The Red Velvet Lawyer

The Last 18 Months: Transition Back to the US, Into Retirement, During a Pandemic In January 2021, Qatar University College of Law advised that it would apply the Qatari retirement cap of 65 years and not renew my contract.  QU had waved the retirement cap for two years.  Even so, the news made me very sad (and a bit angry).  I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Qatar and my job as a clinical professor of law teaching college-level law students.  I loved my expat friends, my students, and all of my QU faculty colleagues.   The news forced me to plan my move back to the US.  Before the pandemic started, I had planned to retire to Chiang Mai, Thailand, a northern university town, with an ancient moat, ring roads, and elephant rescue parks to the north in the mountains.    When the country closed its borders, I considered other countries that offered retirement visas without me having to return to the US to begin the process.  I looked at Malaysia an...

Planning my Third Act and my Transition from Qatar to Thailand Using Vision Boards As I plan my international move from Qatar to Thailand for my third act as a retiree, I have used a number of planning tools.  I describe them here ,  here , here , and here . I picked a word for the year: Transition.   I reflected on the goal setting words I chose for 2019.  Had they worked?   I listed all the things I did in 2019.   All 108 of them.   And, using the Sunday Summits for 2019, I closed the loops on pending projects.  In June 2019, I created a vision board to help me get through my last year as a Clinical Professor of Law at Qatar University College of Law.  As an organizing technique, I used the nine quadrants of the Feng Shui Bagua Map.  The vision board included: financial goals and tasks,  the need to update my internet presence to reflect a change in location and employment,  rec...

An Expat's Life:  Appetite for the New and Novel As I plan my retirement abroad, I'm reading a ton of books about expat life and living overseas. One book in particular has a passage that seems to sum up very well traits that successful expats share. Here is the quote, Being an expat requires a true appetite for new and novel situations - or at least a hefty tolerance for them - because it's unlikely you'll ever clear up an unfamiliar situation by saying, "This isn't the way we do it back home." Successful expats thrive on novelty and unfamiliar situations. They relish the challenge of figuring out how to get things done, often in new - and possibly better -ways. You will never really know if you are cut out to be an expat until you try it.  Suzan Haskins and Prescher Dan. Guide to Retiring Overseas on a Budget (2014). Thought it was worth sharing.  I was born ready for the expat life.

Filing the TM30 and TM28 Forms; Reporting Week-end Travel So, after spending the summer reading about Ecuador, I had decided to continue to explore Thailand as a retirement destination. Ecuador looks perfectly fine, but I am not ready to leave Asia. Even so, I may need to explore other destinations. Glad I have a year to figure it out. In the past few months, Thai Immigration has begun strictly enforcing a 1970s-era law allowing them to closely track the movement of "foreigners." The law was passed at a time when Thailand saw an influx of 600,000 refugees. One news article explained: When the 1979 law was enacted, Thailand had well under 2 million tourist arrivals annually, but was experiencing major influxes of refugees from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. This followed the fall of Indochina to communist forces in mid-1975, and the invasion of Cambodia by Vietnam at the end of 1978. Today, immigration control is a much changed proposition. Forecasts for leg...

Making Sure Only Financially Secure Expats Retire in Thailand? In a recent news paper article , Thai officials announced new rules governing health insurance for expats staying for extended periods of time, including retirees. Health insurance has been made mandatory for foreigners aged 50 years and above seeking long-term stay in Thailand. The insurance policy must offer up to Bt40,000 coverage for outpatient treatment and up to Bt400,000 for inpatient treatment.  This is one of the measures the government has introduced to ease the financial burden placed on state hospitals by foreigners, many of whom have not paid for treatment.  “The Cabinet has already approved the new rule,” Health Service Support Department director-general Nattawuth Prasert-siripong revealed yesterday.   According to Nattawuth, the new rule applies to both new applicants for the non-immigrant visa (O-A), which offers a stay of up to one year, and those wishing to ren...

An Asian Thing?   A Chinese Thing?   Because I am planning retirement in Thailand in the summer of 2020, I am now a member of several Facebook groups formed by English-speaking expats living in Thailand.  One member posted this inquiry: Several people I know, including myself, have been “cut” in line when it’s clear (from our perspective) that we are next in line to be served— Whether this be at 7-Eleven, the coffee shop, or the French fry truck at the pool. Like, we will be waiting patiently when suddenly someone will just cut, order, and get served before us. It’s baffling, because in America, that’s a huge, rude no-no. So we wonder, Are we cue-ing incorrectly? Like should we be more assertive with the server so they (and everyone else) know we are next? Could it be a micro-aggression toward foreigners? Could it be a general lack of awareness of some people...? Has anybody else had this experience? Do you know why?! 😂 The ...