BertM Posted December 2, 2018 Share Posted December 2, 2018 (edited) On 12/1/2018 at 8:54 AM, onera1961 said: I don't understand. How is it a shell game? He is moving money from one of his account to another account for seasoning purposes only (if I understand correctly). No game is involved here. I think the poster is doing 800K money method not income method for his extension. You are correct with your understanding. It is NOT a shell game as the gk10002000 poster insinuated. The law does not require anyone to leave the 800k in their Thai bank after the extension is approved. I currently transfer about $45k USD per year from the US into my Citibank Thailand acct. Then, I convert the USD to THB at my discretion when I'm satisfied with currency rates. I use my Citi debit card to withdraw THB from any ATM in Thailand, pay all my bills using bill pay and make electronic xfers from my Citi THB acct. I cannot use Citi for my extension renewals because they do not have passbooks. So, I opened a KBank acct and will xfer 800k from Citi to KBank in June for the 3 month seasoning so I can use the 800k bank account method in Sep 2019. After my extension is approved, I can either xfer the money back to Citi, withdraw it slowly as needed using my KBank debit card or can set up my bill payees at KBank. But, setting up bill pay at KBank is a lot of work when I can just move the 800k back to Citi and continue paying everyone from Citi. My plans may change if TI issues some directives on the income method before my renewal comes due. It's up to TI... I can go either way because I have a US company pension, a US government social security & stock dividend income, each one separately over the 65k income threshold. Good luck to all... Edited December 2, 2018 by BertM typos 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onera1961 Posted December 2, 2018 Share Posted December 2, 2018 13 minutes ago, BertM said: I currently transfer about $45k per year from my Chase acct in US to my Citibank Thailand acct. If have a few questions. 1. How much money is required to open a Citi bank account in Thailand. Can I open with an O-A visa? I already have chase and Citi bank accounts in the US. 2. Is the Citi bank account in dollar or Thai baht? 3. What is the interest rate in Thai Citi bank? Can I get at least 2% like Ally bank in the US. 4. How do you transfer from Chase bank to Citi bank (obviously not ACH transfer like in the US)? 18 minutes ago, BertM said: I use my Citi debit card to withdraw THB from any ATM Does it entail Thai bank's ridiculous ATM fee if you use Thai Citi debit card or it is cheap like Bangkok Bank's (15 baht for out of zone and other bank's ATM or something like that) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BertM Posted December 2, 2018 Share Posted December 2, 2018 (edited) 32 minutes ago, onera1961 said: If have a few questions. 1. How much money is required to open a Citi bank account in Thailand. Can I open with an O-A visa? I already have chase and Citi bank accounts in the US. 2. Is the Citi bank account in dollar or Thai baht? 3. What is the interest rate in Thai Citi bank? Can I get at least 2% like Ally bank in the US. 4. How do you transfer from Chase bank to Citi bank (obviously not ACH transfer like in the US)? Does it entail Thai bank's ridiculous ATM fee if you use Thai Citi debit card or it is cheap like Bangkok Bank's (15 baht for out of zone and other bank's ATM or something like that) 1. When I opened in 2016, it was minimum 200k THB, but I think it went up to 1mm to open (a friend told me earlier this year). But, once the account is open, the balance can fall below the initial opening amount. I'm sure you can open with O-A, I opened when I was visiting (visa exempt) before my retirement. 2. I have Citi USD acct and a Citi THB acct. That way, I can xfer USD over and then convert at Citibank Thailand at much better rates. Chase cuts too much when they convert in US... 3. I don't know what the time deposit rates are at Citibank or the minimum amounts required. 4. I transfer Chase to Citibank visa international wire xfer (no fees) because I have a Private Client account with Chase. Citi doesn't charge for incoming wire xfers. 5. My Citi debit/atm card transactions have no fees when used in Thailand even if I use other bank atms like SCB, KBank, Bangkok Bank, etc. Edited December 2, 2018 by BertM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenKadz Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 On 11/9/2018 at 2:56 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said: There should be a Bangkok session offered by the U.S. Embassy folks as well... And if they can't or won't do that for some reason, at least make available a full transcript or audio recording of the CM session and send out the links via the ACS email notification system. Or better yet, webcast it live. But that may be a tech step too far for the Embassy folks. Did they listen? Was there ever a transcript or audio recording released that you know of? Please advise? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubonjoe Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 6 minutes ago, KenKadz said: Did they listen? Immigration has already released a amendment to the police order allowing transfers from abroad to be accepted instead of the income affidavit. See this topic. