humbug

god this country needs a civilian revolution

if its not for training for the cobra gold exercises which start tomorrow, then its countless theories to a reason for

a coup for prayuts gang being played a game on,

a coup to stop the anti-junta votes gaining rapidly by cancelling the election,

a coup by prayuts men or

a coup by the new army chief.

geez what a short term mess

the build up to a revolution would surely mean increased local angst and your local nationslists will turn into loud venting control freaks, there will be huge disruptions to the financial system its just how the nationalists will affect the foreigners because in the end the revolution wil be won by the 50 million who live under the glass ceilling.

Whatever happens from now that erupted earthquake will help shift so many peoples minds especially at the lowest ranks of society, who will start to see things in a far different way. This is something we cant underestimate for one of the reasons of doing this without knowing the direct conclusion of the outcome.Which will be on monday and friday. When they make decisions on people and maybe parties.

14 minutes ago, anchadian said:

There are no links...it's all speculation.

 

It's the votes that count

 

you mean before this 'rumour' the votes were rigged now!! well can you guess what will happen when people free of OOOOOPPPRRREEEESSSIIIIOON

from a regime of prohibition

to

a regime of permission

yyyyyyyyyeeeeeeessssssssss

just to see this land free of these oppressive loons will just make so many people go nuts with jubilation

you talking in junta stooge mode, using naff words like 'fugitive' to excuse this crime gang of affecting foreigners of all nationalities over the last 5 years. Lets be clear last year didnt just affect uk,aus and us it affected the whole world who live here long term, i would say the indian community has been affected much more than the uk community

8 hours ago, lamyai3 said:

As a Canuck I hope you realise that you yourself are presently one of the entitled ones, given that your embassy is still issuing income letters?

 

People who are objecting to the recent changes are neither paupers nor entitled snowflakes, they just object to an overhaul of the rules weighted so heavily in favour of immigration and the Thai banks. I'm surprised more people aren't able to see past the faux honourable motives of immigration, who've actually admitted to being retributive in their policies in the past (2014 for instance). It's no secret that the embassies who've been penalised are those of countries who have been very vocal in their criticism of junta rule, with the UK adding insult to injury by granting the fugitive ex-PM a ten years visa last May. 

repeating junta led media words 'fugitive' just doesnt fly anymore, when this crime gang came in 5 years ago 500,000 cambodians/burmese fled accross the borders in panic through junta scare tactics. Last year annus horrible by the gang affected many other nationalities including the indians who been here for generations. 7 years ago the dinosaur generals at their stadium protest spoke about kicking foreigners out of this land. Yes they used hype for the crowd who are also were also foreigners as they were mostly chinese origin thais. They managed to change hundreds of bills of this nation and change the whole top tier of beauracracy into their thieftdom including immigration

1 hour ago, kuma said:

Shocking that there is so much mystery and confusion surrounding this process. I have lived here ~15 years, and finished full time work in 2016 and changed to a retirement visa. From the beginning I was told the rule is 800,000 THB in an account for 90 days prior to your extension being granted (for your FIRST retirement visa, the 800,000 is only required for 60 days prior, all extensions thereafter have a 90 day requirement).

Once your retirement visa is granted, you are free to use that 800,000 to support your living expenses for the next twelve months. So assume you are established in a condo you own (maybe a vehicle if outside Bkk) and live a frugal yet satisfying lifestyle that consumes 400,000 THB over 12 months - about 33,333 THB / month.

Nine months into your year, you will have to import into the bank a top up amount equal to what you spent, and plan to spend, up to your next renewal. Then you will again have 800,000 in your account, for the required 90 days, on the day of your next renewal.

It could look like this:

1. >= 90 days before Visa renewal  800,000+ in bank (+ if you need cash to live for the 90 days. Remember it is a MINIMUM of 800,000 in the account each day for 90 consecutive days - so account for your living expenses in that period if they come from this account.

2. On Visa day, go submit your paperwork and get a one year extension.

3. Go to ATM, withdraw 33,333 THB (if you wish) for your next months cash flow.

4. Repeat #3 above for nine months, withdraw as you so desire.

5. In your ninth month into the visa, prepare and import enough cash to get your account to the point that you have an uninterrupted 90 days of 800,000+ THB. In this example if you withdraw 33,333 THB per month then you need to transfer in another 400,000 THB to keep your account at a minimum 800,000 THB balance.

6. At the appropriate time go renew your visa for another year.

 

In this example, the math is based on being exactly correct with your spend, you may want to import 850,000 THB or something like that, to have a cushion just in case. But you only need to do that once. If you live at a rate of spend of 400,000 THB/year, then there is a one time requirement for an additional 400,000 THB - which could be painful for some, but it is ~$12,500 USD, so an achievable goal. After that you only import an amount equal to what you need to live for the next twelve months. Yes the money is sitting and not gaining interest but as someone mentioned well back in the thread, it is a sort of bond that guarantees you have some income should a problem arise - enough to pay for some medical expense or fund a trip home should you need to repatriate.

