Sunbelt Asia

A Sole Proprietorship will only be obtainable for American nationals. Through Sunbelt Asia's numerous years of legal experience we have found the process of setting up a Sole Proprietorship to be complicated and time consuming. For your information, please be aware that if you plan to revive your company you will be required to pay penalties if you have failed to submit your monthly VAT and carry out your annual company audit.

We will be happy to give you a free consultation on this matter should you wish.

Emile de Marsac,

Legal Advisor,

Sunbelt Asia Co. Ltd,

[email protected]

At Sunbelt Asia we offer a complete Will & Testament service. We will be happy to provide you with a free consultation at our offices during which we will clarify the process and give you the opportunity to ask questions. The process is started by obtaining information concerning your assets and who the named beneficiaries will be. Our lawyers will then prepare and register your Will within five working days. Our fee for preparing and registering a Will is 12,500 Baht plus 7% VAT.

For a free consultation about our Will & Testament services please contact the Sunbelt Asia Fortune Town office on 02-642-0213 and one of our Legal Advisors will be happy to assist you.

After a closer look, the kitchen and ceilings are damaged and it will take at least a week to redo the whole store.

However starting today delivery and take out will be available at the small store next to Sunbelt Asia. Sunrise Tacos does several catering parties a week so we will use that equipment. The central kitchen is located elsewhere so the show can go on.

Greg always says when he goes on Holiday " Please don't burn any of the stores down" This time it happened.

We are all pitching in to make the best of it.

Sunrise can be called for delivery at 02-229-4851 or you can order through www.chefsxp.com/sunrise

It got a little hot inside on Tuesday morning when a fryer caught on fire. Fortunately nobody was hurt. We are temporary closed today and should be ready to reopen for business tomorrow on Wednesday.

Please visit our other two branches:

1. Emporium 5th Floor, New Food Hall or

2. Siam Paragon, Ground Floor, before Super Market Entrance, Counter 7

Both locations offer the same great food and service, we hope to see you there.

Greg is on holiday in the States but the team and his wife Nui are doing a super job getting everything done to reopen.

And problem is that one foreigner can not issue a work permit to another one. Work permits can only applied for companies.

Sorry, this is wrong info.

A Thai or foreign natural person can employ up to three foreigners. You must have paid 50,000 Baht in personal tax in the previous year. For every 50,000 Baht in tax you have paid, you can hire a foreign employee to work for you. If you are a foreigner you yourself must have a work permit. This work permit will have your personal home address which must match the lease of your home or condo. This residential address will be the address in the work permit where your employee will be employed.

Bangkok changed its interpretation of the Labor laws a several years ago where they no longer allow a new application for a nanny to get a work permit. After this change in their interpretation, they allow nannies to continue to renew work permits who were granted it before.

Other provinces have different interpretations. Some allow new applications for work permits on nannies, some don't. We had over hundred clients that submitted applications in the past that were accepted in Bangkok. Many which we continue to handle on an annual basis as they are “grand father applications” Most of our clients are employees of multi-national firms where their foreign employees applied to sponsor the nanny. These nannies in many cases are considered part of the family and why the foreigner will go thru the red tape. We have never applied for maids. However in the work permit its stamped they hold the position." maeban" which means maid, as the Labor dept does not have the category for nanny and “maeban” in their opinion is the closest to that category.

A Thai natural person that has a sole proprietorship can hire up to three foreigners. The requirement is four Thai employees employed by the Thai employer for every foreigner.

Under the Amity treaty, an American natural person that has a sole proprietorship can hire up to two foreigners. The requirement is four Thai employees employed by the American employer for every foreigner.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

try at siam paragon,there is many kinds and brands inported cheese.

OP Is fed up with Imported Cheese.

Hey Kev i hear Macro have Cheddar for 600b per kilo.

I think you mean 600 Baht per 2 kilo block.

That promotion of 600 Baht for a 2 kilo block has ended. The price now is 690 Baht per two kilo block. It is in fact cheddar cheese that is made by the Minor Group and then repackaged under “Makro”.

