K2938

Do you know if the BOI accepts "IRA distributions" for the 80k USD income proof?

So Krungsri and Aeon basically have the same charge per baht received, 0,73% vs. 0,75%

But is the Wise rate also better than the Visa or Mastercard rate for THB/EUR if your foreign card does not add any commission on top which exists?

The BOI still seems to be working out what it requires and is learning on the go (which is good!). As there are countries without income tax and as in many countries with income tax with careful structuring at least some income can legally be received tax free, e.g. if it is offshore and the country has a territorial tax system, it would be silly for the BOI to insist on an income tax statement for everybody as a matter of course

Did you have to pay extra for the family member visa or was this all included in the 50 000 THB LTR fee for you (or respectively your marked up version of this if getting the visa outside Thailand which I think you did)?

I am again guessing, but there seems to be a correlation between the four digit number and the phone number extension of the person at the BOI actually looking at the thing. For three digits this does not work, so I assume - but do not know! - this is more like another holding pile, but I could be wrong. Please update us all when you know more.

Presumably a change from Pending to Processing is positive, implying that somebody might actually look at your stuff, especially if a "StaffBoi" with a four digit, not three digit number is shown under StaffName. But I am guessing

... or just put both documents in one pdf file

Did you get the impression the BOI had not looked at your application at all yet or just that they had not finished their work yet and now are accelerating that following your phone call?

No. As you will see in the application form you can tick "I will submit later" or something like this, with later meaning prior to the issue of the visa as this is a pre-condition for this.

Interesting in the quote that their key mental focus seems to be on people already having an immigration stamp, i.e. people already in Thailand. For this to benefit Thailand, the attraction of NEW people to Thailand should really be top of the list instead of people just switching from one visa to the other

You are asking very detailed, complex questions you are unlikely to get a sensible answer to from people here, with many guessing, though not necessarily saying so. Better to spend the money to talk to a professional tax consultant who actually knows what he is talking about.

How about from Malaysia (Penang) with AirAsia in case you know?

It would be very silly from the BOI if they did this and are after "rich" people. Most of the truly rich people are those who made their money either from founding and then selling a successful business or inherited their wealth. Neither of those are likely to receive a pension which is what salaried people get

Still see it as a positive. Given the very poor application numbers, the BOI will come under increasing pressure to be more lenient. First maybe where things are grey and could be interpreted as either white or black and then maybe also on more fundamental issues. So really the best advice for anybody who has not applied yet and is not in a desperate rush would probably be to just wait a few more months with the application until the full impact of the poor application numbers has set in on the BOI.

... which at the current application run rate even with the heroic assumption of a 100% approval rate would imply that it would only take a good 170 years to reach the 1 million visa issues the government is aiming for within five years ????

So the low rate of applications has further slowed down, falling by nearly a quarter in the last weeks from the already very low earlier numbers. In The Nation it was stated that until 20 Oct 2022 there were 1 044 applications, implying 20.9 applications per day (https://www.nationmultimedia.com/thailand/40021449). Now in the new article by the Thai Examiner (https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/11/07/land-for-foreign-high-flyers-plan-to-be-axed/) it is stated that 1 300 applications were made until about 05 Nov 2022, implying that in the period from 20 Oct to 05 Nov only approximately 16.0 applications per day were made, i.e. a further fall of 23% from an already very low starting figure.

If this turns out to be a problem, you can just buy a temporary flight out of Thailand for $14 USD at https://onwardticket.com/ or buy a rail or bus ticket out of Thailand for even less. Much cheaper than the extra 10k or 15k THB for the local embassy/consulate

Depends on the specifics on the local legislation. In many countries, there is legislation giving residential tenants the right to terminate the contract by giving a certain amount of notice even if the contract is entirely silent on this and in some others even if the contract says exactly the opposite. So the question really is not what the situation is "anywhere in the world", but what the specific rules, regulations and court practices in Thailand are. So that is really what would be useful to discuss here

Would be interesting to know if for the people they reject they are told this immediately when when the BOT notices this or they are also only informed at the end of the about 20 business day period. I would assume the former, so in that case no news is good news.

Thanks for this very useful list. May I suggest that you maybe sort this by date as this would just make it a little easier to read. Thank you.

... which is why somebody somewhere will probably be under a lot of pressure because of the performance of this program. Even the pent up early adapter demand boom only led to about 1000 applications in a little less than two months and that is applications, not visas issued. This program is attractive to those with an interest in Thailand who happen to either fulfill the $80k income or fulfill the $40k income and already have $250k in real estate investments in Thailand, but this pool of people is very very limited. From all others who would have to buy Thai government bonds or make new investments into Thai real estate, demand is probably going to be quite limited and even an income of $40k is a very big number for most people. So the 1 million in 5 years will almost certainly be hugely hugely missed.

Just to confirm: You paid the 50k THB for the visa without problem IN CASH at the BOI office in Bangkok? I am asking because earlier on there were reports that they neither accept cash, nor credit cards but only the QR code payment with a Thai bank account (which of course people who have not lived in Thailand before probably will not have)

Who says that buying Thai government bonds in the secondary markets would not fulfill the LTR visa requirements?

Add the pre-screening time and it comes to about a month as well