fiberman

I applied to the UK Embassy at the beginning of September and received my letter the next day. As an aside I took the letter to my local Immigration office (NST) and was told that the letter was fine but not to apply for an extension now as the Thai government WOULD announce further extensions on the 21st/22nd September.
(He did also say that if for any reason they don't I can get my extension on the 23rd.)

8 minutes ago, totally thaied up said:

I am married and have my own account. Just go to the bank with your passport, visa, yellow book and away I went. Only took 20 minutes to do. You don't need your wife with you.

Attached is the reply from the KTB call centre which I received after I queried this with them :-

"Regarding your question, For opening an Foreign Currency account with our bank, you can use the original passport and a retirement visa, But if you have a marriage certificate, We would like to apolagized that we can't open the Foreign currency account as a personal account."

The only thing I can add is that acccording to my bank the rules have changed fairly recently.

Up until this year I have used 2 pensions to show the 40,000 Baht per month requirement and used a letter from the UK Embassy to get my marriage extension. To get the 40,000 Baht I need an exchange rate of 43 Baht to the pound which at the current rate means I will be short this year. Not a problem I thought, open a foreign currency account and transfer 10,000 uk pounds and use this, not wanting to change a large sum into Thai Baht at the god awful exchange rate we have at the moment.

Off I go to my local KTB to open the account. I then find out that because I have a marriage extension rather than retirement extension the bank will only give me a joint account with my wife. Called immigration and they said no problem just put double the amount into the account, so I basically need 20,000 pounds!!

I might just as well go to a retirement extension which is easier anyway but this now means I would need 40,000 UK pounds in the account to get a retirement extension so that I could then change the account to one in my name. Does anyone else sometimes feel that the system is deliberately trying to make life difficult?

Before anyone suggests that I try a different bank my bank manager is a friend of ours and tried hard to get me an account in my name only but it can't be done.

If you are non resident I believe that recent changes in taxation of pension pots would allow you to take 100% tax free. The reason I say this is that My financial advisor has just informed me that my QROPS can now be cashed in tax free assuming non residency so I would think that the same rules would apply.

Exchange rate seems to have improved, 84 Baht to the pound.

Been having the same problem for a while now, this week had 3 parcels and 3 letters from UK, all posted on different days, all arrive together. This has now happened several times and the postman just shrugs when asked why.

Total eclipse in Indonesia, only partial in Thailand.

Lazada have a large selection. Polar are pretty good, have had one for a while. I think it was around 3000 Baht.

Not a lot of help if it's not raining!!

I went to NST immigration recently to get my stamps transferred and was told that I needed a photocopy of every page in my old passport. Has anyone else come up against this?

New Zealand is a good alternative.

I just picked up my new passport today, exactly 2 weeks after the initial interview

That really is impressive, I just wish I wasn't applying over Christmas it is bound to add a week or so!

You will get the extension in the old passport if the new passport doesn't arrive on time.

When you have the new passport you visit immigration again to have the stamps transferred from the old to the new passport. (Don't forget to get an embassy letter regarding your new passport).

Hi Mario

I hadn't heard anything before about the letter, what exactly is it for? Can this be obtained at VFS or does it need another trip to the embassy?

I recently returned from Dubai where the wonderful immigration officials think it's fun to put a stamp right in the middle of a new page in your passport, the upshot of which is I returned home with only one page left.

I have to renew my marriage extension next month, there is probably just enough room for that but my question, If I apply for my new passport now, can I still get the visa stamp in the old passport although the old passport is technically invalid or is the old passport marked invalid as soon as the new application goes in.

My second question, has anyone recently renewed their passport recently and if so what was the waiting time?

Any answers will be much appreciated.

I have always managed to get it from the larger Boots the chemist in Thailand. If you have a contact in the UK it is worth getting them to post it to you as it is about half the price of the Nicorette sold here.

and for the treatment of special deceases," he added.

If 3G is better, then how do I set up a wifi system to use multiple devices.

Like I say, we have 3G on an IPad with True and on my phone with AIS...

Is there an easy way to use one SIM card through a series of boosters and create a wifi environment ?

Get a 3G router and plug an aircard into it.

I have had the same problem with all of my molars for many years now. My periodontist cleans out the "caves" for me at every checkup and a few years ago actually operated on the gum on 2 teeth to cut it back far enough to allow me to clean inside myself. This sounds fairly horrific but I actually went to sleep during the procedure which was totally painless. I also have an antiseptic mouthwash which is sprayed around and under the gum area with a hypodermic syringe and blunt needle to keep the area clean. I have been having this treatment for around 10 years now and still have all my teeth so it is working fairly well.

I can't help with a periodontist in CM as I have been using the BKK hospital in Hat Yai ( not a lot of help as far as you are concerned) but the treatment should certainly be available in CM, perhaps you could try the BKK hospital there?

Why on earth buy a render farm, there are multiple on line companies that you can just upload your files to and they will render it for you. However if you are only rendering stills you really only need a reasonably fast desktop

In the last 15 years that I have lived in Thailand I have never had a package lost or mislaid by Thai Post. EMS service is excellent, usually they manage 4 to 5 delivery to the UK from here.

DHL on the other hand are a complete waste of space, never had a package arrive from them without having to chase it for several days.

If there are 2 months outstanding payments it is quite likely that the bank are already looking to repossess the car so you cannot afford to mess around. If they do repossess don't assume that paying up the arrears will get the car back, they could insist on anything up to 12 months payments before they return it.

The police probably won't be interested unless you are very lucky and if you report it stolen you could very well be the person ending up in trouble. The guy can obviously prove that he has been sending payments for the car every month.

As it's only 2 months payments it would seem reasonable to first ask the guy why he hasn't paid, there could be a perfectly reasonable explanation. If not use the spare set of keys (your wife did keep the spare keys didn't she) and take it back one night. You could have it down to the local used car dealer and sold before he knows it's gone.

I hope you still think like that when someone is pointing a gun at your head!!

You will never get rid of corruption in Thailand, it is part of the Thai pysche. Perhaps if the military stay in power for the next 20 years and the next generation are brought up with a different way of thinking but that's not going to happen!!