Denmark Embassy Has Stopped Doing Pension Letters

[OJAS]

13 hours ago, HHTel said:

I think you'll find that the embassies are not directly involved and are carrying out instructions from their own foreign office.

I suspect that you may well be correct in this assertion - which could explain the apparent hiatus since the Immigration Bureau's meeting with embassies last May. Yesterday I received an acknowledgement to a recent freedom of information request I submitted to the British Embassy (as described in the British Embassy thread) not from the Embassy themselves but from the FCO in London!

Edited November 16, 2018 by OJAS

[evadgib]

41 minutes ago, OJAS said:

I don't know what the Danish legal position is, but my understanding of the UK's Data Protection Act is that it would be OK for a government entity (e.g. the Bangkok Embassy) to access personal information held on a database created by another government entity (e.g. HMRC). It is only when and if information were shared outside the UK government that a breach of the Act might arise.

Under DPA it wasn't possible for routine cross pollenation between govt depts. I havent looked since GDPA took over but would be most surprised if this has changed in HMGs favour. 

Related link:

https://www.ipt-uk.com/

Edited November 16, 2018 by evadgib

[OJAS]

3 minutes ago, evadgib said:

Under DPA it wasn't possible for cross pollenation between govt depts. I havent looked since GDPA took over but would be most surprised if this has changed in HMGs favour. 

Fair enough. That might well explain why the British Embassy were apparently unable to introduce some verification system based on comparing figures included in tax return/P60 evidence provided by income letter applicants with info held by HMRC via the Government Secure Intranet (as I had previously believed that they could), then!

[Misab]

On 11/14/2018 at 9:15 PM, chickenslegs said:

This part of the notice confuses me. What are these one-year visas?

 

I know this sounds pedantic, but one would expect an Embassy to be using precise and correct terminology.

 

Are they still issuing letters for extensions of stay based upon marriage/retirement?

I don't think so, not if they are required to issue a guarantee for your income. 

[fvw53]

52 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

I think I would be calling the embassy about the problem. Their abrupt ending of the pension letters has caused it. They could've at least given some advance notice and set a date to get them by.

I cannot imagine why the Danish Embassy did not give enough advance notice.  My Danish neighbour had permission (Non Imm O based on marriage ) to stay until 23 December and therefore had to apply end of November for an extention ...Now he cannot get a certified letter about this income from the Danish Embassy while it is for him too late to put in his bank account 400.000 Baht. He has no clue what to do.

[melvinmelvin]

6 minutes ago, fvw53 said:

I cannot imagine why the Danish Embassy did not give enough advance notice.  My Danish neighbour had permission (Non Imm O based on marriage ) to stay until 23 December and therefore had to apply end of November for an extention ...Now he cannot get a certified letter about this income from the Danish Embassy while it is for him too late to put in his bank account 400.000 Baht. He has no clue what to do.

consider contacting

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the appropriate Ombudsman in Denmark

 

consult a Danish lawyer to check if there is "space" for an injunction here

 

 

Edited November 16, 2018 by melvinmelvin

[carstenp]

1 minute ago, fvw53 said:

I cannot imagine why the Danish Embassy did not give enough advance notice.  My Danish neighbour had permission (Non Imm O based on marriage ) to stay until 23 December and therefore had to apply end of November for an extention ...Now he cannot get a certified letter about this income from the Danish Embassy while it is for him too late to put in his bank account 400.000 Baht. He has no clue what to do.

The only way is traveling back to Denmark and apply for a Non 0 Multiple working for 15 months

[balo]

Try to contact an agent instead , I know not popular to mention on Thaivisa . But my guess they will still be around in 2019 . 

 

[Jingthing]

Yes, it's an awful situation for the Danes caught in this web. Depending on the timing of their next extension, they are completely blameless. There was nothing they could have done to plan for something so sudden. 

There isn't much of anything positive to say about this situation, but we already have at least one report from a Dane proving what we already knew, your embassy not doing letters anymore does NOT mean immigration will accept your income application even if you can pour a big pile of other paper "proof" of your income otherwise. Income letter or take a hike. 

