connda

That Great Abyss is once they leave Suvarnabhumi. The issue is via the airline carrier and USPS itself which blows on a good day. I pretty much guarantee that USPS is the Great Abyss. Let's all do an experiment. Make copies of your SSA 7162. Send one out via regular mail and send one out via registered mail and then track it. The Great Abyss of Registered Mail is on the USPS side. It will bounce around in New York for awhile and then bounce back and forth between NY and PA, and then bounce around in PA before entering the Great Abyss in Wilkes-Barr. Don't believe me? Then do it and keep receipts. If I'm wrong this year - Ok, I'll admit error. If I'm not wrong and the registered mail gets dropped in a bin and sat on in Wilkes-Barr? Then write your congress-person and Senator and ask why? I've done that before and received no replies. But if enough of us do it? Maybe we get their attention. Which might be a good or bad thing. <shrugs> I'm going to send my original via regular mail and send a copy via registered mail and then track it and see what shakes. I'll post my results here later this year. Ya'll should consider doing the same. Let me know if you are interested in participating in this experiment in tracking SSA 7162 forms sent from Thailand to Wilkes-Barr, PA via registered mail. PM me if you want.

My experience is that Thailand Postal Service is 200+% better than UPS. I've tracked packages in and out of Thailand numerous times. From Chiang Mai and vicinity to leaving Suvarnabhumi is always less than 48 hours or from Suvarnabhumi to Chiang Mai and vicinity is always less than 48 hours. Anywhere in the United States can take a week or more. Consistently! The only hiccup in that system has been when my bank sends me credit cards. Then they disappear in a black hole somewhere in Thailand for up to three months if they show up at all (mailed first class international). I just received two credit cards that my bank sent me in January and March. They showed up last week. Before they finally showed up, I had the bank cancel the cards as "Lost" and resent via"expedited mail" (tracked) and the above held true (about 10 days transiting the USPS mail system in the US and less than 36 hours to clear customs at Suvarnabhumi and arrive in at my physical address in Northern Thailand. So from my experience if the mail gets held up anywhere? It is in the US somewhere in the rather pathetic USPS system. Talk about a system that desperately needs to be privatized sans any government subsidies. And as far as sending SSA 7162 forms to Wilkes-Barr via Registered Mail? I don't recommend it. But if someone whats to experiment? Try it and see if you have better luck. I doubt it.

They go to Wilkes-Barr and then sit, then show up after the 'due date.' My experience. And more than once.

Mine too.

I just got mine today. I checked the mail last week, so this has come in the last few day. Mailed June 2nd. I'll make copies of this and mail it back tomorrow via regular mail. Registered mail just gets thrown in a bin in Wilkes-Barr, PA and the sent to the SSA after the "drop dead date." Go figure that some petty beauacrat in UPS gets off on delaying forms sent by registered mail, but I've done that three times and the result was the same every time. They DO sit on them and allow the clock to run out. Amazing. I'll fire off copies of SSA 7162 via regular mail ever couple of weeks during July and August. It's an inefficient system so you have to play into the inefficiency. In this day and age, it doesn't make any sense that this can't be done electronically. Heck, even Thai Immigration has a functioning 90 Day Reporting System. SSA should have the ability to accept expats SSA 7162 forms online. When "Pigs Fly" I guess.

You can buy bulk Glycine powder on Lazada. I've bought some in the past. But then again, I'm not freaked out that everything from China is somehow unfit for human consumption. Western propaganda hammers out that everything China is "Bad," but at the end of the day, virtually all of the stuff Joe and Jane Average purchases in Walmart-Target-<add your Big Box Store here> are Chinese imports. But, as they say here in Thailand, "Up to you!" If you somehow believe that your Glycine powder sold by Western retailers doesn't come from China like a vast majority of pharmaceuticals do? Then try iHerb.com. You'll pay a premium price for the same stuff, well, in my humble opinion. I'm not anti-China. The Western corporation off-shored manufacturing to China decades ago and destroyed Western domestic manufacturing. The model holds true today as well. So if you think that what you buy from a Thai retailer who imports from China is somehow inferior? Well, I don't lay awake at night worrying about that. Best of luck.

I've had a hankering for some Cream of Wheat lately. I usually check to see if any is in stock when I go to retail stores in Chiang Mai, but haven't seen any lately (last visit at Rimping Nim Plaza was a zero as well). This is something I'd usually get at Kasem or Rimping, but can't say I've seen it stocked lately. Has anyone seen Cream of Wheat for sale in Chiang Mai in the last month?

I'm planning my project garden and need to get some seedlings started. I don't want to bother with the boutique 'feminized' seed shipped from overseas. I just want to purchase seeds locally that are adapted to the climate in Thailand. This is all outdoor growing. I get what I get as far as male/female. I seldom smoke it anyway, so this really is pretty much a garden project. I do use the leaves as tea before bed sometime. Overall, I just like the way cannabis looks as a plant as I enjoy the looks of many other plants I grow in my garden. Anyway - I'm looking for a source for local seed that will actually germinate.

There are some areas in my life where I AM a Cheap Charlie. Smartphones is one of those areas. Why? In this day and age they are somewhat of a necessity - but? I use them as little as possible. For example I wanted to run Audible on my phone, but...Android 5.1 isn't supported. I was able to find a workaround by downloading a APK file from two years ago before Audible no longer supported Android Lollipop. (Caveat - I don't need to be warned about the security issues of APK files). Grrrr - I hate built-in obsolescence. And I keep running into that problem lately when attempting to install apps on my Oppo Older_Than_Dirt Phone running ColorOS over Android 5.1 and which I can not root. Grrrr. So ???? I guess it's time to bite the bullet. But - I want an "unlocked", Cheap Charlie phone. Apple iOS phones are out for all the ฿฿฿฿฿ Cha-Ching ฿฿฿฿฿ ???? Huawei phones are out because of the lack of the availability of apps that I need to use. Oppo phones are out because I want the phone to actually runs Android and not some manufacturers proprietary OS that runs over the top of Android, like Oppo's ColorOS. So I'm looking for suggestions for a dirt-cheap Android smartphone but one that has at least 32GB of onboard storage with the ability to add addition storage of between 64 to 512 GB via SD cards. So let me toss it out there. ???? Suggestion for phones?

It's that time of year. Make sure to file your FBAR with FinCEN if you have funds in a Thai bank account. From the IRS site: "The FBAR is an annual report, due April 15 following the calendar year reported. You're allowed an automatic extension to October 15 if you fail to meet the FBAR annual due date of April 15. For individuals file here: http://bsaefiling.fincen.treas.gov/NoRegFBARFiler.html

I think I want to start making my own bread. I've noticed that shrink-flation has hit the brands of bread I buy. They are shrinking the loaves and then cutting the slices thinner. I was making french toast yesterday and the bread was just falling apart it was so thin. I'd rather make my own. I'm looking at one of two approaches: a bread making machine or a convection oven. I've made bread in the past but it is time intensive which is making be gravitate to an all-in-one bread making machine. Does anyone have a good bread making machine and if so, what brand do you recommend that can be purchased in Thailand?

I'm looking for a pair of running shoes or cross-fits. I don't want to deal with going to the big malls. are there any other places to buy them outside of the Chiang Mai malls?

Where's the cheapest Animal Clinic to get a female cat spayed?   The last place I went cost me over 5000 baht, and my cat died the evening we got her back from the vet.  I was not a happy camper for the results I got for what I considered to be a lot of money.  So, money doesn't equate to quality care.  So which vet will do this for the cheapest price?  I can get this done for less than 1500 baht in the US ($45).