jessebkk1

It's really difficult to get that PR mate, and costly since you want to use your own company, there are so many possible pitfalls and traps. If you worked for a company that paid you over 85,000 Baht per month and was going to fight for a  PR, I would have said give it a shot, and even at that it's still a convulsing journey.

  Anyone not making emphasis on how hard it is might be misleading you.

with 2k US a month you can't afford to own and maintain a company here, they require that you have 4 thai employees and pay their monthly insurance and tax, they now randomly check to make sure that these people are really your staff, and if not, your visa will be cancelled. They also will not re-issue you the yearly visa if you miss the insurance/tax payment for 1 staff by even just a month.

  After setting up the company, you will be given a 90day visa, but for you to get a 1 year stay the immigration now checks to see if your company moved the 2 million Baht into thailand for business, if they don't find such, the visa would not be issued.

Read all the comments thus far and all seem to be from a cautionary point of view, - Oh watch carefully! be on the look out! Must Pay 15k Euros etc, i'm just not sure if the OP is picking up what they're putting down. Let's find out...

   Well dear "tender aged" OP who's into ladyboys, imagine you've been talking to a ladyboy that you were looking to get with, and while conversation starts getting heated, he(she?) starts telling you about how condoms break easily with him and how much he prefers it without condoms anyways, and how a certain guy he used to date is now taking this meds everyday because it helps to prolong his life due a medical condition that he recently acquired...and while you were about to leave for the hotel room, the ladybody gets up to pay for his drink, and a fragment of a piece of paper falls off from his pocket, torn with missing words on it but you can see some of the remaining words "...ectoviral". Question is, would you still go ahead and shag that ladyboy?

  Hey here's another one! you go to a bar, look at the menu, out of inquisitivity order a drink with the name "s05redun4ton", bar tender warns you that the drink is not 4 under 50's but can be sold to those who insist, you insist and the drink is poured for you, just before you lift the glass, you're distracted by paramedics who are trying to save a dude who they say is having a heart attack after drinking some "redun something drink", then some other random dude starts talking about a friend of his who drank some "4ton" drink at the same bar a week ago and literally turned into a midget. Question is, would you still look back at your glass and take a sip?

 Dude I'm just messing with you...thailand is a relatively safe place to live in compared to most countries in the west. Thais are generally non-confrontational, so they would most likely never tell you how they feel about foreigners to your face ( they'd rather let their government show you), so it's easy to get stuck here and by time you know it - just so you keep staying, you're accepting to keep 800k permanently in a thai bank, marry a thai lady who's already with 2 kids belonging to another thai dude who doesnt give a fuxk, oh and you're okay with reporting every 90 days to immigration and also telling them that you left town everytime you spend more than 24 hours outside your state(province), and by the time you realize you're no longer 29 and tender, you're in your 50s and have missed out on the hot young spanish girls. Yeesh!

  An ED visa is possible, you could lose the visa if you skip class one too many times. No refunds! And who am I kidding, you've been here way too many times your chances of being refused entry on a tourist visa is over 50 percent. Good Luck Friend and all the best!

 Or maybe Vietnam?

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Your comment makes no sense to me at all. The seasoned money in the bank method has not changed at all. There is no requirement whatsoever to keep the balance up during the majority of the year. It's hard to know what percentage spend it down and replenish before the next seasoning period vs. those that just leave it alone but I'm sure the former is a significant percentage.

  What part of you have to have a Balance of not less than 800k left in the bank for a minimum of three months before the date of application of the visa do you not understand?

  And this has to be done every year... So most would definitely be keeping that 800k permanently in the Bank. I cant help you understand it if you dont

28 minutes ago, sencelebi said:

Those people doesn't trust Thai banks because they have no money to put in. I sold my business,5 cars and 2 houses (both were paid for) in US and moved here with my Thai wife as a semi retired and opened a business, I transferred very large sum of money over 2 years period because Wells Fargo allows only 100.000 US wire transfer per 30 calendar day  to Bangkok Bank since I don't trust US government for my money. I have no issues with banks here. Each transfer took only 24 hrs to be deposited to my BKK Bank account and I am not worry about that my money will vanish. So as you said those people has no basis for their mistrust. They just don't have the money. And also Thailand is not a Banana Republic. Of course they don't want to see low life Americans or Europeans or whatever living in Thailand for $300 a month and no respect to their culture. This country is not a shelter for low life farangs, who ever lives here for any reason has to have respect for the country. They welcome to leave the country if they don't trust banks, immigration, police etc. Who is holding their collar?  This might be the poor country but I don't think they need farangs living here and bitching about anything and everything with few hundred dollars a month. I've been seeing many foreigners feeding themselves 30-60 Baht meal everyday. They have to get a life before complaining about this country. They try to stay here because they can't survive in their own countries. So they need to go back to their country and bitch on their own governments why they can't survive. I am sick and tired of seeing and hearing people bitching all the time.

