Anonymous commented : James, you should keep your dream, but keep it as dream. The waking up in the reality can be very brutal. I knew some friends who try to fur fill their dream, they all came back home with empty pockets, or stranded in some bar in Pattaya were they pretend to be big business men with the tourist from their home country. I have a friend who had an successful restaurant in Belgium, he invested 2O million bath in building a small exclusive hotel in Pukhet. One day one royal even came to dinner their. Two years later he was back home also with empty pockets. I gave him the same advise as I'm giving to you now. If you not backed up by some major international company don't make any business in Thailand. If you like to stay in Thailand you should have an sufficient income from your home country. Otherwise visit Thailand as an tourist and enjoy your holiday time.

Anonymous commented : Hey Aussie Dave. I thought that you probably missed this article since business section can sometimes be very boring. This partnership will be good for the business community. In the long term, common Thais will not be able to afford to live and or visit these places. The one of possitive aspect is that this business will help bring/improve the building standards/codes in Thailand to first world standard. Since certain ethnic developers will not meet the world building standards/codes due to profit and their old building habits. Real Estate/Residential Sales Dutch Brokerage Taps Luxury Market, 25 February 2006 The Dutch property brokerage My Trusted House (MTH) is expanding into Asia, using Thailand as its base to explore business opportunities in the region. ''We started with Thailand because European people love to take holidays here. After their visits, some people want to buy a house to stay here,'' said Ronald Joosten, the executive partner of MTH Asia Pacific Co. My Trusted House is a leading property sales and marketing agent in Europe, with a focus on luxury vacation homes. It established MTH Asia Pacific with Thai partners to handle its first operation in Asia. The local partners have not been named. Mr Joosten said that Europeans felt comfortable about investing in property in Thailand, despite the lack of land ownership rights for foreigners. ''Thailand is very strong in terms of safety, the economy as well as political [stability] compared with other Asian countries,'' he said. Apart from tourists, the company intends to target as potential customers the large number of expatriates in top management positions with multinational companies in Thailand. It will also link up with accounting, financial and law firms to help ensure that foreigners earn benefits from their property investments in Thailand. The strong growth of the local resale market for real estate also appeals to investors, Mr Joosten added. The company's first venture in Asia is Royal Maritime in Sattahip, Chon Buri. It consists of 25 luxury villas with prices ranging between 30 million and 70 million baht each. The company will hold its first event, called Living Rich Asia, this weekend at the Raffles Park Nai Lert Hotel in Bangkok, in order to introduce itself and the new villa project to affluent Thai clients. It will also arrange its first tour of Thailand for 50 affluent European investors in March. In addition, MTH plans to join with a local cable TV operator to set up Travel TV, aiming to broadcast across Thailand by the end of this year. The travel TV channel will be its key marketing tool following the success in Europe of Liberty TV, its 24-hour leisure and lifestyle channel based in Luxembourg. The television programming focuses on selling vacation-related products including hotels, airline tickets and property. The channel is currently seen in Luxembourg, Germany France, the Netherlands and Belgium. MTH has other property projects in the pipeline in Chiang Mai, Phuket, Samui and Bangkok. After Thailand, the company will expand its business into other Asian countries, including China and Singapore.

Anonymous commented : I hope you have read my tale of woe on this matter? Firstly, be prepared for the worst. The u.k. embassy will naturally assume that your wife is a prostitute and that you are some kind of paedo. Also, be prepared for a long, long wait. So far, we have been waiting for two years and still we have no date for our appeal hearing! The onus is upon you to prove otherwise to what the entry clearance officer wants to believe. SAVE EVERY SHRED OF EVIDENCE YOU CAN ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP. Phone bills, e-mails, letters AND the envelopes they came in. photos, scraps of paper - EVERYTHING. It all adds to your chances. I have it on good authority, from my MP, that this is possibly the worst time you could pick to apply to bring in a non EU person. Politically, the subject is very sensitive and that's not to mention the terrorism threats (real or perceived). You may also want to consider the way of the Chinese. They mamange to come in by firstly going to study/live in an EU country that is not as strict as the U.K. Belgium or Ireland for example. Once in these countries they apply for the right to remain and then make the easy EU hop into the U.K. More advice - if you can find a way around the legal route then take it. The British Embassy in Bangkok is still rife with corruption and bribery. It really doesn't pay to be legal these days! I wish I'd known this before I started to do things the 'proper' way! Good Luck.

