BREAKING NEWS British Embassy Bangkok to Stop Certification of Income Letters

[CharlieH]

Personal circumstances will vary, but for me it was only 4 months statements from Kasikorn, that was totalled then ÷ 4 = av.per month ×12 to give annual income. Letter produced.charged £50+

 

Dependent on how many months statements the Thai IO asks for I see no difference except no letter writing to Embassy and no £50+ payment.!

 

Or am I missing something ?(based on above circumstances)

[giddyup]

5 minutes ago, Esso49 said:

so what is the point of the letter then if they also have the real bank book pages as proof I wonder ?

My bank (SCB) doesn't. They just supply a letter verifying the 800K has been in your account for the 3 months. Immigration also ask for a photocopy of the front and last page with the balance of your bankbook, but you supply that yourself.

[Joe Mcseismic]

1 minute ago, giddyup said:

My bank (SCB) doesn't. They just supply a letter verifying the 800K has been in your account for the 3 months. Immigration also ask for a photocopy of the front and last page with the balance of your bankbook, but you supply that yourself.

Phuket immigration insist on the bank letter, the bank certified copy of every page in your bank book. The banks in Phuket know what is required and always give both. Yet another example of Immigration inconsistency between different offices.

[gdhm]

 

• Report post
•  
•  #33

 

26 minutes ago, garyk said:

I don't want to put money in a Thai bank! I can show a verified 65K + from retirement institutions coming into my bank in the states. Will they accept that or will I have to transfer the money into Thailand? I can prove I have the funds but do not want to bring it over here.

They want to see proof that the money comes into Thailand. That is the whole point of these visas; to make money for Thailand. Otherwise, what is to stop you borrowing money for a day, get this copied and then live on 10,000 Bt a month?

Edited 20 minutes ago by Joe Mcseismic

 

Surely proof of withdrawal in Thailand, is adequate.

I use ATM withdrawals to get my Income from my Nationwide UK Bank account. The Nationwide statements clearly show for each withdrawal the date, amount Exchange rate and location of the ATM machine where the cash withdrawal was made.

 

 

[Esso49]

1 minute ago, CharlieH said:

Personal circumstances will vary, but for me it was only 4 months statements from Kasikorn, that was totalled then ÷ 4 = av.per month ×12 to give annual income. Letter produced.charged £50+

 

Dependent on how many months statements the Thai IO asks for I see no difference except no letter writing to Embassy and no £50+ payment.!

 

Or am I missing something ?(based on above circumstances)

You mean you provided the above to the British Embassy to get the confirmation of income letter ? I always used UK pension statements as I thought that was needed as proof of income outside of Thailand. Back to my post 22 then my friendly IO is saying just show me your Thai bank book next ( of course it will show credits from foreign transfers). So that being the case you are right and we save money

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

Well, I can see my days are numbered, if Thailand will, in every case for extensions, require the physical transfer of cash into Thailand, whether 800k/year or 65k/month, officially recorded by a Thai bank. I simply don't need 65k a month and often don't transfer in that amount regularly. Another reason is that I'm not here full time, so don't need/want the cash here wasting away. Guess it means Thailand wants only full-time expat contributors to its economy. It may very well be my last retirement extension. (I spend a lot of time in Vietnam these days so no big scare.)

Edited October 8, 2018 by Kaoboi Bebobp

[giddyup]

8 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

Object! 

You do realise that Thailand makes it's own rules and it's not a British colony?

[giddyup]

3 minutes ago, Kaoboi Bebobp said:

Well, I can see my days are numbered, if Thailand will, in every case for extensions, require the physical transfer of cash into Thailand, whether 800k/year or 65k/month, officially recorded by a Thai bank. I simply don't need 65k a month and often don't transfer in that amount regularly. Another reason is that I'm not here full time, so don't need/want the cash here wasting away. Guess it means Thailand wants only full-time expat contributors to its economy. It may very well be last retirement extension. 

AFAIK there is no restriction on transferring the 800k into a Thai bank 3 months prior to obtaining your extension and then transferring it back immediately after, or living and drawing down on the 800K throughout the year and just topping it up prior.

[Lungstib]

1 hour ago, colinneil said:

British embassy are a total waste of space.

I actually thought they had sold the space and moved into a condo. May as well forget they exist for all they do for live citizens.

