farangx

2 hours ago, newnative said:

     Actually, your 40,000 figure would just cover northern America, according to Wikipedia.  46,000 for northern America, over 200,000 for Europe, and 13,000 for Australia and Oceania.  And, that's not counting all the Asian countries.

     To answer your second question as to 'how much will they spend?', I think the answer is plenty.  I'm just one expat but in the last 8 years I've bought:  18 condos, 17 refrigerators, 27 TVs, 15 aircons, 17 sofas, 20 beds and mattresses, 17 clothes washers, and a great deal of assorted other furniture and housewares to furnish the 18 condos. And 4 cars.  With almost all the condos, I employed local electricians, tilers, plumbers, painters, granite workers, wallpaper installers, curtain makers, contractors, furniture fabricators and installers, carpenters, artists, and many others.

 

I have no idea that there are like 300,000 retirees here on the 800K scheme retirement extensions, I would guess that should be easily another 200,000 here who are on 65K income statement.  Making a total of at least 500,000 fully funded retirees in Thailand.  I say we definitely have a market for flipping condos here.

3 hours ago, JackThompson said:

They cannot live long-term here.  They can only stay 60+30 days, then the process starts over from scratch.  Immigration are not breaking the law by removing overstayers (living long-term as tourists), but, they have a set of limited valid causes in law to prevent entry to someone with a valid Tourist Visa, who has no criminal/overstay history.  Applicant "has been here x-time before," is not among those valid, listed reasons. 

 

But the IO can refuse that tourist entry if he finds he does not fit the profile of a long term tourists.  Valid visa does not guarantee entry into the country. His numerous back to back 60+30 days entries won't help him.  He will need to convince the IO that he really cannot get enough of the country.  Refusing entry does not mean he is banned.  The IO could be suggesting that he takes a break, have a holiday outside Thailand, then come back later for more of it. 

Perhaps immigration should have a rule that if the tourist has a 60+30 days back to back, then he must stay out of Thailand for 180 days before he can come back in.  This is very fair for the tourist, after all he is still a tourist.

2 hours ago, StayinThailand2much said:

Not sure about UK passports, but old passports usually get voided when getting new ones, so if you're in this part of the world, no way to leave on the old and enter on the new passport.

You are right.  What I meant was he applied for that new passport outside Thailand.  I overlooked that he implied he got his new passport in Thailand.

3 minutes ago, chado said:

Is it falling? Why? By how much?

The numbers are really bad.  They did not show up during the Golden Week.  Now even with the visa fee waived, there are only a handful of them. As for why you have to check the previous pages.

5 hours ago, tandor said:

..so what about the poor folk who can't afford a smart phone and all those who still use a pay phone, or you're up in the mountains and have no service...and..and.

In that case you better tattoo the QR Code on your forehead.  I won't do that because I will always have my driver's licence in my wallet.

And I shall share a secret with many here, my driver's licence does not run on battery, so there no need to switch on the card to see the  QR Code.

14 hours ago, Psimbo said:

Oh dear- positive action and attempts at progress meets with disapproval from Thaigeezers yet again.  The first page of this thread is just chock full of negativity and sarcasm.

 

I saw some berk comment in the BP that it wouldn't go down well in Canada when he tried to rent a car. The dipstick clearly didn't realise that this is in ADDITION to the current driving licence.

 

Some people just seize on any occasion to knock progress (and knock a lack of progress as well!).

 

Personally I see this as a great idea should I forget to carry my licence on occasion.

But you forgot TIT, This Is Thaivisa. ????

4 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

No you don't 'have to'... you can just give them your driving license !!!.... 

 

So many posters are barking up the paranoid tree....  This is potentially a 'convenience' for someone who has forgotten their License (and have the app installed)... that's about it... 

 

Nothing more than that to see here really.... 

 

 

 

Please, not all westerners speak English, some of them cannot even read properly.

