17 hours ago, Thaidream said:

They have accepted them in the past for me when asked and for others who have posted on this forum- mostly in CM and mostly Americans.  There is no way to verify income with 100% accuracy but when you present a pension letter and back it up with a bank statement showing the exact amount of funds that are on the pension letter going into the bank in the same amount each month and then show the debits coming out in Thailand- it is pretty certain that it is accurate.

Thai Imm easily followed my explanation and understood completely what the letters and bank statement said.

If the letters/statements were on headed paper then there's a higher probability that they're genuine, but it's not difficult to fake these things (including the headed paper part, just takes a more expensive scanner/printer/paper).

So many questions about how this would work... 

1. Will they expect the letters/statements to be sent to your home address in Thailand ? - This could cause a number of issues for Brits - 1) Does their bank allow Overseas account holders, will they post to an Overseas address? 2) They would need to tell the Pensions department that they lived overseas = Frozen Pension 3) Potentially no more renewing of driving license, Loss of access to NHS etc... 
2. How many months will they want to see?
3. What is & isn't acceptable to Thai Immigration 1) Can reasonably expect them to go through a statement in English, but in Greek (I'm using this as an example as in the phrase "It's all Greek to me") 2) Can't reasonably expect Thai immigration to go things like Consolidated Tax Certificates & understand what is & isn't Income - E.g. Would Scrip Dividends count - They're income but you don't get any cash? 3) Can't reasonably expect them to go through a Tax Return (Sh1t I don't understand mine & I provide all of the numbers to my accountant to file it).

... That I just can't see Thai Immigration doing it.

Once again it's a case of the few exploiting a lenient system & the many genuine people suffering.

As an aside, does anybody know whether this impacts getting the Non-O in the 1st place? - When I got mine in Penang I was advised that I needed a Letter of Income as well as the 800K in the Bank, are they going to accept Bank Statements showing money going in instead? - Who Knows!?!?!?

4 hours ago, Bob12345 said:

Yeah, in most cases your number is gone when you don't use your phone (top-up) for a year.

Happened to me before, but back then i couldnt care less.

 

Maybe turn on roaming, top-up with the minimum amount every 11 months, and turn on your phone for 5 minutes to call your landline for a second so you still use the number.

If you have a Thai Bank Account, it's easy to top-up using Online/Mobile Banking and if you're on AIS, every top-up adds an extra month to the validity of your SIM up to a maximum of 12 months. 

If you don't have a Thai Bank Account or Online/Mobile Banking, I've used these guys https://mobiletopup.com/ a couple of times with no problems (Again, every top up added 1 month to my AIS valid to date).

1 hour ago, JLCrab said:

This seems to be an actual UK letter as of JULY 2017:

Looks more or less the same as the one I got in June this year, main difference being there is now a disclaimer at the bottom of the letter...

[Edit: Apologies, with all the faffing around taking pics & editing out details, Shoeless Joe beat me to the fact that there is now a disclaimer at the bottom of the letter, but for anybody who's interested there it is on an actual letter from BE - I wonder if this was added in May after them discussing things with Thai Immigration]

5 hours ago, Odysseus123 said:

Nothing like a good bottle of wine to cheer one up and bring back memories..

 

But..hells bells..even a cheap bottle of Retsina in the Piraeus will do it or sitting on the walls at San Gimignano with a loaf of bread,some Asiago cheese,black olives,salami and a bottle of ice cold Vernaccia..

Sheesh, for me there's nothing worse than drinking Red if I need cheering up, but I 100% agree there's nothing better than a nice bottle to reminisce with 

One of my favourite memories of drinking Red was my introduction to Barolo (isn't it called the King of Wines?), at a Gartner conference in Florence, they were wining/dining us when they asked what we'd like to drink so my colleague takes one look at the wine menu & picks the most expensive bottle on there & out came 1 (followed by a couple more) of the richest/nicest wines I've ever had the pleasure to sample.

