Possible relocation to Thailand

Hello to everybody !
My name is George and I come from Cyprus, a small island in the meditterenean sea  :D

I have long been thinking about relocation to Thailand. Having visited the country on numerous ocassions with my wife, we have finally decided to turn our thoughts into action!

We will be grateful for any advise, particularly on the professional-working aspect. I am a UK qualified accountant and I have extensive Management experience in European Companies.

This is all for now and I wish everybody a healthy and fruitful day!!

Hello George,

Welcome to Expat.com :)

Please note that a new thread was created with your post on the Thailand forum for a better interaction with the other members.

While waiting for some answers, you can have a look at the Expat Guide in Thailand for some more information.

Shaazia
Expat.com Team

I will try to save you the Grief that we have from not researching our move better. 1.  If you are going to need a car, consider bringing yours from the UK, they are expensive here and many have a lot of miles on them.  And if you decide to buy a new car you will have to pay a great deal of taxes. We bought a new Subaru XV normally  it would had cost 25,000 but with the tax we had to pay another 15,000 it cost 40,000 instead.  Another lesson was health care is very expensive here and most insurance companies will take advantage of the Expats, think we have the money to pay the price they come up with, so I would suggest if you are healthy that you just buy hospital care policy and take care of the minor problems out of pocket.  Blood tests, check ups, exams, ex-rays are all very cheap.  Thai Life Insurance offers a medical policy that will cover you till you are 90 years old.  You should look them up on-line and request to speak to someone that can speak English, you won't regreat this.  Good Luck with your move.  Patrick

I've found it much different here in Thailand, but was taken for $10,000 USD blackmail on my shipment because I did not get a permanent visa lined up in advance and it turned out nobody would help me as long as I couldn't speak Thai. Big Lesson. I found a used Jeep here very reasonable as is everything, but later sold it and went halves with my Thai wife on a new Brio, my half after $3,000 for the Jeep came to only $3,000 and I've loved driving it daily, great mileage, for 4 years now. Medical is about 1/5 that in the states and I'm in good health and steer clear of MDs, so I don't bother with insurance. As my wife is a government officer, I also get 100% coverage anywhere in Thailand for those major surprises if they happen. I paid $6000 in the states for a battery of blood tests (insurance did anyway), but I had a much better job done here for $30, one day in and out. I paid $1,000 in Missoula Montana for an unfinished brake job on my old Ford pickup, had the same thing done here on the Jeep, all four wheels completely overhauled for $10. The only job I could get in the states with 8 years university math and science was a $13,000/yr job with the Missoula school district where I had to listen to rude banter by pedophiles vying for job security. I also took a brief job with a "research" business on federal property in Missoula, $700/mo but the managers were pushing crack and other drugs on the workers. My $10,000 SS in the hand stretches farther than $30,000 would in the states if I could ever get a job and not worry about the people who were determined to have me killed. Here my job 24/7 is to love and care for my beautiful little family, adorable baby grand daughter, daughters and gorgeous wife. There are serious dangers here as well, but I won't go into that.