OJAS

@DrJack54 - I suggest that you specifically ask your airline to provide you with wheelchair assistance to guide you through the various stages between your arrival at the airport and boarding your flight. That's what I did for my latest European trip a few months back on account of my disability, and I can confirm that what @internationalism has said 100% reflected my experience on that occasion.

Yes, bearing in mind that you could have gone up to 45 days before the expiry date in the case of Chaengwattana (and up to 30 days beforehand in the cases of Samut Prakan and Nonthaburi).

Apart from those seeking permanent residency and/or Thai citizenship - for which the yellow book is, I gather, a prerequisite - I really don't think that this particular document is worth bothering about.

Hear, hear! As part of an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a yellow book several years ago, I was given the dreaded "Bangkok Runaround" by my local amphur which entailed me obtaining some document in person from the British Embassy, followed by traipsing out to the MFA offices to get this document translated into Thai and then verified - only to fall at the final fence when I took the verified translation back to my amphur only for some eagle-eyed official there to spot that the Thai transliteration of my surname didn't exactly match my wife's as stated in her ID card and blue tabien bahn. At that point I simply threw in the towel and haven't needed to look back ever since. In any event, a fundamental difficulty I have with the yellow book is that it omits what is IMHO the single-most important and relevant piece of personal information in our case - namely the date when our current permission to stay in Thailand is due to expire.

Yep, definitely any time on the basis of my personal experience. Maybe dependent on the size of transfers? The transfers which were processed instantly in my experience each yielded around 44k THB. And possibly also on the Wise transfer reason selected (I opted for "General Living Expenses" rather than "Funds For Long-Stay In Thailand")?

Who are "they" who have your passport, for how long have they had it, and why are they hanging on to it? IMHO it is foolish to let your passport out of your sight for an extended period of time in view of all the hassle involved in replacing it if whoever is holding it then goes on to lose it for you!

What I personally take strong exception to is HMPO's directive requiring those of us who don't live anywhere near Chiang Mai to submit ourselves to the masochistic "delights" of a cumbersome and bureaucratic passport renewal process entailing 2 trips in person to a dilapidated tower block in Bangkok with inconvenient conveniences which has consistently won The Silliest Office Building Name Of The Year award for each year since it was built way back when; or to fork out an extra 5,000 THB for an agent to make these trips on our behalf!!

At this rate of decline, the possibility will also eventually arise of our not receiving our new passports before their expiry dates! Now that the rush for new passports back in the UK in time for summer holidays for the first time in 3 years should now be behind us, it is not, I think, unreasonable to be expecting the timescales for processing renewal applications to be now falling. But if anything they are going the other way if 16 weeks, as mentioned by the OP, is now the accepted norm as far as HMPO are concerned! What on earth are those masters of bungling incompetence and ineptitude in that particular organisation up to during their working hours these days, I wonder?? In serious training for a new UK Government Inter-Departmental Thumb Twiddling Competition, maybe??

So precisely what do you mean by "retirement visa"? Are you referring to an annual extension of stay for retirement? Or might you, in fact, be referring to the conversion of a tourist visa or visa-exempt entry to a real genuine McCoy non-immigrant visa of the "O" variety for retirement at your local immigration office? Proof of the foreign origin of the 800k in question in the form of a Wise statement, bank document or whatever is only needed in the case of the latter, not the former!

Given that the 90-day medical extensions which were issued outside Bangkok did not prove problematical in the context of her retirement extension applications at Chaengwattana Immigration in December 2020 and December 2021, I would have thought it highly unlikely that they will prove problematical for her next retirement extension application there next month. IMHO your pal should ditch the agent in question and save 45,000 THB by processing the necessary paperwork for her next retirement extension application herself. Based on my experience of having successfully applied for 12 retirement extensions to date completely off my own bat without any agency assistance whatsoever, I can assure her that the whole process really isn't rocket science! IMHO the use of agents is only justified for the really complicated things in life like applying for a visa to enable your Thai partner to accompany you on a trip back to your home country or (in the case of Brits) renewing your passport from Thailand.

In theory the hotel in question should file a completed TM30 form in respect of your stay with them directly to Immigration and provide you with any confirmatory documentary evidence which you might need for Immigration purposes. You would be strongly advised to check with them specifically before making any firm booking whether they will actually do these things in practice.

But they are not an embassy, they are a law firm!!

Yep, depends on where the IO with whom the agent has a "relationship" is located. If not in the office serving the area where the OP's pal resides, then she is, indeed, beholden to said agent.