But my favourite memories of drinking Red are sitting in the conservatory of a house I'd recently bought (but was struggling to afford so couldn't afford many luxuries), it's freezing/pouring with rain so you can hear it bouncing of the roof, savouring a £5 bottle of Barbera D'asti - I still look out for it now, though in SG it's closer to £50 a bottle than £5.

32 minutes ago, huberthammer said:

Ok let's not get this into a discussion about Singapore maids but you were indeed told bolx,  I have never heard of any rejections of single males who applied for a maid work permit. I know more than a handful single guys without any pet who employ a helper in Singapore and none had any issues about it. 

 

 

Agreed & it was 6+ years ago so even if it was true then, rules/regulations changes all of the time.

Back to the OP, I think there's little hope of her being able to take her maid over to Thailand, I'm really curious as to whether this would be a deal breaker & she would give up any plans to move to Thailand to go to the Philippines insted - Big sacrifice (especially if you have kids), so the maid must really be a part of the family (I know the "Good" families treat them as such).

Good Luck to the OP, moving to a new country is never an easy step/decision to make (even when you're a single bloke with no ties/commitments)

2 minutes ago, huberthammer said:

Huuh?   I never suggested anything along these lines....  not sure what you read into it.

 

btw - you are wrong as well about a single male not being able to have a maid in Singapore.

Sorry a combination of this sentence "Also not sure if it is in the OP interest that the maid will be away at least 8 hours per week studying should he go down the road of this option." & the fact that I looked into this as an option to take my Filipina GF to Thailand (obviously she wouldn't actually be a maid but I would have "employed" her as such).

I also looked into "employing" her as a maid in Singapore when her work permit had finished & she was struggling to find another, was told by my mate's wife (both Filipinos) who ran a Maid Agency & by our HR Department that a single guy in Singapore was not allowed to have a live-in maid - mate's wife did say that I might be able to get around this by keeping a pet.

Maybe I was told a complete load of blox, but like I said, that's what I was told by 2 different sets of people.

quick check of MOM brings up https://www.mom.gov.sg/faq/work-permit-for-fdw/can-any-single-person-employ-an-fdw... 

19 minutes ago, huberthammer said:

but clearly the plan here would be an illegal one with being on a ED visa while working?  Also not sure if it is in the OP interest that the maid will be away at least 8 hours per week studying should he go down the road of this option.

 

As a side note, even those studying Thai get impacted by this crackdown. After catching a few people working with ED visa Samui immigration has now started to change things somewhat randomly ("we give you one month stamp and then you have to come back while we look into the school / your attendance record"). In addition, it is not only immigration which seems to constantly change rules wrt ED visa but the Ministry of Education changes requirements and paperwork all the times as well.  A year ago you could get a one year ED visa from your home embassy without much problem (aside from a lot of paperwork and fees), now they talk about 3months after which you will have to do a language test before you get another 3 months.  Certainly a process which is very much in a transition period and as such adds a lot of uncertainty to one's plans.

I believe the OP is female & I'm assuming has a partner/family

I do know that a Single guy in Singapore cannot have a Live in Maid, though have heard you can if you have pets.

14 hours ago, MumblesGirl said:

Thanks all. I’ll look into the Education visa. Otherwise I think Thailand is out and Philippines is back on.

Unless you're Filipina yourself, she must be some maid if you're going to be deciding where your family lives based on her eligibility to move there with you.

I'm not trying to be cruel, I've lived in Singapore for 10 years & have lots of friends who are maids, but at the end of the day it is a job & when an Expat family decides to move on (as happened last week to one of my very close maid friends) they find another family (as she did last Sunday).

Do you have kids? - my 1st instinct was you did hence the attachment to your maid (lady I mentioned specializes in newborns-toddler so families get very attached to her, but she typically only does 3 or so years with one).

I must stress, I love the Philippines, have visited > 35 times in the past 10 years & have (well had) a house in Davao, but when it comes to choosing a place to live, there's no way I would live there over Thailand (& that's as a single guy nevermind if I had kids).

