aronp1

16 hours ago, Ronuk said:

Give me your experiences not 'Who you know' where do you live in Thailand and on how much? Most are not interested in sitting in a shoebox studio apartment playing on the Internet all day because they have no funds to lead a proper life.

Your post has done no more than confirm to me what a miserable life it would be living on a $1000 a month. The only possible reason I can think to live like that, would be not being able to afford to live in your country. How do these so called people you know afford visas, health care etc and still save $200 a month? I've been in Thailand 25 + years and I tell you now, $1000 a month to pay everything is a miserable life.

Try living in the US on that amount! Not even possible. 

Fall?

I read somewhere that in the US cell service companies charge the highest rates.

I wasn't saying what OP would or could make here. I was just giving an example of the difference between the two societies. What would be a decent wage here would not be in the US when camparing the equivalent amount of money.

That depends on what job you have. Very few people in America have or can save $500,000. Also like i said even if you could save that much , it's still not enough to live off the intrest if you had it in the bank. Unlike the 20m baht. Don't think it's easy to make money in America either. We are talking about two different societies. Rich and wealthy people here in Thailand, wouldn't have the same status in America. It almost sounds like OP wants to be rich and successful here and wants to be procieved that way by Americans, which is not going to happen. If someone is making 50,000 ฿ a month, (which I know they're far from being rich) you can rent a decent condo, save money, eat good, etc. You can live good without any real woories. Now if you tried living in America on that same amount ($1500 a month) you would be in great poverty. You would have barely any money left after paying your bills, saving money would be just a dream.

I agree with you about the US, but you talk like someone can't be successful in Thailand, which I disagree. Stop comparing the US dollar to the Thai baht. If you compare a rich successful Thai resident's bank account to the same in the US, there's going to be a big difference. If you have 20 million baht in the bank, you "could" live off the intrest, but that's only just over $500,000 in US and that doesn't generate enough intrest to live on.

Photography is such a wide subject. There are many types of photography. True anybody can push a bottom on a camera, but it's the creative eye and the knowledge of post editing that sets them apart. I think it really depends on what type of photography you're doing. What type of photography do you specialize in? Now I know you couldn't have a set in a shopping center and taking portraits, but you could start a business doing lets say, product photography. You could go the artist route and take picture and have them put into gallery prints. There's a difference between a photograph and a picture, and it take a photographic artist to take photo and make it into a picture. So no not anybody can be a photographer.

The king as been trying to do that for years, so good luck.

Carrier, very quiet.

I think they need to be saved and told the truth about christianity. The last thing Thailand needs is an epidemic of christianity.

Unless it has changed since 2014, I changed my visa exempt to a 90-day non-o at immigration in Bangkok. No financial proof needed.

Financial proof has always been required if applying on the basis of retirement, marriage or being the parent of a Thai.

This from Bangkok immigration website. Requires IE or an extension to emulate it on other browser to find the info here: http://bangkok.immigration.go.th/en/base.php?page=service#

DOCUMENTS TO BE SUBMITTED IN SUPPORT OF THE APPLICATION FOR VISA OR VISA STATUS ALTERATION (NON-O): FOR A FAMILY MEMBER OF A THAI (APPLICABLE ONLY PARENTS, SPOUSE OR CHILD.

• The application must be submit at least 15 days before visa expiration and, in case of overstaying in Thailand, application could not be submitted.
• 1.1 Form TM.86 for the foreigner, who has Tourist and Transit Visa and applies for Visa Status Alteration and applies for non-immigrant visa; or

  1.2 Form TM.87 for the foreigner, who enters into Thailand without visa, but is allowed to stay in Thailand with a permit of stay for a period of 15 day, 30 days, 90 days and applies for non-immigrant visa.

• A copy of passport pages of the Applicant (for example, personal information page, last entries stamp, visa sticker and extension stamp (if any) and departure card (Form TM.6))
• Either one 4x6 cm photograph or one 2 inch size photograph
• 4.Application fee of Baht 2,000
• 5.1 In case of a Thai citizen, please show: A copy national ID card, a copy of house registration papers and a copy of employee’s or government officer’s ID card;

  5.2 In case of a foreigner with a permit to reside in Thailand or a person who has become a Thai naturalized citizen, please show: residency certificate, alien registration certificate, work permit, a copy of passport and house registration and a copy of documents showing Thai naturalization.

• 6.1 Evidence proving that the applicant is father, mother or children or birth certificate; or

  6.2 Letter from a government office, embassy or consulate, certifying that the applicant is a member of the referred family; guarantee letter from the Department of Protocol, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Documents under 6.1 and 6.2 must be translated into Thai or English and certified by local or overseas Embassy or Consulate of the foreigner and by the Legalization Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand) (For more information, please call 0-2575-1056-9)

• In case of father is a foreigner: showing an official notarized document from a court of law certifying that child is biological offspring of the foreign father.
• The following evidence of income must be submitted.

  8.1 A guarantee letter from the local or overseas Embassy or Consulate, proving the monthly income of the Applicant not less than Baht 40,000* per month; or

  8.2 A guarantee letter in Thai language from the commercial bank in Thailand (Attention: Immigration Commissioner) and a copy of all entries of the applicant’s passbook showing that the applicant has a savings or fixed deposit account of not less than Baht 400,000*(Documents under 8.1and 8.2 must be issued and updated to be the same date of the Application and all documents must be in the Applicant’s name.)