It is not onerous, really you have to be able to manage your finances such that this small amount is available to you in emergency. The Thai state cannot be expected to have to support health care and/or repatriation for persons who end up destitute - as they do in some cases now. Its not harsh, its reality - you are responsible for yourself, get that straight.

Many on this forum who are living in the rurals and have some space to garden etc can be living off even less than 400,000/year. You are not on certain streets whipping up a storm every week, or waking up in beach side chateaus and strolling out for breakfast buffets on the beach, but you can be living a very fulfilling, interesting and comfortable life, i you put the effort in to do so.

That's my two cents

 

for the few who may be destitute and in need there are thousands of foreigners everyday helping major siamese hospitals make huge profits, foreigners are not a burden on the illegal junta state, its an absolute propaganda tactic by the junta media to make it look like we are a burden, and to have foreigners believe this junta nonsense is shameful

18 minutes ago, Kasset Tak said:

Well, as usual with all these changes much of it comes back to all the people abusing the system! I have friends that complains that they can't get their visa extensions as they don't have the savings, don't have enough income and now they can't get agents to forge/fake bank accounts for them... it's thanks to this kind of people and all these Indians with just "paper" marriages that these new rules have come in place (at least according to my Thai drinking buddy who is immigration office).
It's the same as it was with people on ED extensions, people used to get a year extension but because too many abused the system, even those who were legit students got affected by the changes. And again now we have the blacklisting for overstaying your visa... in the past it wasn't a big deal so some people were abusing that too (we have all read the stories of people leaving with 20 year overstay...) and that made them put the blacklisting in effect.

So, don't blame the government for changing the system, blame all the people who have been abusing the system and by doing that forced the government to change the system!

you just being brainwashed by the junta media, reducing numbers is what is happening, pension letters and keeping 400k doesnt stop fake id's by chinese or fake marriages, just enjoy your starbucks reading the nation, bkk post

this land needs to breathe and push this oppression into jail

heres to change a regime of oppression to a regime of permission

51 minutes ago, David Walden said:

The 700,000 Thai elites with 2/3rds of the wealth in Thailand would not even blink in regard to the 69,300,000 poor people who have the other 1/3rd of the countries wealth shared between them, they probably have no idea how to even vote.  For most, politics is just over their heads and only for the rich?

we can all see this, there was even a banned book on 'a coup for the rich' but your comment on 'politics over their heads' should be put in the low iq comments section where it deserves, maybe you meant oppression

lets just hope for a change

from a regime of prohibition to a regime of permission

800k sitting in a property fund paying 5-6% neto compounded over 5 years is your 5 elite visa paid

not to mention the 20 year elite option. just think what 800k in various property funds neto will make you over 20 years

lets see what the nationalists have in store with various changing of the visa goal posts over the next few years if they stay in power. Doesnt look that great for any of us

23 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

I just think immigration don't think things through properly, we need to blame someone, ok Big Joke it is.

joker home boy enjoying his loot is part of a gang who even before the bangkok shutdown when shouting on stages were claiming 'out with foreigners' 

So yes we can blame joker boy and i wont be hoodwinked into thinking it was embassies behind getting rid of pension letters and new financial requirements on retirements are about agents. 

These are decisions for reducing long term expats, letters helped expats stay and agents help expats stay.

I agree with the op they do look on this site, and i enjoy life with foreigners sharing living on this land not less foreigners, whats happening is planned by the nationalist gang in my opinion 

7 hours ago, Just1Voice said:

Big Joke ain't no joke.  Could be the most honest cop in Thailand. 

if he was so honest he would arrest himself for being part of a criminal gang taking power of the country.

This is for show to keep everyone on their toes for the upcoming influx of tourism for chinese new year, wouldnt want any rogue officials showing up on youtube punching and threatening chinese tourists would we now

i was at CW last week and in the 90 day reporting room at around 11am the queue number was already at 260, there is no way on this earth, that if many people had to do tm30, that they would get through so many people in 2.5 hours of opening. 

the tm30 for CW on this forum is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy

1 hour ago, hansnl said:

Of course another Shin led government would be so much better and of course that government would abhor power, glory and money while never threatening redshirt opponents or using firearms and grenades and burning buildings.

 

just think how many hours/days, hundreds of posts spent typing yellow shirt propaganda, trying to turn the minds of thousands of passive users of this site into junta luvies; When now everyone can see clearly. What a waste of your life, bravo