Danes Worldwide and Dancham had sold all 60 seats for the information meeting for Danes in Bangkok on Wednesday 7 February – “but we could easily have been a hundred people here tonight,” said Thailand Representative of Danes Worldwide, Marianne Edelmann Kruger in her welcome address. “That’s how many we have had to turn down!”
The limitation was the size of the living room at the residence of the Danish Ambassador H.E. Mr. Jon Thorgaard. But maybe in the future these meetings would be held more frequently, Mr. Thorgaard said, because the embassy had noted the apparent need in the community for briefings like this on the latest rules and regulations. The Ambassador also introduced Consul Dennis Blicher who this spring will take over as Head of the Visa Section at the Embassy, an area he has prior experience with from the Danish Embassy in London.
Also Dancham Secretary General Michael Andersen welcomed the many participants, sharing among other things his hands on experience with the surprising issue that Danes have to obtain a new Thai driving license if they loose their Danish license while living in Thailand – you cannot get a new Danish one unless you move back to Denmark.
From Danes Worldwide, the welcome speech was held online by Secretary General Michael Bach Petersen. He explained about the key deliveries that a membership of Danes Worldwide provides but the meat of the evening was delivered by Lisbeth Kjersgaard, legal advisor for Danes Worldwide.
Lisbeth Kjersgaard, explained in simple and clear slides the rules and regulations regarding issues of particular interest to Danes in Thailand: keeping or re-applying for Danish citizenship, family unification in Denmark, driving license issues, pension issues and higher education in Denmark.
If the participants paid attention, it would be hard to find a question that she had not already covered. That saved a lot of time in the half hour set aside for Q&A. The questions were drilling into specific situations and she had also clear advice in these cases.
The meeting started at 6.30 pm after half an hour for snacks and drinks and ended on 9 pm.
“What an excellent presentation – the rules are actually not that complicated,” was a frequent remark as the participants left the Embassy shortly after 9 pm.