The Minor Group cheese is also the cheese you will find at Foodland being sold as a generic brand cheese with only the name “cheddar cheese” It is sold at 390 Baht a kilo.

If anyone has large volume needs you can call Minor Group up and they will charge you 305 baht per kilo for cheddar. Minimum order is 200 kilos. They also get 240 Baht for mozzarella cheese; same minimum requirement of 200 kilo applies.

Minor Froup cheese is ok. 90% of the time, we use another supplier called Daisy Valley.

www.sunrisetacos.com

I was thinking of going for the first time, but it appears in all the photos I see that attendance is very sparse. Or, are the photos not accurate representations of attendance? I would be taking my Thai SO.

Thanks.

In past it has been around 10,000 people attending every year. Everybody seems to have a great time judged by all the smiles. An event I always look forward to.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

The second issue is the employees. The business needs 4 employees on at least minimum wage to issue a work permit. Is there any way around this as my business will not need 4 employees for some time to come and staff that we do need will be mostly commission based.

Can commission based contracts count towards the total?

He also said that immigration will visit the premises to interview the staff. Is this correct/likely?

Also, if it takes 4 employees to get the work permit issued, and I can't work until the work permit is issued, how do I hire the staff without working illegally?

Thanks for anyone who could share their knowledge and experience

Thailand is the land of changes. What worked or was applied a month ago does not mean this is the case today. For many years no Thai employees were required for the Labour Dept.

This is the latest today.

The work permit process allow foreigners to get one year work permits ( regardless how long the visa is) as long as they have sufficient numbers of Thai staff in their companies. According to the Department of Labour, the number of Thai employees per foreigner has been increased from 2 to 4 in order to apply for the one year work permit. This is not an official notification in writing, just a policy change applied and verbally enforced at the application counter.

If you use only 2 Thai employees or less, the officers at the Department of Employment will give only three months work permit because they want to be the same as immigration on the one year. On any new application in Bangkok they want to see at least two employees per work permit.

In Bangkok, you now must have proof you have paid Thai employees by filing the social fund tax for three months before you can apply for the work permit. This also has to be certified.

When you apply for the work permit, you must have at least one Thai staff of the company be at the office location for questions from the officer after the work permit application has been submitted for around 10 days. This is needed as there now are officers from the Department of Employment that go to check out the companies with registered address and if when they are there no one in that company on side to meet with them, the work permit application could be rejected.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

Hello All and Mr. Sunbelt Asia, you aren't giving us ADM-#2 yellow dent are you? I'm looking for help on finding a corn seed that would be good for making homemade masa.

After all the talk in the Mex food threads about "authentic", with ease of ordering seed on line, I'm looking at Native Seeds Catalog to find which seed comes closest to being the one. I've bin using Hickory King white dent corn with good results. But I want to get on the 'authentic' bandwagon with my corn, and 100 year old verity of Kentucky corn doesn't cut it anymore.

So if you can help give me an idea which one of these verities would be the best for making masa, it would be much appreciated. Use the links below to make your pick, or a link to one if you have a better source of seed.

I also posted one for bean seed.

Yes I can read the seed info, I wanted to know if someone had any preference to a certain area/type?

Thanks, rice555

http://www.nativeseeds.org/catalog/index.php?cPath=1_18

main site: http://www.nativeseeds.org/

ps, raining like a mother here now, should have seeded today. 00:45 stopped 01:45

Dent is what I use

http://www.nativeseeds.org/catalog/index.php?

I've known ALOT of traders. Among them I've only know 2 who could utilize Eliot Waves in a predictive way to make money. One of those two is dead and the other made 6,410% returns last year. Eliot Waves are a great way to look back at what happened in the past, and even that count will be subjective and differ from the next guys. That said, if you're going to utilize this tool, only use what you have generated from your own effort. No surer way to penury than followinng someone elses EW count. Just ask any former Eliot Wave International subscriber.

I would agree. Elliott is a good tool but not the only tool in your toolbox you should use as a trader or investor. I made over around $300,000 back in 87 with puts and close to a million dollars in 2001. But sure tried to give the same amount back in the years 1995 to 1998 and year of 2002. The problem with newsletters is you can suck in as the mkt goes again you, the newsletter will go to lengths telling you, they were right and the trend will reverse.