  I don't believe anything you have said about yourself here and here's why.

  Anyone posting here and being completely apathetic to the plight of those who have been here for a long time (and have made huge investments in thailand like buying homes,cars,opening businesses for their thai wives and are now being asked to Bank 800k per year) is not human, and is either a bot or a paid troll.

1 hour ago, Benroon said:

Really ? I thought the money only had to be in there when you apply - once granted you can spend it right ? 

 

If thats right where’s the problem ? It’s just a temporary bank transfer 

 

Or is is that incorrect ? 

You have to keep the money in the Bank for a quarter of a year unspent after that you have 9 months and repeat process. It's a yearly visa, most people would now have to keep that money permanently unspent.

10 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

BTS is a public company listed on the Thai stock exchange, they make a profit, pay dividends. 

Even though I clearly stated BTS lines as one of the examples of this administrations over spending,  you should understand that the new construction of train lines is a partnership btw the thai gov't and the BMTA. Please read information on their website. The government is spending not just on the construction but also on the reconstruction of the land beneath the trains after the building is done.

  Again, the BTS is only of the of the many overspending that the govt is currently embarking on, you don't have to look hard to find the others. They are almost draining the nations coffers in order to create a false growth of 4.5%. So, In order to reaffirm my answers to the initial question asked about whether or not this income letter is partly fueled by governments attempt to "EXTORT" foreigners to balance the bank books - my answer remains a big fat YES!

   There's over a hundred thousand foreign retirees in thailand. If only 20% of that number moved 800k here and let it sat in the Bank, that is over 16 Billion Baht - a huge amount of money just sitting in thai Banks for visa sake.

36 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

I would get back in the box! ????

Do you think the input of a few thousand retirees is substantial to the Thai economy currently valued at 15.450 trillion baht, the 8th largest economy of Asia.

  I have houses, lands, cars, digital assets and companies valued at over 10 million US Dollars, however at this very second today I have less than 100k Baht in the Bank in total cash. You see how evaluation works?

 This issue with income letters has hit a section of the economy really bad, most of the foreigners affected are going to put big expenses on hold so they can prove the 800k in bank, so cars/houses/land etc sales will face a steep decline - hurting the already struggling local economy.

 I think for this income letter fiasco to have been made regardless how bad it will hurt the local economy reeks of desperation for foreign cash sitting in thai banks or really a bad judgement by the immigration, policy makers.

  As we speak, the thai government is embarking on construction of massive projects (for example BTS trains) that the don't the funds to complete and even when completed will generate very little income as most thais cant afford to use them.

18 hours ago, elviajero said:

 

 

If they want to work, they don’t lose their TE membership, but have to give up the PE visa while they are working.

 

 

Mate, there's really no reason to mislead anyone here.

  The Thai Immigration will cancel your Elite Visa if you are caught working based based on what the I/O defines as working, and you will not be allowed to stay in the country using an Elite Visa afterwards. The Elite Visa is subject to approval from the Thai Immigration, it's clearly stated on their website. Don't get caught working with the Elite Visa!

1 hour ago, huberthammer said:

Noted thanks - you forgot to add that one could die in a traffic accident and lose the Elite Membership fee as well. 

 

There are risks in life and in decisions you make. I would think that there are many considering the Elite Visa who obey by the law and the risks you outline above are more acceptable than living here longterm on dodging immigration laws or exploiting loopholes in the grey zone.

Mate most the circumstances I stated are situations that could happen to legit person just by an act of sheer luck. My biggest point is you're not allowed work to or do business or make profit while on the Elite Visa, you will lose the Elite Visa and the money you paid for it. Unlike other Visa categories where you can be fined or just asked to leave the country and comeback again with another.

