IsaanAndy

I have a Nationwide Visa Debit Card with my Flex account and there is no problem with ATM withdrawals or cash advances in Thailand, currently.

I use a 1-2-Call SIM in my Edge USB modem, deal is 999 THB plus 70 THB VAT for 30 days of unlimited usage. There are lots of packages offering fixed monthly hours for less money from various providers here in Thailand.

Not sure some of the comments here are correct.

I have lived here for 2 years and the HMRC have alreday confirmed (in writing) that for their purposes (tax) I am not resident or not ordinarily resident in the UK. Don't ask me to tell you what the difference is.

Also, I have in writing from HMRC that ALL income arising from within the UK is subject to UK tax law.

I therefore pay UK tax on my company pension at the relevant rate(s).

The normal policy,i believe, is for the revenue to take what you say about your residency at face value unless they have reason to think otherwise but, if you did not come to work ,and you returned within 3 years the revenue could take the view that you have in fact been only temporarily non-resident and still ordinarily resident during that period, (with potential unpleasant tax consequences) ref HMRC6.

I dont know what you mean by having it in writing ,but it might be worth looking again at the rules or getting some advice but not all income arising in the UK is subject to UK tax for a non-resident eg UK dividend income is not subject to tax. Your private pension is subject to UK tax while you are in Thailand because pensions are specificaly excluded from the UK/Thailand double taxation treaty.

I agree with your comment, get some advice from a tax expert, which I am certainly not.

I reply to my queries, HMRC have told me, as you say, that pension income is taxable in the UK, they stated this in a letter (in writing) concerning my tax status. I complete a self assessment form and therefore declare items such as dividends etc which is then taken into account by HMRC when I file my return.

Not sure some of the comments here are correct.

I have lived here for 2 years and the HMRC have alreday confirmed (in writing) that for their purposes (tax) I am not resident or not ordinarily resident in the UK. Don't ask me to tell you what the difference is.

Also, I have in writing from HMRC that ALL income arising from within the UK is subject to UK tax law.

I therefore pay UK tax on my company pension at the relevant rate(s).

I use 1-2-Call.

It's their mobile internet unlimited package, you just top up the SIM every month for 999 THB, plus the VAT 70 THB and you get 24/7 usage for 30 days.

Udon is hardly representative of Isaan as a whole in my opinion just the same as any city up here Khorat, KK etc.

The real Isaan is found in the small villages where the majority of people live and get by, by farming.

As for becoming more western, that will happen with the younger generation who aspire to to do something better than look after cows or farm small rice holdings.

It is true that there are more westerners here in Isaan. When I came here 5 yeras ago there was only one other within 25Ks, now we have Korean, Aussie, English, Norwegian, American, Italian all within a 20K radius of our small town.

I live 12Ks from Suwannaphum in ROI ET.

Rain today lasted less than 5 minutes, location 45Ks South of Yaso.

You could also fly to Ubon Ratchathani, there are several flights a day to and from Bangkok.

The information given by kdc1899 is wrong and/or misleading. In the case of the British consulate, I understand from posts in this forum that evidence of income has to be shown to the consular official, if this route is chosen for the extension of stay.

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Maestro

I agree, the consular services will only issue you with a proof of income letter when you show them a P60 or a letter from an employer on headed paper informing them of your monthly/yearly salary.

I paid the GBP 20 normal charge. I just don't understand why there's another GBP 18 charge, apparently from the Thai bank.

I used to xfer from Nat West (UK) to SCB in Thailand and paid both the Nat West (sending) and SCB (receiving) fees so my wife didn't have to bother with it and received the whole amount in her account. I suspect all Thai banks are the same and charge a fee for receiving money into their customers accounts, just like they charge 150THB for you to withdraw money using your non Thai bank ATM card or charge you a service fee for using a branch service that is not were your account is held.

We have seen one report of this and indeed the person received letter with net income stated. We have no confirmation or have any idea how they would determine this figure for other than government type pensions and have only heard of it happening at the UK Embassy. If a general requirement would have expected to see many more reports by now but perhaps the UK is ahead of the ball? Or wrong.

I can confirm when I collected my confirmation of income letter (for a pension) from the UK Embassy in December 2009, it did indeed only state the NET income.

My previous letters showed the GROSS income so there must be a change of policy.

I would contact your Embassy and see if they can provide the consular service via Express Mail.

Lose passport and you unfortunately lose all your visa's and have to reapply for them.

Whatever you do, make sure you get a police report as invariably most places you need to reapply to will require one.

I've submitted 2 proof of income letters obtained from the British Embassy with my application for an extension of stay, at Mukdahan and again last month at the new office in Amnat and I was never asked to provide a Thai translation.

This is probably because the applications are sent to Khorat and they have credible English readers?

Just been to the new Imm' office in Amnat (for ROI ET and Yasothon) to apply for my 1 year Non O extn.

For those yet to go it is located on the 4th Floor of the Police Station situated on the main road between Ubon and Mukdahan. If coming from Ubon it is just before the main crossroad with the 202 on the left.

If coming from Yaso, on the 202, turn right towards Ubon at the main crossroad and its on your right.

Free coffee and free glue so you can stick those photos on the form.

Small staff of 3 working there on my visit, all seemed pleasant enough.

According to todays Bangkok Post (15th) the airport link won't be open until April 2010.

I would get a taxi too.

