GinBoy2

Well, couple of thoughts. Firstly I'm American, so it doesn't affect me, but it's kinda made me feel somewhat more kindly towards USCIS! But on a serious note I'm assuming this shuts down any hope of most UK retirees in Thailand ever taking a family back to the UK, should circumstances ever make them need to repatriate?

You are a little enigmatic 're history' I'm American so have no clue about the UK visa system, but you also don't say what visa she is applying for! But all I would say is make sure you understand the issues regarding 'history' and that they have never been glossed over in a previous application. That is the kiss of death for any farangland visa application

Sorry, simple answer to the question is No

I've had dengue twice, both times extremely unpleasant thought my head was gonna explode. Both times started off feeling like a cold for a few days, them BAM woke up feeling like a helicopter had landed on my head. Not sure how the transition to hemorrhagic dengue works, but it's odd that this poor fella transitioned so fast in a taxi to the airport. For most dengue you just retire to a very dark room, tons of ibuprofen and tough it out

Yeah I was. This is an ongoing issue with all the virtual addresses. Financial institutions have over the past few years become increasingly good at detecting CMRA addresses, regardless of whether they 'look' like a regular street address, and look at the multitude of threads that have been on here regarding banks, brokerages dropping folks due to a lack of a physical US address. It's the same with VOIP phone numbers, they look real but many banks will detect them and they won't work for 2 factor authentication. So my recommendation for Americas Mailbox was that it works great for screening and forwarding mail, does enable you to become a resident of a tax free State fairly easily. But they like ALL the CMRA forwarding services run into the issues I highlighted above

We used to exchange gifts years ago, but now it's just gifts for the kids and grandkids, nothing either of us need or want

Since I'd mentioned WKRP in Cincinnati I couldn't help but post one of my favorite scenes.

I used americasmailbox.com in South Dakota which served me well, scanned my mail and shredded mail as requested. As a previous poster stated SD allows you to get residency and a DL, one night in 5 years in a hotel and you are in a tax free State. But on the downside, none of these services will get you around the increasing stranglehold of the financial institutions being able to detect virtual addresses. In these troubled times they are really clamping down on any possibility of money laundering, or worst still moving terrorist money around

Jeez, you guys amaze me. I never said the technology is available right now. What I said, and parse this however you want to spin it, is that EV's aren't the long term solution

Well thats the trick isn't is. Green hydrogen, produced from green electricity. The compression technologies already exist, and we transport LPG across the globe already so we have the transportation technology

I've never honestly thought EV's are the future, I'm more hopeful for H2 fuel cells. Location is one problem, in geographies where distance is a issue, thats one problem. Charging time is another. You can fill your gas tank to full in a couple of minutes, try charging an EV, even with a fast charger in that time, just plug it in and go and get some lunch! We have a Ranger truck in Thailand, which I have no intention of replacing, and even if I did what percentage of electricity is produced from carbon in Thailand, probably I'd just be lining the pockets of the lithium mining companies. In the US we just bought a new car, and I looked at a Tesla, but.... We live in South Dakota and the distances are huge. A six hour drive to see the kids in Denver, and there is one charging station in the wilderness of Wyoming. Thats's down, and you might as well book a hotel in 'Hicksville' for the winter, since I don't think AAA will be bringing out the electric equivalent of a gallon of gas to get you out of trouble!

I remember them all. F Troop Gilligans Island Bewitched (Loved Elizabeth Montgomery) Lost in Space (a Favorite) Original ST Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Hogans Hero's And a jump into the 80's for a comedy which is still one of my all time belly laugh shows; WKRP in Cincinnati

Actually the Thai insurance system works exactly like a insurance system should work. Risk be it health, home or auto insurance is based an actuary tables and in the case of health, surprise surprise your risk increases exponentially 65+ Health insurance in the West, even in the US with medicare isn't a real insurance system, it's a subsidized system as a safety net for older folks. A more realistic comparison would be travel insurance. Try getting travel insurance for anyone 70+. 'If' you can get someone to underwrite it, the policy will be astronomically expensive.

I've met folks from many nationalities and generally we're all in pretty much just decent folk living life, and curiously all look similar in our lifestyles. The stereotypes however tend to derive from meeting folks in dive bars or equally seedy locations whose clients don't tend to reflect the population of an entire country!

