rexall

8 hours ago, Pedrogaz said:

Can someone explain what the good news is? Doesn't;t this mean I still have to waste days on end per year reporting to immigration anytime I step outside my front door? Where is the good news in that? Filing a TM30 or a TM 28, it is the trip to the IO I object to, especially after I have given my address to immigration officials at the airport the day before.

 

It's not good news.  It's bad news! Depending on your situation, you may end up having to do the damn TM30 for your owner anyway if he is not on the ball with this kind of stuff.  Sure, let the <deleted> get fined if he doesn't file.  See what happens to your rent or your lease renewal after that. See what happens to the next nasty, greasy foreigner who want to rent from him.  Sure it might not be a big deal ... but it might.

8 hours ago, phetpeter said:

I flew home after working away for 2 months, after the filling in the arrival form I wrote on my home address stating I was returning home. Thats it! I have never reported to immigration nor have I ever been asked about it. True I am listed as joint owner of my house as was required at the local government office has it was purchased after we were married. plus we stayed 3 days in Pattaya before returning home. I have just departed again to work overseas. and nothing is said. So I assume this is for Expats who don't have their names on deeds, which is a simple government offer is purchased or built after you are married. Sure we are registered at any hotel we stay at. but, then that is done in any country. As for reporting if we are staying with friends for a few days, never. 

As has been pointed out before, this "staying with friends" business is bizarre and unenforceable. How is IO going to know you left your home and stayed with friends, and then returned home unless someone "rats out out," or by some weird fluke your friends get caught. That seems highly unlikely, and one the guy in the Korat IO said as much.  However, make no mistake, the intention of the law is that your friends report you as well as any Jews they happen to be hiding in the attic.  Sigh!

8 hours ago, lensta said:

I rent a house so how is the landlord supposed to know if I have been away or not.

You see, this is the rub. Although Col Nareuwat Putthawiro made it clear several times that the TM30 is the responsibility of the landlord/owner, not the greasy, nasty foreigner, there are scenarios were you get sucked into the process anyway. Being married to the owner is one.  The situation you describe is another; you would have to call your landlord (who may not speak English) and inform him or her of your return home. If you are being helpful, you probably also want to remind him or her that failure to file is punishable by death!  Unless the owner is on-the-ball with this kind of stuff, you may be better off just getting power of attorney and doing it yourself anyway ... especially as--in spite of what Col Putthawiro says--your local I/O may hold you responsible anyway!  

6 hours ago, MaxLee said:

Well, I live in my dad's house, who is a retired Thai National, but now he is in Germany and he cannot fill out the TM 30. I just recently renewed my Non immigrant B visa

 

Now my dad is not in Thailand to register me via TM 30,

 

What do I do now, hahahaha???

I don't know the exact procedure or what the proper name is, but you get "power of attorney"  from your dad to file the TM30 in absence on his behalf.  Depending on how strictly your Imm office regards the TM30, you may get fined the 2,000 even if the failure to file is not your fault.  Sorry to be the one to tell you.

12 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Grab is an excellent service...  the industry needs to evolve. 

 

But, the outstanding issue is that of licensing - Taxi Drivers and 'Red Car' drivers have to pay for a license to operate - it is this which make the competition unfair. 

 

IF Grab Drivers had to also pay for a license to operate the playing field would be even. 

Or, even better so, eradicate the Graf - why charge people to pay for a license to operate Taxi or Red car, but then also take measures to ensure the Taxi's and Red Cars are fully insured to carry passengers.

 

I can see how this is a little unfair for the Red Car drivers, but I have little sympathy given their aggressive and gang-like behavior, also doubt they are fully legal themselves. 

It's a Catch 22.  How can Grab drivers pay for a license if what they are doing is illegal?

The people who make these nanny state laws live in a bubble, remain relatively uninformed abut the world outside of Thailand, and simply are clueless about how foolish they look to the outside.

3 hours ago, phetpeter said:

I find it amazing, how many expats think that going to a private hospital, for most problems is the best thing todo? The first thing they do is ask you what type of room would they like? 10k on the bill. Yes it needs a couple of stitches. and a couple of paracetamols, plus an injection of paracetamol. an overnight stay to make sure you don't come down with a fever or the stitches bust! and what would you like for dinner, please make sure a friend stays with you, but, we will charge for a nurse to come in every 4 hours to check you BP. smile and leave again. That will be 20K...cash or card?

 

Government hospital, clean, stitch. told to go buy paracetamols at 7/11 (10baht), pop in each day to change dressing, check its healing nicely. Whats that you paying SS? Free. Not paying then that will be 200 baht! 

 

For me, paying SS, 5 years ago Heart attack, Government hospital, every 3 months check up tablets, every six months Cat Scan, xray, ecg etc. Once a year Cancer tag checks. all other other checks and treatment, eyes stomach etc. FREE!

Treated with respect, and many times pushed to the front, as the only foreigner. When stayed in hospital private room 200 baht per night.

