phormio

Proof of money, however much, is not sufficient. Income is what counts.

....

When you are 50 go for the retirement option. Have to show 800k in your Thai account but only has to be topped up for the annual extension.

This seems inconsistent (note that I cut out the irrelevant middle section of the post).

In the retirement option, can one just bring in 800K and leave it in a Thai bank account, and just keep using it year after year? Or do they want to see flow in and out of the account indicative of an income ?

Thanks.

Income outside of Thailand must be documented by your Embassy so it will be up to them what is acceptable and then you present the same proof to immigration (with the Embassy letter).

Keep in mind that this is a Question !

If you live in Thailand and provide proof of an income from outside sources, won't the Thai govt. present you with a tax bill on this outside income?

... But what about Penang, Perth, Singapore, Pnom Penh, Rangoon? Anybody have first hand knowledge, or a clear website in Thai or English?

A drinking buddy of mine took his DELTA and a job at an english language institute and flew off to Penang to get his NON Imm B. This was last week. I ran into one of our mutual friends who told me that he got stuck in Penang without a visa because he didn't have a background check done in Bangkok(which he didn't know was required at the time he left). This is a reliable source - think it answers your question about Penang.

HNY

Can anyone confirm that this is the the right way to understand the new law, - being an "alien"

...

The (very unpolite) Immigration officer at the Mukdahan Imm.Offce REFUSED to receive my application for extension of NonImm. O when I did not show evidence of a monthly income of 40K. In my documentation it was legally proof of bank deposits much more than 400K that has been transferred from abroad and in over 3 months.

Anyone with similar experiences?

No similar experience. But a couple of questions for clarification.

Are you currently on an extension of stay (which is the "permit to stay" referred to in the Police Order) or are you attempting to extend a 90 day entry on an O visa to one year?.

If the latter then I am afraid you must go the 40k/month route. If the former you have been either wrongly refused (assuming the 400k has been in your a/c for 3 months) or unreasonably refused. It is not clear (to me) if the 400k has been in your a/c for 3 months or has been paid in over 3 months which would not qualify - however, through, this forum it appears that immigration are not enforcing the full 3 months at this time it being unreasonable to assume those already on extensions will have learnt of the new requirements.

Additionally if the former 400k must have been in your a/c for the 3 months.

My question is now that I've got 400K in the bank and have used it this year, having been grandfathered in, can I just leave it sitting there for a year until next year, with no activity on the account, and use it again? In other words, what are they looking for here ? Is it money coming in from the outside ? Is it activity on an account which indicates the source of funds so that they can tell wether I, without work permit, is working illegally?

Anybody really understand what's behind this?

thanks for the quick response. I'll need to digest this and make sure i got it right.

My Thai nanny quit - just walked out. We found a new women - Burmese who is in Thailand on a tourist visa and is legal for another 3 or 4 weeks. I'm from the US and my wife is Thai. The new nanny speaks English, Chinese, and Burmese and is a high school graduate. She wants to stay here on a legal basis - which means we will need to get her a work permit or find another way for her to get permission to stay legally. My wife talked to immigration about this. They gae us a form which said that there are three options:

1. Stay as a teacher - (but she doesn't have a degree or teaching experience, though she's fluent

in chinese and english)

2. Get a puyai/bigshot to write a letterto immigration saying she is a good person, etc.

3. She could marry a Thai.

None of these things look like they will work in our case.

Has anybody tried this before and/or does have any suggestions on how our Burmese nanny can stay here in Thailand legally - change her status from tourist to (?...anything else that gives her legal permission to stay) ?

Thanks.

Sorry for my typo on grandfathered but that was no typo on question 4. Good luck but I don't believe it will fly without the wife.

1. Nobody knows - suspect they will always be subject to review and all laws should be.

2. You can not return to 400k so if using now it gives you an option others do not have. As most need to keep a bank account of that amount anyway I would suggest keeping it.

3. It opens legal stay options to most people, (even if it means putting the wife to work/taxed income) while removing the often abused bank account problem would be my guess (but guess it is).

So., I went in to immigration at Suan Phu without the wife and they told me to come back with the wife, which is what I did. Brought her, a letter certifying my account balance from my bank, marriage certificate, copies of my bank book and passport, a photograph, her id card, and 1900 baht. I had just transferred 400,000 baht in from overseas four days previosly. They put a stamp in my passport saying my extension wasunder consideration and told me to come back in a month to get the result of my extension application.

The immigration officer did comment on the fact that the money was only just put into the account(and hadn't been in for fa min of 3 months) and that the requirement was just a total of 400K baht in my and/or my wifes bank accounts. I'll let you know how things turn out.

Accoring to my understanding and experience here, for the preceding two years, immigration was looking for the transfer of 400K baht in from overseas, but this year they couldn't give a rats ass where the moneys coiming from(or if its in your or your wifes sccount) so long as you've got it in there for 3 months. Geuss they're not worried about balance-of-payment nor exchange rate issues any more.

