lamyai3

Slightly stressful experience on the visa collection day - I turned up a bit late, and in my haste dashed downstairs into the almost identical Bangladesh embassy next door. Realising my mistake I tried to exit but got stuck behind a large family helping an elderly relative up the stairs for the next ten minutes...

Not quite sure about that.

True, though it wouldn't guarantee they didn't print up another one, or use it in other media. Depends on the contract drawn up between the school and the photographer. One way to look at it - if the op is a long term professional teacher, tack it onto the resume or bring it up casually in interviews etc. Image is a big part of recruitment in the EFL industry, and if they thought that image was good enough to use on a 21 foot poster it can't be a bad endorsement.

If you'd retired here 9 weeks ago, this comment might be true. But no amount of research you could have done 9 months ago would have suggested the recent changes were on the cards.

These new requirements didn't exist three or four months ago.

Agree with the above posts, main thing is to be organised ahead of time. Easy to do the police report online £45, valid for a few months, maybe three? A GP visit will take care of the medical letter, mine cost £15 as they said it was was an NHS service. I got this the same day as seeing my doctor, no medical test other than the stethoscope, and the doctor wanted to pull up and look at my historical records with the surgery before signing. Easiest way with the bank is to get the 800k equivalent into the current account the month before, so it appears on the current month statement. At shorter notice an internet statement might be good enough, or else the bank can knock up something in branch. Finally a solicitor to certify true copies of the above documents, can be as cheap as £2 each page. A UK notary is not necessary. When you go to the embassy have the papers in simple presentable form (files, folders or additional unnecessary papers are not appreciated), just a single copy of each document and the cash in exact money.

Unfortunately you've presided over the most tumultuous shake up of retirement visas in the past two decades, so what you're seeing recently definitely hasn't been business as usual in the past. The system is likely to become clearer in the coming months, including for acceptable proofs of income (in which aspect you'd currently qualify, so the 800k route is unnecessary). Medical insurance is currently not a requirement - like you say if this changes many older people will be forced to leave. Regarding police stopping you outside your apartment, this is likely just due to the locale. I've heard Thonglor area can be very bad for this kind of thing, but it doesn't really happen in other parts of Bangkok. Smog also is way lower now than it was two weeks ago, so whilst it's a serious problem it's not usually up in the extreme levels for too long.

You can get these nine months with just one METV from your own country per year.

The only Paulines in the UK that spring to mind are Pauline Collins, Pauline Quirke and Pauline Fowler from Eastenders.

Pinned threads can work great for a clearly defined and well-established procedure, such as how to do a 90 day report or get a reentry permit, but a denial of extension is a very individual circumstance and could come down to a variety of reasons, all of which would be pertinent. Any thread that sought to cover all possible scenarios would be inordinately long, and quickly out of date. Your Joe Blogs example above is a case in point, impossible to provide a meaningful answer to it without more specific information.

Penny would have been a more obvious name change. Have to agree the name Pinit was a bit awkward though, as it's how most Thais would pronounce "penis".

This is the reason. Regular rabbit cards were always purchased from the bts window, stored value cards, topped up by cash at the same window. Over time more top up and payment options have been added, including linking the card to Linepay which has seems to have a booth in every station now. You've obviously been given a card that's already linked to this. I prefer the linked rabbit card as it gives discounts all over the place, but if you don't want it, nothing stopping you from going to the bts window with your passport and registering as a new customer for the regular stored value version.

On a visa exempt entry into the country one of the rules is the need to show 10k baht cash or equivalent in either currency or travellers cheques (20k if you're entering on a visa). Not often checked, but when entry is denied it's one of the commonly used reasons.

All BB is talking about here is an embassy letter confirming residence. It's provided by the embassy yes, but a completely different thing to an income letter or affidavit.

From the replies so far, the cheapest and simplest option is to just use the Ban Laem border as Ubonjoe mentioned. Other than Poipet, land borders are better points of entry than airports nowadays.