OJAS

IMHO the final kick would be more appropriately directed at those who are responsible for, in effect, offering those using banks and immigration offices up as sacrificial lambs on the high altar of Social Distancing by making them stand for ages for their ticket numbers to be called through drastic reductions in the amount of seating available.

So when are preventive measures going to be lifted in immigration offices and banks then?

The National Communicable Disease Committee has ruled that “DMHT” – distancing, mask-wearing, handwashing, and testing – rules are enough to control the spread of COVID-19. Whilst much has been said about mask-wearing on this thread, not a dickey-bird has been said about distancing, which IMHO can be a much greater PITA in certain situations. For example, what on earth is the bloody point of being forced to stand on your feet for ages in an overcrowded immigration office or bank waiting for your ticket number to be called because half the seats are marked as not being for use and the remaining half are already occupied, merely in order to satisfy some sham pretence of "social distancing"? And will the lifting of the COVID-19 state of emergency finally consign this particular piece of nonsense to the rubbish bin where IMHO it now rightly belongs? Somehow I doubt it.

Clearly relates specifically to the dramatic overnight plunge in the GBP's value, I think. Earlier today Wise were only giving this message in respect of GBP transfers to other currencies exceeding £5,000.

Seems to have stabilised in early London trade - against the USD at least:- https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/sterling-plunges-all-time-low-fiscal-plan-spurs-investor-exodus-2022-09-26/ I had also been expecting a further dramatic plunge when the London markets opened. Still plenty of time today for that to happen, though, of course.

Correction: this refusal only appears to apply to transfers of £5,000 and above, and not to those of £4,999 and below.

Which would take the GBP to well below parity against both the USD and EUR as things stand at present. Wise are now refusing to guarantee their GBP conversion rates because of all the volatility.

Anyone aware of any other office which might still be striving to enforce this rogue requirement? Mine (Rayong) did for a brief period following the seasoning changes in early 2019 - but, thankfully, then quietly dropped it!

I would like to thank @pgrahmm and you for your contributions to this thread - in which I think that you have both clearly illustrated for the benefit of what few of my fellow countrymen might still be skipping up and down their sois in a state of unbridled excitement fulsomely singing the praises to the very highest heavens of current British passport renewal procedures from Thailand as being the very best thing since sliced bread, just how really <deleted> they are when compared to the vastly superior and far more efficient American system. I gather that the main reason why you Americans receive your new passports over a much shorter timeframe than do we Brits is that the State Department prioritises renewal applications submitted by expats over domestic applicants. Unfortunately quite the reverse is the case for us Brits, thanks to their counterparts in the form of those masters of bungling incompetence and ineptitude now known as His Majesty's Passport Office, who clearly regard us Brits living in LOS as inferior second-class citizens when compared to our countrymen living back in Blighty.

In which case, if your existing passport is due to expire within a couple of years of your permanent move to Thailand, I would strongly advise you to get it renewed while you are still in the UK. The British passport renewal process from Thailand is IMHO a right PITA, except for those who live in (or within a stone's throw of) Bangkok or Chiang Mai.

What is your nationality? Unless you are American, Australian or British you should be able to obtain a letter confirming your monthly pension income for Immigration purposes from your home country's embassy in Bangkok - and avoid having to make monthly 65k transfers as a result.

So blind loyalty to Putin is far from worrying in your eyes but rather to be fulsomely praised to the very highest heavens as being the best thing since sliced bread, then, is it?

What could prove a right PITA, though, is that, thanks to the Deposit Protection Agency's maximum 1,000,000 THB guarantee limit, it will probably be advisable to spread the 3,000,000 over 3 new accounts with separate banks (which should also be separate from the banks you hold existing accounts with).

And of course we believe everything that Google tells us without question, don't we? Well, whoever turned you away at the airport is a clueless idiot. You should have demanded to speak to their supervisor.

Yes, they might come to regret this attitude after the upcoming tourist high season during which the beaches usually frequented by Europeans will in all probability be completely deserted because their home country currencies will have plummeted in value against the THB as a direct consequence of any manipulation of the THB:USD xrate instigated by Thailand.

He's a dab hand at using one of these, I believe: ????

"a round-trip air ticket, and adequate finances equivalent to at least 10,000 Baht per person or 20,000 Baht per family" These are the areas where entry inconveniences are most likely to arise in practice, I think.

Sounds to me like they are labouring under the mistaken belief that the Schengen Area entry rules (which include a minimum 6-month passport validity requirement) also apply to Thailand! Thank goodness for all of us that Thailand isn't a member of the EU, though!!????

OP - non-B (item 1) and non-O (item 6) visa conversion requirements included in the following link:- https://www.immigration.go.th/en/?page_id=2537

In which case he may, I think, be shooting himself in the foot since any engineered appreciation in the THB's value against the USD will likely have a similar impact on the EUR, GBP and CHF xrates as well. In any event, as the graph below shows, the GBP is already on a downward trajectory against the THB without any USD-related manipulatory assistance from the DPM and his henchmen:-

But the wording does state IF YOU HAVE OVERSTAYED - which does imply to me past overstays period. However, consistent with your personal experiences, the wording should, of course, have read IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY ON OVERSTAY. So clearly yet another case of sloppy translation on the Immigration Bureau's part resulting in totally unnecessary confusion. Why on earth are they seemingly unable to employ translators whose grasp of the English language is somewhat greater than kindergarden school pupils'? Rant over.

And also with the social distancing nonsense at banks and immigration offices in particular where you are forced to stand on your feet for ages waiting for your ticket number to be called because half the available seats have been marked as not for use and the remaining half already have bums placed on them.

This is a good (but unfortunate for the OP, of course) example of the confusion which can result from the use of incorrect terminology. All the more so in this particular instance since the confusion was perpetrated by Immigration themselves!

Sounds to me like said owner might have followed Basil Fawlty's example by employing a cowboy builder in a vain attempt to save money????

@ukrules - a further point worth bearing in mind is that it has now come to my attention that the overstay interdiction applies to ALL non-immigrant visa conversions, not just those of the "O" variety for retirement:- https://www.immigration.go.th/en/?page_id=2537 In which case a 2-day overstay now could prove problematical for the OP rather sooner than in 30 years' time. The Immigration Bureau already have the means of checking a foreigner's immigration history over the validity period of previous passports, a task which will surely be made easier, rather than more difficult, with evolving technologies over the passage of time. Furthermore, a number of changes to immigration procedures which have acted to my detriment personally have already taken place over the past 14 years I have been living in Thailand. Who knows what further goalpost shifting might be under consideration in both the short and longer term, which could have an adverse impact on all us foreigners, including the OP? Finally, the fact that a 2-day overstay might sound trivial to the likes of @DrJack54 and @Liverpool Lou does not, of course, automatically mean that the Immigration Bureau will take a similarly relaxed view. So IMHO you were definitely right in urging caution to the OP.