Family gatherings wherever you are can be torturous affairs. A group of folks half of whom hate each others guts, hold it together until the alcohol kicks in, then we're off to the races! In Thailand, add in the dynamic of the farang who doesn't even speak the language and it's one unholy mess. Although having said that, I speak Thai and Lao and to be honest there have been times I wish I couldn't understand what was going on!

i always kept a home in the US, it was my ultimate bolt hole, since none of us know what the future holds. I willingly paid an agent to manage it, 10% of the rent, but they found the tenants, took care of any maintenance, all I did was collect the rental check every month. When we moved back to the US we sold our rentals in Bangkok, and bought here. Couple of reasons. Firstly there really isn't the same sort of total management company in Thailand, and obviously trying to deal with from thousands of miles away, even using family just wasn't going to work Secondly, while they gave us sold rental income, there was no capital appreciation, even in central Thong Lor, too much new construction. So we sold up, and bought rentals in the US. Yes, now I still an agent to take care of them, even though we live in the same town, but I'm lazy and can't be dealing with tenants nit pickings. Also I have to pay property tax, but all in all they provide the same solid income as the BKK rentals, and already are proving a great capital gain The other advantage of keeping a house at home is I'd rented it out furnished, so co-ordinated our return with the end of the tenants lease, so we got off the plane and had a house to live in, and a bed to sleep in that same day

Well I was hoping this wouldn't devolve into a bargirl discussion but I guess that was for a section of this group inevitable. My wife's family were poor. Not uncommon. but Dad was a chronic gambler, lost the family home and pretty much everything they owned so embarked on moving around the country, job to job dragging his family with him before he died of a heart attack. Mom followed a few months later in a motorbike accident, again not uncommon, but it left 5 young kids parentless. My wife's eldest sister ended up dying from AIDS, courtesy of her philandering hubby, and before retroviral's became available. Her brother, is less than 100% and I'm pretty sure in the west he'd be on anti psychotics. She paid for a house for him, just to make sure he wasn't homeless on the streets. Her twin sisters, another tale of woe. One tried to upgrade through marriage, after three failed attempts, she gave up and is now a hairdresser. The other twin sister made her way into the 'entertainment' business, and there there is not a day my wife doesn't worry about her. I don't think many in West can really appreciate how tough life can be for a lot of Thai's

My wife is a bit of an oddity. Her parents both died young, and her and four other siblings were farmed out to relatives. My wife got lucky and went to live with her aunt and uncle in Chicago, where she grew up and went to college. So she ended up with good jobs as an engineer, but the other four not so lucky. So she's always considered it's her responsibility as the eldest to help her brother and sisters who didn't have the opportunities she had. That's not so common in Western culture

When my wife went to work on the local AFB, she attended an orientation session, and the question was asked 'why do you want to work here' She answered to 'send money to help family' I already got that, and to this day she still sends money back to Thailand every month,. But I wonder how many farang husbands don't get that this is a big thing in their culture

Special place in Hell for Uncle Ben!

Well. we'll be having a little virtual Christmas. I'll be working at he airport until 2pm. Then plan a little virtual get get together with the American and Thai kids, grandkids in California and Colorado, Then me and MrsG will be packing up for our trip to Iceland, Sweden and onwards to our home in Thailand for the winter

Maybe just take a different approach. For US immigration it's a much lower financial requirement. At the same time the immigrant spouse just can't claim any federal benefits, no if's or but's. So wouldn't it be better to just stick with that 18k pounds for foreign spouses and just say regardless you can't claim any benefits from the State?

Well this thread has been fun. It reminds me of a US Thanksgiving dinner The family all assemble, half of them hating each others guts. Hold it together long enough until the alcohol kicks in. Thens it's world war 3 over the dining room table

I'm an American so have no skin in your domestic UK drama. But, when me and my Thai wife wife decided that a move to the US was appropriate for us it went pretty smoothly Obviously neither of us has US employment, but I could use assets, which to use the official phrase where 'liquidable' to make the threshold of 2x poverty level around $20K as I recall. I'd say while the US has a real immigration problem, we kinda manage family immigration somewhat better, and forget Trump, we deal with it rather well. So I feel for you guys, this is a scary time, where if you are considering taking your family back to the UK, it 'why didn't I do it sooner' I'm sure is in your head right now

Well I'm American, so doesn't affect me, but while cruising the BBC I came across this, and it seem that the income requirements does apply to British nationals trying to bring in foreign spouses. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-67630258