BREAKING NEWS British Embassy Bangkok to Stop Certification of Income Letters

[rott]

If the matter is not resolved by this time next month somebody could organise a mass picket of the Ploenchit Fair.

 

That'd show 'em.

[Thaidream]

1 minute ago, wayned said:

But your opinion is not written into the Thai  law!

No , it is not- but I can only tell you my past experience and relate  what I have read about the current experiences of others at the CM office.  I also can and have read the Thai Immigration Act of 1979 and the Police Order of 2014 which indicates - that there are 2 ways to get an extension of stay  for marriage and retirement-

 

A.  Show 800K/400K in a Thai Bank for 2-3 months seasoning

B.   Provide evidence of an income stream each month of 65K or 40K (marriage)

 

Point B  evidence is the issue - if there is no Embassy Letter from BE- what  other evidence will be accepted.  I would assume Thai Imm is discussing this at present. However- the BE is still issuing letters until the cut off date 12 Dec 18  and since the letter is good for 6 months-  this will carry impacted people to early June 2019 so Thai Imm may be taking their time on the issue.

 

I have no inside  info on anything- just hope that  everything turns out good for everyone.  I still believe that most people-whatever Nationality- do not lie and can present  added info if asked.

[Joe Mcseismic]

5 minutes ago, rott said:

If the matter is not resolved by this time next month somebody could organise a mass picket of the Ploenchit Fair.

 

That'd show 'em.

Maybe that "somebody" should be you.

[Joe Mcseismic]

Double post.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Joe Mcseismic

[soalbundy]

8 minutes ago, rott said:

If the matter is not resolved by this time next month somebody could organise a mass picket of the Ploenchit Fair.

 

That'd show 'em.

Nothing like causing a public disturbance to get in the IO's good books

[wayned]

4 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

No , it is not- but I can only tell you my past experience and relate  what I have read about the current experiences of others at the CM office.  I also can and have read the Thai Immigration Act of 1979 and the Police Order of 2014 which indicates - that there are 2 ways to get an extension of stay  for marriage and retirement-

 

A.  Show 800K/400K in a Thai Bank for 2-3 months seasoning

B.   Provide evidence of an income stream each month of 65K or 40K (marriage)

 

Point B  evidence is the issue - if there is no Embassy Letter from BE- what  other evidence will be accepted.  I would assume Thai Imm is discussing this at present. However- the BE is still issuing letters until the cut off date 12 Dec 18  and since the letter is good for 6 months-  this will carry impacted people to early June 2019 so Thai Imm may be taking their time on the issue.

 

I have no inside  info on anything- just hope that  everything turns out good for everyone.  I still believe that most people-whatever Nationality- do not lie and can present  added info if asked.

This issue was brought up many years ago and the final resolution was that some Immigration Offices required back up information and now it's reared it's ugly head again.  If I remember correctly he issue was raised by the BE at that time also!

[soalbundy]

4 minutes ago, wayned said:

This issue was brought up many years ago and the final resolution was that some Immigration Offices required back up information and now it's reared it's ugly head again.  If I remember correctly he issue was raised by the BE at that time also!

Tenacious little bull dog.

[Spidey]

5 hours ago, tropo said:

Please excuse me as I'm about 500 posts behind since I last read this thread...

 

So if Thai immigration refuses income support documents, and the Embassy refuses to issue income letters, isn't that saying goodbye to all expats who have been using income letters for extension applications? I'm Australian, but I can see them following the BE's example sooner or later... along with the US and other embassies. I'm not confident that Thailand even cares if they lose half the expats. We either comply or bugger off.

Their only avenue would be the 80,000/40,000 baht route by fair means or foul.

 

I think that if all embassies were in the same boat and acted collectively, then there may be some chance of a resolution. However, currently, no other embassy seems to have a problem.

[Nurseynutcase]

On 10/14/2018 at 8:50 AM, scottiejohn said:

And of course the "Daily Mail" who are banned in Thailand due to their negative articles on Thailand.

Off thread a bit however, it is possible to buy the Daily Mail as a newspaper in Thailand.

 

I find this most bizarre.

[Pattaya46]

5 hours ago, tropo said:

So if Thai immigration refuses income support documents, and the Embassy refuses to issue income letters, isn't that saying goodbye to all expats who have been using income letters for extension applications?

Certainly not all. I think that a good number of them would be able to switch to the 800k method as they used the incomes method only because it was more convenient for them. 

