BREAKING NEWS British Embassy Bangkok to Stop Certification of Income Letters

[billd766]

1 hour ago, doctormann said:

Indeed, why not?

My UK bank provides me with annual summaries as a matter of course, as well as detailed statements.

Immigration could just apply the appropriate exchange rate on the day to convert to Baht.  Not acceptable, of course.

 

 

 

My pensions are sent to my Thai bank account every month and can be easily checked by the amount paid in per pension per month. All I need to do is add a small spreadsheet giving the amount paid (with the exchange rate of the day of transfer) in and it will correspond to the statement. I have had one set up for years and I also download my bank statements with the explanation of income and expenditure. 

[billd766]

1 hour ago, superal said:

Ok , Its easy to say use Transferwise to move the 4/800k to your Thai bank account but how do you send it back after the 3 months . It is starting to feel a little uncomfortable with the moving of goal posts in an unstable country and so the least amount of financial commitment here the better . Who knows what the next surprise may be .

 

That is fine if you have 800,000 baht lying around doing nothing. Not everybody has that much to tie up for years at a time.

 

[grollies]

On 10/8/2018 at 1:59 PM, mok199 said:

when I went to immigration in Pattaya(with my letter of income) to renew my visa, my wife was approached by an immigration officer ''next year when your husband needs his retirement visa ,come and see me '' and he quoted her a price.. hmmmm

Bite his hand off

[Jingthing]

Do you have a link to this directive, please? I would be delighted to pass it on to the lady at the British Embassy and point out just how wrong her reasoning is!

Currently embassy letters are required for income based applications. The BE is promoting an onerous regime where monthly imports reflecting the full income claim supercedes needing the letter. The video interview suggests very weakly that this has been confirmed by Bangkok immigration. Wanna buy a bridge?

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[giddyup]

7 minutes ago, billd766 said:

 

That is fine if you have 800,000 baht lying around doing nothing. Not everybody has that much to tie up for years at a time.

 

It doesn't have to be tied up, it can be used for living expenses up until 3 months prior to extension and then just topped back up.

Edited October 14, 2018 by giddyup

[skatewash]

2 minutes ago, giddyup said:

It doesn't have to be tied up, it can be used for living expenses up until 3 months prior to extension and then just topped back up.

And you can get 1.3% interest with no tax withholding in a Mee Tae Dai savings account at Krungsri Bank.  You can even get better interest rates at other banks in various fixed-rate fixed-term accounts if you want to do a bit more work:  keep track of when it matures and file Thai tax return to get the withheld interest back.

And you do have to live on something while in Thailand, why not the 800,000 baht in the account outside of the three months during the annual seasoning period?  Yes, I too can earn much better return back in the home country (8.3% average over many years in index funds, for example) but it is good to have some money not subject to market fluctuation which is what that account represents for me.  I top it off every year just before the seasoning period begins and so my expenses in transferring money from outside of Thailand are quite minimal.

It's understandable that one might not be able or even want to do the same and that's why I hope the income alternative continues to exist for those people who wish to go that route.  I just wanted to point out that "dead money" is perhaps a bit negative view of the money that supports my living expenses in Thailand and represents my only substantial asset that is not invested in the equities market.

[anon537687643]

They want your money £20k in a thai bank then they’ve got you by the balls ! My answer would be “go to ****”


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[Jingthing]

9 minutes ago, markaoffy said:

They want your money £20k in a thai bank then they’ve got you by the balls ! My answer would be “go to ****”


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

Well that is the simpler choice. Show the money. No worries about embassy letters or being challenged to back up any income claims. 

[billd766]

2 hours ago, giddyup said:

It doesn't have to be tied up, it can be used for living expenses up until 3 months prior to extension and then just topped back up.

 

But then it has to be replaced, preferably 3 1/2 months before the next application.

[Jingthing]

1 minute ago, billd766 said:

 

But then it has to be replaced, preferably 3 1/2 months before the next application.

Yes it does and if there is a problem with the mechanics of your transferring in plan (it happens) and you miss the begin seasoning deadline, you need to start all over. Also don't you dare let your account fall to 799,999 baht during the seasoning period! 

