OldAsiaHand

There are a great many foreign lawyers working for the numerous foreign law firms in Bangkok under the guise of 'practicing foreign law.' Since most of these firms are of Brit origin rather than American origin, I would think your qualifications would be spot on.

Now, before you ask, I have no list of these firms at hand, nor do I have any idea as to whether any of them are currently recruiting; but do some reseach on the net and through the usual sources. You ought to be able to compile a pretty good list of suitable places to submit your resume without a lot of effort.

The US Embassy in BKK (or elsewhere) does not handle I-512 extension requests. They must be done in the USA and the applicant must appear in person.

I think you misunderstood. What I was saying is that, if you were living in Bangkok, you should have initiated the whole green card process here at the embassy in the first place. That would have saved you the endless unnecessary headaches of dealing with immigration in the US. The I-512, for example, would have been irrelvant.

Phillippe's on Soi 39, about 500 meters off Sukhumvit. Low-key, quite, nice lighting, no loud music, not a busy area, run by a delightful French chef, dignified, and a first-rate, completely professional Thai staff. I've been going there for years and can't recommend it hightly enough. Just insist on sitting at one of the banquettes against the wall downstairs.

But i will enquire now at a couple of Banks.

Before you do, think carefully about who you might know at some bank working in even a midlevel position. If you don't know anyone, pole your friends and family. Surely somebody you know can give you a personal introduction to someone who in turn can give you a personal introduction somewhere.

With that, your request will grease tight through if you're even halfway qualified. Without it, you will probably have no chance at all no matter how well qualified you are. Just showing up at a bank as a stranger here is an almost automatic turn down. If you were anyone they were willing to do business with, you would know somebody. It really is just that simple.

And we spent most of the year in BKK where we have lived for almost 5 years.

Any thoughts?

Yeah. Why in the world didn't you file your application through the embassy in Bangkok if you were here?

The whole process is infinitely more controlable and inevitably a heck of a lot faster doing it that way. If you are seeking US residency for a foreign-born spouse, your first choice should ALWAYS be to do it through the US embassy in the country of the spouce's residence, provided you can colorably claim to be 'resident' there as well, at least temporarily, at the time the application is filed.

Agreed. The figures Jones Lang is throwing around, particularly the alleged 27% annual price increase for condos, are absolutely crappola. These folks are justly famed for their shameless hyping of every local market they are active in, but even they should be blushing at this kind of junk. There just isn't sufficient liquidity in the Thai residential market to quantify any really useful market generalizations, let alone this kind of pollyanna ranting. Good lord.

Right. And some of it very dodgy indeed.

I second the motion re SIA. For my money, it's unquestionably the best airline in the world. The nonstop flight from LAX to Singapore is right at 18 hours and uses the A340-500 (configured into two classes, business and a sort or super-economy with extra leg room and footrests). Something like 40 movies to chose from on a personal screen in both classes and even a 110 outlet for your laptop). In Singapore you have only about a two hour layover for the BKK connection, which gets you into BKK about ten in the morning.

Almost as good a choice is Cathay Pacific. That's a 747-400 nonstop to Hong Kong with a two hour or so connection to the BKK flight (for which the equipment changes frequently). The total travel time is about the same, but I've had occasionaly reliability problems with CX and the airport in HKG isn't nearly as good a place to connect as Singapore. Also, my experience is that CX personnel are too frequently like American airline personnel. As long as everything goes well, they're good enough; but when somthing goes south or you need special assistance, they look the other way. I've never had a problem like that with SIA.

Forget all the others. Especially forget Thai. Completely unprofessional and all too frequently operating in utter confusion. As someone once said, When you fly Thai, always remember that your pilot got his job exactly like everyone else in Thailand got his job.'

Exhibiting films is a commercial enterprise. Film exhibitors book the films that they think will attract the most bums on seats. It really is just that simple.

The American films that get the biggest play here are those the exhibitors think have the greatest potential to pull both Thais and foreigners, not an easy thing to do. That's why they're heavy on action and physical comedy. When a film depends on language as its primary story telling mechanism, you reduce the potential of a large Thai audience significantly and that doesn't make good commercial sense for the exhibitors.

Look at the programing on HBO in Asia as another example of the same logic at work and compare it to HBO in the US. The same logic is at work there.

That's really a stupid thing to say. If it think it passes for humor, you're pathetic.

If you give them money you are forcing out more kids on the street. Some are kidnapped, some are sold by their parents and some are just sent out by their parents.

Yeah, sometimes it is absolutely heartbreaking to pass these kids by. On the other hand, the more successful they are at getting money from us, the longer they will be staked out there from dawn to dusk by whoever is abusing them. Whatever I do I'm never sure I made the right choice. It's just pitiful.

The AP gave her name as Thanom, so I guess Thai -- or conceivably Lao, I guess -- is a pretty good bet.

I know I've recommended them on this board before (and, honest, I have no connection with the company at all), but Transpo International in Bangkok has been one of the top international removal companies as long as I've been around here. They have had many embassy and corporate contracts for a long time and might be a tad pricely, but if so, they're well worth it. Totally professional in every respect. I've never had anything but a good experience using them.

I've brought money in, but have no record of it.

Assuming it wasn't just in cash and you brought it in your pocket, the local bank which received any wires you sent will have records of every inbound transfer you made and that's what you need for an easy, trouble-free outbound tranfer -- not your own records.

No , that was his brother...

Ah yes. I sense another good rumor in the making here.

That's seems rather uncalled for. Why the personal attack? Although your own posts are consistently both witless and remarkably free of intelligence, I've never had any conflict with you that I'm aware of. How dare you casually label me 'a bitter old man.' You haven't a clue who I am or what I know.

