Pib

This curiosity question is for any folks who have been approved for any category of LTR visa....well, it's probably more directed more towards the Pensioner category. Where lextsy said he provided an annual tax statement were any of you able to avoid providing a tax return statement? But instead you only had to provide other income evidence like a monthly/annual pension statement, salary slips, etc. Now I got the Pensioner LTR visa where my primary evidence of having the required $80K income was providing my monthly/annual pension statements. I did not initially provide my tax return because of LTR website security/privacy concerns but also in my case one of my pensions is 100% tax free/non tax return reportable (i.e., a Veterans Administration (VA) pension)--no IRS 1099R generated for VA benefits as they are tax free by U.S. law. And due to this VA pension it allows my military retirement pension to only be partially taxable which lowers the taxable/reportable amount on that pension. Then I have another govt pension that is also only partially taxed/reportable. Now my pension annuity statements (including the VA monthly statements) clearly showed the gross amounts, whether taxable/tax return reportable or not. But since a very significant portion of my gross pension income is non-tax able/non-reportable on my tax return (which is a joint return with the wife) when comparing amounts tallied-up from the pension statements to lower amounts shown on a tax return a person can get concerned that if the BoI relied primarily on only a tax return for the pensioner category where some pension(s) may be non-taxable/non-reportable...or maybe even some other LTR visa categories like the Work from Thailand Professional....then the applicant could become very worried that although their pension statement(s) show they have the required LTR income "but" their income tax return shows a significantly "lower" pension income due to the pension(s) being non-taxable/non-reportable. Anyway, as mentioned, I did not initially submit a copy of my last tax return from 2021 due to security/privacy concerns and concern about conflict/confusion with my pension statements but about 30 days after submitting my application BoI did send an Additional Docs Required Request to provide my tax return. I did such, which was a PDF copy of my tax software e-filed return (i.e., the PDF copy you print for your records after uploading/e-filing your return) and I did not submit an IRS tax return transcript although I had one ready if requested. Now, I'm pretty sure that BoI used my pension statements as the primary evidence and required the tax return just for some double checking purposes, some additional validation of income....or maybe just to confirm you are a tax-fearing/paying good citizen. Or maybe doing a certain degree of comparing your pension statements to your tax return to see if they are at least in the same ballpark. The BoI showing flexibly in reviewing/confirming your income as I'm sure with all the various tax laws and tax return documents used in different countries that if only relying on a tax return it could misrepresent/greatly understate actual gross income for some people. So, I'm giving the BoI a big thumbs-up in showing income evidence flexibility. So, I was just wondering (curious) if any of you folks who were LTR visa approved were you able to get your application approved "without" providing your latest tax return?

Yeap, maintenance and training. I wouldn't be surprised at all if there wasn't periodic major intermediate and/or drydock-level maintenance overdue due to a maintenance funding shortfall or senior leadership delaying maintenance just to keep the ship in operation. Many operators (i.e., admirals, generals, etc.,) just hate to see their ships, planes, and tanks go into depot-level maintenance which can last months to years. There has always been a battle between operators, maintainers, and budget folks as to when big-money maintenance can be accomplished. Any yea, training could have been lacking like sailors being signed-off in training records as being fully qualified/trained on certain tasks when in fact they hadn't received enough training....that is, pencil-whipping training records. And no, I'm not saying insufficient training for the "enlisted" sailors or overdue maintenance as the driving factor may have been poor leadership & operational decisions made by the "officers" during the emergency. But to get to the bottom of things all necessary docs/records need to be immediately secured to prevent records from being doctored to cover tracks.

Or not enough.

Even though the govt reduced the fuel excise tax "immediately" on 1 Jan the airlines are only going to start reducing their airfares "gradually" as they see fit which means foot dragging by the airlines....basically the excise tax cut staying in the airlines pockets as additional profit....like a taxpayer subsidy to the airlines. Quote: All seven airlines will be jointly organising a special promotion with all air fares to be gradually reduced by up to 20% depending on how each airline arranges it. End quote.

bank savings.

Just as FYI, when my application was approved the online acct Status column displayed Approved.....after I made the appointment to have the LTR visa put in my passport the Status changed to Appointment......and now after getting the visa put in my passport the Status shows "Complete." I just love the sound of "complete." ????

