Pib

In mid 2019 (before the pandemic) I did some 3 test mailings from Bangkok to Texas and California mail forwarding addresses via "registered" airmail and "regular" airmail. Each test mailing was done from the same post office here in Bangkok and both the register and regular mail were sent at the same time with the same postal clerk. When these mailings arrive I would get an immediate email notification of arrival and a snapshot of the arrived mail envelope. The three regular airmails arrived in 11 to 14 days; the three registered airmails arrived in 21 to 32 days...or said another way the registered airmail took 2 to 3 times as long to arrive due to how the USPS handles registered mail. In 2021 I did a registered airmail test to the California address....it took 40 days to arrive. in 2022 I did two regular airmail tests to Texas and California...they took 18 and 10 days, respectively to arrive. Summary: registered airmail to the U.S. is expensive and based on my testing is usually much slower than regular airmail. The problem is "not" on the Thailand end with the Thai Postal System but on the U.S. end with the USPS.

Yea...the SSA mailed the 2nd notice approximately a month later than their normal 2nd mailing schedule.

That sounds like a problem on "your" end of the internet especially since you say an email will not even send. Now if the email would leave your email outbox and then be shortly rejected back to you then that would indicate either a bad email address or the Manila server rejecting it back to you. But you indicate you can't even get a separate email to leave your email outbox. Definitely best to use the inquiry form now vs a separate email as the inquiry gives Manila all of the necessary info they want/need to identity the person contacting them and describe the problem. Heck, their previous "[email protected]" email address may not even work anymore as they now want you to use the inquiry form method.

@Pronto2@oncebefore Both of you mentioned you received the 2nd notice this week (week of 14 Nov). To determine how long it took to get to you thru the mail what date was on the 2nd notice and/or included 7162? Sometimes the date is just a line printed at the "very top" of the form which indicates when it was generated and should have been mailed very shortly after that. And what part of Thailand are you located in as different parts get foreign mail faster/slower than other parts? According to SSA instructions/regulation the SSA is suppose to mail the 2nd notice sometime in September....see partial quote at bottom. But maybe since the SSA hasn't mailed the form for the past two years they took longer to get the 2nd notice mailed out. If you just got the form that seems like a long time in the mail system unless a date on the 2nd notice/7162 indicates it was generated/mailed much later than September...like maybe mid-late Oct. I get mail from the SSA/other govt agencies to my Bangkok home in around two weeks. It may be too early for any of us to feel we are not on a 2nd notice list "if", repeat, if the 2nd notice wasn't mailed in September, but instead mailed recently (like mid-late Oct) and we just haven't received the notice yet. Plus, 16-18 Nov are APEC special holidays here in the Bangkok area which may slow down mail getting delivered all over the country...I sure know the last day I saw the mailman in my Bangkok moobaan was Tuesday/15 Nov as he is now enjoying the special holidays. He might be back to work on Saturday/19 Nov....then again, maybe not until Mon/21 Nov.

Suspension of benefits does not happen until January which means no February payment. A suspension notice is generated in January if failing to respond to the 2nd 7162 request. Of course if SSA mail is not finding a person then the missing February payment will get a person's attention.

No France is not part of APEC, however, the President of France was invited by Thailand as one of the special/government guests to APEC 2022. See webpage below for more info. https://thailand.postsen.com/trends/74052/Keep-an-eye-on-who-is-the-special-guest-in-APEC-2022.html

Due to the COVID pandemic the SSA did not send out/enforce 7162's for 2020 and 2021 which is in the 2 year timeframe you said your & the wife switched to a Thailand address. So, you didn't receive a 7162 in 2020 and 2021 just like the rest of us. But for 2022 the SSA is back into the groove of mailing out 7162 and expecting that 7162 to be completed and returned to them. If they don't get it back they could very well suspend your benefits starting Jan 2023 which is paid early Feb 2023. If I was you (and the wife) I would download/complete a 7162 (two of them...one for you and one for the wife) and then scan/email it to the Manila FBU. Tell them neither of you received a 7162 from Wilkes Barre and ask them to confirm they have your correct Thailand address is on-file. https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms/images/SSA7/G-SSA-7162-OCR-SM-1.pdf

He's the agent from the Wilkes Barre SSA Data Processing Center that goes to the main Wilkes Barre post office to pickup mail and take it back to the data processing center for internal distribution.

