Red Phoenix

~ @Sunmaster & @Tippaporn - Enjoying the debate between the two of you. And the Winner is ...

If your Mom flies back to Canada before the expiry date of the 30-day Permission to stay she received on entering Thailand, there is no need for her to get hold of a TM-30. Such 'notification of address while in Thailand' is only required when she would be applying at a local Imm Office for an extension of stay. Note that according to Thai law, YOU are supposed to notify your local Imm Office that a foreigner (your Mom) is staying at your premises. But unless you have some strife with one of your neighbours, who would tip off Immigration that a foreigner is staying at your house, there is no way Immigration would know about it (and even if they knew, they would probably just ignore the 'breach' as it is just a short family-member stay).

I read that it is not necessary for your wife to be present, but that you would need a signed front-back copy of her Thai ID-card and a handwritten document equally signed by her requesting the Thai Consulate to provide you - her husband with the 1-year ME Non Imm O Visa for reason of marriage.

Afaik you can still apply for the 1-year MultipleEntry Non Imm O Visa for reason of marraige at the Thai Consulate in Savannakhet. What has changed is that while previously you only had to provide evidence of being married with a Thai national when applying for that 1-year ME Marriage Non Imm O Visa, is that the consulate now requires that you provide evidence of having +400.000,- THB on a Thai bank-account. So if you visit your Thai bank and ask for a Bank-Account statement printed on the bank's letterhead paper, stating that you are the sole owner of that account, as well as the balance it shows, that will be irrefutible evidence of meeting the criterium. And it would be wise to make a small transaction and update your bank pass-book just before crossing the border, in case the Consulate wants very recent evidence of you still meeting that criterium. Note that if you cannot provide evidence of the required funds, that the Consulate will provide you with a 90-day Marriage Non Imm O Visa, for which no financial requirements need to be fulfilled. NOTE: Not sure whether the Consulate would accept the equivalent of +400K on a non-Thai bank-account, as it would be difficult to provide official documented evidence of such (a bank-account snapshot downloaded from the web would be probably be rejected).

Hi Tippa, I have some furniture with uneven legs, and your envisioned "How to Speak Greek in English" book-series, will come in quite handy to even out the legs and stop the wobbling. The more voluminous books of the series I can use as door-stoppers. And of course they will also 'burn nice in the stove' (a dutch expression), as my shed and garage would be far too small to store the whole series. 😁

Note that I do not have any personal experience with that, but from what was mentioned in the many threads on applying for the MultipleEntry Non Imm O Visa in Savannakhet, I gathered that they do not accept 'thai dependant children' as reason for the application. But maybe some applicants did succeed in doing that, and then that would be your way to go. There is also the possibility to apply at the the Immigration Office of the province where you are currently residing, and ask for the requirements when applying there for the 1-year extension for reason of dependant children. However, even if that Imm Office does allow applications for 1-year extensions for reason of dependant children (not all Thai Immigration Offices provide that option), you would NOT be able to apply for it at this moment because the FIRST application for a 1-year extension has to be done for the SAME reason as the 90-day Non Imm O Visa you currently have (probably acquired for reason of retirement).

~ Thanks and agreed. Your comment is also a reminder to me that I didn't consider the home-country executor yet, but will have to do some research on that aspect as I definitely do not want it to be the notary that executed the heritage of both my parents.

Thanks @Sunmaster Indeed a beautiful Sunday morning, and for those preferring not to watch a video but doing something else like meditating, gardening or simply relaxing, here a link to the wonderful Keith Jarrett album "G.I. Gurdjieff - Sacred Hymns" https://open.spotify.com/track/0bxwbztejleFKUk6RMSi0u?si=56053f522561496d Note: You need to subscribe to Spotify in order to listen to the album, but it's free (no cost) so give it a try...

Don't know in Thailand, but in my home-country when you are not officially married or have close blood-ties, your girlfriend or any other 'stranger' mentioned in your will will be heavily taxed on what he/she inherits from you. Obviously you can already gift/donate it to your girlfriend before your demise. But that needs to be done - at least in my home-country - more than 6 months before you die, as otherwise the gifts will be retracted. > In my specific circumstance, where what I would write in my will would not be different than the normal heritage procedure (all my possessions going to my 3 children), there is no need for me to make an official will. But you could say that I have made an 'informal will' by making arrangements with my 3 children that after my demise they will provide part of their heritage to my girlfriend (thus avoiding her being heavily taxed on it). Obviously that requires full trust in that my children would honor that agreement. And in my case there is no doubt about that, as I also have full confidence in the 'in laws' (a factor to take into consideration whenever money is involved).

