AGITATORKEN

Yes, What is wrong with these people. I have held a retirement Visa for 12 years and now they are refusing to renew it.

I have arrived yesterday afternoon at suvarnabhumi airport, with regular 2 months tourist visa, released by thai embassy in italy. The officer at immigration, asked me to show again documents, like fligh return ticket, hotel booking etc. Even I have her the documents requested, she refused to recognise me visa, and she gave to me a simple 30 days "visa on arrival", even my return flight ticket is after 1 month and half. What is wrong with this country? She can do it? It'salready 20 years that I travelled everywhere, and it's the first time in my life that something like this happens.

On 3/1/2019 at 12:14 PM, Essecola said:

This happened at an embassy or immigration? 

Immigration, sorry

You are right Time to let it die.

Hasn't this thread/rant run its course. Surely a wind up. No one is that crazy.

I will agree on one thing, I do need to tone it down. I am taking a simple scamming way to personal.

So, all is revealed your a conspiracy theorist. Who shot JFK? Did man land on the moon? Who really rules the world? Nut job.
 
BTW, I'm neither a peon, ex cop or government official, just an ordinary Joe who has managed to retain his sanity, but I am someone that did some forward planning to make sure that my extension application went off without a hitch.
 
What makes you think that Thailand want's to keep you? You need to get your head out of your backside, tone down your self importance and get a one way ticket home. I'm sure the Thai authorities will wave you off.

anology not apology

I appreciate your apology as I have a MBA and if it was legitimate it makes perfect sense. The bottom line is there is no money transfer, it I's a paper forged book and immigration is in on the scam. Furthermore, there is no reason for this nonsense. I am a good expat pumping money into their economy.


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On 3/1/2019 at 12:12 PM, CharlieH said:

And exactly where/which office did this happen ?

Jomtiem

Yes, I would like your agents name and number. I am getting quotes of 35,000 and up to put 800,000 in my account. What infuriates me is I qualify for a legal Visa, am a good expat, cause no trouble, break no laws, and pump 1.4 million into the economy every year. This is my 11th renewal and there is no reason for this nonsense.

Anybody that thinks they actually move 800,000 into your account is naive. It is a total scam and the immigration officials are in on it. My summation is they are charging foreigners Bt 35,000 for actually is about an hours work. I realize they have to split this fee with a lot of scam artist, but it is still an unreasonable amount

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You might have a winner but you have to get her out of Thailand before she becomes seasoned. A lot of girls start out innocent and are actually forced into this life. Most of them love it and adapt well but others dont.

There are poor people in a lot of Western countries too but they dont sell their little girls into prostitution. I sometimes wonder if these people should be considered human.

Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well and are having a lovely weekend.
 
I have read many posts on this forum and decided to make a post myself asking for help.
 
I have been Thailand 3 times however the 3rd time was a weird one.
 
I met this girl who works in a bar, she is a waitress and gets guys to buy her lady drinks. It's a small bar in bangla road, phuket.
 
She has been in phuket for about 23 days, which is true i think, as i have her original Facebook with her real name which was on ber ID and her FB confirms her story as well as her phone messages with people. I went through her phone with her consent ofcourse. Her English is about 2% it's so bad, we had to communicate with Google translate the whole time. I mean 23 days in phuket seemed a little more real now as she came from isaan where there is no english, i mean It could be true. True/Fake or not?
 
She has only been with 2 guys in 23 days before me = 3 in total. She said she needed the money urgently and they paid her 6,000 baht for the night. She didn't want to talk about it, I think it upset her. True/Fake or not?
 
I met her in a club. (Sugar club) we partied all night, I didn't buy her a drink, we then went to patong beach for a few hours and she stayed the night at my hotel but we didn't do anything and she didn't ask for money.
 
I then spent the next 6 days with her, I paid her 5 days bar fine because 1 day she wasn't working so I didn't have to pay. The barfine was 1,000 baht a day. However when I left and came home she still didn't once ask for anything or ask for money or ask to come to my country or anything like that.
 
Well she did say her mums tyre ripped but she didn't ask for money and I didn't send any.
 
I came home and we spoke for a week before I got lucky and had to fly back out to phuket for work for a few days. We also spent these days together without me buying her anything only paying the bar fine.
 
Just for confirmation I did pay for food which was once a day and travel which was mainly walking.
 
