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ProThaiExpat
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Posts posted by ProThaiExpat
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Yes, you will need a new letter.
Some immigration offices allow you to keep the original, but if they keep the original you will need a new one.
Thanks Mario2008: You jogged my memory, when I went this route three years or more ago, I now recall the Immigration Senior Sargent who used to handle extensions gave me back my original pension letter and said I would need it for my one year extension in 90 days.
"Word to the wise" for those going this route, ask for the original of your pension letter back, you may be able to avoid the hassle and expense of getting another one if they grant your request.
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Obtained my non-immO visa from tourist visa based on retirement in September 2010 and must now go to get one year extension.
Do I need another pension letter from Consulate, Immigration CM kept original pension letter when I changed from Tourist to non-immO????
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The pregnant question is, "Why wasn't I told about coming back in the afternoon when I was given 227 at 8:30? and the older than me guy from down south with 228 wasn't told either?"
thaireg: Were you told to come back in the afternoon when he gave you your ticket #229 or was it later and if so when?
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I suggest you "shop" your kitchen, then you will reach a point where you are comfortable with one of the teams working on your kitchen. There are many kitchen design software programs where you can try out your own ideas.
I went to five kitchen cabinet providers when I did my kitchen ten years ago and was happy I did. The design was easy for me as I had many kitchens previously, as most of us have so I knew what to ask for. Whether they can deliver the goods and install properly is also an issue.
Doors that are self closing in the last couple of inches, heavy duty metal door slides, edges without interruption in surface material, etc. are where the quality comes in.
Teka did my kitchen, but they don't do it anymore and I suspect they sub-contracted it out as a team of installers came up from BKK to do the installation and when they came up short of the ceiling, they ordered replacement parts that arrived overnight. It took them three days but 10 years later their are as good as new. When I talked to Teka last month about some minor termite damage, they suggest I see Kitchitech, which I passed on years ago as not having quality. Things with them may have improved.
Kitchen design has progressed over the years so now you see large deep drawers in the lower cabinets while I can remember high end kitchens that you had to open the lower doors before pulling out a sliding shelf. If you cook, you may want gas so allow for a corner cabinet to put the tank unless you locate it outdoors and flexi pipe it in.
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The three desks, which are actually a counter with standing officers, moved very quickly and I am sure Residence Certificates and 90 Day extensions were going quite quickly.
As others have posted in another thread, there is only one desk assigned to extensions for one year based on retirement due to the lesser number of those as opposed to 90 day and Resident certificates. They also require less officer time than extensions for a year.
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Arrived at line along three walls inside waiting room at 8:10 am on Wednesday Dec 15th. Received number 227 from line controller after examining my passport at 8:30. Lite on desk #2 indicated serving number 201, remained that way without serving anyone until 8:45 at which time it moved to #201 and remained that way until first customer finished at 09:10. Allowing for 10-15 minutes for each visa extension based on retirement, there was no chance I would be served today so I left.
Passport holder behind me in line had only two days to extend and he was not given preference number. Guy who was not serviced yesterday was there again and received a new waiting line number, no carry over from the day before.
Front counter desks were very busy but second and third row desks did not have occupants until 9:00 and then when I left at 9:15 two desks in row three were not occupied.
Two months ago when I got my non-immO from tourist visa, I was number 508 at desk number 7, and finished processing by 11:00 am, however, I did have to go back two days later to pick up passport.
I allowed two weeks before my expiration to get my extension, if I was like the guy behind me I would still be camped out at immigration and he had to drive for an hour and a half to get there just behind me. He was obviously pleased with my departure.
Would sure like to hear from someone who got better service this week and that I just had a bad day???
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Lopburi3: Do hope the surgery was minor. Having returned recently from two years in OZ, I was clearly out of date and unaware of the reissue of the Police Order. I appreciate being brought up to date and having the 2008 Order available as it covers many types of extensions, many I didn't even know existed.
