Moving To Thailand, Any Recommendations Appreciated..

[southerndog]

Hi, I'm southerndog.

First time poster.

I will be moving to Thailand in late May.

I met my wife, a Thai woman, in grad school 5 years ago. We fell in love and got married a year and a half ago. She was on a scholarship to come to the US, and in return has to work for her country for ten years.

She will start work soon as a professor at Thamassat University near Bangkok.

Anyway, any recommendations that any of you might have for making the transition would be greatly appreciated.

Also, if I am married to a Thai person is there any better way to go about the Visa process than the typical non-immigrant visa? Is that how it would work in the US?

Thank you,

Southerndog.

[ThaiPauly]

Welcome Southerndog...I hope that you will enjoy life in The Land of Smiles.

Applying for a visa if you are married to a Thai is very simple. You get a year at a time..and you never have to leave the country if you dont want to...just report to immigration every 90 days and renew your visa yearly.. Have you plans to work here? If not a retirement visa is even more easy to obtain, you just have to show you have 800,000 baht in the bank every year. If you just go for the marriage visa its half that amount.

I am not the "font of all knowledge"on visas. there are many people here that know a lot more than I.

But I am glad that you have found Thai Visa.. hope you will stick around.. you may learn an awful lot

TP

[ProfessorFart]

My advice is always keep an open mind and a ready smile!

Simple but effective.

Try contacting the Thai Embassy or Consulate closest to your home and establising a dialogue with them. In my experience some are good with advice some downright awful. Its pot luck but worth trying.

[wamberal]

1. You need to truly accept and understand that Thailand is not like any other country, nor are its people, culture, and traditions. This is true about every individual country, of course, but some countries are easier to make the transition to than others.

2. Your wife will have family and work responsibilities that might seem unusual to you. You need to understand this and accept it.

3. Do a lot of reading about Thai traditions and culture. Learn what is acceptable behaviour. If you behave in a friendly, understated way at all times you cannot go wrong.

4. Go with the flow. There are some good things, and some bad things. Ten years is a long time to be locked into living in a place which you have no experience of. You will have to get some hobbies and/or a job (which might be voluntary) fairly quickly, or you will die of boredom.

5. Finally, as one who has lived and worked for many years in both Hong Kong and Thailand, and who is now married happily to a Thai wife who will not go back there to live, I wish you all the best.

6. One other thing.....take good care of your physical, and spiritual health. Get lots of excercise, eat lots of fruit and vegetables (easy to do) and drink lots of water. Be alive to the possibilities that new relationships offer, without placing your own expectations on others. Life is different, relationships are different.

Let us know how you get on.

[autonomous_unit]

Welcome to the club. If your wife's contract is anything like my wife's, you'll have a very short time after arriving in country before she has to report to work. If you haven't sorted your housing, that could make for a hectic (if not frustrating) introduction to BKK. I suggest that your wife communicate with her future colleagues and find out what the traffic conditions are like for the commute, and to narrow down the areas you might wish to live... there is far too much that can be said on this topic, depending on your preferences, expectations, and obligations regarding local family, the commute, the type of neighborhood you like, etc.

As said above, you might want to think about how you will occupy your time. There are many topics about "self employment" and "consulting" you could search out here on Thaivisa.

Echoing what I just said recently on another topic, my regret is doing the same thing you are doing two years ago and starting my own work too soon. I would be more integrated and self-sufficient now if I had spent time "between jobs" learning to read and speak Thai properly.

[southerndog]

Ok, thanks for the advice so far, all. Does anybody have any recommendations on Money Management? Like, should I leave my savings in US BAnks, etc? I'm not really sure how I should move my money around.

[David Duke]

i'VE BEEN USING THE SEARCH function on this forum for a while now with great success. I have seen numerous threads regarding the same questions you are asking. check it out

[southerndog]

i'VE BEEN USING THE SEARCH function on this forum for a while now with great success. I have seen numerous threads regarding the same questions you are asking. check it out

What are you, racist?