~ Yes he sure does! And here the re(sun)mastered version to really rub it in...

~ Yes, there is a total misalignment between the requirements to apply at your local Imm Office for a 90-day Non Imm O Visa (which can only be done when you entered Thailand VisaExempt or on a Tourist Visa), and the now more strict requirements to open a personal Thai bank-account (which is needed to prove to Immigration that you met the financial requirements). It's a classic 'Catch-22' > You cannot apply for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa at your local Imm Office without a personal Thai Bank-account, but to open such account you actually need to already have such a Non Imm O Visa... > The consequence of those contradictory and mutually exclusive requirements from Immigration and some Thai banks (luckily not all of them) is that it becomes as good as IMPOSSIBLE to apply for the 'change of Visa' process, which was set-up to allow tourists to apply for a long-stay Non Imm O Visa at their local Imm Office. So if you do not already have a personal Thai bank-account (set-up earlier before the current and ever stricter Bank requirements to open an accoutn), the only options left are: a) Applying for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa in your home-country, as that Visa will then allow you to open a personal Thai bank-account which is needed when applying for the 1-year extensions based on that 90-day Non Imm O Visa OR b) Engaging a VisaAgent with connections at a local Bank, that can help you open such a required Thai bank-account that would allow you then to apply for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa (either by yourself or again with help of a VisaAgent). = = = This whole bureaucratic nonsense is a big joke, until you are confronted with it...

When having entered Thailand Visa Exempt or on a Tourist Visa, you can apply for a Non Imm O Visa at the local Imm Office of the province where you plan to reside long term in Thailand. However, such application requires evidence of meeting the financial requirements for such Visa, and the ONLY evidence accepted is from having a personal Thai bank-account. But the requirements to open such a personal Thai bank-account are very difficult, and these Bangkok Bank rules make it as good as impossible to do that yourself. So it seems that help of a Visa Agent will be required to open an account at a Bangkok Bank branche. I hope that this BKB requirements craziness will not be taken over by other Thai banks.

~ Thanks Tippa, And I took the liberty to change the caption you provided, to make it more appropriate. "Hi Seth, share your wisdom - I am all ears..." 😉

@FolkGuitar was not backtracking or being untrue in his response. But it is like @proton correctly wrote that there is a difference between joint accounts and joint signatories. Some Thai banks allow another 'signatory' on the personal account you have opened with them. And that signatory person (e.g. your wife) is not visible in your Passbook, but it does allow the signatory person to access that personal bank-account. And when your request the Bank to provide you with the annual Bank-Account statement (often referred to as the 'letter' to Immigration) it will state that you are the sole owner of that account. Unfortunately at my Kasikorn bank-branche when I opened my Fixed Deposit account there, the staff and the bank manager told me that it was not possible for the FD account that I opened. Most probably it's only possible to have such a hidden joint signatory for Saving Accounts.

Hi TBL, sorry to hear that your response to the Timothy Leary post vanished before you were able to post it. Note that I have also experienced that annoying phenomenon before (especially when writing longer responses). But I found out that it's often just a matter of clicking again on the QUOTE button to the post you were responding to, to see the text where you have left off, and you can then either delete the response started or continue writing it.

The message and the messenger... But the empty talks of the blonde pretties are immediately forgotten, as it is only package and no substance. And then you have the messengers where it almost doesn't matter what they say, but where their BEING shines through in everything they DO and say. I recently came across this picture of Timothy LEARY. What a beautiful and powerful human being he was (just look at his eyes, to feel and touch his soul). And the message he spread is still resonating almost 30 years after his demise. Here an excerpt of one of his books, which touches me deeply. = = = Admit it. You aren’t like them. You’re not even close. You may occasionally dress yourself up as one of them, watch the same mindless television shows as they do, maybe even eat the same fast food sometimes. But it seems that the more you try to fit in, the more you feel like an outsider, watching the “normal people” as they go about their automatic existences. For every time you say club passwords like “Have a nice day” and “Weather’s awful today, eh?”, you yearn inside to say forbidden things like “Tell me something that makes you cry” or “What do you think deja vu is for?” Face it, you even want to talk to that girl in the elevator. But what if that girl in the elevator (and the balding man who walks past your cubicle at work) are thinking the same thing? Who knows what you might learn from taking a chance on conversation with a stranger? Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others. ~Timothy Leary

Thanks for that overview. And yes what you wrote is fully correct. Two additional comments: 1 - If the procedure that will be followed in case there is no will at your demise, would be no different than how you want it, there is no need to make a will. 2 - It makes sense to make an overview of all your possessions/contracts (physical assets like houses/land, insurance policies, bank-accounts, etc.) and update that list annually, such that in case of your demise that it would not be a mad scramble to find out all of the above (with the risk of overlooking a life-insurance policy or a foreign bank-account).

