allane

I was in the Pattaya P.O. on Sat. Apr. 10. There is a sign on the counter saying that, in addition to the normal Songkran closure (Apr. 13 - 15), they will also be closed the 16th and 17th. So, if you were planning to put anything in the mail on those dates, get in there on Mon. the 12th.

If you take a walk through Tourist Town, you will certainly find a few places. To the best of my recollection there is Chao Phraya Bootery, on Silom Road in the Patpong area. And on Suriwong Road, you will find Tony's, at the corner of the little stub soi that leads in to the Post Office (north of the Bangkok Christian Hospital).

I am sure that these places will make you anything that you want, especially once they see the colour of your skin.

I am less familiar with the Sukhumwit portion of Tourist Town, but I am sure that there must be such places there too.

I travelled from Bkk. to Pattaya on Thu. afternoon April 8. If anything the trip was a bit faster than usual, do to there being less traffic than normal in central Bkk. It is my understanding that any roadblocks that are out there are intended to stop additional "red shirts" from coming INTO Bkk., though I think they might be smart enough to wear some other colour while enroute.

Whether you are inside or outside of Thailand, you need a written job offer to get the Non-immigrant "B" Visa. Once you have the written job offer, go to the Immigration office to have your visa changed.

Re: Your Question 2: These passport renewal questions depend on the country of origin; each country sets their own requirements. As a Canadian, I am able to renew my passport here. I pondered your Question 1 too. I just completed a discretionary trip outside of Thailand, timed to ensure that I was back before the 6 mo. final portion of my current passport. I suspect that Thailand will not let you come back in if you have less than 6 mo. remaining. I never quite understood the logic of this rule, but it is quite general I think. For whatever it is worth, in my view, 30 days longer than a standard 30 - 60 day tourist visa should be enough to ensure coverage due to any extended stay on account of illness etc.

What options is Immigration lilely to give me if I walk in and request a 1 yr. "Retirement visa", with approximately 6 mo. remaining on my current passport ?

- 1 yr. Visa, and transfer to new passport once I have it ?

- approx. 6 mo. Retirement Visa, with requirement for new "seasoning period" at the end of the 6 mo. ?

- outright refusal, with instructions to get a new pasport first, then come back ?

- other ?

I am a long-time Thai resident, presently on a Non-Immigrant "B". To the best of my knowledge, I meet all the normal requirements for a "Retirement Visa."

I understand that in Chiang Mai it will be voluntary. The municipal will not shut off the electricity.

No air-con. No fans. They better change it to cool season if they want me to participate.

Oh come on, be a sport: if you turned off the lights, people might think it was because you didn't have enough money to pay the power bill. But, if you turn off the air, inside the privacy of your own home, who is going to know ?

The current protest is not going to lead to anything positive, from the red's point of view. No government can give in to demands from mobs, and that includes Abhisit's.

Thailand will have an election sometime between now and the end of 2011. The "reds", or whatever that movement has transformed itself into by that time, will win, though probably narrowly. The reds will take ofice, the yellows will start protesting, and probably occupy the airport again. And again, the authorities will not cut off food and water supplies to that airport, as they ought to have done last time.

The "red" movement may splinter into two or more factions:

1. A "Thaksin personality cult", calling for his return. While he may well continue to fund this faction, I think it will fade in influence with every passing month.

2. A "pro-democracy" faction, that westerners will recognize as a political party, with a stated program for the next election. (This is the ground that used to be occupied by the Democrat's; it is a ground which they will have a hard time reclaiming now, outside of the non-Muslim south, where they normally win in any case.)

3. A radical "street protest" faction, which may continue to whatever extent the army, police and Thai public will tolerate. In my view, none of these three have very much tolerance, though I have been surprised by the lack of police thuggery in recent days. But, I think this third faction will die out with the calling of the next election, if it hasn't died before then.

