16 minutes ago, Pattaya46 said:

I bet you make confusion between a Visa O-A and an Extension of Stay.

As said before, you get Non-OA only in your home or residence country in 99.99% of cases !

No confusion on my part. I was granted a 3 mth non-immigrant O visa and a 1-yr non-immigrant O-A visa based on retirement when I arrived in Thailand in 2016, then I renewed my extension-of-stay twice so far in 2017 & 2018.

 

Also, there is an American couple who just moved in our condo complex 1 month ago and they were granted the 3 mth non-immigrant O visa and are waiting for the 800k to be seasoned before going back get their 1-yr non-immigrant O-A visa, then each year after, they will have to renew their extension-of-stay, just like me...

3 minutes ago, JohnnyBD said:

That is correct... you can get a 1-yr O-A visa in Thailand.

I flew in for 30-days visa-free, signed lease on condo, went to US embassy and got income affidavit then went to Thai Immigration and was granted a 3 mth O visa & 1-yr O-A visa both at the same time.

 

Also, met an American couple who just moved into our condo 1 month ago who's on their 3 mth O visa waiting until the 800k is seasoned before going back to get their 1-yr O-A visa.

I do have a question for you though - you would have had to get both a medical and a police check in your home country, and I believe the amount required in the bank is lower for applying in your home country, so why did you not apply in your home country?

3 minutes ago, JohnnyBD said:

I flew in for 30-days visa-free, signed lease on condo, went to US embassy and got income affidavit then went to Thai Immigration and was granted a 3 mth O visa & 1-yr O-A visa both at the same time.

You got a one year extension of the 90 day entry from the non-o visa based upon retirement. 

Look in your passport and you will see the stamp that you have a extension of your permit to stay in the country not a OA visa stamp or sticker. Below that stamp you will see a message that you need a re-entry permit to keep that extension valid.

6 minutes ago, JohnnyBD said:

That is correct... you can get a 1-yr O-A visa in Thailand.

I flew in for 30-days visa-free, signed lease on condo, went to US embassy and got income affidavit then went to Thai Immigration and was granted a 3 mth O visa & 1-yr O-A visa both at the same time.

 

Also, met an American couple who just moved into our condo 1 month ago who's on their 3 mth O visa waiting until the 800k is seasoned before going back to get their 1-yr O-A visa.

You got a 1 year extension, not an O-A Visa.

18 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

You got a 1 year extension, not an O-A Visa.

Fine, I got my 90-day O & and then 1-yr extension-of-stay both at the same time in Thailand when I first arrived while I was on my 30-day visa free entry... The point is, I did not get my visa in the USA. So I am on an O visa with retirement stamp (technically)...

End of story...

2 hours ago, Tanoshi said:

They don't have to stipulate any alternative for proof of income ……….. that's an assumption.

There is no mention of an Embassy letter, income in a foreign bank, Thai bank or cash in hand.

 

Unless Immigration issue a new directive, then it leaves the funds (400 - 800K) deposited in a Thai bank as the only alternative

I can't agree there because showing proof of an income 40/65k per month is already in the regulations whereas the embassy letter is not.

I have just come back from doing my yearly extension (wasn't due until 07. 12 but decided to do it early as the 90 day report was due) it was quicker than usual, 25 minutes. They only looked at the German embassy letter. The missus asked about next year if there are no embassy letters, the IO said they are aware of the problems but as of yet haven't received any directions from TI. He did say that they were scrutinising the American applicants very carefully.

2 minutes ago, JohnnyBD said:

No, I got my 1-yr non-immigrant O-A visa in Thailand when I first arrived while I was on my 30-day visa free entry... How many times I need to say it. I did not get my visa while in the USA.

I think you might need to take a photo of the relevant visa sticker to convince some posters...

31 minutes ago, JJ Madcow said:

Well i am Danish and i contact Danish Embassy right away when i read about.
British Embassy stop Income letter, As i was sure this was coming.