[Mickmouse1]

Funds must be on regular basis if not the lump sum.Of course they will check your annual statements when you go for renewal. 

Best solution move to Laos or Cambodia. If you love LOS so much you can still live across the border. 

[giddyup]

1 minute ago, Lungstib said:

I actually thought they had sold the space and moved into a condo. May as well forget they exist for all they do for live citizens.

In this case they have to abide by the directive of Thai immigration, not sure what else you'd expect them to do.

[Mickmouse1]

2 minutes ago, Lungstib said:

I actually thought they had sold the space and moved into a condo. May as well forget they exist for all they do for live citizens.

What do you want them to do?  The only option is to levy a few hundred quids charge for such a service. 

[Esso49]

Just now, Mickmouse1 said:

What do you want them to do?  The only option is to levy a few hundred quids charge for such a service. 

Probably cost far more than that given most of their work is now outsourced to Mumbai anyway.

[Esso49]

5 minutes ago, Mickmouse1 said:

Funds must be on regular basis if not the lump sum.Of course they will check your annual statements when you go for renewal. 

Best solution move to Laos or Cambodia. If you love LOS so much you can still live across the border. 

Please reference the Thai requirement that requires funds to be on a regular basis

[Jingthing]

Please reference the Thai requirement that requires funds to be on a regular basis

There is none.

Sent from my Lenovo A7020a48 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[smedly]

I do 2x transfers a year from the UK so I assume the total of these 2x transactions will be divided by 12 to show monthly income to my Thai bank, seems pretty simple to me and a vast improvement on having to go to the British Embassy 

 

The only people affected by this are those that cannot produce the income statements or bank balance

[unamazedloso]

thais need to make money off the interest in a bank account. Nobody cares to verify anything. Thats why the price has gone up and no need to verify..

im not from the uk but couldnt do this. deal was i buy it everything and its in the wifes name. she works. We got the assets and live well but spare cash in those sums is tight for people that have worked out how to live here comfortably.

[cyberfarang]

1 hour ago, KhunBENQ said:

The link is in Thai and very slow to open or does not open at all.

The site does not have a time stamp, so can't say whether is has been revised or is new.

 

What I find interesting that under documents there is proof of income required like pension, interest etc. (point 3. in the last section).

But there is no mention of an income letter from embassy.

 

Was this income letter mentioned in previous orders/policies?

I simply don't know.

Taking an educated guess and trying to interpret this, it appears Thai immigration are saying, the monthly proof of income with an certification of income letter plus the additional required information is acceptable. But if the embassies are no longer issuing these letters then that`s a problem between the embassies and the applicants and if unable to obtain a letter, then the applicants have to use the money in a Thai bank method. This is how I read it.

 

I know of many expats that prefer to keep their savings in their home country accounts and bring over their money monthly using the letter from embassy method. Now it seems these people will have to start banking large sums with the Thai banks. The ones that do not have the 400000 for marriage extensions or 800000 for retirement extensions will have to leave or do visa runs. I predict a mass exodus of Farangs on budgets very soon. Now I wonder, what else do they have in-store for us?

[luckyluke]

^

500 instead of 400000

1000000 instead of 800000

 

100000 instead of 65000

[Ned]

This might be of interest to those who have been living here since 21st October 1998.

I just read the Thai language information and it states that those foreigners who are 60 or over and have been here for 20 years need only show 200,000 or 20,000 monthly for a retirement extension.

Those between 55 and 60 who have been here for 20 years need to show 500,000 or 50,000 a month.

 

 

[doctormann]

2 minutes ago, luckyluke said:

^

500 instead of 400000

1000000 instead of 800000

 

100000 instead of 65000

Don't give then ideas!!

 

For those that have been using the monthly income / embassy letter route, there has effectively been a price hike of maybe 15-20% anyway because of the difference between gross income, as declared to the embassy, and net income, which is what will be going into a Thai account.

[Joe Mcseismic]

4 minutes ago, Ned said:

This might be of interest to those who have been living here since 21st October 1998.

I just read the Thai language information and it states that those foreigners who are 60 or over and have been here for 20 years need only show 200,000 or 20,000 monthly for a retirement extension.

Those between 55 and 60 who have been here for 20 years need to show 500,000 or 50,000 a month.

