StoneSoup

Prepare to meet your new robot overlords:

Gents -

I have been running a business services company since 2002, specializing in providing incorporation services, and assistance with work permit and Immigration processing to foreign clients seeking to operate businesses in Thailand. So - I know of what I speak.

Comparing Immigration processing for extensions of entry permits based on marriage, and based on retirement:

Marriage:

Advantages - If based on bank balance, need only maintain 400,000 baht minimum balance for 60 days (initial) or 90 days (renewal). In this status, you ARE permitted to work, with work permit - and as long as you have a previous tax year form PND.91 (personal income tax return), your employer may sponsor an extension your entry permit with just 1,000,000 baht registered capital, and two Thai employees (versus 2,000,000 baht registered capital and four Thai employees, if you do not have a Thai spouse).

Disadvantages - Requires substantial photographic evidence of "happy couple at home". Wife must appear with you at Immigration once per year. If you were married outside of Thailand, requires substantial bureaucratic certification of foreign marriage certificate. Processing involves a 30-day "under consideration" period, before receiving final "one year" extension.

Retirement

Advantages: Approval of one-year extension occurs on the spot - one-day processing.

Disadvantages: You may not work - not eligible to apply for work permit if holding Class O retirement extension. If extending based on bank balance, requires minimum balance of 800,000 baht for 60 days (initial) or 90 days (renewal). If extending based on pension, requires certification of pension by your country's Embassy in Thailand.

Cheers!

Stone Soup

An Ozzy Man Play-By-Play:

Have you ever felt that you were experiencing a mosquito problem? Compare:

True talent at work:

I bought several 1000 baht bank notes back with me from a trip to Thailand way back in 2008, I was intending to use them on a subsequent trip but forgot about them. I 'found' them the other day when clearing out my safe, the question is, are they still likely to be legal currency?

Yes - if you have any concerns, you may always take them to a Thai bank, and ask them to replace them with current bills. Lately, when I cash a monthly check for 135,000 baht, I typically receive about 90,000 baht in "old" bills (2008 type), and 45,000 baht in "new "bills.

Cheers,

SS

Indeed - it is fake news. Good - I like Clint Eastwood. He's one of the few Hollywood types who has his head on straight.

Say it ain't so: I just heard a "whisper on the wind" that actor and director Clint Eastwood has died. I hope that this is "fake news" - but I fear the worst. I guess we will all know shortly.

The Grim Reaper has really been busy lately. Two more "winning play in the dead pool" for May 2018 were Manuel Noriega, and Zbigniew Brzezinski

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/manuel-noriega-ousted-panamanian-dictator-dead-83-n730291

http://time.com/4796571/zbigniew-brzezinski-dead-jimmy-carter-adviser/

Neither one matters enough to me for me to make any long comments.

My last home in USA before relocating to Thailand in 2000 was in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Minnesota has just now become the focus of a major bust of human traffickers, peddling Thai sex workers is major US cities:

Feds in Minnesota charge 21 new defendants in sweeping probe of Thai sex ring

Federal investigation began in Minnesota and discovered Thai women working as 'sex slaves.'

By Stephen Montemayor Star Tribune

May 25, 2017 — 4:45pm

One of the nation’s largest sex-trafficking prosecutions yielded its second indictment Thursday, when federal authorities in Minneapolis announced charges against 21 leaders of a conspiracy that allegedly trafficked hundreds of Thai women throughout the United States.

http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-feds-charge-21-new-defendants-in-sweeping-probe-of-thai-sex-ring/424376863/

http://www.bangkokbeerguru.com Directory to craft beer bars in Bangkok

Red Bull "Crashed Ice" series - ice skater's sprint races - you gotta' see this.

2017 men's final:

2017 women;s final: (yawn)

That will teach them not to keep up their bribes.

Flash - you presumably meant to say "That will teach them not to fail to keep up their bribes."

Hey, Flash, I think maybe you have to much too much idle time on your hands !

Give this one a chance - it is actually a brilliant performance:

Patience:

I kinda think that all water has been recycled - many billions of times.

Remember - it's not about the nail .... ....

Happiness - sheer joy unleashed:

The announcer's comments make this clip great!

RIP Al Jarreau