JB300

Somebody said on the other thread that there is an integrated data base sowing when you are in and out of the UK, personally I doubt this.

Well if there is, take it from me it certainly isn't working,

Lots of scare tactics used by certain posters, for what reason I have no idea.

Mentioned this on a previous thread but I was told by my accountant that HMRC has access to information about how many days you've been in & out of the UK, so if that's true, there must be a database somewhere with the information on it, it's not exactly a difficult thing to do given every port of entry/exit has passport swipers.

I can tell you what the Visa situation for Thailand was 50 years ago. Americans and the citizens of the UK could enter visa free at an airport for 15 days. If they desired a longer stay the only visa possible was a 30 day tourist visa. However, one could place $1000 in a Thai Bank and be granted a longer stay. I never found out how long because 50 years ago this was a huge amount of money. In addition during the 60's Thailand at one time opened their permanent residency up to all comers and provided lifetime work permits. I know 2 people that still have them. In those days there were hardly any foreign tourists and those that did come were so rare people actually stopped on the street to stare.

Fast forward to today- the new overstay rules appear to be overly harsh. As one of the posters stated- an unusual thing can happen suddenly in a person's life. Many years ago my first wife became ill with cancer and eventually passed away. Not only did I lose her but all my savings and a fully paid house- about 5 Million Baht. I had to leave Thailand because I was broke. I didn't care about Visas, reporting to Immigration or anything else. I wanted to save my wife's life. There are other stories out there. Just because you are sitting pretty one day- no one knows the future. Let's not be so judgmental- overstay is a victim less 'crime'

The real issue is for every one of you (& the previous poster looking after an ill relative), there's 100s overstaying for less "valid" reasons (can't remember the thread but do remember a poster gloating about how much money he's saved by overstaying & not buying Visas / doing visa runs) so they clamp down on everybody & its people in a similar situation to you (& previous poster) that get caught/fcuked up by it.

Simply put, if everybody who didn't have a strong reason for overstaying didn't overstay there would be no need for them to clamp down on it.

Same with ED visas

Same with Back-2-Back Tourist Visas/ Visa exempts.

Latest one I've seen is somebody being advised to go get a 7 day extension on the extension they already have on their Visa Exempt, obviously these don't exist but a quirk of the system means they'll be given an extra 7 days for a failed exemption, how long till they start clamping down on this as well?

Seriously?

How about a big shot with business & other interests would have no qualms paying 500k for a 5/6 year TE visa?

Are you kidding me? Have you been in the real world lately? People choose different ways of doing their stuff, regardless of what you would think they should do.

1) Yep, I live in the real world, apparently in a world that has more options available for consideration than you but it's still very real.

2) We all choose our own paths, I've expressed an opinion, if you have a different one, great, point remains, this thread is about overstayers not corruption.

I note you've left the drink drivers & murderers out.

Edit: I didn't see your earlier post before you replied to one of mine & whilst my opinion stays the same (& I'm on a visa run to Langkawi) I can see that you have a lot more skin in the game with having children in Thailand than I have & (again, IMHO) I think people with strong ties to Thailand (e.g. Having Thai kids... & I'm here with my Filippina common-law wife so no advantage) should have more options for staying with their families.

But (for the last time IMHO) overstaying isn't the right way to go & will end up helping the transients at the expense of hurting the genuine guys.

Ok, one last time, IMHO...

Personally, I haven't ever overstayed since I first set foot in Thailand in the early '80s. It just how I live my life.

But I find all the self-righteous gloating over this disgusting. It certainly seems like it's confined mainly to relative newcomers, who bring their obnoxious attitudes from whatever strict law-and-order Western country they left, apparently hoping to re-create its comfortable authoritarianism in Thailand.

I'd much rather have a beer with ANY overstayer than one of these pernicious creatures.

If anything is going to spoil Thailand, it's the presense, legal, of course, of these boring scum...

Pretty much too late now, I guess.

Yep too late, because all of the "harmless" overstayers that you so much enjoy having a drink with have potentially fcukd it up for all of the guys that through no fault of their own overstay.

