mran66

28 minutes ago, MarkBR said:

Many who voted for Pheu Thai will no longer with such a huge betrayal of their futures - the destruction of many dreams of many young Thai entrepreneurs.   Bhumjaithai will benefit massively, as will the Progressive Party. Will put Pheu Thai into a death spiral with collapsing votes.  The political stupidity is spectacular.

... and on top of that, the conservatives certainly are assessing whether to use the nicely timed opportunity to use the upcoming court verdicts to close the Shin chapter in Thai politics. Almost looks like the conservatives made the deal with Taksin to form the govt and let him come back to Thailand to wait him to make a small side step to walk to a trap - a side step her daughter nicely did - though I would guess they never imagined to see a blunder like this to open the opportunity. To survive, he would need to pull some new aces from his sleeve.

But entertaining the whole show is for foreigners - in all of its sadness for the country.

If you want to spend majority of your time hanging on pattaya beach road and/or end of 2nd road near walking street AND don't like Indians, better not come. 

But if you spend most of your time elsewhere, no issues even if you would not like Indians. In pratamnak where I live not much Indians. 

7 hours ago, sungod said:

Here's the real story.

 

In an unexpected turn of events in Nonthaburi province, near Bangkok, a woman stumbled upon a plastic box containing an astonishing 12 million baht in cash while taking out the rubbish at her condominium.

 

Police arriving at the scene verified that the box indeed contained 8 million baht hidden under men’s sportswear.

7 hours ago, sungod said:

 

That's the net after taxes. So same with a different point of view. 

58 minutes ago, persimmon said:

What about the need for insurance though - could the cost of this outweigh any tax savings ?

Well, insurance is something at least I have had and will have as long as I qualify for one so no savings from that to skip LTR. 

And in case the worldwide taxation would come, cost of insurance would be meaningless compared to tax savings. Even with the tax on remittances only insurance far less than tax savings 

15 minutes ago, ThreeCardMonte said:

I got mine without the help of any agent.

 

If you can read, you can do it yourself.

 

If you don’t have $ 80,000 USD in qualified income, don’t waste your time.

The LTR must be one of the simplest thai visas that one can get, though I only have experience of a tourist visa (in Vientiane over a decade ago) and non-o retirement, both of which I managed to do myself without any major trouble.

With LTR the big thing is you don't need to go visit immigration office multiple times telling you that something is not as they wish even if according to official requirements). Instead you just upload the pdfs of required documents to their website and if they ask foe something more, upload those. No hassles with immigration officers with varying requests and going back and forth to immigration and waiting on queues. 

If you are able to  get the required documents (that agent can't do for you anyway), you must be able to upload them to their website too.

I can't see any added value from any middleman, just additional hassle. 

As a bonus you get rid of the 90 day reporting and from keeping your cash locked into bank account - not to speak about the tax worries 

3 hours ago, oldcpu said:

I would not go so far as to say that they don't care.

 

I believe it more accurate to state they will make exceptions to their policy ( when asking for tax returns as income proof) when it makes sense to them.

2 hours ago, Yumthai said:

Yes, I meant what they do care is to tick the boxes of their requirements list. If your piece of financial evidence shows "nice" amounts then it's ok. Again there is no way they can check it's valid.

For me they cared enough to ask for statement of portfolio where the income is derived from. Initially I only submitted income report for 2024. 

I guess the purpose of the request was to kind of verify the income is truly 'passive', not some non-qualified income structured into passive income 

On 5/29/2025 at 3:57 PM, oldcpu said:

I agree with Presnock, ask BoI. They have staff who speak excellent English.

 

I recommend you phone BoI.  My experience is their email reply record is dismal at best, while their phone response is very good.

 

My speculation is if you have no tax returns as income proof, you will have to have very good other records (confirmation) as to your income proof.  I believe BoI like to use income tax returns as income proof as it provides them more confidence someone is not 'scamming' them as to an income that does not exist.

 

In my case, when I applied in January-2023, I provided Boi my year 2020 and year 2021 tax assessment from Canada (which lists my global income).  BoI then asked for my year 2022 tax Canadian tax assessment (where I had not even yet submitted my Canadian 2022 tax return).  It was weeks later before I could obtain the income information/tax slips to file my 2022 Canadian tax return, and weeks more before I could get a Canadian government tax assessment for year 2022 (which lists global income) and then provide that to BoI.  That slowed down my LTR application process.

 

Further, BoI, knowing I was a pensioner (with pensions from Europe and from Canadian Old Age security) asked for my Canadian pension tax slip copy !!  I had to contact them and advise them, I did not get a Canadian pension (yet) as I had deferred the receipt of that pension to age-70.