Update: Known LTR Approvals as of 26 Dec 2022 based on posts in this thread I saw. Added "Pib" (i.e., me) who got his approved 23 Dec....an early Christmas gift from the BoI (and Santa). See his post above for more details. 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 20. Pib - 23 Dec

Merry Christmas to me as my LTR Pensioner application submitted 25 Oct was approved 23 Dec/Friday. I ended up self-insuring as they didn't accept my U.S. military insurance (Tricare) most likely due to it not having an end date like a typical 1 year policy. Tricare is an open-ended worldwide coverage policy...no need to renew each year.....as long as you are alive and paying the monthly premium the insurance stays in force. So I self insured instead. Upon the 23 Dec I immediately made an appointment for 26 Dec/Monday/today to get the LTR visa put in my passport which occurred. I'm now back home with an LTR-P 10 year Visa stamp, a 5 year initial entry period stamp, a multiple entry stamp, and a little slip of paper saying my next address reporting is due 25 Dec 2023. During these final steps at BoI today, the BoI rep who hand-walked me thru the final steps at the BoI One Stop Center and Immigration across the hall was superb. Made me feel like a HiSo VIP. It feels so, so good to have this 10 year (5+5) visa....no annual renewal (just the renewal at the 5 year mid point which is fee-free), no 90 day address reporting but only 1 year address reporting, etc. Makes me feel more at home in Thailand.

Joint accts, personal or business, can be setup either as "or" type accts where either acct owner can withdraw money with only their signature or the accts can be setup as "and" accts where both acct owners must sign to withdraw. And I'm not talking a signatory where the acct owner(s) authorize another person to withdraw funds. That signatory's name will not appear on the acct/passbook although depending on the bank that signatory's signature may appear in the back of the passbook only when viewed under a blacklight.

Yeap, that's their initial look/coordination on an application. But some of those "other govt agencies" (like immigration) also get another look/coordination after BoI proves a "qualification approval." On the tail-end of the process Boi will do some more quick coordination with Immigration and/or Dept of Employment to dot the i's & cross the t's.....make sure any other minor paperwork might not "now" be required since it may have taken months for your application to reach it current location in the coordination/review process. Example: Although you do not need to submit your latest 90 days address report in your initial application it might get asked for later "if" immigration asks for it during immigration final/2nd coordination if their system mistakenly shows you are overdue. Now, the person may not actually be overdue...it's just the immigration system mistakenly indicates so. The person did indeed do the report or hasn't had to do a report for many months since they have been exiting and reentering Thailand on trips which resets the 90 day address clock that in-turn negates/delays the need to do an actual TM47 90 day address report online/by mail/in person. But this is an example of one issue that needs to be resolved before immigration will provide its 2nd coordination around the Steps 5 & 6 ballpark.

When a person gets to the "qualification approved" status that mean the "BoI" has determined you meet the BoI requirements like income, insurance, etc. You are now pretty much home free. Step 5 thru 8 will now consist of dotting the i's & crossing the t's where the BoI builds/coordinates the final package with Immigration and/or Dept of Employment. These steps move pretty fast. Like immigration looking at the initial package again and sees you appear to be overdue your 90 day address report according to the immigration 90 day address report system and then immigration kicks the package back to BoI saying such and then BoI contacts the applicant identify the problems....ask you to send them your latest 90 day address report receipt or go do the report if you are indeed overdue and then provide the receipt back to BoI. Then BoI sends the package back to immigration....this makes immigration happy and immigration gives it final coordination to continue on with final approval. And if, repeat, if the person currently on a marriage visa/extension, immigration will also request that BoI remind the approved applicant to be sure to bring along earlier talked marriage paperwork on his appointment date to get the visa put in his passport. Yea, the statuses 5-8 are most dotting I's, crossing t's, wrapping the present in a box with a bow, the final administrative steps needed. Mostly stuff to fully satisfy immigration and/or if also getting a work permit satisfying the dept of employment.

I'm sure the "....short-handled and only collect the registered post every two months" is not correct". I expect the SSA sends a rep several times a week or maybe daily to pickup mail. But I do know that registered mail (or regular mail) can reach the post office as shown in tracking but is actually not available for pickup/final delivery until the post office completes the final "internal" processing of the mail. Like say 20 bags of mail consisting of thousands of pieces of mail were delivered to the post office and now the post office must move that mail from the bags and placed in the actual P.O. Boxes or passed to the mailman for delivery on his route. This is a USPS bottleneck and not a problem with the SSA. Or maybe said another way kinda like how a grocery store receives pallets upon pallets of grocery goods at its store which initially go into the store's back storage area, but until those pallets in the storage area are unpacked and the goods put on the shelves accessible to the customers those goods are not available to the customers Yeap...the goods are indeed at the store now but not fully processed/moved to where the customer can get them.