After looking back, came to realize its better to have money management and don't increase your bets when you are wrong. An opinion is worth only so much. I have found Elliott is good at entering trades on breakouts after small corrections on the general trend.

The trend on gold is up till the mkt says different. Look how gold as done in other currencies.

http://www.jsmineset.com/wp-content/upload...s-2-20-2009.pdf

I was quoted 82500 for 5 baht bar today in a mbk gold shop how much would there fees be in this price ?

100 Baht per Gold Baht or 500 Baht for 5 Baht of gold,

http://www.goldtraders.or.th/index_en.php

You would be buying underneath fair value of spot.

http://www.ranthong.com/

993 x (15.24400 / 31.1035) x (0.965 / 0.995) x 35.70 = 16 850.445

if I am wrong and this is the beginning of a new bullmarket, which means that I will want to add Gold to my current holdings of paper currencies, I will wait for the downwave - this will come as sure as night follows day. That will give me plenty of new information about GOLD's bone structure. Until then I don't play. I stay out of Gold totally, no Long no Short. Just flat.

Bonus for SST traders: protect your LONG profits with a stop a notch under $968 (closing basis on 240-min. timeframe) - even tighter with a trendline on 240-min.

Some Elliott Traders feel different on other sites.

They feel we are in Wave I from 24 Oct 2008

From To Days Wave # From To $ Change % Change

4/6/2001-5/25/2001=49 1 $256 $291 $35 13.7%

5/25/2001-7/6/2001=42 2 $291 $265 ($26) -8.9%

7/6/2001 5/31/2002=329 3 $265 $327 $62 23.4%

5/31/2002-8/1/2002=62 4 $327 $302 ($25) -7.6%

8/1/2002-2/5/2003 188= 5 $302 $382 $80 26.5%

4/6/2001 2/5/2003 670= WAVE I $256 $382 $126 49.2%

2/5/2003-2/18/2003=13 A $382 $344 ($38) -9.9%

2/18/2003-2/25/2003=7 B $344 $358 $14 4.1%

2/25/2003-4/7/2003=41 C $358 $320 ($38) -10.6%

2/5/2003 4/7/2003=61 WAVE II $382 $320 ($62) -16.2%

4/7/2003-5/27/2003=50 1 $320 $371 $51 15.9%

5/27/2003-7/17/2003=51 2 $371 $343 ($28) -7.5%

7/17/2003-1/13/2004=180 3 $343 $426 $83 24.2%

1/13/2004-5/10/2004=118 4 $426 $375 ($51) -12.0%

5/10/2004-5/12/2006=732 5 $375 $725 $350 93.3%

4/7/2003-5/12/2006=1131 WAVE III $320 $725 $405 126.6%

5/12/2006-10/6/2006=147 WAVE IV $725 $560 ($165) -22.8%

10/6/2006-4/20/2007=196 1 $560 $691 $131 23.4%

4/20/2007-6/27/2007=68 2 $691 $642 ($49) -7%

6/27/2007-11/8/2007=134 3 $642 $841 $199 31%

11/8/2007-11/30/2007=22 4 $841 $783 ($58) -7%

11/30/2007-3/17/2008=108 5 $783 $1,015 $232 30%

10/6/2006-3/17/2008=528 WAVE V $560 $1,015 $455 81%

4/6/2001-3/17/2008=2537 MAJOR ONE$256 $1,015 $755 295%

3/17/2008-9/11/2008=178 A $1,011 $741 ($270) -26.71%

9/11/2008-10/10/2008=29 B $741 $918 $177 23.89%

10/10/2008-10/24/2008=14 C $918 $699 ($219) -23.86%

3/17/2008-10/24/2008=221 MAJOR TWO$1,015 $699 ($316) -31%

Some feel we are now completing subwave 3 of Wave I of Major THREE

Next short term resistance is around 1020-1030 ( or slight new high at 1050.) If its really strong at that time, the new high could go into 1150-1250 by March.