Edited October 14, 2018 by Jingthing

[dayo202]

3 hours ago, superal said:

Ok , Its easy to say use Transferwise to move the 4/800k to your Thai bank account but how do you send it back after the 3 months . It is starting to feel a little uncomfortable with the moving of goal posts in an unstable country and so the least amount of financial commitment here the better . Who knows what the next surprise may be .

sent money back to UK using paypal

[billd766]

3 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Yes it does and if there is a problem with the mechanics of your transferring in plan (it happens) and you miss the begin seasoning deadline, you need to start all over. Also don't you dare let your account fall to 799,999 baht during the seasoning period! 

Not everybody is able to do that, hence the reasoning behind the embassy letter in the first place. 

 

At this point in time nobody has any idea what the Thai Immigration Dept will do re the Embassy cancelling their letter.

 

Until one side or the other comes up with a solution we are in limbo.

 

Those who have 800,000 baht should be fairly safe, those who relied on the embassy letter and can produce evidence of income (bank statements etc) may have a problem as the Thai Immigration Offices do not seem to have a standard that they stick to and those who use an agent may have a a problem or not. That will depend on how deep the new Immigration chief wants to dig.

 

He may be moved on if he tries to change too much, too quickly as there is a large amount of money involved.

 

All this is IMHO and YMMV.

[steve73]

4 hours ago, superal said:

Ok , Its easy to say use Transferwise to move the 4/800k to your Thai bank account but how do you send it back after the 3 months . It is starting to feel a little uncomfortable with the moving of goal posts in an unstable country and so the least amount of financial commitment here the better . Who knows what the next surprise may be .

I found this on one of these related threads a few days ago... I haven't tried it so cannot comment further.

https://www.dee.money/en/

[dayo202]

12 minutes ago, steve73 said:

I found this on one of these related threads a few days ago... I haven't tried it so cannot comment further.

https://www.dee.money/en/

can we transfer to the UK from Thailand using western union ? 

[David Walden]

5 hours ago, blackhorse said:

Facts. Thai immigration have done nothing.
Why are farang dreaming they Will overhaul the system without any proof whats so ever
 

We live in hope?

[Jingthing]

5 minutes ago, David Walden said:

We live in hope?

Be careful what "we" hope for. The current status quo may be much better than any changes coming, especially the onerous cockamamie scheme being bizarrely promoted by the British Embassy.

[Chopperboy]

I am just surprised they haven't put a quota on the numbers of retirement visas they're prepared to issue.

[Orton Rd]

3 hours ago, giddyup said:

It doesn't have to be tied up, it can be used for living expenses up until 3 months prior to extension and then just topped back up.

That's right, and really if you have not got a few hundred thousand in the bank here, you should probably be heading home anyway for your own good. For one thing you will be forced to go down another deceptive route to stay, and for another any medical emergency would see you in a very bad situation.

[blackhorse]

That's right, and really if you have not got a few hundred thousand in the bank here, you should probably be heading home anyway for your own good. For one thing you will be forced to go down another deceptive route to stay, and for another any medical emergency would see you in a very bad situation.

I bet you don't have prime medical insurance.
Most expats take out the bare minimum if anything at all and then come on here and crow about their policy and would be lucky if it would cover more than a few hundred thousand baht

[Expattaff1308]

I have been reading on another thread that it had nothing to do with Immigration (if it had other Embassies would have been doing the same as the Brit Embassy) but an FCO Audit and just possible when asked if British Nationals have other means of showing Income to Immigration they were told Yes by showing Bank Statements which seems to be the same advice we have been given from the Embassy Website and by the Notary Office on Pattaya News, which as we all know contradicts the information we are receiving from our Immigration Offices who still require an Embassy Letter.

Write to the Ambassador explaining the advice we are being given by the BE contradicts what we are being told by our Immigration Offices. and by doing so are putting us in jeopardy of being refused an extension of stay...Done mine already!

http://Thailand British Ambassador to Thailand Email address contact and ...