I think the PDF provided in one of the posts in this thread is well worth downloading for future reference. Thanks LiteBeer for that.
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I humbly provide the following passage from the PDF previously supplied in the box relating to retirees:
Order of the Royal Thai Police Headquarters
No.777/2551
(5) Annual income plus bank account deposit totaling not less
than Baht 800,000 as of the filing date of applicationn
(Underlining mine) Lopburi3, I don't see any aging requirement for the combined method.
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Here is the Thai Police Order on the subject. It wouldn't hurt to print it out and have it handy when encountering an official who doesn't know the rule.
National Police Office Order
No. 606/2006
Para 7.21
“Having annual income
combined with the saving
money in the Bank not less than
800,000 Baht from on the date
submitting the application.”
(Emphasis mine)
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As I have posted in a similar thread, while at Immigration CM last month, I heard an Officer tell an irate falang that immigration officers are assigned to different functions according to the volume of applications. Retirement extensions are the least numerous and thus only one or two officers are assigned. Keep in mind that the visa processing office has taken on 90 day reports as well as Residence Letters from the admin office across the parking lot so they are much busier than in the past.
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The longer you wait to go to immigration to change your visa from tourist to non-imm in Chiang Mai the less likely they will allow you to do so. I usually go when there is fully three weeks left on my tourist visa. Anyway, go now, worse case scenario they will refuse to do it and you will have to extend your tourist visa.
I find Chiang Mai Immigration one of the easiest and most accommodating so don't give up hope, just get moving.
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I recently upgraded by hard drive on my 4 year old laptop to 250 gigs and enjoy all the advantages of doing such at little expense when one compares it to buying a new laptop and shifting to Windows 7. I expect to eventually move to Windows 7 in five years or so and that will be the time to upgrade my computer and get the free Windows 7 and the latest huge memory hard drive as well.
I don't see a problem with anyone doing likewise well into the foreseeable future as there will be many after market hard drives available to install for at least five years. Nervous, do it now.
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A retirement (long stay) visa is only issued in your home country. For that a police report and medical is required from that country.
In Thailand no such visa can be issued. You obtain a one year extension of stay from Immigration here. For that only a non immigrant visa entry and financial proof is required (along with 1,900 baht fee and normal photo copies of passport/arrival card/entry/visa is required. If you do not have a non immigrant entry that can also be obtained from Immigration at additional cost of 2,000 baht if more than a week or so remaining on permitted to stay stamp. If not you obtain a single entry non immigrant visa from a Consulate and return using that for a 90 day stay and extend for retirement during the last 30 days.
lopburi3 is spot on, as he usually is, and he has been an invaluable source for advice to me in the past on exactly this issue. You do not mention what type of visa or permit you presently have to stay in Thailand.
In any case, first step is to obtain a 90 day non-immigrant visa from most Thai Immigration Offices. You will need all the documentation required to obtain a long stay extension based on retirement but the effort is not wasted as you can use the same documentation 60 days or a few more later when you extend that 90 day non-imm visa to a one year extension.
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In order for a wife to "inherit" your SSA benefit upon your death, she must have lived in the US for at least five years prior to your death. I am not sure if you must cohabitate during those five years of US residency but the details can be found by reading the SSA website which covers the issue. Also of interest to you is determining if once she has lived in the US for the required five years, if she can then leave and remain away for years prior to your death or not and still qualify.
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Speaking of water pumps in general, yes it is possible to get a pump too powerful for you needs and while the pipes might not explode, the pump will soon literally pop a gasket, it has happened to me.
I am clueless, if there is a special pump that can be installed at the entry point into your condo of your water supply, but I would be surprised if there was not.
The water pressure in most moo bans is poor requiring installation of a water pump, "booster" if you prefer. It is a pump that takes the available water supply, usually from a storage tank, and raises the pressure to the level desired.
I would really like to know if in fact there is such a thing as literally "a water booster" that takes low water pressure from condo supply pipe and increases the pressure without a tank to ensure a constant level of water, regardless of pressure.
