oldmanofphuket

Thanks for advice.

My Thai wife and her daughter and I are visiting the UK in July for a few weeks prior to us all moving to Shanghai (I have a new job there). The Chinese visas are being taken care off by my employer, but what visas do the wife and child need to apply for? We'll be staying for 3 weeks and visiting my parents etc. As for accompanying docs -how do we deal with the "returning to Thailand " issue? We'll be coming back to Thailand at least once a year, but we'll be residents in China from leaving the UK.

Thanks to all for your great advice. I'll keep you up to date with how things go

Ok this is a big one. I've been living in Thailand now for 7 years and with the wife for 2 years (married for nearly a year now-got married here).

She has a daughter 5 who has lived with us since we got married and Thai birth father is not on birth certificate and has never been around nor wants to. I want to adopt her formally. We are thinking as a family to move back to UK now or in next couple of years. I'm 45 and am in steady and well paid employment with (at present) full expat package.

I am so confused as what to do and would really value some advice. Should we stay in Thailand and go through process of adoption first or should we go back to UK? If back to UK we would initially apply for spouse settlement, but how would I apply for daughter? Could I then adopt?

I looked up the Thai-Oz free trade agreement and it looks good. Noted lamb will have zero tariff from Jan 1st which should be great, as at the moment it is still on the pricey side. Now if you could accompany that with a fine red wine tariff free I would stay forever in Thailand. Let's wait and see.....

I'd like to see some good ales from Oz coming in .. Boags is exceptional if my memory serves me well.

I know I said we shouldn't post quotes but the following article in the Telegraph caught my eye and is relevant:

"depreciation is precisely what a country like the UK needs to rebalance and recover. Indeed, as Goldman Sachs economist Ben Broadbent has pointed out, this is exactly what happened in the early 1990s. It seems likely that such a scenario helps explain why the Bank, and its Governor Mervyn King, appear so keen to see sterling drop further. Indeed, there may be an extra push in that direction from today's Bank minutes".

I thought it was appropriate to post it here because you said that you think GBP and USD are at fair value - I reckon however that GBP has further to fall and apparently others do also. Most pundits reckon that GBP will see parity with the Euro and with USD determinedly bearish, that's not good for GBP/THB. After all, if we can get a handle on GBP/USD then the answers on a probable level of GBP/THB is easy.

It has depreciated quite a bit already. But another 5% is possible on average I'd hazard a guess it might happen. But when we look at the Euro and Baht, hasn't it fallen more than 20% ?. And of course against the dollar, shouldn't it have remained much the same after all US is in exactly the same position.

If you look at the Effective exchange rate which measures a currency's exchange rate against a basket of currencies the baht has been pretty steady over the last 2 years. Weird eh?

Always found scb excellent. Now UOB on the other hand are completely Cxxp. Grass not always greener......

The most important visa is your work visa, as long as you get that ok you will be fine.

The depandant passes are issued very quick and I doubt you will have trouble for the wife or her child.

Your wife would not be able to work on a depandant pass unless she has a letter of consent which your work could probably get for you.

BTW - all the visas in Singapore can be obtained quickly especially if you register online. Whole process online can be done in days!

Thanks for all this info and excellent advice

Difficult to stay, but presume they want some sort of legal status for the child other than just being a niece of your wife.

Singapore immigration webiste can be found here:

http://www.ica.gov.sg/index.aspx

Sorry for confusion but the girl is my wife's child, and I consider her my daughter also, but I have no legal status as father.

I have a plan- I would love some feedback on whether it is possible. I have a job offer in Singapore- so I have no prob there. Thai wife would be a dependent so I believe that she also would be ok for visa- not sure if she could work but I am not bothered about that. My wife's girl who lives with us is 5 (nearly 6) and is a major part of our family, although we have not started adoption process in Thailand yet. She will attend an international school in Singapore as I get full expat package with the job. She will enter I think on student visa. Dad did not register birth has never been around, and my wife has sole parent status. Can anyone see problem with us all moving to Singapore. Should we start adoption process or just leave it for a while?

Apologies if this has been mentioned before, but I am confused. Just got back from Uk and True have downgred me, as requested, from Plat to Gold But I still have ASN and AXN beyond???? I've checked my bill and now paying 1500 bt.

QFT - good summary.

So, time to sum up, what is going on:

1) Downloads hang every now and then. Specially after heavy download.

10 minutes ok, then 2 minutes break.

=> All interactive connections drop and have to start over again.

- IRC, telnet, VPN, VoIP Calls, downloads from non-standard browsers (Mobile podcast client etc.)

==> YouTube videos will show to the half way and then stops.

==> Downloads with download manager enabled browsers will typically resume after a while

2) There seems to be two or more routes to the internet. Some times it's possible to ping a remote host, sometimes not.

==> Some load balancing is on the way, but the sides of the balanced services are not equal.

3) DNS does not reply all the time.

==> Many users have switched to OpenDNS and will suffer for other problems due their man-in-the-middle attacks.

These issues have been noted in: Phuket, Chiang Mai, ... ?

Operating systems: Linux, Windows, MacOS, OpenWRT

Anything else?

-Pekka

That sums up the situation well. It is a shame, as prior to a month ago I was really happy with my CAT card. Now it is hopeless, downloads are nearly impossible.

Does anyone have any feedback on the Tharmachart Restaurant in Phuket City? I've read reviews that this is a place for good food at reasonable prices. (plus the out of wack ambience).

Appreciate if someone can advise.

Cheers.

Thamachart/natural restaurant is excellent. Been going there for 7 years and still great food at good value prices. Service is good, but at times a little slow but hey TIT. Highly recommended.

OK I have a question. I pay for my parents' sky service in UK. (Dad mad keen on football but 80 so doesn't go to live games anymore)

Do not have sky+ so no recording. I have CAT evdo card here. Download speed in Phuket of .8mbps here and parents have good broadband. Could slingbox work for me? Just don't want to buy it and then for it to not work. Would I have to upgrade to another faster ISP here?

Sorry to hijack the post but what advice would you give me in bringing my Thai wife to Singapore. I am concerned that she'll get bored and

not have any friends. I assume that she won't be allowed to work???

I'd obviously get paid more in Sing- 60,000 sterling plus housing, medical, flights etc etc, and seriously considering it. But will be hard to leave Phuket (I own a condo here that I may keep) What do people reckon?

Do it becuase mine is here and she is bored

Actually she is OK becuase we have a toddler and now she has got used to it not too bad, but it would be good if she could make some friends. if you come drop me a PM and we can put them in touch...

They can shop at the Golden Mile for Thai food, which is 100% Thai apart from you use SGD rather than THB.

There is plently for them to do really and it is really easy to go to your house in Phuket for the weekend. Actually I am going this evening to mine for the weekend.....

Thanks to all for advice. It sounds like Singapore is doable for us. We are going to take a trip to Singapore soon- and see if she likes it (she has never left Thailand). In terms of moving- my contract here in Phuket is until August 2010, but I am trying to plan ahead, and of course getting a job in Singers will take time. I'll keep all informed as to progress...

Sorry to hijack the post but what advice would you give me in bringing my Thai wife to Singapore. I am concerned that she'll get bored and

not have any friends. I assume that she won't be allowed to work???

I'd obviously get paid more in Sing- 60,000 sterling plus housing, medical, flights etc etc, and seriously considering it. But will be hard to leave Phuket (I own a condo here that I may keep) What do people reckon?