No one smiled at me when they took my blood pressure. ????

4 hours ago, bheard said:

 

 

"I still find this extremely hard to believe as the hospital will never let you leave until paid in full. How do you rack up a bill and then walk away?"

An easy way to do it (as a mate of mine did recently) is to die.
His good woman had to cough up lots of dosh as he'd been in a govt hosp for more than a month getting treatment for cancer, no insurance, then she had to fund his cremation as well.

Sent from my SM-T385 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

 

How much to final barbeques cost, anyway?

4 hours ago, Bobsuruncle said:

I don't believe for a minute that this will actually help the financially strapped hospitals. I do believe that it's designed to help the insurance companies increase their bank accounts. If it is actually true that farangs are at fault for the hospitals problems (which I highly doubt) all they would have to do is send a patient's passport number to immigration on the day of any medical procedure being done and immigration would not let anyone leave Thailand who had an outstanding medical bill where the hospital hadn't given them clearance.

After reading through some of the provided insurance company policies on what wasn't covered, I began to wonder if they would cover anything at all. The insurance companies have so many loop holes that I don't think they will be paying out on many claims. 

This leaves the farang to not only pay for a huge deductible or the whole hospital bill but on top of that he/she would have to come up with the annual policy amount of 60,000 to 100,000 baht (depending on age) just to have a policy. So bottom line is I see this as a farang having to come up with an extra 60,000 to 100,000 baht per year just to be allowed to stay in Thailand and not get anything for it except a worthless piece of paper stating that they have "insurance coverage". 

This brings us back to square one. There won't really be any money going to the hospitals from the insurance companies and the government will have to blame somebody else for their incompetence. 

 

Not "allowed" to leave Thailand???  Where can I sign up for that? 

4 hours ago, burner2014 said:

That's a big issue of the insurance world anyways. But it's not 100% true. I asked this 4 months ago at a Thai Insurance Company and this was the answer:

 

"It is because XXX only accepts new applicants up to 70 years old, but there is no age limit for renewal clients. It means that if you apply for our health insurance before 70 years old, you can still renew even if you are 90 years old."

 

So choosing a health insurance when you still 50-60 years old is important to be insured when you 90.

 

This is the first time I have heard of a company issuing new policies for people that old. When I was 60, I switched from AIA to BOOOPA because BOOOPA was the only one I knew about that would guarantee not to cancel your coverage so long as premium paid.  Their upper limit for new policies was age 60 or 61.

5 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

I still find this extremely hard to believe as the hospital will never let you leave until paid in full. How do you rack up a bill and then walk away?

 

All we can do is wait and see what comes out and how it is written. Not going to speculate, but I have my feeling there is more to it than that..

I am an O visa (retirement extension) so hopefully this will not apply to me.  However, I have had crappy BOOOPA for ten years. Only inpatient. When this possible regulation first came up, I investigated adding outpatient coverage.  One of the problems with BOOOPA is that they do not describe coverage in terms of total payouts, so you can't ask "How much will B40,000 of outpatient cost?"  But the only outpatient coverage available would provide B2,500 per incident for a maximum of 30 incidents over one year.  In other words a maximum of B75,000.  Nothing less than that so far as I was able to determine.  The kicker is that adding outpatient would increase my premium by something like and additional B50,000! My outpatient will be B72,000 this year, so to get outpatient would be around B122,000 or something like that.   What a crap deal; B50,000 premium gets you a maximum of B75,000 payout unless I am completely misreading it. Ridiculous and not doable. Even more ridiculous considering that I have never had a claim in 10 years; the easiest B500,000 BOOOPA every made!

Anyone presently age 61 will not be able to obtain medical insurance anywhere in Thailand. I don't think mandatory insurance is unreasonable, but the consortium has better make it possible and reasonable to obtain insurance. Otherwise, you are effectively saying that old farts who are not grandfathered in with some form of coverage are banned from Thailand. I wouldn't mind if they just folded coverage into the Thai scheme and chare the nasty, greasy falang triple the Thai rate or something like that. 

8 minutes ago, taninthai said:

See this is my exact point moaners will be moaners ,this is a tourist who isn’t does not even affectbbut they still need to come on the forum and moan about it.

the system is in its early stages once the online system is working fine for everyone it will be as easy to do as opening up your email.

already many many are saying the online system works fine for them as usual ferang cannot be patient.

i don’t feel empathy if people are to dumb to register online or mail it in and would prefer to drive 80 km or spend all day in a busy immigration that’s there own choice.

 

 

half the people don’t seem to be able to read on this forum still repeating have to notify within 24/hours

ITS 48 hours if you can’t even grasp that you have no hope of registering online.

 

i deal with general public everyday and you soon realise a huge percent are completely clueless it makes me wonder how they get through life.

Your high opinion of yourself is indeed an inspiration!    .... Not!

8 minutes ago, joecoolfrog said:

Less of this ' frog in a pot ' talk please.

