Arkady

4 hours ago, THAIJAMES said:

Actually the invalid PR would show up right away on the Immigration computers.  What I was actually wondering if the citizenship requirement is to have had or to still have a PR. I am not sure if I am making the distinction clear.

Unless you have a Thai spouse, you need to have currently valid PR for 5 years before you apply for citizenship. If your PR has been cancelled for overstaying overseas, you have to reapply for PR and the clock will start again once your PR has been reinstated. 

4 hours ago, ratcatcher said:

"The election date  must  be  no  earlier  than  45 days  but  no  later  than 60 days  from  the  date  such  royal  decree  comes  into  force."

 

I agree with your comment Colin, but would PCO dare to go against such a decree?   The decree has been issued by H.M., but does it go into effect immediately i.e. 23 Jan 2019?

 

Yes. In point 3 it says that this decree takes immediate effect upon publication in the Royal Gazette.

51 minutes ago, jesimps said:

Nothing about bank statements showing foreign transfers. My SCB account shows transfers coming from TransferWise as "ATS = Automatic Transfer System".

Yesterday I did a Swift transfer direct from my UK bank and it's recorded on my bank statement as "FRCI = Foreign Remitance and Settlement" so all ok there. BUT, I'd have received some 1800 baht more if I'd used TransferWise. 21,600 baht over 12 months is a substantial sum which I'm not prepared to lose. I guess until something is sorted on this it'll (reluctantly) have to be the 4 or 800,000 deposit for me.

That is why they need a separate letter from the bank to certify that the remittances were from overseas. The statements or passbook copy will be used to cross check that the amounts came into your account monthly.

11 minutes ago, chrisinth said:

It is good that they sent the letter to the various immigration offices to clarify the 'leniency' until the end of 2019, although this is mainly for people already in the system.

 

My question, looking at the slightly bigger picture, is how this will affect newly weds and people retiring to Thailand from the end of 2019 onward? Does this mean that they will have to wait for a year before they can be eligible to apply for an extension to achieve the history required for transfers using the income method?

 

Are the banks going to be more friendly with regards to opening accounts to achieve this required history of transfers? How will visas work during the one year wait for the potential retiree (married people waiting not so much as they can get non-o's easier)?

 

While understanding planning is great, I also understand that not everything sticks to the plan, so people may have to get married in some circumstances before the planned dates and people can also make decisions for retirement earlier than expected due to favourable circumstances. It is these people I'm thinking about.

Thai banks will remain Thai banks which are basically set up to provide retail banking services to Thai people. They won’t change their account opening criteria because of a new Immigration rule. You may still need to shop around to find a bank or branch to open an account for you, if you are a foreigner without a work permit or permanent residence. These problems were started by the money laundering regulations which in typical style were vague enough to permit different interpretations by different banks and within banks. I was once told to close my account by a junior bank officer who refused to give me a new bank book because I didn’t have a work permit, even though I had permanent residence books with me. Luckily head aoffice disagreed with her on appeal.

1 hour ago, holy cow cm said:

Nothing stated for being a member of a Thai Family. Apparently Big J is either hearing the IO's complaints or is reading TV. 

As you see in the preamble, family members are mentioned as well as retirement.  In the original it is clearer that the leniency applies equally to those applying for extensions based on living with a Thai family member and using a monthly pension payment as evidence.  The order actually specifies that the income for family extensions can come from other family members overseas, since, of course, there is no requirement to be over 50.  My take, as in the case of pension income, is that you can probably remit it to yourself from overseas but we will have to see exactly how it is implemented. 

1 minute ago, from the home of CC said:

imo  Obviously that's the result of people trying to scam the system . Most of hoops we have to leap through generated here and everywhere result from folks who think they're smarter than the rules/regs. As people get caught systems are tweaked. Essentially, people cause their own problems and unfortunately everyone has to pay for their idiocy. 

That is clearly the case.  Immigration must have seen all manner of scams designed to circumvent their rules.

1 hour ago, keithet said:

Unlike the official police report this statement doesn't mention that the funds have to be from a foreign source. Will they be lenient with that too? 

