khunjeff

The official fine has been 2000 baht ever since the law went into effect 20 or so years ago. For the first couple of years, there were even notices posted at airport immigration counters informing arriving passengers of the penalty. You're absolutely right, though, that during that entire period, the law has always been used pretty much exclusively against foreigners (and pretty much exclusively for cigarette butts and ash - dump a sack of trash out the window and you're fine).

"Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul was asked if the scandal showed that anything, including police services, could be bought in Thailand if people had the money to pay. “Come on, you have just listened to one woman. How reliable is she?” he replied." Whenever his mouth is open, he just can't help shoving his foot into it...

Why on earth does the Health Minister get to determine the legal definition of "narcotics trafficker", and make pronouncements about who should or shouldn't be imprisoned, without any debate by members of Parliament?

They didn't apologize to her at all - they apologized to the Thai public for not arresting her: "The MPB did, nonetheless, offer a public apology for the conduct of Huai Khwang police officers in allowing the Taiwanese actress to be released instead of charging her for illegal possession of an electronic cigarette."

Your math is a bit off, but yes, if you never leave Thailand and therefore don't need a reentry permit, you won't save any money using the LTR. If, though, like me and many others, you pay 3800 each year for a multiple entry reentry permit, then there's a net cost savings, in addition to the other benefits. You misread what he wrote. He said "If I do not qualify for renewal in 2027, I will have paid 10K per year for this visa." In other words, if for some reason BoI decides five years from now that he doesn't meet the requirements to use the second half of his ten year visa, he will have effectively paid 50k for five years rather than for ten years. That's just a worst case scenario, as most LTR holders will presumably be able to exercise the second half of their visa without issue.

“The Government of Nauru did not sanction nor authorize the former consul-general, Onassis Dame, to lease the alleged residence,” Nauru’s government said Monday in a statement. https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/pacific/nauru-thailand-denial-01232023060409.html

Beret, jump wings, four stars on the lapel, a uniform, and a snappy salute - exactly what I would look for in a parks director ????

The embassy automatically issues the letter to immigration with every new passport - there's no need to request it, though of course no harm if you do.

Big Joke got rid of the coupons several years ago because so many of them were being illegally sold by airport and airline employees - now you just show your boarding pass from a premium cabin. It's unfortunate in a way, because previously some airlines would give the coupons to high status frequent flyers even when flying economy, and that's not possible anymore.

When her claim was challenged online (by a friend of mine, among many others), she changed her story and said she was actually talking about a US domestic flight - but was unable to explain how being mistaken for an American could have possibly helped her in that case, since there are no separate US citizen lines for domestic security, check-in, boarding, or anything else. The assumption among Thais is that she just invented the whole tale as a marketing ploy to sell her English classes: "look, you can be like me and speak English so well that people will mistake you for an American!"

I was there today for my friend's LTR appointment, and they accepted his cash payment. The sign at the cashier says "cash not accepted", and I believe that policy was enforced early on, but now you can pay the 50k fee by QR code or cash. (I had my own appointment last month, and even at that time they told me I could pay by QR or cash.)

Going by the Immigration announcement from a couple of years ago clarifying the requirement to do TM-30s when returning to your habitual residence, the answer would seem to be "yes". That announcement said that you don't have to do another TM-30 when returning from any domestic trip, and don't need to do one when coming back from overseas if you're on a multiple entry visa or a reentry permit for the same visa. If coming back on a different visa, or a visa exempt, a new TM-30 is required. (It would only be needed the first time you come back into the country, since after that the other rule kicks in.) I don't think it's either necessary or possible to do a new TM-30 if you're just staying at home and not going anywhere.

So, all through the pandemic, and as recently as last Thursday, we've been told that no decisions about entry policy are official until they're approved by the Cabinet and published in the Gazette. And yet now it seems that Anutin's idle thoughts automatically become law; the aviation regulator can choose which vaccines are acceptable; and the Transport Minister can make insurance policy, all without approval by...anyone?

By working for a Thai employer.

Don't worry too much. Once the visa has been issued, no one will look at any of that ever again - all they'll see is the visa in your passport. And if you're applying at a Thai consulate abroad, that information will be in the files of the MFA, not BoI or immigration. The e-visa website asks all those questions, but they're basically irrelevant to the LTR category. As long as you have the BoI approval letter, a valid passport, and the issuance fee, you will get the visa and that will be that.

I've done 7 retirement extensions at CW and was never asked for proof of residence, TM-30, or 90 day report, though I always brought them along in case they were requested.

The vandals will claim to be performance artists acting out the "Chaos" part of the theme.

...while those offenses lead immediately to jail in most other countries.

