Karee

Bottom line, don't involve Gov't Police in your life unless absolutely needed.

Fixed. Nothing good comes from calling the cops.

I just got a Non-O visa in March through the Oregon consulate, only thing I had to show was a bank statement from a US with the equivalent of 40K baht.

As for staying in Thailand and doing a extension of stay based on marriage is 400K in the bank, or 40K in income. The law or requirement has not been changed, and I know several people over the past 2 months that have done the extension of stay in CM and the requirement is 400K or 40K, or combination of both.

There was a Thai Visa thread where people were saying it has changed, and it was proved to be completely false, and the people quoted had no idea what they were talking about, as proven over and over in the thread. Thai Visa is a very reliable and unreliable source of information. Just like on this forum and getting any visa everyone's circumstances are different, some people might have overstays in their passports, possibly multiple tourist entries, and it looks as though they are living in Thailand on the wrong visa and abusing the system, which is more of what I believe they are trying to crack down on. I

The land border crossing now have a sign that says you have to show you have X number of baht when coming in (20K for tourist, 40K for Non-O), I have never been asked to show I have the money, however a friend of mine has been asked, and almost they almost wouldn't let his Chinese GF in with him because he was carrying all of their money.

This post sums it up. It's hard to say what the deal is over there. There's no consistency with anything.

I'm posting to this because I found it funny the first person you could find a video of when talking about welfare was a person of color. Look at this video here.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3WAGTDCgwkM&app=m

Have a problem with that? Take it up with Google. They own Youtube.

If the country relies on govt. spending to grow the economy, we're in big trouble.

So, I guess being married really doesn't help me much as far as the "o" is concerned. That must be a pain in teh butt if you stay long term and need to report ever 90 days.

You wouldn't be able to get the O unless you were married. You could go the O-A retirement route and not be married. I hear that is a bigger pain in the a$$ though when it comes to showing income and money in the bank.

I called NVC this morning and was given our case number for our K1/K2 visa. I was wondering if I am able to pay the visa fee's now or do I have to wait for NVC to send to the Bangkok embassy? I plan on mailing my fiance the all of the completed forms and documents this weekend. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks....

Since you are a K visa, you don't do anything with NVC. They just assign a case number and send everything to the embassy in Bangkok. You'll pay the visa in Bangkok. I believe it will need to paid at a Thai post office there. Not sure. Someone else will come along and answer that.

I hear he was born outside of the U.S. Figured I'd go ahead and start that rumor now.

I didn't realize until now that you were a PETA member and would extend any effort required to help the inhabitants of such places survive. My husband says status is determined by the location of the room relative to the front door. Or back door in your case.

Actually I was just giving free English lessons. Just doing my part to help the less fortunate.

To me what needs to be done and how would depend on where slowlyman is going to be staying. I say this because in the Issan area things have changed some. There is a new option in Udon from what I am told because there is now an immigration office there especially for the farang population. There is also an office near Nong Kai just South of town or people can continue to the Mekong at the Lao border where they can cross to meet the requirement. Vientiane has a tiny American embassy as well.

From what I've been reading on TV, almost every province has an immigration office where you can do your 90 day report now. I think some of them even let you do it by mail. Of course I also read on TV that all of them seem to have different rules from each other. You know how it is there. Today's rules will be different tomorrow. Best bet is to just follow the posts on TV.

The land borders are doing 15 days only, and some of them are limiting the number of times you can do it back to back.

With the Non-O multiple entry you get 90 day stay on each entry, but you still have to exit the country and come back every 90 days. You can do an extension of stay based on marriage at immigration which removes the need to exit the country every 90 days, but still requires you to report to immigration every 90 days. With the extension of stay you need to have 400K baht in a Thai bank for 60 days, and/or have income of at least 40K baht per month.

Doing the paperwork and getting the extension is not bad, and is a lot easier than doing any of the paperwork for the US. The biggest issue is that there really is no standard guidelines at Thai Immigration, some follow the immigration code, some officers don't and make you bring extra paperwork.

Yeah when I had my Non-O I left every 90 days. I didn't realize at the time that I could get an extension and just report at immigration every 90 days without having to leave the country. Could've saved me a few all day bus rides to Poipet.

I think most people didn't notice a thing. Actually I think ~85% of govt. was actually running. That's what's funny about the term "shutdown" Makes you think they could get rid of 15% of the govt without an issue. Probably alot more. We have no business spending money on frivolous things when we have a 16+ trillion dollar debt. Sell off all the national parks and privatize all the other tourist attractions. Those are luxuries, not necessities.

