johnswift1956

On 10/18/2020 at 4:15 AM, Enzian said:

OK, I'm 80 now, on a non-O in Bangkok with a multiple re-entry permit. What's the chance I will ever be able to buy the insurance required at a price a normal person can afford or justify in order to re-enter the country as long as this requirement stands? 

I got some flack a couple of months back for saying I may have to pack up and leave indefinitely, and not to slam the door behind me, but I can't be the one of this mind. My guess is that the world is stuck with this virus for at least two more years. Of course I can just decide to stay here and die before I ever see my grandchildren in person, could be worse.

Just been quoted 6800bt for every 3 months

The fire was at the Nong Ki interchange  in Buriram District on the road from bangkok to surin. The town is just inside the border of Khorat and Buriram. My gf lives 1km away. Explosion occurred about 12 midnight. Very heavy rain all night. Petrol in drains and across road and frontage road also. No one killed. Many cars and tuk tuks died a horrible death... no one inside thank god. If it happened day time the cost of lives would have been huge as it is s busy  junction.

The army is better off controlling the country until all the coruption is stopped at all levels of politics and law.

This topic has been brought up countless times and the answer is always the same:

* Yes you need a work permit

* You need to pay taxes in Thailand on that income because it's Thai sourced

Not doing so means that you are a tax evader and an illegal working alien.

I live and pay tax in the uK but I just wonder if in Thailand your come under similar tax laws as europe including Spain that all earned (by working) and unearned (such as inventments in Spain or abroad) become taxable as an expat living in Spain.

I know Spain is very strict with this and all expats living in Spain SHOULD submit all income and pay taxes similar to Spanish. Penalties as really harsh in Spain for evading tax submittions and payments. I would hope that everyone has sort advise on this matter from a good accountant in Thailand?

try buying in spain. 10/11% on purchase plus up to 40% on profits when you sell up? looks like a good deal at the moment. thailand should do a little research and they could make a pretty packet!

My friend in the UK got one of those "free" visas,they was meant to be an admin of 15/20 pounds but they waved it!.

a good result for a change

At Hull on the UK, paid £25 admin for 60 days. No benefit with this free visa for me

Thailand needs to rid itself of the opportunistic, old, pot bellied, caucasian men who prey on Thailand's disenfranchised for cheap sex, the disrespectful who drink themselves into brawls and stupors.... and the purveyors of bad taste and crass views who perpetuate the gutter.

The mindless rabble in this forum, who whine and look down upon the Thais, would be a good place to start. Your disrespect for the 'other' is beyond disturbing.

Now, we would all want to know why the country should say "boo" to such a customer. The laws are written, enforce them as you see fit.

But as foreigners, don't lecture and put away your bible. If you are Thai go clean it up.

Looking down on Thais???? Get their daughters off walking street then they can get some respect. How decent Thais can sleep at night knowing this place exists I don't know.

How many farmers and they wifes in Thailand know they daughters are there in Walking Street? My Thai father in law was shocked when I took him there on one of our holidays. The girls in the village never tell their parents that they work there.

Police will not enforce any of the closing as it is all mafia based and they get a cut.

I wonder it TAT go with Walking Street and the bars or wish it to disappear. I have never seen TAT to make a statement either way.

Should include luggage too.

Anything over 10kgs should be changed for. I travel 3/4 times per year and never have over 8kgs. With my Gold Card I am entitled to 45kgs. Ifs an average person weights 85kgs and travels with 15kgs and costs say £400 excluding tax then I am paying £4 per 1kilo. If I only have 8 kgs I should have a refund of 7X£4 = £28.

I am suprised low budget airlines dont charge same way.

If an obeise person weighs 150kgs and has 15 kgs of luggage then on the same flight he should be paying in the region of 165kgs X £4 = £660.

I know it is not as easy as that!!!!!

The land luggage needs addressing as well. Should only be pushchairs, babies meal, and duty free. What people must carry in it beggers belief. Can someone tell me what they carry in them. I never have anything in hand luggage except duty free!

TAT may not be too much off the mark in their statement. They are likely to be reponding to the bigger/expensive holiday hotels and resorts. These new establishments are opening all the time and Pattaya will be like all the rest of the tourist sector eager to get them to invest in the area. One example of this is that Pattaya has now an Holiday Inn which is a minimum of 3000bt per night to stay there. These are the well heeled tourists, I would think that it is not full of retirement/long stayers or any one staying 2 months or more. Phuket I am sure has similar aspirations.

With all the new computer registation required by immigration and the police at hotels, etc, surely TAT would get the true number of tourist staying per night in Thailand. Tourists stay in hotels and any place that lets rooms on short terms. Visitors can get a visa for a maximum of 2 months so any staying over this cannot be tourists.