Anonymous commented : Rooster, sometimes you presume too much, my wife is not steralized. And her children all have a good career. But its a matter of principal. My wife can get all my property in my country; The law protect her very well. Because when the husband or wife die, the remaining partner gets everyting. There is no difference between children from a previous mariedge. After the remaining partner die, it will be divided between the children ALL the children. If you make a last will and their is no prenuptional agreement, you can only make that will about 50% of you belongings. But the real estate can be used or leased by the remainng partner as long as she alive as like she or hewas the owner , The only thing you can sale the property, whthout agreement of the children, and after the sale you must share the profit for 50%.To make it even more clear, when my wife and me die; the children in Thailand will inherent my property, even they are not a Belgium national. Now you understand what I mean?

Anonymous commented : Boy! This subject sure got you guys going. Well, I am in the same boat and can pretty much confirm all your worst fears. There is corruption in the Bangkok Embassy ( I only wish I knew the system before I made a legal application) and there are all sorts of ways to bring your Thai partners in (via the back door). The chinese do it nicely by applying to a country that is a little less stringent, say Belgium or Eire and then once settled make the E.U. hop into the U.K. My original post, " Ways and means of entry into U.K. for Thai nationals" explains my situation with just as much response and support as you see here. My Thai wife is still in Thailand, she's a university graduate in business and I have the support of my MP and enquiriesmade on my behalf by David Treisman, The Lord Treisman of Tottenham. Even a Lord cannot swing it for me. I cannot get an interview with David Fall, the Ambassador in Bangkok, even though it is my right. By god I want to complain! What I would like to know is, is anyone of any worth reading this, anyone who can make a difference, anyone with some sort of power to make change? If not, we are all lost causes and things will continue as they are. As for the BangkokEmbassy staff, they are all very rude, over officious, faceless beaurocrats who really don't give a damn about you or I, let alone some foreign spouse or partner. They are omnipotent in respect of who they grant a visa to. An appeal, I hear you cry! After six months Bangkok have finally released our application papers to the U.K. so we can now expect an appeal date for some one or two years hence, (due to the backlog of asylum seekers I am reliably informed). When the civil uprising begins, someone give me a shout beacuase I hold this country in the lowest of esteems... Good Luck all!

Anonymous commented : Jean-Paul, you are very correct, I am married already 30 years whit my thai wife, in a few years I like to retire in Thailand, When I married my wife she was a widow whit three children who all get a university degree and having a good job now. My wife and me work very hard to give them this education. We dont bring them to Europe because whe tought they have the best future in Thailand, Better than sitting between two cultures. So the last years of our life we like to spend our time whit them and the grand children to make up the lost years ,we could not spend whit them. My wife have her own house. In my country Belgium my wife has the full equal rights as a Belgium citizen from the first day that she married whit me. The same day that we married she gets Belgium nationality and a Belgium Id card, She have a double nationality .Belgium is a much smaller country than Thailand, and hav emuch more foreigners than Thailand ,about 12 %.Thats why honestly I feel offended that the Thai goverment make it very complicated for me to retire in Thailand, I dont even dream of becoming the Thai nationality, because i am married a Thai cittizen, why I am so dangerous for the Kingdom. I am not a bandit. I will not take anything away from Thailand, Thai goverment dont have to support me. On the contarary, since I have no family left in my home country, I will transfer all my assets to Thailand I get my pension money from my home counrty .The only thing I won't is to have a peacefull life, and make some travel around Asia. To close this topic I feel offended, that when we travel arround or shopping, I must be low profile becuse otherwise I have to pay more than the common Thai citizen.This is almost everywhere, on the market in hotels samlo or tuk-tuk. Sometimes the samlo driver gets angry, when he see me gets in his vehicle when my wife ask the price first. In public place's i would agree if the fee is free for Thai citizen and tourst have to pay, but ask double pricing is not honnest.A foreigner have to pay more,Why doe's he get a better service than Thai people, if its so than this is pure racisme, not against the foreigner but against the own population. And if not, than its cheating. maybe Thailand dont realize this but this damadged their reputation in the world. I do not think that Lord Bhudda teach like this, and because most of Thai are Bhuddist so.............