jesimps

13 hours ago, colinneil said:

Where is the big vinyl poster?

Got what he deserved, just a big head who jumped on any arrest he thought would give him the best publicity.

Had a beautiful sidekick a while back and she got shunted out because she was getting too much attention.

You mean the big vinyl poser?

13 hours ago, CGW said:

Wonder if he gets to keep all the gongs and medals n uniforms? He's certainly got enough! ????

He must've been first in the NAAFI queue many, many times.

14 hours ago, bannork said:

Don't forget he is rumoured to very close to Pravit who today missed the cabinet meeting due to an upset stomach. His stomach could be very upset because apparently the meeting for tomorrow to choose the new head of immigration, a meeting that should be chaired by Pravit, has now been postponed with no new date set. Notice also how today Prayuth refused to talk to reporters.

The image of Gen Prawit with delhi belly is not a pretty one ????

22 hours ago, NancyL said:

I know several elderly expats who, as they got to be 80 - 85+ in age, decided to simplify their financial life and bring all their money into Thailand to make it easier for their Thai partner/spouse to access it upon their passing.  And yes, it did simplify matters when they passed compared with men who had complex financial portfolios overseas, trying to milk out the last $1 in complex investments where the legal fees and time needed to access the money were staggering upon their passing, even with properly written Final Wills.

On the other side of the coin, you have people like me who have a reasonable sum of money already invested in Thailand in property, vehicles, emergency fund to have me burned etc. I've no wish to add to the money I already have in the wife's emergency fund here, she's already more than well provided for, as she gets half my UK works pension too on my death. I would though like to have some capital in my UK bank to leave to my kids over there. The more I have here, the less they're going to get when I pop off. For this reason I'm changing from the retirement monthly income method to the marriage visa using monthly income. There are other reasons to dislike the money in the bank method than not being able to afford it.

3 hours ago, luckyluke said:

Yes, somewhere on a topic here, there is a Dane confirming that his Embassy is again issuing a L.o.I., providing the incomes are from a State pension. 

As far as UK expats are concerned, that would still be way below the amount needed for a retirement extension and even touch and go for marriage version. In my case, because my pension fund was opted out of serps, I wouldn't qualify at all. The Danes must get a good state pension. Now if it included works pension, then I and a lot of others would be quids in if the British Embassy followed suit. Back to how it was before the new rules came in, in fact.

4 hours ago, mstevens said:

Big Joke obviously pissed someone a long way up the food chain off, and his disappearance had nothing to do with changes made to Immigration policy while he was in control. As such, don't expect any of the recent changes made to be unwound.

Obviously must be a source. Grafeful you share.

1 hour ago, nchuckle said:

The embassies only decided to stop the letters when some jumped up self aggrandising official flexed his muscles. BJ's orders dealing with the aftermath was ill thought through,poorly drafted,ambiguous and caused confusion and uncertainty with expats and IOs both. The alteration of the seasoning period was a later knee jerk afterthought with vague 'leniency ' directives causing further confusion still lasting to this day. The post visa 'seasoning' makes no sense ,achieves nothing, other than maybe preventing spending of those funds in the economy.

If all the embassies had stopped issuing letters then I'd've said that it was probably the fault of TI. However, because only the fab four stopped dishing them out it leads me to believe that it was an embassy choice. Before anyone says it, although some do, I don't believe that all the other embassies check your income all the way back to source.

1 hour ago, mokwit said:

No, and it is a meaningless amount.

It might be in terms of the total Thai GDP, but it's a useful source of foreign currency from a group of old codgers who cause hardly any problems and provide homes jobs and livelihood to an awful lot of locals.

51 minutes ago, Pattaya46 said:

No. Denmark Embassy announced latter that it would in fact continue to deliver documents showing income for Immigration purpose.

Source?

17 hours ago, TheFishman1 said:

I do. My 90 day report by mail just got one back in the

mail no problem 

I used to as well, but on the last two occasions I received one receipt back a month after my report was due and the next didn't arrive at all. I figured it was safer to report to the office at Jomtien in person, which I've been doing for the last couple of years.