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Most government hospitals treat HIV patients with anti-virals under the 30 Baht plan and have doctors who specialize in that treatment. Im rural areas, it may require travel a distance to get to a hospital who does treat.
Unfortunately, many Thais, especially in rural areas, hide from the stigma attached to HIV and do not seek treatment.
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It is accurate to separate comments into two categories, Thai sellers and Farang Sellers. Thai sellers rarely lower their prices even for virtually abandoned houses in crap shape. Falang act like Westerners in most cases and realize that crap houses don't sell to anyone, so fix up and sell to falang or Thai, Thais don't fix up to sell in most cases.
The only houses in our moo ban that have sold in ten years have been Falang sellers who fixed up and then sold to Falang or Thais.
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OK, a little historical perspective is needed to clear up some confusion, mostly mine as I have great difficulty with the names of the Thai physicians at Ram.
Going back five years or more, the only dermatologist at RAM, as far as I know, was Sathorn Chiewpanich, who split his time between the old Ram II and Ram I, now the only RAM.
I believe his is on duty Tuesday and Wednesday only at Ram now, although I haven't seen him as I haven't been in on those days.
About 4 years ago, a new young lady dermatologist joined him at Ram and worked, it seemed three days a week and he two. I was impressed with her and saw her once about two months ago and she was mighty pregnant. She is presently on pregnancy leave and nurses report she is due back in a month.
It was only while she was away, that the new lady dermatologist showed up and I have seen her twice. Once for multiple nitrogen freezes which she did competently, and once for the referral to the plastic guy, Dr. Anan who seems to be part of her team. Only two months ago, as for years previously, surgical lesion removals were referred to Dr. Ekachai Paiboonworschat who is an excellent general surgeon. He operates out of the general surgery service while Dr. Anan the plastic man is operating out of the specialty clinic.
Who knows if Dr. Anan is referred to as a matter of convenience or if the specialty clinic has a separate accounting or profitability system encouraging internal referrals.
The bottom line is, I got a definite negative impression of the new lady Dermatologist and her quickie referral to Dr. Anan the last time.
Since she earns her consultation fee for just looking at your lesion before referral, I can see that the safe approach for her is to not have to make a decision or diagnosis prior to referral. I have no idea what she wrote in my chart.
I am do back to have my stitches removed today by Dr. Anan and I will see if I can find out what the lady dermatologist noted regarding her impression of my unusual lesion and see if Anan concurs in that evaluation. I will report further.
If Dr. Siri is ever at Ram, I would appreciate knowing that.
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Generalizations are dangerous, especially when discussing legal issues. Clearly, key executives with intimate knowledge of a business can be contractually limited in joining a direct competitor and taking his knowledge of his former employer to its competitor for a reasonable amount of time.
On the other hand, an employee who has no knowledge of company operations, products or other information that would benefit a competitor and harm his former employer would probably not be restrained by a court. Keep in mind, by the time one got the matter to court, especially in Thailand, the immediate harm would have occurred and you would mostly be responding to a claim for damages. Very difficult to prove the knowledge transferred actually harmed old employers business.
A restraining order might be attempted, but once again time would be against the former employer. Contractual "confidentiality" clauses are quite common, especially in Australia, where the employee is restrained from sharing knowledge learned from from former employer.
Clearly, restricting a departing employee from working for a direct competitor in a similar job is not restricting one from making a living or from working in any job or for any company other than a direct competitor and in a similar job one left.
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I have an east facing wall in my driveway area that I first used a yellow climbing plant so prevalent in Thailand and it was fine but grew too fast, required too much water and was just to abundant for my taste.
I then spotted a low wall adjoining the Lanna Gold Course which had what I would call "grape ivy", that climbing plant so prevalent in England and covering whole buildings. This plant clings to the wall when left alone and seems to be able to creep for many meters.
While I installed a drip system but it failed when I was away for two years and the grape ivy did better without me. When I returned, without added water, it covered the entire wall and some of my house and the adjoining common wall as well.
