freeman01

highly suggest to use Wise or other "neo-bank" for everyday transactions or transferring money abroad, that way the only transactions they can see is out to Wise for example and most importantly using the same currency as your main account, good way to make sure you main bank doesn't know what you do with your money.

situation is only gonna get worse from here imho ...

edit: oh and vpn when using internet banking or phone app obviously ...

my thought was they got a bit overwhelmed with low class Chinese and Russians since the end of covid and want to up the standard a bit, was told Phuket is a bit dreadful in that regard these days.

Lots of news about bad tourists behavior past year, specially with sudden mass influx of Russians everywhere in SEA, Bali and Indonesia is rethinking visa rules in a similar way if I am not mistaken.

Didn't see much post about this, this is really good news !

not sure if the cost of the e-visa (currently 25$ for 1 month) will increase or not, unlikely but who knows ...

On 7/31/2023 at 7:50 PM, LS24 said:

Are digital nomads / online consultants deemed to be working in Thailand if all their income is generated in and paid into banks in a country other than Thailand? I'm talking Elite visas, marriage visas or retirement visas. Would anyone foresee a legal issue arising for a digital nomad under those circumstances?

Personally, I would just be careful about what residency address you put on the contracts you signed and the residency address you have declared at the bank that receives all these contracts payments (depending on the bank country and the main currency used), I would avoid using a Thai address just in case.

that said, it could be beneficial to pay taxes in Thailand and make it your official tax residency ... depending on your nationality.

while technically the law is rather clear, actual application/enforcement of the law is what matter. laws that are not enforced are like sentences without meaning ...

the kind of work one does matters, like these would be hard to be considered "working" for example :

any kind of entrepreneurial activity or managing your own company without earning a fixed or recurring/monthly salary

"Family business"

writing a book or music

making Youtube video or streaming and such

doing financial investing or trading

learning whatever ....

now the ultimate joker : "consulting" ????

as opposed to being an employee with a work contract somewhere with your actual Thai address on it.

same for bank account, if your bank account outside of Thailand has your Thai address then you should be a bit concerned about this.

anything that resemble a 9-5 jobs where you have fixed working hours, weekends and holidays then you have to be extra careful, mind who you talked to about it and make up a story to tell people AND friends.

also of note, the Thai law clearly state that a Thai resident (>183 days in the country) MUST remit any money earned outside the country when it is earned. There goes the no tax if not remitted into the country thingy that everyone talks about.

then again, actual application/enforcement of the law is what matters. laws that are not enforced are like sentences without meaning ...

never overstay, ever in any south east asian countries but Thailand especially!

I wouldn't worry too much, next time make sure you can show all the requirements they might ask for, hotel reservation, 10k bath in cash (if i remember right, maybe 20k), and a flight out.

also if you can show a bank statement in paper with money on the balance they will backoff very quickly.

just make sure to stay polite and friendly and simply explain your situation making sure they understand you are not coming to work, this is their main concern in the end.

oh and dress a bit like pants and shoes so that you don't look like a hobbo, they will react to this.

maybe throw in a girlfriend in there ... ????

also maybe get a flight to another airport, the immigration ladies at Suvarnabhumi are the worst from my experience... 

this is the kind of cases where you have to understand the "not losing face" thing ... they need a way to change their mind without losing faces.

if the pain is bearable, i would try serious diet and follow some non conventional medicine, in India you should try to visit an Ayurvedic doctor, very interesting. Natural remedies always takes time so don't expect fast result ...

you don't want any part of your body removed unless it is absolutely necessary imho.

no problem, they only care if you are working for a thailand company or do business inside thailand with Thai people.

if you keep paying tax in france (I assume) its even better as you are still a tax resident of france and there is a double tax treaty that prevent double taxation between france and thailand.

worst case scenario use a credit card for all money transfered to thailand and then the money earned outside the country during the year it is earned is never directly transfered inside Thailand and therefore not taxable, problem solved at very reasonable cost.

anyways better to always keep a low profile and avoid talking about this in detail to most people around you. you are a business person managing her business in europe from thailand, no problem.

12 minutes ago, Ohyesuare said:

You can check the list of their approved/authorized agents https://www.thailandelite.com/agent/

ok that's perfect, thank you !

so https://www.thailandelitevisas.com/ belongs to Hawryluk Legal Advisors Co.,Ltd in Phuket and is indeed on the list of approved agents, Wonderful !

So apparently with them one can buy the Thailand Elite Visa with Crypto and without using the banking system at all, I love Thailand.

Apparently on this website we can buy Thailand Elite Visa directly with Cryptocurrency

https://www.thailandelitevisas.com/

Anyone know if this is legit ? how to verify if a Thailand Elite provider is real or fake ? 

