5 minutes ago, ParadiseLost said:

Unless you wait until the balance is over 400k/800k before extending, you will still be asked for verification from your embassy. Nothing has changed, from the Thailand Immigration standpoint.

 

The only way - at this moment - is in future to deposit the 400k, or 800k and keep it in the bank for the requisite two, or three months. The letter from your bank replaces the income verification letter.

 

So if we bank 65000 every month into a Thai bank account, we still need a letter from the embassy?

 

But the proof is already inside the Thai bank book , can't the Thai bank issue a statement that there is 65000 transferred into the bank account from abroad?

19 hours ago, jmd8800 said:

 

That "Elite Card" program in which you pay them 1 million Baht you never get back is still around, maybe this is an effort to push people into that.  From what I've heard it's been a complete disaster.  https://www.thai-elite.com/elite-visa.html

10 minutes ago, EricTh said:

 

So if we bank 65000 every month into a Thai bank account, we still need a letter from the embassy?

 

But the proof is already inside the Thai bank book , can't the Thai bank issue a statement that there is 65000 transferred into the bank account from abroad?

No, or is it yes - either way you will need the verification letter.

 

(No, the bank cannot verify source of the funds).

 

(Yes, you will still need the letter).

Banks can verify source of funds - every transaction has trace paperwork available.  But immigration does not require any such information.  The requirement for income is actual income and for that Embassy letter of income has been the standard requirement with option to request additional proof.  This IMHO will likely change to include other methods next year as a large percentage of applicants will not have Embassy letter option available to them.  

added nothing worthy of posting so deleted

55 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

Banks can verify source of funds - every transaction has trace paperwork available.  But immigration does not require any such information.  The requirement for income is actual income and for that Embassy letter of income has been the standard requirement with option to request additional proof.  This IMHO will likely change to include other methods next year as a large percentage of applicants will not have Embassy letter option available to them.  

 

I too hope there is a compromise coming, perhaps even an about-face when the number of people affected becomes clearer ...this is the opposite of prior research and due diligence - lets implement it and see what happens...

Did any of you feather merchants attend this historic town hall meeting?

Here is a nice link about income affidavit 

https://th.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/

14 hours ago, CMNightRider said:

Did any of you feather merchants attend this historic town hall meeting?

Was wondering the same thing...

Summing up then, as an American citizen on a Non Immigrant O based on retirement who knows that starting in January 2019 the U.S. Consulate here in C.M. will not longer provide a proof of income notarized statement to satisfy Thai Immigration. As I was informed earlier again this week my Assist Visa Agent could not tell me just what form of proof Thai Immigration would now accept from an American. Seems they have not actually formulated a clear policy at this point in time. Therefore, unless it's in writing from Thai Immigration this is nothing but mere speculation.

Sent from my CMR-AL19 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

Summing up then, as an American citizen on a Non Immigrant O based on retirement who knows that starting in January 2019 the U.S. Consulate here in C.M. will not longer provide a proof of income notarized statement to satisfy Thai Immigration. As I was informed earlier again this week my Assist Visa Agent could not tell me just what form of proof Thai Immigration would now accept from an American. Seems they have not actually formulated a clear policy at this point in time. Therefore, unless it's in writing from Thai Immigration this is nothing but mere speculation.

Sent from my CMR-AL19 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

Yes as it stands now without an embassy letter it's the seasoned money in the bank method or nothing.

Sent from my Lenovo A7020a48 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

Not one commit about the meeting but plenty of speculation about nothing. When any OP about the letter opens it is immediately bombarded by the same posters posting the same drivel

36 minutes ago, moe666 said:

Not one commit about the meeting but plenty of speculation about nothing. When any OP about the letter opens it is immediately bombarded by the same posters posting the same drivel

For some reason the people who attended this "town hall" meeting are not sharing what was said by the consulate who conducted the meeting.  