So here will come all the transfer wise people with their questions.  

Actually the Thai letter does specify that the transfers must come from overseas but that seems to have been lost in translation.  However, there is no requirement in the letter or the order that the transfers should be seen to be coming from a pension provider.  That seems to allow the flexibility to be paid into a foreign account and remit the necessary monthly amount from that account yourself.

5 minutes ago, elgenon said:

How could the video cause the school to lose face if they did nothing wrong?

 

Looks to me like the girl in the background has even longer hair.

Yes, the girl walking around in the background with a pony tail seems to have even longer hair. Perhaps she is in the queue for a free hair cut.

7 hours ago, colinneil said:

Maybe i am wrong, but i am sure this rule about hair length was abolished a couple of years ago.

If that is the case, school director and teachers involved should be sacked.

From what I recall the ministry did abolish the rule on a national basis but left it up to schools to make their own rules.

2 hours ago, Bangel72 said:

Does anyone know of anyone who has had the PR revoked, had someone rambling on this at the weekend but just wanted to know if there were any actual real cases people know of here. The forgetting to get your re-entry visa is on scenario but again do not know of a single case personally.

Yes, I know someone whose PR was cancelled because he came back a couple of weeks after his re-entry permit had expired, due to the fact that he had been unexpectedly hospitalised and operated on while overseas and was unfit to travel by the due date. No amount of doctors' certificates made any difference.  The law is the law and it is in black and white in the Immigration Act. Immigration was very apologetic about cancelling it and helped him reapply successfully.  CW advised me to always be sure to have extra time before renewal when planning trips in case of emergencies of travel delays.  A couple of times I renewed early ahead of a trip, just in case.

In the case of a criminal record, I think it has be something imprisonable that would be bad enough to get a non-PR deported after serving his sentence.  I don't think you will get your PR revoked for first time DWI or other driving offences. Remember the Yingluck government tried to revoke the PR of the Indian guy, Seghal, for appearing on the yellow shirt stages but in the end they gave up.  Revoking PR for cause other than re-entering without a valid re-entry permit requires a decision from the Immigration Committee, as far as I know, and I believe it can be appealed.  However, if you are convicted of a criminal offence and the judge orders your deportation after serving your sentence, it may not be worth arguing.  If he doesn't order this, you might have a chance.  The same applies to naturalised Thais.  A court can order that their citizenship be revoked but has only ever been reported in serious cases like drug dealing and a couple, who lost their Thai citizenship over a gambling den conviction successfully sued the minister in the Administrative Court and got their citizenship reinstated 16 years later!

43 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Bangkok Bank was a cinch. They updated all the records and I kept the same account number. I don't recall having any difficulties with stuff like this. 

 

What I find interesting is the very different experiences we all have. The way different banks handle the situation, the way we are treated by different District Offices, etc.  

The inconsistencies are stark but not really surprising in a country where each official prefers to reinvent the wheel in his own way, often at the expense of the public, rather than just use existing wheels.

For me Bangkok Bank was the second worst after SCB, requiring two visits in the first instance and then another visit after it turned they hadn’t effected the change at all, despite a huge amount of rigmarole and time wasted. KBANK was head and shoulders above the rest - two minutes using a smart card reader on ID card and no documents requested at all which left me stunned and incapable of speech at the counter. Krungsri and UOB were second equal. Both took about half an hour without angst or calls to HQ. My brokerage accounts were quite easy but all changed the language of mailings I receive to Thai, despite my requests not to do so, which means the copious mailings they still have to send in hard copy by law, get heaved straight into the bin, as everything is available in English online anyway.

If SCB had refused me again, I was going to empty the account bar a few baht with my ATM card and leave them with the stub and continuing administrative costs.

1 hour ago, Michael Hare said:

Yesterday I got my multiple re-entry stamps at Ubon Ratchathani Immigration as I am leaving Thailand on business next week. I am planning on making several overseas trips this year. Usually it takes an hour or so. Yesterday I arrived at 13:10 and left at 15:45. Collected a quene ticket and waited about 50 minutes before my number was called.