As FYI, below SSA weblink is the operating procedure SSA uses for the Foreign Enforcement Questionnaires (FEQ)....their fancy name for 7162's. Look under the FBU (Federal Benefits Unit) paragraph for Manila duties in the process. https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0302655010

Make sure you are not sending the form to the local SSA office in Wilkes Barre...it needs to go to the 7162 Processing/Data Processing office in Wilkes Barre. See below weblink for some address/options to get the 7162 to Wilkes Barre to include delivery by private delivery service https://pasoamjournal.blogspot.com/2020/07/options-for-submitting-your-7162-proof.html Courier the Form SSA-7162 Private Delivery Service (FedEx (Air-21), UPS, LBC, etc.) Social Security Administration Data Operations Center Attn: SSA-7162 Process 1150 E. Mountain Drive Wilkes-Barre, PA 18767-7162 U.S.A.

I'm going to guess you do "not" have your Thailand address on-file with the SSA; but have your U.S. mailing address on-file with SSA. If so, that's why neither of you have been getting the annual 7162 since the 7162 is sent to those with overseas addresses on-file. Those with U.S. addresses do not get the annual form unless maybe you are at least 90 years old.

And due to Manila's slow processing of your application I expect your requested benefits begin month will have passed by the time the SSA finally approves your application and begins payment. Now while the SSA would provide back payments to your originally requested benefits start date you might want to consider having the Manila rep during the interview to update the benefits start month to 1 Jan or 1 Feb as that would entitle you to a higher monthly payment for life.

Boy, Manila is sure dragging their feet on your application (no to imply it's your fault). But I'm glad you finally got an interview appointment even if it is still approx 2 months away. Regarding any certified copies Manila will probably wait till the interview to tell you what, if any, docs you need to send to them, but it's common for naturalized citizens being required to send their original or certified copies of U.S. passport "or" naturalization certificate. Play it safe and send certified copies...even send "both" passport and naturalization certificate even if they just ask for one of them. I know you have already prepared embassy certified copies. Good luck.

I was wondering the same thing. Hopefully JJJJJJJJ will give us more insight on how his approval went like any requests for additional/updated docs which may have greatly slowed down the processing....or, if additional/updated docs didn't slow the process then it sure appears BOI is just slowing down in processing applications.

Update: Known LTR Approvals as of 14 Nov 2022 based on posts in this thread I saw. Added JJJJJJJJ who received his initial approval on 8 Nov. I may have missed some approvals...please speak-up if you have been approved. Note: glad to see another approved application with JJJJJJJJ's approval on 8 Nov....he applied 1 Sep. Until he announced his approval our last known approval was back on 12 Oct....then before that a bunch the last days or Sep and early days of Oct who applied in early Sep. Yea, since early Oct the number of approvals has really dropped off...or at least it appears that way based on those who post in this thread. Poster & Date Approval Notice Rec'd 1. BKKNono - 15 Sep 2. ashkale - 28 Sep 3. ThailandRyan - 28 Sep 4. pepper402 - 29 Sep 5. gajah - 30 Sep 6. Alotoftravel - 4 Oct 7. James7 - 4 Oct 8. & 9. Misty (and family member) - 4 Oct 10. mudcat - 4 Oct 11. & 12. stuarty (and wife) - 4 Oct 13. Boomer6969 - 5 Oct 14. aublumberg - 12 Oct 15. JJJJJJJJ - 8 Nov

Congrats. We'll add you to the list of approved folks. What specific date did you get your initial notice of approval last week? And as good info for those listening-in who are wondering how long it takes to get that initial approval, what date did you apply? Thanks...and congrats again.

According to the BOI rep in this youtuble video (same as the one I posted earlier in this thread) it sure seems it would be for a Wealthy Pensioner since it's not a wage, salary, or tip. Watch the video from 12:50 to 15:45 where it's addressed.

Absorbing air conditioned air at police stations.

