@Brian *******

I doubt that, despite all the awesoe rubric, they couldn't care less. It's all part of the civil service job creation scheme for Wolverhampton. Robert Jenrick "sponsors" a lot of what is going on there!

@Bob *********

555! It's the British Embassy. Enough said.

British Doctor such as Dr Donna at Medconsultant in Bangkok. Also Thai Doctors but not those in the Thai medical centres. I have also used WellMed in Bangkok when Donna unavailable. Thais are very wary in general but the young doctor in WellMed found it all very funny. "Now, how can you prove you're alive for me to sign? I know ..............." She jumped up and down and waved her arms around. "Now you do that". I'm afraid that really the fault lies with British bureaucracy - no cross-cultural understanding whatever including of paranoia in developing or near developing countries. I can think of several where I've no idea of the solution. In fact I live next door to a Thai medical centre here, and they had signed me off a few days before for medical for new driving licence but I wouldn't ask them re the Life Certification. Donna is English. WellMed and Medconsult, have a huge throughput of expats and, in the case of WellMed tourist too.

@Simon *******

And Immigration are looking closely at those too. Not without reason. On the other hand University courses still seem to get scant scrutiny. There's a message there. There's also a message there in the sense that might there not just be a link between border jumping and taking a "course" subsequently. Might Immigration not have worked that out? And the bigger question is why Thailand at all when we live in a region where visas are often super-simple?

@Gordon ******

Well, yes,but I think the lady would agree the buffalo's needs must always come first, meaning the buffalo outdoors.

@Ally ***********

There's also the case of trying to find someone to complete the contract, which seems perfectly regularised here. Passing them on a platter to the landlord would assuredly sweeten the pill.

@Alma **************

It's not a case of boring. It's a case of where you'll get the best advice. This visa is new and likely to apply to very few people. You need to hear case studies - exactly what applicants have done and where - and choose according to their lived experience.

I think the deal with visa exempt is to see as a pattern of tightening eg retirement and marriage visas and what we hear less of ie education visas, even company ownership of property and arguably TM30 too. The pattern is clear and to be remembered. The confusion is in the detail of what different offices and officers do.

All comments are valid. A solicitor is not the place to go. What do we do anywhere in the world - avoid solicitors as much as possible because of inflated pricing and, yes, Thailand is the same. Doing it yourself the cost is virtually nothing. I was concerned, though around agent costs because they vary substantially according to where we are talking about - and we don't know! Simply, the THB 15K sounds wildly optimistic if we are talking about Bangkok. The only way to find out is by asking around for your location.

@Alan ************

You can only be careful in your choice, firstly using broad indicators as I gave, then looking at fine detail, perhaps especially around dangerous sports. People routinely bungee jump, but it is mostly categorised as a dangerous sport. Mountaineering and rock climbing can be an outright No or dependent on exactly what is planned and using what equipment. All this said, which should be obvious, people do as the insurance companies do and look at heart risk with age, stroke risk with age, etc and try to see a relationship with health to date. Certainly that has some truth. But consider the very high rates of death and injury in Thailand in motor vehicle accidents, including as a pedestrian. Sure it could be that responsiveness reduces with age, but truth is that insurance companies tend to take those on the nose, although a hugely important category. On the road accident an important point is do you think that the rudimentary emergency services here will pick you up without an insurance card. Ditto the hospital take you in (legally they have to but that is often not understood. Cough!!!!! - its Amazing Thailand, including such amazing language misunderstandings!). So you carry around a credit card and can genuinely access large amounts that way (and they need to be large). Now how is the risk management looking? Or do you want to be left in the road - it can and sometimes does happen: the care obligation at law, as best I understand, only laying with the hospital.