A few desperate cases may even become willing to marry their long term Thai girlfriend to reduce the bill.

 

5 hours ago, tropo said:

 I'm not confident that Thailand even cares if they lose half the expats. //

According to the BE interview, they would issue only 3'000 income letters a year. That would mean at worse 5% of British expats, not 50% 

[soalbundy]

4 minutes ago, Spidey said:

Their only avenue would be the 80,000/40,000 baht route by fair means or foul.

 

I think that if all embassies were in the same boat and acted collectively, then there may be some chance of a resolution. However, currently, no other embassy seems to have a problem.

perfidious Albion is at it again.

[Pattaya46]

On ‎10‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 8:50 AM, scottiejohn said:

And of course the "Daily Mail" who are banned in Thailand due to their negative articles on Thailand.

Uh? Out of subject, but the Daily Mail is not banned in Thailand. I just checked it :

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

[Spidey]

2 minutes ago, Pattaya46 said:

 

 

According to the BE interview, they would issue only 3'000 income letters a year. That would mean at worse 5% of British expats, not 50% 

Sorry if I don't give exact figures (someone else can correct them), but according to Thai Immigration, there are between 30 and 60,000 British Expats and 50% of them use the embassy letter method to obtain their visa extensions. So that's between 15,000 and 30,000 affected by the decision. A much more realistic figure IMO. 

 

Further evidence that the woman on the radio was completely clueless on the subject of Thai Immigration. Probably missed a nought off in her notes!

[Spidey]

2 hours ago, vogie said:

So it's ok for the BE to be fraudulent up to the 12th of December, I very much doubt your claim.

Actually Thai Immigration will accept the letters until June 2019 and beyond, if you could get hold of one.

 

Thai immigration have made no announcement that they will stop accepting the letter at some stage in the future.

[Shoeless Joe]

3 hours ago, Mike Teavee said:

 

Looks more or less the same as the one I got in June this year, main difference being there is now a disclaimer at the bottom of the letter...

 

[Edit: Apologies, with all the faffing around taking pics & editing out details, Shoeless Joe beat me to the fact that there is now a disclaimer at the bottom of the letter, but for anybody who's interested there it is on an actual letter from BE - I wonder if this was added in May after them discussing things with Thai Immigration]

 

 

 

 

My letter which is the same in all respects and with the disclaimer is dated April 2018. So before the MAy meeting.

 

Joe

[vogie]

25 minutes ago, Spidey said:

Actually Thai Immigration will accept the letters until June 2019 and beyond, if you could get hold of one.

 

Thai immigration have made no announcement that they will stop accepting the letter at some stage in the future.

Spidey the point I was trying to make is if the letter was fraudulent surely the British Embassy would cease issueing them immediately. The Embassy would not continue to issue them till the 12th of Dec if they were comitting a crime. I shall be contacting the BE next month to obtain my letter for my extension in April. 

[fforest1]

39 minutes ago, Spidey said:

Sorry if I don't give exact figures (someone else can correct them), but according to Thai Immigration, there are between 30 and 60,000 British Expats and 50% of them use the embassy letter method to obtain their visa extensions. So that's between 15,000 and 30,000 affected by the decision. A much more realistic figure IMO. 

 

Further evidence that the woman on the radio was completely clueless on the subject of Thai Immigration. Probably missed a nought off in her notes!

I think this sounds much closer to the truth.....NO WAY,NO WAY does the BE only give out 3000 notarized income letters a year..There has to be way more than this....15,000 to 30,000 letters sounds way closer to being right.....

[Spidey]

9 minutes ago, vogie said:

Spidey the point I was trying to make is if the letter was fraudulent surely the British Embassy would cease issueing them immediately. The Embassy would not continue to issue them till the 12th of Dec if they were comitting a crime. I shall be contacting the BE next month to obtain my letter for my extension in April. 

Also the Thai Immigration would cease accepting them immediately. I applied for my letter last week and await it's return. I would advise you or anyone else to apply for the letter asap as I can see the BE getting a huge influx of applications before December 12th, something admitted to by the embassy woman on the radio.

 

I also suspect that if your letter is caught in the backlog and isn't issued by January 1st, the BE may use this as an excuse not to issue the letter at all.