2 hours ago, fforest1 said:

There are no blunders on this level......This is just another example of the visa Anaconda ever so slowly squeezing the life out of all visa classes....The Anaconda may relax the tightening here and there to give a false sense that the worst is over when the truth is the opposite...

Only the elite visa seems untouchable....

Those fake tourists must go, but first fine them.  They won't be missed. 

The 800k retirement scheme will remain, no reason to get rid of it.  The 65K income statement scheme just needs to be sorted out, sieving will occur, no drama here.

42 minutes ago, madmen said:

6 hours ago, grego49 said:

Went to Karon beach a few years ago,our hotel was full of Russians my wife was the only thai staying in the hotel,getting to the buffet breakfast was like the start of the Boston marathon, never again,just experienced the same in Pattaya a few months ago with chinnese,people dont need that crap fighting for food at breakfast,my friends that used the come here go to Bali or the Philippines now,much cheaper,
Kanchanaburi is pretty quiet now too,cheers

You can not escape the Chinese. By the time you get to those places.. Which you won't.. The Chinese will be there waiting for you

But you must go now while you still stand a chance.

5 hours ago, chama said:

The Chinese are desperately anxious to end the pollution in Thailand. So the second objective should work wonders. And communicating the improvements to the Chinese as a way to bring them back will only help if they have something relevant to tell the Chinese tourist. 

 

Of course there is an entire world out there that the Thais could try to market to but that hasn't seemed to occur to them.

How many western tourists get to enjoy paying 2,000b for visas like the Chinese tourists do.  There is still a month left for the Chinese tourists to enjoy this free visa.  Last year more than 25 million Chinese tourists visited Thailand.  That is more than 1.5 billion USD on visa fees alone, the entire world out there will just have to wait.

1 hour ago, bojo said:

You are missing the point and that is that the OP says that an extortionate wine revenue is costing the country. It might be to a certain extent, but certainly doesn't run into billions of dollars.

Oh, if you are talking about wine, then wine definitely won't run that much.  I won't play more than 900b for a bottle of wine, unless I really need it.  I rather spend 2500b duty free when I fly in.

15 hours ago, newnative said:

     If he wants a better balance of tourist numbers why is he concentrating on the Chinese?  Their reduced numbers is a good thing.  Instead, he should be trying to win back western tourists to improve the mix of tourists. 

If I were to give him the benefit of the doubt, I say he is thinking something beyond the short term.  Long term would be impossible for him, no brain.

18 hours ago, mikebell said:

They'd be better off wooing Western ex-pats whose monthly spend keeps things ticking over during the quiet months.  Instead the Thai solution is 'grab 800,00' and stash it in a Thai bank.

how many are expats are there in this category, I guess 40,000?  If that is so it is a small number and negligible compared to the population here.  How much will they spend?

I would have exit with my old passport and come back in with the new one and avoid transferring any stamps altogether.

17 minutes ago, bojo said:

That's a hell of a statement ...'losing billions of dollars a year in revenue', but you made a good point..

That's quite easy.  Chinese tourists make up more than a quarter of the arrivals last year.  Total revenue was more than 50 billions of dollars.  So yes, Chinese tourists affects the GDP here if they stop coming.

14 minutes ago, Maestro said:

A blunder was made, though, with the change from visa rubber stamps to visa adhesive stickers. For a single-entry tourist visa, for example, the stamp said correctly "Good for a single journey to Thailand", whereas the sticker says "NO. OF ENTRY: S". The visa itself does not grant entry into Thailand; it merely allows travel to Thailand. Between the end of the journey and entry into Thailand is the immigration officer who grants entry and is known occasionally to deny it.

S for Single and M for Multiple.

Drug deal gone wrong?

30 minutes ago, KhunFred said:

I strongly considered Panama but always felt Thailand was a good place to retire. My Spanish is not good, so Thailand won out. Apparently, I lose. The government is morphing into "Farang Go Home" mode. Hard to believe that Thailand is courting a nation which has not traditionally had good relations with monarchies of any type.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this warning for visa runners.  I am very sure they know they have to stop running sooner or later.

