When Will You Call Thailand Your Home?

[SteeleJoe]

it's like watching an ant and moth fighting you don't really care who wins you just hope neither live too long.........help close this off TV it is nauseating at best and vomit producing in the least.

do to, did not, did to, did not, did to, did not, did to, did not, did to, did not, did to, did not, oh for five cents.

Ha! Well said.

I liked it better when a certain poster was telling us how we couldn't call Thailand home unless we were deluded and irrational.

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa ap

[barky]

To expand a bit more. I do 90 address reports here and will continue to do 90 day address reports as long as I live here, no matter how many years. Or decades. That kind of place can't really be your home in reality. You can decide to delude yourself that it is if it makes you happier.

Exactly Jingthing.

Many of the expat community here are totally deluded.

The fact is, until you're not living from one 12 moth visa to another, and you don't need to submit 90 day reports, own & operate your own business 100% and employ who you want, buy land, vote (if you really want to), be able to apply for and hold any job you are qualified for, come and go as you please, not be over-charged, don't need a work visa, get a lifetime DL, hold a Thai passport (as well as your bith country's passport) etc, etc...you can never really call this or any place HOME.

[barky]

The 90 day thing shows just your status as a (permanent) tourist. Tourists leave after 90 days max, they allow you to report in country - courtesy of TH government.

I travel a lot, so it does not bother me much. But basically you are a tourist, even with family here.

Exactly !! And, there's the rub!!!

[JLCrab]

'Home' is a UPS store mailbox in the USA. ... but I love living in Thailand

-- The original 'I (heart) xyz' campaign as designed by Milton Glaser.

My favorite reply when a Thai asks -- Do you have a wife or a girlfriend? I just say BOTH and that usually ends the conversation right there one way or another.

Edited February 2, 2013 by JLCrab

[chiangmaikelly]

To expand a bit more. I do 90 address reports here and will continue to do 90 day address reports as long as I live here, no matter how many years. Or decades. That kind of place can't really be your home in reality. You can decide to delude yourself that it is if it makes you happier.

Exactly Jingthing.

Many of the expat community here are totally deluded.

The fact is, until you're not living from one 12 moth visa to another, and you don't need to submit 90 day reports, own & operate your own business 100% and employ who you want, buy land, vote (if you really want to), be able to apply for and hold any job you are qualified for, come and go as you please, not be over-charged, don't need a work visa, get a lifetime DL, hold a Thai passport (as well as your bith country's passport) etc, etc...you can never really call this or any place HOME.

The fact is life is a trade off. Beautiful/handsome vs fidelity. Big roomy sedan or small maneuverable sports car. Comfortable chick magnet Harley or fast well built Honda.

The fact is, you're not living from one 12 moth visa to another. It is an hour or less at immigration once a year.

Every day I interact with people whom I like and or love, sometimes both. Every day not once a year for an hour. So I trade off 365 days of happiness for one hour of talking to a bureaucrat. Be honest is that a good trade?

You don't need to submit 90 day reports in person; a secretary can do that. I can see a doctor 7 days a week 6 AM till 10 PM with no appointment, own & operate my own business 100% and employ who i want; (Treaty of Amity). I can do my banking on a Sunday or at night.

Some posters in this thread have tried to make it black and white. So you send your secretary to immigration once every three months to report, that is apparently a big deal to some posters. It it is what it is not more or less. It is not the police burning books or attaching a monitor to your ankle.

Life is a trade off. Every place has good and bad. But for another person to tell me that by sending my secretary to perform a paperwork function that takes her 10 minutes, I can't be at home in Thailand, is OCD. Some people like me may never feel at home in the USA. I have my reasons (I got drafted during the Vietnam war). Some people may feel at home in Thailand (same reason as above). But who is another poster to tell me I am delusional. Thailand has never tried to kill me, honest.