I’ve been taking contracts off on Thursday and Friday as I had big returns that I wanted to lock in. Still long enough that I'm happy if it goes higher. No regrets on what I left on the table as the name of the game is money management. Over 50% return on my trading account in two weeks is cool.

You are right, the count could be a giant "B" but either way the correct play was long on the primary or alternate counts till now. As we are getting close to the old highs just wanted to lighten the load because of either the end of subwave 3 of Wave I of Major THREE as the primary or "B" wave.

But we could skyrocket from here. This week or next will tell lots.

By the way...most big banks are toast. If we get to 1150 the next couple weeks it will because of the banks.

Cramer says "We're on the verge of something that could take down America, and the world, and change your life forever. All wealth gone. People fighting in the streets. Governments overthrown. Money worthless."

http://www.thestreet.com/video/10465193/cr...sh-america.html

Please do your own due dilgence. This is NOT investment advice.

I stopped bothering about Thai gold market after the bad experience I had last year. Remember once that when gold prices hit a low of THB 12,500 per BAHT of gold, no shops were willing to sell to me. I went high and low to many many gold shops in Yaowarat, Central and all the Malls and also MBK. no one wanted to sell, I was only looking to buy 2 Baht of gold.

So I came to the conclusion that when prices are low in Thailand, you can't buy it even if you want to, then.... what is the possibility of the gold shops wanting to buy it from me when the price is sky rocketing high, like now !!

I start to get the feeling that what ever business it is, when it comes to Thailand, its always a scam !!

I think the Thai authorities should try abolish the cartel- style gold industry in this country.

I understand the time you are talking about and understand your frustration, as it was a shortage of gold then in the World. The USA mint had stopped minting. Thailand was having problems getting shipments from the refiner in Switzerland at that time as well but still fortunate to get some gold.

I bought gold around that time, most of it was purchased on different days at the gold shop directly on Sukhumvit Rd between Soi 10 and Soi 12. When one day they limited me to 20 Baht per day and I loved the price that day. I jumped in a taxi and went to Chinatown. I went to over 20 shops and no luck. Couple shops could sell me around 5 Baht but no big bars.( I don't like the 5 baht boats as you have a spread of 200 baht versus 100 Baht on the bars. I then walked into a shop that sold me 100 Baht of gold( four 25 baht bars) at the ask of 12,600 Baht. It turned out from the gold certificate, it was a sister branch to the one on Sukhumvit RD Soi 10. Felt like a fool as I should have just gone there first, if only I would have bothered looking at the prior gold certificates that had both addresses listed.

Anyway I understand your frustration

I'm not sure this is the correct forum to ask these questions and if not please advise a forum I can. Where can I go to see as an American where gold is measured in value by ounces to see conversions for the gram system in Thailand. As an American my very limited experience on how to value gold is determined by the gold carat weight/value and how many ounces? I am currently on Phuket island and would like to sell some old gold jewelry after the stones are removed of the gold value. Where can I go in Thailand and armed with feedback/info from this forum to sell this gold?

Use this precious metal calculator

http://www.yabz.com/gold/jewelry.htm

www,sunbeltasiagroup.com

Source from TNA/MCOT said 16,500 at 1:50pm this afternoon.

That would be for gold ornaments chains etc.

Source from TNA/MCOT said 16,500 at 1:50pm this afternoon.

They are early.

High price today for Feb Futures is 15,770

Bid now 15760 and ask of 15,770 as of 3.10 p.m.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

Yours is for Gold Bars (bullion)

Hence the difference in the prices.

Yours truly,

Kan Win

The close yesterday

Gold bars, Bullion (THB) 15650 Bid 15750 Ask Higest price traded was 15,750 Baht

Gold Feb Futures 15790 Bid 15,800 Higest price traded yesterday was 15,800 Baht

Gold Ornaments (THB) 15417.72 Bid 16150 Ask

http://www.goldtraders.or.th/index_en.php

Also the "news" does not say gold ornaments are trading at 16,500 Baht. It quotes bar prices.