If you have a credit card, you might consider paying money into your account, so that you have a Credit Balance. Then you could withdraw against this amount after you were in Thailand. I presume that these withdrawals would have to be done as Cash Advances, inside a Thai bank. I don't know what fees, if any are applied. It might depend on the banks involved at each end of the transaction.

If you have a Credit Card and ATM Card from the same bank, this might reduce your fees, as you could then do your withdrawals through an ATM in Thailand, rather than having to go inside a bank every time.

Many years ago, I was in a situation similar to yours. My old employer would not give me the Work Permit, and either turned it in, turned it in late, or didn't turn it in at all - I never learned exactly what had happened.

But a co-operative personnel officer at my new place of employment made a phone call to Immigration, and ensured that I was not going to be blacklisted for something my former employer had done (or, not done), whichever was the case. And, I had no trouble geting a new Work Permit.

I never had to pay a fine, or to my knowledge, even fill in a form relating to my previous Work Permit.

There is a small hotel on Pracha-Uthit Road, on the same side of the road as Chetuphon College. The hotel is east of the college, towards Suksawat Road. I can't recall the name of the hotel, and don't think it has a sign in English.

You can go yourself. Many people do that.

Yes, there is nothing to stop you from acting as your own "messenger boy', running documents from office to office, as instructed to do so by the officials. But, unless your Thai is quite good, you are probably well-adivsed to be accompanied by someone who can speak and read Thai.

Here is how I once handled the "changing jobs & getting a new Work Permit all within one day" issue. At the old job, I was on good terms with the Personnel Office. They agreed to give me a specified period of time (I think it was about a month), to get the new employer up to speed, and to have all the necessary paperwork prepared.

Once the new employer was ready, I met the old employer in the lobby of the Immigration Office on the designated day, and did the cancellation. Half an hour later, the new employer joined me, and we applied for my new Work Permit. (At that time, I had 7 days to leave Thailand; I understand this is no longer the case - you might have to pay for a 7 day extension).

It is not necessary that the old employer race in to the Immigration Dept. the moment you quit. But, they are free to do that if they want to, so it pays you to stay on good terms with them if at all possible.

1. Walk around. If you see a place that you like, in a location that you like, walk in and talk to the manager.

2. Yes, if you are looking at an English language web.

3. Yes. I have no idea how they work, but I do know that they don't work for nothing.

4. See #1 above.

5. Maybe, put up a posting in the Local Forum for each of those locations here on Thaivisa. Probably best to give an idea of your budget.

Yes was also in place Friday - but at that time there were not crystal clear whether requirement(for 90 day report) was just where last 90 day report was made, or whether it was where visa extension was made. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/90-Day-Repor...re-t345647.html

It now seems clear that it is where visa extension was made, meaning Suan Plu for most, and therefore Changwattana from now on.

Clever way by boss to direct all the non-BOI "mortals" to Changwattana. Personally I wil mail it in, in the future. Too late this time though.

Cheers, Ben

Are they allowing the 90 day report of residence to be done by mail ? The last time that I asked this question at Suan Phlu (about 5 yrs. ago), they told me that those of us who live in Bangkok have to report in person.

There is also the practical matter of where to get a copy of their form. I don't know if they would accept a simple typewritten statement of my address with the date and my signature on it, or if they absolutely require that it be on their form ?

ททท is Thoratat Thahan Thai (Thai Army Television), channnel 5.

I would be highly surprised if this sort of information is recorded anywhere. Pattaya does not have a wall around it, with passport control for foreigners going in and out. A few observations on my part:

- I think that if you look around on-line, you may get some indication of the number of hotel rooms in Pattaya. With that, you could assume whatever occupancy rate you wanted: (65% ?), though this varies by season.

- I don't know if Immigration keeps, and is willing to release, any statistics they may have regarding foreigners on Retirement Visas. And, there is no assurance that these people are actually in Pattaya at any particular time.

