Pib

This links don't work....at least now....at least for me. Do you (or anyone who has been approved) have new links or blank TM94 and STM8 forms you could upload? Thanks.

Update: Known LTR Approvals as of 21 Dec 2022 based on posts in this thread I saw. Added "lextsy" who got his approved today/21 Dec after some back-and-forth regarding health insurance. See his recent posts above for more details. Congrats to lextsy. 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 16. smic - 28 Nov 17. Paul3456 - 30 Nov 18. anotherexpat4444 - 7 Dec 19. lextsy - 21 Dec

I'm amazed they responded so quickly based on how many people have posted they have waited weeks for BoI to respond to an inquiry submitted on the LTR website. Did you use the "Contact" webform on the LTR website or send your inquiry to a specific BoI email address? And maybe they responded so quick because it was not related to applying for an LTR visa and/or was from a current LTR visa holder vs someone just trying to get a LTR visa.

I expect the great majority of processes like transfer of stamps to a new passport, getting a certificate of residence, address reporting, and other type of activities involved in care-and-feeding issues relating to a BoI LTR Visa will be the same or very similar as for a BoI SMART Visa. No need to reinvent the wheel. And sooner or later the BoI will update their LTR website to greatly resemble the more informative SMART website....or they will just consolidate the two into one website.

Sometime in January is when one SSA department generates a non-responder file that is sent to another SSA department to send out the suspension notices. Exactly when in January is probably variable but I expect (guess) it would be right after the 3 Jan foreign payment is made.....be the first half of January. See SSA regulation weblink and partial quote at bottom. So, I expect if Wilkes Barre receives "and scans" a person's form before that early-mid January non-responder file is created that the person would be good-to-go. And I have no doubt that a lot of people take some vacation days during the holidays period which runs the last week or Dec thru the first week of Jan.....so, the processing of forms at Wilkes Barre might be slower than normal during that period.....OR, maybe that is one task Wilkes Barre maintains as a priority task due to possible impact on the beneficiary....who knows. https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0302655010

I expect it would work just like moving a BOI SMART visa to a new passport.....see bottom of this post from BOI SMART Visa website. And although they ask for a Certificate from the Embassy which I expect is just a letter consisting of a sentence or two saying the person has gotten a new passport please provide assistance in transferring stamps/visas to the new passport, the fact is "some" embassies no longer issue such letters and the immigration side of BOI knows this....probably knows which ones don't issue such letters any more. The BOI rep you talked to probably does not know this and that side of the BOI would not be transferring the info to the new passport but the immigration office collocated with BOI. Based on my personal experience in calling BOI numerous times over the last 3 weeks or so I have found quite a few reps who answered the phone just seem to be "not-so-experienced".... who are "winging-it" in providing answers or just providing scripted answers which really don't fit the situation. And I can't see "where your new passport is issued/produced" would make one bit of difference, because I think most embassies actually have a new passport produced/printed back in the home country although you can apply for the new passport at your embassy. Example: like U.S. passports....you can apply in person or by mail to the U.S. Embassy Bangkok, they take your application, electronically submit it to a U.S. Passport Center in the U.S., that passport center produces/generates the passport & mail it back to the U.S. Embassy who in turn remails it to your Thailland address. And the U.S. embassy still includes a very, very short letter to Who It May Concern asking for assistance in transferring stamps/visas to the new passport. But as mentioned some countries no longer do that....all depends on your country...and BoI Immigration will know which ones still provide or don't provide such letters. From BOI SMART Visa Webpage https://smart-visa.boi.go.th/smart/pages/how-to-manage.html

I expect when the dust settles and BoI has time to expand the LTR webpage with more info, how to do this or that, etc, that the every 1 year address reporting will be handled just like how it's handled for a BoI SMART visa. You can either report in person to Bangkok (or designate someone to report for you) OR report by mail. See below SMART Visa webpage for full details....I also included a partial quote. https://smart-visa.boi.go.th/smart/pages/how-to-manage.html

Update: Known LTR Approvals as of 15 Dec 2022 based on posts in this thread I saw. Added "Paul3456" who received his Wealthy Pensioner approval on 30 Nov. See his post above for full details. Congrats to Paul3456. 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 16. smic - 28 Nov 17. Paul3456 - 30 Nov 18. anotherexpat4444 - 7 Dec

Well, I've been doing annual retirement/marriage extensions for almost a decade and a half now. Based on the speed my LTR application is crawling thru the process looks like I'll be continuing these annual extensions. I'm sure others are in a similar situation. Just a shame the LTR application process has gotten slow. Seems many applications submitted up until early-mid Oct moved thru the process within 3-6 weeks....but now it's taking significantly longer. Will just have to wait and see what happens....still time for a Christmas surprise but I'm not holding my breath.

