skatewash

Yes, I believe you would obtain your Yellow Book from the Rawai Tessaban office: https://www.rawai.go.th/contactus/location Then, you could obtain your Pink ID from the Phuket Town Amphur office: You must get the specific requirements from your tessaban, they are very often different in the details. Best wishes.

Would be surprised if possession of a pink ID card resulted in receiving any discounts at any hospital, but if it does certainly let us know. 😉

Having a yellow house registration book (tabian bahn) is a prerequisite for getting the pink ID card. The requirements you mention seem to be those for getting the yellow book. The work is all done in obtaining the yellow book, obtaining the pink ID card follows easily after that. I obtained my yellow book from my local tessaban (sub-district government office) in Karon. Then obtained my pink ID card from the amphur office (district government office) in Phuket Town. Where to go will depend on where you live and what you already have. No agent was required.

1. Try to open an online bank account in the US. Here are some: https://www.marketwatch.com/guides/banking/best-online-banks/#:~:text=Our picks for the best,choose an online-only bank. 2. Here's a bank that advertises opening US bank accounts for non-residents: https://zenus.com/en/group/blog/how-to-open-a-bank-account-in-the-us-as-a-non-resident/#:~:text=Zenus Bank makes opening a,and complete the application form 3. In any case you will need a US address. This could be a friend's or relative's address, or a Commercial Mail Receiving Agency (CMRA) also called a virtual mailbox. There are many available, for example: https://travelingmailbox.com/ 4. Once you have an online US bank account you can get many payers to use that account directly (i.e., not send you a check). For ones that insist on sending you a check, you can use your mobile banking app to deposit the check via your smartphone. I've had my virtual mailbox scan the check, printed out the check while in Thailand, and used my mobile banking app (from my US bank account) to deposit the check into my US bank account. You can sometimes have your virtual mailbox deposit the check for you (for a fee) as an alternative. 5. Don't burn bridges. Keep all US financial accounts open because it can be difficult to open new ones. Tell no US financial institution you live outside the US, always use your US mailing address.

Yes, you will receive your old passport back with a hole punched in the corner of the passport to invalidate it. To answer your earlier question, all applicants at the US Embassy Bangkok received the longer 50-page version of the passport without asking.

The current latest up-to-date instructions for getting a US passport renewal from US Embassy Bangkok are found here in excruciating detail: https://th.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/passports/adult-passport-renew/ In my opinion, you are making a simple thing needlessly complicated by asking people what they have done in the recent past to get their renewal. That doesn't matter. What matters is the current latest up-to-date instructions which can be found only at the link above. Passport renewals according to that site are being done in "six to eight weeks." I think that estimate is on the conservative side as some people have reported that they are receiving their passport renewals earlier.

The US does not add on any extra validity time for a passport renewal. You get 10 years. I tend to do things at the earliest opportunity because I cannot foretell the future. I renew my passport early enough so that I get a full-year extension of stay from Thai Immigration. That means that every 10 years I choose to renew my passport months earlier (up to a year earlier) than required to do so. I apply for my retirement extension of stay 45 days before my current extension expires. I simply do not know what the future will hold. I do not know if something will happen in the future that will impact my ability to get a passport (e.g., pandemic as happened recently, work slowdown by passport officials as happened in Britain). A passport (or extension of stay) in the hand is worth two in the bush. ;-)

They will process a renewal if you have over a year left on your passport, at least they did so for me.

Financial documents are the *only* thing I have forwarded to me in Thailand by travelingmailbox.com. Includes new credit cards, checkbooks, and blank checks. I can deal with everything else by having it scanned without having it physically forwarded.

11-year customer of travelingmailbox.com. Meets your stated requirements. Recommended https://travelingmailbox.com/

You get a very poor exchange rate if you accept Dynamic Currency Conversion if offerred by the ATM. Otherwise, if you use a branded credit or debit card you will receive the MasterCard or Visa daily exchange rate between baht and your home currency which is usually a decent rate. You can tell if you will get DCC if the ATM shows the transaction denominated in your home currency, it should only show baht.

Many states now accept online notary service, which may not have been the case in years past. Contains a list of states accepting online legal notorization: https://www.docverify.com/Products/E-Notaries/What-States-Allow-Electronic-Notary#:~:text=DocVerify's platform can be used,%2C Nevada%2C New Jersey%2C New

Sort of. Americans can get a 10 year visa for China from Chinese consulates in the US, but they may not from Chinese consulate outside of the US (e.g., Phuket).

Not true if Charles Schwab customer which reimburses all fees associated with the withdrawal.

Not true if the customer has a Charles Schwab account. There are no costs associated with withdrawals in Thailand that are not fully reimbursed and the exchange rate is the US/Thailand daily rate established by MasterCard.

If using a Charles Schwab account there are no fees to the customer that are not fully reimbursed. Also, uses the MasterCard daily exchange rate for Thailand/USA which is a decent rate. This is the way I bring money into Thailand.

From the FAQ for the TM-30: Unable to search the notification of residence after 7 days of the check-in date. Answer - According to the policy of Immigration Bureau, the limitation of search cannot be over 7 days of the check-in date, hence, the users will not be able to search any records passed the limited date. https://tm30.immigration.go.th/TM30/Foreigner/TM30EN/FAQ.html You have 7 (seven) days from the check-in date to search for the record you entered by the policy of the Immigration Bureau as implemented in their application. The best practice is to submit the report and then immediately search for the report, and then print out a screenshot of the submitted report. They may (or may not) be working on an improvement allowing you to download a PDF file, but the above best practice currently works. On the search screen enter a From Date six days before today and a To Date of today. The search will return your report with a check-in date in that period.

In theory... since the online license is to be accepted for all purposes the physical license can be used for, the Land Transport Office should accept your showing it on the phone or a copy of the picture on your phone. Let us know how it goes.

Trying to remember. Seems to me I only had to register one license and then the other appeared automatically. You could try and see what happens.

Yes, if you have photos of the back of your license (you need to scan a qr code off the back of your license when registering with the online app). The app wouldn't care that you lost your license. You could use the license on the app whenever you previously used your physical driver's license.

I did this a few years ago. I don't remember needing a new Certificate of Residence at the Land Transport Office. It seemed relatively easy to get a new driver's license issued, once I had the police report. (Long story on getting the police report. Short version: if you lose your Thai driver's license outside of Phuket it is essential that you tell the Phuket police that you lost it in Phuket. Therein lies the difference between incredibly difficult and very easy. ;-) )

Yes, House ID Number is an optional field, the value for which can be found as the first number on the first page of either a blue or yellow house registration book (tabian bahn) in the form 0000-000000-0. It is not a mandatory field. There is a User's Guide which might be helpful: https://tm30.immigration.go.th/TM30/Foreigner/TM30TH/index.html

Yes, House ID Number is an optional field, the value for which can be found as the first number on the first page of either a blue or yellow house registration book (tabian bahn) in the form 0000-000000-0. It is not a mandatory field.

The best advice is to follow the detailed and comprehensive instructions provided by US Embassy Bangkok's website: https://th.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/passports/adult-passport-renew/ Using those up-to-date instructions one would become aware that the details on getting the passport returned to you by mail have substantially changed (what you outline is the old procedure and no longer works). Also, one would see the current estimate for how long the process takes in total is "up to six to eight weeks." But, I do agree that the process is not particularly hard. It's step-by-step.

https://tm30.immigration.go.th/TM30/Foreigner/TM30TH/Notify-Residence.html