- most farang in Thailand greatly overestimate the importance of themselves and their fellow farang as a component of the Thai tourist industry. We farang are obviously the most visible, but in all likelihood, we are outspent by other Asians, Middle Easterners, etc. etc.

Thanks to all for the comments received to date, though I must say here that so far, I have learned nothing that I don't already know. I have been working here for years on a Non-Immigr. "B" visa, so am well-acquainted with the Bank of Thailand regulations pertaining to that.

What I am trying to ascertain here is whether I might be subject to an extra level of scrutiny after switching to a Retirement Visa. I don't want to walk into an Immigr. Office and start asking questions. (I presume that they won't answer until they know who they are talking to.) I don't want to then walk out, come back the next time, and find that there is a warning on their computer next to my name saying "Watch this guy - there is something unusual going on here."

If I go on to an Extension of Stay - Retirement Visa, am I legally entitled to send money out of Thailand on an occasional basis ? I am in what might be a bit of an unusual position - old enough and rich enough to go on a Retirement Visa, but with a dependent in another country, who will likely require occasional financial support from me, for at least the next year or two. The other country is not my home country, so I can't simply solve the problem by writing an occasional cheque on my home country bank account.

I have of course seen lots of discussion here about the money that one needs to bring into, and keep in, Thailand, but I have never seen my question addressed.

In reply to Scott's posting. I am a 15 yr. veteran of teaching in Thailand. I have taught mostly at the high school level, and have worked at three different schools. Your posting would appear to describe an average situation, with one exception that caught my eye.

I am presuming that the month of April consititutes most, or all, of your major vacation for the year. Being required to give that up every second year to teach summer school seems very harsh to me. I have never been required to teach summer school, not even for a few days.

Yes, the schools have a problem - they can't offer a summer school program, until they know that they have sufficient teachers willing to teach it. But in my view, making it compulsory would likely just lead to greater staff turnover. (Here I am speaking of foreign teachers only.)

But the other side of the greater staff turnover coin is that there is always a continuous supply of new hires. They can be told that teaching the summer school is a condition of being hired to teach the coming school year.

For those who know Na Kleua: Are there any swimming pools in the area, where someone can swim on a "walk-in" basis ? By that I mean, pay a fee, with no membership required ? If yes, is the pool suitable for fitness swimming ?

The first website you mentiioned is the Airport Express bus. Stand at any bus stop on their route, and flag them down in the normal manner. The drivers are pretty good about going past the stops slowly, and watching for bewildered looking farangs with travel bags. As I said above, the Silom one runs east bound on the north side of Silom Road. For other routes, the best thing to do is probably to enquire at the desk of one of the major hotels along the route. The desk staff likely wouldn't know the exact schedule, but they might at least know the frequency of service, and point you to the nearest bus stop.

The second website that you mentioned is for the BMTA (city) buses which serve the airport. There are eight of these I think, all with the number 55x (551, 552...558).

I just googled "Bangkok Airport Express" where the fare stated on the website is still 150 baht. But, have 50 baht ready, they may like to play the "no change" game with foreigners. The frequency isn't stated, though I seem to remember seeing somewhere that it is every 30 min. You can catch it at any bus stop on the north side of Silom Road. If you are unaware of what it looks like, take a look at their website. Running time to the airport can of course vary with traffic conditions; I would estimate 60 to 90 minutes. After going north on Rachadamri and east on Petchburi, it then goes south and up on to the Stage I expressway, not coming down until it gets to Bang Na. You don't need to worry about crawling all the way to the airport in city traffic.

To: "The Party Shop", or anyone else who may know, is the pool at the Hard Rock Hotel available for casual swimming on a "walk-in" basis ? If yes, do you know the admission fee and hours of operation ?

Nothing is ever "for sure" in Thailand, but 2 months is excessive. I would say that there is about a 95% guarantee that you can count on the period from April 1 - May 16 as holidays. Consider anything beyond that as a bonus. I have been a teacher here for 15 years.