Visas issued at borders are so very misleading!

Within the UK we get the same misleading tourist figures. Day trippers, one night stays, one week stays all get listed as a tourist. We have a drop of 90% leaving 10% of the number of rooms booked per night. Ask Blackpool and such like. I wonder how many border runs are counted within Cambodia and Lao as tourists?

Does anyone know the true number of tourists booking rooms per night and how this relates to past years?

Why start a campaign to focus on high end tourist and potentially dissuade lower end tourist coming, thinking they're not welcome??

Why doesn't TAT focus on, just, tourism????

That is the solution: stop upsetting the majority of tourists (most are not rich) and start focusing on tourism in general for all income groups--high, medium, and low income.

The solution is so simple. Why can't TAT see this? Why continue to upset Westerners and ruin the tourism industry?

I won't say where or who, but some organizations are run by total idiots.

Upsetting Westerners is not a part of the picture, the numbers for January to October last year show that most visitors to Thailand come from :

A Malaysia 1,359,220

B Japan 822,767

C United Kingdom 670,904

D China 590,725

E Australia 520,090

F USA 496,812

I wont say who but some posters don't know what they're talking about.

Trouble is these will not stand up as the UK figures include border runs so the UK visitors could be 25% of this figure Stats.... Dont you love um....

If you apply for 60day visa in london it is free until easter Hull must be privatly run

I wish you were right. London is £28.00 and require it to be processed by post. Dont know why £3 difference. I talked to them about the fee and they say the 60 day visitor visa are not free.

Got this quote from another source so TAT right but shot themselves in the foot again.

"It has to do with being a honorary consulate. A honorary consul, as opposed to people working at an embassy or regular consulate, ar not civil servant and don't receive a salary for their work. Instead they rely on the income from the issuence of a visas. Which is also the reason that honorary consulates are normaly much more liberal in issuing a visa. With tourist visas being free at the moment they miss a large part of their income. To compensate this loss, some have decided to apply an administrative fee. "

Why they can't just give free 60 days visas at bangkok airport baffles me when I am flying in from the UK. Normal Thai Expression - If you get something free in Thailand you end up paying double. Where have I heard that!

If you apply for 60day visa in london it is free until easter Hull must be privatly run

I wish you were right. London is £28.00 and require it to be processed by post. Dont know why £3 difference. I talked to them about the fee and they say the 60 day visitor visa are not free.

Juthaporn said the government was prepared to extend waivers on visa fees for travellers, as well as parking and landing fees for airlines, which are due to finish at the end of March.

This statements wrong. Just rung up for 2 month visitors visa at Hull in the UK and they say it is still £25 and cannot travel from UK to Thailand unless I have it as aeroplane ticket is for 6 weeks.

TAT should look into this as the statement here is WRONG.

What it should say is the month visa entry is free and will not be charged by the Airlines who collect it.

Will cost me £25 in petrol to get there and back so in all it is costing me £50 for 2 extra weeks just for the visa.

I wish I had only booked 28 days now.

I spend over 1.2 million baht a year in Thailand, who spends more, a tourist or me, TAT should focus on taking care of me and people like me, people who live here!

It might not add up to your maths but I am sure the tourist does spend more: let's say that (poor) tourist will spend an average of Baht 1,000 per say giving, at the end of year, Baht 365,000 and so on...you might be surprised how much a tourist spend. When I go on holidays (in Europe), for a month or so , I can spend up to a year of my budget back home (but then again I go for quality rather than quantity when it comes to how many holidays I take)

Why should you be taken care of ? You already are here, using all benefits provided by the kingdom including 'cheap' (compared to Europe)access to a tremendous amount of 'excellent' services that one would only dream of in their countries of origin

"Well said". I don't see what TAT has to do with anyone except Tourists on Tourist Visas. People who stay on in Thailand for longer periods cannot be counted as Tourists even the ones on constant visa runs.

I can see where the Thais are coming from. They see all the expats sat there in bars worrying about the price of beer and the real tourists flying in every year for a good 1 month blowout costing $4000. An expat doesn't throw much money around at the thai hotels, bars, restaurants, and other tourist attractions but spending their money at other expat establishments.

Afraid that's very naive. And it looks as if TAT are just as naive.

Expats may not spluge $4000 in a month. But we steadily spend, spend, spend throughout the year to way more than this.

And where do other "expat establishments" shell out money to get their food, beer, foodstuffs, staff, rent and taxes (not to mention Protection Money) cars, etc? And the expat takes a salary.....and where is that spent?

It all virtually ends up here in the local / national economy.

