oldsalt

Completed the process a few hours ago. Very user friendly format. No problems and immediate confirmation of registration.  

Fritssinkkink hit the nail on the head. I usually avoid any comments here, because as he says "dumb comments as usual.".  Too many idle farang with nothing better to do.  The reviewer does have a conviction for aggressive and illegal behaviour with restaurants/hotels and it does give an indication of the type of character he is. Full marks to the hotel and no accolades to Tripadvisor for adding fuel to the fire with their snarky warning.  Highly unprofessional.

At up to 2 million baht for a bolt hole in Chiang Mai, I might have been interested. But 8 million?!   I'll continue to live comfortably in rural Australia and wait until commonsense prevails before returning.  Which could, of course, be some time.  Having worked in Bangkok for many years in advertising and public relations, I know how much Thai authorities resent seeking input or advice from farang.  But, boy, now is the time to listen to those farang seeking to stay, or to come back.  How about a forum with some of the foreign Chambers of Commerce to get some reasoned input?!

23 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Not that many for Thailand. About all of them are for Vietnam.

"Those on the Laos-Thai border consist of Namheuang and Nam Ngeun checkpoints in Sayaboury province, and Na Pao checkpoint in Khammuan, as well as Savannakhet International Airport."

Savannakhet airport was about closed already since they stopped issuing visas on arrival.

The only major crossing is the crossing in Nakhon Phanom.

Three are small and little used crossings in Nan, Phayao and Utradit. 

As advice, Nan province crossing - Muang Ngeun on Laos side - stopped visa on arrival last November.  Visa needs to be obtained beforehand. Perhaps, once the technology is in place, the new E-visa might be accepted at that border point.

Unless the banks or debt collectors have taken the matter to court, and received a ruling against the defaulter, it remains a civil rather than criminal matter and outside the jurisdiction of police and immigration. By not paying his credit card debts, he has not committed a criminal act.  If he made any payments by cheque and the cheques bounced, that is fraud, and a criminal act.  However, if the bank or collection agency took the debt to court and the court made a judgment against him, there may be a warrant outstanding. And no, I am not a lawyer. 

BritTim has summed it up. Basically, you are putting the cart before the horse. First, you need a company, with Thai partners, plus other requirements. That, in itself, involves registration for tax purposes, but not necessarily VAT unless you are earning the relevant monthly or annual revenues. So, stop stressing about visas and WP3 right now. Get the company set up. Pay an accountant or lawyer to do that. Only then can you pursue the business visa and associated work permit. If you are looking at setting up a company primarily to get a non immigrant business visa and work permit and longer term stay, it is not necessarily that easy. Best to check out the somewhat onerous work permit requirements as well. They are designed to thwart the sole foreigner looking for an easy long term stay solution. 

Phu Quoc. Short and cheap direct flight. No visa required if just visiting the island and not mainland Vietnam.

For years I applied for a multiple entry non immigrant B visa at the Thai consulate in Melbourne and always received it, without having the required letter or note from the Department of Labour showing I was applying for a work permit. It always struck me as a flaw in the system as once I then got to Thailand, there was in fact no need to apply for the work permit, a risk I never took.  It seems they have now taken steps to cover this loophole by moving the issuance of the B visa to Canberra and enforcing the proof of intention to apply for a work permit.  Just additional steps to tighten up the requirements for living and working in the Land of Smiles.

I was teaching a really nice Chinese woman a while ago, very shy and reserved woman, and one lesson was about stereotypes and such.

The topic of queuing came up and I mentioned that Chinese people are known to jump queues, to which she got a little upset and defensive and explained that it's due to cultural stuff years ago, for instance, food and stuff was scarce, people would get handouts, and you had to get in there and get your food, if you queued you wouldnt get anything once it ran out, survival of the fittest etc..

Not sure how true it is, but she says it's just been that way since.

Kinda makes sense, but there's no excuse for it today IMO. As a Brit where queue jumping is punishable by death it's infuriating seeing people do it constantly here.