[billd766]

To expand a bit more. I do 90 address reports here and will continue to do 90 day address reports as long as I live here, no matter how many years. Or decades. That kind of place can't really be your home in reality. You can decide to delude yourself that it is if it makes you happier.

Exactly Jingthing.

Many of the expat community here are totally deluded.

The fact is, until you're not living from one 12 moth visa to another, and you don't need to submit 90 day reports, own & operate your own business 100% and employ who you want, buy land, vote (if you really want to), be able to apply for and hold any job you are qualified for, come and go as you please, not be over-charged, don't need a work visa, get a lifetime DL, hold a Thai passport (as well as your bith country's passport) etc, etc...you can never really call this or any place HOME.

Far be it from me to disagree with you but I can call thailand of any other place home if I want and I don't need to ask anyones permission oddly enough.

If this is at odds with your opinion always remember that your opinion is simply that, just as my opinion is simply mine.

I have no interest in whether you agree with me or not as what you have written is your opinion.

[marstons]

Never.

couldn't have put it better myself

[marstons]

When I am treated the same as a Thai immigrant in my own country. As for making a home, think laws prevent that 100% clear owned outright for life in sole name. Hence I keep all my assets in UK including my home and use this place as it uses me.

Will see when a few million baht's worth of health care is needed where is home.

[mania]

As for making a home, think laws prevent that 100% clear owned outright for life in sole name.

Not for everyone but Condo's are 100% outright own-able

Edited February 3, 2013 by mania

[lemoncake]

As for making a home, think laws prevent that 100% clear owned outright for life in sole name.

Not for everyone but Condo's are 100% outright own-able

when the Thai quota is filled for the building

[mania]

As for making a home, think laws prevent that 100% clear owned outright for life in sole name.

Not for everyone but Condo's are 100% outright own-able

when the Thai quota is filled for the building

Not in my experience...( Filled I mean )

But yes 52% of the condo units in a given building are reserved for Thai only ownership.

Good policy IMHO

That does not make it impossible to own 100% outright any of the rest

Not directed at you personally but,

This topic has gone waaaay O.T. & I should not contribute to answering

the complaints of those who feel they cannot call it home for this or that reason but,

Question was

"When Will You Call Thailand Your Home"

Anyone who answered they already do are then asked ad nauseum all these whacked out

questions by frustrated folks who must feel very trapped & unhappy here or actually live elsewhere

& just cannot accept others choices.

Bottom line.....Some of us are happy to call it home now....Others are upset it will never fit

their definition of home so they stay & complain But why they need to attack those that

are happy to be in a place they feel fine about calling home is beyond me.

I don't see the ones who call it home calling those who don't delusional or picking apart their choice to

not call it home.

Edited February 3, 2013 by mania

[rct99q]

I made a list.........FOR MYSELF....of pro's and con's. Always do when I move, look for another job..etc.

Pros; good weather, easy lifestyle (no pressure on your time,resources), cost of goods are affordable, healthcare (adequate but readily available and cheap), decent education system (if you look for a good school and help with some home schooling which everyone should do not just in Thailand), can buy a car/home/land/boat (with my wife, who I trust 100% so no problems) but can get my name on our tabien bahn if I wanted, permanent driver's license (renewable every 5 years same as the last country I lived in), own a business or start a business (again with my wife, who again I trust 100%), neighbors who are more friendly than my last home (ireland), banks that are friendly and are open 7 days a week (went today to do some banking no problem and the girls on the front counter had a good laugh as always when I chat with them), I feel safe and secure (my extended family and neighbors are very protective of my family and I) but then again I do not do drugs, drink excessively or hang out with undesirables (thai or farang).

Cons: The Thai government can, if it so chooses, decide to kick all the foreigners out, close off it's borders and separate itself from the rest of the world. Is it going to happen, never. Could it happen, yes. Anything could happen, will it...not likely. The Thai government can stop issuing visas, change the requirements of them, stop re-issuing them, stop extensions, make it so that it is impossible to do any business here as a foreigner, increase the fee's so high that only the super wealthy can live here. Yes the Thai Government can do all of this....will it? NO.

