crazygreg44

 I hope somebody from Immigration reads my post !

It would be so easy if Immigration would just observe and understand their own police order. The order says I have to report my adress when I "change my adress". I change my adress once I move OUT and INTO a new adress.

Travelling inside the country does not imply my adress changes constantly. I change my TEMPORARY WHEREABOUT but not my home adress!!! If I still live at my old adress where I lived before I started out travelling, I did NEITHER CHANGE my adress NOR moved to another place, and so actually I should not be forced to report again.

The police order, further more, is being observed during my stays in hotels and guesthouses, as they report my "TEMPORARY STAY" or "temporary adress" according to the law.

It is plainly written in their own police order. . . . . .  It is just that they misunderstand the translation of their own police order!  . . . . . .

They should mark and notice the BIG DIFFERENCE between "temporary adress" and "permanent adress" and everything would be fine and we could close this TM30 topic for once and all!

4 hours ago, worgeordie said:

which immigration office do you use

and did they tell you to report back ?,if they never told you,dont do it.

regards worgeordie

that was Immigration Sisaket last December 2018. The 3-month rule was not even  published, yet. However for the first time I ask told to register for TM30 when returning from abroad

The new rule regarding the minimum of 800,000 THB on a thai bank account needed for an Extension of Stay based on retirement, left me with a question.

My yearly extension is due on January 4th every year.  According to the new rule, Immigration wants me to bring them the bank book in order to check if a minimum of 800,000 THB have been left in the account for a minimum of 3 months after receiving the Extension of Stay.

However, every year, I buy a re-entry permit and will fly back to my home country by mid-March.  I will not be in Thailand any more until July or September, and not three months after receiving the extension.

Can I visit immigration after my re-entry from abroad at a later date, with an updated bank book, to proove the 800,000 THB were still there and never went below 400,000 in the remaining months ? 

Does the bank book check have to be handled strictly after 3 months,  or can it been done any time before the next Extension becomes due ? I can’t find anything in the police order saying WHEN the check needs to be done

13 hours ago, rwill said:

even just a normal SCB savings account pays interest.  They only pay it out twice a year though.  Which is normal for Thai banks.

I opened a savings account with SCB in Hua Hin in 2004, and the 800,000  THB deposits in it earn around 2000 THB yearly interest since . . . . . 

BTW I am not a resident, I spend 6 months in Thailand and 6 months overseas

10 minutes ago, nickmondo said:

no reason to do it earlier eh?

here is one for you, ok slightly different circumstances:

 

my question is this, very similar to OP, bit different, but concerns dates.

My Retirement Extension falls on 6th June each year, so just renewed, I do it on the 800k method.

It does not suit me to renew in June each year.

I want to renew it in February each year - 4 months earlier than my current renewal date.

Reason being, I want to go to Spain each February until about October (starting in 2020), and come back here October to the following February.

So is it possible for me to go to Immigration early February next year to renew the visa 4 months early?  therefore changing my annual renewal date?

Anybody actually done this sort of thing (rather than just giving opinion) 

That is a very good question !

I am really curious to any replies!   

Fortunately, I did careful planning when applying for an extension based on retirement in Hua Hin, in 2003.  I was aware that I would only spend the winter months in Thailand, so the renewal date had to match. I was able to put it onto January 4th and all extensions have been made according to this date. I visit immigration in the last week of December with all documents needed and always get the new extension dated onto the Junuary 4th of the over next year.

While the fixed date forces me to establish a certain routine into my travel itinerary and stays, I think of how good it would be for many expats if you could choose the next extension date according to your own likes any time within the next 12 months . . . . . that would be cool

Am I dreaming too much ?

3 hours ago, JLCrab said:

 

And again you prefer not to note on the IMM Act page 38 that the fee for a Section 35 extension of stay is 2000 baht and that anything above that agent charges minus reasonable expenses is a bribe for the tango.

the fee for the extension is and has always been 1900 THB, not 2000.

