JCP108

Anyone think at some point the Thai government will figure out that they actually have quite a lot of digital nomads/freelancers willing to properly register/be legal and pay Thai taxes? It's such a narrow situation, seems like they could carve out the situation of someone physically located in Thailand doing work via a computer and taking money from clients who are not physically in Thailand at the time of the service. Create a special work permit for that situation and problem solved for everyone.

If I need POOT, I would probably get a cheap bus ticket Udon to Vientienne.

I appreciate the advice. I already have a bank account (went to multiple banks until I found one that would give me an account on a tourist visa one time). I am waiting to apply for the yellow tabien when we move out of BKK. I'll wait until then or when I do the extension to do a TM30.

Okay. I hear you that in my current situation I don't need to file either form. So, in what situation would you need to file one and/or the other? When I go to immigration to file for the marriage visa...would I do it then?

So upon arrival at her place on this trip, I don't have to file the TM28, but I will have to get the "landlord" to file the TM30 for me, right?

I am arriving in BKK after getting a one-year, multi-entry, non-immigrant visa to visit my Thai wife. When I arrive at her place, do I have to file a TM28 within 24 hours?

Staying long-term. You mean skip filing the TM28 altogether? Everything I'm seeing posted recently online seems to mean that I have to file a TM28 anytime I am somewhere for more than 24 hours...like when my wife and I will travel to Koh Samui for 5 days soon. I'll have to find the nearest immigration office or police station to file it for all travel over 24 hours. Ugh.

1) I have a one-year, multi-entry, non-immigrant visa based on visiting my Thai wife. I plan to later convert that to the "marriage visa."

2) I don't plan to take it back out at any particular time since (per #1) I will be staying in the country long-term.

3) All of them were purchased within the last 18 months. I can pull up purchase orders via my email. I could print those out to bring along if that might help.

I appreciate all of that information. I'm a bit worried. Like a lot of situations in Thailand, wife has a very complicated status/relationship with the "landlord" of her apartment and this happens to be the local police department in her part of BKK. She was gifted the apartment by her ex-husband who is a police officer (apparently some police officers get an apartment as a perk of employment). I am not 100% certain, but the big boss police who might need to cooperate with these forms might not know that she and her ex-husband are actually divorced. Her long-term sublet of the apartment might be dependent on the police boss thinking that she's still married to her ex. The lower level police who also live around her know our relationship as I've been there many times...not sure about the big boss. My coming along may be something that confounds all of this. This may become quite interesting/frustrating for us. We will see.

I'm moving to Thailand and will be bringing with me via airline my laptop, iMac, and iPad. Will Thai Customs in BKK charge me import tax when I arrive at the airport? Anyone had experience with that?

Luckily, I quickly got from the Chicago Consulate my non-imm, one-year, multi-entry visa to visit my Thai wife in Thailand. When I arrive at her apartment in BKK, do I have to submit the TM28 and TM30 within 24 hours? I'm a bit worried as she lives in an apartment that isn't at all in a place where Thais deal with farangs (I go for days in that neighborhood without seeing a non-Thai). My expectation is that whoever is running her apartment isn't going to know anything about how to deal with those forms. I understand you can't do that TM30 yourself but the landlord has to file it. Advice? Thoughts?

Hopefully the Thai embassy doesn't require the Thai registration of our marriage before they will issue the initial visa for me to travel to Thailand. I'm currently in the U.S. and wife is currently in Thailand. Also, I'm nowhere near an embassy in the U.S.

Apparently there is a one-year non-immigrant visa to visit your Thai wife, too for only $150 more.

Will I need to show 400k in the bank for two months prior to getting the initial 0 visa or just at the time of extension. I was planning on applying for the visa in the first part of January and traveling to Thailand the first week of February.

I am married to a Thai citizen. We were married in the U.S. Our marriage is not yet registered in Thailand. I am planning on going to Thailand soon to live long-term. I thought about getting a multi-entry visa then converting in Thailand once I'm there (as I know many people have done in the past). However, I recently heard that Thai Immigration has been not allowing retiring farangs to come in with multi-entry visas then convert to retirement status. Will I have trouble converting to the marriage visa once in Thailand if I enter on a multi-entry visa? Should I apply for the marriage visa while still in the U.S. If I do that, will the Thai Embassy require that I have the 400k baht shown to be deposited in a Thai bank and sitting there for more than two months? I'm going to transfer that money to my Thai bank account in about a week. But, I wasn't planning on waiting two months to travel to Thailand.

9 hours ago, BritTim said:

Firstly, you are not applying for a ME tourist visa, you are applying for a ME Non O visa.

 

"Certified" just means that your wife has signed them. This is routine practice with such copies in Thailand. The only annoyance is that a scan of the signed documents will likely not be accepted. You will need to have the signed documents sent to you by post or courier.

I called the embassy and they didn't seem to direct me to the ME-O. I was going to convert to the marriage visa after I get to Thailand. I won't have the money in the Thai bank for the amount of time required by the time I want to travel there. I suppose the alternative plan would be to get either a 90-day visa or just get the visa on arrival and extend it once and then convert.