BANGKOK: -- Local gold trading price hits record high at Baht 16,500 per one baht-weight of gold (15.244 gram).

Gold bar price is now at Baht 16,650

-- Agencies 2009-02-17 (at 1.30PM Bangkok time GMT+7)

Sometimes the news is wrong. It was a typo for sure.

By the way, would love to see gold bars trade at 16,500 Baht!!!!!! Hope the news was early and it was a good omen, :-)

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

Source from TNA/MCOT said 16,500 at 1:50pm this afternoon.

They are early.

High price today for Feb Futures is 15,770

Bid now 15760 and ask of 15,770 as of 3.10 p.m.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

Thai Gold price hits record high

BANGKOK: -- Local gold trading price hits record high at Baht 16,500 per one baht-weight of gold (15.244 gram).

Gold bar price is now at Baht 16,650

-- Agencies 2008-02-17 (at 1.30PM Bangkok time GMT+7)

selling price is 15,650 Not 16500

http://www.goldtraders.or.th/

Futures are at 15,750

London Gold AM Fixing x (15.244/31.1035) x (0.965/0.995) x (THB/USD)

True selling price at this second should be 15,993.8554 Baht with gold at $960 and mid rate on Thai Baht being 35.05

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

I'd like to try making my own corn tortillas, is it possible to find masa here?

I've been looking for it myself. Its great for many recipes, especially enchilada soup. Can't find it anywhere in Bangkok. Might have to bring some back from home during the next visit.

There are quite a few recipes on the net for making masa using lime (calcium hydroxide (ปูนขาว), not the fruit) and popcorn. We ran to the local market and got ปูนขาว easily, a small bag for 5 baht. Popcorn is readily available at Lotus, Big C etc. You can probably grind it using the som tam mortar and pestle although the clay might be too porous. It might be better to use a granite one.

I haven't tried it yet but plan to do so this weekend. I'm sure it will take a few failures before I get a success, but I'll let you know how it comes out.

I did try to make tortillas with corn flour and the stuff came out like paste. Not good. It was way too fine. I have made flour tortillas and they were not too bad. They weren't thin enough (even by traditional Mexican standards) but the flavor was OK.

If somebody tries to make masa, I'd be interested to know how it works.

Tony

Tony,

It is great that you are trying to make one of earth’s greatest pleasures. Even in Mexico and the USA, most all tortilla factories make tortillas from processed rehydrated corn flour rather than using fresh masa. They no longer grind the nixtamal but use instant corn meal flour which is ok in taste but not great like masa made from ground corn. Also more important the protein is lost.

http://www.grist.org/comments/food/2006/09...ml?source=daily

You need dent or flint corn with high starch. Popcorn has soft starch. Odds are in fact high, when the calcium hydroxide heats it with the boiling of the water, it will explode and turn itself inside out to make a little, white ball! With the lime on the popcorn that has to be washed off you are going to have a mess!

IMPORTANT

Lime used in making nixtamal is an edible variety of calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide, a naturally occurring chemical compound that usually comes as a white powder. DO NOT USE the lime sold at hardware stores, it is not pure and has heavy metals and other dangerous substances for human health that could be present in the builders or ag lime It is very important to buy only the food safe grade which costs around 250 Baht for 450 grams. When handling lime, do not get it on your skin or in your eyes.

When making the nixtamal, do not use an aluminum pot. Aluminum reacts with the lime. Only use stainless steel.

Be very careful with the waste water with the lime after you drain the nixtamal. Be sure to wash the nixtamal 10 times and sit in water after every wash. Rub off the skin in your palms.

Using the mortar is going to take forever and a day. Odds are very high you will never get it fine enough. You need a heavy duty grinder or a molino.

We make 25 kilos of fresh masa a day but its hard work.

www.sunrisetacos.com

At 15.16g/baht of processed Thai gold that puts you at 75.8 grams or almost 2.674 ounces.

At kitco.com the closing price of gold on January 30th for "NY Spot Gold" was $927.10 USD (per troy ounce right?). I assume this is the price basis for gold bought and sold in the USA? This would place the value of the gold at $2479 USD. How does this differ from the price you could actually get?