28 minutes ago, vinegarbase said:

I tried to tell people. Every time there is a crackdown on illegal immigration it always comes hand in hand with making legal immigration more difficult and screwing over those just trying to follow the rules. 

 

Thailand is not going back to the Thailand of 5-10 years ago. They are paying tribute to the new emperors in China. "Farang go home" is the new Thai slogan. Good news is that you can free yourselves of the Thailand chains. Go get your Panama permanent residency in about 2 months and enjoy your freedom. You can own land, guns, get permanent residency and enjoy your freedom they way you are supposed to. Forget all this Thai immigration madness.  These are the guys to go through and don't wait before it's too late to make your backup plan. https://www.joyful-feet.com

 

When the dust settles for these rules and the drama, the strong adapts, and they will be back.  The sun still shines tomorrow.

55 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Meanwhile, the part in the articles about visa agents supposedly misleading unsuspecting Immigration Officers on fake 800,000b bank deposits is pure, priceless, Thai government BS gold. I'm sure there are some cases of actual fraud. But I'd wager the vast majority of the time, all the parties involved know exactly what's going on, and the exchange of money in some fashion or another (despite "no tips" please) continues to allow the practice to exist.

 

It is called pay to play ....

9 hours ago, JLCrab said:

I don't care what is or isn't proof -- it's a bribe just the same.

 

Are you expecting that the IO officer would give a receipt for his 15,000 baht share of the agents 20,000 baht fee?

So if you are unhappy with the arrangement between the agent and the IO, it is unlikely you will get the chance to broker a better deal for the agent and that the IO gets less.  The agent is just the runner here, he can take care of his own welfare.  Unless you want a cut in their business, I suggest not.

This process does not start without the farang giving the agent 20K.  The farang is the top of the food chain here.  Without the farang, none of this would have happened,  In all seriousness, don't go after the agent the IO who are both innocent.  Go after that farang, he is the mastermind.   Sorry Batman ....????

On 12/14/2018 at 3:29 AM, xylophone said:

Nothing like the amount that Immigration makes out of the agents and other backhanders.

 

A former Consul said that Immigration where I live make "hundreds of million" baht a year this way so don't expect the recent changes to the Embassy letters fiasco being solved because it will drive many expats down the agent route..........."a nice little earner" as the saying goes.

To make 100 million baht from this game will require 6,000 players with a buy-in at 17K each.  For a branch turnover of 400 million baht a year, the number of players increase to 24,000.  That averaged out to 65 players a day, good turnover!

14 hours ago, Nyezhov said:

The test is this: the fair runs for another few weeks. Anybody on overstay want to go with me so we can see what is what?

I like this proof of concept, it looks harmless. ????

16 hours ago, thailand49 said:

Last, I was talking to my brother who has for sometime arranged through the New York HQ Bangkok Bank with S.S. to have his pension deposited it is then transferred to his Bangkok Bank account here in Pattaya. His payment arrives around the 5th of every month, as I remember the International rate was something like 32.75-80 that week. I don't expect to get that rate but something after conversion something in the 32.00? but based on our discussion he said he got 48,000 baht my math puts the rate he was given at something 31.50, I got a withdraw receipt from Aeon around that same period 32.40 out of their ATM.

 

If this is all true not only are they getting Interest on money for being seasoned by loaning it out they are giving a much lower conversion rate than an ATM, somehow something just smell to high heaven but being in Thailand it shouldn't be a surprise.????

The exchange rates your bank give you different for TT, credit cards, cash exchanged over the bank counter, etc.  For a currency pair, money changer rates are better than bank exchange rates which is better than ATM rates.  The best exchange rates one could get at the bank is spot rate, but that would be for a significant amount.

One has to expect the bank has to put that 800K to work over the 3 months period, no bank is going to let that money just sit there and do nothing.  The money must work for the interests the bank give you in return.  Not just the 800K alone, even the minimum 3K balance in the account to avoid fees are not spared.  ????

And lastly, it would be naive to think that only the Thai banks do it.