Anyways, please don't take this as Philippines bashing (I really do love the place but I couldn't live there full time, which is why I've recently split up with my Filipina GF of 8 years as equally there is no way she wanted to move to Thailand).

Good luck with whatever you decide & please feel free to PM me if there's any information I can help you with regarding moving to the Philippines.

PS  - If I did have to move the Philippines, Davao (or at least somewhere in the Visayas) would be my 1st choice.

11 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

You got a Thai retirement extension via email from Singapore?  Wow.

No, we were talking about the Proof of Income letter from the British Embassy

I'm on my 1st Non-Imm O which I got in July from Penang using the 800K in the bank route, however I was advised that Penang like to see some proof of income as well as the 800K, hence I got the POI letter.

Fri: Flew to Bangkok, updated my bank passbook, got a letter from the Bank proving funds & picked up my POI Letter

Sun : Flew to Penang, watched the World Cup 

Mon: Banana Visa put the application in

Tue: Flew back to Singapore with a shiny new Non-IMM O (multi) 

As I said, getting the POI letter was very painless.

5 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

There are threads about going back 10 years.  Brits are still whinging about the ease of being an American or Aussie for immigration purposes. 

No whinging from this Brit, I found the process to be absolutely painless & did it all via email from Singapore (took about a week between applying & the letter arriving at my address in Bangkok - Don't know if it would have been more difficult if I'd have used my SG address)

On 8/11/2018 at 12:19 PM, Tanoshi said:

Even the British Embassy don't check the documents you send as proof of income.

They take the figures you state on the form.

I think you may be getting mixed up with the US Embassy, as the British Embassy do need to see (& far as I can tell check) proof of income whereas the US Embassy works on an "Honour" system whereby they accept what you put on the form without further proof.

There are reports that Immigration are starting to ask to see evidence of funds going into your bank account if you use the income route, I don't know if they've cottoned on to the fact that it's easy for some people to get proof of income without actually getting the income.

I enjoy reading these kinds of threads & find them useful for planning a Thailand budget, though I don't live there (yet) I've worked out my budget to be around ~90-100K PM...
 

My simple budget breakdown is:-

• 30k for the house (Rent, utilities etc...)
• 20K for Groceries (Food, household supplies, toiletries etc...)
• 10K for other (Visa, Health Insurance, Transport etc ...)
• 30K for me (Beer, Eating Out & fun)

... No plans to have my own transport which obviously limits me to where I can live, but if that changes I estimate another 25k-30k would cover the cost of buying (self-amortized over 6-7 years) & running an ok/decent car so up to ~120K all in

FWIW, I currently live in Singapore & my average monthly spend (excluding overseas trips) is ~165K THB almost exactly 1/2 of which is the Rent/Utilities for my Condo, so I'm pretty confident that the ~90K base will cover things but have planned for a reasonable amount of contingency for inflation, FX moves & any unexpected hits to my passive income.

8 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

You can apply for the one year extension based upon retirement during the last 30 days of any of the 90 entries from your non-o visa. You do not have to wait until your visa expires.

After getting the extension be sure you get a re-entry permit and be sure your visa is not used for entry or your extension will null and void.

You should of made sure that you only applied a single entry visa. Paying the fee of 750 MYR instead of 300 MYR for a single entry is what anybody else that wants a single entry should watch for. Also the putting 1 for the number of entries on the visa application instead of M.

Thanks again Joe,

I was chatting with the young lady at Banana Visa & explained that I'm still working in Singapore but plan to move to Thailand towards the end of the year so she just put down Multi & actually did the best thing for me ?

I'm more than happy with the Multi (I would only have had to mess around getting a multi re-entry permit anyway) but great advice for guys who just need the Single 90 Day visa (300 MYR Vs 750)

Thanks again Joe & the other guys for all your awesome advice; I look back now & laugh to myself how how worried I was but if it wasn't for the advice I've got from here, I wouldn't have had a clue how to go about doing it.

