Do you feel like an immigrant or an expatriate ?

[quake]

Cash Cow.  20 years service as an inmate. so far. LOL.

 

 

Edited December 17, 2020 by quake

[polpott]

1 hour ago, KhunKenAP said:

In Thailand and when going to the Thai Immigration office, you feel guilty until proven innocent.

Did my annual extension yesterday. I handed my paperwork over to a nice lady who had one question for my wife. I spotted that she spoke Issan so made a joke in Issan. We all laughed and she gave me a ticket for my wife to collect my passport today. Happy days, same as every year.

[EvetsKram]

I live here & would love permanent residency but Thai gov make it too restrictive. I do my extension annually & 90 day reports but I don't like doing it.  Change to system would make so many happy & put even more circulating cash into local economies 

[Traubert]

18 minutes ago, polpott said:

Did my annual extension yesterday. I handed my paperwork over to a nice lady who had one question for my wife. I spotted that she spoke Issan so made a joke in Issan. We all laughed and she gave me a ticket for my wife to collect my passport today. Happy days, same as every year.

What was the joke?

[Traubert]

7 minutes ago, EvetsKram said:

I live here & would love permanent residency but Thai gov make it too restrictive. I do my extension annually & 90 day reports but I don't like doing it.  Change to system would make so many happy & put even more circulating cash into local economies 

How?

[Dagfinnur Traustason]

1 hour ago, Liverpoolfan said:

I'm past caring now what the locals think of me.

 

I keep myself to myself and will keep it that way.

 

I ignore just about everybody these days, locals and expats alike. 

You seem like such a joyful and social guy. Making the choice to live in a country where you ignore the citizens as well as the rest of the foreigners. Tell me, how does that work out for you? Feeling lonely?

[polpott]

13 minutes ago, Traubert said:

What was the joke?

I told her that I didn't speak English or Thai, only Issan.

[WineOh]

3 minutes ago, Dagfinnur Traustason said:

You seem like such a joyful and social guy. Making the choice to live in a country where you ignore the citizens as well as the rest of the foreigners. Tell me, how does that work out for you? Feeling lonely?

I'll take loneliness over having to listen to the locals bang on about their dead cat or their grand daughters graduation ceremony. 

or the sexpat who walks into the bar in his vomit stained vest banging on about conspiracy theories and how some hooker robbed him last night.

or worst of all, the ugly sod who just arrived and thinks he has found the love of his life last night on soi buakhao and is already thinking about marriage and taking her back to wolverhampton.

Honestly, I'd just rather not...

 

 

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, ICELANDMAN said:

Do you feel like an immigrant or an expatriate? 

Don't think about really I just remember to tick the Non 'O' box.

 

On immigration forms I'm refer to as an alien. 

 

I have a comfortable life here,  what I'm refer to by others is of no interest to me. 

 

 

[fishtank]

12 minutes ago, Liverpoolfan said:

I'll take loneliness over having to listen to the locals bang on about their dead cat or their grand daughters graduation ceremony. 

or the sexpat who walks into the bar in his vomit stained vest banging on about conspiracy theories and how some hooker robbed him last night.

or worst of all, the ugly sod who just arrived and thinks he has found the love of his life last night on soi buakhao and is already thinking about marriage and taking her back to wolverhampton.

Honestly, I'd just rather not...

 

 

Probably the most sensible man in this topic.

Apart from the Liverpool bit.

 

I see myself as an Irritant rather than an Immigrant.

You would think that after 16 years of being married and living here on grudgingly handed out extensions of stay that things would be a bit different but....

Edited December 17, 2020 by fishtank

[ICELANDMAN]

3 hours ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

Hehe, you’re never an immigrant. You’re always on “extensions of stay”, for which you must beg and grovel, with more and more ridiculous paperwork each time. They even go so far as to call it a NON-immigrant visa, just in case you forgot.

 

You are right that on the visa we receive it is NOT IMMIGRANT but it seems to me that there is no immigrant visa in Thailand, however this indicates very clearly that Thailand does not consider us as immigrants but only as expats and here is all the difference for which we are all subject to changes in the laws that affect us without a security in the future that make Visa laws worse.

 

[Jingthing]

13 minutes ago, ICELANDMAN said:

 

You are right that on the visa we receive it is NOT IMMIGRANT but it seems to me that there is no immigrant visa in Thailand, however this indicates very clearly that Thailand does not consider us as immigrants but only as expats and here is all the difference for which we are all subject to changes in the laws that affect us without a security in the future that make Visa laws worse.