Yes, exactly.

I don't think even BoI itself knows yet what the procedure will be in five years time, so it's still far too early to be worrying about technical details of how the process will work. Assuming they're still using the same system at that time, though - and that's a big if - they should be able to just change the status of each case to "documents requested", exactly as they've been doing each time they want more information during the initial adjudication phase. Once the status changes, the case will be open for additional uploads.

Not to mention the time and cost to get back and forth to Chaeng Watthana at least once a year for those of us living in Bangkok, and the pages and pages of annual stamps gradually filling up your passport... But yes, it's really the mental stress that I'm most glad to get rid of - no more worrying about my bank balance, or 90 day report schedules, or remembering to get a reentry permit. And for those among us who travel regularly, the LTR also has airport Fast Track access. To me, it was a no-brainer, but of course everyone's situation is different, so not everyone will reach the same conclusion.

The headline is extremely misleading. The requirement is for all passengers flying from Thailand to India, not for "Thai tourists". In practice, the vast majority of those needing to test will be Indian nationals returning from holidays in Thailand.

A Canadian woman reported on Facebook today that she and her husband don't have pensions, but obtained LTR-WP visas this week solely on the basis of dividend and capital gains income, documented on their tax returns. So it definitely seems to be possible. The situation you're describing is a bit different, though, in that you wouldn't be receiving dividends from shares in a brokerage account, but essentially paying them to yourself from your own company. I would guess that BoI's willingness to accept that will depend on how the arrangement is documented, and whether it seems legitimate to them.

