mokwit

I don't think that many retirees are living here on retirement visas as a way of operating as a criminal.

Yes that is how they think, but a fair assessment would be to compare crime conviction rates of retirees to the 'norm'.

That was before the 2014 "Government" and it's high quality appointees. They didn't grandfather a change in financial requirements for retirees - specifically 400k year 'round. I just think to change the deal on retirees makes Thailand NOT a retirement destination and that will likely be broadcast on the internet by people who have to leave and go back to rainy afternoons back home. My guess is it will be 3m, maybe grandfathering, depending on who the Government is. No, I am not scaremongering. 3m seems to be their new minimum for "quality" judging by recent visas aimed at "quality" tourists. Easily achieved by not issuing new 800k extensions and requiring new retirees to get OA/OX (with all the attendant requirements such as no criminal record) in their home country.

These guys are smart. They probably take the colours off before going through Immigration at the airport.

Popular belief has it that he is Prawit's appointee. He was appointed head of Immigration when they had a contract for fingerprint recognition. Apparently he was put in place to ensure there was no corruption in the contract award...........

Shouldn't they be looking at how many people on retirement extensions have been convicted of a crime since 1979 and then compare that percentage wise/statistically with the Thai population and people on other visa classes such as VE/VOA/TR before knee jerk making things difficult for law abiding retirees?

Fairly easy to prevent this kind of thing in future, just find out what visa they are on and make it more difficult to obtain.

This can be stopped by making things more difficult for retirees it seems.

Sorry, should have in some way better indicated I was being sarcastic. We all had to keep 400k year 'round but the agency business continued as before.

Seems all our visa problems/inconveniences are caused by just this one person. If he is worried about corruption I could point him in the direction of somebody.

Read the source cited at the bottom of the Pattaya Mail article. You will end up thinking this is more about getting rid of retirees than outlaw motorcycle gangs.

Pattaya mail link gives the source they are quoting at the bottom and he does indeed say that. We can't mention source here.

He stamped it out by making people who didn't use agents keep 400k in the bank year 'round. HTH.

Picking on retirees again rather than solve the problem. Criminal record check is a given and the 800k seems to be in his line of sight. This is what bothers the authorities: 1979 Immigration Act, which allows foreigners aged above 50 to easily live in Thailand. Operative word being 'easily'. The agent system went away after we had to keep 400k in the bank year 'round? He should have gone after the IO's who were facilitating it. Prior to this character you could accept the rationale behind much of Imm's tightenings e.g 30 day VE wasn't meant to be used to stay year in year out with 30 day border hops. Edit just read the full source article we can't mention (it's the one you can trust aparentl). If there is ONE thing that makes foreigners feel unsafe in Thailand it is changes in visa rules/requirements, this character is an absolute menace to a peaceful retirement. All those who have been demanding stiffer visa criteria may find you wish being granted may involve you returning back home (if you still can). Som naam naar. looks like he may be thinking about having everyone move to the OX - except you DO have to go every year to requalify. It is an utterly poor visa choice.

There is a very good interview with the Labour Office Chief in CM somewhere on the net where he basically says remote workers are working under the definitions of the law but they are way down the list for any action being taken. There were one or two cases where he said no breach of the law with this one.

They were all let go and the Police said they didn't see what they were doing wrong - the info they got was that these people were all working for a company apparently - which may have been an umbrella company for WP etc.

Global destruction is only 8 years away apparently, so you may be right.

Right now they don't want to bother with lone foreigners working from home. A heads up is that in future data capture and translation will be automatic and more databases linked. The data leak a few years ago suggest they are triangulating. SO: there may come a time when if you have been here 181 days and not filed for tax for that period when due they may contact you to see if you should be paying tax.

If they are controlling access to water they are a Mafia. Gangster perhaps the wrong word. That said, they may not all be doing that and quite possibly are legitimate refugees from persecution. The revolutionaries murdered many non Muslims and persecution probably of those they didn't.

They sent me to the an office at the front of the IDC compound to pay the fine there. Around 2000 they introduced enforcing 90 day reporting and then stopped it again after maybe 18 months or so. I went to do my report and got a "why have you come, didn't you get the message?" look. Stopped doing it after that. You are right, overstay never used to be any kind of big deal.

They use a large black van and plain clothes when looking for overstayers and illegal entrants. At least one has an immigration bright yellow and blue vest on but stays in the background unless needed.

I think we can work out why such a distorted picture was presented. She obviously has not let truth get in the way of a good story for money from speaking engagements and book sales. 'This is an edited extract from the best-selling ‘thriller memoir’, The Stories We Carry, by award-winning human trafficking ambassador, resilience speaker and book coach Jas Rawlinson. Grab a copy here or book Jas to speak at your event here. You can also find her on Instagram @jas_rawlinson.' Nearly 30 years ago I lived in an apartment complex which was a place where most of the apartment renters were women who worked Nana and Cowboy, also primarily one of the nearby massage parlours. I knew the reality and it was not as described by the article or people on this thread. I am not defending it, I am just saying there is a hugely distorted picture being painted. When I saw packs of adult women going out at dusk evocative of lionesses going out on the hunt, it wasn't them I felt sorry for. There was one bar on the right that had underage girls standing outside but it is Loooong gone. Also, right or wrong, the age of consent at that time was 13, reflecting that historically people would live in the same village for their entire lives. It was increased to 18/15 parental consent. It seems that there was recently a bar in the Soi 7 complex that had underage girls and it was rightly busted by the authorities. This is an unusual situation - Covid desperation maybe. A lot of land got hocked over reduced earning power due to Covid. I remember Trink saying that he used to take journalists 'round so they could see the reality, but gave up as they always published the pre written narrative they had come here with.

Yes of course, they are "families fleeing war", and certainly not economic migrants who have our system all figured out. Conditions must have been terrible in war torn France or they would not have risked a channel crossing. Don't forget how lucky we are to get all those "Doctors and Engineers." Note, the above sarcasm does not apply to genuine refugees. There actually are genuine refugees in the IDC - Pakistani Christians fleeing persecution by the majority in their home country.

What will that old German guy who sits outside every day do?

Believe it or not back in the '90's and up until maybe 2005 it was a great place to pick up sideline girls (yes it had it's pros/regulars but there were always girls you hadn't seen before and often didn't see again). Post 2005 people going to the BG couldn't believe how old the women were, on their visit next year they couldn't believe it was still the same "girls" as last year.