What a load of twaddle johnswift.So you are the 2 week milliuonaire who thinks you are important over here,paying the girls big money and ringing the bell.get back to reality,that what we dont want here.so you say 800 gbp a week for a moth is spending,wow you are a rich boy arent you,thats 160,000 baht a year.I have friends that spend that sort of money in 1 month so take them tourist sunglases off and get in the real world monger

Wow you know all about people!! I have had 30 trips to Thailand in the last 7 years!

Hate to tell you this but I know I am not important in Thailand. Only Thais are! Its their country.

What you totally missed out on is that I have been married to a Thai for 5 years living in the UK and travel to Thailand 3/4 per year on one month visas. We have the house in the village and hopefully all the village benefit from the farang spending money there.

My Thai wife works in the UK and has herself over the last five years spent 300,000bt per year in Thailand.

Hopefully we both will eventually retire to Thailand in the next few years when our income and pensions are sufficent enough to cover a good life there but for the moment we will continue to keep returning as vistors.

Yes we spend time in Pattaya, Phuket, Krabi for holidays but spend equally as much time in the village.

What we both see in Pattaya are the many farang that live there continually complaining about the lack of money but still are there year after year. Not just bar owners, website designers, teachers, property salemen, tailors, restaurant owners, take-aways, motor-cycles rentals,,,,,, The list just goes on.

In the UK we are in the tourist trade. We have seen reductions in tourist numbers of 25% per year over the last decade. This year could be worse then ever. Thailand has nothing we have not seen in the UK. What we have seen is that it does not help tourism when large numbers of people including the unemployed migrate to the seaside for what is perceived to be a better places to live by taking up residence in properties that are on the cheaper side of the spectrum. We are now full of unwanted low-life with all the unwanted benefits, drugs, drunks, etc. My Thai wife is unable to walk the 100 yds home from work on a night without an escort.

I do not see that the TAT in Thailand as being far off the mark. They have most likely well researched the tourism sector. They have got the right ideas to keep the "well to do" coming because without them all the good hotels will be finished and Pattaya will slide even more into the pits! If they succeed in their quest in getting the "better off" then it is something we in the UK have not been able to do.

I can see where the Thais are coming from. They see all the expats sat there in bars worrying about the price of beer and the real tourists flying in every year for a good 1 month blowout costing $4000. An expat doesn't throw much money around at the thai hotels, bars, restaurants, and other tourist attractions but spending their money at other expat establishments.

? Seems nobody as answered the original topic here. Unquote

Who cares what they do with work permit, retire and you dont have to work.

As someone who is married to a Thai, I am only interested in what visas I am entited to if we go there to live in maybe 4/5 years.

At the moment we work in the uk and fly to thailand 3/4 times per year for 3/4 weeks holiday. I manage on holiday visas.

I listen to all my wifes family, farmers from Khorat, and they couldnt give a monkeys about whether they have falang in Bangkok or Pattaya. They dont need english..... All of the village speak Thai fluent!

None of the falang around work, they all have their own income and just sit and watch the world go by letting the Thais get on with it.

They existed better in the village 50 years ago before the falang moved in. Probabily they would be better off back to them days. Kids were all at home, families stayed together, no mobiles and a party every week for Budda, not forgetting the cheap vodka with fanta....

All the students that wanted english as a foreign language travel and studied in the UK or the USA. Didnt need any many english speaking tutors. Maybe they are thinking that the falang are creating the demand for teachers of english. If that was the case, they wouldnt need to give work visas for teachers and save some real money.

Does anyone know what the thais are implementing on the visa changes? Whats changes are proposed? Seems nobody as answered the original topic here.

Its about time the Thais were able to decide for themselves. I disagree to most of this and I have been married to a thai for 6 years.

Visas have been mis-used for many years. Retirement visas should be limited to the age of the expats pension age, eg UK at 65. You cannot be retired at 59, just escaping into another country for whatever reasons because you have nothing to do in your own country.

The other visas like teaching should be contracted for term times or for the academic year. It is strange that none of these teaching expat experts return to there country and sit in Thailand forever. Surely they go home to see they family or is it they dare not go home and there family have to come to Thailand to see them.

Also in the UK now we have gone to a points system for work permits. I dont see lots of Thais getting in to the UK through method. Why cannot Thais do the same and let people in on a similar system.

Johnswift - Why should people not have the option to retire to another country at 59 or even 49. Surely if you have been a big shot banker, engineer, doctor etc and have worked your pretty socks off and accumulated a nice pot of dosh, why shouldn't you have the choice to retire at an age of your choosing, to a country of your choice if they are willing to accept you? Thailand already stipulates you must have x amount in the bank to qualify.

As for the teaching suggestion, utter rubbish, how would this effect school, If contracts were limited to terms or academic years, how would schools retain teachers?? The summer holiday for Thai schools is three months long, how would the teachers support themselves?? Do you think its fair to expect people to be unpaid for 25% of the year and still return?? Or do you think they should be paid to go home?? Also many schools need there teachers to be in Thailand during the summer holidays for extra classes for new students.

