GuyDow

The last 3 times I have got a letter from the British Embassy to confirm my income for a retirement extension they have given the income figure in both Sterling and Thai Baht. I provided the Thai Baht figure and had evidence to justify the exchange rate used (e.g. credit card transactions, ATM withdrawals). The British Embassy did not debate the figures I provided or ask me to justify them. They just typed them up as I had given them.

When I took the letters to Thai immigration, which I do as soon as I can once I have them, the officers there just read off the Thai Baht figure in the Embassy letter. Again, no questions were asked about exchange rates. This was the case in Suan Phlu previously and now in my new local office in Nakorn Pathom.

Drove through the Tobacco Monopoly on Friday about midday in my 5-year old, needs a wash Toyota Hilux pickup. Entered from Rama 4 and exited in Soi 4. Had every intention of buying one of those passes mentioned in previous post. But when I wound down my window to ask about it, the guard just waved me through.

You can drive through the Ploenchit Centre from Thanon Duang Phital to Soi 2 for no charge. You don't actually enter the carpark. The entrance from "Soi 0" is easy to spot and quite close to Sukhumvit. You emerge in Soi 2 opposite the Marriot carpark.

From there you can access Soi 4 by turning right and driving through the Rajah Hotel carpark. They'd probably charge you 20Baht to do this.

If it's in the bin, there's nothing to show you have been following the 90 day cycle,  

Yes there is. There is the top half of the TM47 form in your file at immigration. 

Assuming of course that immigration file it rather than just chucking it in the bin!!

When you turn up on Dec 19 (actually you can't since that day is Sunday) with a newly completed TM47 showing an arrival date of Oct 21 you are likely to be told to go away and come back at the right time. Bit of a waste of time, don't you think?

I'd just chuck the old 90-day slip out and go and report on the correct date.

Don't forget the application fee of THB1900.

The IMM offices also want to see some proof of residence i.e. rent receipt or home ownership papers.

Never been asked for this on my last 4 extensions.

However you do need copies of relevant pages of your passport (id page, last visa, entry stamps, arrival / departure card, etc.).

 Best I've found is the pre-paid CAT PhoneNet card which you can use on all networks including AIS. I usually get mine from the CAT office in Times Square next to Asoke BTS but I  believe you can get them from Tesco-Lotus, etc. Call quality is acceptable and it is about 1 baht a minute to phone UK landlines. 

Interested to hear if anyone has a better option than this.

I think it's a bit strong accusing the staff in the Nakorn Pathom office of rudeness. Some of them might be a bit off-hand, but most of them are fine and I have been there at least half a dozen times since it opened last year.

The most important thing is that they are efficient at doing their job and usually I can get in and out of there fairly quickly. It is definitely a big improvement over the service I used to get at Suan Phlu.

Thought they kept the original ?

Quite, they've always kept my originals. Previously at Suan Phlu, now at Nakon Pathom. 

The letters I have been getting from the British Embassy to confirm income for retirement extensions only show the Baht amount. The officials at the  Embassy have been happy to do this and I'd rather debate exchange rates with them than with Immigration.

Immigration have so far accepted these letters without any objections or questions.

But if Immigration notice that your Embassy letter is, say, 3 months old and that your native currency has plunged by, say, 20% against the THB in the meantime, they are bound to say something, are they not? Might not this then lead to them insisting that future Embassy income confirmation letters stating the amount in THB (rather than in your native currency) are no more than a week old, as in the case of the bank confirmation letter alternative?

Possibly, however I usually go to immigration as soon as I have the letter.  My Sterling income fluctuates from month to month therefore the figures quoted in the letter are only correct at the time the letter is issued. There is no point in either getting the letter early or hanging about once I have it.

 The letters I have been getting from the British Embassy to confirm income for retirement extensions only show the Baht amount. The officials at the  Embassy have been happy to do this and I'd rather debate exchange rates with them than with Immigration. 

Immigration have so far accepted these letters without any objections or questions.

Most Dept of Land & Transport Offices will accept a letter from your local Amphur detailing your address. Much less fuss than going to Immigration or your home country embassy.

Depends on how much fuss dealing with your amphur is. My amphur made such a song and dance about giving me a yellow tabian baan I gave up. Their requirements were, to put it mildly, extremely onerous. 

On the other hand dealing with my local immigration office has always (up until now) been very straightforward.

As previously noted, most farangs here arrange a lease or usufruct on land and then build a house on it. The alternative is buying from a developer who has made his legal arrangements in such a way that foreigners can lease the land and buy the house as separate transactions. Such developments are plentiful in farang-popular areas like Pattaya and Hua Hin.

You really need to separate the house from the land if you want to buy. Leasing is a different story.

Being married or not makes no difference to your situation. You are still a farang.

