OJAS

3 weeks left for me to pay a visa agent or get to BKK Embassy to get an income letter. Grrrrr moan moan whinge whinge (joke).

What nationality are you? If British, you can obtain the letter by post, so no need for a trip to Bangkok. Click on https://www.gov.uk/notarial-and-documentary-services-guide-for-thailand and scroll down to the heading "Consular letter confirming pension/income for Thai Immigration" for further info. Although the turnaround time is normally 1-2 weeks, I'd still get your skates on if I were you!

Does anybody really think that there is a worldwide data base of cancelled passports that immigration accesses when you enter the country. Lost or stolen yes possibly.

I wonder if it's possible to get an answer from UK or HK on exactly when the old PP is cancelled. ?

I will have a look into it.

The old FCO website (which has now been superseded by the GOV.UK one) included the following statement: "Please note that the passport being renewed will be electronically cancelled and is therefore not valid for use as a travel document from the moment you submit your application" (my bold). In practice I suspect that HK do the cancellation when they receive your application. The fact that the cancellation is electronic presumably means that it will shown up if an IO swipes the photopage through a scanner or types the passport number into their computer. Why else would the cancellation be done electronically?

I have done this for the past 3 years, with turnaround times of between 1 and 2 weeks. Beats me, though, why the Embassy insist on payment by postal order(s). Why can't they accept payment by credit card, just as Hong Kong do in the case of passport renewals?

Last time this came up I read that the old passport was cancelled as soon as the application was received in HK. As renewing anywhere other from Thailand requires you to send in the old passport I suppose cancellation upon receipt in HK makes Thai originated renewals somewhat consistent.

Whether or not the checkpoints at land crossings would know this or not is another question.

Depends on whether or not IO's at land crossings swipe the photopage through a scanner like their airport colleagues do, I suspect. Since I have never made a border run, I don't know if they do.

Not needed he could always get a 60 day extension to visit his wife if needed.

But could he still get such an extension if, for any reason (e.g. delayed/cancelled/overbooked return flights), he was, in the event, unable to make it to Immigration before his existing extension expired on 18 December?

Might not the safest course of action for the OP be to obtain a new single-entry non-O visa while he was abroad? That would then presumably buy him at least 60 days from the date of his return to apply for a new extension.

What should be of particular concern to the OP is obtaining photos which fully meet all of HMPO's strict criteria. In my experience this is easier said than done since professional photographers in LOS normally take mugshots against blue or white backgrounds, which are both unacceptable colours in HMPO's eyes.

Maptaput in Rayong do. But Chiang Mai don't if you live within city limits.

If you have not got a new passport yet you will have to get a move on.It takes a long time. It used to be done via Hong Kong to London then to you in Thailand but I think it is direct to London now.

Still via HK AFAIK !

All this assumes, of course, that the OP is British. He hasn't stated his nationality, though.

I would never even consider having more than TB50,000 in a Thai bank, the problem is NOT paying it in - the problem is getting it out if and when the S-H-I-T hits the fan

I keep my money in the UK ...

Ditto me. A further problem in my experience is that Thai banking security procedures are so lax as to be, in effect, tantamount to a fraudster's charter. In particular, I have had accounts with 2 separate banks "relieved" of significant sums through fraudulent ATM withdrawals. Had I relied on 800,000 THB being safely seasoned in either account, therefore, I could well have found myself high and dry at retirement annual extension of stay time! This is one of the reasons why I have opted for the Embassy letter method of proving 65,000 THB monthly income instead.

I have just spoken to a very helpful Thai man at the embassy in Bangkok.

Was it Porawan Sakunsirisub by any chance?

It's reset to 0 once you entered the country again. No worries.

Actually to 1 as your re-entry date is included in the count.

In any case i got an SMS yesterday telling me my fee had been charged to my CC in HK for the new passport assumingly making the one i have now invailid.

In that case it's extremely unlikely that you'll receive your new passport from the UK much before 8th November, based on my renewal experience with HK earlier in the year.