Personally I think that this is one of those typical government games to try to satisfy all parties. On one hand they have 'relaxed' businesses (Annex 1 and 2 ??) which foreigners can work in, but on the other hand are presenting more stringent regs to allow foreigners to work in them. Probably to prevent and influx of foreign bankers etc, so that the thais get the lions share of the jobs in the new businesses which open.

Surely showing just X baht, 800,000bt is not realisitic. As you say people with a big pot should be able to show a realistic income of 800,000bt from unearned income/pensions, etc or show funds that can generate this amount per year. Anybody will a little money can show 800,000bt. You need 16 million baht to generate this every year at 5% interest. Perhaps retirement visas should be brought up to line with other countries. I just wonder what Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, US and UK require. I bet it is not as low as $20,000. I would have thought nearer $1,000,000 (32,000,000bt).

As I have already have a Cert Ed and taught IT/computing at a college of further education in the UK, I just wonder about all the foreign teachers in thailand covering english as a full time teachers. With a lower teaching certificate they would in the UK be having to work towards something higher for the first two years They would also need a Degree or Diploma in the subject(s) they are teaching. They would have been cross-checked with the Child Protection Reg and the Criminal Reg. I would think that 90% of the foreign (falang) teachers in Thailand would not get a job in their own country even if similar positions were available. I do not make this statement lightly as I have met quite a few in the years I have been in and out of Thailand. A six week course in Teaching English as a Foreign Language just does not cover anything. So really, Thailand is getting the poor end of the stick! This must be bad overall for Thailands education system and I can really understand them being very frustrated with it and the level of English being taught.

Well thats my feeling on the matter.

Of course, if you are trying to talk your way into a country then its all wrong. The only thing that matters then is how you get your visa and work permit to stay there.

@ johnswift1956 "Retirement visas should be limited to the age of the expats pension age, eg UK at 65. You cannot be retired at 59, just escaping into another country for whatever reasons because you have nothing to do in your own country."

Of course you can retire at 59 and many other ages up to and including 65. The age for retirement of teachers for example in the UK is 60. As a retired teacher I am here legally subject to the current visa regulations. Incidentally I have not taught English in Thailand nor would I have any desire to do so.

I chose to come here to avoid the UK weather and the morons that now frequent my country of birth, both of which make the prospect of a UK based retirement unpalatable. If Thailand wants to keep some of those same people out of this country then personally I back them 100%.

I totally understand where you are coming from and agree with all you say. I am a former teacher in the UK.

I just do not understand why the retirement visa is 50+. And as for the previous comment that is listed that you can retire at 30 if you are rich enough. Just how large is this number? 10/20. These same persons are looking for jobs at 20,000 bt. Thai's need more than that to have any chance of a good existence.

Its about time the Thais were able to decide for themselves. I disagree to most of this and I have been married to a thai for 6 years.

Visas have been mis-used for many years. Retirement visas should be limited to the age of the expats pension age, eg UK at 65. You cannot be retired at 59, just escaping into another country for whatever reasons because you have nothing to do in your own country.

The other visas like teaching should be contracted for term times or for the academic year. It is strange that none of these teaching expat experts return to there country and sit in Thailand forever. Surely they go home to see they family or is it they dare not go home and there family have to come to Thailand to see them.

Also in the UK now we have gone to a points system for work permits. I dont see lots of Thais getting in to the UK through method. Why cannot Thais do the same and let people in on a similar system.

I am actually optimistic this will be a good high season if not derailed by the upcoming protests.

A place like Pattaya may do particularly well as I think regulars can maybe miss one year but two years may be out of the question. Places like Soi B could do particularly well as I do believe visitors will reduce expenses by taking a step down in accomodation venues, meals, etc.

I arrive on Friday and getting worried about my trip there. I have been many times but all my friends have backed out of coming and it is now only me left. If most of the bars are closed then there are no girls and if no girls then why got to Pattaya? Is walking street still ok and which areas of town are still busy?

Not sure I like too many falang bars though. I much prefer the Thai Bars. One sure thing that get up my nose is all the rude business owning falang that suck up to all the falang on holiday with money. They live in Thailand like leeches sucking off respectable falang to pay for their existence because they cannot go back home. Why the Thai's have not kicked them all out, "Budda only knows". They will not exist much longer if the Falang stop coming as the Soth Asian holiday makers (Koreans, Japanese, Chinese) are not going to use falang beer bars, restaurants, etc. Goes for the Indian Tailors too. Donot see many Chinese queuing outside them.

Really depends on where you are in the district especialy if you are 1 and a half hours north of Khorat! Why do they always put gov offices outside the centre they cover?