[carstenp]

1 minute ago, melvinmelvin said:

consider contacting

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the appropriate Ombudsman in Denmark

 

Im consider writing a letter to TV2 News in Denmark and hopefully will take the case in the media in denmark

[KenKadz]

"fulfil the Thai authorities’ requirements to guarantee the future level of pension/income for Danish Nationals"

 

Do I understand this right, that Thai authorities are demanding guarantees on FUTURE LEVELS of pension/income?

 

Guess Thai authorities think farangs can tell the future.

Certainly explains why embassies are backing out of the program.

[melvinmelvin]

3 minutes ago, carstenp said:

Im consider writing a letter to TV2 News in Denmark and hopefully will take the case in the media in denmark

probably wise

 

Extrabladet ?

 

 

[Thaidream]

4 minutes ago, carstenp said:

he only way is traveling back to Denmark and apply for a Non 0 Multiple working for 15 months

What about a 60 day extension from Thai Imm based upon  visiting Thai Wife- that would give him 60 more days from 23 December and hopefully enough time to get the 400K in the bank -seasoned for 2 months.  

[carstenp]

2 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

What about a 60 day extension from Thai Imm based upon  visiting Thai Wife- that would give him 60 more days from 23 December and hopefully enough time to get the 400K in the bank -seasoned for 2 months.  

Yes he can also do this, if the money is not a problem

[JackThompson]

1 hour ago, cyberfarang said:

I keep reading comments from posters claiming they are bringing huge amounts of money into the country, helping to boost the Thai economy, financially supporting Thai people, yet are unable to pull together $12000 to obtain their yearly extensions.

Thai min wage = 8K Baht/mo.  How many Thais' salaries do each of us need to be directly-funding with money imported from abroad, to be desirable?  How many Thai family-members' homes need to be built? 

 

Our stays were based on a long-standing rule meeting a specified gross-income - not based on access to liquid capital we can pull out of whatever business/investments and sit in a bank here for 3 months untouched.  In any case, we still qualify under the published rules - it's just that (in the OPs case and others), local-immigration won't accept our proofs of income, and national-immigration told our countries' reps that our letters, which were fine for decades in their current form, are suddenly no good any more - and without even 1 year warning for people to adjust or ready themselves to move somewhere their spending is still desired.

[Pattaya46]

14 minutes ago, KenKadz said:

Do I understand this right, that Thai authorities are demanding guarantees on FUTURE LEVELS of pension/income?

Not really on the future, just on the year to come.

(Read posts above about the bad English translation on Denmark Embassy website)

[melvinmelvin]

16 minutes ago, KenKadz said:

"fulfil the Thai authorities’ requirements to guarantee the future level of pension/income for Danish Nationals"

 

Do I understand this right, that Thai authorities are demanding guarantees on FUTURE LEVELS of pension/income?

 

Guess Thai authorities think farangs can tell the future.

Certainly explains why embassies are backing out of the program.

tell the future?

sure they do

Most Thais (and Asians) pay money to sayers to know about the future.

 

[OJAS]

30 minutes ago, fvw53 said:

I cannot imagine why the Danish Embassy did not give enough advance notice.  My Danish neighbour had permission (Non Imm O based on marriage ) to stay until 23 December and therefore had to apply end of November for an extention ...Now he cannot get a certified letter about this income from the Danish Embassy while it is for him too late to put in his bank account 400.000 Baht. He has no clue what to do.

 

24 minutes ago, carstenp said:

The only way is traveling back to Denmark and apply for a Non 0 Multiple working for 15 months

Or could he not go to Savannakhet and apply for a multi-entry non-O there?

[Nielsk]

53 minutes ago, BoBoTheClown said:

What exactly did you show TI?  Can you give us what you actually presented and the numbers behind them?  Are you receiving a pension of at least 65,000 baht, for example? 

  I presented my annual statement of income from the Government 2017 amd my forthcomming annual statement of income 2018.  Plus my bankstatements 3 month back showing my monthly income 127 000 baht in pensions from 3 diffrent sources minus tax. 