The agent takes a fee for his service. If you do not have the required 800,000 THB in your bank account, it is up to you to decide how much you are willing to pay a middle man for reaching an agreement with an Immigration officer. The agreement is: the IO does - according to their rules - ignore that you don't fulfill the financial requirement. The IO is by law empowered to do so. The amount of the "service fee" both the IO and the middleman "need" in order to reach an agreement, is set by pure mechanisms of the market - availability & demand. You are free to call this a "bribe"......by myself and all the immigration officers  it is called a "service fee". For the Thai there is no logic encumbered in the word "bribe"

5 hours ago, scorecard said:

Takes 2 to tango.

there is no illegality in the "tango". Immigration law allows the leniency. Refer and re-read my post no. 144 and a few which follow

5 hours ago, ChouDoufu said:

prevent illegal extensions?  my solution....

 

every applicant must post a 555K bond by way of a fixed interest-bearing account at government bank.  no seasoning required - either it's there or it's not.  (immigration could have limited access to the database?)  no withdrawals unless certified emergency, or 7 days prior to expiration of current extension or with voluntary early revocation. 

 

every applicant deposits the same amount.  no point in single retired fellows keeping 800k for living expenses when a married fellow supporting a family only needs to show 400k.

 

government bank shall let any foreigner open the bond account at any time, removing the catch-22 for "no work permit - no bank account," provided application for visa or visa conversion is made within 90 days.

 

at the same time, requirement should be added to show proof of adequate health insurance.  lack of coverage would require purchase of a limited local catastrophic coverage policy that includes repatriation, maybe option of opening a separate bond deposit account that could be closed later with proof of cover.

 

oh.....enforce the applicant must apply in person part of the law.  i won't go into cracking down on corrupt io's or shady agents, assuming nothing is going to change that.

you did forget to read the previous post no. 144

there is no illegality.

The IO are free to skip the 800K requirement.

It is all and clearly stated in the police order i linked in my post

On 2/2/2019 at 10:11 AM, Peterw42 said:

The extensions are not always fraud, a high level immigration officer can approve an extension without funds or seasoning, "legally".

Access to the high level officer, via an agent, is corruption etc but its still a legal extension if the officer is empowered.

 

the IO's are free to decide ? are you referring to this police order:

   http://www.krisdika.go.th/wps/wcm/connect/2ae308804ba182b697f29f8b4221fda7/Immigration_Act_B.E._2522.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=2ae308804ba182b697f29f8b4221fda7

they are actually allowed ( i.e. "empowered")  to ignore in case you don't meet the requirements regarding the seasoned 400k or 800k 

it is somewhere in this text . . . you might be able to find it quoted . . . myself i haven't checked, so far 

i am going the "retirement" option ,too. And I never spend a minute of thought on the fact that having 850,000 in the bank will save me a lot of headaches. Be it the combination method or not, if you don't keep an eye onto the exchange rate since you seem to haggle along the required minimum amount, you are what Thais use to say  "som nam na"

Klaus, is there anything else that coud have been causing the Immigration officer to deny you entry?  Is there anything on your Facebook page that indicates you are living in Thailand as a yoga teacher, repairing broken phones or being a dive instructor, whilst in the country with a METV ?

Hello Thaivisa, is there a censoring under way by Thai authorities ?  I observe that many topics from which I get notifications, cannot be opened any more.   Also I answered to a threadstarter's question on how the count on banked money works, if it is counted by months or days, and I find the Thread deleted.

Is Thaivisa being censored by Thai authorities?

I reckon you should never ask this question to an Immigration officer. Better yet  .. "up to you!"  how they  count

I entered on October 2nd, went to do the "new" TM30 . . .she put my 90-day report date at December 2nd.  I kindly asked her to count 90 days from October 2nd !

Many of these people have no idea of Maths

7 minutes ago, BritTim said:

They count actual months.

excuse me, I doubt this. The question is good!  Two months are actually 61 days, except when one of the months in the count is a month February

when it comes to count. . . it is the old Immigration game.  They count the day of your application as day number one, and count backwards to the day your Bank account showed 800,000+  (and nothing less from there on)

so they count down 60 days, although it could actually be 61 days 

Same applies when you enter the country . . day of entry is day one . .then they follow the calendar and count 30 days . .so sometimes it is when you arrive on April 2 on a visa exempt, they day the permit of stay for 30 days end is not May 2 but rather May 1 st !!

