Pib

Pretty much a ditto to flexomike post. If you want to use ACH where you use the Bangkok Bank NY branch ACH/ABA routing number you can only use Bangkok Bank. Bangkok Bank is the only Thai bank with ACH receiving capability. This has to be a special/restricted acct to receive reoccurring U.S. govt payments like a social security pension. You will receiving International Transfer/FTT coding for each payment if this is important to you like maybe using the monthly transfer method to meet the income requirement for a retirement extension of stay renewal. You will have to physically visit any Bangkok Bank branch to withdrawal/transfer fund (transfer-outs not allowed via ibanking/mbanking), no debit card, has to be in your name only. And this transfer method is not free....never has been as Bangkok Bank NY branch takes a fee-slice as it flows thru them on to Thailand...and your in-Thailand Bangkok Bank branch also charges a receiving fee....neither of these fees will appear anywhere on your account as they are applied "before" posting to your account....this fools some people into thinking no fees were applied but indeed they were. But if using International Direct Deposit (IDD) which does not use the ACH system but the SWIFT system then you can use any Thai bank to include Bangkok Bank....but this will be a normal acct....no restrictions. It can also be a joint acct, no restrictions....can have a debit card, no need to physically visit a branch to withdraw/transfer funds, can do online ibanking/mbanking transfer-outs, etc. You will "not" receive International Transfer coding but domestic transfer coding as the last leg of the SWIFT transfer uses a Thai system called BAHTNET which results in the transfer appearing as any other transfer from across the soi....this may cause issues if using the monthly income method for a retirement extension of stay renewal. Additionally, if your monthly payment is approx $1,125 or higher you will received slightly less baht to your acct after all the exchange rate & fee dust settles....;if less than approx $1,125 then using IDD will result in slightly more baht......all of this is due to different exchange rates & fees being used between the ACH and IDD payment methods. The only IDD fee is approx a Bt100 BAHTNET receiving fee at your Thai bank....no intermediary bank fees.

Link to above advisory follows: https://ph.usembassy.gov/services/social-security/

I can't see how it would be an issue. Many folks who get LTRs are already on some type of visa/extension....basically just switching from the visa/extension of stay they currently have to a LTR visa.

@DineshR Congrats on being approved by the U.S. government for Ol' Geezer status.....and the government will indirectly remind you each month of this status via an Ol' Geezer payment. I've been enjoying my monthly reminder for years....I'm sure you will too. ????

Why use DHL at Bt600 when using EMS would have delivered to the embassy in 1 to 3 days for around Bt75?

Congrats. I expect just making up a number like 12345 would work fine. When I got my endorsement notification like you just got I was on an OA Visa dtd Oct 2008 which I had extended around 14 times for reason of retirement and marriage. Now since I was on a marriage extension of stay I selected a Non O marriage and entered the number from my latest Permitted to Stay extension....and I really couldn't be sure about some of the handwritten numbers. But this worked fine. I really don't think it will make a difference regarding a visa number and I think they only want the info to do a little advance preparation of the paperwork to be accomplished/submitted from BoI to Immigration across the hall on the day of your appointment. You may want to message BoI and see what they say. And Congrats again on getting endorsed (approved). When did you initially submit your application? And it was a Pensioner application, right? And any further details/your impressions of the application process would surely be appreciated by others getting ready to make the application trek.

For this election, campaigning in military/police/govt bureaucratic uniform is a big No-No; instead dressing like an everyday civilian is in thing. But beware, it's still a wolf in sheep's clothing.

While for a Thai citizen their 13 digit Thai ID card number is also their tax number, for a non-citizen/farang it's "not" their Pink ID card number, passport number, etc., but a 13 digit number issued by the Thai Revenue Dept. But it shouldn't be no big deal that the bank used your Pink ID card number. When it comes time for you to file a tax return to possibly get a refund of any tax withheld for bond interest the Revenue Dept will issue you a tax number then. Or you can go get one from the Revenue Dept now.

Krungthai Bank is a state-owned bank...and many of their customers are a "captive audience" in order to receive/apply for certain govt benefit payments. A government-owned and a captive audience combination often means the government is not too concerned about customer convenience.

The U.S. State Dept has recently increased its estimated processing time for a passport like renewing your passport. See below 27 Feb 2023 article for more info.....but keep in mind the 8 to 11 week estimate is for obtaining a passport "in the U.S" using routine priority. https://www.travelmarketreport.com/News/articles/US-Passport-Renewal-Processing-Time-Now-8-to-11-Weeks#:~:text=Standard renewal is now at,that the passport is mailed. A different (faster) process is used when applying overseas like submitting your application to the U.S. Embassy-Bangkok. The routine processing is much faster than if submitting in the U.S. Now, although the turnaround time has typically been in the 2 to 3 weeks time frame, the U.S. Embassy-Bangkok webpage now says it may take up to 4 to 5 weeks (their webpage use to say 2 to 3 weeks) So, maybe the good ol' State Dept has been doing some cost cutting which is also slowing down passport processing time whether applying in or outside the U.S. https://th.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/passports/adult-passport-renew/

US passport renewal takes 2 to 3 weeks based on my and friends recent experience. This 2 to 3 weeks includes round trip mailing time.

She would not be able to finish the mobile app setup as the last step requires the person to go a Krungthai branch to complete the verification. A person has 72 hours to complete this final verification step. This final verification is either done by a Krungthai Bank representative OR the person inserting their Thai ID card in a special Krungthai Bank verification machine that can read a Thai ID card. This very last step is what is giving people the biggest headache. If she does not want to use/setup the mobile app then to accomplish any bank transaction, check account balance, transfer funds, etc., will require her physically going to a branch or using a Krungthai ATM/CDM/passbook update machine. Or said another way, unless using the mobile app online access will no longer be available.