4 minutes ago, CMNightRider said:

For some reason the people who attended this "town hall" meeting are not sharing what was said by the consulate who conducted the meeting.  

 

47 minutes ago, moe666 said:

Not one commit about the meeting but plenty of speculation about nothing. When any OP about the letter opens it is immediately bombarded by the same posters posting the same drivel

 

FYI - U.S. Consulate Chiang Mai town hall meeting November 20th Chiang Mai University

24 minutes ago, CMNightRider said:

For some reason the people who attended this "town hall" meeting are not sharing what was said by the consulate who conducted the meeting.  

One brave soul did. See the links above.

 

On 11/21/2018 at 6:28 AM, sirineou said:

Not true, They can with your consent, it is called "third party authorization

 "

The Purpose of an Authorization

There are two major reasons for granting a third party authorization for the purpose of resolving your federal tax issues. The first reason for granting an authorization is for the purpose of allowing an individual to represent you in tax matters before the IRS. This authorization is a "Power of Attorney" and is submitted using Form 2848 (PDF).

The second reason is to allow any individual, corporation, firm, organization or partnership you designate, your appointee, to inspect and/or receive your confidential tax information in any office of the IRS for the type of tax and years or periods you list on 

"

Anyone can order a tax return transcript, present it to the embassy, the embassy inspect it and with your authorization, certify your income. If they don't accept your transcript , with your third party authorization they can gain access to your tax record and certify your income. 

  Someone at the Chiang Mai meeting said in another thread that the Embassy representative said, that they would train the Thai immigration to read american pension statements. If they can train  Thai immigration to read american pension statements to verify income, why can't they train their stuff to read said pension statement   and issue an income verification ?    They can't verify income but Thai immigration with some training and the same documents will???

Give me a break!!!!

I don't know where you obtained your quote but it was not from the page I linked to.

 

Your quote says: "There are two major reasons for granting a third party authorization for the purpose of resolving your federal tax issues." .... We are not resolving tax issues here.

 

Besides it says: "your appointee, to inspect and/or receive your confidential tax information in any office of the IRS" ..... in any office of the IRS?? Good luck finding one in Thailand.

 

Where ever you got this information from has more to do with legal representation in tax matters than verification of income.

 

 

34 minutes ago, jmd8800 said:

I don't know where you obtained your quote but it was not from the page I linked to.

 

Your quote says: "There are two major reasons for granting a third party authorization for the purpose of resolving your federal tax issues." .... We are not resolving tax issues here.

 

Besides it says: "your appointee, to inspect and/or receive your confidential tax information in any office of the IRS" ..... in any office of the IRS?? Good luck finding one in Thailand.

 

Where ever you got this information from has more to do with legal representation in tax matters than verification of income.

 

 

 I will try to find the link, sorry i did not post it at the time as I should have done.I read this in the IRS web page.

Third party verification  is used  by banks when applying for loans , and other institutions for income verifying purposes, 

 I posted the quote in order to dispel  the notion that the embassy cannot verify income because of the information protection act. If a third party can verify income as "your appointy"then why can't the embassy gain access to your tax return info and verify your income .  IMO it should be a simple matter to  sign a waver giving them permission .

 For me this is an academic discussion, It really does not matter to me, I am married and if need be I can go the extension to stay via marriage route, a litle bit more hassle but a lot less expensive. Once I retire full time in Thailand  next spring, (still work abroad and am in and out now), I will have all the time in the world.

 I just feel bad for all who don't have that option.

Happy Thanksgiving to you , your family, and all members of TVF,

 PS: it used to be easy to follow a discussion on TVF because the whole discussion tree in that particular exchange was displayed, nou you only see the previous response losing the context of the exchange and leading to honest misunderstandings of the response .  

There is no need to find the link. IRS issues are irrelevant.  I'm not a lawyer but trust me when I say this is not a simple matter of the US Embassy / Consulate doing expats a favor.

