Pib

I'm talking your 28 Sep post below....snapshots you included in that post.

@ThailandRyan Am I understanding above correctly that you had to upload/submit your medical certificate/policy again and also provide a criminal records check no older than 3 months? Below is a quote from your above post: 1.1. For applicants who applied for the digital work permit. a.Medical Certificate (issued for no more than 3 months) 1.2. Other documents to complete the LTR criteria (in case you are required to) b.Health insurance (with the remaining maturity of no less than 10 months) c.Criminal record (issued for no more than 3 months)

Some traffic cameras will take a photo of front or rear plated like at intersections. Also many A-hole drivers doing stupid and dangerous things on the road don't want drivers behind them to be able to get a good photo of the A-hole's license plate number.

No.

But with a single entry O visa you only need the insurance for 3 months to cover the period of the visa....but once you go to Thai immigration in Thailand to get an "extension of stay" for 12 months the insurance is not required. But for an OA visa it is required to get an extension of stay. A lot of people just enter Thailand on an Exempt entry (good for 30-45 days) and then during that period convert it to a Non O retirement or marriage at Thai immigration....now you have a Non O good for three months...then before it expires you go back and apply for the 12 month extension of stay on that Non O....no insurance requirement....you get a 12 month extension of stay....then just go back every year before that extension expires and get another 12 month extension of stay.....the repeat every year like everyone on a one year long stay visa/extension does.

Basically you must insure with a Thai insurance company unless you can get your foreign insurance company to sign the form by three directors of the company saying the insurance complies with the Thai law/regulations stated on the form. Very, very, very few insurance companies would ever sign such a form due to legal reasons. Just closely read the OA insurance requirements and you see what I'm talking about and the form that must be signed. https://thaiembdc.org/2020/11/17/oalongstay/

And many vehicles have sprayed with white paint their "rear" plate to make reading the black numbers & letters hard (to impossible) to read....the white spray paint just blends the letters into the white background of the plate. How hard it is to read depends on how much white paint they used....just a light spraying to make it harder to read/take a photo to a heavy spraying making it nearly impossible to read/photo the tag unless within a meter or so. I see a LOT of vehicles like this in/around Bangkok....mostly cars but some trucks also. But the "front" plate is untouched as that would be easily spotted when nearing police checkpoints and get you pulled over.

For the WP online application there is a selection for Salary/Wage/Allowance under the (2) Other Sources of Fixed Income but maybe the BOI expects a WP to meet the 80K USD requirement totally/predominately under (1) Pension Income and/or Fixed Income selection.

Don't go with a O-A visa due to the medical insurance requirement because your current insurance would not be accepted. Go with an O visa where no insurance is required by entering on non exempt and then converting to a Non O within Thailand.

Sounds like you are kinda in no-man's land right now since you are "not" retired yet (but almost retired) and drawing pensions/have fixed income required for a Wealthy Pensioner. Instead, you are still working, not drawing a pension and maybe don't have the required "fixed income" in lieu of a pension. See below snapshot from BOI announcement regarding WP requirements....see the weblink for the full announcement which addresses requirements for all LTR categories like Wealthy Global Citizen. You might be better off waiting until you start drawing your pension(s) if wanting to apply for the WP category. But hey, all they can do if submitting an application is approve or disapprove....not like you can only submit an application once. https://ltr.boi.go.th/documents/Announcement_of the Office of the Board of Investment No.2-2565 (EN).pdf

And be sure to read the video comments/replies....some good info there made by some (in addition to some not-too-smart comments/replies by others).

Here's a fresh Youtube video on the LTR (22 minutes long and less than a week old as of today). A pretty good video because instead of just regurgitating snapshots from the BOI LTR website the majority of the video is a one-on-one interview with a BOI LTR rep, a Ms Kantarot Laoprad who is a BOI Senior Investment Promotion Officer. Gets more into the details vs only a high level view.

I expect this coming week sometime which will be 4 weeks since submission that you are going to get some initial BOI feedback....hopefully approval.