Bur for some people who are unwilling to or unable to play by the rules and regulations set out by the Thai government then you will never be able to call this home which is fine. Unfortunate for you, but no problem. Continue living as you are and "when" the Thai Government changes the rules you can make a quick exit. I hear Haiti is a nice place with few restrictions.

So I called Thailand my home when I moved here 4 year ago. My money, my belongings, my life....but then I am happy.

[JLCrab]

By way of reference, the only sentence in which the word 'employer' or 'employed' is mentioned in the English rendition of the 2005 version of the US/Thai Treaty of Amity is from Article I. (One) and is as follows:

The provisions of above shall be construed as extending to a national of either Party seeking to enter the territories of the other Party solely for the purpose of developing and directing the operations of an enterprise in the territories of such other Party in which his employer has invested or is actively in the process of investing a substantial amount of capital, provided that such employer is a national or company of the same nationality as the applicant and that the applicant is employed by such national or company in a responsible capacity.

​ Interpretation is up to you.

Edited February 3, 2013 by JLCrab

[MiG16]

Alright everyone, give it a rest

You can feel at home while others don't. It's different opinions, different expectations and definitions. So just because you call it home while others don't, for different reasons, doesn't mean you should batter each other into agreeing with your viewpoint.

So let it go. Those that call Thailand home, can continue to do so and enjoy it. Those that aren't content to call it home, you are also ok to continue to enjoy whatever aspects of the country that you do.

What's not going to be tolerated is the continued battering and pushing, and flaming. Stop, or I will have to make you

Have a nice Sunday.

[JLCrab]

As I said, I offer no interpretation. What is important is how the Thai Labor, Immigration, and BOI, etc. responsible parties would interpret such Treaty language.

Edited February 3, 2013 by JLCrab

[rct99q]

Holy mother of God..you are arguing about the difference of 8pm being or not being night time......and I thought the 5 minutes it took this morning to get rid of the spicy sum tam I had last night (8pm by the way - yes NIGHT) was wasting 5 minutes of my life.......

So let's take a poll lemoncake:

7:55pm - night or day

8:07pm - night or day

8:10pm - night or day

8:15pm - night or day

8:21pm - night or day

Seriously - hey honey are we going out tonight....wait, do you mean 8PM night or 8PM Mid evening or 8PM early evening or 8PM just after the period we call daytime but not quite night but yet in the middle sometime.....or do you mean the time of the day that is not night because if so the bank is open....

[MiG16]

Rct, can we move on and stay on topic?

I hope you can. And I hope no one else tries to continue other debates

[marstons]

As for making a home, think laws prevent that 100% clear owned outright for life in sole name.

Not for everyone but Condo's are 100% outright own-able

when the Thai quota is filled for the building

Not in my experience...( Filled I mean )

But yes 52% of the condo units in a given building are reserved for Thai only ownership.

Good policy IMHO

That does not make it impossible to own 100% outright any of the rest

Not directed at you personally but,

This topic has gone waaaay O.T. & I should not contribute to answering

the complaints of those who feel they cannot call it home for this or that reason but,

Question was

"When Will You Call Thailand Your Home"

Anyone who answered they already do are then asked ad nauseum all these whacked out

questions by frustrated folks who must feel very trapped & unhappy here or actually live elsewhere

& just cannot accept others choices.

Bottom line.....Some of us are happy to call it home now....Others are upset it will never fit

their definition of home so they stay & complain But why they need to attack those that

are happy to be in a place they feel fine about calling home is beyond me.

I don't see the ones who call it home calling those who don't delusional or picking apart their choice to

not call it home.

I certainly have not complained just given reasons to OP's post. Really unless the answer is now its an impossible answer. cant exactly say what day month and year can we. Its a forum, the question creates a debate and comments around the OP. thinks that's the idea. Certainly not upset or frustrated. OP is happy and calls it home I do not and never will, just answering OPs question.

