ProThaiExpat

I do think price can mean a difference in quality. I was a newbie when I built my house so I accepted the price quote of 20k Baht. I did not shop around as there didn't seem to be many electrified gate vendors around in those days.

I have seen posts in the interim in which quality of products and where they were made were discussed extensively. Since you preceded me with that shop by ten years, I may have benefited by your bad experience in that vendor may have sought better quality motors, etc.

You were very lucky that your a resident in BKK and able to go to the Embassy and deal with them face to face.

My spouse made five trips to BKK during the process. Had to do the medical twice as sputum culture was required and that takes two months. By the time we provided fingerprint based police clearance from Australia, the three month window of validity for the medical had expired.

The nurse at the hospital placed the examination date by the doctor down as the start date when the option was the date the sputum culture report generated thus adding three months to the validity of the medical.

We visited my family for three months each year in Australia but immigration officer thought it necessary for an Australian Police Report. The first 221g notice after interview requesting further documents merely said Australian Police Report as discussed in interview. First Australian Police Report was not finger print based. So had to do that again. The second 221g request specified finger print based Australian Police Check so that was how we knew what they wanted. I also had delays in getting documents from the US. The IRS didn't even respond to two letters requesting documents. Finally I found an agent and the 1040 telephone number that accessed my account and sent the right document immediately. That put us out of time as well.

I am reminded that nothing worth having comes easy so when the Embassy called last Friday morning and advised that the CR1 visa had issued, we booked our flight for Wednesday January 28. Spouse flew to BKK to pick up passport with visa as it was too precious to us to trust the mails. Total elapsed time was a little over seven months. They are very good at returning emails. I don't think they take telephone calls.

I note you don't mention the CR1 which I believe is the only designation for an immigration visa for those married less than two years.

Also note your departure date for the US. Our visa expires on the deadline of the three month validity of the medical report. The validity date of your visa is printed on the visa so give yourself a little breathing room as flights can cancel, etc.

Mine is twelve years old and the shop that did the work is still there. PAT is stamped on the motor and the remotes seem to never need a new battery.

Shop is located on the South side of the road that approaches superhighway from ring road #2 eastbound next to Central Festival. There is also a large AIS building on the back entrance road to Big C Extra from there. The shop is about 100 meters east of that AIS building on the same side of the street.

Late December immigration officer at window 3 picked up a red ink ballpoint and started his signature in red, oops he says, have to do this over again. I asked why and he said Thai Immigration might not take a form signed in Red.

He then commenced to fill out the new form himself!!!! I asked him why the red pen was around and he said they use it to negate certain passport documents, etc.

I suspect that individual officers get bored at the window and may say or do something that doesn't violate policy just to see something different.

As this one filled out the second form for me, he asked the circumstances of my birth in Japan before the second world war and how we got out just before Pearl Harbor. No doubt he was bored and looking for something to ease the boredom.

No request for verification of income.

Take a look at this: http://www.google.com.au/webhp?nord=1#nord=1&q=end+of+life+wishes+document

Prepare an end of life document and have it placed in your partners medical file at the hospital you usually go to. If your moving around, store one in your computer and keep a signed copy at hand for emergencies.

You certainly can get a Thai Lawyer involved if you wish and you can have it translated into Thai, but most medical professionals speak English in Thailand and certainly can read English.

I sold a condo in Hawaii and wire transferred the money to a Thai bank without any problem.

When you sell the property in the US you do need to determine if you must pay tax on the capital gain if you made a profit on the sale. There are exceptions based on age, etc. Seek professional tax advice on whether in your particular case it is a taxable event.

If I recall correctly, there was a $250,000 exemption but that information is twelve years old and my gain on the condo sale was less than that.

I am not sure what Brits call the plant that covers their buildings and grows tightly to the walls, but it is quite attractive to my eye.

However, in the US it is called "grape ivy" and I have used it on many walls there. The leaf is about the size of a finger nail.

I noticed it growing on a golf course wall in Chiang Mai so snipped some off and took it to the nursery area behind Tesco North on Superhighway and found it readily available, usually five baht a plant depending on size.

I planted it along the perimeter wall of my driveway and in two years it was completely filled in. No watering necessary after it got started.

Now it has extended itself all along the other side of the wall as well and up the side of my house and requires pruning every two months to keep it close to the wall look. Electric hedge trimmer does the job very well.

If you have time, just visit the nursery shops behind Tesco and I have found it usually available in a couple of the shops you first encounter after making the first left turn around the pottery outlet.