Cheers

MTV

14 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

You will get a 90 day entry every time you enter the country up to the date your visa expires.

If you enter on August 9th you will be stamped in until November 6th.

Sorry Joe, 1 more stupid question - When should I apply for Extension to stay?

I thought I was going to get a 90 day SE so planned on 60 days in, but now I have 1 year should I Plan for May/June 2019?

I've overused the word "Thanks" already but I really do appreciate it; have popped a mini-trip report in the visa forum to try to give something back.

Cheers

MTV

Thanks again Joe :)


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

Sorry Joe, 1 more question if I may

How long should I expect to be “Stamped In” for on my next trip to Thailand?

I’m planning to visit on 9th August, so what date should I be looking for on the “Stamp”

Thanks again :)



Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

2 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Did you apply based upon being 50 or over for retirement or marriage?

I assume you paid the 750 MYR fee for it instead of 300 MYR for a single entry.

 

I applied for over 50 & the fee was 750 (+ 70 MYR for the agent)

i didnt know I could get a 1 year multi, was expecting 90 day single so am absolutely delighted 

Thanks again Joe for all your helpful advice :) 

Hi guys, quick update, I’m in Penang & have just got my passport back with my Thai Non-Imm O Visa in it & am delighted :)

I’m also a little confused as I expected a 90 Day Single Entry, but seem to have a 1 Year (Visa is valid until 15th July 2019) multiple, is that right (it does say Non-IMM O).

I’ll post an update in the current “Visa Run” forum but just wanted to say thanks again guys for all of your help & advise :)

Edit to add pic of Visa

IMG_0187.HEIC

1 hour ago, OJAS said:

Is it really necessary to make a prior deposit or withdrawal? I recall an occasion when I stuck my BBL passbook into an updating machine, which then printed out a further line confirming the previous balance under the code "B/F".  Would this not suffice for Immigraton purposes?

I guess not but just as easy to send myself some spends over & withdraw the cash than go to the money changer ?

8 hours ago, chickenslegs said:

 

You can update your bank book at one of the machines. Most bank branches have them.

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PersonalBanking/WaysYouCanBank/ATMsAndSelfService/PUM/Pages/PassbookUpdate.aspx

 

Edit to add: I think the counter staff at any branch can update your book.

Thanks @Chickenslegs - As a bit of a Noob you read so much (usually) bad advice that makes it sound like you have to go to THAT Branch to use THAT ATM, so I really do appreciate the advice & guidance the TV folks are taking their time to share with me/us.

Have a great weekend guys ?

8 hours ago, elviajero said:

You should make a deposit or withdrawal just before updating the passbook to show the balance is current. You can update the passbook over the counter in any branch or using one of the machines.

Thanks EJ... Will transfer some SGD$ over to cover my spends before I visit & withdraw it just before I go into the branch to get the passbook updated.

6 minutes ago, elviajero said:

You don’t have to get the letter from your own branch, any branch can go it, whether a branch will do it depends on that branch.

Thanks but any thoughts on getting the "Bank Book" updated ?

To be honest, the last time I had to do that was 45 years ago when my Grandma put some money in a Halifax Building Society account for my birthday.. Was a tough life being 7 ?

Hi Guys,

Apologies if this has already been answered many times already, I did do a quick search but couldn't find a definitive answer so thought it best to ask...

I have a Bangkok Bank account in Bangkok & am going to apply for my Non-O Imm visa on the basis of being over 50 in Penang so need to get the Bank Book updated & a letter of confirmation of funds from the Bank.

Can I get this done from any Bangkok Bank Branch or do I need to go into my branch (Opposite Interchange 21)?

My reason for asking is my mate is having a birthday trip to Phuket at the end of the month so if I can do it then it saves me having to visit Bangkok on my way to Penang.

Thanks

MTV