I have to give it a "hair cut" every few months to keep it tight to the wall and discourage tendrils that grow out away from the wall.
Once this plant is established, it is very hardy and requires no care other than pruning, which just means clipping it to within a few centimeters of the wall.
It is not a particularly difficult plant to find and quite inexpensive to buy. I bought mine at the nursery area behind Tesco in Chiang Mai on the Super Highway.
I would go to the trouble of providing a photo and posting it except I doubt there are many human beings in the western world who have not seen this great climbing wall huger on a building somewhere. The only thing that surprised me was its lack of need for watering in Thailand and the fact that it gets sun for three quarters of the day and still thrives. For some reason I thought of it as a cold weather, low sun climber.
I get nothing but compliments for how attractive my driveway wall looks without having to paint it every two years.
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That's a tough post to follow, but I'm looking for someone who could do a simple mole removal near the ear that my US doctor has inspected annually and pronounced an uncomplicated shave job. Because it's on the face, though, he wanted to refer me to a dermatologist and I just didn't have time to wait for an appointment as I was heading home to CM. This is a good time on my calendar to have it done. Is it likely that I could see any of the physicians recommended above (or others) on a walk-in or same-day basis?
Monday, this week I saw the lady dermatologist at RAM with no appointment and she immediately referred me to the Plastic Surgeon who removed the lesion within the hour. The plastic surgeons name was Anan.
I would suggest you call the specialty clinic desk, your routed to it by main switchboard, and ask what dates Dr. Anan is present and his clinic hours. Then pop in to confirm with dermatologist your removal idea and I am sure she will refer you to Dr. Anan who doesn't seem too busy. He usually can do it immediately.
You can bypass the dermatologist visit and save 300 baht if you wish. They have an array of lasers available there.
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The male doctor at Ram, who is there on Tuesday and Wednesday only is as good as the female and older. He has removed lesions from me but seems to be referring me to Dr. Ekachai the general surgeon for the last two of my basil cells. I am do in there on Monday to see a doctor who is referred to as a plastic surgeon although on questioning, I was told she came out of dermatology. Since half my needs are removal of a sun spot, I will check her out.
In the UK it is quite common to be referred to a plastic surgeon for this sort of thing. Often the confer with a dermatologist and decide upon a biopsy or not. If the biopsy shows malignancy then immediate wide incision is recommended and this is where you need plastics. Because the incision is wide, about a cm either side of the melanoma it is best to graft rather than stitch. This was hit home to me when a friend was diagnosed with malignant melanoma here after a biopsy and the wide incision done by a general surgeon at the supposedly best hospital in CM. The wound was stiched and it popped open on the plane back to the UK, so he was left with a hole in his back that had to be packed daily.
The lady doctor, who was reportedly a plastic surgeon, was not, she was a dermatologist who referred me to Dr. Anan, the plastic surgeon who was present at the clinic when I was there and performed a biopsy immediately. He is quite young and took a very small amount of tissue for the biopsy, as the condition seems to be limited to the skin's surface. My guess, the biopsy was precautionary do to my history of skin cancers. The condition looks like a large red surface of skin that has not returned to the white skin which is normal. It is not painful but is not as strong as normal skin. Perhaps, a layer or two below normal skin surface. Present for about a year and resulted from an old lesion not healing properly. Biopsy result next Monday.
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The male doctor at Ram, who is there on Tuesday and Wednesday only is as good as the female and older. He has removed lesions from me but seems to be referring me to Dr. Ekachai the general surgeon for the last two of my basil cells. I am do in there on Monday to see a doctor who is referred to as a plastic surgeon although on questioning, I was told she came out of dermatology. Since half my needs are removal of a sun spot, I will check her out.