Hope that something doesn't happen & for whatever reason you're not able to make be extension in time & so get caught in a trap of their making, pretty sure you wouldn't quite appreciate the charm of your drinking buddies if you did.

Or are you suggesting the 2 are somehow linked?

Why would these new regulations not cross with e.g. corruption? If a big shot with a business and other interests is found to be overstaying he will surely find an agreement somehow, even paying millions of baht. And where big money comes from corruption, drugs and murder is not far away.

Seriously?

How about a big shot with business & other interests would have no qualms paying 500k for a 5/6 year TE visa?

But again, not the point... Please stick to the topic at hand...

What about tougher laws on corruption, drink driving, murders, etc?

Agree, but irrelevant to this thread so probably one for another one if you'd like to start one.

Or are you suggesting the 2 are somehow linked? And overstayers should be in the same category as drink drivers/murderers???

Funny ... The Thai Visa Terrorism Experts seem to have fone to sleep.

Am I the only one who thinks it is brillaint to finally take inventory of foreigners and find out who the hell is in the Kingdom?

Is is lost on everyone that this creates a scenerio where the police can walk up and demand to see your papers and have a "regulation" they need to enforce?

If you are a person who is stuck on overstay with nothing to really hide, go immedialty and pay the fine and straighten it out.

By the way, to others like me who are here on retirement visas ... get down off your high horses ... for us .. it is incredibly easy to be here.

Imagine yourself 30 years old, and wanting to stay here for pleanty of great rerasons .. you too would have been tempted to play the 20,000 THB, catch me if you can game.

Stop with your high and mighty attitude if you are lucky enough to have a retirement visa.

And for those of us not eligible for a Retirement visa (below 50), not married to a Thai, don't want/need to work (especially in Thailand) not going to invest 10Million THB & not going to shell out 500k for a TE visa but do believe this is the right thing to do? Are we allowed an opinion from our not so high horse?

End of the day laws are laws, I've no sympathy for anybody who intentionally/deliberately sets out to break them just because they don't suit their personal wants (not needs).

The guys I do feel sorry for are the ones who unintentionally get caught by this (e.g. sudden illness & can't travel, yes you can get a medical certificate but it's not hard to imagine a scenario where somebody is too ill to travel, but not ill enough to get an MC), for whom this clampdown could seriously <deleted> up their lives.

These are the people we should have sympathy for, not somebody who should have the means & ability to travel for a few days every 3 months (& I count myself in this camp).

Aint gonna happen they need to change thai immigration laws (to make over stay a CRIMINAL offence) and what they propose is against the United Nations signatory that Thailand signed up to be a member of

Still the next 70 pages will be interesting as usual

This has nothing to do with the EU. Singapore, jails overstays for a minimum of 6 months, cane them and then ban them for 5 years of entering Singapore. Malaysia has the same laws and the UN has nothing to do with it.

Agree that it has nothing to do with EU (though I think the poster said UN, not quite the same) & if it was then every country would be guilty of the same charge of deporting/blacklisting people who abuse their visa system.

But going to call BS on Singapore Imprisoning/Caning people as the reality is that they stick you in their IDC equivalent until you can pay for a flight out, no further fine but you will get ban of 1-10years depending on the individual circumstances.

Any ban of any kind & you have to seek permission from Singapore ICA before you can come back...

Yeah, would only do that as long as it took to sell the property without having to pay any CGT & was joking (saber rattling) about claiming JSA, have never claimed a penny in benefits as I'm from the old school that would only claim them because they needed them, not because they can.

It is still a scandal that pensioners in Asia are treated different to those living in EU. #saynotoeu

Not true, as far as pensions are concerned, UK pensioners in Philippines get exactly the same benefits/increases as pensioners in the UK as do UK pensioners living in the US.

It's about having a reciprocal social benefits arrangement between the UK & the country in question, nothing to do with Europe save the fact that this kind of agreement is part of the core EU agreement covering membership.