Don't feel like you are alone in being told things like "...he will get right on it and it should be approved ASAP." Over the last three weeks or so I been told similar things like "your application will get looked at within 2 days, my staff will process your application today, your application will be looked at very soon, etc." The BoI folks are always nice and polite on the phone but unfortunately processing of applications since around early October appear to have slowed down greatly for whatever reasons. Seems folks who applied in early/mid September got priority treatment maybe because the BoI was better staffed to handle LTR applications at that time, maybe IT system problems has really bogged down their application processing capability, etc....I don't know....just appears applications are taking much longer now to reach either an answer of, "sorry, you do not meet requirements" OR "congrats you have been approved."

Personally, I would "not" use registered airmail to mail documents from Thailand to the U.S. unless a USPS tracking was critical to prove you mailed "something" and to show last known location of that "something." I say "something got mailed" because registered mail does not reflect "what was mailed"; it only reflects something was mailed although the envelope/package could actually be empty. And a tracking number showing your 7162/7161 is somewhere between Thailand and Wilkes Barre does zero to provide the SSA the required 7162/7161 as the SSA will not reinstate benefits just because you provide a tracking number that you supposedly mailed a 7162/7161....the SSA needs the actual 7162/7161....not a tracking number of "something/7162/7161" mailed to them. I would not use registered airmail from Thailand to the U.S. simply because of my own personal controlled tests of mailing registered and regular airmail from Thailand to the U.S. (specifically to Texas and California...the registered airmail always took a lot longer to arrive...2-3 times longer that regular airmail). And add-in the numerous posts from people in this and similar topics regarding how registered airmail frequently went MIA on it's way to Wilkes Barre. It seems to go MIA between the NYC and Wilkes Barre....it gets to NYC fast enough but then frequently goes MIA trying to make that 120 mile trip from NYC to Wilkes Barre PA. Maybe the USPS only uses turtles to transport mail between NYC and Wilkes Barre? And if your registered or regular airmail does not arrive Wilkes Barre in time you will get a 2nd notice and later on another notice which is suspension notice....so, you will know if your 7162/7161 arrived in time. Not notice you are happy to receive but notice none the less....the only tracking that really counts. Yeap, foreign registered airmail seems to all to often get bogged down/goes MIA within the USPS system; not the Thai Postal System. See one of my posts below talking this subject

I called BoI today regarding the status of my application and asked what "Consideration by Govt Agencies" status meant as before it showed "Pending" until the BoI apparently did a software update last weekend. The rep said "Consideration by Govt Agencies" just means BoI as a govt agency is still reviewing the application. So, it appears "Consideration by Govt Agencies" status just replaced "Pending." Different wording but still means the same.

I expect this is indeed the problem. And visiting BoI is the only way to get it resolved anytime soon.

I started seeing those red text notifications/links o/a 8-10 Dec when apparently BoI did another software update which is also when those folks who were showing "Pending" status started showing "Consideration by Govt Agencies." Basically a "renaming" of status. My application is still under consideration just like it been for 1.5 months. Expect what you are seeing is all part of that recent software update and we are all noticing these changes at different times depending on how often a person looks and/or how thoroughly the person looks at the various screens associated with a person's application.

Based on the govt's target of 1 million approved applications over 5 years (which is 200K applications per year or 16.7K per month) in comparison to the actual number of applications being received (apparently less than 2K in approx 3 months with maybe only 25% being approved) even the "hugely underwhelming" description does not seem to accurately describe how not-popular this new visa has been so far. Even "....attracted a rather measly amount of applications..." from a very recent news article (at bottom) seems to fall short. The govt is definitely going to have to make changes, add flexibility, etc., if they want this new visa to take off versus just very slowly taxing around on the runway right now. But I really don't see any significant requirement changes occurring soon due to "save face" thinking and an upcoming election early next year. https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/visa/thailands-10-year-ltr-visa-most-popular-among-americans-and-chinese

Yea....it seems it's a roll of the dice if BoI will accept financial investment/IRA/401K type accounts....or maybe they did initially for early application but no longer do. The BoI requirement says it needs to be money in a bank acct of no less than 12 months which means plusing-up an acct for a short term, say a few days or months, may not work. Nor may it work if the name of an account is obviously an investment acct vs a bank acct even if a person can covert stocks/shares to immediately withdrawal cash in seconds. BoI Health Insurance Requirement

This is happening with all Thai banks. The wife's Krungthai Bank branch in a mall was recently closed and her acct transferred to a standalone branch a few kilometers away just a few months ago. The Krungthai personnel in the mail branch said many mall branches would close over the next few years as mobile/digital/ATM banking was basically making many branches redundant and costly. "Finger banking" where you can do more and more banking/financial tasks via smartphone is just doing away with the need for many small branches and ATMs on every corner.

