Thread: Picturethread (& more): My Eperience of (trying to get) a 12 Month Thai Marriage Visa

Step 1 - Opening a Bank Account

This is very difficult! &, after a week of trying, I still haven't opened one.

Firstly, I went to the Bnagkok Bank in The Mall Tha Pra, and they were nice , but confused - they had no idea what any foreigner visa without a work contract, visa and work permit could open a bank account.

Next, feeling confident, I went to Bangkok Bank in Silom which is famous as the branch for foreigners to open a bank account. No dice. Why? My wife's amphur is not in Bangkok, so I was told:
1) I need to go to the wife's town and get a yellow book.
2) Get a letter from my phone provider (with my yellow book address on).
3) Take the marriage certificates, etc, to a bank in my wife's home town when this was all done, and Bangkok Bank would open an account, no pompem.

Nowwww, whilst I was in Silom, I popped to ICBC, a Chinese bank by Lumpini station, because my last emploer owes me a few thousand pounas which they said I can just get out on my Union Pay atm card anywhere in the world - not true. Liar f'kers... &, they suspended my account, so the branch in Thailand couldn't help me... But, I did find out that I might (with some trickery such as showing them me my current Chinese 3-year contract - which I've now resigned from) and my Bangkok condo contract and police resident letter in Bangkok (which I have) open an account for me. I'll head there Monday with all the relevant documents (and more - not to show them, I don't want to confuse them, but just in case they ask for them...).

The next post will have many pictures of Banna, my shitty house there which I tried to avoid (I've spent 2 days there in 15 years), Nakhon Nayok, and the many interesting/frustrating/hilarious things that happened there...

2) Getting the Yellow Book and Visiting the In-Laws

I spent 4 nights in Banna which was more than I expected. But, I liked it, and the local people arevery nice. It took 1 hour 20 minutes to drive there from Charansanitwong, leaving just before 6am - trafic can big a big problem everywhere, especially on the road from Nakhon Nayok into Bangkok, The Mall (Close to DM airport).

Here are some pictures so you can see what the countryside looks like - personally, I try to avoid it like the plague...




We have these really beautiful flying squirrels, I saw a lovely light yellow one. The FiL hates them because they eat the ripest pomelos, but they are fast and smart and his sling shot rarely gets close to them...



Somewhere for Medip to fish - there's some Pla Chon in there, so probably not much else... I told my parents that we had two swimming pools, and I sent them pictures of the shitty dugouts like this one - they were so polite, and simply said "I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable swimming in them...


I think we have somewhere between 2-4 rai: rice fields, forests, a couple fo small pouns, lots of fruit trees, all overgrown, as the in-laws are getting old, and I don't wanna pump money into a place I don't wanna be.









The lovely Honda City - which gave me a major problem... My fault really for believing that the Thais might do upkeepo when I sent them money to do services and the such...



Not the best road, just have to be careful not to drive in to the rice fields - the Honda City can't swim...







Do you like Mozzies? F'kin huge ones?

I think you need delete the repeats?

So did you get your extension sorted , I've done it myself for decades , not hard if you have lots of copies of every single possible request , money and or agent if you have more money than time.

Originally Posted by david44

I think you need delete the repeats?

So did you get your extension sorted , I've done it myself for decades , not hard if you have lots of copies of every single possible request , money and or agent if you have more money than time.

8 "double posts" - I know that I'm both stupid and senile, but there's something seriously strange here - I've posting picture threads on here for 15 years and never experienced anything like it...

So, if you remember as far back as the house build - I was in Oman, gave up arguing with the fIL/builders, never wanted to live in the house anyways, so just let them get on with it without stressing meself.... As a result:

1) Generally it's pretty poor quality.

2) The bedrooms are far too small.

3) We really needed a large nice outside space to spend a lot of time - a veranda; I asked for one, but it was never built... Inside pics, a few:

The big open living room is ok.


Breakfast - they eat non-stop....


No aircon in the main lounge, just open doors/windows and mozzies.


The FiL cooks some very nice fried chicken.


The dog - he's a sweet soul, but a complete whimp. All dogs and cats get killed here either by snakes (Burmese pythons like the cats) or packs of devil dogs that kill anything we meet. We used to have 3 cats and 5 dogs. Now, 1 very worried dog who stays as close to people as possible (smart fella).


I was pleased to see that the under-powered showed that I bought around 14 years ago is still producing nice hot water and nice cold water.



And, here's a shot in remembrance of Dirty Dog.