I am now at home which is the UK and she still hasn't asked for any money. It's been 5 days now. The only time she asked for money was when I asked her to get a passport to come and visit me, she said she can't afford a passport yet and has to wait a few weeks before she can get one, so I decided to pay for her, she said it was 1,000 baht. The reason she couldn't afford it was because she just moved rooms when i asked her to go get the passport. I knew she moved rooms as we were talking about it, also she didn't ask for help when moving.
 
She will provid me with the proof of the passport which should be newly registered and last 10 years. She did show me that it cost 1,000 baht. I mean she could have said 2/3/5,000 baht right?
 
She tells me if she's going out at night and we FaceTime everyday/night even tho taking is really hard as she has no english.
 
I am now taking thai lessons.
 
So please help me, what do I do with this girl? Is she real or is this another thai lady trick that I haven't read about somewhere? Thanks for the help everyone.

I appreciate your apology as I have a MBA and if it was legitimate it makes perfect sense. The bottom line is there is no money transfer, it I's a paper forged book and immigration is in on the scam. Furthermore, there is no reason for this nonsense. I am a good expat pumping money into their economy.

If the agent keeps the interest earned on the money in the account, and charges (as an earlier poster said 35,000 baht for the service), and you look at the legwork of running to immigration as "loan origination costs," then the "passbook seasoning" operation can effectively be seen as a loansharking operation. Consider:
 
800,000 untouched in a Bangkok bank 3 yr fixed term account would earn 1.62% interest (minus tax .15%) = 11,016 baht return on capital for an ordinary depositor.
 
But the seasoning agent (not taking into consideration any bribes or expenses he has to pay) who is charging 35,000 baht for this service, would be earning 4.375% on his 800,000 capital expense. If the agent keeps the 11,016 in interest earned on this capital as well, this would earn a total of 46,016 baht or a 5.752% return (3.55 times more than an ordinary depositor would earn), which is a sufficiently attractive rate of return to attract capital.

Yes I could and probably will do that. Bottom line I'd there is no reason for this crap. These people are so dishonest it is a stretch considering them members of the human race. I am out of here.

I'm sure one could bargain or look around to find an agent for 25K who will take care of everything. Just think of it. 25K is only $75/month or consider it as a tribute for staying in Thailand.

Then what exactly do 600 people do at the American Embassy in Bangkok. The largest US embassy in the world and they do absolutely nothing for Americans living in Thailand.

 

The embassies could, and did, take people at their sworn word. Then, the Thai Immigrations wanted documentation of the income. This is where the respective embassies bowed out. They didn't have in inclination, let alone the staffing, to do the checking. 

On the subject of documentation, Thai Immigration will not accept documentation issue from one's own country. I had my officially issued IRA, SSI and pension statements in hand. When shown to the immigration officer, she said it had to be documented by the embassy. Since I had previous discussed these documents with my embassy, I already knew they wouldn't accept them either; they simply choose to stay out of the mix.

Back to square one!

This January, the Bangkok Immigration office accepted my embassy notarised "Affidavit of Income", issued last November.

Just in case, I had the 800,000 THB in a Thai bank as back up. 

because once the announced they were good for 6 months, there were no appointments availiable at the American embassy. I did try.

Why didn't you get your affidavit from your embassy, before they stopped issuing them? Valid for 6 months. Jontien immigration are still accepting them.

I did not realize they were good for 6 months. My fault for missing that one but that would just delay the problem a year. I am unwilling to pay a $50 transfer fee every month.

Why didn't you get your affidavit from your embassy, before they stopped issuing them? Valid for 6 months. Jontien immigration are still accepting them.

Jomtiem Immiigration, not embassy,

The immigration office in Jomtiem


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Thanks for the information. I am handicapped and cannot air travel. Lung problems. If i do manage to leave I am nor coming back.

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The "agent facilitated extensions" (aka. your "Scam") have been around for many years, and are a very popular arrangement for many expats who do not have either the necessary income or savings to apply in person, although I have heard from numerous sources that they've recently doubled or tripled their "fees", and they're still not sure if they will be able to continue to offer their service for much longer.
 
4 country's embassies have stopped verifying income and no longer issue letters.  Unfortunately you are from one of those.  Thai Immigration has accepted an alternative means of showing income by depositing it into your Thai bank account.
 