11 hours ago, JackThompson said:

 

I guess you don't mean the ones flooding in on cheap flights and clogging up roads with tour-buses?  The ones whose numbers drop and are pulled-back by offering 1000 baht off of a VOA - or even free VOA - because that little bit of money makes a difference to the ability of thousands of them per-month? 

 

Yes, there are some wealthy Chinese, but what do they have to do with farang Retirees?  Many condos and restaurants are empty, and the Chinese aren't filling them.  They spend their money somewhere else (the tour-bus types at 7/11) - but what economic-reason supports removing the Farangs and shuttering the other businesses? 

 

Why does an increase in the cheap "tour group" / short-term-visitor sector necessitate the removal of longer-staying farangs who have always been a reliable source of income?   If anyone should complain about filling the roads with umpteen tour-buses and packing the sidewalks with "flag followers," it would be us.  Yet the authorities upset at us for "still being here," to spite their lowering the value of the destination by pandering to a down-scale market? 

 

There are still many, many Thais who need jobs as a step-up from subsistence-farming - if only to raise capital to modernize their farms and homes, and support their families.  Those working for the Chinese tourist-sector make less than those who support the Farang sector.  When/if the need no longer exists, they might reconsider booting the people who support those Thai jobs. 

As always JT you're spot on with your comment.

Greta Resort Ban Amphur, on the Wat Yan road. You'll have to google the price.

I know I usually give Chiang Mai stick on here, but that's because on my one trip there I found it to be an incredibly boring place with no baht buses to get around, very dangerous roads and an expensive and not very good bar area. However, the air was clear during my stay. I can't imagine, why ANYONE would want to live there with the choking smog as well. In fact, I don't know why anyone would want to stay anywhere in the world where there was choking smog. All that and the worst immigration office in the country to boot.

21 hours ago, Just Weird said:

The whole story that you read (but did not make clear) did not say that the woman and the child were attacked as you seem to be trying to suggest.  The two men were attacked, "the group" was not.

Ahem!

"A male middle eastern tourist was attacked by taxi drivers in front of his child and wife. It has been reported that they were injured in the attack."

4 hours ago, Genmai said:

 

This is either some very convincing LARPing or a bunch of condescending PR speak that is an insult to the many horror stories which you can read about on this forum.

 

 

When you or someone says something like “don’t jump to conclusions, wait and see because the changes might be positive” – I don’t believe a word of that, and likely the majority of readers here don’t either. This is because frankly speaking the foreign expat community’s trust in immigration has been completely eroded. Neither you nor anybody on this forum can point to any of the numerous changes in immigration procedures made within the last 5 years that haven’t made things WORSE for law-abiding foreigners living here long-term instead of making them “faster” or “watertight”. (The only example I can think of is the work permit change - as a business owner you are no longer restricted to working at one specific location or having to carry out duties as they pertain to your particular job title only. This was a good change that meant corrupt officials can no longer arrest restaurant owners for carrying out forbidden manual labour, i.e. carrying crates of potatoes in their own kitchen). For the honest retirees, students, business owners and married folks – every change so far has overwhelmingly resulted in adding more hurdles and impediments. I understand this country has the unfortunate attribute of presenting itself as a favourable destination for criminals. Why should we suffer for that? You can give out a cake to every retiree who happens to visit CM immigration on their birthday – it won’t cover up for the fact that everybody feels a clear lack of distinction being made in the methods here between processing criminals and law abiding expats.

 

 

 

I don’t think most foreign expats here would even really mind  all these increasing intrusions and barriers to conducting their life here in a free manner IF the bureaucratic nature of conforming to all the requests was eliminated and streamlined in accordance to technology available in the modern era. Immigration must have warehouses full of useless papers with boxes where my address is written down on at least 100 different documents.