 

Well yes and no.

There are some difficult paths to permanent residence and even citizenship for certain classes of foreigners.

But for people that moved to Thailand based on retirement status as I did there is no path at all.

None.

Nada.

Zilch.

Bupkis.

Edited December 17, 2020 by Jingthing

[ICELANDMAN]

I note that the expatriate ranking is divided into different rankings; as a tourist, extended holiday, guilty until proven innocent, myself to myself, alien, realist, guest, long stay tourist, Procrustean, no labels, long term visitor, no immigrant, and more ....

 

Immigrants are in the minority and I assume they have integrated well.

 

Conclusion expatriates are in the majority and therefore it is a signal that the Thai government should take this situation into account if we expats want to leave or if we are forced to leave due to the new laws regarding Visa NON IMMIGRATION such as the new rules of recent years more and more difficult for many of us to respect, many capitals that every month flow into the coffers of the state of Thailand could quickly run out.

 

Thank you all for kindly participating

 

[from the home of CC]

for the general Thai population you being here or not or what you call yourself has little to do with anything, and the majority wouldn't care if your here or gone- especially the wonderful whiners who believe their paltry countries pension being spent here somehow helps Thailand lol..

Edited December 17, 2020 by from the home of CC

[JWRC]

3 hours ago, fishtank said:

Honestly, I'd just rather not...

 

me neither, one is never lonely if they can abide their own company.

[Traubert]

3 hours ago, polpott said:

I told her that I didn't speak English or Thai, only Issan.

Ooooohh, me sides.

[ChakaKhan]

22 hours ago, Lacessit said:

I've seen guys that are as ugly as a hatful of bums, with absolute stunners attached to them.

As I stated in another post..Money buys goods n services.....or these bums are a pebble in a pile of rice in LOS

 

I dont pay to play nor does my ATM dispense for anyone but myself, as i find I need to remind others of daily..

[foreverlomsak]

On 12/17/2020 at 10:04 AM, ICELANDMAN said:

Do you feel like an immigrant or an expatriate?

Neither really as it depends on the company, some accept you with no reservations, eg as an immigrant, others shun you with comments about "farang", eg an expatriate whose tolerated, but not very well. I've lived in the same house for 15 years and I still get stared at in the street like I'm a UFO, Unidentified Farang Object.

[OneMoreFarang]

On 12/17/2020 at 10:04 AM, ICELANDMAN said:

for immigrants they are those who want to integrate completely and stay forever in Thailand.

When I arrived in Thailand my idea was to be an immigrant. And I am still living in Thailand.

But I gave up the idea about full integration a long time ago. I think we will always be farang, even after 50 years in Thailand.

But that's not always bad. Because there are different rules for farangs and one of those rules is that we can ignore many of the Thais hacking order rules. Thais can't avoid being somewhere in that hacking order. I am happy I am not.

[Fat is a type of crazy]

18 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

When I arrived in Thailand my idea was to be an immigrant. And I am still living in Thailand.

But I gave up the idea about full integration a long time ago. I think we will always be farang, even after 50 years in Thailand.

But that's not always bad. Because there are different rules for farangs and one of those rules is that we can ignore many of the Thais hacking order rules. Thais can't avoid being somewhere in that hacking order. I am happy I am not.

Do you mean pecking order

[OneMoreFarang]

4 minutes ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

23 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

When I arrived in Thailand my idea was to be an immigrant. And I am still living in Thailand.

But I gave up the idea about full integration a long time ago. I think we will always be farang, even after 50 years in Thailand.

But that's not always bad. Because there are different rules for farangs and one of those rules is that we can ignore many of the Thais hacking order rules. Thais can't avoid being somewhere in that hacking order. I am happy I am not.

Do you mean pecking order

Yes, thanks

I don't use that term very often...

[ICELANDMAN]

3 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

When I arrived in Thailand my idea was to be an immigrant. And I am still living in Thailand.

But I gave up the idea about full integration a long time ago. I think we will always be farang, even after 50 years in Thailand.

But that's not always bad. Because there are different rules for farangs and one of those rules is that we can ignore many of the Thais hacking order rules. Thais can't avoid being somewhere in that hacking order. I am happy I am not.

 

Interesting observation in fact the hierarchical order is very developed throughout Asia and in Japan for example a country for many years a country considered to have developed, the hierarchical order and very impressive to observe that it starts from the family cell up to the highest levels and well-being economic has changed nothing in this hierarchical society.