Update: Known LTR Approvals as of 12 Nov 2022 based on posts in this thread I saw. Added misty's family member to the list who got approved the same time as Misty. Also ordered list by date of initial approval date. I may have missed some...please speak-up if you have been approved. Note: the last initial approval was on 12 Oct which makes it a full month since anyone has identified themselves (or family member) in garnering an initial approval. Poster & Date Approval Notice Rec'd 1. BKKNono - 15 Sep 2. ashkale - 28 Sep 3. ThailandRyan - 28 Sep 4. pepper402 - 29 Sep 5. gajah - 30 Sep 6. Alotoftravel - 4 Oct 7. James7 - 4 Oct 8. & 9. Misty (and family member) - 4 Oct 10. mudcat - 4 Oct 11. & 12. stuarty (and wife) - 4 Oct 13. Boomer6969 - 5 Oct 14. aublumberg - 12 Oct

Misty, I called the BOI again today to check on my application's status....it still hasn't been looked at....they say they have a lot of applications. I remembered you had asked above about digital work permits so I also asked about the status of digital work permits and the rep said, Yes, there is still a delay in issuing the permits due to IT system problems/glitches....didn't know when the problem would be rectified. The call today was straight forth....the rep's answers seemed honest. But for whatever reasons it sure seems the processing of applications has slowed down a lot since the LTR 1 Sep kickoff. And next week with the BOI and other govt organizations in the Bangkok area being closed 16-18 Nov (Wed-Fri) due to the special holidays declared for the Bangkok area in support of the APEC Summit that only leaves 14-15 Nov (Mon & Tue) for application processing, digital work permit processing, etc....I don't expect much to get done next week. P.S. Did a significant other, spouse, dependent, etc., of yours also get a LTR approval? I seem to remember you mentioned/implied that in one of your posts.

The BOI rep didn't give any indication why my application hadn't been looked at yet and I didn't ask since I hadn't reached the 20 business day point yet. If I had been at the 20 business/working day point I would have asked with a lead-in statement that they advertise 20 working days on the LTR website. But note that although their website says 20 working days "after having received complete docs" which could be taken to mean even if they need to ask for even one additional doc the 20 working days is reset to 0....now wait another 20 working days to see if they are now satisfied. But when looking at the bottom of the "paper-based" application they say "30, vs 20, working days. I doubt the BOI has been flooded with applications since recent reports indicates they have only received 1,300 applications from the 1 Sep kickoff thru 31 Oct. Maybe the staff initially assigned to process applications was recently reduced due to the lukewarm response and people who applied in Sep enjoyed a larger BOI staff to process applications. Maybe the upcoming APEC Summit next week has sapped BOI manpower for normal tasks as I expect the BOI would be deeply involved in meeting/sucking-up to staff from the attending countries in advertising Thailand business/investment opportunities. All kinds of possible maybes....I'm just guessing as some of the possible reasons for the apparent slowdown in processing applications.

Below snapshot from the BOI LTR website. Don't count 16-18 Nov as business days as part of the optimistic 20 business day LTR application processing time. 16-18/Wed-Fri Nov is a special holiday period in the Bangkok area due to the APEC Summit.

The BOI has definitely got a lot slower in processing applications compared to those who submitted in early Sep. Mine was submitted 12 business days ago (excluding weekends and holidays), it still shows Pending, and per phone call to BOI the other day they haven't got around to looking at it yet.

Yea...that clears it up. And where the BOI requested an official certificate of pension fund from your government the BOI staffer probably just had "government" on the brain....probably have just finished referring several applications which included govt pension verification letters from some govt organization like the U.S. Social Security Agency or just most any govt agency that many times provides some type of "benefit verification letter" along with monthly annuity/pension statements. Hopefully, you providing the same letter from the civilian pension administrator as you did before will make them happy "again" since it made them happy on the 1st application.

In your last sentence you say, "....the BoI does seem to be learning and adjusting as they go along." My question to you is what tangible actions, proof, etc., do you base that on? Or is a just a gut feeling based on a lot of different things. I definitely agree the BOI is learning new things as they go along....evaluates more applications and are exposed to the many different sources of income. But I'm not at all convinced they are doing any significant "adjusting"....that is, straying from the published guidelines as to the LTR income requirements. I just don't think they have the power or are willing to do that since the requirements were blessed by the cabinet. I'm not trying to be augmentative here...it's just the nature of the Thai bureaucracy has always been very slow to change until blessed/directed by the top level of govt....and the top level of govt is a slow moving beast.