OJAS

Yes, I can confirm that I am, indeed, able to top up my AIS SIM card via Bangkok Bank's online banking facility. But as regards being able to top up a UK SIM card via a UK bank's online facility, forget it.☹️

I've received various notifications of initial appointments (in triplicate so far!) by SMS out of the blue directly from the hospital in Pattaya performing the vaccinations - usually with a couple of days' notice if I'm lucky!

Well, I duly sent a grumpy email to this address yesterday, and, surprise, surprise, I received the following reply more or less by return, which confirmed my suspicions as suggested up thread that duplicate registrations are being weeded out! Your registration has been approved. The reject email was for the duplicate registration which you may have accidentally completed. Please do not worry as it would not affect your status in the registration. You will be sent an appointment details once your vaccine has been allocated by the Ministry of Public Health. At this point, the majority of registrants' info has been sent to each province and to the Ministry of Public Health, and more continue to be forwarded. The waiting time could vary from group to group and province to province. Normally those in the high priority group are notified within a few weeks. Please note that each province's vaccination scheme is progressing at a different pace, owing to the different capacity of local medical facilities and the fact that the system prioritises those in the vulnerable groups such as persons aged 60 or over and those with underlying medical conditions first.

Probably best to just ignore the SMS or email. If you were to show up for the Expatvac appointment you would probably be first asked to sign a piece of paper which amongst other things confirmed that you hadn't already received a COVID-19 jab in any event (based on my experience at Pattaya last Monday in connection with my initial Pfizer jab courtesy of the BCCT).

As can initially successful but subsequently unsuccessful (on visa-related grounds) applicants who never received any follow-up email (as in my case), presumably!

What if you don't have a suitable smartphone on to which to download said whizzo app?????

Well, certainly no-one who isn't a proud possessor of a suitable smartphone on to which to download said whizzo app would probably be allowed to eat out, it seems to me!

But can you at least please let us know whether said "tiny immigration office in the outback" is located in Isaan? If it is, @MJCM might be interested as he is planning to do exactly the same as you and appears to be located in that part of the world!

@MJCMAn important point for you to bear in mind for when you do make the switch - which, as far as I can tell, hasn't yet been made in this thread - is that your new retirement extension will be dated from when you submit your application to your local immigration office rather than from when your current permission to stay expires. So, if you have been in the habit of applying for marriage extensions as soon as the window has opened for doing this up to 30 days before the expiry date of your current permission to stay, it might be better for you to hold fire until nearer this expiry date on this particular occasion. This would, however, only be an issue for you for the year in which you made the switch - unless, of course, you were planning to alternate between retirement and marriage extensions!

At least, you could all, thanks to the Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital, start a little email mini-forum to compare experiences if you so wished!????

Fat chance of that happening any time soon here in Rayong Province, I think, until each and every Thai national aged 0 and above has first been jabbed as necessary ! ???????????? https://xn--42cf4bzce1atwz0cyc7f1d.com/

I can assure you that it was most definitely the BCCT in my case since, in common with @cnmltd, I received an email from them in confirmation of the SMS containing appointment details which I had received from the Bangkok Pattaya Hospital. I had previously registered with the BCCT on a previous incarnation of their website at:- https://members.bccthai.com/bcct/asp/application.asp?TpID=99 Interestingly, it would appear that the BCCT have now widened the scope of their initiative to include everyone of any nationality (not just Brits) who fulfil the criteria of being aged 60+ or suffering from at least 1 of 7 stated chronic illnesses. Something which everyone on here, regardless of nationality, who is experiencing nonsensical hassles with their Expatvac registration might now wish to take note of.

I, too, received an SMS on Saturday from BPH confirming an appointment for the Pfizer vaccine at 6th floor, Central Festival, Pattaya today (as now is) 13:00-14:00. As subsequently noted by cnmltd this relates to the BCCT initiative referred to in the following thread rather than the MFA expatvac shambles, so kudos to the BCCT, I think:-