wittleus

I just want to correct one of my statements regarding the METV, I would want to carefully plan entries to maintain its validity for close to 9 months with planned exits and entries. I plan to go to many places in Asia anyway (Japan, Korea, Singapore, Maldives, Mauritania, maybe Australia etc).

A couple of quick questions on the topic of self insuring for LTR visa. I am 78 years old, spent 6 months in LOS for 20 years using tourist visa, haven't been there for awhile due to covid/family emergencies/operation in home country (USA). I easily qualify for the financial aspect of wealthy pensioner, but after checking a few insurance quotes, I feel like I am just throwing away money because of the exemptions (I have a few). I can easily put up $100K in a bank account, but I cannot obviously back-date it to show a years deposit. I have had an emergency fund in a back of approximately 40K for years. I also have a very large investment portfolio (and I know the BOI doesn't look at that any more). Has anybody out there found any "wiggle room" on the self insurance side, either the timing of the money in a bank, or associated money in bank with large investment. I want the LTR visa for several key reasons: I want to come and go in and out of Thailand whenever I want with little of no administrative hindrance' I don't want to report every 90 days; I don't want to necessarily restrict my time in Thailand to less than 180 days (and wording on LTR visa suggests that it will protect you from global income tax, but only time will tell). There are a couple alternative strategies here, if the bank deposit route is a "hard" one year, I could deposit the money and maybe takae out an METV, being careful with the time in country for the next year and stretcing out my entries so that I keep it valid for close to 90 days. Then after a year applying for the LTR and voila, my money has been in bank for a year. I could also forego the LTR and buy my way in with a Privilege Visa which doesn't include a health insurance rider, can come and go whenever, but still requires 90 day reporting and still has a higher potential of taxing global income if Thailand ever gets their <deleted> together on that aspect. So again, I would be counting days to maintain myself underneath a Thailand resident status. So, any suggestions or comments on my first question about "wiggle room"? Also any ideas on alternative approaches?

That's a major Thai Air mistake. I have flown business class on 787 on about five different airlines and all of them had a 1-2-1 business class configuration-- 2-2-2 is the money grubbing, cheap configuration, but obviously up to the airline.

I always remember relating a song by Bob Seger to many of the Thai women I met, many had "The Fire Down Below."

Absolutely correct. My foster daughter, age 35 and her mom, age 60 have attempted to get a tourist visa. They own land in commercial buildings outright, no mortgages worth over $800,000, have well over 1 million baht in cash in Bank, the younger lady is college educated and and they have a family run successful bakery business. The first time around they brought in all the bank documents and all the channotes to prove that they actually own the land and the buildings and Embassy Personnel didn't even glance at them. They have failed three times and each time the only reason was given were they were ineligible with no reason why they were ineligible and what they could fix. Absolutely maddening and frustrating.

Capital gains for non-resident foreigners are taxable in the US at a 30% flat rate if the individual resides in the USA for more than $183 days in that tax year. Sort of the same decision making issue as a 180 days in Thailand to determine residency or not.

Just a couple of thoughts. The FCEN is part of the Department of Treasury. It's very possible they have been a do-nothing office for last few years and suddenly because of fear of cancellation by the Doge they are starting to enforce the laws they were meant to do years ago and are becoming proactive. They want to keep their jobs and not have their Department canceled. Another thought, if Thailand decides to side with BRICS, an organization/monetary initiative that Trump really hates, what is the possibility that he can order Banks, and maybe Social Security payouts, not to deal with countries, Banks, and currencies associated with BRICS. If he can't actually stop them or change who they do business with, he can certainly Step Up controls and security with organizations like FCEN, to make even simple, everyday Financial transactions very cumbersome and nearly impossible. That's something to mull over for the future.