khunjeff

14 minutes ago, GordonP said:

Does a "residents visa" include the extension to stay based on retirement? I am currently stranded in the UK having had to return for family reasons. It is possible that my annual extension will expire before I am able to get back to LOS. I would much prefer to maintain continuity of extensions rather than start all over. 

No, that was a poor English version - that section of the order is only referring to people with permanent residency. You (and I) are considered to be in Thailand temporarily.

1 minute ago, peterdwje2 said:

Was this a form the bank filled out or simply a statement they drafted? How long did it take to get it? By the way, by any chance were you converting from O-A to O, or? Thanks.

It was just an automatically generated record printed out from their computer system, with nothing added, and it only took about two minutes to get at the branch where I keep my account. They explained that the date at the top would always be the date of the transfer, regardless of when the form was printed out. And for K-Bank, at least, the form was free if requested within (I believe) 150 days of the transfer; after that, there would be a 500 baht charge.

Technically I'm converting from a 30 day visa exempt, but I left the country and came back on the exempt in order to dump the OA status that I've had for the past five years and start over with an O. I have comprehensive, unlimited insurance for which my former employer pays 70% of the premiums, so I had zero desire to buy unnecessary Thai insurance. (The joke was almost on me, though, since I nearly got caught out by the rapidly increasing virus-related travel restrictions - the airline on which I was ticketed stopped flying the day I was supposed to come back, and I returned on a different carrier only two days before I would have been definitively locked out.)

2 hours ago, peterdwje2 said:

Is there a form for the Thai bank to declare this? Or I just tell them to draft a note addressed to Immigration (I'm not sure they would do)?  

I did this last week, and Kasikorn issued a "credit advice" sheet (no seal or signature) showing the financial institution in the US where my transfer originated, the bank that it passed through, the date and time it arrived at K-Bank, the amount in USD and the exchange rate used to convert it, the fees that were charged on arrival, and the final net amount in THB credited to my account. There was no charge for the letter, and it was accepted by Immigration at CW in support of my application for a Non-O on the basis of retirement.

On a separate issue, though, be advised that I was inexplicably asked for my last three rent receipts, even though I had brought my rental contract as specified on their checklist - "to prove that you don't really live in Pattaya". That wasn't listed anywhere, and I've reported the same address around 40 times on TM-6, TM-7, TM-8, and TM-30 forms over the past four years, but what can you do... The saving grace is that the officer (who was very friendly and upbeat) allowed me to email the documents that afternoon rather than making me bring them in person. I have to go back for the "result" of the application next week; hopefully there won't be a problem.

54 minutes ago, conimex said:

IT shouldn’t be difficult to trace any of these passengers as they should have filled in the T8 form and update their health findings in the AOT app daily.

This was supposedly why all passengers, both Thai and foreign, were being forced to download and use the app. In theory, then, they already have the names, addresses, seat numbers, and phone and email information for all the passengers on those flights - so why is a plea for people to come forward necessary? And if it IS necessary, why is it coming on the Facebook page of a provincial health office, rather than from the central government?

51 minutes ago, Dante99 said:

Since when?  Last trip out about 6 months ago wife completed the cards, departure card was taken when we left and arrival card half was collected on arrival.  Been this way for many years.  So when did it change or are you perhaps mis-informed.

It's been 2 1/2 years already:

https://www.nationthailand.com/national/30326711

6 hours ago, bbi1 said:

Absolutely stupid to put another location even further to get to than CW.

What's also interesting is that we've always been told that we can only conduct our Immigration business at the office in the province where we reside, and yet this new office for Bangkok residents is in Nonthaburi.

4 hours ago, vermin on arrival said:

I don't know if this will work as CW seemed to be demanding notarized letters that were paid for, and all appointments are closed.

If that's really what immigration is asking for - and we've only heard that from second hand reports - it would really indicate that they don't know what they're talking about. What will be provided going forward is exactly what immigration says they wanted: a letter FROM the embassy. A paid, notarized letter would simply be a personal statement by a US citizen whose identity had been verified by the embassy. 

23 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

That's why I said the photo is old another BS poster

That photo is not old, that is the chaos unleashed by the poorly conceived and executed electronic T8 health declaration. I arrived Thursday night, and it looked very similar, albeit with somewhat fewer people due to a different arrival time.

It's absolutely true that the airport is very VERY empty, which is why the situation is so absurd. The concourses are empty, immigration is empty, baggage claim is empty - but there's a huge scrum of confused passengers at the choke-point just prior to immigration where a bunch of bossy young women in "Airport Services" vests (the same ones who normally yell at foreigners to write their address and phone number on the arrival card) are shouting at baffled people that they have to download the AOT app or they will not be allowed into the country.

Although the CAAT said in their announcements that a paper declaration form was acceptable, I showed up with a completed paper T8 and was told, no, I HAVE to use the AOT app. I already had the app on my phone (I use it for the real-time arrival/departure information), but found that using the electronic declaration is unnecessarily difficult. You have to upload a photo of your passport bio page (no shadows! All corners!), but then also have to enter all the passport info manually. You go through all of the health-related questions that are on the actual T8 form regarding flight, seat, countries visited, symptoms, etc, and then suddenly it's asking you the questions from the back of the TM6: first time to Thailand? On a group tour? Occupation? Income? Sorry, but what do those have to do with health?

Once you submit the data online, you show the green check mark to the bossy girl and she stamps your TM6 so that you can pass through the empty immigration hall. At no time was ANY medical professional (doctor, nurse, medic, Ministry of Health official) present in the area, and no one looked at the answers to the questions or asked for any clarifications.