Thanks, and I read about that possibility. But when I opened my Fixed Deposit Account at my local Kasikorn branch, and enquired about doing exactly that what you proposed, the Bank staff told me that that was not possible. I insisted on it, but also the Bank manager told that was not possible. So it seems to be Bank and branche dependant, wjhether a joint signatory would be possible.

I presume that you applied for a 1-year extension of stay for reason of marriage, since you mention an 'under consideration' period. Some Imm Offices also check when you return at the end of that under consideration period to have the actual extension stamped in your passport, that you still meet the 400K financial criterium and that you did not slip under that amount, and require you to bring your updated bank passbook. Obviously you are allowed to make withdrawals and transfers from your bank-account during the under consideration period as long as you did not slip under that 400K tresshold.

Did your local Immigration Office accept such Joint account when applying for the 1-year extension based on your Non Imm O Visa? Reason I ask, is that in all threads on this topic it says that the majority of Imm Offices ONLY accept a Thai bank-account opened on your personal name. And that there are some Imm Offices that do accept a Bank-account carrying the name of both you and your wife, but that in that case the required funds to meet the Immigration requirements need to be doubled > i.e. + 1.600.000,- THB.

Hi Tazmo, I am in a very similar situation as yourself. Living for 6 years in Thailand now with my Thai girlfriend. And as we are not officially married, the easiest way for me to stay long-term in Thailand is on annual renewable permissions to stay from a Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement (just like you are doing). In order to avoid the risk and hassle of slipping under the required financial requirement for the extensions of that Visa, I opened a Fixed Deposit account with Kasikorn Bank, where I continually keep +800K (just a bit more to avoid that the annual admin fee would result in going under that mandatory 800K figure. The upside of that FD account is that I cannot slip accidentally under that 800K figure, as I need to go with my passport to the Bank to do any transactions on it, which I do once a year at Permission to stay renewal application time. And Immigration requires that the bank-account is on your own personal name, so my partner nor anybody else has access to it. Now there is of course the issue of what would happen with that 800K when I die, as my partner does not have access. I looked into this and the process is that when a foreigner dies in Thailand, that his accounts are frozen by the Bank, until the heritage question has been settled. Min my case there is no need for me to make a will, as all my possessions would automatically go to my 3 children. And I made the agreement with all 3 of them, that they would transfer 25% of the value of the heritage they receive, to my partner. This avoids that my partner with which I am not married would be heavily taxed on what she would receive when I would put her in my will. So the 800K will go - after quite some time as that process takes time - to my children. And every year I provide my children with a complete overview of the 'status' and details of what I possess. I.e. the details of all my bank-accounts (and their balance), my insurance policies and physical assets, and that includes the details of the FD bank-account at Kasikorn bank. It will thus not be a mad scramble by them to figure out what are my possesions. RE the 800K > I consider that 'sleeping amount' of 800K, as a kind of 'insurance' which can be used in case of me having an accident/hospitalization. In summary > in my case 'doing nothing' (except the annual overview I make of my possessions, which I provide to my children) is same as making a will. And of course I completely trust my children in that they would each provide 25% of their heritage to my partner (they fully agreed to that and saw the logic of it). Obviously I also made arrangements that even in the 'transition' period before my partner would receive her share, that she would not be left in the cold. For that purpose I transferred a considerable amount of money to her bank-account. >> Your situation might be slightly different, but this is how I dealt with the inevitable reality that chances are that I will 'go first' as my Thai girlfriend is 12 years younger than me. Cheers - BlueSphinx

~ Hahaha, a clever crypto way of honoring Tippers, but with a somewhat hidden message... or is TippARS triggering my dirty mind again... > Alternative title and sub-title (to be read in one go) The Tale of Timmy Tippars Hole in the Ground and the Way to the Stars 😁

~ de gustibus et coloribus non disputandum, and so I definitely will keep referring to you as Tippa instead of Tippers... Also because Tippersporn invokes the image in my mind of a dirty old man providing tips at a shady Gogo bar to the girls... I know: a dirty mind is a joy forever... 😁