Escaflowne

I was planning to get a tourist visa (TR) and I took a flight for 20th March, return is like 89 days later.
Now my passport took a long time to be renewed and I'll only get it on the 7th March.
Asking for TR visa seems to take roughly 3 weeks/1 month, therefore this is no longer an option.

I'm from France so I'm elligible to visa exempt entry of 45 days (until 31 March), however if I get that right I'll need proof of exit to enter this way.

So I'm thinking to do a trip to Vietnam at the end for 45 days, two weeks in Vietnam, come back to get another 30-days visa exempt and extend it 30 days to reach my return flight date.

That would be 45 + 15 (in Vietnam) + 30 (back to Thailand) = 90, so my return flight should be ok to serve as proof on the second entry.

Then I could still move it and ask for another 30 days extension for a total of 120 days. This seems like the easiest so far.

If I understand correctly, I can't just go on visa exempt, while asking for the tourist visa from France and make it start when I come back from Vietnam to Thailand because I would be in the country while the visa is processed.

Otherwise I was thinking to do roughly the same thing but ask for a tourist visa in Vietnam instead, but I'm not sure how much time I'd need to stay there to get it.

In those cases I would do 45 + 15 + 60 days (tourist visa) + 30 days (extension) for a total of 150 days.

I'm a bit lost with all this stuff, I would very much appreciate some help in figuring this out ????

Are all those options doable or am I missing something maybe ?

3 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

Thanks Sherlock. What's this got to do with Thai visa forum. The thread is about how to remain in Los. Not random financial advice. 

It has everything to do about knowing if you should sink 30k or not. Sherlock.

5 hours ago, HampiK said:

Can you give me the tip of today, what I should buy for become a 5000% gain?

It's always easy to say this afterwards. But there are also a lot of example where you invest 30'000 USD 20 years ago and now you would have 0! This only works if you really in it.

I know there are a lot of people who tell they make a fortune in Investments, but somehow most of them not retired yet, why? 

If I made already a fortune then I would now retired and enjoy the life but I guess many talk a lot but in reality not have the money.

Of course if you pick your stocks manually you have to know a lot, but most of the time, if you're able to pick good stocks you don't have to spend a lot on time on it.

Also picking individual stocks is always a risk, index funds are quite safe however since they follow the global market trend which is always going up.

And you can improve on that by investing in index funds that target the big tech companies that grow even faster.

NASDAQ 100 : 

5 hours ago, varun said:

This is mostly what Iglu does - https://iglu.net

 

They don't do it right now, they said at least until Q2 2020, they were "asked to change their business model"

5 hours ago, freeman01 said:

To iterate on my post above, I believe in this case you wouldn't be breaking the immigration laws by doing this freelance job while staying in the country, simply because you do not take anyone's job.

But you would be breaking the Revenue dept laws if not paying taxes for a job performed on Thailand territory as per Thailand territorial taxation system.

 

If I am not mistaken Thailand will be entering the CRS treaty with european countries and many others in the coming years, when they do they will have access to bank account information in all CRS countries that are owned by Thai tax resident individual and then would be able to asks questions and make you pay in this case.

 

Interested to have anyone's constructive opinion on this.

I don't think it's an issue as the money only goes from and to French bank accounts. Plus, I cannot be a resident given my visa options.

Don't you lose those 30 days then ?

Assuming you can only enter 2 times and get 60 + 30 days extension. Or can you enter as many times as you want so long as you stay no more than 60 days and your entries are within the METV expiry date ?

Many options, yes. Not all good though. And I'm not doing SEO, I'm a legit web developer, just trying to live somewhere better while also being able to save more money. Also not trying to waste 10k+ on visa fees.

The fact that they clearly want money to come in their country but don't allow people that make a high western salary without competing with anyone in Thailand spend their money there is really baffling. Most people like me are even ready to pay taxes their instead of home. So <deleted> ?

13 minutes ago, Mike Teavee said:

Vietnam is every bit as safe as Thailand (if not a little safer) & has some wonderful places to visit from HCMC(Saigon) which though, not as cosmopolitan as Bangkok, has everything you might need (except GoGo bars ????)... to the beautiful (IMHO) Halong bay & a whole coastline of nice beaches.  It does lack islands (though I believe Phu Quoc is nice), but if I wanted islands, I'd go to Philippines. 

 

I'm assuming you're French (on the basis you said you were back in France) obviously Vietnam has a long French history & you can still see/feel the French influence, Vietnamese Baguettes are much better though ????

 

Thanks for the info, Vietnam does look like a very good option too.

I'm thinking I'll max out the METV in Thailand while doing the visa runs to Vietnam visiting HCMC and Da Nang (umbrella co said they would setup there and it looks beautiful).

At the end of that, I will have no choice but to go somewhere else than Thailand.

