quandow

A few years ago, entering Thailand on a retirement re-entry, Swampy Immigration mis-stamped my passport by a couple of days which I didn't notice. Three or four months later, when I went to Jomtien Immigration to get a new re-entry stamp, they discovered the mistake. The IO even admitted it was their (Swampy Immigration's) fault, but they wouldn't do anything about it.  This negated my "retirement visa" and I had to go through the whole extension of stay dance. With these clowns, it's always a crap shoot.

18 hours ago, mstevens said:

Utterly misleading advice. Plenty of times foreigners have taken action against Thais in Thailand and won. Please don't reinforce this falsehood of foreigners having no rights when it's untrue.

I responded to the wrong topic.

I thought I had heard one work permit now covers any and all jobs regardless of the type of work. Having posted this, if I am wrong I will be IMMEDIATELY spanked, corrected, and called a <deleted>.

I had to tell my condo owner I wanted to pay it myself. Up until then, I got the bill with no bar code and had to pay the condo manager, it was a monthly pain in the butt. After that, I started getting the bill WITH the bar code and everything went swimmingly.

I have heard stories of an agent that has been doing this for years. He said it's still business as usual. Of course, this is illegal and I would NEVER recommend such an act.

On 1/4/2019 at 5:31 AM, Spidey said:

I still wonder how you prove that the 65k baht is from your home country. Foreign transfers aren't always clear in some bank books.

Good point! Couldn't I just transfer 65k from my Kasikorn account to my SCB account each month, pull it out in cash, put back in Kasikorn and repeat monthly?

Coffee. Macro #1, I never have less than a 3 month supply on hand.

1 hour ago, sumrit said:

The Embassy letter is valid for six months so everybody who needs to renew their extension before the end of July 2019 has had the opportunity and adequate time to obtain one before the end of this month.

 

I wouldn't bet the farm that immigration will be OK as late as July 2019. Their inability to get common agreement throughout the kingdom on the rules would have me losing sleep, as well as hair if I had any left, over this issue. I suspect some offices will say "screw it, your letter no good now" any time between now and July.

Look at Jomtien. Close enough to Pattaya to scratch that itch if you need it, nice condos with ocean views to fit moderate and up budgets. Immigration in Jomtien is one of the best in Thailand.

You are asking the question we all want to know. Immigration's track record on consistency has us all wondering. Different answers are being reported daily. Only time will tell.

8 hours ago, AGareth2 said:

back to border runs folks

That was my initial thought. Forget my "retirement visa" and go back to visa runs?

3 minutes ago, soleddy said:

They want 800.000 into a Thai bank so that if you die intestate they will keep it or else pick up the interest as a "fee" for holding it. Your lawyers in the UK or US will take about two years to get it back for a nice fee, and the bank also gets a nice fee for the transfer.

That's my issue. I've decided to bite the bullet and put the money in the bank, but want to know how to get it to my son when I pass.

This is all new, come January I have a sneaking suspicion the shit will seriously hit the fan at which time you'll see that set look on the face of immigration officials saying, "Money in bank only!"

35 minutes ago, patrick kennedy said:

Quandow, unfortunately regardless of what problem arise between us farangs and Thais, it is always our mistake

If only their girls weren't so cute!

8 hours ago, Sheryl said:

I can understand the dilemma of not having 800K, that's different. But someone well off enough that they make significant  income off of investments not wanting to use the 800K method because of what would in fact be a pretty small loss of interest income, I do nto find credible.

 

This is exactly my problem. My government pension more than qualifies for the $65k/year, and I own a house back in the states free and clear worth about $250k for which I receive an additional $1200/month in rental income, but coming up with 800,000 baht means taking out a loan. I thought I was done with that nonsense.  Has anyone heard of ANY document immigration will accept for income verification?

6 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

So are you saying they are still issuing the Letters and they have no information from Thai Imm that they will not accept them?

Again - "Don't know, don't care. Not our job to provide this information."

I contacted the U.S. embassy about this. Their paraphrased response "Don't know, don't care. Not our job."

I have a friend who got into an accident and broke his back. He was supposed to do a border run within the following week. He even had his doctor write a letter how he wasn't supposed to MOVE, let alone do a bumpy van ride for several hours. Immigration gave him a one week extension. He went through absolute HELL one week later having to do the border run. Immigration has no sympathy.