GuestHouse

Again sighting

And there is dissatisfaction about the large number of immigrants now residing in the country

Theoretically, seriously ill people, and stretcher cases could be refused admission back to the UK.

Can anyone throw any light on this? Thanks

There is some truth in this and there is some BS too.

Healthcare in the UK is provided on the basis of NEED and at the POINT OF NEED.

ANYONE can walk into any doctor's surgery anywhere in the UK and demand treatment under the NHS.

Which is exactly the way it should be and another reason not to knock the UK.

Just to clear that issue of how you pay for NHS treatment.

You do not pay taxes for NHS cover, you pay national insurance and UK Pensions INCLUDE National Insurance Payments. So if you are in receipt of your UK State Pension you are covered.

If You have been living overseas for more than two years AND have not kept your National Insurance Payments up to date, (Not a problem for pensioners) you should, in theory, be presented with a bill for your health care in the UK, but you WILL NOT be denied treatment.

As for denying you the right to fly to the UK if you are ill and going to the UK to receive medical treatment. The UK government cannot deny UK citizens entry to the UK on any basis what-so-ever.

It is right there in Magna Carta "You shall come and go without let or hinderence"

So, in summary.

You are entitled to Health Care if you are in the UK, you cannot be denied entry to the UK. If you have not kept your national insurance stamps uptodate you may be presented with a bill (But never denied treatment) and if you are a UK State pensioner your national insurance is paid for you.

Now back to where you read about this.

There wasn't by chance and advertisement for private health care on the very next page was there?

Congratualations, and best wishes to mother and baby.

Anyone have advice on american kid's going to school in Thailand on a tourist visa? are there any public schools they can attend, or just private?

Any advice on moving kid's to Thailand would be greatly appreciated>

I have already given a longish answer to your earlier question regarding moving to Thailand, that answer is my best advice – and it is just that ADVICE

What I have to say here is a very serious WARNING and please do not ignore it.

If you are considering moving your children to live in Thailand on a Tourist Visa, you are running the risk of being caught up in the frequent crack downs on visas and residence.

Your children will not be able to legally enter the educational system, they in any case do not have access to the State Education System.

There is also a real danger that you could be deported or just as bad, detained in the Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) for any number of infringements.

Please take the advice I have given you and speak to a grief councilor and the rest of your family/friends about your plans.

Above all speak to your daughters and LISTEN

I take a slightly different view on this.

My first question is, what do your daughters want, where do they want to live?

You have just lost your wife, they have just lost their mother, but importantly at the very time in life when daughters need support from their mothers. I hope you are addressing this question, if not I implore you to seek some help and guidance on this issue.

Can I make an observation.

From my own experience and observation, most professional expatriates in Thailand, that is those who are assigned to work in Thailand by their employers and who enjoy the benefits of funded education, health care programs, family support groups etc (The full expat package) return home when their children enter their teens. They do so for all the social, educational and personal development reasons that are important to the development of young people.

If parents (myself included) who have access to the very best education in Thailand make that choice, you need to ask yourself why?

One of the reasons is of course their/our/your children are not Thai, their future is very unlikely to be in Thailand and remaining in Thailand/moving to Thailand at a age critical to education and personal development greatly limits the choices these children would have in later life.

In your particular case you would also be removing your children from their own culture and the links they have with their culture and their recently lost mother.

Secondly I think you need to examine your own motives for moving to Thailand, an odd choice, yes you had a great holiday there, yes you have some friends their, but are your able to cope with the move, are you able to manage life for your daughters. I think this is an issue relating to grief and I would urge you to at least talk to someone about that.

Again, from my own personal experience of being an expatriate (I’ve lived overseas for 19 years - I’m overseas now). Very common indicators of people who fail to make a success of their move overseas are:

Moving overseas to escape a problem (Debt/Family Strife)

Moving overseas immediately after divorce (in the first two or three years)

Moving overseas immediately after grief (in the first two or three years)

Moving overseas with any kind of an addiction (Alcohol/Gambling/Drugs)

I haven’t written that out for your specially, it is straight out of my employer’s overseas assignment manual and something I have both observed to be correct and frequently posted here on TV.