Let's examine some of these issues. First of all, why require use of the app rather than making it optional? And the actual electronic submission is just a web page, so why make people download a bloated (100MB+), intrusive (always trying to turn on Bluetooth) app instead of just giving people a link to a website? And if the app really is required, why not inform people of that at check in (as Vietnam was doing) - or at the gate - or on board the plane, instead of just as they arrive at immigration? And if this is a health questionnaire, why is no health officer looking at it right there, with the traveler present, as is done in every other country I've been to? Why is the process being run by the AOT and immigration (and probably the TAT, based on the questions), neither of which has anything to do with public health? And why would anyone set up a system during a global pandemic that guarantees crowding people into a small area?

Tl/dr: yes, that photo is all too real.

20 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

You can do conversion to non o (retirement) from a tourist visa or visa exempt stamp inside Thailand at immigration.

Or you can obtain non o at nearby consulate. HCMC would be my pic

I wasn't aware that HCMC would grant a non-O for retirement (their website only lists non-O for family relationships and volunteer work). Do you know of people who have obtained one there?

The issue about the bankbook also happened to me when I transferred my extension last month. The officer went through my papers and passports, and then asked if I had my bankbook. I was confused, and said I was only transferring stamps, not applying for an extension. She then asked if I had withdrawn money since my last extension, and I told her I had used an Embassy letter for that extension. She said "oh, ok" and completed the transfer (using up two pages in the new book to annotate information that I could see on her screen was already in their computer system).

3 hours ago, petedk said:

BTW, I noticed they are building something along Chaeng Wattana Road. Is that a skytrain line?

It's the Pink Line monorail (under MRT, not BTS), supposedly scheduled to open in October 2021.

If you withdraw from an ATM using the K+ app and the "cardless withdrawal" option on the machine, I believe you can use any Kasikorn ATM in Thailand without an additional fee. That may not be a long term solution for you, but at least it would save a few baht while you're arranging to get a new account.

On 2/27/2019 at 12:51 PM, JimGant said:

I don't know what the results of the Swiss ruling were. The requester was a "tax attache" based in Paris. Maybe he wanted confirming information before publishing a taxation pamphlet for expats..... Anyway, nothing available to suggest the ruling was used to reach back and tap tax offenders.

Just to clarify (not that it has any impact on your observations or conclusions), a "tax attache" is an IRS officer assigned to a US Embassy overseas, not some kind of private tax advisor.

10 minutes ago, Russell17au said:

The OP is not looking for an "O-A" visa as they are only for retirement, the OP is looking for the 90 day Non-Imm "O" visa on the basis of marriage which is a different visa altogether.

Actually, the OP says "I recently was unable to renew retirement visa" and "The agent told me that the monthly income , method is no longer acceptable to obtain non-imm O retirement visa." The marriage option was suggested by other posters, not by the OP (sensibly, since Thai consulates in the US don't issue Non-O visas on the basis of retirement).

7 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Does that work? It is some years ago but I tried that and they still put me on overstay, by 6 minutes for the old BA flight!

There used to be signs at departure immigration warning that they would calculate overstay based on the day the flight was departing, not the day the passenger passed through immigration (i.e., no point in trying to try to get stamped out before midnight). I haven't seen those signs recently, so I don't know whether that's still the policy.

41 minutes ago, Chivas said:

Yep but you're not reading what I wrote.  The automatic system will overide any notes or notifications if the system detects an unusual payment request.

This was also my experience with a US credit card. The card issuer was fully aware that I was in Thailand, but still blocked a number of transactions (all online, not in person) due to fraud concerns. (The fraud angle made no sense given that these were all merchants I used regularly, but that's a different issue.)

I called their fraud department to clear the blockage, and asked if I could just notify them in advance that I would be buying from a particular website; they said no, the automated algorithm would still block the "suspect" transaction even if I had specifically told them about it ahead of time.

A couple of years ago, I was in a cab to Suvarnabhumi at about 4am and the driver started drifting right, grazed the concrete barrier, and then bounced off and started driving straight again. He of course claimed that he hadn't fallen asleep, but no other explanation would be preferable ("I'm not capable of driving in a straight line" doesn't inspire much confidence).

He checked the body of the car after we arrived at the terminal, and remarkably there was no apparent damage, at least under the murky airport lights.

Over the past few years, various officials have claimed that there was a fiscal crisis because foreigners had supposedly run out on 300-700 million baht in unpaid hospital bills (the amount varies depending on who's talking).

Yet now they want to waive the 2000 baht VOA fee for 11 million people, for a loss in income of 22 billion baht, and offer vouchers to 30+ million foreign arrivals, which would amount to an expenditure of over a billion baht even if the vouchers were only for a paltry 30 baht each. How is that affordable, while reimbursing hospitals for a few unpaid bills as a cost of running a huge tourism-driven economy is somehow impossible?

With Kasikorn, my understanding is that cardless ATM withdrawals using the K+ app are free nationwide at Kbank machines. The OP may wish to try that instead of using an ATM card if his main concern is out-of-province withdrawal fees.

You should really contact SSA in Manila for an authoritative answer. The information on the SSA website seems to indicate that Thai citizens can continue to receive earned SS payments while living in Thailand, but it's not clear to me whether a non-citizen can make the initial application for benefits if s/he is outside the US.

From the attached handout:

"If you are a citizen of one of the 
countries listed in the chart below [Note: Thailand is listed], we will continue to pay your benefits outside the United States if:
a) You are receiving benefits based 
on your own earnings, and you 
earned at least 40 credits under 
the U.S. Social Security system or
lived at least 10 years in the United 
States..."

Your Payments __While You Are __Outside the __United States EN-05-10137.pdf