Thanks for the rapid response lop(I always think of you as "LOAP'). I've got a nine month old son who is the cutest thing most Thai girls have seen. I'll take him in with me and I'm geussing they'll give me expedited treatment. Wifey's got to work.

Other questions(see my questions from 3 posts up) about these changes are:

1. Persistence - how long are these going to be around. Will they change these again next year?

2. Which one to choose ?

Advantages/Disadvantages with the 400K in the bank vs. the 40K total 'household' income

per month extension; this is truly the one that surprises me the most - seems like it goes

against the Thai custom(actually think I should say the Chinese custom) of man supporting

the family, etc. Bet'ya these new rules were written by Thai women. I'm lucky - these days

about these changes because these days I'm Mr. Mom.

3. What do you think motivated these changes?

I'm a US citizen, under 50 and have extended my non imm O on support Thai wife basis twice before(I have two Thai kids too). Its time to do it again - permitted stay ends Dec 1. I just wire transferred in 400,000 baht(arrived today) and am checking the forum to find out the rules have changed. Wish I had checked sooner. I will be applying for extension in Bangkok and in the last week of my permitted stay.

My questions are :

1. The 400,000 baht requirement - does it have to be 3 months - is this strictly enforced? Will a letter from the bank indicating my account balance be good enough?

2. Do I need a letter from the bank indicating that the money was transferred in from overseas.

3. Am I too late? I'll be applying next week with my pemitted stay ending on the 2nd of December.

4. Does my wife have to go with me to make the application.

Thanks for your help.

I didn't know they were called "goannas" , but about a month ago I was walking in Lumpini over one of those metal grates over the drainage system, looked down, and almost had a heart attack. It was dark but the "monster" lizard I saw down there must have been 2 meters. At first I thought it was a croc.

Do they eat meat?(ie, homo sapiens)

I've been living in Bangkok for almost 2 years, I don't remember the haze I'm seeing for the last few days - its pretty thick. I living West of Huay Kwang on the Northwest side of Bangkok and when I look east (from my apartment building) I see a pretty good haze, all day.

I didn't notice this last year.

Any thoughts?

Suspect in US child beauty queen murder taught at Bangkok school

An American arrested yesterday for the 1996 murder of a child beauty queen in the US was until recently teaching at a highly respected school in Bangkok. John Mark Karr, 41, was sacked about two weeks ago because he was scaring the children, according to a teacher at the school who asked not to be named.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/18Aug2006_news03.php

Good Find!

Notice how it says a "highly respected school" , look at the map and a few come to mind, if he was living in the vicinity as previously pointed out. Geuss BKK Post afraid of legal issues if names the school ?

Thanks.

Investigators, says the source, knew the suspect was teaching at an international school somewhere in Thailand and that he had a lot of specific knowledge about the Jon Benet Ramsey crime scene.

Anybody know which school?

This narrows down the possibilities quite a bit:

Karr was arrested on Wednesday night at The Blooms budget hotel in Bangkok's Sathorn district, just two days after getting a teaching job at an international school in the same area, police said.

Good Point

CBS News correspondent Erin Moriarty, who covered the case for years and interviewed the Ramseys two years ago, says investigators were led to this suspect because of statements he allegedly made about the case.

An FBI source tells CBS News the leads in this case originated in the United States and went to the FBI in Bangkok, where the suspect's e-mail and phone conversations have been monitored since earlier this summer.

Investigators describe what the suspect talked about in his messages as "hair-raising - to see what he'd done, or contemplated doing to children."

The source calls those accounts "deadly frightening."

Investigators, says the source, knew the suspect was teaching at an international school somewhere in Thailand and that he had a lot of specific knowledge about the Jon Benet Ramsey crime scene.

....

- CBS News

Anybody know which school?

I don't want to give the impression that I appove of how profoundly Americans have given up their privacy in all areas...very many of them are going to end up at Guatmo for no good reason, and short of voting differently or expressing outrage to legislators, this is pretty much the status quo now...

Surfing the blogs on this topic can lead to some interesting speculation. The top politicians of the GOP are quite a ruthless bunch whose sole ethics is based upon whatever it takes to ensure long-term electoral success. Nothing seems to be out-of-bounds. The data , now legally available through this "national security program" may very well be used as part of this goal for attaining electoral success. Along with much other data in addition to the financials, using available adaptive marketing strategies, one may be able to increase Republican turnout and decrease Democratic turnout if you know how to crunch all the data(they do - it ain't rocket science) . No doubt this is only one of many ways in which , overstepping limits previously established, the GOP political machine attempts to ensure future victory at the polls by getting their poodles to turn-out for elections at a higher rate, whilst discourage the Dems from showing up. Just a theory, but sounds about right to me. Don't think they've caught any really serious "terrorist" threat via all this privacy invasion, data crunching BS that's been going on for the last 5 years.

P.S. : More sinister possibilites are easy to imagine

Thought this might be of interest since many wire money in/out for Visa/living expenses, etc.

