OJAS

Plus the fact that a major flaw IMHO is that it contains zilch info on what is surely the most important piece of personal info in the case of us foreigners: namely the date when our current permission to stay expires. Until such time as this crucial piece of info is somehow included in the card - through either a specific "permission to stay expiry" date or even card expiry date matching that when your current permission to stay expires - I certainly don't plan on jumping through all the hoops needed in order to obtain one.

Thanks, confirms my suspicion. In practice I think that your friends' experiences answer the OP's question perfectly - notwithstanding his (IMHO perfectly understandable) confusion about the wording of the GOV.UK website - since I somehow doubt whether there are all that many male expats out there who were born before 6 April 1951 and have yet to claim their (old) State pensions! https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10114/

Not possible, as pointed out in the following link (in other words, blame the Bank of Thailand): https://www.moneymgmnt.com/managing-money/transferring-money-out-of-thailand/ Furthermore, it would appear from a number of threads on here that there are now problems with using Dee Money as per MoneyMgmnt's second suggested option. To seek these threads out do a Google search of "site:aseannow.com dee money" (without the inverted double commas, though).

More likely a case of bungling incompetence and ineptitude at the KTBK end, it seems to me.

I suspect that this would largely depend on whether BKKB had a presence in their home countries. As far as I'm aware, BKKB only have foreign branches in London and New York.

Highly ironical, I think, given that at one time they were one of Wise's partner banks here in LOS!

So are you seriously advising me to make a 12,000-mile round trip to the UK each time I wanted to arrange a transfer from my "home bank" there to my "home bank" in LOS?

Yeah, but at least Peterborough is only 1 hour by train from Kings Cross. Takes an awful lot longer than that to travel from somewhere a similar distance from Bangkok as Peterborough is from London to the VFS offices in Bangkok on the complete and utter shambolic joke that is the public transport system in LOS!

Might this depend on you being eligible for/in receipt of the "Old" or "New" State Pension? I became eligible for the "Old" pension on my 65th birthday in August 2014 (when I was already living in Thailand), but delayed claiming it until April 2015 with the aim of getting at least one triple-lock increase under my belt, which was duly achieved. However, I understand that this would not be possible in the case of the "New" pension (although am happy to be corrected by anyone more in the know).

So they accepted your phone call as being the necessary proof that you were still in the land of the living in lieu of a fresh Life Cert? I distinctly recall someone else on here who called them recently but was told that he still had to submit a paper Life Cert by snail mail! A case of left and right hands at the IPC, it would seem.

Maybe they could now turn their minds to sorting out the whole antiquated renewal process from Thailand??

Koh Samed during a holiday in the aftermath of the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004/05 (which, thankfully, had no physical impact locally).

Looks like they've won the rights for both EPL & FA Cup games in Thailand, Cambodia & Laos until at least 2030/31: ☹️ https://mono29.com/prnews/499085.html And it doesn't look like Truevisions are going to get any look-in - although maybe I'll be able to watch live games on my titchy little AIS mobile screen instead?? 🤣 https://www.jasmine.com/en/updates/corporate-news/388/jas-จับมือ-ais-ลงนาม-mou-ดึงคอนเทนต์ลีกฟุตบอลระดับโลกเตรียมเสิร์ฟตรงถึงแฟนบอลไทย-ผ่านแพลตฟอร์ม-ais-play-และ-monomax Despite all the brave words currently being uttered at the JAS end at the present time, I seriously wonder whether we could end up having another CTH-style fiasco on our hands in practice when and if they eventually realise that they have bitten off more than they can chew.

Yep, yet more sports channels guaranteeing yet more wall-to-wall coverage of yet more pointless badminton, tennis, basketball & golf tournaments televised live from China, South Korea and Japan with solely local lingo & Thai commentary, I strongly suspect.

Indeed, there are - so any relaxation of booze restrictions on account of Visakha Bucha 2568/2025 also falling tomorrow will presumably be trumped in this instance. After all, we can't run the risk of having voters commit VUI, can we? On the other hand, campaigning pick-ups promoting particular candidates' manifestos with amplified announcements made at top volume interspersed with loud boom-boom music which make our window frames rattle (and which have been the bane of our existence these past few weeks on my moobaan) are cheerfully tolerated - nay gleefully encouraged, I strongly suspect - by the powers-that-be.🤬

As well as totally illegally - meaning that you could then find yourself running the risk of eventually ending up in deep, deep doo-dah with IMM. Much better to follow the procedure set out by @DrJack54 IMHO.

.. who, ironically, used to be one of Wise's partner banks in Thailand, if I recall correctly!

.. of which this is one:

I managed to get my SIM card identity-verified following a trip to my local AIS shop this morning (which proved a much smoother process than I had been fearing). However, one question to which you may have the answer given your comment above is "Will we need to go through this palaver again each time after we've renewed our passports?". After taking a snapshot of my passport page, the AIS staffer then appeared to extract info from it for their system, including, in all likelihood, the passport's expiry date.

Actually Bangkok Bank did message users of its I-Banking service about this requirement back on 3 April - which, I will confess, I only picked up yesterday! EDIT: Sorry about the small size of the attachment, but I don't know how to make it any bigger.

It would appear from the very brief video included with the OP that the government and banks are only planning to go after foreigners with gleeful zeal and gusto on this particular issue. On the other hand, Thai nationals will, presumably, still be cheerfully permitted by the powers-that-be to have their bank accounts linked in complete impunity to SIM cards registered in the name of any Tom, Dick or Harry they might choose.

For which the responsibility lies fairly and squarely with those clueless HMPO clowns in Corby IMHO. But, if perchance, they have, in fact, determined, for their inscrutable reasons, that fictitious police reports of lost and stolen passports (along with certified English translations + completed LSO1 forms) are now to accompany all passport renewal applications submitted from Thailand as a matter of course, then they also need to communicate this fact to those responsible for administering the gov.uk website so that those of us who are about to renew our passports are aware of this particular new requirement up front. Personally I rule nothing out as far as HMPO are concerned when it comes to crass stupidity!

Glad to hear that you finally managed to get your passport renewal woes sorted out. Given the extreme level of clueless idiocy on the part of HMPO's office in Corby with which you have been faced throughout this nightmare process, you may wish to consider lodging a complaint with HMPO about the unacceptably abysmal treatment you have been on the receiving end of, through following this link: https://www.passport.service.gov.uk/help/what-do-you-want-to-do

Here is another current nightmare thread about the complete and utter bloody shambles that is the UK passport renewal process from Thailand: https://aseannow.com/topic/1356355-uk-passport-renewal-email-received-send-us-your-passport-2-weeks-after-applying/ And here is another stating that the processing time for UK passport renewals from Thailand is now 9-11 weeks, despite 4 weeks still being quoted on the gov.uk website: https://aseannow.com/topic/1359941-british-passport-renewal-in-bangkok

Are there any other offices which insist on this IMHO rogue requirement for retirement extensions?