[mania]

Certainly not upset or frustrated. OP is happy and calls it home I do not and never will, just answering OPs question.

Sorry I did not have you in mind when I posted what I did.

But I see your post was sub quoted in my reply.

Sorry that was not my intention & yes I agree that each is entitled to their answer.

I was complaining about those calling folks delusional for having the audacity to answer

that they now call Thailand home.

Sorry for any confusion

That "bottom line" part was just an added thought not meant to be tied to your post.

Edited February 3, 2013 by mania

[HeijoshinCool]

To me a home is not only a place you are welcome, a place you lay your head, a place you like. No, a home is a pleasant, cozy house you own, where you feel safe and secure. No one can take it from you (don't pick that apart with silly comments, you know what I mean).

Being married means you share things, 50-50. That's part of making a home. Not the bank account is in your name, the house in hers. That's a recipe for disaster. Yes, there are exceptions to that. Some of the "exceptions" from five years ago, the ones who swore they had it great, are just swearing now.

Which is why I'm always looking. Hopefully someday I'll find it. It's not here.

The bank account is in joint names, the house is in hers.

If we get divorced she gets the house.

When I was married before the bank accounts were in joint names and so was the house.

After the divorce the bank accounts were in single names and she had the house.

Whats the difference?

The difference is "there" you had a choice. The fact you failed to take advantage of it, is irrelevant.

But, I respect your right to make any decisions that make you happy. That's cool.

But a little maxim does come to mind when reading your post, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice ..."

Edited February 3, 2013 by HeijoshinCool

[mjj]

Wow, it gets serious on here!

I was born and brought up in the UK, so that was my 'home'. But I didnt and dont want to live there, so it can no longer be my home. I live in Thailand atm, so this is home, but I'm thinking I may go somewhere else, so that will be home.

At the song goes, wherever I lay my hat, thats my home.

[lemoncake]

As i have said before already, home is where you suppose to feel safe and secure.

Some posters, including myself, clearly do not feel safe and secure about the fact that our visa or extension of stay can be cancelled or changed at any time.

Some, call it home because the benefits they see, but that was not the question, Benefit would be appropriate when you discussing what keeps you in the country.

Some seem to think that their status is safe, so perhaps those who do not tried to point out the FACT that it is not safe and it will never be safe, until they become citizens.

Some call it home and yet do not speak any Thai, how is it possible to be at home and not being able to communicate?

Some call it home and yet can never own their own house, yes can a condo(but again for now, things could change)

Some call it home, and yet do not realize that they are referred to as "an alien" in all official documents.

While some may consider Thailand home, Thailand does not consider them to be at home and shows it in a number of ways.

Sure if some want to feel at home, it is their choice, but failing to see the facts is not exactly a way justify their feelings

[longstebe]

Though I earn my money working overseas for part of the year, all my belongings are in my house in Thailand. When I finish my work I return to Thailand, my wife stays in Thailand and my money stays in Thailand. Therefore I call Thailand my home, people may see it different.

[lemoncake]

Though I earn my money working overseas for part of the year, all my belongings are in my house in Thailand. When I finish my work I return to Thailand, my wife stays in Thailand and my money stays in Thailand. Therefore I call Thailand my home, people may see it different.

you have a reason to call Thailand home because your Thai wife,

Would you feel the same if you were not married?

[Mosha]

I went to the UK 7 year ago. Almost immediately in phone calls, my wife was asking "When are you coming home?". I guess in her mind it was then and in my mind too. I've nothing to go back to.

[mania]

Sure if some want to feel at home, it is their choice, but failing to see the facts is not exactly a way justify their feelings

You list a bunch of "What If's" & even if they have historically never happened before you then

go on to say some fail to see the Facts? Yet you only present a bunch of what if's?

Sorry but you should present facts & precedents to support your fears at least to yourself.

