jojakez

6 hours ago, JackThompson said:

The way it works - they put the 800K in an account in the applicant's name for a day, and get a bank-letter stating this.  This is a valid document, and no one at the bank did anything fraudulent - nor did the agent, at this point. 

 

If applying in-person, you must show the money is "seasoned" for 2 or 3 mo (1st ext or subsequent, respectively).  An IO with sufficient-rank can "waive" the seasoning requirement legally, a step which, by some miraculous means, always seems to happen when agents submit applications (after taking a large-fee to do so). 

It's not rocket-science to see how this "arrangement" works, but the only "illegal" part would be a monetary incentive involved in getting the seasoning waived, which is not provable without evidence.

 

It probably has to do with operating within a system that rewards unethical actions.  And, no, I've never used an agent - and went to the trouble to get a Non-O-ME to avoid exactly that, when the office I used decided I needed to use an agent, or they would not accept my application.  But I can't say I blame others for playing the crooked-game, which is the path the system rewards.

I never stated that the bank was doing anything fraudlent, or the agent for that matter. Why would immigration waive the seasoning requirement, which they can do in "exceptional circumstances" but I wouldn't have thought that they would do that on such a grand scale and I wouldn't have thought that an "express service fee" would fall into that category. Maybe it's just me.

4 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

As far as I understand some of these agents have special arrangements with bank (managers). So they can get a document showing the right amount of money in your bank account for long enough time.

I guess what they do is illegal. But as far as I see the illegal part happens with the bank and not with the immigration.

The immigration officer will see the bank document and act according to that.

So the visa you get is probably 100% real, but obtained with not exactly perfect documents.

 

If that was true, why pay around 15K baht to immigration rather than the normal 1900 baht?