Below post provides some info where you posed basically the same question in the LTR visa topic.

Article 2 of the US-Thailand Extradition Treaty talks what offences apply. Basically it boils down to most any offence which is against the law in both countries. Killing someone with your car (or a gun, ball bat, axe, knife, karate punch, whatever is used) is definitely against the law in both countries. https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/91-517-Thailand-Law-Enforcmt-Extradition.pdf

Extradition Treaty Between the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and THAILAND https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/91-517-Thailand-Law-Enforcmt-Extradition.pdf

Below are a couple of earlier posts regarding buying govt bonds which may be helpful. But I think you will find out buying bonds if a Thai citizen can be easy if bonds are available; but if not a Thai citizen it can be hard although it may look easy at first glance. Post 1 from OldAjahn Post 2 from oldcpu

For property owned in Thailand it's based on the Land Office recorded sale value. See the post below from "oldcpu" who already research this regarding Thailand owned property. Now for foreign owned property I expect the same method would apply although I would hope if a person is getting an annual property tax bill which is based on the current govt-assessed value of the property then that value would be used vs a past sale value which could have been from many years ago. Boi is basically looking for some official government document which states the property value versus just letting the applicant pick a valve.

Glad things worked out. Regarding your payment date, when you have foreign address (i.e., non-U.S.) onfile with the SSA you payment occurs on the 3rd of the month. Everyone with a foreign address gets paid on the 3rd of the month. The schedule based on your birthdate only applies when you have a U.S. address onfile. See this SSA webpage for more info on monthly payment date....I also included a partial snapshot from the webpage regarding those paid on the 3rd of each month. https://blog.ssa.gov/what-day-of-the-month-do-i-get-my-social-security-payment/

Well, I expect it's more like UK companies placing orders (for profit) with Chinese factories who profit from the orders. Although the UK has age restrictions like needing to be 18 to purchase E-cigs I expect the general availability of E-cigs makes it very easy for under 18ers to get E-cigs.

I just noticed on the LTR webpage where the Wealthy Pensioner qualifications overviewed the BoI added a note in red text stating "earned" income (i.e., salary) will not be considered eligible income for the Pensioner visa. I don't know exactly how long that note has been there I just know it didn't use to be there although I think it was generally understood by most applicants qualifying income had to predominately pension/fixed income vs salary/wages/allowances. However, I expect some applicants who were close to fully retiring probably tried to use earned income in the application were it lists "Salary/Wages/Allowances" and "Other" income to maybe meet the "majority" of the 80K USD total income requirement....especially those folks who may have already been drawing a pension(s) from a past jab but who was also still working part or full time. The Salary/Wages/Allowances income area may disappear off the Pensioner application if BoI wants to add another checkpoint to prevent the entry of salary/wages/allowances.....to further stress earned income is not eligible income to meet the Pensioner income requirement. https://ltr.boi.go.th/index.html#type Partial Snapshot of Pensioner Application

After a passport change typically an "in-person" report is required before online reporting will start working again...just the way the system works. You or "someone you authorize" to do the report can do the report.....that someone other than you could be an agent, your spouse, your partner, just anyone you send with the signed report and your passport.

After reading the article again and where it talks "businesses," I think the BoI is talking their "Certified Agent (CA)" program we talked about earlier in this thread....see post below That is, basically looking to certify agents to assist foreigners in obtaining an LTR visa....basically like a visa agent. The BoI was to accept CA applications thru 31 Jan 2023....maybe since it's the late Feb 2023 maybe BoI has finished evaluating CA applications and will soon announce what companies can act as a BoI Certified Agent to assist/hand-walk people thru the LTR application process "for a fee"....a fee that is separate from the Bt50K fee you must pay the govt for the visa.

Since you said the report arrived 16 (sixteen) days before the due date, I hope you did not date the report more than 15 (fifteen) before the due date as that's reason enough for them to reject the report because of reporting too early.....before the up to 15 days before due date window. I used the mail address reporting to CW for at least 4 years (i.e., the 2018-2022 timeframe) and never had a problem in EMS delivery/tracking (would always take around 2 business days to deliver) although during the COVID pandemic the 90 day address report "receipt" may not arrive back to me in the self-addressed Bt10 postage envelope until around one month after the due date. And I always dated my report no more than 15 days before the due date and usually mailed it via EMS in the 10-15 days before due date window. Normally, I received the report receipt approx two weeks after CW received my report but in the 2021-2022 timeframe it started taking longer to get the receipts....up to one month. The best I could figure the slow return time was "not" due to a slow Thai postal system but it was probably due to CW maybe only doing a bulk return mailing maybe once every week or so.

The 23 Feb 2023 Bangkok Post has a short article titled, "BoI Wants Businesses to Promote LTR Visas." It has a few stats says 2,800 people have sought the visas since the LTR program rollout 1 Sep 2022, pensioners makes up 35% of the applicants, followed by work from Thailand applicants, etc.

I bet this IB investigation was "very narrowly focused" like predominately looking at visas/extensions issued to Chinese at certain immigration offices vs a broad focus of all nationalities and all immigration offices. That is, blinders were worn with the head kept straight ahead versus looking in all directions & locations......look under these few rocks; do not look under all the rocks, etc.