Yesterday the selling price at a Thai gold shop was 14,850 per baht of gold. This would give you 74,250 baht. Converting to USD, at 35 BHT per dollar, gives $2121 USD.

2479-2121= 358

Do these calculations sound right? Am I missing anything ? Would one really stand to gain an extra few hundred dollars by selling in the states?

• The formula for calculation:

= USA Gold price x (15.244/31.1035) x (0.965/0.995) x (THB/USD)

Note:

1 troy ounce = 31.1035 grams

1 Thai gold Baht Bar = 15.244 grams

USA gold price is based on 0.995 gold

Thai gold is 0.965 gold

As an example

905.30 x (15.244/31.1035) x (0.965/0.995) x 34.89 = 15,013.68 Baht

If you buy gold now in Thailand you are buying gold lower than its "true selling price."

Physical Gold bars in the USA or most of the World is selling at a premium. $100 over "spot" is quite common. The key is to sell to someone looking to buy rather than selling to a dealer to get near the spot price.

http://www.goldprice.org/ebay-gold-prices/

Average price today is $988.41 with prices selling as high as $1,076 and as low as $942 for one ounce bullion

988.41 x (15.244/31.1035) x (0.965/0.995) x 34.89 = 16,392

If you had a buyer that is looking to save money, you can arbitrage gold bars. Otherwise it would be easy to lose money. If you sold it to a refiner or pawnshop in the USA and the price was the same you would lose lots.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

can you get a work permit when on a education visa or work legally?

Several years ago you could.

Now it’s no longer possible with one exception, only if your school writes a letter stating that you need to be an intern to complete a course for school credit.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

As many of you already have heard, the Thai government is looking to terminate the Thailand Elite Card, however before it does so; in the next two weeks it is looking at ways to compensate the current card members. These members could possibly be no longer able to have unlimited use of golf courses and spas, etc.

What was not covered in most media outlets was the announcement from the Cabinet, that the special visa the Thai Elite members had been granted, is no longer in limbo as the members will still get to keep and renew the special five year visa.

Special Visa

The law covering the five year special visa expired 16 October, 2008. On Jan 28th the Cabinet approved a proposal that foreigners who were eligible for the five-year special visa, to have unlimited five year renewals for the members lifetime, with no additional fees charged for the special five year renewal.

This also applies to the original multiple-entry special five-year visa which will remain valid if the Thai Elite card is discontinued.

One last hurdle remains for members who are looking to renew the special five year visa, as it will still require a ministry regulation before the Immigration Bureau can issue it. Before the ministry regulation is announced in the Royal Gazette, members will be granted a 90-day visa.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

Or . . . is the op "The Agent"

or ........ is bosshogg the poster really bosshog the owner and not just some joe schmoe posting for fun.

Yes it was Bosshogg. If you know Bosshogg, he never will need investors to invest or be asking people to be a shareholder.

who, what, if, etc. It would appear that some business has received a plug without paying for same. This seems to happen quite frequently lately on several of the local forums. Is the business slump already being felt or is it forethought on the owners/mangers part? The one thing in common I have noticed is that a topic about a business is started in a seemly open manner and then 1 or 2 other posters get it rolling and finally the owner/partner/manager will come into clear things up or whatever. At least this is more subtle than some of the yo yo posts for snake oil, enhancement pills, and other purchase/sell offers that appear during the wee hours.

slapout

Feel big defaming a business?

Even though you are hiding behind a computer, you may just need a slap on the wrist to teach you about defamation of character laws in Thailand.

Just because you are anonymous doesn’t mean you can’t be track down for defaming a business. Research before you write nonsense like you did. You better be able to prove what you implied. Word to the wise you can’t as this owner/manager does not need to resort to such tactics or would they ever.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

I had read the letter from Elite to its member regarding the extension of the 5 years visa and did have an opportunity to talk to reliable source of Elite card today at their office so I asked the question. Their admit and the letter was misleading and confirm that the visa will be extended for another 5 years for sure but the reason why they still have no clear answer is because the committee is still deciding on whether or not, and if so, how much fee, they will charge member for the 5 years renewal fee.