I guess they just forgot to ask for mine.

Unless it has changed since 2014, I changed my visa exempt to a 90-day non-o at immigration in Bangkok. No financial proof needed.

www.thaifriendly.com ranked #1 thai dating site. You still need to be careful. Although most may be lagit, you can still run across a scamer. Do some research on what signs to look out for that points to a bad situation.

I'm totally guessing here but,

Thai girls are looking to live a lazy life in Thailand, so foreign partners need to be rich or retired.

Filipino girls are happy to live anywhere in the world and contribute to the family income.

I think it comes down to cultural work ethics.

Thai women are lazy? Cultural work ethics? You don't get out enough. From what I've seen Thai women carry this country

Not to mention they out number men 8-1.

But the government is unelected and ruled by dictat, the citizens are forbidden to meet in public, and as a foreigner you have hardly any rights.

No right to work, no right to own land, report to immigration every 90 days, etc.

What's freedoms does a foreigner have living in Thailand?

Apart from freedom to eat a fried breakfast.

As for restricted breakfast menus, not everyone eats in McDonald's.

I don't know where you got this misconception from, but the government of Thailand is a domacracy. The king is kept in honor of tradition, but has no power.

Purchase in Taiwan. Enough said.

So you have a job already for you when you arrive here? You will need all supporting documents from your employer

When applying for your non-b.

Why are you going all the way back to the US to get a visa?

If you make less than $60,000 a year you don't pay taxes. If you live outside the US, $80,000 and below is none taxable.

Where in the world and in what condition did you get (and believe) this info?

from the IRS and personal experience.

Just give me a few IRS link please?

look it up yourself. I think people are getting things mixed up here. First of all everybody pays an income tax , that is taken out of every paycheck. What I'm talking about is at the end of the year the IRS telling you that you owe them money. I have never filed taxes and the IRS told me I had to pay them money. I forgot to file my 2014 taxes in 2015, I just did that this year. 2014 was my last year 8n the US. I had a driving job made 45,000 + , I just got my return for 1,280.00.

If you make less than $60,000 a year you don't pay taxes. If you live outside the US, $80,000 and below is none taxable.

Where in the world and in what condition did you get (and believe) this info?

from the IRS and personal experience.

If you make less than $60,000 a year you don't pay taxes. If you live outside the US, $80,000 and below is none taxable.

With that kind of wrong advice, good luck in your future meeting with the IRS.

That's the way it has always been. When earning less than 60,000 a year you actually get a return. When in Iraq talking with employees of KBR that were making 125,000 a year, they informed me the first 80,000 is not taxable. Also my pay in the Army was none taxable. So I'm sure if I had to "pay" anything to the IRS for any of the many years filing taxes, they would have told me and not send me a return.

Meanwhile, hot off the presses from the IRS:

Don’t Forget to Report Certain Foreign Accounts to Treasury by the June 30 Deadline

IR-2016-90, June 17, 2016

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today reminded taxpayers who have one or more bank or financial accounts located outside the United States, or signature authority over such accounts that they may need to file an FBAR by Thursday, June 30.

By law, many U.S. taxpayers with foreign accounts exceeding certain thresholds must file Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, known as the "FBAR." It is filed electronically with the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen).

"Robust growth in FBAR filings in recent years shows we are getting the word out regarding the importance of offshore tax compliance," said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. "Taxpayers here and abroad should take their foreign account reporting obligations very seriously.”

In general, the filing requirement applies to anyone who had an interest in, or signature or other authority over foreign financial accounts whose aggregate value exceeded $10,000 at any time during 2015. Because of this threshold, the IRS encourages taxpayers with foreign assets, even relatively small ones, to check if this filing requirement applies to them. The form is only available through the BSA E-Filing System website.

In 2015, FinCen received a record high 1,163,229 FBARs, up more than 8 percent from the prior year. FBAR filings have grown on average by 17 percent per year during the last five years, according to FinCen data.

The IRS is implementing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which mandates third-party reporting of foreign accounts to foster offshore tax compliance. FATCA created a new filing requirement: IRS Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets, which is filed with individual tax returns. The filing thresholds are much higher for this form than for the FBAR.

The International Taxpayers page on IRS.gov provides the best starting place to get answers to important questions. The website has a directory that includes overseas tax preparers. International taxpayers will find the online IRS Tax Map and the International Tax Topic Index to be valuable resources.

And people who know nothing about America think it's so great! America is the best! Yes you're right about that. The best at scamming people out of money, the truth, and their health.

Buy a Mac..........<deleted> are you wondering about HOW YOUR GOING TO RUN IT??????

I have a Sony Vaio also....and I hate it. Windows BLOWWWSSS. I only have to keep up to date on where windows is going.....

Most I know here in Thailand their computers are loaded with Pirated Software....Go to the States, and get caught and can be 5-10-15-20 K fine......

meanwhile my Mac is humming along, no cash out of the pocket for ohhhhh...THE NEW WINDOWS......

Wow! How misleading is that.

If you make less than $60,000 a year you don't pay taxes. If you live outside the US, $80,000 and below is none taxable.

You always need to file taxes each year, but actually "paying" taxes all depends on how much you've earned that year.