Article in New York Times about SWIFT wire transfer monitoring can be found here:

New York Times Article on SWIFT wire transfer monitoring

Same article as above but different site

Thanks for all of your input. I looked up Verasu on the web from the link provided above and discovered Paragon Dept store has it. Went there yesterday to the fourth floor, found a 10 1/2 skillet for around 72,000 baht. A bit on the pricey side, for sure. Have to say that I did not know what Le Creuset cookware was - much of it cast iron melded with ceramic, blessed with enamel coatings. Looked up Le Creuset cookware on Amazon.com - found a 12 inch skillet for around $80 (USD). Thus the prices here are apparently about twice what you could get back in farangland.

The Verasu(distributors of Le Creusset, are there others in LOS?) web site lists around 10 locations in Thailand. Wonder if non-Premium locations(get away from Ploenchit-RamaI shopping "hub") will have significantly reduced prices. Also, since Le Creuset is also produced in Thailand, thought that prices wouldn't be that much worse here than in the West. Perhaps this was a bad geuss.

Again, Thanks for your help.

Teflon is out - at high temps, though quite possible to produce on the stove, a noxious chemical is produced which may cause health problems. Its all over the western press - Dupont is going to stop using the stuff on pans.

I've been researching cookware and have heard that Le Creuset pans are excellent.

This is a serious post (no kidding).

I've been surfing around and have found out that the French company produces some of its wares in Thailand. I've also found out that the major retail(Robinson's , Central , Paragon, Carrefour, Tesco/Lotus) establishments' websites are not designed to allow online shopping(searching, etc.) .

Anybody know where I might find a selection of Cookware incuding Le Creuset. Failing that some nice old fashioned cast iron would suffice.

Thanks.

Heard that the Thai Govt has imposed new sulfur limits in Diesel fuel equivalent to the US standard(15 ppm) . This is a 97% improvement over the old Thai standard of 500ppm. Don't know when this is actually going to be imposed at the pump . When is it going to be the case that any diesel purchased in Bangkok/Thailand will be up to the 15ppm standard? Anybody know ?

Thanks for the help. I didn't realize the Embassy Here had its own website(the embassy list contact info that I saw on thaivisa has phone/fax but no urls as far as I could see.

HI,

Gonna have a baby boy in bkk in a few weeks. I'm a US citizen, my wife's dual. We want him to have dual citizenship. The Thai part is automatic(I think). What about the US part? What do I have to do to get him a US Birth Certificate/Citizenship/Passport etc?

I have poked around on the forum a bit and didn't see anything about this, but i bet its out there somewhere.

Tanks.

Thanks everyone for your rapid response. We appreciate it greatly and its very useful commentary.

He would be making just below the $80K limit, so it would all be excludable(if that is the way the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion works and AMT, Alternate Minimum Tax , doesn't kick in).

The point is, it seems to me, by working as a US citizen paid directly in the US, no taxes need be paid to the Thai govt(Thai income taxes are around 30% I believe for 3 Million Baht salaries), and no US income taxes since its all excluded; this leaves US payroll taxes of around 9% - not too bad.

But if the Thai Revenue dept found out, I think they would attempt to collect Thai income taxes even on a US person paid in the US. Not sure on this, what do you think, lan?

But as you said, my guess is that the company would be legally required to pay pension & other benefits, etc. as per US law. They might be willing to do that.

This is about a friend of mine, and because of the sensitive nature of the inquiry, I can't get very specific with the details, but hopefully what I give below is enough to get some ideas on the matter.

He is a dual Thai/US citizen having been born in Thailand but educated in the US and having worked in the US for 10 years. He came back to Thailand, worked here for a couple of years and came across a US company which has a regional headquarters in Southeast Asia but no legal entity in Thailand. This company's regional office wants somebody working in Thailand for them and will set up a Thai office a year or two from now(with the possibility of my friend being the company's country manager). This company is flexible and willing to consider different kinds of arrangements, but would prefer avoid violating any legal limitations.

Is it possible(and/or legal) for my friend(who holds a Thai National ID, Thai Passport, and US Passport) to work legally for the US company in Thailand and get paid in the US through direct deposit ? He doesn't need a visa to be here. And the first $80,000 of earned income is tax free(US IRS) if you live overseas.

Should my friend set up a Thai corporate entity and subcontract out to the US corporation, then pay himself a salary?

Should he work as a Thai and declare his income to the Thai government?

Are there other options worth discussing?

Thanks. your suggestions are much appreciated.

I went through Bangkok Bank just today. This is my second time. I got a rate of

40.92 baht to the dollar, transferred $10,000 US . As lop said, somewhere along the way someone pulled out $5.00(Ouch ) and Bkk Bank pulled out 500 baht as a fee(putting money into their bank and they charge a fee - just don't seem right).

My bank doesn't charge a fee. Actually my finance company used HSBC to transfer money in.

Last time I did this I had my bank buy the baht and send in baht. Had a helluva time getting that Immigration letter from Bangkok Bank to extend my O Thai wife visa(in fact I had to get the letter from HSBC).

This time around Bangkok Bank gave me the letter, no questions asked.

Hopes this helps.