 

 

 

Easiest visa requirements in the world? You’ve got to be joking. There are plenty of other countries who offer more and with an easier process to boot. I can go to Georgia right now and stay for 365 days on a visa-exempt entry stamp, during which I can open up a bank account, etc. I can also go to Taiwan visa-exempt, extend my stay, then hop out to Hong Kong and back to Taiwan, rinse and repeat for years whilst happily spending my money in the local economy. Vietnam offers a straight forward business visa with minimal requirements, etc etc etc. Secondly, fulfilling the initial requirements is only half the battle since maintaining your legitimate stay here isn’t exactly a walk in the park. Thirdly, I speak from my own business experience: from the moment of incorporating my Thai company to the moment I was finally issued a work permit the time spent was almost 12 months. I will spare you the details of that saga suffice to say that it was a nightmare. My lawyer had to compile multiple copies of my documents just for the company registration and bring a change of clothes in his car for a potential multi-day trip. Why? Because he had to drive around different districts until he found an office where the officials didn’t make up rules and regulations as they liked. Also, why should I as a small business owner in Thailand be forced to pay myself a monthly wage five times that which an average Thai earns (after incurring additional expenses of having to hire 4 Thais – excluding my partner who owns the majority of course – to sponsor myself)? That’s all business/work related, but the same inept official attitude seems to apply to retirees and marriage visa holders since there are numerous reports of people being told conflicting information from less-than-helpful staff.

 

 

 

As for the education visa being abused by long-term residents with no intention of pursuing education – again, why should I or other genuine students care or be targeted by the response to this? Also, why does immigration conveniently leave crooked schools out of the picture? Aren’t the schools in the wrong for offering fake students the ED visa? A cynic might say it might have something to do with brown envelopes. Again from personal experience: I took a language course in the first year of my stay here. The school explicitly sold me a 1 year course taught over Skype (it was and continues to be advertised openly as such). They faked my test results to always be at least 95% correct when I couldn’t even understand most of the material. Upon visa extension they specifically told me to lie to immigration and tell them I attended class physically because “immigration don’t understand what is Skype”. I was also informed that if there was a random check on the school I should come quickly and show my face. Then I found out the lessons only went on until the 6 month mark. They said  “you pay 12 months visa, but we teach you only 6 months”. If I wanted additional lessons I could come to an “agreement” with my teacher. What the hell are genuine students expected to do in this situation? Report the school and risk losing the visa, or worse – getting charged for defamation because corrupt officials are most likely involved?

 

 

 

I could go on and on but you get the picture. So, you can talk like a spooky detached AI about “the problems with your forum” and make all the claims of “false information being spread” but forgive me for being anxious and EXTREMELY sceptical of this announcement when in my experience the only effects law abiding expats have been subjected to here as a result of new rules and regulations have been overwhelmingly negative.

 

 

 

To all the people saying that those who are concerned are overreacting or “just put the bloody 800k in the bank and be done with it” – you are the proverbial frog in the pot. Look around and ask yourselves – what procedures have immigration implemented in the last 5 years that made things better instead of worse for genuine expats here? It might not affect you today but if you aren’t taking stock of the clear direction things are heading in and preparing accordingly then you are making a grave mistake.

 

Really good post, but the rose-coloured specs of some of the posters on here will filter out all the good points you made. In fact, if BJ resigned from his job tomorrow, there'd be a queue of farang from TVF applying for his job.

4 hours ago, Benroon said:

Expats never have and never will come close to ‘supporting the Thai econony’  an economy worth $455billion - the sums have been done to death on here.

 

Long  term expats have a grossly inflated opinion of their worth here 

It's got nothing to do with the Thai economy in general, but more about the humanitarian aspect of supporting a Thai wife and family. Most of us don't think of our worth, we'd just like to be left alone to support our family without the monthly changes to the rules which we seem to be getting since BJ took over the hot seat.

3 hours ago, emptypockets said:

 

I bow my head to the master. Or to keep it multinational and inclusive for the pommy whinges who appear to be the majority on these types of threads..... I dips me lid guv' ner ( while tuggiing forelock in a cowering manner).

Worked two years in the top end and can state categorically, that there isn't a whinger in the history of the world worst than an Ozzie whinger. They're worse than Mancs! One of the reasons I didn't stay in Oz after my two year tour ended was the whinging from the Ozzies. I had a girlfriend there who made my life a misery, whinged from morning 'till night. How anyone who lives in that beautiful country would want to spend their whole life whinging is beyond me. 

20 minutes ago, Kalasin Jo said:

The EU has only done what it could in view of May's red lines. There is a deal, but nobody in the UK wants it. 

Because of the (non-existant) Irish border problem, it keeps us in the customs union until the EU say that we can leave (never).