I got my answer today. As our Embassy was not Allowed so say anything before now.

The Danish Embassy have not being in contact with Thailand / Immigration about this.
Our Foreign Ministry have done that and told our Embassy to stop doing the letter.

 

The Danish word Google translate become:

certificates do not lie within the ambitious attestation of the embassy.

 

I like to tell you that our Embassy can easy check our income.

How much we have pay in tax and so on.
As all the infomation is in a database that the Embassy can check.

 

So what ever the problem is between Danish Foreign Ministry and Thailand (Immigration) i think is something else.

 

Only try to give some infomation about it.

 

Kindly.

I spoke to a Danish friend just a few minutes ago and he said he has to send copies of his pension ect by mail to the Embassy and it is a  2 to 4 week period before he gets the letter returned to him, Sadly he does not use the Internet and I am not sure he accepted as gospel what i told him   Quote They can not do That Unquote

He is going to ring them today

24 minutes ago, glegolo said:

This is NOT reality, just take the two (UK+USA) that will crash this median completely with your crap-pensions.... No chance in hell that the median is in the millions, that is what I call "thai-statistics"....

 

glegolo

So you want to say that all of these statistics (by the way, they come from the US and not Thailand) are wrong and you know better?

The exact numbers do of course vary, but for the US they are in the 2xxk USD range, so about 6 to 10 million THB

And don't forget that we are talking about people who have an income of at least 65k THB per month

1 minute ago, JohnnyBD said:

No, I got my 1-yr non-immigrant O-A visa in Thailand when I first arrived while I was on my 30-day visa free entry... How many times I need to say it. I did not get my visa while in the USA.

You entered Visa exempt, then applied to convert to a Non Imm O (90 day Visa) as a prelude to applying for a 1 year extension.

You wouldn't need a Non Imm O Visa, to apply for a Non Imm O-A Visa.

 

Would you like to post an edited copy of your Non Imm O-A Visa from Thailand's Immigration?

3 minutes ago, jackdd said:

So you want to say that all of these statistics (by the way, they come from the US and not Thailand) are wrong and you know better?

The exact numbers do of course vary, but for the US they are in the 2xxk USD range, so about 6 to 10 million THB

And don't forget that we are talking about people who have an income of at least 65k THB per month

You certainly live in a BIG dreamworld and I am claiming that SO MANY americans and englishmen for that matter, comes here on pensions that is in the range of USD. 1.000-1.200/month and GBP 1.000.- / month.....  and THAT takes down the median-income drasticly... Wake up... Sure there are some of us that live a good life here, but go outside your garden and talk to people...

 

glegolo

23 minutes ago, Wanderlust said:

I do have a question for you though - you would have had to get both a medical and a police check in your home country, and I believe the amount required in the bank is lower for applying in your home country, so why did you not apply in your home country?

Because they only have a few embassies in the US and I lived in a different state. Also I was already working overseas and it was easier for me to just apply in Thailand rather than go back to the US. No medical & no police report was required, only a copy of lease agreement and income affidavit from US embassy.

2 hours ago, jackdd said:

But what you say is just wrong.

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 ????

That is usually based on home-value and other assets which one may not be able to liquidate, and/or would pay a large tax-penalty, and/or would cause a reduction in needed income - in order to "cash in" to fund a Thai bank-account.

 

2 hours ago, Bert Jones said:

Thailand like any other country is run like a business for the greater good for its own people.

With regard to preventing foreigners buying land, and an emphasis on food self-sustainability, yes. 

 

Unfortunately, this is not the case with regard to immigration's policy shifts (over several years), which are driving out foreigners who fund Thai businesses and jobs - often providing the seed-funds which help poorer Thais build self-sustainable farms and other enterprises.

 

2 hours ago, Bert Jones said:

 Thailand does not want or need foreigners living here like poor Thais do...it makes no economic sense. 