So maybe it'll be Vietnam, maybe I'll decide Vietnam is better and stay long term there as if I understand correctly they don't have a problem with visa runs.

Or maybe I love Thailand too much and just stay for 3 months then try to repeat the METV, but I think in that case I have to go back to France, right ? Or can I ask for METV from Vietnam too ?

The Philippines definitely look great too.

So is there any advantage to METV though compared to doing the same thing with SETV ?

17 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

 

Umbrella company? Well if you think you save money there you are wrong but igluu and co exist...

 

Vietnam is no better than Thailand, they don't have any real long term visas.

 

The airport in BKK is halfway decent, no clue what you heard but it works fine.

Umbrella company = 20% of my income for both visa + taxes + coworking space + networking opportunities

France = 25% of my income for just taxes/cotisations with higher cost of living

No brainer here.

Yes, but in Vietnam I can go with the umbrella company.

And for airport just the posts I've seen here, many of them recommend to avoid them.

3 hours ago, Mike Teavee said:

The guy is 30 so a 20 year Elite would leave him at 50/51 and eligible (under current rules) for a Non-O 

 

But I completely agree with the other posters who said that 3.5 weeks is not enough time in country to make a 1Million THB / 20 year investment 

 

I wonder if the following would work... Let's say the OP comes into Thailand in Jan on an METV and does...

1. 60 Days, followed by a 30 day extension 
2. Trip to another country, come back 
3. 60 Days, followed by a 30 day extension 
4. Trip to another country, come back 
5. 60 Days, followed by a 30 day extension 

... Now 9 months in (September), next steps would be...

1. Land Trip to another country (Trip 1 in 2020), come back get 30 day exempt
2. extend for 30 days 
3. Land Trip to another country (Trip 2 in 2020), come back get 30 day exempt
4. extend for 30 days

... Now in 2021 so the 2 x Land Border runs clock resets & (technically) can repeat the previous 4 steps again to get another 4 months, all in 17 months in-country (give or take a few border bounces) hopefully enough to confirm whether the Elite Visa is worth doing or not

 

No idea whether the above would work or not, but on paper it's (technically) perfect possible... 

 

This seems like one of the best option, for the start, it will give me time to know if I do want to stay in Thailand and to compare other countries around.

The Elite 20-years is out of question, I'm not spending 30,000$ just on visa and as some have pointed out, 3.5 weeks is not enough to make such an investment, even 16,000$ for 5 years is too much of a commitment at this point. I'm also scared if they cancel the program and that money is just gone. I don't think it would happend though as it seems it's all about money anyways.

No one has experience with umbrella companies ? That would have been perfect for me, pay taxes in Thailand and no hassle with visa. Complete freedom as well.

I guess Vietnam is becoming the new Thailand, as the company I talked with are setting up shop there. At first, I was set on Thailand because I experienced it but Vietnam looks very cool too, I'm worried it's not as safe as Thailand though.

I think I'll do METV and that will allow me to check out Vietnam as well. Then I can decide if I really absolutely want to be in Thailand, in the meantime I can focus on earning more and then maybe I don't mind blowing 15/30k on Elite, or maybe I'll have met the right girl and just get married.

Also I was hesitating between Bangkok and Chiang Mai but from what I heard about BKK airports, Bangkok is not so much an option.

I'm 30

Hello, I'm a freelancer that can work from anywhere, I just spent 3 weeks and a half in Thailand as I was thinking of moving there, and of course I loved it.

Now I'm back in France and I see all reports of immigration getting super strict and I'm kinda scared to give everything up here to then get denied over there.

However, it seems I probably would not have problems at first since this would only be my second entry.

My question is, as I want to stay long term, what is the best course of action.

I have a few options in mind so far :

1. ED Visa + Learning Thai (allows me for 1 year without the hassle of exit, but can't travel if I want to, also adds a lot of hours to my days and I need to work for my remote clients) then ED again or METV

2. METV (if I understand correctly in this case I still have to do visa runs but I could stay up to 9 months ?) then come back with ED

3. METV or SETV with one visa run to stay in Thailand for 6 months, then go to Vietnam and do the same for 6 months (I believe this is the only option that would keep me in good terms with immigration on the long run)

Ideally, I'd like to be able to stay in Thailand most of the time so I can actually settle there but that seems like there's no way to make it happen

I've contacted a well known umbrella company as this was the best option for me but they said currently they cannot offer the service they used to (pay % of your income to them and they take care of visa + taxes for you)

They said Thai authorities "have requested they make changes to their business model"

Anyways, I'd like to have your experimented advice on what's the best path for me here, goal being to stay as long as possible

Also if I go the ED + METV route do you think it's better to start with METV or ED ?

Also I will have to renew my passport before going, so it will be a new one, I don't know if that may be important.