Just FYI for those who haven't started/submitted an LTR application. Where various folks have been discussing the three medical insurance options below is what it looks like on the actual online application. You can only select one option....like below where I selected Option 2. Example: If I try to select "another" option like say Option 3 that will cause Option 2 to be unchecked and only Option 3 checked....if I then select Option 1 then Option 3 becomes unchecked. Basically, for the application the BOI wants you to select one option, not two or possibly even three options if you're qualified under all options. But although you can only select one option there is nothing preventing you from uploading a memo with supporting docs at the end of the application in the upload "16 Other" section or even in upload "3 Medical" section with your insurance policy where you could explain just in case your medical insurance doesn't meet requirements then here are financials docs proving I have at least 100K USD to self-insure. But IMO "if", repeat, if you really just wanted to present your medical insurance policy to meet the medical expenses requirement then also submitting financials docs to self-insure might negate you finding out if the BOI approved your application based on your insurance policy. Or, did they not accept your policy and just used your self-insure proof/docs to approve your application. You may be a person knowing you will have a certain medical insurance policy for life (like its a benefit from your former employer or the govt) but you may not have 100K USD to self insure to requalify at the 5 year point. Or maybe said another way, you may be pension rich in receiving at least 80K USD per year in pensions but you simply don't have at least 100K USD in savings...you got bills or just like spending most of your money when you get it. Each person is different in how they manage their money, and maybe more so in their older years. And who knows at this point in time where the LTR program could still change/fine tune some rules in the future (kinda like how immigration changes it rules periodically) that come the LTR 5 year point to review your qualifications for the 2nd 5 years that BOI might end-up requiring proof you maintained accepted medical insurance/social security the coverage or 100K USD to self insure for each of the previous 5 years. Hopefully, that will not happen but I noticed in northwest87's post around 5 posts up the BOI included a the phrase of "at the moment" which I unlined and implies to me things could change. Yea....the situation and desires will vary for each individual as to whether they want to go the insurance policy route or self insure route. Snapshot from northwest87's post

I think this is correct link to the article. https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/policies/40021513 Also, there was an article in today's/29 Oct Bangkok Post saying the Pheu Thai Party party opposed this 1 Rai ownership idea....the party which could very well be the dominant party in the next election.

Yea...understand....just ensure you have the money for 2 of the 10 years. But with my insurance I don't have to be concerned about 100K USD....just continue to pay the monthly insurance premium which is deducted automatically from one of my pensions.....it all on autopilot.

From my understanding of several posts in this thread the money does not have to be in "a bank account"...as in one acct or it has to be a bank acct. I say that because several folks in this thread said they met the self insure requirement by submitting docs for their 401K/IRA type acct(s) vs a standard bank acct. And such 401K/IRA accts are usually invested in stocks, bonds, etc....investments which earn more than typical bank savings/checking accts. 401K/IRA accts which a person will slowly draw down over his lifetime and possibly stay above 100K USD for a long time. Additionally, why buy a close to useless and pricey (by age) Thai medical policy when my current U.S. govt policy (Tricare) provides my medical coverage worldwide (age doesn't change monthly premium). Plus if I did buy another policy by law I would have to file my claim with that policy first....see if/what they pay....and then submit to Tricare for payment of the rest....an extended process. For me, I prefer going the insurance route due to the type of insurance I have....going the self-insure would just be a Plan B if I had to resort to it.

Regarding the LTR application/review process which takes around 20 business days (or more). Below BOI Announcement gives an overview of their process which includes coordination by multiple, outside agencies. Below I have partially quoted & bolded the key parts of the announcement....see the weblink for the full announcement. https://ltr.boi.go.th/documents/Announcement of the Office of the Board of Investment_No.3-2565 (EN).pdf