Even if we did live on 8K Baht/mo (we don't - and even that figure assumes full-time employment, not what many Thais living in rural areas earn), that would still be 8K Baht in foreign-exchange pouring into their economy.  All upside for Thailand, even in this very unlikely scenario.

 

2 hours ago, Bert Jones said:

They only want high net worth foreigners. I believe this is only the start. The message is clear, if you are poor, go back and be poor in your own country and not Thailand.

... because all the Thais supported by "poor" expat's foreign-sourced incomes (many times the Thai min-salary), should be thrown under the bus?  And even those with 65K or more, who don't have 800K liquid assets to put in a bank-account here?

15 minutes ago, JohnnyBD said:

Fine, I got my 90-day O & O-A visa extension in Thailand when I first arrived while I was on my 30-day visa free entry... How many times I need to say it. I did not get my visa while in the USA.

 

What's with all the technical political correctness... the person I was responding to said you had to get your O-A visa in home county and that is not true...

some people just do not understand the process, like this one quoted, so dont be too hard on him...

 

glegolo

8 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

I can't agree there because showing proof of an income 40/65k per month is already in the regulations whereas the embassy letter is not.

And the regulations don't state anything more than 40/65K per month.

It neither states by Embassy letter, foreign bank, Thai bank, or cash in hand.

 

A directive obviously stated the proof of income was in the form of a letter from your Embassy.

With the withdrawal of this service, or eventual refusal by Immigration, unless a new directive is issued as to an acceptable form of proof of income that can be verified by Immigration, which may or may not be forthcoming, then to rely on the assumption that Immigration will offer an alternative solution is playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse.

 

You should be planning on 400 or 800K in a Thai bank for the future.

11 minutes ago, glegolo said:

You certainly live in a BIG dreamworld and I am claiming that SO MANY americans and englishmen for that matter, comes here on pensions that is in the range of USD. 1.000-1.200/month and GBP 1.000.- / month.....  and THAT takes down the median-income drasticly... Wake up... Sure there are some of us that live a good life here, but go outside your garden and talk to people...

 

glegolo

But these people usually didn't use the income affidavit to stay here, because they couldn't. So this change doesn't affect them.

Of course a few probably lied about their income, but i just checked the penalties for the US, up to 5 years in prison, so i assume these people are a minority. And don't forget: "Bad guys out" ????

2 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

You should be planning on 400 or 800K in a Thai bank for the future.

That future has not yet arrived for many of us

42 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

You entered Visa exempt, then applied to convert to a Non Imm O (90 day Visa) as a prelude to applying for a 1 year extension.

You wouldn't need a Non Imm O Visa, to apply for a Non Imm O-A Visa.

 

Would you like to post an edited copy of your Non Imm O-A Visa from Thailand's Immigration?

Thanks to unbonjoe and everyone else for un-confusing me... So, I am on an O visa with 1-yr extensions since 2016... Apologies to all and thanks for understanding my confusion...

 

Anyway, I was responding to someone who said you couldn't get an O-A visa in Thailand and that is not correct... see from Thai MFA website:

Non-Immigrant Visa  “O-A” (Long Stay)

This type of visa may be issued to applicants aged 50 years and over who wish to stay in  Thailand for a period of not exceeding 1 year without the intention of working. 

3. Channels to submit application

Applicant may submit their application at the Royal Thai embassy or Royal Thai Consulate-General in their home/residence country or at the Office of the Immigration Bureau in Thailand located on Government Center B, Chaengwattana Soi 7, Laksi, Bangkok 10210, Tel 0-2141-9889.

2 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

That future has not yet arrived for many of us

That is the future unless Immigration state otherwise.

It's all one hell of a mess!

 

The Brit./US and Aus. embassies are saying they will continue to issue income letters until the end of the year, and that these will be accepted for 6 months (IIRC) - whereas the Danish embassy has stopped issuing the letters immediately, without warning (!), and with no indication that providing proof of income to TI will be acceptable?

 

So we are all unsure as to whether or not the letters will be accepted by TI for 6 months.  It probably depends on the office concerned....