I've done business with Thai banks for more than twenty years now and have accumulated a considerable amount of experience with them. If your experience is different and you have a different point of view, well, fine. Offer it for whatever it may be worth. But drop the personal attacks on me just because I have a differnt view. Particularly coming from a moderator, they are entirely inappropriate.

Mr. Ambassador,

You ought to review some of the Stickman's old columns, maybe even drop him a note at www.stickmanbangkok.com. He used to be the world's foremost expert on exactly the subject you are asking about, at least he was until he met his wife that way and never used his expertise again. Anyway, as they say, that's his story and he's sticking to it.

When you transfer funds held in Thai baht out of the country, you may do so without limit so long as you can show that an equivalent amount was transferred into the country by you at sometime previously. If you are tranferring out funds which originated in Thailand such as your salary, and you cannot show evidence of funds coming into the country earlier which you are now returning, the requirement is that you demonstrate a sufficient and acceptable purpose for sending money out of the country such as the repayment of a debt, the payment of school or medical expenses, the purchase of something, or some such specific purpose.

Generally speaking, unless you are someone to whom the rules are only loosely applied, an acceptable purpose is NEVER to invest or hold funds overseas.

In the alternative, you can usually buy foreign currency locally, deposit it in a foreign currency accoount, and then after a decent interval, transfer the foreign currency overeas. At least you ught to be able to, but depending on the bank, they may give you a little crappola about it anyway. Best check in advance.

What international law am I referring to ? How about the Geneva Convention 1950, Articles,4,12,13,17,21 et al.

Oh, no. Here we go again. Another member in good standing of the brotherhood of the obnoxiously self-rightous looking for a chance to lecture all the rest of us on his superior grasp of the morality of nations. Give me a break.

Okay, I'm out of here. Even reading the 'What's the Best ###### You Ever Had' thread offers more hope for an intelligent conversation than this.

I thought it did.

What I was trying to tell you is that my own experience is that banks generally intend to get their asking prices, or more, if they sell to an outsider. I've acutally encountered instances when they simply never responded at all to an offer from an outsider, even one near their asking price.

But by all means, offer anything you want and try your luck.

And check the title very carefully indeed.

The particular bank has over Bht370 Million worth of property and land up for offer, we figure they must be under pressure to get rid of it.

No bank in Thailand ever feels like it is under enough pressure to give any outsider a bargain. Bargains are reserved exclusively for relatives of the officers and directors. If the bank is willing to sell it to you, it's only because everyone's relatives and friends have already passed. You might want to ask yourself why....

FedEx is probably the most reliable courier service to the US, but frankly, unless what you are sending is valuable and time sensitive, I wouldn't waste the money.

I've used International Express Mail Service (EMS) from Bangkok to the US on many, many occasions and never had a problem. It is much cheaper and usually delivery time from here to the east coast is no more than a week. FedEx only beats that by a couple of days. Of course, you can track a FedEx shipment on the web and take comfort from knowing exactly where it is and when it is arriving, and that may very well be worth the extra cost to you.

Just call FedEx locally to get price and delivery quotes, then get an EMS quotation at the post office. Then you will be in a reasonable position to decide what makes the most sense for you.

The rights or wrongs of this aside, I hav'nt heard a single rumour of this in the Thai media. Point is that this is certainly putting Thailand into the "revenge" sights of terrorists and it appears to have been done in secret.

Of course it was done in secret. That's why they're called secret bases. Are you one of those guys who thinks that anything government doesn't tell you is therefore morally worng?

Regardless, and contrary to your first observation, the existence in Thailand of facilities utilized by US and other intelligence organizations for both detention and presumably interrogation of prisoners from Afghanistan and Iraqi (and, possibly, Alabama and Scotland for all I know or care) was widely reported and commented on in both the English and Thai press last year. Those facilities are operated in full cooperation with the Thai military and have been more or less continually in place for nearly thirty years now, ever since the Vietnam War. It's very old news. You ought to keep yourself better informed if you want governments to clear their activites with you in advance.

I was enjoying this thread right up until I got to this snotty little jingoistic post.

Yeah, me, too.

I'm always at a loss as to why, nearly every time an interesting discussion starts, one of these 'defenders of the faith' will jump in and sneeringly attack everyone for 'making generalizations about Thais' or some other nonsense like that. For God's sake, when you've lived here for a decade or two you are entitled to come to some conclusions about the place you live and the people you live among.

I thought that was largely the point of this forum anyway, for those of us who have developed some views to share them with others who are still working on theirs. If you don't agree with me, well fine. But can this crappola of telling me that I'm a clod for having views about Thais and Thailand and expressing those views to others. Your culturally correct life isn't nearly as superior as you seem to think it is. Frankly, it sounds pretty damned dull.

I just cant wait to get to Singapore... i think i will have a big excess luggage bill !!!

The main Kinokuniya store in Singapore is on Orchard Road and just a couple of hundred meters down from it across Scotts Road you will find a Borders. Both are the aircraft-carrier variety of bookstores. Absolutely amazing selections in every subject area spread over seemingly endless floor space together with an in-house restaurant. You can easily lose yourself in either place for a day or two.

Although I truly appreciate your very kind characterization of my posts in general, I really do have to stand by my comments on Asia Books. It's just plain crummy, at least it is compared to US bookstores. If the bookstores you visit in Europe are even worse than Asia Books, you have my deepest sympathy.

Anyway, Bangkok is more of a newsstand market and compared to the US or Singapore our few bookstores, Asia Books as well as all the others, are both small and unimpressive. Current books in hardcover editions are virtually impossible to find anywhere. All you can really get is massmarket paperbacks (and magazines), so anything you can buy here has already been widely available out in the real world for months if not for years.