 

 

Thailand
Brian Davidson	British Ambassador to Thailand
Email	[email protected]
Website	https://www.gov.uk/government/world/organisations/british-embassy-bangkok
Personal Twitter	@KentBKK
Advice from CEOemail.com	How to write your email to a CEO

 

Edited October 14, 2018 by Expattaff1308

[Rally123]

26 minutes ago, Expattaff1308 said:

Write to the Ambassador explaining the advice we are being given by the BE contradicts what we are being told by our Immigration Offices. and by doing so are putting us in jeopardy of being refused an extension of stay...

Do you really think that writing to him will make matters different? Do you not think that the BE have thought this through, knowing of the backlash it would cause? Nah, bitching to the ambassador ain't gonna make any difference. The decision has been made.

[giddyup]

2 hours ago, billd766 said:

 

But then it has to be replaced, preferably 3 1/2 months before the next application.

Whatever you spend of the 800K has to be replaced, but you are still using your money, it's not dead as some people are calling it.

[OJAS]

4 hours ago, Pattaya46 said:

This has been posted many times already, but here it is :

https://www.immigration.go.th/content/service_22 (click on Eng on the top of the page for English version)

OK, I was hoping that it might have included an explicit reference to Embassy income verification being required in the case of the 65k monthly income method, but, unfortunately, it does not ????

Edited October 14, 2018 by OJAS

[OJAS]

7 minutes ago, Rally123 said:

Do you really think that writing to him will make matters different? Do you not think that the BE have thought this through, knowing of the backlash it would cause? Nah, bitching to the ambassador ain't gonna make any difference. The decision has been made.

It actually wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if an email to the Ambassador actually turned out to be the very first he had heard about this bloody shambles which his incompetently moronic minions had perpetrated in his name completely unbeknownst to him!

Edited October 14, 2018 by OJAS

[OJAS]

1 hour ago, Orton Rd said:

and for another any medical emergency would see you in a very bad situation.

Even with 800k in the bank any medical emergency would probably still see you up the Swanee if it occurred during the 3-month seasoning period!

[vogie]

17 minutes ago, Rally123 said:

Do you really think that writing to him will make matters different? Do you not think that the BE have thought this through, knowing of the backlash it would cause? Nah, bitching to the ambassador ain't gonna make any difference. The decision has been made.

And what are you doing about it, you seem to try and derail every thread you go on, if your not interested other than "bitching" to members that are being pro-active, your posts do little to help matters and infact are quite flaming. Why knock people that are trying to change things, if it doesn't work, at least we have tried.

Edited October 14, 2018 by vogie

[OJAS]

1 hour ago, Expattaff1308 said:

an FCO Audit and just possible when asked if British Nationals have other means of showing Income to Immigration they were told Yes by showing Bank Statements

As also stated in the Fabulous 103FM interview reported on another thread.

 

What the Embassy are in total denial on is, of course, that the only "other means" available to us is 800k in the bank!

Edited October 14, 2018 by OJAS

[JackThompson]

1 hour ago, blackhorse said:

I bet you don't have prime medical insurance.
Most expats take out the bare minimum if anything at all and then come on here and crow about their policy and would be lucky if it would cover more than a few hundred thousand baht

A simple solution - NOP Insurance - aka "Not Our Problem" aka "Stabilize and Evacuate".  Must be purchased on-entry by all, and renewed with any extension, so cheap for everybody.  And it doesn't cover much.  Govt-regulated but private-underwriting (funded by interest-bearing bonds) and solid actuarial calculations that make the bonds a good, stable, moderate-interest investment.

 

If something "serious medical" happens, you go to a state-hospital (not private) and are stabilized.  If you can be sent home in the seat of a plane fairly quickly, they get you to that point, and off you go.  If you will be prone (on a gurney) for an extended-time, you are sent home that way (more expensive flight, but cheaper than months of treatment). Which way you go is at the option of the insurer, aiming only to minimize costs. 

 

With that in place,no more worry that Thais will have to cover the medical-costs of foreigners - ever.  Done.

[Jingthing]

37 minutes ago, giddyup said:

Whatever you spend of the 800K has to be replaced, but you are still using your money, it's not dead as some people are calling it.

No, not dead, but dead-ish. 

If you ever leave Thailand you can repatriate it. (Theoretically.)

[Patriot1066]

 I find that the UK has the worst consular service than most of my US Canadian and Australian friends.