As when the card is approved, they didn’t think about this issue before so there was no renewal rate for 5 years visa at the Immigration bureau. The issue about the renewal rate of 5 years visa was put in the committee in the last cabinet but as the cabinet has changed, the matter had to be re-submitted and now awaiting for decision and announcement. Again, they said 100% the visa will be renewed and it’s only the fee that has to be decided.

My guess is that the worse case scenario will be Elite member will probably has to pay 1,900 Baht for 5 year renewal fee.

I did not ask about member that did apply for extension of 5 year visa before it expires though I feel that member should get benefit of the doubt as the term “life time privilege” could mislead some members to not pay attention to the visa renewal clause (if there was one).

I think that the content of the Elite letter to member was quite misleading but to be positive, at least the reality is not as bad as it seemed. As a Thai person, I am happy to see this outcome as I have no wish to see our government’s credibility got more tarnished than this.

Naravadee Waravanitcha (nui) Sunbelt Asia Co., Ltd

Greg, as an under 50, divorced, non-working foreigner in Thailand, this 5-year visa stamp would seem to be a very viable option for me. But I would still vote no in your poll.

Why?

For the very simple reason that, based on past records, I trust a Thai government as far as I can throw them! They have no qualms about changing rules, visa rules etc as they see fit, and cannot be trusted in any way, shape or form to keep to their word.

Make it 100,000 baht for a 5-year stamp and I might be interested, (I'll risk that level of money)

Make it 400,000 baht for a 'guaranteed-by-HM' 5-year stamp after which time automatically allows you to apply for PR without the need to show 3 years of tax payments etc and I might be interested.

Simon

Simon,

Happy New Year!

Thanks for taking the time to write. This visa may happen or not even happen. Just getting feedback now. This plan is Western thinking by this government on how the government can make the money rather than the border runs required. Plus its green friendly,less gas being wasted going back and forth to the border.

I’ve been in Thailand a number of years like you Simon. I understand your frustration on not trusting the government as it seems they change the rules as often as the ocean tide changes. We have felt those changes first hand when we were told changes would happen and then they had different interpretations on the change. I’m not here to defend the government.

However the difference now being open-minded if it happens, you be getting the stamp in your passport in exchange for 400K. Very hard for them to change the rules once you have a visa stamp already in your passport. Changes only happen when a person’s old extension of stay expired.

Could the government change the rules down the line? 100% it will for new applicants when the economy turns around or they have 300,000 new foreigners living here. If it’s 100,000 Baht for the stamp, its 1.2 million foreigners.

Similar to the investment visa for 3 or 10 million Baht after the 1997 crisis, it stop when the economy was better. They then stop taking new applicants but old applicants were grandfathered in. If this becomes available, the odds are very low it will affect you during the 5 years. After 5 years, don't even count on it.

Changes happen because of the political climate for one party being nationalistic for elections and the economic tide at that time.

Regards

Greg

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

Would this visa ONLY be available to those who were not married and under 50 i.e. us married over 50 chaps have to keep on as we are?

Sure you would be able to pay for the visa. But the odds are high most people that were over 50 years old and not working, would rather show a pension of 65K per month or just put up 800K.

If you are married to a Thai, then odds are very high rather than giving the 400K to the government you would just leave in the bank. At the end of 5 years you still have the 400K. The only reason you may give the government the 400K is if you were going to get divorced or you were tired of the wife saying "you can stay in Thailand because of me"

Later I may do another poll for those folks. I'm sure it will very heavily no rather than yes as these guys have other options. Wanted to make sure this first poll wasn’t distorted.

But its understood exceptions exist and some certainly would find it more viable such as this example… you are over 50 years old with a work permit. You no longer are able to get a wp with a extension of stay based on retirement so you must travel every 90 days Your employer was in business less than 2 years so you had no option up to now other than do a visa run as you could not get an extension of stay on business either. The 400K was a price your company or you were willing to pay rather than having the hassle of traveling. For most they still would travel but for some it would be worth it.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com