I like the "frog in a pot" talk.  It is a apt metaphor, as is "I thought they were only coming for the commies ... until they came for me."

1 hour ago, saminoz said:

I've been here, on and off, for over 10 years.  I have never, ever bothered with a TM30 as I normally stay at my house in Nontahburi or the other one in Lampang.

Right now I am working in Myanmar and coming home every couple of months, still using my retirement extension.

This hoopla caused me to register for the online App on Saturday, to which I got a slightly delayed reply and request to confirm my email address.

Yesterday I received the Username and password but, guess what, they don't work!

I'll take my chances when I leave again in 10 days to go back to Yangon.  I can at least show that I tried to do it right and I did register.

How do they manage to get it so wrong most of the time?  It's almost as if it was by design!

Is there a link for doing this on their website too?  Maybe it's my App!

If you travel back & forth between your house in Nontahburi and Lampang, outside of some freak happening, you will never be caught out for not filing a TM30.  Same-same if you are traveling to a friends house who does not file a TM30. That is one of the reasons the law is so stupid; anyone who is motivated to avoid it can, and nogoodniks who have reason to avoid it, will.

1 minute ago, Odisan said:

My name's Jack, and I'm alright...

Yeah, moaners all right!  That's what they called the Jews who complained about having to wear armbands ... that is until complaining was punishable by death.  There is a DIFFERENCE between the relative inconvenience and the actual dynamic of what is going on with this. Sooner or later, it will all be done online, and with a decent system it won't represent any inconvenience at all.  Then with some kind of chip or tracking device; then you won't have to do anything.  It doesn't change it.  PLEASE think about how you would feel if this were going on in your home country and you had to write up your foreign friends every time they visited you. This is not a good thing!

Using minor oversights such as not depositing B100 on the day of the application is playing a sadistic game of "gotcha."  A an oversight like that can disrupt your life in a serious way! If they just want to mess with your head, fine. Smile until it hurts and then get the hell out of there.  But potentially having to travel to Laos to apply for a 90 day "B" so you can apply for a new extension, which may or may not be granted. Unbelievable!

13 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

 <snip>

Its normal in today's world - there are foreign reporters in most countries and only the most authoritarian deport them for reporting issues that may not be to their liking. <snip>

Indeed.  And it is an interesting "social experiment" to see just how much of loss of face the current government regards being viewed by the international community as "authoritarian."  Maybe they just don't give a rat's ass, and will be one of the few modern states to regress back into being a banana republic.

On 8/10/2019 at 12:42 PM, Tanoshi said:

One of the issues I've witnessed was monthly overseas transfers of between 67-69,000 baht verified by Thai bank statements and bank letter confirming the sole account holders details.

 

They requested supported documentation as the source of income, which was provided in the form of a Pension statement letter.

However when they calculated his monthly pension payments and converted to baht, his monthly pension fell short of the required 65,000 baht per month due to the current exchange rate.

He has sufficient funds in his home bank (an accumulation of pension payments over the years) to make up the current shortfall in the exchange rate in order to meet the 65K per month transfers.

 

The new requirement states proof of overseas transfers to a Thai bank of 65K per month, not a Pension letter (unless an Embassy Income letter). His extension was refused on the basis of his Pension letter.

Which Imm office was this?

In reporting these incidents, it would helpful to say which Imm office if you feel safe so doing.

That is a perverse and arbitrary misinterpretation of the regulation. What if you don't have a pension? What if you are sending the funds from savings? What if you have several income streams from dividends, interest payments, and other investments? "Retired" means you don't have to work because you have means. It does not mean you received a pension.  Besides, Imm allows retirement from age 50 (52?). How many 50 year olds receive pensions.

Regarding the comments about TransferWise deposits being marked as international deposits.  Many of us with a BBL account have been calling TW just after we initiate a transfer and requesting that TW manually route it through BBL.  TW have been quite clear that they can make the request but cannot guarantee the results. However, after deposits began showing up in July as SWIFT and people began requesting manual routing, I have not heard of one that did not get noted as International Transfer.  Perhaps some have, and there isn't a huge sample in any case, but the preliminary results seem positive.

On 8/10/2019 at 10:56 AM, adam1948 said:

 I'm probably one of a few hundred thousand Expats who have retired to Thailand, got married to a wonderful Thai Lady and have built a home for our family of four ... Since I(we) have invested at least 1,000,000 baht or more in our home and plan to live the rest of our lives here why not make it easy on us by allowing us to use our property value(1,000,000 Baht) to satisfy the monetary portion of "Marriage O" visa extension

many of us are property owners, why not use the property as the collateral and allow us to use the cash for daily living expenses,

You could (or at least you used to be able to) if it was a condo.  But as greasy, slimy foreigner are not allowed to own property in Thailand, you obviously could not use it as "collateral."  Technically, any money your wife might give you would not be useful unless the funds originated offshore.