soisanuk

I live in Pattaya and have at different times purchased two online from Invade IT. Over the years, I have also purchased other computer accessories from them. They are based in Hua Hin and will ship to anywhere in Thailand. I pay with bank transfer and the items usually ship within 1 to 3 days arriving the following day.

In the 20+ years I have been living here with annual retirement extensions, I have missed the 90 day address report twice during that period. The result was a 2,000 baht fine. No other consequences. As mentioned, online reporting is up to the due date, so trying to do it even one day late, will most likely see it rejected.

Some US Expats here that do not have a US bank account set up a Wise (Wise.com) virtual account which provides an account number and ACH routing number (both needed by SS to set up direct deposit). When they receive their deposit, transfer all or part of the funds in the virtual account to their Thai bank account at their convenience. But, a caution, the virtual account is not FDIC insured. As mentioned, Wise has good exchange rates and fees are reasonable. Vist their website for details.

For my last 3 retirement extensions, I have obtained both bank letters (verification of account required for all and listing of foreign deposits for the previous 12 months used for the monthly income method) from Bangkok Bank's service counter at Tesco Lotus South in Pattaya. Since I don't keep my passbook updated on a regular basis, I firs order bank statements for the previous 12 months which they have to obtain from HQ in Bangkok and takes about 5 business days. I then return and they prepared both bank letters for Immigration for me, using the bank statements for the listing of foreign deposits which I then presented to Immigration the following morning along with my TM.7 and other required documents. Next year I will need to use a different customer service location as Bangkok Bank closed their counter at Tesco Lotus South last month.

You should able to get the bank letter from any branch bank. The branch bank where I opened my account is in South Pattaya. As it is more convenient, I have been obtaining the letter from Bangkok Bank's customer service counter at Tesco Lotus South (just recently they have closed that counter). I know several others that use the Bangkok Bank branch on Jomtien 2nd Road located near the Immigration Office.

Bangkok bank charges the 0.0025% as a conversion fee, but it has a minimum of 200 baht and maximum of 500 baht for this fee. It is not charged if funds are received in Thai baht. Because it is usually cheaper than using their US bank to do the transfer. Some banks do not offer international wire transfers as part of their online banking. My US bank charges US$45 for international wire transfers in US dollars. Wise's fees are much less. My bank's online system will do international transfers for a fee of US$5, BUT require the funds be converted to Thai baht at a very lousy exchange rate - when they introduced that service, I did a comparison with Wise using US$2,500 as the transfer amount. The result was while my bank's fee was US$5 they deposited 1,600 baht less baht into my account than that provided by Wise.

Correct. As I read the OP, the money has already been transferred by the foreign bank in Thai baht, thus the sound advice to better have had it sent in foreign currency is moot. The question was whether sending it in baht vs foreign currency will be acceptable for Thai Immigration. It should be, as they want to see the funds are in the bank in Thai baht and that the funds came from outside of Thailand, the fact it was in baht should not be a problem. I use the monthly income method for my extensions which requires 65k be transferred monthly to my Thai bank from outside of Thailand. I use Wise for this purpose and they they do the conversion and supply the funds in Thai baht - Immigration has no problem with it being in baht instead of foreign currency. However, as mentioned, if Pattaya Immigration (Jomtien) is the location where you plan to apply, then it will need to be seasoned for 2 months before applying for the Non O Visa (it is contrary to the rules as seasoning is only required to obtain the later extension, not the Visa itself, but that is what Pattaya Immigration is now requiring.

Most new wills will include a statement that all previous wills are revoked, which should be sufficient. If you put that statement in your latest will, that should be sufficient for the probate judge to bar any claims to your estate based on the prior will.

The Pattaya City Expats Club has the following on their website regarding getting a Residence Certificate form Pattaya Immigration Office:

That is assuming one has sufficient funds to make a second transfer of 65k for that month. I suspect that many may not be able to do this. However, if you can do two such transfers in a month, it is good advice. I use the 65k per month method for my annual retirement extensions, have a Bangkok Bank account, and have been using Wise ever since the Bangkok Bank New York Branch had to quit accepting domestic ACH transfers which they forwarded on to Thai accounts, leaving only international ACH transfers as acceptable (most US banks do not provide for retail customers to send international ACH transfers). As mentioned, Bangkok Bank, if Wise sends the transfer through them, records the transaction as FTT (foreign source). On two separate occasions, one a few years ago, Wise did send my transfer through Kasikorn - not only mine, but many others. Based on the uproar that caused, Wise added the Long Stay Thailand option in the reason for the transfer drop down menu. This was supposed to assure that the transfer went through Bangkok Bank. And it did for a long period of time. Then, a about a year or so ago, there was a glitch and one month many using that reason, including myself, received the transfer through their other partner bank, Kasikorn, and it was recorded by Bangkok bank as being domestic. It was apparently fixed after a month or so and since then all my transfers from Wise have been recorded FTT. When the glitch happened this last time, I still had sufficient funds to send a second transfer. To ensure FTT coding, I used Bangkok Bank New York Branch's "Baht remittance service" (does not involve ACH transfer and you transfer funds by snail mail). You email an application to the NY Branch and send a check using your USA bank online service - they will accept those, but not a personal handwritten check. When they receive the check and it clears, they then transfer the funds in baht to your Bangkok Bank account in Thailand - the exchange rate was the same as if converted by Bangkok bank here and the NY Branch fee was same as they charge for ACH transfers - in my case, US$10. It took about 11 days to receive the funds in my account here, but it was guaranteed to have the much needed FTT code for Immigration. I usually receive my Wise transfers on the same or following day unless a weekend or Thai government holiday intervenes. Because of the potential for another glitch, I choose to do two separate transfers through Wise - the first for at least 65k. I then send a second transfer which may or may not be 65k depending on my need. But, if there is another glitch, I still have sufficient funds to send another 65k+ through Bangkok Bank's NY Branch.

The construction is for the second stage of improvements per a recent article in a Pattaya Newspaper. When it is completed, the area remaining of the car park area will be a fully covered and self-contained area for those waiting for service.

Not an issue at Chonburi (Pattaya) Immigration. They have accepted the TM.7 single sided from me at least for the past 10 of the 20 years I have been doing my extension renewals there.

I can only speak for doing my annual retirement extension at Pattaya Immigration (Jomtien). I usually get two photos taken at the shop adjacent to the Immigration Office and they know the size to of photo needed. Jomtien Immigration has always only required one photo. So I save the second one and used it the following year with no problems. They also attached it to the TM.7 which I handed to them separately. I have never seen them look up paperwork from the previous year or look up anything on their computer screen for me or anyone else they were processing ahead of me - so I would say they are not comparing the current photo with the previous one. This year in June I was using the second photo I obtained last year. This year the Immigration Officer kept all the documents, but gave the photo back to me. She did take my photo with her phone camera.

I know the person that provides the information on Immigration matters for their website. He relies on reports from expats of their first hand experience to keep the site updated. I did my renewal in mid-June at Jomtien Immigration office using the 65k monthly income method (from USA, so no Embassy letter) - I used the checklist from their site for the documents needed (as I have done for the past several years) and encountered no problems at Immigration in doing my renewals.