 

The initial embassies (again, IIRC) all said that after the 6 month period TI would accept proof of income (without the embassy letter) - whereas as far as I can make out from the numerous posts, some Immigration offices are saying this is not the case.

 

TI has always been able to ask for 'back up' documents to support the amount shown on the embassy income letter which is fair enough - but at the moment all of us using the income method are left in 'limbo', not knowing what will or will not be acceptable to the individual Immigration offices ☹️.

3 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

And the regulations don't state anything more than 40/65K per month.

It neither states by Embassy letter, foreign bank, Thai bank, or cash in hand.

 

A directive obviously stated the proof of income was in the form of a letter from your Embassy.

With the withdrawal of this service, or eventual refusal by Immigration, unless a new directive is issued as to an acceptable form of proof of income that can be verified by Immigration, which may or may not be forthcoming, then to rely on the assumption that Immigration will offer an alternative solution is playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse.

 

You should be planning on 400 or 800K in a Thai bank for the future.

need an affirmation from Ubon joe on this but I believe that there is no mention of an embassy letter in the regulations, there may have been a separate directive but I think the regulations supercede that.

Simply put,  all embassies will stop issuing the income letters as time goes by because their use is no longer accepted by the Thai immigration department.

 

Changing times.

 

I've never used the income method at Immigration, but isn't it the case that submitted documents need translation to Thai?

1 minute ago, watcharacters said:

Simply put,  all embassies will stop issuing the income letters as time goes by because their use is no longer accepted by the Thai immigration department.

 

Changing times.

The Ti Hasn't said that, you are speculating.

2 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

The Ti Hasn't said that, you are speculating.

 

I'm just foretelling the future.    ????

4 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

need an affirmation from Ubon joe on this but I believe that there is no mention of an embassy letter in the regulations, there may have been a separate directive but I think the regulations supercede that.

It would be in a ministerial order or directive that the police orders would not override.

9 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

And the regulations don't state anything more than 40/65K per month.

It neither states by Embassy letter, foreign bank, Thai bank, or cash in hand.

 

A directive obviously stated the proof of income was in the form of a letter from your Embassy.

With the withdrawal of this service, or eventual refusal by Immigration, unless a new directive is issued as to an acceptable form of proof of income that can be verified by Immigration, which may or may not be forthcoming, then to rely on the assumption that Immigration will offer an alternative solution is playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse.

 

You should be planning on 400 or 800K in a Thai bank for the future.

Sadly, this seems to be the case ☹️.

10 minutes ago, watcharacters said:

Simply put,  all embassies will stop issuing the income letters as time goes by because their use is no longer accepted by the Thai immigration department.

 

Changing times.

 

I've never used the income method at Immigration, but isn't it the case that submitted documents need translation to Thai?

no because they never look at them, just the embassy letter

1 hour ago, Lovethailandelite said:

Get the money in the bank, proving income in the way you knew it is finished.

Didn't you claim to know that montly-deposits to a Thai account were going to be accepted a short-time back? 

Have your inside-sources changed their tune - or are they still claiming this will be accepted?

7 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

TI has always been able to ask for 'back up' documents to support the amount shown on the embassy income letter which is fair enough -

Don't expect an IO to be able to read and understand a foreign document, they can't even understand their own.

 

3 years ago the IO told me my 'funds' (in a 1 year Fixed term account) hadn't been in for the required 3 months.

It had in fact been on deposited for 10 months. He was looking at the renewal date and not the deposited date.

 

This year, my extension due 12th July, but I was applying early in June, I was told I was on a 21 day overstay!

Only when I requested a supervisor to intervene, it became apparent that the IO inadvertently thought the calendar was April, May July, June, Aug ……… that is the intelligence level we sometimes have to deal with.

Thanks to unbonjoe & Tanoshi and everyone else for un-confusing me... So, I am on an O visa with 1-yr extensions since 2016... Apologies to all and thanks for understanding my confusion... I can admit when I am wrong... ????