And undoubtedly their commercial and military strength too, if we add to this the deeply rooted nationalism in Asia, we have a complete picture of the Asian situation.

 

All those who live with Thai or Asian women are well aware of this hierarchy in the family and that often leads, indeed for the majority, to conflicts of interest with our Western vision of the family, and it is not always easy for us to accept or making compromises or taking a position of rejection which we know well will lead us to a dead end: divorce.

 

Yes, you are absolutely right, we would always rhyme Farangs because in their eyes their nationalism is too strong and they know that we would never bend our backs like their habit because we have a long history within us that is very different from theirs, but I remain convinced that their definition of Farang is also a rejection with admiration disguised as envy of our economic success.

 

So being called Farang from this point of view is not negative at all, my partner is often called me Farang and after a certain perplexity between misunderstanding and distrust or decided that I am proud of being called Farang.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

5 hours ago, ICELANDMAN said:

 

Interesting observation in fact the hierarchical order is very developed throughout Asia and in Japan for example a country for many years a country considered to have developed, the hierarchical order and very impressive to observe that it starts from the family cell up to the highest levels and well-being economic has changed nothing in this hierarchical society.

And undoubtedly their commercial and military strength too, if we add to this the deeply rooted nationalism in Asia, we have a complete picture of the Asian situation.

 

All those who live with Thai or Asian women are well aware of this hierarchy in the family and that often leads, indeed for the majority, to conflicts of interest with our Western vision of the family, and it is not always easy for us to accept or making compromises or taking a position of rejection which we know well will lead us to a dead end: divorce.

 

Yes, you are absolutely right, we would always rhyme Farangs because in their eyes their nationalism is too strong and they know that we would never bend our backs like their habit because we have a long history within us that is very different from theirs, but I remain convinced that their definition of Farang is also a rejection with admiration disguised as envy of our economic success.

 

So being called Farang from this point of view is not negative at all, my partner is often called me Farang and after a certain perplexity between misunderstanding and distrust or decided that I am proud of being called Farang.

Thanks for your comment.

 

I think we should not look at who is better.

We are different. And we will always be different no matter how long we are in Thailand.

This has some advantages and some disadvantages - it's different.

[NanLaew]

On 12/17/2020 at 11:18 AM, Lacessit said:

I've seen guys that are as ugly as a hatful of bums, with absolute stunners attached to them.

 

Thanks for the mention.

[NanLaew]

On 12/17/2020 at 12:23 PM, Liverpoolfan said:

the ugly sod who just arrived and thinks he has found the love of his life last night on soi buakhao and is already thinking about marriage and taking her back to wolverhampton.

 

You weren't even listening were you? I said it's Walsall, not Wolverhampton.

[Nout]

We are Clearly not immigrants as well as not working we have no equal opportunities to work, get welfare, vote, hold public office etc.

[EVENKEEL]

On 12/16/2020 at 9:13 PM, Dagfinnur Traustason said:

You seem like such a joyful and social guy. Making the choice to live in a country where you ignore the citizens as well as the rest of the foreigners. Tell me, how does that work out for you? Feeling lonely?

Speaking for myself only I love it. I go to the beach daily which relieves any stress I might have, take care of my baby girl, ride the big bike, eat well, have lots of little projects around the house, go to the local pub maybe twice a week to find out the local gossip and keep to myself.

[Leaver]

We are all just tourists on 1 year visas.  

 

Expats have no more rights here than a first time to Thailand tourists on a 30 visa exemption stamp.

 

You can have a Thai wife and children, a business, a car, a house, a farm, a motorbike and a tattoo of Buddha, but that little sticker in your passport can be revoked at any time, or the requirements changed so you can not / do not meet them, then you are out.

 

Always have  Plan B.

 

 

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Leaver

[NoshowJones]

On 12/17/2020 at 10:30 AM, Pravda said:

A guest. A tourist.

 

And even though I am married to Thai woman I am thankful that my visa is extended and have the luxury of choice in life although I am not wealthy.

Definitely not a guest, more like a criminal, I can never understand anyone who thinks he is a guest here in Thailand for very

obvious reasons.

[starky]

On 12/17/2020 at 12:58 PM, EvetsKram said:

I live here & would love permanent residency but Thai gov make it too restrictive. I do my extension annually & 90 day reports but I don't like doing it.  Change to system would make so many happy & put even more circulating cash into local economies 

Without knowing how far you are out of town. Is it that difficult for you to pop into an immigration office once every 3 months?