Assuming you genuinely did not realize that these changes have recently been made, then you are unfortunate... but its not a totally irretrievably problem. 
 
If you decide to remain here on a retirement extension of stay you need to either deposit 800k in your Thai bank for 3 months prior to applying (and then leave it untouched for 3 months after, and then maintain 400k for the next 6 months), OR, you need to deposit a minimum of 65k every months into your Thai bank, originating from overseas.

Since you are not being allowed to extend your current visa, you will need to leave Thailand before your current permission to stay expires and then return preferably with a Non-immigrant O visa (or you can come in using a Tourist Visa or a Visa Exempt, and then convert this to a non-O at some Imm. offices) 

I did not realize there was a difference between 65000, month and 195,000 every three months, Stupid me. Wake up to reality, it is a scam between the agents and the person charging $1,000 to pretend to put 800,000 in your bank account.

3 hours ago, AGITATORKEN said:

I am an American Expat who has been living in Thailand and had a retirement visa since 2008. I just attempted to renew my retirement Visa and was refused.  Here is the story and a real accounting of what is going on:
 
1- Embassy's stopped issuing income certification letters, probably under pressure from the Thai government.
2- No matter what you bring to Immigration, they will not accept.  I brought my bank book with transfer from America in the last six months totaling Bt. 1.4 million.  The bank book clearly states that the money came from an overseas transfer.  I was informed that it has to be Bt. 65,000 every month NOT AVERAGE, and certification has to come from my country.  I could probably get the certification from my bank, but I am positive they would not accept it.  I asked to see a supervisor but was refused.
 
HERE IS THE SCAM.
 
1- You can go to a Thai waiting outside the embassy knowing his buddy just turned you down.
2- For the tidy sum of $1,000 USD he will set up a phony bank account for you, pretend to deposit 800,000 in the account and fix it with his buddy.  You have to use his bank, which does not have internet banking for you to check the transfer.
3- My theory in reality is there is no money, the bankbook is just a piece of paper. There is no money transfer and it is a Thai scam. Pretty good income for a scam artist that earns $500/month.
 
 
For me it is the last straw of dishonesty in Asia and I will be selling my condo and my car and leaving.  If others did the same, they would put a stop to it. The American Embassy does absolutely nothing to help Americans in Thailand.
 
 

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Good point, but pulling up this after all the years I have been here infuriates me.

I suspect the 1000$ can be negotiated down a bit if you speak to few more of the immigration guys friends

very interesting information but missing the most important, where was it? it would help many of us knowing the IMO

Immigration, sorry for the mistake.

This happened at an embassy or immigration? 

That makes a lot of sense dissent it. Think about it

That's correct, the orders have always clearly stated income of 65,000 baht per month (as a minimum).

My mistake, I meant Jontiem Immigration.

???
Gee sounds terrible.
A Thai was waiting outside the embassy?
What embassy was that?

3 hours ago, AGITATORKEN said:

I am an American Expat who has been living in Thailand and had a retirement visa since 2008. I just attempted to renew my retirement Visa and was refused.  Here is the story and a real accounting of what is going on:
 
1- Embassy's stopped issuing income certification letters, probably under pressure from the Thai government.
2- No matter what you bring to Immigration, they will not accept.  I brought my bank book with transfer from America in the last six months totaling Bt. 1.4 million.  The bank book clearly states that the money came from an overseas transfer.  I was informed that it has to be Bt. 65,000 every month NOT AVERAGE, and certification has to come from my country.  I could probably get the certification from my bank, but I am positive they would not accept it.  I asked to see a supervisor but was refused.
 
HERE IS THE SCAM.
 
1- You can go to a Thai waiting outside the embassy knowing his buddy just turned you down.
2- For the tidy sum of $1,000 USD he will set up a phony bank account for you, pretend to deposit 800,000 in the account and fix it with his buddy.  You have to use his bank, which does not have internet banking for you to check the transfer.
3- My theory in reality is there is no money, the bankbook is just a piece of paper. There is no money transfer and it is a Thai scam. Pretty good income for a scam artist that earns $500/month.
 
 
For me it is the last straw of dishonesty in Asia and I will be selling my condo and my car and leaving.  If others did the same, they would put a stop to it. The American Embassy does absolutely nothing to help Americans in Thailand.
 
 

My mistake. . Not the Embassy, Jontiem Immigration.

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