 

The lady officer at the desk said that they only did 2-3 re-entry permits per year for people with PR.  They asked my permission to take a photo of me signing my signature in one of these huge old ledgers. This was to show the big bosses when they come up from Bangkok for inspections. 

 

I didn't have to fill out any forms. She did all of this on the computer and when the forms were printed out, I signed in many places. I also signed in two of these big ledgers which looked like they were at least 100 years old. She said it was tricky as they required a lot more enteries than before. Even then she got some things wrong and her superior yelled at her when the final forms were being examined.

 

Took 45 minutes for her to do all the typing, paste in my photos etc. The only photcopies she needed were those of my house registration book and the front page of my passport. As my blue book only has one page left I asked about getting a white book. She said yes, they will issue me with one the next time I come in. But the white book has to be sent up from Bangkok. I asked her how long that took. She replied that she didn't know because she had never had anyone in Ubon ask for one. 

 

The superior had other visas to check and it took her just over 1 hour before she dealt with my paperwork and signed off.

The traditional long-term PR holder, specially in the provinces, was a Chinese immigrant who arrived when it was still easy to get PR but never managed to get citizenship, either because they couldn't qualify, couldn't be bothered or didn't want to give up Chinese nationality. I used to see a lot of elderly Chinese signing their names with thumb prints, waiting for endorsements and re-entry permits at the old PR section in Soi Suan Plu in Bangkok but I guess many have died since then. Many of the survivors don't bother with endorsements any more, as they no longer travel. I have come across Thai officials who said the red book was only for Chinese and couldn't understand how I got one . Farangs living and working in the provinces are more likely to go straight to citizenship these days, if they have a Thai spouse and can figure out how to get around the difficulties facing applicants living outside Bangkok.

It seems that the police have only circumstantial evidence that Ms Supatra was involved in her boyfriend’s drug dealing in that her name was used to buy some assets.

17 minutes ago, dbrenn said:

Agreed. Aside from the novelty value of being told to go and vote, the act of voting doesn't seem to have much effect on our everyday lives, in Thailand or anywhere else these days.

 

Nice that they put me on the list though.

Voting seems to have an effect elsewhere but mainly negative these days, viz Trump, Brexit, Duterte and now Trump of the Tropics in Brazil who wants to convert what remains of the Amazon forest to hard cash.

BTW did you actually vote in that election before your 5 years were up?

If the election is delayed for a few more months, I will be eligible to vote. Technically it should be 5 years from publication in the RG, since that is when you become Thai, although I suspect they are more likely to take it from the date of first ID card and change of nationality in tabien baan. In Dbren’s case they apparently made a mistake in adding him to the electoral register prematurely. This seems to imply that they could also add new citizens to the register late or not at all. I also wonder how one can check once we have done our time.

I am keen to exercise my legal and civic duty by voting. However, I can't say I am inspired by any of the parties and characters now jockeying for position in the next round, whenever that might be.

2 hours ago, Rugon said:

I've been assigned a date for my NIA interview. That was quick! 

 

Is there any tips anyone has on how to prepare for this. The Language is not a problem. 

Take all documents you can think of with you: passport, WP, tabien baan, alien book, residence book (the latter two, only if PR), driving licence, copies of educational certificates, salary letter copy etc; same again for spouse and kids, if any. Prepare to answer again all the same questions asked by SB. If you have a copy of the application form SB filled in for you, bring it along.  Don't assume that they will have all the documents that should be in your file in front of them - I am not sure exactly what SB sends them anyway.

The conversation is normally along the lines of your status in Thailand, job, family, why you want to be Thai etc. If you are applying on the basis of a Thai spouse, expect plenty of questions to verify it is a real marriage including possible scrutiny of spouse's documents. Someone recently, I think it was Neeraman, entered into a lengthy conversation about gardening with them but I don't think that is compulsory.

I have never heard of anyone getting a hard time from the NIA. They seem to be a friendly bunch but they have recently uncovered some marriages (apparently all Asian applicants) that they thought were marriages of convenience and blocked those applicants.  So they do do their job.  If all it above board in your application, you have nothing to fear.