Funds for retirement extension short

[loong]

Hello,

my extension is due tomorrow 11th September.

For many years I have paid into my Thai bank account a cheque drawn on my Uk account and this has always been ok.

This year I paid in a cheque on the 10th April which allowed 2 months for it to clear and be credited to my Thai bank account so that I would have the 800,000 Baht in the account for the necessary 3 months.

Unfortunately, that cheque has totally disappeared, the money has never been taken from my UK account. When querying at the bank they say they will investigate and then telephone me. Of course, they don't.

As I was not going to have 800,000 Baht in my bank, seasoned for 3 months, I figured that I would get a letter from the British Embassy as income statement to bring the combined total above the 800,000.

As I was back in the UK mid July to 24th August I got the proof of income and on returning to Thailand, sent the forms off to the Embassy. Tracking indicated that the letter arrived at the Embassy on the 29th August. My UK bank account shows that the excessive 50 GBP fee for the letter was debited on the 31st.

Now, the letter from the Embassy may arrive tomorrow and I may have nothing to worry about, but if it doesn't then I'll be in the situation of not fulfilling the funds requirement.

The bank balance has been maintained at a minimum balance of 600,000 for the 3 months.

 

Does anyone have any idea what the IO is likely to do in this situation? Are they likely to give me a few extra days to bring in the income letter?

Any knowledgeable advice will be welcome. I will be going to the Khon Kaen immigration office.

[ubonjoe]

I suggest you contact the embassy in the morning about the letter to be sure they sent it. If they did they should be able to give you the tracking number for it.

There is no short extension immigration can give you unless you are married to a Thai or have a Thai child (60 days).

They would though allow you to do  the extension with 2 or 3 day overstay after your paid the 500 baht a day overstay fine.

[loong]

16 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

I suggest you contact the embassy in the morning about the letter to be sure they sent it. If they did they should be able to give you the tracking number for it.

There is no short extension immigration can give you unless you are married to a Thai or have a Thai child (60 days).

They would though allow you to do  the extension with 2 or 3 day overstay after your paid the 500 baht a day overstay fine.

Thank you UbonJoe,

would you suggest that I go to immigration and explain the situation or just leave it until I have the letter?

Is there some sort of maximum period that they allow for overstay before they will no longer process the extension?

 

 

[ubonjoe]

24 minutes ago, loong said:

Thank you UbonJoe,

would you suggest that I go to immigration and explain the situation or just leave it until I have the letter?

Is there some sort of maximum period that they allow for overstay before they will no longer process the extension?

 

 

You could go to immigration and inform them of the problem. They will likely tell you it is okay to overstay.

How long you would be allowed to overstay and still do the extension would depend upon the office. A week or so should not be a problem.

[loong]

Thanks UbonJoe,

very helpful and puts my mind at rest.

[loong]

The Post Office had delivered the letter to the wrong address.

The address that I supplied to the Embassy was written in Thai, yet the Embassy, for some reason, had used a transliteration. If they had used the address as I supplied there would not have been a problem.

The Post Office retrieved the letter and delivered it to me Monday Afternoon, too late to go to immigration.

I did the extension on Tuesday, paying 1 day overstay. 

[Evilbaz]

I'm astonished anybody in this day and age uses cheques - particularly from overseas.

Two months to clear is ridiculous.

For goodness sake set up internet banking - I'm 75 and I enjoy same day/next day transfers from overseas.

[JackThompson]

On 9/10/2017 at 2:34 PM, ubonjoe said:

You could go to immigration and inform them of the problem. They will likely tell you it is okay to overstay.

How long you would be allowed to overstay and still do the extension would depend upon the office. A week or so should not be a problem.

Out of curiosity, if he had obtained the "extension refused" 7-days to leave from immigration, would that have made it impossible for him to do his retirement-extension at the end of that extra week?  In other words, in this case, was "overstay" the preferable option?

 

Granted, 1-day overstay was cheaper in this case, but curious as to my options, in case I ever run into a similar issue with delayed-paperwork, etc.

[stevenl]

19 minutes ago, JackThompson said:

Out of curiosity, if he had obtained the "extension refused" 7-days to leave from immigration, would that have made it impossible for him to do his retirement-extension at the end of that extra week?  In other words, in this case, was "overstay" the preferable option?