So BoI were very thorough in what they asked.  I did in the end obtain the LTR-WP.

 

Which I believe, simply points to the usefulness of your contacting BoI, ( by phone )  explain to them your financial situation, and find out early from them, exactly what documents they want in your specific case.

I have not filed income tax returns anywhere for over 10 years and got my LTR WP so not mandatory as long as you have evedince to prove your income that is qualified.

I just submitted my statements from financial institution that holds my stuff and that was good enough. 

On 5/29/2025 at 5:36 AM, ozz1 said:

They are as bad as the rtp

Actually worse as Thais in general  still seem to respect the temples and monks whereas all know about police being corrupt. 

Milking the brainwashed as middle ages in Europe. 

Would be interesting to know how many of the calendars included in the 50m baht quotation actually were printed and delivered... 

Anyway at least the run was well named 

Frequency of tourism up and down changes going up. Wonder where could get Thai-tourism-up-down-frequency measurement device.

Measured frequency number would be sure bet in lottery. 

I bet some kind of nice photo shoot or dance video of the trio prawit, prayut and taksin would be much more attention grabbing to drive durian sales and price up. 

Add Anutin hitting the beat with a gong would be a bonus. 

On 5/15/2025 at 11:59 AM, Snackbar said:

Honesty & Pattaya ain’t no fiction 

Honesty anywhere in Thailand is largely fiction! 

Hmmm... Maintenance center for flying things in a country where maintenance is an unknown concept... 

Based on the picture it looks like 19th century rice mill. Obviously with 19th century safety features. 

14 minutes ago, newbee2022 said:

Sounds embarrassing for Thaksin.

Wondering how he will get out of this tight spot.

Is there really justice in Thailand.

We'll see though it's a long way.

555

As long as remains in the short leash installed by conservatives, I don't think he has much to worry as both parties have a lot to gain. Rememer who controls judical system. 

Question is rather whether we will see further entertaining developments with the arrangement he has with power holders. I believe we will

20 hours ago, 3NUMBAS said:

Bar girls tattoos caused a slump in bookings

...and the very same  tattoos stretched to unrecognizable patterns due to obesity  the was the final nail in the coffin. 

Sent an email to LTR office, and they replied quickly. In conclusion, it seems there is no issue at all to do as I was thinking, rather it was just the lady in LTR counter who was not familiar with details.

Actually handy to have contact to ask questions like this directly in writing vs. the usual mumbling with vague and changing answers in Jomtien immigration...

-------------------

Referring to your inquiries, please see the answer as  follows:

1. I visit in home country in July, and apply new passport while there (would be much easier and cheaper for me there than in Thailand via embassy in Bangkok)

Answer: Yes, it is okay to get a new passport form overseas.

2. I come back to Thailand in September, and show both the new passport and the old passport (with the LTR visa stamp) at immigration. I know that the validity of old passport would not be enough to enter, but I would have the new passport also.

Answer: Your current passport which contained LTR Visa is still valid. You have got a stay permit stamp equal to the expiration date of your passport which is 4 November 2025. Therefore, you can use it to enter Thailand in September.

3. I come to BOI office to transfer the visa in September after arrival to Thailand (old passport would have 1-2 months of validity left).

Answer: After arrived Thailand in September, you should transfer your LTR Visa to your new passport before your current passport expire on 4 November 2025.

Kind regards,

LTR Visa Member Team

2 hours ago, Ben Zioner said:

From my own experience in know for sure that the initial permit to stay is limited to the validity of your passport. So immigration will stamp you in until the expiry date of your old passport in any case.

 

Therefore I wouldn't even show the new passport at the airport and just proceed asap to get the visa transferred at Then One Bangkok.

 

I think she was right in suggesting you get everything done before leaving. That's what I did and it was painless.

 

Also if immigration admitted you for 30 days without visa it would invalidate your LTR.

Old passport would  only have 1-2 mo validity left at that time so would immigration let me enter without showing new passport? If so, would they stamp old or new passport? 

Anyway seems I tried to be too smart/lazy optmising number of required visits to Bangkok and not paying extra for embassy for passport. End result maybe that I do one visit more than I would have needed to do by getting new passport before getting the LTR stamp.

I just sent an enquiry to LTR office about this, see what they reply. 

2 hours ago, BrandonJT said:

The only risk would be if they stamped you in as something different from your LTR when you returned.  Otherwise you can do as you said, show both passports when you return and then go to immigration to get the remainder of your 5 year stamped when they transfer things over.  The other risk is if something holds you up and you're not able to return before your stamp in your old passports ends, you would have the potential of losing your LTR in that case.

Thanks. You have personal experience of doing this with LTR, or generic knowledge?