There are a few levels of reporting, I've never submitted one, but given there is no specification for the level of police check I would submit a 'basic' one. Basic checks disclose only unspent convictions, and so long as you did not receive a custodial sentence yours are very, very spent - personally I think the police that you spoke to are scaremongering in this instance (or ignorant) but there's only one way to find out.

If I were you I'd go to one of the online places like http://www.criminalrecordchecks.co.uk/ and get them to sort out a copy so you don't even need to speak to the police.

Or alternatively make a subject access request to your local police force and see what shows up in the resultant report. If it includes your joyriding incidents then go down the non-imm O route instead, as suggested by other posters.

It might be a good idea to print off the Immigration Bureau link referred to in the OP and take it along with you when seeking an extension prematurely on flooding grounds, in case the message has not yet filtered through to the working level in your local immigration office.

Just to clarify, this must have been your first extension of stay based on retirement. Only the first extension of stay is considered to be the same as a 90 day report. From now on you must report every 90 days in a row you are in the country, even if you apply for a new extension of stay you now must do a 90 day report, separately.

Yes, this was my first extension of stay. Based on a conversation with a friend and other info this forum, I fully expected to have to do a 90 report and had the paperwork ready. However, it does seem a bit strange to have to do a 90 report when, in reality, you are being issued a new visa. I will remember next time and thanks for this information.

You weren't being issue a new visa, you were simply extending your permission to stay.

Maybe we are splitting 'semantic' hairs but the extension is based on the issuance of my original visa, right? If that is the case, why should the first extension be any different than subsequent extensions? Either way you look at it.

Regarding your first question, it really is preferable IMHO if the correct terminology is used. Much unnecessary confusion has been (and continues to be) caused on this forum by posters insisting on referring to extensions of stay as "visas"!

The simple answer to your second question is TIT!!

You are aware you must pay 1,900 baht and fill out a TM.7 and TM.47 every 90 days unless you can extend for one year. It is not just a visit to immigration every 90 days. Visa only allows a 90 day stay and even if you had a multi entry visa you would have to leave the country every 90 days or less.

I am very much aware of this yes, thank you

But before even going to immigration I need the MOE letter, don't I ?

What's an "MOE" letter when it's at home, please?

Not all of us are in possession of sufficiently reliable crystal balls which enable us to decipher cryptic abbreviations off our own bats.

Thankfully you do not decide and I think that a lot of retirees and the lower thresholds will be thinking similar

Good luck to them and you. There is a lower threshold and there is bones of the arse poor and if you can't gather 16k GBP to retire in another country then you are in the latter category. Most people I know in their 30s here in Thailand have triple that already and well on the way to paying off their own house/apartment.

So are you saying that the option of 65,000 THB monthly pension income as confirmed by your Embassy should be scrapped and that the financial requirements for annual extensions should be satisfied solely on the basis of 800,000 THB in the bank? I personally would never trust any Thai bank to keep 800,000 THB safely seasoned continuously for 2 or 3 months in view of their lax security procedures (as evidenced in my case by unauthorised withdrawals from 2 separate accounts with Krung Thai and Kasikorn a few years ago).

If you'll be 50 soon and have 800k, you might find it a lot easier to extend your stay for retirement than go the marriage route, which requires a lot more paperwork.

But he did say that he might need or want a work permit, which he would not be able to obtain with a retirement extension.

Okay, further update, received the following e mail from the consularenquires e mail address....got a reply but same result.

Dear Mr .................

Thank you for your email.

We can issue you a consular standard letter to transfer the Thai visa from your previous passport to the new passport. In order to do this, you must contact us in person and bring along your passports ( both new and previous passport). Our public opening hours: Monday – Friday 08.00-11.00

Regards,

Porawan

I received an identical reply from the same Porawan initially. I then emailed him/her again as follows:-

"Unfortunately, a 320-km round trip to Bangkok solely for the purpose of obtaining an Embassy visa transfer letter in person would inevitably result in considerable inconvenience and expense for me. I was therefore wondering whether it might be possible for the Embassy to (1) accept applications for, and (2) issue such letters by EMS post, similar to the arrangements which already exist for income confirmation letters required annually for Immigration purposes (and which have been working very well for me to date)."