  I'm saying this because I personally know a bunch of my friends who are not old enough to get the retirement visa, are planning on getting the elite even though they plan on working/doing business here. The next visa crackdown might just be on those who have forked millions for the elite visa but are working here with it.

Goodluck!

On 11/6/2018 at 4:28 PM, huberthammer said:

Thai Elite works with Bangkok Bank and they will open an account for you without any issues. But as your rightly say, all the other banks will treat you like any tourist and will give you the "Mai dai"

   Yes while the Thai Elite Visa is an easy fix for someone desperate to stay here, however it has a whole lot of disadvantages. It really is just a long ass tourist visa, you re not allowed to work or do business with it and if caught you'd lose the visa aka your 500k/1m/2m. Honestly, it's really easy for a disgruntled local or another foreigner with a working visa to shake down a person with an Elite visa. Moreover any future government can come in and cancel the elite visa, and you stand to get no refunds as described in the Thai elite website.

  Also you would have taken yourself off the non-immigrant category which allows for potential PR and possibly citizenship.

  Also any little run in with the law could cause you to lose the visa aka your 1m/2m baht.

  Here are some examples of situations that any foreigner with bad luck can find theirselves in and potentially lose their Elite Visa/money paid.

  - Drive a car/motorbike with an expired insurance, hit someone and the person gets hurt/hospitalized.

  - Be accused of paying for sex.

  - Get involved in Bar fight/brawl or pretty much any fight that ends up involving the police.

  - Be accused of rape.

  - Trying to do business/work on the Elite Visa, this covers a very vast area of potential mistakes that most foreigners could mistakenly be entrapped into. T

- The list is honestly endless.

   To be quite honest, there's a ton of stuff that you could mistakenly do and if the immigration gets involved you'd lose your investment in an Elite Visa. A lot of advantages and praises has been talked about the Elite Visa recently and a lot of foreigners are flocking/hoping to flock to it to continue to stay here. It's great to let people know exactly what they are paying for, it already hurts when you are asked to leave for any mistakes made on a regular visa, it has to sting when you know you've paid as much as 2M for the visa.

And for those of you who think that the foreigners living here over represent their effect on the economy should research better on this issue. There is a direct correlation of Thailand's economy and how it's perceived globally.

  And yes majority of the foreign investment in thailand is based on the opinion of what the people of the investors country think about thailand and what the general opinion of foreigners living in Thailand is. So yes, throwing a huge amount of foreign residents who are a spending part of the population out will definitely have an impact on the economy, as a matter of fact it already has.

   I have tried to make sense of new anti foreigner agenda going on and it defies all common sense, there obviously is no way this country benefits from this. Cracking down on visa overstayers is one thing, this seems to be much more than that.

  This is a military regime and the positive numbers being thrown out there with regards to tourism, economic growth etc is definitely being cooked. This is a FACT. If you can put 2 and 2 together, no one needs to tell you that. The real state of how things have become in the past 4 years is quite worse than it's being made to appear.

To the OP, do not allow some of the misleading opinions of some of those who have posted here to dampen your morale or vision.

  To everyone browsing through comments remember that this an anonymous forum and most of those who comment are not who they claim to be/represent, some don't leave here in Thailand and some are Thais and their opinions are here to mislead, arm twist, mock, confuse etc those with genuine issues affecting their lives/families here in Thailand.

  At OP i agree that it's high time that the legit foreigners who have lived here in Thailand for over a decade come together to start discuss issues like these and find a means to communicate directly with the Thai government. 

  Although I do not believe the Embassies are those who this should directed at, The US/UK/AUS embassies can not dictate policies for the Thai government. Main cause of this problem is Thai government refusing to accept that foreigner is married to a Thai with kids or maybe unmarried but has lived here for over 10years on a non tourist visa is no longer a foreigner or a mere tourist and should stop treating them as such.

  I know for certain that the Thai government/immigration will never listen to some foreigners who are pained by new government policies. But here's the deal if you have taken care of a thai family yours or by adoption then those are the people to rally together and they are the ones who can sway their government. This is the time to tell your Thai wives, kids, extended family and friends to stand for you as you have stood for them over the years and demand that the foreigners who have lived here for decade(s) lawfully are treated better than they currently are.