It sure beats keeping walls painted but it will grow where you don't want it unless you keep an eye on it.

What difference does daily reports make unless you are paying wages by the hour and materials by the item.

The big change I have seen in the past few years is that contractors are now quoting the job as a whole and even their estimate of the breakdown between labor and materials is rarely accurate if even provided.

Try HomePro.

CMBob:

Social Security Beneficiaries who live overseas receive an annual questionnaire consisting of four questions that in effect does the same thing.

Making a false statement under oath to a US Official carries a fine of up to $10k and imprisonment for up to 10 years.

The cited article does not indicate what sexes are involved. Women abuse on women has an entirely different dynamic than man on man abuse. Likewise in opposite sex relationships there is the man vs. woman or vice versa dynamic.

In all my years in Los Angeles, the only same sex abuse I ever became aware of was woman on woman abuse.

However, different regions might affect the statistics as well. Dealing with your environment in New York City has to be more stressful that Palm Springs.

With same sex marriage reaching epic proportions, the freedom to walk away is not quite as defusing if your legally tangled up with your partner. Thus more stress.

I am not persuaded by the article but agree with OP that his theme that as a member of a minority, additional stress is present, especially if the abuser is in the closet.

The Department of State has retained the visa power despite USCIS having almost complete control of immigration to the US.

USCIS have an excellent website and office in Bangkok. If you take your time and read through the USCIS web pages you will be able to make your own conclusions as to what to do.

Once you have filed an application with USCIS and they have approved your application, you then have to do the same thing over again with the Embassy in BKK who controls the visa. Once you get their approval and a temporary green card for you wife, then USCIS takes over again and controls your wife's immigration at the port of entry and afterward.

You can email USCIS BKK and they will answer your questions. Thus your first question is will they accept a Thai legal wedding in order for you to obtain a green card for your wife. If not, off to the US to get married while she is on a tourist visa.

If you are not sure if you have proof of a legal Thai wedding, there are many on ThaiVisa who can answer that question authoritatively. I am sure a ceremony alone is not enough. A visit to city hall to fill out documents etc. will do the trick, I think. I went the US marriage route and then filed with USCIS and the Embassy and am now about four days from getting a temporary permanent resident card and immigrant visa. You will pay fees at USCIS, BKK Embassy and green card processing fee prior to entry into the US.

If you don't live in BKK, your wife will have to go there for an Embassy interview and get a police clearance. You will also have to post on the National Immigration Web Site you and your wifes personal history including all residences she has had for over a year, all prior passports, etc. The Embassy web pages and detailed instruction for everything will be emailed to you once USCIS has approved you and their forwarding of your paperwork to the Embassy triggers you receiving a packet of instructions to begin the immigration visa process. The Embassy will not deal with you over the phone or personal visit. Their immigration unit will answer emails once they have received the forwarded documents from USCIS and assigned you an immigration visa application number etc.

When you prepare your package for USCIS do so for the Embassy as they require you to forward a completely new package. No reference to the USCIS package forwarded to them is permitted.

I found the process frustrating do to unique personal situations of myself and spouse, so those who say it is easy must have not done it recently or have extremely vanilla backgrounds, no foreign travel or the like. You will be required to provide your last tax return with evidence it was filed with the IRS. There is an online service that can do it for you in a couple of days for a fee. IRS takes weeks plus snail mail to get you the filed return.

As with all visas, they do look at the length of your relationship and if not legally married for two years or more, you will get a provisional green card that causes you to go through the process again 90 days before the end of the two year probationary period of the temporary green card.

You must also show a US residence or efforts to locate permanently there with bank accounts opened, etc. It is covered in both websites under residence requirements.

jingthing: I watched the Barney Frank clip and identified with his comment regarding Tim Cook coming out only after some time on the job. Those who work in a profession that relies on clients or customers or patients will tell you that after some time, the clients learn you are gay and that is fine with them. as they have already been helped by your professionalism and skill. If you are introduced or recommended as a gay professional, chances are the client will look elsewhere or come to you for the wrong reason.

It is an old truism that being a physician who happens to be gay is far more preferable than being a gay physician. Thus, avoiding the label in the profession is to not come out publicly, but come out on an individual basis when you feel it is appropriate to the relationship you have with the client.

Clearly, if you are in part responsible for the manufacture of a product, the customer has the product to judge his like or dislike as opposed to one who sells a service. such as someone in a profession, who is in effect is selling himself and thus avoids labels other than his professional one and the quality of his service.