I found this article from bloomberg : https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-09/ubs-plans-higher-fees-to-push-rich-clients-out-of-costly-cash

The article reference this UBS link https://www.ubs.com/content/dam/assets/rc/wealth-management/202006-pl-excerpt-wmsc-e.pdf

From what I understand the changes in price only affect client who use the "wealth management" service and not to client with regular bank account, see page 27 on the list of services and prices document https://www.ubs.com/content/dam/ubs/ch/swissbank/private/zahlen-und-sparen/konten/services-and-prices.pdf 

So nothing to worry for simple clients it seems, thanks god I was worried for a second there ...

people are saying warm and humid climate is not helping the virus, could this explain why so few cases reported in south east asia while many are reported in europe when its winter ?

also could the spicy food could have a positive effect overall, anyone in the know ?

used https://www.worldremit.com/ a few times last year when in Thailand to get cash from a virtual visa card, was cheap and fast compare to crappy western union.

As usual for all paperworks, put something that is as vague as possible without being a lie.

As stated many times, as long as you don't do any business inside Thailand or taking a Thai job they don't care.

This whole <deleted> of work permit is to control and protect the economy of a country, nothing else.

Now suppose I am wrong, worst case scenario offer to pay a "fine" of 5k to 10k THB as soon as you get in trouble and it would be like nothing happened ... Welcome to Thailand.

34 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Bitcoin generally rose from its inception , reached a peak a 2017 and has been in decline since then 

What the picture about ? that's what I was pointing out, Bitcoin has always recovered from that kind of down fall.

It took 3 years for Bitcoin to recover that all time high of $1,000 in December 2013, we are 2 years in since December 2017 all time high of $19,000 and we already saw crazy moves up to $14,000 in 2019.

If you follow the news a bit on Bitcoin you will only see crazy infrastructure being built with massive investment to satisfy the increasing institutional demand, this is going to explode at one point or another like never before ...

My only wish right now is that the price goes lower to increase my holding.

14 hours ago, mshs said:

~$8,000 now from the ~$19,000 December 2017

 

Most "investors" exited on the 1st double; perhaps became a 'born again investor" after it doubled a couple of times, only to be holding a $11,111 bitcoin that is worth $8,123

 

Very few of those that "saw the light" held for 2nd or 3rd double.

 

Most holding the bitcoin are licking their wounds or walking around with an open wound.

Not one will admit to be walking with a limp....

You forgot the part where it went from $6,000 to $19,000 in about 5 WEEKS ! from $9,000 to $19,000 in 3 WEEKS !

What kind of moron would buy something that goes parabolic like that ? and not sell on the way down ?

Anyone with a working brain cell would not buy during those 5 weeks ... would you ? Everyone else is holding or have sold at a very good profit. We are talking investing here, not playing lottery and buying a ticket on a Sunday because "hey I feel lucky today!".

Btw the high of the previous Bitcoin bubble was at $1,000 in December 2013 (again from $130 to $1,000 in 7 weeks), let's say some people did buy at that peak and hold, they are now up about 700% over 6 years, at the worst possible time to buy.

In 10 years of existence Bitcoin have seen dozens of bubbles and dip down 40% to 80% and ALWAYS recovered to crazy new highs, guess what's going to happens in the coming years ?

Think about it for a second, a ponzi or whatever scam would never recover after crazy downside like that.

On 2/22/2020 at 8:17 PM, freeman01 said:

Well the value of bitcoin is derived from its fundamental properties :

- open source

- decentralized

- censorship-resistant

- borderless

- peer to peer

 

Bitcoin literally cannot be stopped or controlled by anyone or any government, and everyone can use it without any discrimination whatsoever.

it takes 12 to 24 words to memorize to secure your bitcoin account and you can cross any border with your bitcoin without being stolen by anyone, try to do that with cash or gold or anything else ...

 

Bitcoin is now 10 years old, with no history of it being hacked, yet it is worth billions so the incentive for hackers is gigantic.

 

Add to that a fix monetary policy, the amount of bitcoin being created is set to be cut in half every 4 years for a total of 24 millions bitcoins maximum in the year 2140.

Opposed to that the US dollars whose money supply keep increasing like candy, guess where this is going ?

 

Do you homerwork and you will see it's a really good investment and so far history did not disappoint if you hold long term.

now is a good time to look at bitcoin fundamental and seriously think about it.

what are good thai stocks to pick up on the deep before the world enter into a zombie apocalypse lol ?

check rarbg, very very good.

I think all the financial institution around the world are going crazy with KYC requirements as they get pressured with huge fines by governments if they don't.

End game is likely to make you pay more in existing or future tax in a way or another.

2 hours ago, Langsuan Man said:

No,  they can tell electronically that it is a VPN, they don't need to know which provider

Hmm how ? I was thinking they use a black list of IP from known VPN providers, or perhaps a whitelist of us residential IP ?

Like if you get an amazon VPS located in a US datacenter and set up your own VPN they couldn't know ?