17 minutes ago, Bert Jones said:

Sorry to hijack the topic...but does anyone know what the fines are for late extension applications...looks like I will be a week late. Would it help if I notified IO that I will be late or just turn up a week late and pay the fine...or would they refuse my application and make me re-apply for a new non O ?

It seems that your permit of stay is now void, and in order to get an extension, you need to get a new Non-Imm-O or O/A Visa again and start the whole process all over

5 minutes ago, BoBoTheClown said:

If you have 65,000 baht of salary coming to any account (US,UK,Thai) every month you have the means to prove it. Only people that don't have the money can't figure out how to prove.  Even a clown like me knows that. 

you firstly have to prove that you are earning a salary.  That's the point with showing proof of income for an extension of stay. Only secondly they need to see that your salary is 65,000+ THB or above.  Only showing bank slips stating that every month, 65000+ THB are transferred into your account, could (??) probably not seen as a proof of income. Do you see my point?  As of today, it is not clear if bank slips will be accepted as being proof.  Only notarized legalized income letters are accepted as proof as of today

Allow me my 5 cents about the income affidavit case.

I think that Immigration is not going to accept banking receipts over monthly money coming into your Thai bank account from abroad, as a proof of income.

Why I think so?

Well, it is not scam-proof ! . . . . . . . because you literally can spray fog over the fact that you, let’s say, only make 45,000 THB per month. Imagine you hold two bank accounts in Thailand, and use only ONE for receiving 65,000+ THB from your USA or UK account every month. In Thailand you withdraw cash 20,000 THB from account #1 and put into account #2. Then you transfer the 20,000 THB to your USA/UK account. (Fees and exchange rate losses not taken into consideration here,ok?) In the meantime, your USA/UK account has accumulated another 45,000 THB and you top this up with the 20,000 THB to make the next transfer of 65,000 THB from USA/UK to Thailand.

Let’s call this an “Income carousel” or a “transfer carousel”. You could actually hide the fact that your income is much much less than the 65,000 THB needed for the extensions, while not needing 800,000 in a bank. I consider the Thai side clever enough for not being aware of the possibility

By the way, as of now nothing is in the written from Thailand's Immigration Police about what they will accept as proof of income once in mid summer next year the affidavits which can still be had until 30 th December and are valid for use as income proof for six months, become void.  At the moment all you can do and wait for the Thai Immigration to publish something written about this matter

Allow me my 5 cents about the income affidavit case. I think that Immigration is not going to accept banking receipts over monthly money coming into your Thai bank account from abroad, as a proof of income. Why I think so? Well, it is not scam-proof ! . . . . . . . .Let me show you . . . because you literally can spray fog over the fact that you, let’s say, only make 45,000 THB per month. Imagine you hold two bank accounts in Thailand, and use only ONE for receiving 65,000+ THB from your USA or UK account every month. In Thailand you withdraw cash 20,000 THB from account #1 and put into account #2. Then you transfer the 20,000 THB to your USA/UK account. (Fees and exchange rate losses not taken into consideration here,ok?) In the meantime, your USA/UK account has accumulated another 45,000 THB and you top this up with the 20,000 THB to make the next transfer of 65,000 THB from USA/UK to Thailand. Let’s call this an “Income carousel” or a “transfer carousel”. You could actually hide the fact that your income is much much less than the 65,000 THB needed for the extensions, while not needing 800,000 in a bank. I consider the Thai side clever enough for not being aware of it

try another road . . . . maybe you can meet the requirements (age 50 or older & the financial) and get a Non-Imm-O in Savanakhet for being retired,  saves you all the hassles of paperwork that is connected to the Marriage extension 

On 7/23/2018 at 10:19 AM, Sheryl said:

In fact, those using the ATM withdrawal approach might need to start saving all their ATM receipts....

this may come as a shock for some,  because the print on ATM receipts will dissapear due to it's low lightfastness  really quick within a short spell of time

8 hours ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

2 things one does not buy online in Thailand....electronics and shoes.

at a price of 600-1000 Baht for a pair of shoes it is worth a try.  He can still make somebody else happy if he is not satisfied with the shoes

or those?

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/diao-2018-oxfords-34-46-i216673454-s327513494.html?

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/2018-oxfords-i173526759-s217252870.html?