Some of the girls I met in Thai cat houses in the U.S. were here on expired K-1s. Basically out of status.

I should probably post this on Thai Visa, but we have some pretty sharp folks here on VJ.

With my new Thai wife in tow, what options do I have for a visa on my next visit to Thailand?

How long are you planning on staying? If you're planning on more than 30 days, you might want to look into a Non-O. If not, just get the 30 day stamp at the airport. You can actually make a couple visa runs if you want and turn that 30 into 90. That would require a quick flight to Penang or something like that. I hear they're only giving 15 days at the land borders now. Like the other poster said, best to ask on Thaivisa. Anything more than that, you need to look at a Non-O. Non-O is 1 year visa that requires 90 check ins at immigration. You can actually turn it into 15 months if you do it right.

I lived there for 2 years on 30 day stamps. The coup in 2006 brought that to an end.

I recently started up an instagram, mostly for my dog. He's a cute pieceofshit.

Thread-related, social media is the devil when kids like this are concerned. I don't understand how anyone could make fun of and humiliate anyone with special needs, but it seems like social media gives them an amazing platform to do so. It's disheartening.

They interviewed the girl on TV. She seemed pretty normal to me. She's gonna be a hottie when she gets a little older. I suspect that jealousy probably has more to do with it than anything.

You should instagram, tweet and fb about it.

I don't have instagram or twitter. I'm still trying to find the value in Facebook. The only thing I get out of Facebook is seeing how fat all my ex-girlfriends have become. Not that I should talk I suppose. They probably say the same thing about me.

I'm lucky enough (sarcasm) to spend the next month of my life here in sunny central Florida (Orlando). I went to get some Chilli at Wendy's tonight. I thought the teenage kid behind the counter was going to have a brain aneurysm when I asked for onions. Did not compute with him for some reason.

Oh, you're dad is an average tea party fella. That's all you had to say. Did he protest with signs to the effect that the government ought to stay out of his unemployment checks?

That would probably take energy. I don't know if he's in to the tea party or not. Like I said, we don't talk.

I wouldn't be worried turning into my parents. They're both still on the right side of history - for the most part - and certainly don't fall for right wing nut nonsense.

Kinda funny. My dad is RWNJ x10. I actually saw him proudly wearing a Michael Savage hat a couple years ago. He's allegedly Mr. Conservative, yet he timed it just right so that when his 99 weeks of unemployment ran out, he could start collecting Social Security. Sometimes I wish we still talked so I could point out the hypocrisy of that.

ETA: my mom is a bleeding heart left wing commie.

It went on back in our day on the school yard. People just were not as aware because we did not have text, cell phones, Face book etc.

Yeah I couldn't imagine that. All the dumb $hit I did broadcast all over the internet.

Now I can sit back and b!tch about "kids today"

I would hope that someone shoots me before I turn into one of those pathetic Fox zombies.

There was a line in the Breakfast Club about that. I forgot exactly how it went. Something about being inevitable that you turn into your parents when you grow older. Unfortunately, both of my parents are govt. leeches, so I hope someone shoots me first as well.

That girl has been on the news alot here lately. Everyone has the "I'm with Shea" T shirts etc.

There was a time when people actually watched MSNBC?

I used to really like Chris Matthews on Hardball about 12 years ago. He seemed pretty fair back then. I guess that doesn't get ratings, so now he's trying to be the Bill O'Reilly of the left. Ratings and opions are more important than facts now.

It's funny as I watch my dad and stepmonster get older (70's), they are constantly trying to surpass each other in insane conservative opinions that make me giggle at first and the shudder a little because I can see the insane glimmer in their eyes as they stare at me waiting for my concurrence.

That might be you some day.

I hope you'll enjoy living the life of the loser your parents have apparently raised.

"My parents didn't do that. The government did that."

See how one's true persona and character shines through at times? You'd follow Gary to the dole. I will continue to achieve. It's just the person I am.

Probably has to do with growing up in a place where we don't throw the less fortunate out on the street. I grew up in a place where everyone can live with dignity, where nobody is denied access to food, shelter, clothing and health care. And despite that being the case, the unemployment rate in that place happens to be lower than it is here. People can and do live productive lives and contribute in an environment where a strong social safety net catches those that fall on bad times or into bad health. It's a matter of character. Interesting that character is something that America seems to be lacking.

Your contributions to my future lifestyle of drinking Milwaukee's Best while laying on my a$$ watching Jerry Springer and Maury all day are much appreciated. Please keep asking for higher taxes.