I think Tim Cook's use of the word "proud" is meant in the context that he is not ashamed of being gay rather than use it in the context of achievement, as prior posters have suggested.

When you take your own pressure, try to rest your arm so it is level with your shoulder or your heart. Also to avoid any anxiety affecting your pressure, if your pressure reads a bit high, wait a minute and take it again. Only after three readings, can you rest assured you have a good idea of what your true pressure is. Lopburi3 is quite correct, blood pressure standards are based on "resting" readings.

Does it really matter if Jesus and Mary Magdalene were lovers as so many in history have alleged and "proved" Did Mary escape the apostles persecution since she was a woman when she allegedly went to Spain and started a movement there. Christianity is and was a very positive force in so many lives the historical "facts" are rendered irrelevant by martyrdom.

The good that the Mathew Sheppard case did for American law and attitudes transcends any negative anyone can come up with about Mathew's personal life and renders those "facts" likewise irrelevant.

I do recall reading he was a straight A student at the U of Wyoming. While it is no Harvard, I doubt a Meth Head could keep that kind of GPA and be strung out on Meth and dealing in it.

In shopping center strategy, at least in the US, the anchor tenant or tenants are the major draw and are often given the land free as long as they enter into a covenant to operate for a substantial amount of time. Mall tenants pay very high rent as the foot traffic created by the "major" are hopefully lured into a mall tenant who couldn't draw foot traffic on their own.
So even if the store is a dud and not making money, the owner must continue to operate once he signs the covenant to operate.

I don't know who owns this center but talking to one of the department managers at Central Department Store when Festival was about to open, he was hoping he would be able to move to the new store in Festival as he expected his store would close. The amount of business Central Department Store did at that location was never impressive even on very hot days when Thais sauntered around it floors to keep cool.

I can't believe at a marginally profitable store like that one management would open a competitive store in the newest center and hope to keep the old one viable.

It is rare that when dealing with multiples of 10k that the teller doesn't run the stack through the counting machine twice and I have seen some cases where those money counting machines are in error and when the teller gets a different result, runs it through again until the totals match. Even when they hand count the stack of bills, they often check with the counting machine.

ATM counting machines are subject to error and the banks know it and have a method to determine if a mistake was made so they can rectify it. ATM machines have helped banks decrease their operating costs substantially by eliminating tellers by the thousands so they sure don't want customer perception of non-reliability of their money saving ATMs. Otherwise the lines in front of tellers would return to the way they were before ATMs.

The technical word is homosexual. It seems to me that homosexuals adopted the word gay to suggest that there was more to homos than sex once they mature. If there is no sexual attraction your not homosexual or gay. While lesbians are homosexual, I would not suggest calling them that. In fact, I think most gay men prefer that term to being called a homosexual as it unduly emphasizes sex as defining a person.

The basic underlying object of writing a will is to make the intent of the testator (deceased) clear. The judge who reviews the will in probate will try to determine the will (what you want) of the testator.

While "words of art" may impress laymen, unless their meaning is defined in a legal dictionary respected by the judiciary, they should not be used. If you don't understand what a will says, chances are others will also have difficulty understanding your will as well, which only leads to trouble among family and others.

Your present "half baked" will is not only confusing to you, but is not complete nor is your intent clearly enunciated. Start over with another lawyer that can write what you want done with your estate upon your death without legal mumbo jumbo.

Will writing is relatively quite simple legally and many law firms prepare them free for good customers. After all, the lawyer is merely asked to express in the will what the client wants done with his estate. Yes, complex wills do take skill, but most do not.

Yes, law firms will have template language to define a testamentary trust, for instance, but it is not a difficult concept to write in clear and easy to understand English. The more obtuse the legalese, the more the lawyer is trying to show off and earn a substantial fee and thereby risking others not understanding what you want done when you are here to explain it.

With so much computer trading and traders making money on volatility, the guys on the inside are raking it in. Then along comes the gurus who see any market change and then look for an explanation for it in the latest news. Simple cause and effect analysis is fodder for news articles. If they had the answers they would be rich and enshrined in a mansion too busy sucking down cocktails to write such drivel.

I found a three foot long snake skin in a closet with a access hole into the attic. There was no other openings for the snake to gain access to that closet so surmised they can climb up walls. I did not clean out the closet of numerous boxes, buckets and what have you so if the snake is still in there he will surely starve to death in time.