DD25

It's now 100 but apparently the UK doesn't hit 100 per year so that's not really a concern. I'm not going to fail on any of the other categories so in my case it's just a question of whether you have to be working if you are over 50, or maybe whether you are still eligible but it counts against you at the discretionary stage.

@Mike Teavee I don't seem to be able to edit my earlier post but that info (you can apply if you have been married for at least 2 years) is only valid for over-50s. If you are younger than that it's 5 years unless you have a child or have a certificate to say you can't have kids, in which case it's 2, and you also have to be working. I don't think you have to be working if you are over 50. Otherwise there would be no point in the separate category in 3.3.1(2) of the eligibility document. Could be wrong though.

Could be, and makes sense of the earlier comments about wives being in a better position than husbands. Saying that I was just looking again at the eligibility requirements which I just skimmed the first time. If you are applying on the basis that you want to support your spouse there are two basic categories 1) working in Thailand 2) over 50. The list of documents has covers both of those situations, so I think the employment docs are probably only relevant if you are under 50 (which I am, but it was a long term plan anyway).

Yeah but the clause before that is talking about a certificate that you are still in education. Hard to see how you would be still in education but working at the same time. Not impossible I guess. Not clear how to interpret those requirements or how they relate to the eligibility requirements in the first document.

That takes us back to square one really because the eligibility criteria don't include any requirement to be employed in Thailand but the list of supporting documents does include an employment certification letter. Does this mean *if* you are employed (you have to give details of your income) you need to provide an employment certification letter, maybe, or does it mean that there is actually a requirement to be employed and it's just that the income threshold is lower if you are applying based on being married to / the parent of a Thai citizen?

It looks like you need 3 continuous years on an O visa, but can you change the reason for extension e.g. 1 year education (that's an O visa, right?) 2 years visit spouse, then apply?

Well that's good news, although the site that Pib linked to above (https://www.immigration.go.th/en/?page_id=1744) says it's 100 people per country per year. Out of date maybe (but if so, is the rest of it also out of date?)

It says on the immigration website that you are eligible to apply if you have to have been married for 2 years (no such time limit if you pop out a kid, just saying...) and you meet the minimum income requirement. There does seem to be a discretionary stage after that though. That's what I'm not 100% clear on. There's a list of things they look at on the site (assets, income, relationship with Thai citizen, Thai language ability, I think a couple of others) but no thresholds e.g. must have THB x in assets.

I'm not seeing anything about points on the docs linked to above. It does say that if you meet the critieria you are eligible "to be considered for PR", as though there's a second stage where they decide if they are actually going to grant it, but I haven't seen anything so far on how they would make that decision. Is that where the points system comes in maybe?

Is there a (reliable) self-storage place in the Chiang Mai area? I would like to leave some stuff there between visits.

Thanks a lot that's probably saved me a rejection.

Now it seems almost too easy. Maybe it's the quota of 100 people / year that's the catch.

I recently had to deal with the estate of a family member who died in the UK. There was a large inheritance tax bill to pay and it got me thinking about my own estate, although I am still young. At the same time I'm thinking of having kids in Thailand. It turns out that even if I never set foot in the UK again and the kids grew up entirely in Thailand, the chances are they would be liable to pay UK inheritance tax on my estate, including any Thai assets (well technically it's the estate that pays the tax, but it works out the same). I asked the lawyer if/how this could be avoided and he said that HMRC (the UK tax authority) would need to be convinced that you had decided to base yourself somewhere else permanently, and that that might be difficult to do if you didn't have the right to stay there permanently. Just being non-resident at the time of death is not enough. If you are on yearly extensions, his view is that's a grey area and you could easily end up in a dispute. On the one hand you can realistically expect to be able to go on extending indefinitely, but on the other you don't have a right to extend, it's politically turbulent, etc. If you have PR there shouldn't be a problem and the estate will be subject to Thai inheritance tax, which is a lot less and seems more appropriate if I have lived most of my life in Thailand and the kids / beneficiaries are Thai. Another way to say it would be that you need to convince the UK authorities that you have emigrated and it's hard to do that if you are on a non-immigrant visa.

Thanks - others in the thread are saying you have to be a female married to a male Thai citizen, but that doc just says spouse, so I'm not sure why I couldn't do it as a male married to a female Thai citizen (I mean I'm not married yet...). Also not sure if those are minimum criteria and it's then down to their discretion, or if it's a case of meet the criteria and you get PR.

I think it's quite easy to get PR if you work in Thailand but I'm less clear on whether it's achievable if you don't. Has anyone got it without an employment history?