JimGant

That's not correct. The land office will certainly accept a Will properly probated, without having an Amphur involved. But, yes, an Amphur requires a Will prepared at the Amphur to be in Thai. Furthermore, they also require that you, the testator, be able to speak and read Thai. So, not many farangs writing their Wills on Amphur templates. But, you can go the secret Will route, bringing your English written (or whatever) Will to the Amphur, folded, witnessed, and affixed with an Amphur stamp. Then, sealed in an envelope -- and put away to be retrieved by your executor upon your death. Your executor can then have it translated, if need be. Or, I guess, you the testator could have a certified Thai translation of your Will be included in the sealed envelope. But bothering to include an Amphur seems a waste, because "registering" a Will is not a requirement (accept in a few peculiar situations, not affecting most of us).

Certainly a Wealthy Pensioner can be less wealthy than a Wealthy Global person. In fact, he can only have 40k in current income, plus investing 250k in Thailand -- half the investment required for Global persons.

Actually, it's only current income of 80k for Wealthy Pensioner. The 2 year requirement is for Wealthy Global Citizens. Probably makes no difference for most. And in my situation, I'm retired Air Force, 20 years only. But that pension plus my Social Security gets me to 75k. The remainder is made up with drawdowns of my conventional IRA, which the BoI views as a self-administered retirement annuity. And remember, BoI is only looking for gross income (I asked). So, if you've got an IRA of any flavor, or a 401k -- you may be closer to the 80k retirement than you think...... It was no hardship to withdraw from my IRA, since I was required to withdraw anyway, due to the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) requirement, which more than covered that 5k gap.

You're quoting the requirements for a Wealthy Global Citizen, which are more onerous than the requirements for a Wealthy Pensioner. Those requirement are given, above, by soisanuk.

Can be issued from a foreign bank. But a debit card must have either a MasterCard or Visa logo. Thus, my Union Pay Bangkok Bank card wouldn't work (not that I'd try and use it, having a nice cash back US credit card -- and being adverse to any and all debit cards, for security reasons).

So if you're paranoid about your passport, why would handing over your passport to an agent middleman vice handing over a sealed envelope at the post office assuage your concerns? Particularly since the agent will then have to use the mail renewing system, identical to what you would have to do... So, if you're paranoid about continuity of possession, not sure an agent is your huckleberry. But, there seems to be some interest in an agent for renewing US passports, based on some replies here. Just for my own curiosity, what are some reasons posters here see an agent as superior to the easy mail renewing system for US passports? This question for computer literate types, and those who are ambulatory enough to go to the post office and bank. Thanx.

My post office will accept a photocopy of my passport. For EMS and DHL deliveries, I've never had to show ID -- just sign. For my and wife's passport renewal this year, the deliveries were signed for by our maid, who didn't have to produce an ID. I suppose, if I'd signed for them, and ID was asked for -- again, the photocopy of passport would suffice.

So, you had to drop it off, then pick it up at the Embassy -- and you don't even live in Bangkok. And you liked that method very much.... Unless you're computer illiterate, so too your partner -- doing it by mail is about as easy as it gets. Yes, you must drive to the bank for the return mail bank draft and then to the post office (or DHL) to mail the application to the Embassy. Then wait 18 days (in my case) for the new and old passports to be delivered by EMS to your house. Not much easier than that Now the agent's going to have to do all the same steps as you would for a mail application, since there are no passport renewal appointments at the Embassy, except for emergencies (which doesn't include an expired/expiring passport, says the Embassy). And there's going to be some shoe leather involved, unless they do home service (which, for 12000 baht, I would hope they might...). So, no real advantage for an agent, that I can see, what with the ease of mail renewal. IMO

Sounds like the results of a probate hearing, where the Will's declared beneficiaries are validated. Probate fees have been shown on this forum to be as much as 50,000 baht. Obviously, situations and lawyers would affect this figure -- but haven't seen anything higher in price shown on this forum -- for what that's worth.

