onera1961

2 hours ago, gentlemanjackdarby said:

As well, one must also consider the possibility that, at some point in the future, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under which embassies and consulates fall, may decide to change the criteria and or put a stop to one getting continuous METVs.

 With METV, IOs can still deny entry at airport for perpetual tourists, unless of course on uses all those land borders like migrant workers. 

There are no 5-month visa. A single Entry Tourist Visa is easy to obtain compared to an METV and requires less paperwork. He can use it for 3 months (with one extension inside). After that go to Penang and get another SETV. This will take him to 5-months. 

11 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

Actors and actresses doing 90 day check ins or border runs and needing 20k and a return flight ticket with

Why they have to do that. Privilege people don't do that. Only foreign vagabonds who have managed to accumulate few dollars just because they were lucky enough to be born in the West, could come to Thailand and do their 90-day border runs (in most countries they will be working hard to take care of their families). People who have personal achievement, don't do border runs

I don't know if the prices have gone up or not but it was extremely cheap (around 100 baht for 6 pics) around 2011-2013 at CW. For my O-A visa, the two pics cost me $15 in Walmart. 

On 1/30/2019 at 6:22 AM, phutoie2 said:

This is ridiculous, Big Joke needs to sort it, you cannot have rules for 4 embassies and rules for others.

Why not? TI is generous enough to accommodate citizens of the the four countries that stopped "income letter". They could have pushed them to 800K money in the bank method only. Instead TI accommodated them. It does not mean they will accommodate every body. May be "income by bank" method is more work for the TI and they don't want to pour over the bank statements and try to determine if every month one has brought 40K or not. 

59 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

Less than 3 months ago? The lower-priced BFS one says as much on their website. There is one 'premium service' still doing it but they charge almost the same for a single, escorted arrival as a visa agent charges for the annual free-pass.

Here is what it says on their website

We are sorry to inform you that the airport authorities have changed the policy on Premium Fast track coupons usage and has advised us of the following with immediate effect. Only Passengers holding First and Business class tickets will be allowed to use the Premium Fast track coupons and channels. Passengers travelling in economy class will not be allowed to use Premium Fast track channel.

3 hours ago, Curt1591 said:

According to a 2010 census, there were 40,000 Americans living in Thailand. Ready to take up the job?

But 40,000 Americans don't require "embassy income letter". How many are on retirement visa? a percentage of that population only requires "embassy income letter"

45 minutes ago, delgarcon said:

The last time I extended my visa was 2 years ago and I had to have the letter from the Brit embassy showing my annual pension and bank statements and a letter from the Bangkok Bank showing the difference between 800k and my pension sitting in the bank for 3 months. I never had to show the pension coming into my Thai account!

Nobody had to show it. Now with no embassy letter, how could TI determine if you're getting any money or not? That's the reason for bringing money into Thai bank every month (not average over a year).

28 minutes ago, BritTim said:

Did you write the visa number on the TM6 form? Your whole experience seems more likely if the immigration officials missed your visa and believed you were trying to enter visa exempt, when they are much stricter about allowing entry.

If TI did not mistake it, I think it's very disturbing news. More disturbing than denying entry to perpetual tourists. 

8 hours ago, marcusarelus said:

One of the reasons I like living here is the cash society. 

Cash society? I use my Bangkok Bank ATM cards for most transaction where it is possible. As it has a huge informal sector that generates mostly subsistence level of incomes, it is not fully digitized but it will change slowly. And also the mind set. I went to India and saw even the street vendors are accepting phone payment (Paytm). 

2 hours ago, KhunFred said:

THis has been the most mishandled case in the history of Thai Immigration.  I can only hope that it costs them enough to cause a major depression.

How it will cause a major depression? 65% of the economy is based on Exports and 18% is based on Tourism. There is no dearth of tourists from China, India, Russia. I would rather say that the presence of retirees cause depression by strengthening baht and destroying jobs in the formal sector of the economy.

17 hours ago, xylophone said:

Sorry Joe, I thought the new rules applied from March 1st this year??

Massive amount of memory loss of severe comprehension problem. 

I'm sure one could bargain or look around to find an agent for 25K who will take care of everything. Just think of it. 25K is only $75/month or consider it as a tribute for staying in Thailand.

1 hour ago, Alex SD said:

I showed the IO a new passport, SETV and a flight to Malaysia for the next month.

Did he ask to see this flight booking? I have never showed any flight ticket when approaching the officer in the airport. Always handover passport and arrival card.

Same as Australia, Melboune, Victoria used to be the 2nd biggest Greek city in the world, after Athens.

Those jobs are becoming fewer as time goes on.
Engineering jobs in O&G and power generation always used to use expats because of the education standards from EU, OZ and US etc.
Now that more and more Thai engineers are getting qualified overseas and more have built up a good few years experience the openings are getting fewer for expats. Just the way it is.

12 minutes ago, bunta71 said:

hmmm...pretty sure they do it there...as Ubon Joe just suggested

@ubonjoe suggested Non-O, not O-A. O-A is a different animal altogether. So you have the money but don't have the time. Just follow @ubonjoe's suggestions (apparently immigration also suggested the same thing). 

On 2/26/2019 at 8:23 PM, WeekendRaider said:

so a tourist is merely anyone who wants to visit even if they had just been living here for 30 years and suddenly pop!  morph into a "tourist". 

It only matters to people who want to assert their privileges without earning it. For TI, they could still deny you entry. You could evade them by entering through land borders. You could play cat and mouse game with TI. But do you really want to live a life like that forever?

12 minutes ago, Jim7777 said:

I actually had to fill out United States IRS forms and provide my SSN on the IRS forms, which totally surprised me I guess

It is FATCA requirements. 

23 hours ago, BritManToo said:

How many SCB branches did you try?

I don't think people have time to walk around in town and try every branch. I am tired of this suggestions

Convert dollar to Baht (800K) and put it in a fixed deposit accounts. Use dollar accounts for monthly expenses (converting as and when need). This is like hedging, if baht becomes stronger you still have access to your 800K for retirement extension and if baht becomes weaker, you can get more baht from you dollar accounts. 

Does anybody think baht will weaken and if so, why? Every week I am losing 100 baht when transferring 500 USD to Thailand. 

How do I open a dollar account in Bangkok bank? Just show up and ask for one? And how do I import dollar? Can I use Transferwise to import dollars in to a Bangkok bank dollar account?