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallGuyJohninBKK Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 18 minutes ago, KenKadz said: Did they listen? Was there ever a transcript or audio recording released that you know of? Please advise? Thanks Nope... AFAIK... Never did anything of the sort. Never even bothered to respond to the emails I sent well ahead of the meeting requesting those kinds of things to both the BKK and CM Consulates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMNightRider Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 I visited the Chiang Mai US Consulate to get one of the last "income verification letters" to present to CM Immigration with proof of my monthly funds deposited in my US bank account. I asked the consulate clerk why they are doing away with this cash cow letter. He told me with a straight face the consulate was doing us a favour by doing away with this letter. What?? Huh?? You have got to be kidding me. I felt my blood pressure go up immediately. I just stared at this guy in disbelief knowing these people are part of the problem. All these clerks had to do, was verify what you are declaring as monthly income to present to immigration. Evidently, this was too much to ask having a consulate clerk actually read a US bank statement that matches the amount you are declaring. Of course it is obvious, Thai Immigration already made their plan clear, they are not really interested in how much money you have in your home country. These people want us to deposit our funds in a Thai bank, where the Thai government has access to it in case of an emergency, and the Thai banks will have an incredible amount of money to make money for themseleves. If one thinks this isn't the reason behind Thai Immigrations Thai bank deposit requirement, you probably still believe in the tooth fairy, and stay up at night waiting for Santa and the Easter Bunny to visit you. ???? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimGant Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Quote All these clerks had to do, was verify what you are declaring as monthly income to present to immigration. Yeah, just like the British did. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dante99 Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 35 minutes ago, CMNightRider said: These people want us to deposit our funds in a Thai bank, where the Thai government has access to it in case of an emergency, The issue discussed it the "Income Method" which has no requirement to maintain bank balances. It only requires a monthly deposit which can be quickly removed and done with as you wish. Right? Worried that the Thai government will take your account, I'm not. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattaya46 Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 31 minutes ago, CMNightRider said: If one thinks this isn't the reason behind Thai Immigrations Thai bank deposit requirement, you probably still believe in the tooth fairy, // Discussed many times already. If money was the reason, they would have made mandatory for everyone to use the 40/65k or 400/800k method... and they didn't Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMNightRider Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 7 minutes ago, Dante99 said: The issue discussed it the "Income Method" which has no requirement to maintain bank balances. It only requires a monthly deposit which can be quickly removed and done with as you wish. Right? Worried that the Thai government will take your account, I'm not. I'm not worried about the Thai government taking anything. I'm declining to deposit my monthly income into a Thai bank but thanks for sharing ???? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacko45k Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 12 minutes ago, CMNightRider said: I'm declining to deposit my monthly income into a Thai bank but thanks for sharing You seem to have no problem depositing yourself into Thailand, you now know what is required to do that, choose what you will. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMNightRider Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 11 minutes ago, jacko45k said: You seem to have no problem depositing yourself into Thailand, you now know what is required to do that, choose what you will. Lol, thank you so much jacko for sharing your infinite wisdom. ???? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onera1961 Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 (edited) 2 hours ago, CMNightRider said: I'm declining to deposit my monthly income into a Thai bank but thanks for sharing ???? The agent route is still open. I don't think Thai government needs to take everybody's money in case of an emergency. What an international scandal that would be. Edited January 28, 2019 by onera1961 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billd766 Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 3 hours ago, JimGant said: Yeah, just like the British did. Unfortunately it is hard to verify the pension statements because of the data protection law. They would have to be given permission by the applicant, have a dedicated VERY secure internet link and be given access to the UK State pensions, military pensions and also very many company pensions. It would probably also mean that there would only be a very limited number of trustworthy Thai immigration officers who would be given the authority to access the data. If the Embassies concerned could not access the information then the chances of Immigration Officers being granted access would be infinitesimal to zero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billd766 Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 3 hours ago, CMNightRider said: I'm not worried about the Thai government taking anything. I'm declining to deposit my monthly income into a Thai bank but thanks for sharing ???? I am quite happy to deposit my monthly income into my BKK bank account. It stays in there long enough to transfer to my KBank joint account and gets taken out in cash by my debit card and lobbed into the safe at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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