occupational pension income to HMRC in practice as a result of the UK/Thailand DTA. This has certainly not resulted in any further correspondence from them on this matter to date - and I would have thought it likely that, if the OP's UK bank were hell-bent on closing his account with them, they would proceed on the basis of the Thai address which he has presumably registered with them in any event.

Well, @gejohesch certainly made no bones about the "welcome" he allegedly received recently, even with a "visa for 60 days" he got from the Thai embassy in the country where he is resident! So maybe @dj230 is, indeed, right in steering clear of tourist visas in future!!????

For those who, like the OP, can meet the necessary extension of stay requirements, the use of agents is IMHO only justified for the really challenging things in life - like renewing your passport if you're a Brit, or obtaining the necessary visa to enable your Thai spouse to accompany you on a trip back to your home country.

And snail mail reporting is not necessarily a smooth process for that particular office based on past experience either - although the blame in that instance lies rather more with those masters of lazy incompetence at Maptaput Post Office, who once hung on to a snail mail report of mine for 3 whole days according to EMS tracking before eventually lifting any finger sufficiently high as actually to finalise its delivery to the office! And no, these 3 days did not span a weekend or holiday period!!

So that was the face-saving explanation they gave you! The unconvincingly vague excuse they gave me a few years back (after much toing and froing) was along the lines of "blame the computer"!! Incidentally, did they insist on you completing a fresh TM47 before issuing the receipt? They certainly did in my case but not for the individual to whom I referred up-thread.

Out of curiosity which is your immigration office? The lack of any response to date in your case is probably as a result of masterly inactivity on their part. I have become aware of a recent similar instance at my local immigration office (Rayong) where the individual involved, having found his latest online report perpetually stuck in the Pending category, visited the office on the due date and presented his passport with the printed Pending confirmation which was accepted without comment. But I would not advise you to bother wasting your time in trying to elicit any explanation as to why your online report was not accepted since, as I found out when I had a similar experience a few years ago, saving face is the tip-top priority as far as culpable immigration offices are concerned.