[carstenp]

5 minutes ago, OJAS said:

 

Or could he not go to Savannakhet and apply for a multi-entry non-O there?

Im not sure if you are going to get 1 by income. They only way is to get it in denmark

[carstenp]

4 minutes ago, Nielsk said:

  I presented my annual statement of income from the Government 2017 amd my forthcomming annual statement of income 2018.  Plus my bankstatements 3 month back showing my monthly income 127 000 baht in pensions from 3 diffrent sources minus tax. 

Its sad day, and that the same we has to send to the Danish ambassade. 

[Geck0]

On 11/15/2018 at 4:16 AM, jackdd said:

There are many statistics about this, just google something like "median net worth retirement" then you will see that the median for retirees in western countries is somewhere in the millions of THB, so most of the retirees can afford 800k on a Thai bank ????

I checked median net (after tax) pension 2017 in Finland. It was 1250 euros/month (average gross pension/month 1656€). Roughly 18500thb short of reguired 65k/mth or 222k short of 800k.

https://www.etk.fi/en/tiedote/average-monthly-pension-eur-1656/

[JackThompson]

44 minutes ago, fvw53 said:

I cannot imagine why the Danish Embassy did not give enough advance notice.  My Danish neighbour had permission (Non Imm O based on marriage ) to stay until 23 December and therefore had to apply end of November for an extention ...Now he cannot get a certified letter about this income from the Danish Embassy while it is for him too late to put in his bank account 400.000 Baht. He has no clue what to do.

38 minutes ago, carstenp said:

The only way is traveling back to Denmark and apply for a Non 0 Multiple working for 15 months

No - he doesn't need to go nearly that far.

 

6 minutes ago, carstenp said:

Im not sure if you are going to get 1 by income. They only way is to get it in denmark

You don't need to show income in Savannakhet - or in HCMC or Hanoi, just to name a couple more close-by.  Only a few Thai embassies deny you the ability to visit your Thai family based on money.

 

This visa allows 90-day stays upon entry while the Visa is valid (1 year from issuance), and each of those entries can be extended by 60-days at his local immigration office - so, "border-runs" every 150 days. 

 

They do want to show income at Thai embassies in Malaysia - and I am not sure if an income-letter from one's embassy in Kuala Lumpur would work (in the past, people used them from their embassy in Thailand).

Edited November 16, 2018 by JackThompson

[perconrad]

34 minutes ago, melvinmelvin said:

probably wise

 

Extrabladet ?

 

 

I myself and other fellow Danes has already written to Ekstra Bladet. Until now nothing have shown up in EB.

[Nielsk]

36 minutes ago, carstenp said:

Yes he can also do this, if the money is not a problem

Yes the money is the problem ????

[carstenp]

3 minutes ago, perconrad said:

I myself and other fellow Danes has already written to Ekstra Bladet. Until now nothing have shown up in EB.

I have contacted TV2 News by mail and with contact information Lets hope someone will see this as a problem

[Nielsk]

36 minutes ago, carstenp said:

Yes he can also do this, if the money is not a problem

Yes the money is the problem ????

[Nielsk]

4 minutes ago, carstenp said:

I have contacted TV2 News by mail and with contact information Lets hope someone will see this as a problem

Thank You ! Well done fellow countrymen  ????

[BoBoTheClown]

24 minutes ago, Nielsk said:

  I presented my annual statement of income from the Government 2017 amd my forthcomming annual statement of income 2018.  Plus my bankstatements 3 month back showing my monthly income 127 000 baht in pensions from 3 diffrent sources minus tax. 

Sad? This is a tough situation. ????

[melvinmelvin]

8 minutes ago, perconrad said:

I myself and other fellow Danes has already written to Ekstra Bladet. Until now nothing have shown up in EB.

 

I see, too bad.

Another possible avenue, political parties with a positive attitude towards Danes enjoying their retirement outside EEA.

 

This is quite serious <deleted>, I can see Danes having to leave LoS 'cause of this.

 

I'm out of Gammel Dansk, otherwise, I would offer you a few sets.