I really do urge you to talk to someone about the decisions you are making and the part your recent grief is playing in those decisions. – Please do, if your decisions are sound you will, I am sure receive help and support in sorting out your ideas, if they are affected by grief and are in need of examination, then the help available might save you and your daughters a great deal of trouble – All gain and no loss.

Finally, I’d like to pass some of my own observations on Thai life for growing children, not to counter your own views, but to add some balance.

I have lived in Thailand for over twelve years, I am fluent in Thai, I worked for a major international corporation and I had the privilege of working with some of the brightest and best educated Thais (male and female) that the Thai education system produces. I have a daughter and a son.

My wife and I were constantly bothered by the subliminal messages that Thai society passes to boys and girls, defining roles based on a culture that is not that of our children. Worse still at work I listened to the constant banter, women (and I’m talking the top of the Thai educational tree here) seen and treated as objects. As a department manager I had to deal with two cases of sexual abuse, one of which was extremely serious, an experience that was more worrying, not just because of the attacks, which happen the world over, but because of the systematic abuse of the victims and their good name. Every part of our Thai organization and management turned on the victims (women) to protect their attackers.

I had a very senior member of our Thai staff tell me that a rapist should be forgiven and allowed to continue in his job because he has a family of his own and that his victim should be ‘moved out of the office’ to prevent embarrassment for the ‘good family’ of the rapist.

That might be extreme, but it was educated Thais expressing the values of Thai society with respect to men/women and their roles. Not the smiling holiday faces, but real attitudes of real Thai people. Not what I want my daughter, or son to grow up with.

Again, I urge you to talk to a grief councilor, your children’s school, aunts, uncles, grandparents. There is a whole lot more at stake than you perhaps realize.

Start by asking yourself what you want from our life in Thailand, what kind of social life, what kind of circle of friends, do you like to live away from people or do you like to be surounded, is this girlfriend the girl for you who you plan to stay with.

Do you want to live right next door to your g/f's parents in the middle of nowhere? and have you considered what that means in terms of the life style you will live?

Then think about what kind of home and where it needs to be to meet these criteria.

If the answer comes up rural Kampangphet, then ask yourself what if things go wrong between the two of you, can you stand to loose the investment in this house?

My advice would be unless you've given these things a great deal of thought, then do not even think of building a house on any land owned by someone else.

There is absolutely no need to build on someone elses' land, so why take the risk?

One estimate is that 10,000 such companies were set up last year

That's 10,000 'Companies' paying nominal taxes in order to hold property with a capital value of millions and a significant emotional capital to boot.

It doens't take a genious (I'm sure Gordon Brown could figure it) to realize this is a cash cow in the making.

What level of taxes would owner/managers be willing to pay in order to keep their dream home?

Not a position I'd like to be in.

So 'erm you are getting the same advice back home..

So money money is the root of all " success? "

That has an awfully familiar ring to it, you're not related to Greenwander are you?

AH so this is true without money TG will look elsewhere

It's not always true, but you'd have to be offering her something else, for example 'intelectual stimulation, wit and an insightful mind' against which she can test her own interlect and maintain the interest in your relationship.

That's why I think Broke, and Alone seems likely, the Old being inevitable.

But do you want to gow older and be alone??

When your money runs out you'll be Old, Broke and Alone.

I'm in my 19th year living overseas, I go back to the UK once sometimes twice a year, the longest I've been without a trip back was three and half years.

Each time I go back I find from the moment I arrive at Heathrow I am always surprised how easily I fit back into life in the UK.

I don't pine for some place else and I love spending time with old friends and enjoying all of what Britain has to offer.

Those constant moans about cold wet, miserable Britain are quite alien to my own experience.

If anything depresses me back in the UK its people who I used to work with in Thailand constantly reminiscing the same two years they spent in Thailand instead of making the best of life in the UK.

The UK's a great place and I'm thankful of the privilege I have of enjoying the best of many places.

Look into what happens to the company assets if/when you close the company.

The old British University Grant system was no different, a free hand out to the middle classes.

I've just re-read the answers to this post and I'm pleasently surprized that they are almost all of them giving good measured advice - Perhaps because many are answering on the back of hard earned experience.

If the OP chooses to ignore that advice, that is the OP's joice, but the advice is good.