Strangely enough, not sure if anyone else finds this, but I find its Asian women who do it most, not so much Asian men, whereas for westerners it's both male and female, usually American. (Not bashing Americans, just my experience)

Can she explain why 300 stand together and don't let anyone else through even when asked politely multiple times until you start to force your way through and then get upset?

Can she explain why they continue to barge their way through instead of letting people with prams turn or walk ?

Can she explain why they don't flush the toilet or wash their hands ?

Can she explain why they all go and stand infront of people taking a photo ?

Can she explain why they sit down on your table at hotel breakfasts when there are plenty of free tables and proceed to talk at the top of they voices and eat like pigs ?

Can she explain why their tour leaders like to barge infront of people like they don't exist, especially when they are pushing a pram and then get aggressive when the pram hits their feet until they cotton on they are much smaller than you and ain't going to win ?

Can she explain why they push into people carrying children ?

Jeez that's a harsh rap sheet.

ps, they do eat like pigs at hotel buffets I'll pay that one.

If you are in Loei, another option is the Huai Kon border crossing in Nan province. That puts you closer to LP with assured good paved roads, albeit winding, on the Thai side. There is visa on arrival at the Laos side. You then have a few options to LP - an all year road that is a bit longer, or a shorter road suitable for the dry season only.

I own a small bungalow operation with a Thai partner and he is very smart. But he could just as easily be telling the same story! Farang boss. Thai boss. No difference. Especially in rural Thailand. The stories I could relate are endless, but basically the same.

now we know why-dam_n lack of Iodine...

Yes, it's true. A UN survey in 2000 (done every 5 years) showed that Thai kids were below the world average in intelligence (duh)! When they did it again in 2005 and Thai kids had dropped even further below the magical average of 100 Thaksin announced at the time a plan to increase the average intelligence of Thai kids by 10 per cent within 5 years (more duh)! At the next survey in 2010, when the Thai average had dropped to about 87, Thai authorities started taking it seriously. It all came down to nutrition and a lack of iodine in the developing brain - Thais it seems actually use much less salt than other Asian nations. So, let's look forward to a new wave of ultra bright kids!! Duh?!

Forget the Ford. As an Aussie we tend to like them so I persuaded my Thai business partner we should get a Ranger. We are in Nan so the small town may work against us but a few after sales issues were not easily attended to. Everything took days or weeks to remedy. And then in early April the front of it was wiped out in a smash. We have been told it could take up to 5 MONTHS to fix!! Standard wait time according to the local dealer!!

Ever since receiving a MasterCard Debit card from my Australian bank some years ago now, it is all I have ever used. It is marked "Debit" in the top left corner and again above the MC logo. Not once has it been rejected and I have used it in Thailand, Australia and Europe at stores, restaurants, hotels and car rental companies, in situ, online and over the phone. The major car rental companies in Australia actually advise that they accept them - they take around a 20,000baht security deposit. Hotels regularly use it as a room and mini bar security deposit. I always keep sufficient money in the account, but perhaps I've just been lucky.

I paid an overstay at the airport only a few weeks back and it only added around 10 minutes to the immigration procedure - I spent longer waiting in the immigration queue. The airline check in lady noticed it on my passport and actually gave me a special card to give to immigration saying I needed assistance for an overstay.

I can't see any posts here on problems with Yahoo mail so am wondering if it is just me!

For the past week I have had enormous problems with Yahoo on my mac desktop computer. A pop up message from Yahoo suggested I update both Safari and Firefox, which I did, but it has made no difference. My internet connection is satellite and very slow, so I put the problems down to that. But now I am "in town" with a wifi connection and have tried on my laptop, which is Explorer, but there is still a problem. Yahoo mail gives me no box to check for deleting spam, or any other action, and once I open an email there is no facility to hit a reply button! On the desktop, it would not reply and would also just shut down. On one occasion it asked me if I wanted to empty the trash and I had not even touched a key.