"My only understanding of bank advantages is that being a non resident can exclude you from paying tax on any bank interest". True, if you are talking about interest arising outside the UK. Not true in respect of UK bank interest - all UK source income (except the state pension), including interest, is subject to taxation even for a non-resident. There are however advantages for non-residents in the extent of tax payable on bank interest. It is "disregarded income" and taxation is limited to the amount of any tax deducted at source (20%). Non-residents can claim back some or all tax on interest if their total UK taxable income is less than their personal allowance, but that's no more than the same rules as applying to residents. Note that the old R85 process of telling banks that they should not deduct interest because you do not expect to be a taxpayer is no longer available to anyone.

Actually it's perfectly practical to fill in a form R105 and get interest paid gross, at which point the conditions about disregarded income still apply. I pay no tax at all on my UK bank interest.

Also there is no liability (currently) to any extra tax on dividends, or any liability to CGT on share purchases/sales.

The above may change at some point but so far it isnt clear how and when.

Still waiting for the full down-low on the new Dividend Tax regs, but if the government were to remove the high rate tax benefits on this, and remove the Personal Taxation Allowance/CGT benefits (can't see how they can do this one without massively impacting foreign investment) then I'll be booking a nice 47 day trip back to the UK to reclaim residency, kicking my tenants out to re-establish primary residency, renewing my driving license, popping into the GP for a check-up/ any remedial work, topping up my ISA, buying some Lloyds shares in the sell-off... All whilst claiming job seekers allowance.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more the above "Plan" makes sense...

Just downloaded Matrioshka,series 2 because it had Pattaya in it , pity they didn't use "actors" for the 3 main guys in the 1st episode,I could "act"better than them ,managed about 20 minutes,just off to delete the 10 episodes I downloaded, sorry to anyone who liked it ,but it was no "Bron Broen"

Each to their own I guess, but you've come in half way through a series basically because Thailand was mentioned and

watched 20 minutes out of 20 episodes.

I thought it was terrific as was Bron Broen, but cannot see the point in comparing the two as they have different

subject matters.

Give Arne Dahl a go.

Anybody know where I can stream S01E01 with English subtitles?

The one instance I can find on ALLUC is just an AD-Trap...

Thx

JB

Kat..............

Found it on allmyvideos.net, for anybody struggling to find any of the episodes, it's also spelt Matroesjka...

Just downloaded Matrioshka,series 2 because it had Pattaya in it , pity they didn't use "actors" for the 3 main guys in the 1st episode,I could "act"better than them ,managed about 20 minutes,just off to delete the 10 episodes I downloaded, sorry to anyone who liked it ,but it was no "Bron Broen"

Each to their own I guess, but you've come in half way through a series basically because Thailand was mentioned and

watched 20 minutes out of 20 episodes.

I thought it was terrific as was Bron Broen, but cannot see the point in comparing the two as they have different

subject matters.

Give Arne Dahl a go.

Anybody know where I can stream S01E01 with English subtitles?

The one instance I can find on ALLUC is just an AD-Trap...

Thx

JB

Was also picked up by the Guardian...

British workers will have worst pensions of any major economy...

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/dec/01/british-workers-worst-pensions-major-economy-uk-retirement-age-oecd

So at least it's getting some airtime [emoji106]

The UK state pension has been revealed as one of the worst in the world. Among developed countries only people in Mexico and Chile can look forward to a relatively worst retirement payout...

http://www.independent.co.uk/money/state-pension-shock-only-workers-in-mexico-and-chile-get-worse-a6756336.html

You could go early to Savannakhet.and leave the country on the 7th. Then apply for the visa on the 8th.

If you went on the 10th you would have to wait until the 14th to pick up your visa after applying on the 11th.

You could also go to immigration and apply for a 7 day extension, pay 1900 baht and be given 7 days to leave the country. This would be the best option since it will cost you 500 baht per day for an overstay. Immigration will also be closed on the 7th. You should go this week to apply for it. If you went on the 8th though you would not be charged an overstay because the were closed on the day your permit to stay ended.

If I've read the OP correctly he's already extended his Visa Exempt for 30 days, can he really extend it a second time for a further 7 days on top of this?

Am I being dumb or am I missing something, I'm 59 years old and have been coming to Thailand regularly for the last 5 years on tourist visas, sometimes 5 or 6 times each year and staying anything from 5 to 45 days at a time.