Why, then, do we have so many here in Thailand, and -- at least those with rudimentary reading skills -- haunt this forum with their complaints? Some folks are never happy wherever they live -- and, sadly, many of those end up in Thailand. We can only hope that their 'never satisfied nature' will eventually rid them from Thailand. Fortunately, most farangs here are happy, decent residents of their new country -- and don't have the time to waste complaining on a forum or FB.

As maybe a point of interest, my own Will was written in 1983 by the Air Force JAG office in the Pentagon (thus it looks nice and official, which the Thais love). Since it says I leave everything to my wife, period (same Thai wife as today), it's about as simple as you can get. So, I'm satisfied that it would suffice here in Thailand (since foreign Wills are acceptable, if properly witnessed, which it is) should it (and its translated version) need to go through probate. But I doubt it will need probate, as all my assets subject to probate are bank accounts. And one is joint with the wife, and the other one (my immigration related account) has the wife as the co-signatory. So the wife has been advised that her first order of business, even before I am barbecued, is to go online and move most of the money from my account to hers -- and also most of the money from out joint account to hers (as there are reports that some bank managers believe half a joint account is subject to probate; wrong, but the manager's belief would prove inconvenient, if she froze the account). No need to close the accounts, as that might require my presence -- so just leaving a few thousand baht should suffice. Several threads (search "asean now wills") on the legality of the above, particularly the co-signatory's authority when the primary is dead. So, I don't want to reinvent the wheel on this thread. But my take is: Who's going to complain, if your Will leaves everything to your wife (or partner) and there's no one contesting your assets? Plus, why would the bank even know you're dead (?), and thus they would have no reason to freeze your accounts. And, if they don't freeze your account, 'cause you're dead but no one told them, they have no legal issues to confront. And if there is no wronged party, who's pressing charges? So, yeah, good to have a Will, should probate be necessary. But if all you have subject to probate are bank accounts -- consider briefing the wife on the above.

Geez, your Will can be in any language you like, assuming it can be translated into Thai so that it can be processed by the courts or other Thais with an interest (e.g., your bank manager). That the OP says, let the translation wait until he's dead -- makes good sense, particularly for the following reason: If you make a Will with a lawyer, who says he'll make it in two versions -- and he's a crook -- his Thai version may have a few goodies to his benefit inserted, and as you can't read Thai, you'd never know. But, if you have it translated by an independent party, like, after you're dead, with no interest or possible benefit in the Will -- well, certainly a better chance of having a legitimate translation of your original Will. So, just having a Will in your home language, properly witnessed, and whose location your executor knows -- should suffice. Have it translated later, if needed. Oh, yeah -- if there's a dispute between your home country language Will and its translation into Thai -- the Thai version wins. But I would assume, if your executor is attuned to your real wishes, that he could ask the court for another translation. But, I digress too much -- as a translation by a disinterested party, and not the lawyer preparing your Will (if any), shouldn't be a problem.

My recent retirement extension, in Aug, at CM Immigration had an appointment, which I made online (very easy, efficient). After having all my paperwork screened in the tent area, I was told to head for the counter. No one had asked if I had an appointment, so I added myself to the queue (not very long), then quickly went to an open counter. Handed in my paperwork and told the Imm officer that, "I had an appointment." Oh, he said. Didn't ask what time it was for (I was about 20 minutes ahead of schedule) and didn't seem to act as if it made any difference. Anyway, he said go sit down by counter (the one furthest left) and wait for your name to be called. I asked about a queue number, and he said, "no, just wait for your name to be called." Anyway, after name called for photo, 20 minutes later was called to collect passport. Most of us sitting there were called, so not even sure if the queue number system was applicable at this counter.....maybe it was being used, but I was not really paying attention. And were those being called, the ones with appointments (and thus some kind of ahead of queue priority)? Question: Is getting an appointment worth anything? If I'm on time, do I get to jump ahead of the walk-ins? Am I then a "wait to be called" vs. someone with a queue number? Or if I'm late (or early), am I just another walk-in? If the appointment has no benefit, why subject yourself to the lack of flexibility of when to show up at Immigration. Thus, hopefully somebody reading this has a better understanding of the appointment system than I do, or can find with a search. Thanx.