 

Granted, 1-day overstay was cheaper in this case, but curious as to my options, in case I ever run into a similar issue with delayed-paperwork, etc.

AFAIK that 7 days is not an extension, but only to leave the country, which would mean it would have been useless in this case. But agree with you, I am curious about a definite answer as well.

[ubonjoe]

17 minutes ago, JackThompson said:

Out of curiosity, if he had obtained the "extension refused" 7-days to leave from immigration, would that have made it impossible for him to do his retirement-extension at the end of that extra week?  In other words, in this case, was "overstay" the preferable option?

There may be some offices that would allow an extension application during the 7 days but most will not do it now. Prior to when they changed the wording for them when the last police order was issued in 2014 that would do them. The 7 days are not an extension of stay so there would be nothing to extend.

[billd766]

1 hour ago, Evilbaz said:

I'm astonished anybody in this day and age uses cheques - particularly from overseas.

Two months to clear is ridiculous.

For goodness sake set up internet banking - I'm 75 and I enjoy same day/next day transfers from overseas.

 

Several years ago I got a refund from the taxman in the UK.

 

As I no longer have a bank or building society account they sent me a cheque.

 

I am 73 and yes I have internet banking but only in Thailand.

 

I left the UK completelt in 2001 and as my offshore bank account was costing me money to maintain I simply closed it down as a waste of money.

[12DrinkMore]

52 minutes ago, billd766 said:

 

Several years ago I got a refund from the taxman in the UK.

 

As I no longer have a bank or building society account they sent me a cheque.

 

I am 73 and yes I have internet banking but only in Thailand.

 

I left the UK completelt in 2001 and as my offshore bank account was costing me money to maintain I simply closed it down as a waste of money.

 

You can set up a transfer facility with the Bangkok Bank in London. 

 

[Suradit69]

5 hours ago, Evilbaz said:

I'm astonished anybody in this day and age uses cheques - particularly from overseas.

Two months to clear is ridiculous.

For goodness sake set up internet banking - I'm 75 and I enjoy same day/next day transfers from overseas.

Or if he uses Bangkok Bank he could transfer the money from his UK bank to the London branch of Bangkok Bank (using the Bangkok Bank account number he has in Thailand) and have the deposit in baht available in Thailand in a few days at worst.

[Rama]

No, actually 2 months is normal for a check to clear from Thailand to another country. The check has to be physically processed; processed at the depositing bank then sent from the depositing bank to Bangkok where it is additionally processed, then physically sent overseas to the correspondence bank then sent to the overseas local bank then the process is reversed, all with paperwork. But I don't understand why the poster didn't do a wire transfer which is 24 hours.

[billd766]

7 hours ago, 12DrinkMore said:

 

You can set up a transfer facility with the Bangkok Bank in London. 

 

 

Thank you but I have no need now.

 

My pensions are sent indirectly to my Thai bank account and HMRC seem to have lost interest in me. A good thing too.

[jacko45k]

On 9/14/2017 at 10:12 PM, billd766 said:

 

Thank you but I have no need now.

 

My pensions are sent indirectly to my Thai bank account and HMRC seem to have lost interest in me. A good thing too.

UK banks  make you dance through hoops with an overseas address ......I am close to telling them what to do with their account myself. I like the UK CC attached to it though and my NI stamp is still direct debited from it.

[billd766]

8 hours ago, jacko45k said:

UK banks  make you dance through hoops with an overseas address ......I am close to telling them what to do with their account myself. I like the UK CC attached to it though and my NI stamp is still direct debited from it.

 

Fortunately for me have paid my 44 years of contributions and HMRC dealing with my tax without bothering me I have no real need of a UK offshore bank account.

 

The last full year that I had one I worked out that with the cost of every ATM withdrawal, the bank charges back in the UK for using my card here in Thailand, and the annual fee that the bank demanded to "generously allow" me to use their facilites to obtain MY money, it was costing me about 20,000 baht. In addition the hassle of obtaining new cards sent here was getting to be a PITA.

 

My pension providers now send my pensions to my KBank account very cheaply so in the end I decided to close my account.

 

I suppose that being retired I would need to use a credit card perhaps once or twice a year but the cost and hassle isn't really worth it. If I really HAVE to use a UK credit card I can always ask my son or my friend and then send the money to them afterwards.