As @Pibhinted at in a recent post, I did indeed get the LTR-WP visa stamped into my passport on Tuesday, two days ago. Here's how the process unfolded (it's long, so I won't be offended if you skip around): Oct 7: uploaded my initial application, with a pension letter, 12 monthly pension statements, five years of income tax transcripts (only showing gross income and tax owed), and a letter from my insurer (a group policy under the US Government's Federal Employees Health Benefits program (FEHB)) Nov 11: having heard nothing after 22 workdays, I called BoI, and finally got through on the 8th try over two days. The woman who answered said she would check with the person handling my case, and came back to say that there were questions about my pension, and it came to $75k, right? Since that was completely wrong, I assume that no one had ever set eyes on my case until I called, and had misread the numbers. She asked if I could provide a tax return, and I said yes, but I had already done so. She asked if I had a version that showed all income categories so that they could see I wasn't including wage income (which was weird, since my pension already exceeded 80k), and I said yes, I can upload that. She only wanted the most recent year. A few minutes later, I received the document request for the tax return, but they had also included the medical insurance boilerplate that Pib quoted above - again, with no explanation of why my lifetime policy with unlimited coverage wasn't unacceptable. That same day, I uploaded my full 2021 tax return along with the last 12 bank statements showing a cash balance of over $100k every month. (I just happened to have kept that high balance for reasons unrelated to the LTR, which was lucky.) *** Time passes...and passes...*** Dec 23: To my surprise, I suddenly received an email with my "Qualification Endorsement" (that's what I posted a few days ago). It asked me to upload all of my passport pages with Thai stamps (I had traveled three times since the initial application, so these were actually different from what I originally provided), along with any TM-6 (I don't have one) and 90 day report receipt. I did have a receipt from May, the last time I spent 90 days in Thailand, so I included that in my submission. Based on Pib's experience, I bundled the passport pages and receipt into one PDF. Bizarrely, there was also a note in red on the documents page on the website saying to submit health insurance. Pib had seen an identical note on his page, so I decided that it was probably just an artifact of the November request - otherwise, why would they have approved my case? - and just ignored that section. Dec 26: Now things are speeding up! At 9:30 Monday morning, I received the final approval email that told me to print out the various forms and letters and make an appointment. I ran out to get photos taken (I hadn't done that earlier for fear of jinxing the process!), and when they said the pictures would be ready at 2pm, I made an appointment for the next day at 11am (not wanting to get up early). BTW, I'm not sure why they even ask us to print the documents, since they could just provide all of them at BoI, but it wasn't a big deal. One thing I noticed was that on the TM-94 form, the pre-populated data was all correct except for the last part of my address, which was shown (in Thai only) as Amphoe Muang, Krabi, instead of Watthana, Bangkok! I know I didn't make an error, since you have to choose the province first before the other drop down menus activate, so I can only think it's a software bug. I corrected it with a PDF editing app and attached the photo. Dec 27: I took the MRT to Chamchuri, since the station feeds directly into the building and I live only a short walk from Sukhumvit station - the trip was under 30 minutes door to door and cost less than a buck. At the BoI office, I waited about five minutes for someone to come take care of me. Unlike the experience that seemingly everyone else had, the young lady assigned to me had pretty poor English, and didn't seem to know quite what she was doing. After she came back and had me sign on the various rubber stamps and (inexplicably) write my phone number and email address on the approval letter, she led me off to get my photo taken. While we were crossing the hall to immigration, I heard someone giving her instructions in Thai. I looked around and there was a young Muslim woman following her and telling her what to do, which cemented my feeling that "my" minder was either a trainee or an intern. The "trainer" did speak excellent English, and clearly knew what she was doing. She asked how long I had been in Thailand, and when I told her I had been here on and off for 30 years, she asked if I spoke any Thai, so I started speaking to both of them in Thai instead, which delighted her. Got the photo taken, and signed on an electronic pad at the photographer's desk (why? No idea), then was told to go chill out on the nice leather sofas at BoI while they submitted my papers and got a queue number. (Oh, I also had to stop before the photo to download and fill out a bizarre immigration "survey", which somehow prevented international crime and human trafficking - that's really what they said! - by asking me for the exact same biographic and address info that I had already provided multiple times - there were no "survey" questions at all. It also asked for the GPS coordinates of my apartment, which I was trying unsuccessfully to search for on Google Maps when I found out that the trainee actually had written them down, but hadn't told me.) I played with my phone on the comfy sofa for more than half an hour, and was beginning to wonder whether I would finish before the lunch break. Eventually, at maybe 11:40 or so, the trainee came back to take me to the immigration window, where the officer kind of threw my papers at her. From there to the cashier (why do they have a uniformed police captain acting as cashier rather than hiring a clerk? No idea), where I paid by bank app and got a receipt (hand written, unlike the machine printed one that the person ahead of me got). Back to the immigration window, where the trainee handed in the papers and the officer photographed me with her cell phone (why? No idea - maybe as evidence that I really came in person, rather than having some Chinese agent go in my place?). The trainee then sat down with me in front of the window, until another obviously experienced BoI woman came to drop off papers and addressed her like she was an idiot, telling her to go back to the office and wait for me to come back with the visa. So I stayed, and a few minutes later I was called up by a very nice immigration officer who showed me the visa and explained about the one year reporting. Back to the BoI side, where the reception desk told me to sit down again. Just a few minutes later the trainer and trainee were both back. They didn't make a copy of the visa, or even look at it very carefully (which is what the website instructions said would happen), but just repeated the information about the one year thing and confirmed that the count starts again every time I leave the country - they also said they would be in touch two months before the five year anniversary with instructions on what to do. (I hope they've figured out group insurance by then, because I don't want to put $100k back in the bank, or buy a Thai policy.) As they walked away, the trainer turned around and said (in Thai), "oh, and happy new year!" The whole thing took just short of 90 minutes from arrival to departure, but most of that time was spent just hanging out in the nice BoI waiting room. I had been fearing/expecting the usual immigration "gotcha" where I would be scolded for some invented problem, but I never even spoke to the immigration folks, other than to ask the photographer if I should take off my glasses, and to say thank you to the nice woman who returned my visaed passport. My "handling" may not have been quite up to the level that other folks experienced, but it still totally insulated me from the madness of the immigration side of the floor - I was just a piece of meat being carted from place to place, which was fine with me. Oh, and they had no interest in the TM-30 I had brought along (afraid of that gotcha!), didn't want the English version of the approval letter, and didn't ask me for any marriage documents (they clarified that those are only for people changing from marriage-based visas or extensions). There was also no need for the additional photos I had brought along - only the one I had already glued to the form. It still hasn't quite sunk in that I've reached the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but I'm sure it will eventually. For now, I'm grateful that I have the visa, grateful that the ordeal is over, and very grateful for the assistance and encouragement that all of you have provided - especially the hard-working Pib, who made all those phone calls to BoI, nagging them so that the rest of us didn't have to! Many, many thanks. Happy New Year to all from this newly minted Wealthy Pensioner!

I think it mostly comes down to a matter of choice versus compulsion. I keep a lot more than 800k in cash in US accounts, but I do that because I want to, and because it makes me feel safe to have that money readily available, even if it's not the best use of those funds by any reasonable financial standard. The 800k in a Thai bank, by contrast, is there only because it's required to be there - and it isn't even readily available, because drawing on it (other than during the middle part of your extension year) would result in losing my right to keep living in Thailand. Is being forced into maintaining the 800k deposit a big deal in the grand scheme of things? No, but it is a mild irritation that I'll be glad to be rid of when I finally get my LTR...even if all I do is keep the same money in the same bank, but with total freedom to use it as and when I wish.