Whoops...significant typo in last paragraph above....corrected below. Now I know you may say that immigration does not ask for a bank passbook/12 month bank statement if switching from says a Non O/OA retirement extension to a LTR visa, but a marriage extension simply has different rules compared to a Non O/OA marriage retirement extension to include the rule that the marriage extension validity ends upon divorce where that rule does not apply to a retirement extension.

Yea....I'll guess that since your application completed all of it's processing before they implemented the new statuses that your record is simply not being updated anymore....kinda like it has been frozen for further updates...a locked record...an archived record...etc.

I see overnight they upgraded the LTR online account website. Like the addition of some menus on the far left such as resetting your password for digital work permit and a Signature capability Also there is now a graphic showing the new "statuses" a person see in their online account as their application progresses through the system. These new statuses actually went into effect around two weeks ago...it's just below graphics is new to help explain what they are and what they mean. And actually there is another status not shown below which would be like Step 7.5 where your status would change to Approved....and then once making an appointment to have the LTR actually put in your passport at BOI immigration the status would change to Appointment. Please note that starting at Step 6 through 8 those only apply when in your application you said you want the visa issued "within Thailand." I guess if you choose to have it issued outside of Thailand at an embassy then the final statuses will be somewhat different.

Your marital situation (with a Thai) is relevant if switching from a marriage visa/extension of stay to another type of visa like say a 1 year retirement Non O Visa or LTR visa. It is relevant because "if you are on a marriage visa/extension" which is only granted to those who are married to a Thai that visa/extension in only valid while you still have a living Thai spouse. That's the main rule--you gotta still be married to the Thai. If you were to divorce anytime after getting that marriage visa/extension that visa's validity is immediately forfeited even if you just got it last week....and you must immediately leave the country (typically within 7 days) unless you immediately get another type of visa/extension allowed for your new status as no longer being married. And unfortunately over the years many farangs have divorced from their Thai spouses while on the marriage extension but did not immediately report their status change to immigration....instead waiting until the marriage extension almost expired and then applied for another extension base on something like retirement. But immigration is not receptive to switching when you failed to live up to the requirements of your marriage extension. When wanting to switch from marriage visa/extension to some other type of visa immigration wants to ensure you lived up to the conditions of the marriage visa you were on; otherwise, they will not approve you for another type visa without you leaving Thailand and getting another visa. It kinda similar but more strict than those who say was on a retirement extension but failed to maintain the required income levels while on that extension and when it comes time to renew that retirement extension immigration first wants to see a bank passbook/12 month statement showing you met the income requirements over the past 12 months. If you failed to to meet those requirement I'm not aware of any rule that says your retirement extension is immediately void but immigration will denied another retirement extension come extension renewal time. Tell you got to start over by leaving Thailand and getting another visa....or leave Thailand, come back in on a Exempt and then apply for a Non-O within Thailand. Now I know you may say that immigration does not ask for a bank passbook/12 month bank statement if switching from says a Non O/OA retirement extension to a LTR visa, but a marriage extension simply has different rules compared to a Non O/OA marriage extension to include the rule that the marriage extension validity ends upon divorce where that rule does not apply to a retirement extension.

The notification that khunjeff got is really a generic notification written to cover as many variations/possibilities as possible; it's not like each approval type notification is specifically written just for that one applicant's situation. Generic notifications that try to cover all possible situation can sometimes cause confusion like wondering if this or that applies in your situation. In the case of folks switching from a marriage visa/extension of stay to an LTR "or" doing an annual renewal of a 1 year marriage extension of stay, it's just an immigration requirement; not a BOI requirement. Like for people switching from say a 1 year retirement extension of stay to a 1 year marriage extension of stay they need to provide marriage related docs (i.e., marriage certificate (Kor Ror 3) that you get when first getting married.....marriage registration (Kor Ror 2) issued within last 30 days that you can easily/quickly get at any district office.....and a copy of Thai wife's Thai ID. And when doing an annual renewal above docs need to provided again to include the fresh Kor Ror 2. Now for folks who married a Thai in another country they need to get that foreign marriage registered in the Thai marriage data system and instead of getting a Kor Ror 2 they get a Kor Ror 22....but both the Kor Ror 2 and Kor Ror 22 are basically the same thing....one when you got married in Thailand to a Thai and one for you got married outside of Thailand to a Thai. And if you are not even married or divorced you will not have any marriage related docs. So, if you are not switching from a marriage visa/extension of stay above mentioned docs are not required/not applicable for issue of the LTR. It only applies to those switching from a marriage visa/extension of stay to an LTR.

Thanks. Yes, the links are "now" working for me....but earlier they were not....with or without a VPN connection. Earlier the links would not work whether using Chrome (even tried Chrome in Incognito mode) or using Edge.

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