Great power on the bumgun, a real pleasure to use.

A nice aspect of village life...

One afternoon, the wife says i need a haircut - happy to get out of the house, I oblide. She says she knows the best hairdresser in Thailand... People come from all over to see him. It's Sunday afternoon, so I'm concerned he might be closed.

The wife is 3 minutes out of our mud road, having narrowly avoided putting the car into a rice field deep with water..., and she stops to look at houses, eventually stopping at one - this is it, she says.

Quite a nice house, I thought. I wish I'd built ours like that.



We go inside, and there's some ancient fella chatting to his wife and sister while a cat and dog have a snooze on the furniture. I notice the veranda/outside space, and mention to the wife how this is exactly what I envisaged...




Then the old fella, sits me down, chats away as if I wasn't there and does the full works, haircut, massage, lays me flat (no sex, Dilly), cut throat razor, cleaning the ears, a shave, perfumes (manly ones) the list goes on. It took ages and was very very relaxing. Mucho enjoyable in a lovely breeze and beautiful setting.



60 baht. Amazing.

My man charges 80 Baht and I don't have to say a word as he knows what I want.

In and out in five minutes and I always tip 20 Baht for a round 100 Baht.

I never allow blokes to massage me.

Originally Posted by Mendip

My man charges 80 Baht and I don't have to say a word as he knows what I want.

In and out in five minutes.

fnarr fnarr

Originally Posted by Mendip

My man charges 80 Baht and I don't have to say a word as he knows what I want.

In and out in five minutes and I always tip 20 Baht for a round 100 Baht.

I never allow blokes to massage me.

1) Your over-paying!

2) A manly touch, in a professional setting is one of the greatest pleasures in life?

3) Fancy popping round to fish for Plaa Chon?

So, The wife says, let's go to Nakhon Nayok and pick up the AIS paper with my address (her blue book) and my name and number - we set off to Nakhon Nayok; 30 minutes. Nice road, nice people, tiny shopping centre and just a tiny main town for a province.









I thought there must be an AIS shop closer and was a tad suspicious, then the real reason for coming here became clear:







The wife fancied an MK with sine roast duck - she'd set me up (not for the first time),

The next day, Tuesday, we get up at 6:30 to register me at the hospital...

A nice little drive, only 10 minutes up then road.


The wife's primary school was opposite the hospital:



The hospital is very good for a small town, imho:







While I was there, I picked up a couple of tablets for plane journeys (one of which, surprisingly came up straight away...):

Next, straight after the hospital, we went to the amphur office to get my yellow book.]

it turns out that it's not that easy... They want:

- three visits.
- pictures of us together in the house.
- several two hour conversations which each of us.
- meet the wife's parents.
- finally, all four of us go in together for a three hour interview and signing numerous documents....







We got there 30 mins before it opened...





It is a process! But, everyone was very nice, kind and helpful.

Note: the head guy we dealt with was really lovely and chatty, and said that he did NOT WANT PEOPLE TO USE AGENTS because his job is to get to k ow people moving into his area; he became almost a friend, and we promised to meet up for dinner next time I'm in town. He did not take bribes - he explicitly stated so (when I asked if there was a 500 baht fast service fee?

I would say, it's much nicer to meet these people, get to know them and become friendly with them than using an agent.

I bumped into the head guy at the market buying breakfast one morning, he was a great guy - very kind and helpful; I have his line - just better than using an agent, imho.

That depends of course on the situation, and he dis say to me that actually getting a 1 year marriage visa (which is done via Bangkok, not locally) is very difficult - he suggested any other route would be better!

But I did get the yellow book:



&, a Thai ID card.

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

Note: the head guy we dealt with was really lovely and chatty, and said that he did NOT WANT PEOPLE TO USE AGENTS because his job is to get to k ow people moving into his area; he became almost a friend, and we promised to meet up for dinner next time I'm in town. He did not take bribes - he explicitly stated so (when I asked if there was a 500 baht fast service fee?

You do realize that Immigration and an Amphur office are two entirely different entities. The Immigration office is run by the police and in general deals with foreigners, while the Amphur office is simply local government who rarely see a foreign face. In applying for your yellow book I would guess you were the first farang he had seen in a while. I know that happened at my amphur. I distinctly remember the head advising me to get a Residence Certificate, which I stupidly never did as my job was covering all my visa and immigration expenses. Stupid decision by me, as I now go once a year for half an hour to get my Retirement Visa.