It is no different in many places & is in fact why many move to other countries leaving behind

a country where they were a citizen. If citizenship were a requirement to feel safe living outside one's

country of citizenship then the expat population in the world would be tiny or restricted to only those with Dual Citizenship's.

Facts are what IS not what MAY be & that is a fact

[lemoncake]

Sure if some want to feel at home, it is their choice, but failing to see the facts is not exactly a way justify their feelings

You list a bunch of "What If's" & even if they have historically never happened before you then

go on to say some fail to see the Facts? Yet you only present a bunch of what if's?

Sorry but you should present facts & precedents to support your fears at least to yourself.

It is no different in many places & is in fact why many move to other countries leaving behind

a country where they were a citizen. If citizenship were a requirement to feel safe living outside one's

country of citizenship then the expat population in the world would be tiny or restricted to only those with Dual Citizenship's.

Facts are what IS not what MAY be & that is a fact

What facts would you like?

1. Investment visa regulations already changed 3-4 times in the past 10 years

2. Visa runs have changed

3. People have been turned away for extension (countless threads)

4. Consulates stopped to issue certain visa types

5. Crack downs on land owned by the foreigners through nominees or company

6. Crack down on married couples where money for the land/house came from husband.

7, Changes to ED visa, Changes to marriage requirements

It is very very different to other countries, for a number of reasons. to start with when you granted perm residency for example in Australia you have all the rights and entitlements as a citizen, the only thing you can not do is vote.

You will be granted perm residence if you marry an Australian after 3 or so years(do not hold me to the exact number of years) and then a citizenship solely based on the fact that you are married.

You can appeal your visa suspension or cancellation and await the hearing in the country, while in Thailand you can not do anything if visa cancelled or suspended.

Those are the facts, like it or not.

[longstebe]

Though I earn my money working overseas for part of the year, all my belongings are in my house in Thailand. When I finish my work I return to Thailand, my wife stays in Thailand and my money stays in Thailand. Therefore I call Thailand my home, people may see it different.

you have a reason to call Thailand home because your Thai wife,

Would you feel the same if you were not married?

You're right for the first part but for the latter, who knows. I may have ended up buying a condo or something and being in a similar situation.

[Jingthing]

If you are here on NON-immigrant status or lesser, as far as the Immigration Police are concerned we are all in the same boat in that we all lack SECURITY in our right to RESIDE in Thailand for one minute past the official expiration date (conveniently written in your passport). It makes no difference how we FEEL. The status remains the same. I feel stuff too. What I feel is that immigration rules for those lacking permanent residence status are DESIGNED to make us not feel not too comfortable. I take the message. You don't have to. I do reside in Thailand, fully own a residence in Thailand, and have no other non-virtual established residence in any other country. So it's as close as a home that I've got right now. But I can't ignore the legal status REALITY. OK, so I'm not exactly "homeless" but I'm not exactly feeling very secure about my home in Thailand either. Again, FEEL how you feel. There isn't a right or wrong for YOU for how you FEEL. (But the immigration police couldn't care less either way.)

Edited February 3, 2013 by Jingthing

[mania]

Those are the facts, like it or not.

Not really but run with it if it helps.

"Crack Downs"

Crack downs on abuse of existing laws are called enforcing existing laws.

Countless threads? As in internet claims? Folks turned away? I know none.

Visa runs have been changed? Oh you mean the cheap charlies who make runs all the time so not to show money in the bank?

As in trying to stretch a tourist visa into a legit stay? Yeah I hope they crack that down even harder

Even in the US a sponsor of a green card non citizen has to show financial proof.

Why should Thailand be burdened by those who cannot show they have the means to stay?

Changes to ED visa's? Another crack down on folks who abused the crap out of that one

No changes to marriage requirements I know of & I am here based on marriage.

etc etc etc

PS: I have absolutely no problem with you not calling Thailand home.

I only take exception to wild claims as to why others should not if they choose to.

Edited February 3, 2013 by mania