CecilM

You can apply as early as 45 days before and up to the date stamped in your passport.

No difference in price getting it. Main differences (without listing all other items required) are: Marriage needs wife to accompany each year when renewing; and 400k. Retirement needs health insurance; and 800k. Which one is better? Comes down to personal preference.

Go with your second option: Cancel visa, get extension, then leave. Withdraw money, keep a few k Baht, make sure mobile banking works, and do a transaction every now and then to keep the account active.

Yes. But only for Xmas and not a month before. I think it looks nice. Tradition, just like watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation or old James Bond movies over the Xmas holidays.

Any mall, shopping center, or super store (BigC, etc) will have them. Usually somewhere at the car park level or entry/exit.

No. You will have to start your visa application from scratch. You might want to plan to return on a proper 60-day tourist visa.

Inform politely and return. I expect a free replacement or no charge. Have done that many times with pizza (raw dough) and steak that came rare (ordered medium).

Easy: yes. Wife and original marriage certificate need to be present so that the officer can take a group photo.

Sorry to hear that. You are still mentally sharp; and I assume so is your wife (who would be motivated to help in whatever way she physically can). So make effort to set the wheels in motion now. Ideas: 1) Go to the bank and get a 400k mortgage on your house. 2) Find any other way to get hold of 400k (sell jewelry/watches or other possessions, bring stuff to pawn shops, make the hard decisions now to liquidate whatever is needed). 3) Do a split of mortgage and selling stuff. So you have the option to use your 400k plus another 400k to go the 800k retirement visa route. 4) Go with the Mrs to immigration and discuss. This is the only way you get reliable answers. Else, go alone. 5) Contact some agents and discuss options to switch visa. They can help. Good luck. :)

You complain that I don’t share enough details in a comment, but you comment with totally irrelevant information.

You say useful, I say annoying.

You’re right. Most comments here are OK, on some of the FB groups they’re much more negative. I’ve only had good experiences renewing my marriage visa over the past few years. This year I got 3 re-entry permits (bad planning on my behalf); each time it was pretty crowded but each time there was a huge speed-up the last 20min before lunch and I always got out before the break. (Note to self: get multiple entry and/or arrive no later than 9:15.)

Ah, DrJack again who can’t seem to do anything else but complain.

Yes - depending on the location. How to know - ask (with the help of a Thai friend or google translate). Show them the bottle when you walk in. (They might charge you a corkage fee.)

We need more of these - people sharing their positive experiences. They really are good at CW. Had a great experience today renewing my marriage visa.

Must be an especially seedy area. I’ve never noticed that in any hotel I’ve stayed.

Don’t do it. As a foreigner I wouldn’t do anything fishy even if everyone else does it. Trade off is that you might lose the seller. If you’re really set on buying, you can offer to pay the tax for the seller.

Go sue the owner. Teach him a lesson.

I like my drip coffee, or French press, or moka pot. Depending on the mood. And cheaper too. ;)

That’s what I thought too. But… as I have read on the Internet and therefore it must be true: the average coffee maker (person) will be inconsistent in the amount of coffee used (too much) and the water used (too much) which means a lot of coffee is wasted. And since coffee cultivation is resource intensive… the production of coffee that ends up wasted is far worse for the environment than pods going into a landfill. … if you actually care to believe such logic. ;) (I don’t. But it’s interesting at what lengths some pod-producers go.)

If I ever buy a machine, then only the “illy 3.3”. Two friends, who both have Nespresso, suggested to go with illy. I tried and liked it. No fancy seasonal flavours, just straight up excellent coffee.

Yes. No worries at all.

As I understand the law, it applies even to a folding pocket knife. But the chances of sthg small causing a problem are very unlikely.

I studied at Thammasat (4th year) and, yes, it’s like any other university (homework, assignments, team projects, etc). The students complained how difficult it was, I just thought oh come to Canada and you’ll experience difficult. But it was the same during my studies in Canada where students complained and I thought oh come to Germany and you’ll experience difficult. So, no, studying in Thailand is not difficult. I got As with minimum effort and B+/Bs without any effort.

You can defend yourself only with absolute minimum force, otherwise you’ll easily end up as the accused in a lawsuit. In your example a shove and escape would be reasonable.