[Pattaya46]

1 hour ago, Spidey said:

// there are between 30 and 60,000 British Expats and 50% of them use the embassy letter method to obtain their visa extensions. //

Hum... I would like to find the good figures (Google doesn't really helped me) but I really doubt about yours. From what I know, many (most?) expats are not on Retirement or Marriage extension, but on Work visa, Dependent visa, etc. so they don't need this embassy letter. And do you really thing the BE is able to produce 100+ such letters a day ??

[Esso49]

1 minute ago, Pattaya46 said:

Hum... I would like to find the good figures (Google doesn't really helped me) but I really doubt about yours. From what I know, many (most?) expats are not on Retirement or Marriage extension, but on Work visa, Dependent visa, etc. so they don't need this embassy letter. And do you really thing the BE is able to produce 100+ such letters a day ??

So you know between 30 - 60000 expats here in Thailand that allowed you to make that statement ?  Utter nonsense.

[soalbundy]

3 hours ago, vogie said:

So it's ok for the BE to be fraudulent up to the 12th of December, I very much doubt your claim.

How is it fraud as they have written a caveat at the bottom of the letter, what they are saying is ''We have seen the applicants documents which state he has an income of xxxx amount but we don't know if it's true''.

supplying certification can prove to be difficult in some cases, the state pension should be OK but what about company pensions or stocks held by a broker, you are relying on their good will, a bank may just refer you to your internet banking site, and what is certification, would a company letter do it or does JP have to sign it off?

[Spidey]

Just now, Pattaya46 said:

Hum... I would like to find the good figures (Google doesn't really helped me) but I really doubt about yours. From what I know, many (most?) expats are not on Retirement or Marriage extension, but on Work visa, Dependent visa, etc. so they don't need this embassy letter. And do you really thing the BE is able to produce 100+ such letters a day ??

Most Brits that I personally know are on retirement/ marriage visas. Yes, I'm sure they can. They no doubt have a team of Thai support staff in an office, flying through the applications, which is the real reason that the BE want to cease this facility. Smaller embassy requiring less office space and less support staff. A win win for the BE.

[vogie]

16 minutes ago, Spidey said:

Also the Thai Immigration would cease accepting them immediately. I applied for my letter last week and await it's return. I would advise you or anyone else to apply for the letter asap as I can see the BE getting a huge influx of applications before December 12th, something admitted to by the embassy woman on the radio.

 

I also suspect that if your letter is caught in the backlog and isn't issued by January 1st, the BE may use this as an excuse not to issue the letter at all.

If I apply for my letter sooner, it will be over the six months allowed. ????

[Spidey]

Just now, Esso49 said:

So you know between 30 - 60000 expats here in Thailand that allowed you to make that statement ?  Utter nonsense.

The figure was posted in this thread or a related thread by another poster.

 

In my opinion/experience, the figure of 3000 annually is much more likely to be "utter nonsense".

[vogie]

4 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

How is it fraud as they have written a caveat at the bottom of the letter, what they are saying is ''We have seen the applicants documents which state he has an income of xxxx amount but we don't know if it's true''.

supplying certification can prove to be difficult in some cases, the state pension should be OK but what about company pensions or stocks held by a broker, you are relying on their good will, a bank may just refer you to your internet banking site, and what is certification, would a company letter do it or does JP have to sign it off?

SB, I am not saying it's fraud, the poster did I was replying to.

[Pattaya46]

5 minutes ago, Esso49 said:

Utter nonsense.

Uh? Which part?? 

No doubt that there is a huge number of British expats who are here for work, some of them with wife and children. Also no doubt that some other British expats have "dependants" with them, often their farang wife. All those people do not need a letter.

[Spidey]

3 minutes ago, Pattaya46 said:

Uh? Which part?? 

No doubt that there is a huge number of British expats who are here for work, some of them with wife and children. Also no doubt that some other British expats have "dependants" with them, often their farang wife. All those people do not need a letter.

A far greater number are here for retirement or use the marriage visa route.

[ubonjoe]

I think it time to give this topic a short time out. I getting tired of removing all the bickering and baiting post after just removing another one.

Topic now  for about 2 hours. 

Edit: Now open. If the bickering resumes it will be closed again for a longer time period.

Edited October 17, 2018 by ubonjoe

[Tanoshi]

3 hours ago, Spidey said:

Actually Thai Immigration will accept the letters until June 2019 and beyond, if you could get hold of one.

That hasn't been confirmed, just an assumption.

[Jingthing]

That hasn't been confirmed, just an assumption.

It's a well founded assumption as they generally accept all embassy letters as old as six months.

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