If by that you mean submit a completed TM30 form, he will likely have already done that when he applied (successfully) for a 60-day extension for the purposes of visiting his wife on 20 September.

Is not his starting date, in fact, 5 August 2022 (when he originally entered Thailand with a tourist visa), 89 days from which (allowing for the fact that 5 November counts as Day 1) was by my reckoning 2 November 2022? And in calculating the 7-day grace period, is not the expiry date likewise reckoned on the basis of 2 November counting as Day 1 (meaning that he needs to leg it down to his immigration office on Monday or Tuesday next week)?

Your due date for 90-reporting fell on 2 November. However, you now have a grace period lasting until 8 November (i.e. next Tuesday!) inclusive in order to report in person at your local immigration office. It will no longer be possible for you to report using the online system on this occasion in any event.

That might still be problematical with any new debit and/or credit cards which you might wish to link to a new onshore UK bank account, though. Sure the bank could send these to your UK address, but would whoever is now living there be willing to go to the trouble and expense of forwarding them on to you in Thailand in a sufficiently secure manner (i.e. through a courier service such as DHL, I would suggest)? In any event, if you are renting out your UK property through a managing agent, you may well have had to sign a landlord's agreement with the agent which includes a provision forbidding you to get mail addressed to you sent to your property - just as I had to do when I rented out mine.

OP - this is the second time which I can recall of you creating a thread on here and titling it with your username. Unfortunately this practice does not by itself provide us with any clue as to the specific issue you are raising, which, I feel, would be a more helpful use of the Title field.

Even more annoying for the OP would be if, say, he had a sister who was married to a Thai national. Her passport would be gleefully and unhesitatingly stamped for a marriage extension by her local immigration office each year with no question her being subjected to the Spanish Inquisition!

Particularly as that date is a public holiday this year! As are 10 Dec (which is a Saturday, though) and 12 Dec, which also fall within the OP's reporting period.

With the new monarch facing to the left, thereby continuing the tradition of successive monarchs alternating between left- and right-sided profiles on coins issued during their respective reigns. Back in the pre-decimalisation era I can certainly recall seeing old penny coins with both George V and George VI facing to the left passing through my hands. So, had any coins been issued for general circulation bearing Edward VIII's profile during his short reign, they would presumably have had him facing to the right. That said, however, the following Wikipedia link does include an illustration of a shilling coin bearing a profile of him facing to the left! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VIII_coins#:~:text=Edward VIII coins are a,remained only as pattern pieces.

By "retirement visa" do you mean an original visa of the non-OA or non-O variety? If non-OA, there are certainly reports on here of those who sought annual extensions of stay for retirement after their visa had been fully used prior to its expiry being subsequently able to switch to marriage extensions so as to overcome the mandatory health insurance requirement. As I recall, @Pib was able to secure such a switch at Chaengwattana Immigration. But, with all such matters Immigration-related, I think that it all depends on (1) the particular immigration office you deal with, (2) the particular officer you deal with, and (3) most importantly which side of the bed said officer had got out of that morning. Which immigration office are we talking about in this particular instance? EDIT: Crossed with your reply to Lite Beer, it would appear.

I do have to wonder whether @BritScot would have been quite so diligent in checking his moral compass had Scotland qualified for this tournament!⚽

In any event it's surely best, generally speaking, for prospective State pensioners in Thailand to defer applying until AFTER April (like I did way back when) so that, all being well, they will benefit from at least 1 triple-lock increase before their State pensions are placed in the freezer.

Yes, we Brits in Thailand are definitely treated as second-class citizens when it comes to passport renewals. I understand that the State Department prioritises passport renewal applications submitted by American expats over applicants living in the States. Quite the reverse in the case of us British expats who, I think, are deliberately placed at the back of the passport renewal queue by His Majesty's Passport Office! And, of course, no question of us Brits being able to submit our passport renewal applications by post. No, instead we are required to make 2 trips in person to a VFS office in Bangkok or Chiang Mai, firstly to submit our application docs and secondly to collect our new passports eventually. The only way of avoiding these trips is by shelling out an extra 5,000 THB for an agent to perform them on our behalf. ???? I am currently in the process of renewing my British passport, having made my first trip to Bangkok for this purpose last week. My fingers are now firmly crossed that I shall be able to collect my new passport some time before its expiry date....???? Why on earth are we Brits living in LOS unable to renew our passports with the ease and grace of our American cousins is IMHO one of life's great mysteries.