Hello. I'm going to apply at the Chicago Thai Embassy for a METV based on marriage. My wife is currently in Thailand. I see the documents required include a "certified" copy of my wife's Thai id and passport. What does certified mean to the embassy? I have copies of both but no special certification. They're just photocopies.

If my activities would be considered "work," it would be easy to demonstrate that it is of a type that in no way competes with "work" that a Thai person in Thailand could engage in. That being sure, my dilemma is this:

Pay taxes on my business income and fear that that will trigger in unfavorable inquiry into my activities which could result in my being deemed working without a permit and getting deported or not paying taxes and fearing that I could get deported for not paying taxes. (My income will be taxed in one location or the other and I'm aware of the tax agreement between Thailand and the U.S.)

I'm also aware of how arbitrary and capricious application of laws and "rules" can be in Thailand.

Money is fungible. I suppose one could set up extra accounts to try to time transactions so that it would seem that money that was transferred into Thailand really was from earlier years.

I agree. A lot of this would be solved if one could demonstrate having a source of income located outside of Thailand and just get a work permit (without setting up a Thai company as a shell per the current rules).

That is part of why I wondered about this and thought a simple approach in such a situation would be to simply account for yearly earnings and pay Thai taxes accordingly. If one owns a (foreign) business which generates income each year, and one's ownership included a non-zero amount of "work" to maintain its existence, then that seems like taxable income while residing in Thailand. Thus, taxes would be owed (even though the clients and work takes place outside of Thailand). So, I'm wondering if said taxes are paid on business income doesn't that provide de facto evidence of "work" and therefore the requirement of a work permit (that one can't get in that situation)? Seems like a Catch 22. If the business isn't maintained, then there is no long-term financial viability of living in Thailand. But, the business can't be maintained without working and that can't be done without a work permit. And, no work permit can be granted to oneself. I am the owner and only employee.

I wish Thailand would figure out how to issue work permits for all the digital nomads working as freelancers up in CM. That would simplify things for people like me who are independent contractors with business outside of Thailand or for all the expats running monetized YouTube channels. (Although I think the freelancers up in CM are probably getting by not paying taxes due to only staying short-ish times in the country...seems like a grey area.) Anyway, in my situation, my transactions all take place in the U.S. and all of my business income lands in U.S. accounts. I also don't need to transfer money to Thailand in the same year I earn it.

I won't need to use the transferred money to justify my visa as I will have a sufficient bank balance. I can easily maintain a policy of only transferring money earned in previous years. So, that would mean I wouldn't owe Thai taxes, I guess. I was just thinking to be a good alien in Thailand, I would pay Thai taxes and worried that: 1) if I didn't ever pay taxes (because I never transfer money into Thailand earned in the current year) that might get me notice by the Thai version of the IRS, and/or 2) if I do pay taxes that the lack of  work permit would be scrutinized.

I guess a lot of people do regular transfers into Thailand without a work permit. In my case, we are not talking about large sums of money (my business income is modest). My expenses in Thailand will be quite low, anyway. So, all of my transactions take place outside of Thailand and in the U.S.

What if you are a U.S. citizen in Thailand on a marriage visa (married to a Thai national) and get income from a business owned and located in the U.S.? If you pay Thai taxes would you be dinged for not having a work permit? You can get a work permit on that type of visa. However, the business in this question is an individual/contractor business (doesn't employ 4 Thai people) and so no work permit can be generated with it to allow work in Thailand. Note also that the business is not something that would be seen as competing with Thai employment (that is, the business operates only in the U.S. and provides service that a Thai person could not provide).

I will be moving permanently to Thailand in 2019 on a marriage visa (I'm a citizen of the US and wife is Thai).

I work online providing telehealth services to patients located in the US. My payments get deposited in a US bank. I will have the 400k+ in a Thai bank for the annual visa renewal.

Two questions:

1) I understand it's impossible to get a work permit since I'm working for myself but am not a Thai company. That's technically not legal since I will be located in Thailand while working for clients in the US. But, I understand there is no enforcement right now for that. Any thoughts?

2) What happens if I pay taxes at the end of the year in Thailand on my income generated by this online work? Won't that be suspect since I don't have a work permit? However, if I don't pay taxes, won't I be at risk of getting caught for not paying taxes for income gained while I was located in Thailand?

My Thai fiancée is 37. However, her mother (now dead) waited several years after she was born to register a birth certificate (now lost) and (because she was illiterate) wrote the wrong birth year (which makes my fiancé on paper 47). My fiance’s Gov I’d and passport say she is 47. The problem is she looks more like 27 and I expect that if we initiate the fiancé visa process, it will get derailed when she shows up for the in-person interview. I called the US State Dept and they just said to fix it before applying. My fiancé can’t be easily convinced that this is a problem since it has worked fine her whole life and her family thinks the same. Any ideas?