If on the other hand the OP is trolling in a wind up of TV and TV Members then I can't see he's done anything but demonstrate the quality of advice and the readiness of TV members to offer good advice to a new member.

What ever.

My best wishes to the OP, I hope he takes the advice he's been given, if not and either way I hope things work out.

I'm done on this one.

TOO LATE - HE'S COOKED

This woman, her boyfriend, brothers and family are about to make a killing. The $500 will be seen as a down payment and spent on a weekend party down the village.

Wonderful stuff.

You have to be out of the country for one full tax year before you are elligable for full tax free status.

In truth a tax balance is done, but I'll come to that later.

So if you leave May 2006 your UK tax free clock starts ticking on April 5th 2007 and you complete your full tax year on April 4th 2008.

Between now and April 5th 2006 your tax liability is calculated on the basis of.

Normal UK Calculation of tax based on Total earnings (in UK and in Thailand) but subtracting taxes you paid (and can prove you paid) in Thailand.

After April 4th 2008 your tax liability for overseas income is Zero, but you still pay tax and have tax allowances based on any income in the UK (intrest on savings etc).

Some things to watch out for:

You cannot pay into a UK pension once you are tax free

You cannot start any more ISAs once you are tax free

Pay your National Insruance (Class 3) in order to maintain pension and welfare rights

Then watch out for this baby.....

You are in theory only subjected to Thai tax if you spend a total of 182 days in Thailand in anyone year. This year you will break 182 days, but you may not on the year your contract ends.

So be careful not to hang around for a few extra weeks at the end of your contract and then get lumbered with tax for almost six months of wages.

I know one guy in Pattaya who has made a fortune out of real estate, I suspect there are others, but like all things they are the minority.

The problem I have with real estate brokers in Thailand is they are simply not necessary. A bit of time spent looking around and asking around can and does turn up land/property.

The commission she was so keen not to speak about usually comes from both buyer AND seller.

If she earns 300 a month and gives 80% to her family, understand that she'll want to continue giving 80% of her income to her family. That might get to be 80% of your income.

How you come to discuss virginity with a regular Thai girl over the internet is beyond me.

Can I ask a question.

How is her English?

Is the defender of Asbestos tied up in anyway to the companies that produce it?

I think my advice would be, do not put too much store in this first relationship with a Thai woman, you have a great deal to learn about Thai culture and I believe you are probably very vulnerable to being mislead.

You mention coming second to Tenis, you have yet to learn your place in the Thai hiarachy, tennis is nothing compared to pressure from families, and particualarly mothers and brothers.

Take a holiday in Thailand, but be very careful not to jump into promises and commitments. Hang out on this website for a while, read and take part in the discussions.

There is a lot to learn and I think learning as much as you can before you start can't be a bad idea.

But I'll bet you one thing. All these people that pick on the slightest little thing, came here first on holiday and loved the place.

Then you'd have to admit to the possibility of you yourself going the same way.

Perhaps you should move somewhere where there are no moaning farangs.

Yes I agree, but there are still too many people on this Forum that think Thailand would be great if it wasn't for the Thai people. I think Thailand is great BECAUSE of the Thai people.

OK, no problems with that at all.

But why the need to deny other's their opinion?

This is the first time I've ever read an account of anyone actually being hit on like this, lots of rumours of it happening to other people but I've never read a first hand account.

As for advice, I don't know what I'd do, as I plan to open my own business in Thailand as part of my early retirement plans I'm going to watch this post with interest.

The problem I see is two fold.

The oportunities of your new life in Thailand is going to be limited by the income you receive in Thailand, that might be more than a Thai receives but is it going to provide for now and the future (property purchase, family, pensions)?

The other problem may or may not occur, but if you ever need to call on help from home, ie a credit line, it will not be there.

I do not know how you'd go about filing for bankruptcy when you are overseas as being so would indicate you may have undeclared savings/income. I really don't know, but suspect, that your bankruptcy might be difficult under those circumstances.

One of the biggest mistakes people make when they move to Thailand is to be underfunded, which begs the question:

Where are you getting the funds to support your life in Thailand if you have no means to pay your debts in the UK and are going to declare bankruptcy?