 

 

They mean those that have been getting extensions for those amounts of time. The retirement age used to be 55 and the rates used to be 200,000 Bt and 500,000 Bt. When these were increased to 400k and 800k respectively, these people were grandfathered and continued on the old rate. If you never got the old rate on the marriage, or retirement visas, you can't get them now.

[PAWNEESE]

I stopped keeping 800k in my Thai bank and opted for the embassy letter "proof" of income.  I guess I will have to move a lump sum back.

 

My only objection to having nearly £20,000 here is how hard it will be for my grown up son to get it when I go off to the big Go Go bar in the sky. A Thai lawyer needed to do a will and process it when I go. I guess the bank keeps the money if no arrangement made. 

 

My cunning plan .. I guess will be move said sum 3 months before .. and start to spend it only after visa obtained. Top up 3 months b4 next visa.  

 

Not my problem I guess if £20k lost if I "go" whilst account has a big sum in. But its best to make things easy as possible. Oh well ... maybe a will needed. Im not sure if I decide Ive had enough ... and just to go home if its easy to take out my 800,000 baht.  

 

Im ok this year .. my renewal in very early December .. the question of whether they take regular movement into my Thai bank will be sorted for future years .. but the banks will need to do lots of work certifying by letter it is genuine incoming funds from abroad not just moved from person A account to person B account .. if that makes sense.

Edited October 8, 2018 by PAWNEESE
Addition

[Phuket Man]

9 minutes ago, Ned said:

This might be of interest to those who have been living here since 21st October 1998.

I just read the Thai language information and it states that those foreigners who are 60 or over and have been here for 20 years need only show 200,000 or 20,000 monthly for a retirement extension.

Those between 55 and 60 who have been here for 20 years need to show 500,000 or 50,000 a month.

 

 

Wrong.

You need to have been getting annual extensions continuosly since those dates.

[Ned]

Lucky Luke.........As far as I could see the requirements remain 400K and 800K.

Who can blame them for not wanting foreign exchange deposited in their banking system, whatever you happen to think of banks in general.

A Stat Dec from say the Aussie embassy claiming a couple of apartments in Melbourne etc and the claimant living on rice and fish sauce and renting a 3,000 baht apartment in Chiang Mai because that's all he can afford...........What's in it for the powerful Thai banks? Give 'em the bum's rush!

[Ned]

Phukket Man.....I didn't read that into it. What I failed to mention though was the claimant needs to prove a regular income.

In any case all these requirements will probably be subject to local interpretation.

[ubonjoe]

8 minutes ago, Ned said:

Phukket Man.....I didn't read that into it. What I failed to mention though was the claimant needs to prove a regular income.

In any case all these requirements will probably be subject to local interpretation.

From clause 2.22 of the police order for extensions.

"(6) An alien who entered the Kingdom before October 21, 1998 and has been consecutively permitted to stay in the Kingdom for retirement shall be subject to the following criteria:"

 

[Mark1066]

1 hour ago, Pilotman said:

If you are not transferring money from the UK to live,  then how do the idiots think that you are financing yourself.  Income doesn't need to be checked by the Embassy. beyond ensuring that the supporting docs are genuine.  Its not the job of the Embassy to do the work of the Thai Authorities for them, its to support their Citizens.  

If you are transferring money from the UK then what's your problem? Just use Thai bank statements to prove that. It's easier than paying the embassy to prove something they don't know. And no, they are not here to support their citizens, they are here to promote the interests of the UK. That's what embassies do.

 

They're not idiots, they are asking people to prove that they are financing themselves from, abroad and not working illegally. What's wrong with that?

Edited October 8, 2018 by Mark1066

[Ned]

Now I get it. Was the retirement age 20 years ago, 55? or was it 60? If it was 55 then this requirement would apply only to people 75 and up......ie people who have been on a retirement extension continously since 1998.

[Mark1066]

1 hour ago, smedly said:

I do 2x transfers a year from the UK so I assume the total of these 2x transactions will be divided by 12 to show monthly income to my Thai bank, seems pretty simple to me and a vast improvement on having to go to the British Embassy 

 

The only people affected by this are those that cannot produce the income statements or bank balance

Exactly. The only people who will be affected by this rule change are those who do not have the income or money in the bank to qualify for a visa based on marriage or retirement (or who do have the money but refuse to transfer enough of it to a Thai bank account).

Edited October 8, 2018 by Mark1066