Really up to you. Personally I would go with a card that has the lowest/no annual fee, not require you to sign up for this or that, etc. The cardless withdrawal approach is good if there is a Krungsri ATM available but to withdrawal from any Thai bank ATM or a foreign ATM you'll need an physical debit card. And if you want to pay for something online you need a debit card. Cardless withdrawal has its place as does an actual debit card.

I expect when the dust settles Thailand is not going to get new F-35's...as in the latest block/model....that is, fresh off the factory floor, no flight hours, etc. But instead end-up getting one of first blocks/models (i.e., already flying) which will be a U.S. F-35 with many flight hours which will undergo a complete depot overhaul (including engine) and then be sold to Thailand dirt cheap (i.e., like buying a 10-15 year old car that has been completed overhauled but just don't have all the latest whiz-bang options.

It varies by immigration office. The CW/Bangkok office is up to 7 days.

CW will accept a bank letter up to 7 days old before the application date. I have used letters up to 5 days old but I typically try to get it just a day or two before. But you do need to update your passbook with a small withdrawal/deposit on the day of application. Any Krungsri branch can issue the bank letter even if your home branch is the Krungsri branh in the CW immigration building. Ditto for any Bangkok Bank branch if you use Bangkok Bank. My Krungsri home branch is that branch in the CW immigration building but for the last few years in during my Marriage extensions of stay I have gotten the bank letter several days earlier at a Krungsri branch close to my home.

At 65. Medicare may "not" enroll you automatically in Part B if you have an overseas address on-file with SSA (you may or may not get a notice from Medicare saying such), but they do if you have a U.S. address. You do get enrolled automatically for Part A regardless of worldwide address. The wife and I with our Thailand address were not enrolled in Part B automatically. Now if the wife and I had started SS pension before 65 (which we didn't) maybe we would have got a notice of automatic Part B enrollment unless we decline. The wife and I enrolled in Part B thru Manila at 65. Although Part B doesn't provide coverage outside the U.S. except in some very unique situations we needed to enrolled in Part B to maintain our Tricare military retiree/dependent medical coverage which does provide worldwide coverage. When a military retire and/or dependent turns 65 they will lose their Tricare coverage unless they enroll in Medicare Part B. So, basically the wife I have have Tricare medical coverage when outside the U.S. like when living in Thailand and Medicare plus Tricare coverage when in the U.S. say we ever move back on go back for a vacation....our Medicare coverage kicks in the second we set foot on U.S. soil...no waiting period. Just how Tricare for Life and Medicare coverage work together.

Yea....that one statement in red (snapshot below) only under the Wealthy Global Citizen requirements could imply other LTR categories like Work From Thailand Professional category might not have to meet all requirements. Seems the BoI should put a similar statement in red under all categories if they really want to point out "all" requirements must be met regardless of type of LTR applying for. There are actually quite a few "little things" on the LTR website, online application form, and manual application form that seem to conflict somewhat....hopefully they cleanup those conflicts sooner or later....and they have been making wording and software updates to their website to hopefully make it a better website and speedup processing of LTR applications.

Yes, you must meet all criteria although some individual criteria can be met in different ways like income level and health insurance. Regarding "Annual Personal Income Tat Return" if such a form is not routinely used in a country like the UK I expect a tax transcript type document like a UK P60 form would work as the P60 is suppose to show wages/earning, taxes paid, etc., according to my googling. https://www.gov.uk/paye-forms-p45-p60-p11d/p60 https://www.goforma.com/tax/what-is-p60-form Other income evidence would probably be acceptable.....hopefully a UK person who has successfully applied for an LTR will give an answer/recommendations. As a US person I do have to file a tax return regardless of where I live in the world (most US people do unless income falls below a certain level) and a US person can also get a "tax transcript" from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that is basically an IRS confirmation you did file a tax return which they processed....the tax transcript is really not very "layman" friendly but it does show all income, taxes, deductions, credits, etc., associated with your tax return. But at the same time a person's tax return/transcript might not show all income like in the case of some govt pensions such a U.S. Veteran's Administration (VA) pension/benefit that are 100% tax free, non-reportable on a tax return and the the VA does not provide an tax docs for an annual tax return because by law the VA benefits/pension is non-taxable. But as mentioned each country used different forms and methods to report annual income and taxes, has different tax laws as to what is taxable/reportable......all you can do is provide the best available documents you have to prove your gross income. Remember, they are looking for "gross" income and not "net" income.

Just use the USPS Tracking website to enter the registered mail tracking number issued by the Thai Post Office then setup how you want to be notified of any changes by entering whatever email address you want to use. https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction_input