I've got a normal taxi from the Sukhumvit Road area in BKK and the fare on the sheet says ROI ET 5500 THB if I remember correctly.

I've negotiated 4500 THB before as I live nearer Yaso than ROI ET.

Just buy the driver a meal at one of the service stops and they are usually more than happy.

I've 'worked' in the rice paddies before and boy is it hard work, just to show willing.

I've also 'worked' by painting and decorating the village hall not to mention cutting grass verges and helping around the Temple.

The locals love it when they see you join in and be apart of the community, they certainly don't care and wouldn't know anything about any laws regarding farangs ability under the law to 'work'.

They are grateful for the help.

My tip, which I did this year, was to go on holiday to Engalnd and visit my family so no rice harvesting for me this time around. Problem solved.

Hello

I will be arriving in Bangkok in November and have been looking for a decent place to stay that is conveniet for shops, bars, eat, coffee etc.

Citadines in Soi 8 has good reviews from what i have read, seems convenient to many places and transport, has a pool, rooms look great etc. etc.

The prices are good for when I want to stay.

Do you think that this place is better than The Dawin? (I can get Citadines a little cheaper)

Does anyone have any comments on this place?

I have stayed at the Citadines in Soi 8 several times (also the one in Soi 11). The one in Soi 8 is nice and quiet as it is at the far end of the Soi from Sukhumvit. They run a free Tuk Tuk from the hotel as it is a 500 mtrs to Suk' Rd. Nana station is right there too.

Rooms are good and the staff friendly. Enjoy!!

Cheers

Egg

Hi can anyone tell me the cheapest way to transfer money to thailand, i only want to send small amounts up to £100 british pounds at a time to help a friend out, i bank with the HSBC and i recently sent her £100 and they charged me £15 to do this then a few weeks later i get a letter telling me i have been charged another £20 exchange rate, so £35 to send £100 seems a lot of money to me surley there is a cheaper way of doing this, i was going to send her a moneygram but that way i cant send it to her bank account she would have to go to another bank and take some id with her which sounds simple enough but to try and explain this to her as she knows very little english and i know no thai i dont want to risk it,

Open to any suggestions

Hazel

When I was in the UK I was sending money in small amounts, 100 GBP to my wife, Banks charge the earth. The cheapest,easiest and quickest way is to use Western Union. If I remember correctly, the charge for instant transfer of 100 GBP, was 14 GBP, plenty of places to send from in the UK and all the receiver has to do is show their ID and the transfer number you text them and they collect the money 5 minutes after you have sent it from any WU office in Thailand.

Does anyone know about a change in the law affecting the 90 day reporting requirement which apparently came into effect on 7th September? I've just tried to give the usual notification well within time at the local office here in Songkhla but have been told I must now report to Hatyai as a result of a change in the law. This could be something local or it may be symptomatic of a general tightening up on 90 days notification.

You now have to report to the Imm' office which oversees your Thai address.

I reported to Mukdahan Imm' last Friday, no problem in and out in 10 minutes as usual.

Just got a new non imm B via post from Hull RTC

Very little in paperwork required and a quick turn around.

10 out of 10 to Hull!

Makes the London RTE seem like a complete waste of time and Hull works out the same or cheaper, same visa fee + £16 for postage there and back to a UK address

I agree, Hull are much friendlier and more efficient to deal with than the grumpy lot in London.

The first page of my old passport was about to fall out, so I i got a new passport from my embassy in BKK.

Now I have two passports, one is canceled.

I have a NON-B 1yr multiple entry in the old one, with a few more months to go, but I plan to apply for a one-year extension asap.

How would i progress in this matter?

I lost my passport (in BKK) with a 1 year mulitiple entry NON O visa in after only 3 months. I was told the visa was lost along with the passport as the visa was issued to the passport. I had to reapply for a new passport and then reapply for the visa. This I did in Thailand and the all the papers referring to the old passport and visa were sent to the regional office in Khorat, my local office is Mukdahan. I was granted a 3 month extension to begin with and then a year from the date of my reapplication.

Hi all, I wanted to book a flight back to eire bkk->lon->cork but just found that my dang card is expired, by one day! It expired at end of july and now it will not be accepted by online booking websites.

Having thought about it overnight I was thinking my best option might be to arrange a western union money transfer from someone at home, pick up here in laos and take to travel agents and pay for flight there.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what someone could do in this situation?

My atm card should still work (I haven't used it, been using cc all along to make cash withdrawals at atm) but there is a daily limit on that I'm sure.

From airasia's website, they do not have a physical location in laos to pay.

However, BA might accept credit card payments from someone other than person travelling on flight, in payment section of www.ba.com it asks whether person making payment is travelling on flight. Anyone done this before? What were you asked to produce at check-in? Cos usually the airline ask to see card used when booking flight.

I have booked flights on behalf of other people and never had to produce my card at check in as it's all verified online at the time of payment. You just need make sure you spell all passengers names correctly (as in the passport) or they could refuse you at check-in or ask you to pay for a name change. With e-tickets now you normally only have to show your passport at check-in but it's wise to have the booking ref or a print out of the booking confirmation.

Hi All,

I really am very impressed with this forum! I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations of places to stay in Bangkok with my Thai fiance please? I'm looking for somewhere around 1000 THB per night, but also somewhere that might be conevenient to sort out all the affirmation to marry forms. Any recommendations?

Many thanks!