And received the following reply:-

"I have consulted with my colleagues that you are living remotely from the Embassy. It has been exceptionally agreed that I can mail the document to you. Kindly note this is not our standard service and we are required to consider it case by case based on an applicant’s circumstances.

"Please scan and email me your previous passport and new passport, the date that you entered to Thailand and type of your visa. And please give me your address as well so I can post the letter to you."

So my advice is not to be fobbed off by any initial reply insisting on a personal visit to the Embassy. If they were to be bombarded with requests for similar dispensations they might eventually amend their standard procedures.

Are there ways to get this letter - without travelling to the odious Embassy in Bangkok?

Looks like you missed my comment immediately above yours:

If you do have to get a letter then you can email/fax the British consulate (Bangkok) a copy of the main page of both the old and new passports and they will post you a letter free of charge.

Just to update, the British Embassy WILL NOT send you a letter, they wont even respond to your e mail!!!

Followed up with a phone call to the embassy to be told i must go in person.

So i went today, took both passports - nothing else needed, you actually fill in the letter yourself at the embassy then they put a stamp on it and sign it free of charge , in and out in around 20 minutes so not too bad - can't say the same for the traffic though!!

To which address did you send your email to which never received a reply? I successfully obtained my verification letter after I had emailed the Embassy at [email protected]. The [email protected] address referred to in post #10 is, I suspect, a general one.

Well I was most certainly not asked by Maptaput for an Embassy letter when I got the stamps transferred from my old to new UK passports there earlier this year, even though I had gone to the trouble of obtaining one! Judging from the OP and other fellow Brit Rayongites who have posted in similar vein to him in recent months, it looks like I was the exception rather than the rule!

If you do have to get a letter then you can email/fax the British consulate (Bangkok) a copy of the main page of both the old and new passports and they will post you a letter free of charge.

I also obtained my Embassy letter (which wasn't in the event needed) by email - and free of charge to boot. Please note, however, that, as well as the photo pages from your old and new passports, the Embassy also need to know your latest entry date into Thailand and original visa type.

Like the OP, the prospect of living in LOS as a retiree did fill me with feelings of dread and apprehension before I actually took the plunge and moved out here 5 years ago. In the event the various immigration requirements have not, in practice, proved unduly problematical to comply with in my case, and probably pale into insignificance when compared to all the stress and hassle which the OP and his Thai wife undoubtedly experienced at the UKBA's hands in obtaining the necessary settlement visa to enable her to live with him in the UK (assuming, of course, that this is, in fact, the case)!

Here's a recent example from the Phuket Gazette where two foriegners were arrested for building their own boats in their own gardens.

http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket_news/2013/Phuket-Immigration-cracks-down-on-yachting-marine-industry-22294.html

That is what I would call going to far.

If they were just building/fixing their own boats for their own private purposes and NOT selling them for profit, then the authorities have gone too far.

Like other commentators have said, what's next, will I have to get a work permit to cut my own steak, or pour some water over my own plants?!! Of course not, what I do in my own house is my own business. Also, since my neighbors don't even have the decency to say hi to me or each other, then what I do in my own backyard or house is my own business, done - I live my life, they live theirs. ALso, perhaps the work permits of the Cambodian children begging in downtown Bangkok should be checked out. Oh wait that's right...not only do they not have work permits, but they are living in the Kingdom illegally!! Someone should tell the police - and of course bring along a Khmer speaking translator.

The BIB may well have been paid off by the bosses of these juvenile Cambodian beggars!

I suspect from this and other recent threads that this is probably a good time of the year to get annual extension of stay applications processed speedily since it is the low holiday season here in LOS. Things will probably get a whole lot slower over the next 3-6 months when immigration offices tend to get clogged up with tourists seeking visa extensions, as well as non-imm extension of stay applicants.