A post on another thread had a link to a meeting held in Chaing Mai by the Minister of the Interior ( http://www.chiangmai.../news.shtml#hd6 ). This link held the following statement "the spouse of a Thai person can inherit one rai of land for residential or commercial purposes or 10 rai of agricultural land if their Thai spouse dies." Can anyone confirm this is correct? If it is then my plans for the future need drastic revision.

I did hear if you go into the branch of any bank and use your foreign ATM card to make a cash withdrawal over the counter, then there is no charge. Can anyone confirm this?

Yes I have been doing this for years with my Nationwide Flexi Account debit card, always ask for the amount in baht not your home currency, they give an exchange rate but when it hits my a/c Nationwide uses the offshore rate which is higher than the banks here so it does save you the fees whilst getting a good exchange rate. In addition the Aeon bank atm s do not charge a fee as they are a Japanese Company.

The Flex account card is, presumably, a VISA debit card !?

That being the case, the exchange rate will be set by VISA.

Do VISA charge the standard 1% fee on these manual transactions, and do Nationwide pass them on ?

I also bank with Nationwide. The Baht amount is converted to Sterling using a competitve exchange rate by Nationwide and there are no additional charges. By competitive I mean it is a lot better than the rates used by other banks or card issuers I have experience of.

The Flex account card has a Visa logo on it but they do not appear to be involved in processing the payment. I guess they just provide the communications infrastructure.

Be careful you may get to avoid the fees but what about the exchange rate?

The conversion from Baht to Sterling is done by my bank in the UK. The rate is competitive.

The majority of the Thai banks introduced charges last year if you used a non-Thai ATM card to draw cash from their ATMs. After a bit of hunting around I found out that Bank of Ayutthya was not making a charge and I merrily took advantage of their ATM services.

This week the Bank of Ayuttya has introduced a charge of B150 if you use a foreign ATM card in their machines.

Are there any other ATMs out there that are still free of charge?

I did hear if you go into the branch of any bank and use your foreign ATM card to make a cash withdrawal over the counter, then there is no charge. Can anyone confirm this?

I went to the Embassy this week to request my letter and supplied the proof from my pension provider which has the gross pension and the taxes deducted in the last year. I didn't ask which figure they would use but the young lady marked the gross figure with a highlighter, and this was the figure that was typed on my letter.

Very interesting. I think I'll try this approach myself next time.

All the double taxation agreement ensures is that any tax paid to the Thai authorities can be claimed as relief against our UK tax liability. So I reckon don't bother and keep a low profile.

Quite. As well as the logistical difficulties likely in reclaiming from HMRC, I don't really want the Thai tax authorities poking about in my affairs. Too much potential downside.

I've got an old pre-paid phone which still has quite a lot of credit on it. I want to make some calls to the UK. Does anyone know which telecom service is offering the best rates at the moment?

I know I could research it on the web but I'm being lazy in the hope someone had already done this recently.

Thanks in advance for any advice on this.

We have no confirmation or have any idea how they would determine this figure for other than government type pensions and have only heard of it happening at the UK Embassy.

I get an occupational pension from a former UK employer. This has UK tax deducted at source. The only way to avoid UK tax is to opt to pay tax on this pension in Thailand and thus avoid UK tax through the double taxation agreements. I get an annual statement which shows gross and net figures. The net figures tally with my bank statements.

When I have presented the pension statement and recent bank statements to the UK Consulate, which I understood was required for the "income letter", they have always used the net figure. This has been the case for the last three years. Using the net figure makes sense to me since it is the money which is available to me to support myself.

Frankly, I thought the primary source of information for the UK consulate was your last three months bank statements. Other information provided (like pension statements) was to confirm inward payments were of a regular nature (as thus could be classified as income) rather than one offs.

As well as my occupational pension I get other regular inward payments to my account, some of which are taxed and some are not. The UK consulate has always been happy to lump them all together for the "income letter" provided I can show they are regular payments.

Here is the form that needs completing:

The form seems to be for Bangkok immigration. I report to Nakorn Pathom immigration.

Thanks anyway, it's the thought that counts.

I need to get a new British passport soon. I know that once I have it then I need to go to immigration to get my visa extension transfered to the new passport. Two questions :

1) Is there an immigration form I need to complete for this to happen?

2) Is there anything else I need from the British Consulate besides the new passport? Specifically, I seem to remember reading on TV that immigration want a letter from the Consulate confirming that they had issued a new passport (as opposed to me knocking one up myself with my pals from Soi 5!).

Has anybody had to do this recently?

I renewed my extension at the Nakon Pathom office in December using the original letter from the British Embassy to confirm income. No translation needed.

If the officer hadn't used the wrong year on her date stamp (well it was December) it would have taken no more than ten minutes to process.