It can't be a computer problem as I have tried now on both my desktop and my laptop and with three different browsers. I have also had emails bounce back from addresses they have been going to for years. Anyone else having issues? Gmail is working fine.

Many thanks for the input. What annoyed me most was the short notice of the cancellation and the fact that they gave a mobile number to call - and then no-one answers it. I now still have to go to Nan mid morning as those arrangements were already in place and then hang around (take a hotel room) until the 5.30 flight. There are alternative ways of getting to Bangkok, but notifying me of a cancellation late the day before almost ensures I am locked into their 5.30 flight. One reply here mentioned there is no 3.30pm flight from Nan even listed on their website, so they must have cancelled it recently. I booked about three weeks ago. They've had plenty of time to alert me!!

I have just received a text notification from Nok Air at 9.15pm re cancellation of my 3.30pm flight tomorrow from Nan to Bangkok. I am now on a 5.20pm flight which means I miss a connecting flight in BKK. None of their phone lines are being answered, so I don't know if I can get onto their 9.30am flight. I am also two hours out of Nan anyway, so would need to leave for the airport at 6.30am.

Has anyone had any such experience with Nok Air? Do they often cancel flights? I am going to be a regular commuter from Bangkok to Nan and return and would like to know. I will, of course, ask them the same question once they are answering their phones.

I applied for the same type of visa in early August and was lucky to get it before my flight. The Thai consulate had a sign up saying visa processing was taking four days! The sign was temporary, so the delay might have been temporary, but I would not take the risk unless you can get hold of them first.

I put the application in on a Tuesday and was told it would be back Friday after noon. As it turned out, it was ready by noon on the Thursday.

From the Consulate to the airport, allow 45 minutes. Re hotels, I always stay with family, so am no expert, but there are some cheap ones around Spencer Street. You might also want to try St. Kilda, as it is then convenient to get to the Thai consulate.

Further to my OP I have found an article on the Tourism Authority of Thailand website - "Nan, the New Gateway to Laos" posted on July 27, 2012. It makes no specific mention of needing a visa beforehand, so I can only hope that they wouldn't be calling it a "new gateway" if it wasn't! It also outlines the road travel options from there to Luang Prabang, which was another question I had.

When this crossing opened some years ago, foreigners needed to have obtained the Laos visa beforehand. But the latest I have sourced on this forum (2010) says foreigners can now get a visa on arrival at Laos immigration. I just want to make sure this is still the case. Has anyone done the crossing recently?

UNICEF does a global survey every five years on child intelligence and Thai kids have been falling in IQ levels for the past three of those surveys. Thaksin announced after the 2005 survey results that he was going to increase the IQ of Thai kids by "10 per cent." Yeah. Thai figures from various surveys show that 25 per cent of kids actually come in below the WHO standard of 90 to 110. Iodine deficiency is seen as a key contributor and there is no debate on the poor quality of education - was it last year's survey, (or perhaps the year before) where the majority of Thai science and maths teachers failed an exam in their own subjects! I have a teacher friend who has taught in many south east Asian countries and taught at ABAC in Bangkok for many years. He seemed well positioned to sum it up after teaching students from neighbouring countries. "Thais kids just aren't as interested." In other words - education and learning is "mai sanook."

Re Option 1, I am not up to date with the latest regulations, but setting up a company and employing four local Thais, will get you one work permit. There is a ratio of expat employees to Thai employees - and it is not generous. If the six of you are planning to live and work in Thailand, this option is not the answer.

Re Option 2 - you cannot apply for the B visa without a letter from your intended employer, including a copy of that employer's company registration certificate.

Option 3 - When I first came to Thailand 14 years ago, I met someone who had been working here, without a work permit, for three years. But that was also in the days of easy visa runs.

I take Kan regularly from Chiang Mai to Nan - they have a daily flight. The planes seem brand new, the flights are always on time, and yes, the scenery at a lower elevation is something special.