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Shilo:
You sure did your homework and you have got it absolutely right. Better you learn to fish that have fish given to you is my motto. You called it a theme, I call it a story. After all, it is a sales job and the more flowers you can add to the bouquet the better. Even handing the interviewer a document entitled "Compelling Reasons to Return" is not too heavy handed as that is what the Department of State calls it. Reading their websites can also be helpful. A simple list of the compelling reasons to return rather than a lot of verbiage will be appreciated by the interviewer.
Returning to her children seems to me to be the most compelling reason and if you two could establish a live at home situation with the children until your ready to leave, it would certainly be more compelling that having others take care of her children.
You certainly want to emphasize that you are in a lifetime financially interdependent relationship of some duration and include photos of events spent together if possible. You can be paying all of the trip expense and should say so, then her financial condition is not in issue. You might attach some financial documents of yours to show you can afford the trip.
Your long stay commitment to Thailand as your home is vital and the fact that you are taking a home visit together to meet family and vacation is also important. Reservations with return booked, but not paid for, with itinerary provided by travel agent is good. Yes, Mom should be mentioned to take care of the children while you are gone.
Joint itinerary and bookings in the States make sense and an itinerary of your time in the US is good.
It will help if you coach your g/f with answers to anticipated questions for the interview in case she is actually questioned.
In my prep I coached one answer to a question "How do I know you won't overstay your visa" with "Why should I overstay my visa and have to work as a waitress in a Thai restaurant when I can return and live so nicely with my b/f" Of course that answer was for one without children.
I liked many things you wrote in your OP which were very convincing, such as "I couldn't live long stay in the US as I love Issan food too much" Real feelings and answers like that are what impress those who have heard every story ever told about getting a visa.
Be real, be honest and dress respectively and you will get your visa. For some reason I remember you have to travel within 90 days of getting your visa, but I may be wrong. Check the Dept of State web site that has such answers. Fortunately, it is much easier nowadays than previously, so my guess is that if you tell your story honestly and convincingly you will get your visa. Good luck.
Tourist To Non-Immo To Retirement Extension
in Chiang Mai
Posted
Maybe,yes, your conclusion is correct, however to use accurate terminology and put the sequence of events in chronological order, the following occurred:
I stayed in Australia past the expiry of my last one year extension of my former non-immO visa and Re-Entry permit and so with advice from Lopburi3, I obtained a tourist visa so I could return to Thailand and stay for three months without pressure. Arriving without a visa is possible for a 30 day stay from which you can change to a non-immO immediately, however, Qantas and many other airlines will not board you without a exit from Thailand ticket, if you are relying on a 30 day permission to stay on arrival stamp to gain entry into Thailand.
When the check in agent in Sydney first looked at my passport, her first question was where is your ticket taking you out of Thailand? Evidently many Australians coming to Thailand for a holiday rely on the 30 day upon arrival stamp and have a round trip ticket. Was I happy to show her where in my passport she could find my Tourist Visa.
About a month after arriving, I went to Chiang Mai Immigration and applied for a non-immO visa based on retirement and was required to produce all the same documents that one must produce for a one year extension of a non-immO visa based upon retirement.
It was then that I did not request nor was I given back the original of my Pension Letter from the CM Consulate and when I went to get my one year extension of my non-immO based on retirement this week, I was told I must have an original pension letter. The fact that Immigration had the original in their files from two months ago fell on deaf ears. I must again go to the expense and hassle of getting another Original Pension Letter to obtain an extension of the non-immO visa obtained about a month after I arrived on my tourist visa.
In the defense of CM Immigration, they are so busy and their filing system may be remote from the office we go to to get our visas and extensions, that it might not be feasible for them to retrieve documents months hence without a major effort.
Fortunately, I have enough time left on my non-immO visa first obtained to get to the Consulate for another pension letter and then the following day to CM Immigration to get my one year extension. My conclusion is that depending on the officer, you might be able to get your original pension letter back when going through this process, as my dim memory refreshed recalls that when I went through this process four years ago I know I didn't have to go get another original pension letter. Clearly, the best advice is to plan your foreign travels so you don't allow your extensions and re-entry permits to expire!