I'm in a very similar boat with my application where I'm using a U.S. govt/military retiree policy which only shows an enrollment date from years ago (when I retired), has unlimited worldwide coverage, no annual expiration date, and will run my lifetime as long as I continue to pay the monthly premium. Just excellent worldwide coverage but it's a govt/military type coverage that does not come with a commercial type policy.....all the info is on their websites about the coverage. I submitted this medical coverage in my application hoping it will qualify under the social security-type coverage which does not make mention of any required expiration date.....hopefully because BOI knows that social security/government-type medical coverage routinely does not come with any end date like a typical commercial policy. I too thought about submitting my application with docs "also showing I had enough money to self-insure (IRA/401K type money)" but then the BOI might have just taken the easy way by approving (hopefully) the application based on being self-insured versus my medical policy. I would rather be approved based on my insurance coverage/policy as that will be on autopilot to the day I die whereas going the self-insure method requires maintaining $100K in an acct (which some people would prefer to do) if going the insurance method is too complicated due to BOI rules. If you are not in a time crunch you may want to consider submitting your application using your insurance policy with explanation that the policy does not have an annual expiration date because of XYZ reason(s)....and see if the BOI approves it. If they don't they will then ask you to submit self-insure docs in lieu of the insurance....then submit the financial proof to self insure. That's my approach. Good luck to both of us.

Interesting they asked for additional docs...but apparently docs you had already provided? If it had been a snake it would have bit them?

Not worried...mostly curious since their online system doesn't seem to give a good view of where an application is in the overall process. I've always hated a "Pending" status as it's so vague as to what that could really mean.

Thanks. But what was your 1st indication after 2 Sep that your application was indeed moving along the BOI review line. Maybe a status change....some notification/email from BOI, etc. Thanks again,

For those who have LTR application processing or already approved approximately how long was it "from the day you submitted your application" until you saw some type of tangible status change in your LTR online acct and/or got a notification/email from BOI asking for more docs or something along those lines. Just some type of status change that indicated your application was actually being reviewed/processed "versus just setting in a BOI rep's inbox" pending processing. I submitted my application earlier this week and the only change I've noticed is the day after I submitted the application the staff name changed from StaffBOI1128 to StaffBOI004. I'm assuming this was just movement of application from the master inbox that receives all new application to a specific BOI rep inbox. Other than that my application just shows a Status of "Pending" and under the LTR menu the popup message that says "Visa is process considering, Please check the status tab." I know the BOI says they will process your application within 20 "business" days which is around a calendar month. From review of this thread (a couple of times) it seems to be a couple of weeks before a person sees some tangible change that his/her application is under serious evaluation....actually moving along the assembly line. Thanks.

I'm not surprised the Wealthy Pensioners is the largest group since the requirements are arguably reasonable although the insurance requirement requiring 10 months being left on the policy when applying can throw a monkey wrench in the application...but at least they offer a 100K USD self-insure option in lieu of a policy or even a social security-type insurance coverage if it provides coverage in Thailand. Once again, arguably reasonable requirements. However, the Wealthy Individual group only having around 88 applicants does not surprise me since the requirements are very high.....four requirements must be met with one of the four requiring a BIG investment in Thailand of USD 500,000 which is on-top of meeting an annual income of 80K USD requirement and having 1M USD in assets under your belt. Insurance requirement same as for Pensioners. Per BOI snapshot below the applicant must fulfill all four requirements....no either or's....must meet all 4. IMO the 500K USD investment in Thailand is the real tough requirement and is probably what is suppressing applications in this group.

My Thai wife renewed her passport here in Bangkok a few months ago....took 2 days from applying to receiving the passport via EMS at our Bangkok home. I think she applied on a Monday mid day and by Wednesday mid day the postman delivered it to our home. This was not Special Express or anything....just Ordinary time frame. Bt1,500 for a 10 year passport plus Bt40 EMS mailing fee. Thai passports are renewed really, really fast. Usually the passport is finished/mailed the next business day after applying and it then takes another 1 to 2 days via EMS to arrive your Thai address if living in Bangkok or surrounding provinces.....3-5 days for other provinces. Be sure to get the 10 year passport vs the 5 year passport. See below weblink for more info https://consular.mfa.go.th/th/publicservice/ค่าธรรมเนียม-ระยะเวลาการผลิตและจัดส่งหนังสือเดินทาง