So now I'm looking to finish work soon and hopefully get a retirement visa so I went to try and open a bank account so I could put in the 800,000 baht required and was told I need a valid Residence Certificate to open an account, off I go to the Immigration office at Jomtien, I fill out all the forms and get photo copies of everything only to be told I need a one year visa to get a Residence Certificate to open a bank account.

So I cannot get a Residence Certificate to open a bank account because I don't have a one year visa and I can't get a Retirement visa because I don't have a bank account with the required amount of money.

Try the Bangkok Bank Branch on Soi Buakhao (just up from Soi Honey, across the road from The Butchers Arms/what was Pook Bar).

A few people have had success opening accounts there with just a Visa Exempt stamp.

Excellent thread, I usually stream things the day after they've aired & highly recommend the Minix boxes (I have the X7), but recently I've just been using http://www.alluc.ee/ to stream stuff without using a box (though if I want to watch it on the TV, I use AirPlay on the X7 or AppleTV to "Throw" it on there from my phone/tab/MacBook).

There is an Alluc plugin for Kodi but haven't gotten around to installing it yet.

URL seems to be broken taff...

Try this one http://www.britishpensions.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Sunday-times-Nov-29-2015.jpg

So your British Friends who've lived in France for so long as to have grandchildren there have never bothered to register at the local town hall & got residency status (not exactly hard, a non-EU spouse can get it after 3 months just by living there with an EU citizen), because if they have (& meet the other criteria) I'm pretty sure they'll have no problem applying for an METV in France.

Not that they'd have a problem (if they meet all of the other criteria) in applying for one with French bank accounts in the UK either.

Have any of them actually tried?

Why would someone do that since they already have residency under EU law?

Oh I don't know... Maybe because of EU law... http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02004L0038-20110616

(9) Union citizens should have the right of residence in the host Member State for a period not exceeding three months without being subject to any conditions or any formalities other than the requirement to hold a valid identity card or passport, without prejudice to a more favourable treatment applicable to job-seekers as recognised by the case-law of the Court of Justice.

(12) For periods of residence of longer than three months, Member States should have the possibility to require Union citizens to register with the competent authorities in the place of residence, attested by a registration certificate issued to that effect.

I thought that you had to register for a carte de séjour within 3 months of living in France (have to have it within 3 months so need to actually register within 2 months), but a quick Google suggests it's dependent on where they're living http://www.expatica.com/fr/visas-and-permits/A-guide-for-EU-EEA-Swiss-citizens-moving-to-France_109144.html... But it is pretty common to have to register with the local town hall, especially if they've been living there for decades.

My point though is that they've either registered or they don't need to, either way they're residents so will be able to apply for an METV in France.

Again my question is, have any of them tried or is this just an assumption.

I've quite a number of fellow British friends who have lived in France to long that they have Grandchildren. These rules say they can't apply in France because they have a UK passport and can't apply in the UK because they have a French bank account. Insanity.

It is now increasingly clear that current METV requirements are designed to prevent this type of visa from being issued. As @Lorin reported, even if someone manages to jump through one set of ridiculous requirements, they won't hesitate to come up with another, or if that fails, refuse altogether on any pretext.

METV is unobtainable for now, that much is clear.

Perhaps we might see an occasional successful report, but those will be few and far between. As an aside, not many people know a 3-year multiple-entry Non-Immigrant B visa is a thing... nobody ever gets one (maybe those who do know better than to announce it to the world), but it's on the books.

The only silver lining is that the METV visa type is now formally active. They might decide to loosen the requirements when political winds change (perhaps due to pressure from tourism industry, power transition or some other reason). This will probably be done in silence, only at certain consulates, without a clear or broadly distributed announcement.

It's clear that the METV is targeted at countries who currently have to apply for Visa on Arrival (notably India & China) & the increase in number of visitors from these will dwarf the number of people who don't visit because they can no longer get a 2/3 entry.

As for those who are impacted by no longer being able to get a multi-entry visa, the vast majority will find another way or #only# stay for 90 days so the downside is negligible.

Right or wrong / hate it or love it, it's number of visitors (not spends) that seems to count in Thailand so the METV will be seen as a success & I wouldn't bank on it going away anytime soon.