[jdinasia]

wow ... 2 posts before flaming someone! a new record!

<for those of you that are not familiar with the USA etc ... there is a guy named David Duke that was the head of the KKK <Ku Klux Klan- a racist white supremacist group >

Journalist Bridges's book is the second biography available on right-wing Louisiana politician David Duke. Michael Zatarain's David Duke: Evolution of a Klansman (Pelican, 1990) offers a good account of Duke's life and political career through his election to the Louisiana State legislature in 1989, but its publication date precludes an examination of Duke's subsequent unsuccessful races for the U.S. Senate, the Louisiana governorship, and the Republican presidential nomination. Bridges's biography examines these three campaigns and also provides a good analysis of how Duke blends traditional Southern racism with anti-Semitism. For these reasons, it is probably a better choice for general readers, despite its organizational deficiencies and repetitions. Scholars will find The Emergence of David Duke and the Politics of Race (LJ 6/1/92), edited by Douglas Rose, to be more useful.

Thomas H. Ferrell, Univ. of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette

Now to the OP .... do as David says ... use the search function and scroll through the threads ... you will learn tons! <even if sometimes it is just what NOT to do ... by example >

[southerndog]

wow ... 2 posts before flaming someone! a new record!

Now to the OP .... do as David says ... use the search function and scroll through the threads ... you will learn tons! <even if sometimes it is just what NOT to do ... by example >

Ya, I used the serach function, it helped, thanks. Just to clarify, my statement "What are you, racist?" was meant to be a joke.

[phibunmike]

Hi, I'm southerndog.

First time poster.

I will be moving to Thailand in late May.

I met my wife, a Thai woman, in grad school 5 years ago. We fell in love and got married a year and a half ago. She was on a scholarship to come to the US, and in return has to work for her country for ten years.

She will start work soon as a professor at Thamassat University near Bangkok.

Anyway, any recommendations that any of you might have for making the transition would be greatly appreciated.

Also, if I am married to a Thai person is there any better way to go about the Visa process than the typical non-immigrant visa? Is that how it would work in the US?

Thank you,

Southerndog.

One simple little tip I would humbly offer is "trust your wife". If she suggests something, or says something, that seems bizarre, or illogical, or flies in the face of all your experience... trust her judgement, she knows Thailand, Thai people and Thai customs, better than you.

[David Duke]

i'VE BEEN USING THE SEARCH function on this forum for a while now with great success. I have seen numerous threads regarding the same questions you are asking. check it out

What are you, racist?

Naw, just a coincidence, my name really is Dave Duke. I must say that I've taken a lot of heat for it over the years as well as a lot of praise

[wamberal]

Ok, thanks for the advice so far, all. Does anybody have any recommendations on Money Management? Like, should I leave my savings in US BAnks, etc? I'm not really sure how I should move my money around.

What are your long-term financial objectives, and what are your short-term needs?

If you and your wife plan to stay in Thailand indefinitely, then you should investigate using local banking facilities, and making local investment decisions. You can access very good private banking in Thailand, if you meet the financial criteria. I would have no hesitation banking with Bangkok Bank or HSBC, either as a private client or otherwise.

If you plan to return to the States eventually, then your investment decisions will reflect that. In other words, I would tend to make decisions based on where I was intending to retire eventually.

You and your wife will, of course, need local banking facilities in any case.

[udon]

wow ... 2 posts before flaming someone! a new record!

Now to the OP .... do as David says ... use the search function and scroll through the threads ... you will learn tons! <even if sometimes it is just what NOT to do ... by example >

Ya, I used the serach function, it helped, thanks. Just to clarify, my statement "What are you, racist?" was meant to be a joke.

We have smilies for jokes.

They were created especially for Septic Tanks......

[ThaiPauly]

Naw, just a coincidence, my name really is Dave Duke. I must say that I've taken a lot of heat for it over the years as well as a lot of praise

As well as a lot of Praise Jeez