 

People will just have to wait and see how Thai Immigration takes it from here. There are options. Some people will skate through this easily. Others will have to get creative.

 

On 11/21/2018 at 12:45 PM, EricTh said:

 

So if we bank 65000 every month into a Thai bank account, we still need a letter from the embassy?

 

But the proof is already inside the Thai bank book , can't the Thai bank issue a statement that there is 65000 transferred into the bank account from abroad?

Which leads to the interesting question, when I reach 800,000 Baht am I going to have to pull 65,000 out every month then put it back again?  That's <deleted> silly. 

I was Planning to going back to using my American ATM card again and just leave the 800,000 Baht alone in the Thai bank as my Immigration pacifier.   

23 minutes ago, Robins said:

Which leads to the interesting question, when I reach 800,000 Baht am I going to have to pull 65,000 out every month then put it back again?  That's <deleted> silly. 

I was Planning to going back to using my American ATM card again and just leave the 800,000 Baht alone in the Thai bank as my Immigration pacifier.   

The bank method and it stands. Just show at least 800K for three months before each annual extension. That's it. No need for silly games as you fear.

I made an appointment on the 31st December with the US Embassy to get an income letter since they are good for six months and was surprised how many appointments were available.

 

Might be a good idea, especially if you're someone like me who just needs more time to raise the 800,000 Baht to get a pension letter on or near the last day your embassy will issue it as a fallback.  The letters are supposed to be good for 6 months, but since every office here seems to make up its own rules, who knows.  

6 hours ago, Robins said:

I made an appointment on the 31st December with the US Embassy to get an income letter since they are good for six months and was surprised how many appointments were available.

 

Might be a good idea, especially if you're someone like me who just needs more time to raise the 800,000 Baht to get a pension letter on or near the last day your embassy will issue it as a fallback.  The letters are supposed to be good for 6 months, but since every office here seems to make up its own rules, who knows.  

There is a 99.9% that the letter from the US Embassy, any Embassy or Consulate will not be accepted by Immigration

We will find this out in January 2019

IMHO

 

16 minutes ago, Lizard2010 said:

There is a 99.9% that the letter from the US Embassy, any Embassy or Consulate will not be accepted by Immigration

We will find this out in January 2019

IMHO

 

Can you cite some sources or is this just your opinion that there is a 99.9% chance the income affidavit will not be accepted.

 

It was stated in the CM US Embassy outreach meeting that Thai Immigration will accept the income affidavit for six months after the form is dated.

1 hour ago, Lizard2010 said:

There is a 99.9% that the letter from the US Embassy, any Embassy or Consulate will not be accepted by Immigration

We will find this out in January 2019

IMHO

 

As jmd8000 states above, the US consular official clearly stated that Thai Immigration assured them that any income affidavit issued before 1/1/19 would be accepted for a 6-month time period.  If you actually have some information that what the consular official said is untrue, please post same; otherwise, please resist the urge to post imagined info as it'll only cause confusion/worry for those getting income affidavits for extensions within the next 6 months.  

32 minutes ago, jmd8800 said:

Can you cite some sources or is this just your opinion that there is a 99.9% chance the income affidavit will not be accepted.

 

It was stated in the CM US Embassy outreach meeting that Thai Immigration will accept the income affidavit for six months after the form is dated.

It's true that 99.9% is a made-up number, but the point is unavoidably true: the US Consulate has no say in Thai immigration policy or operations and can't predict or guarantee anything. If an immigration officer says, either on a whim or by office policy, sorry, we no longer accept the letter, then what? It's simply not believable that the consulate will train Thai immigration staff to review and verify American financial statements when the consulate itself doesn't even do so. The only solution I can see is proof of monthly incoming funds to a Thai bank account, because banks can verify the overseas origin. Or tea money.

18 minutes ago, Puwa said:

It's true that 99.9% is a made-up number, but the point is unavoidably true: the US Consulate has no say in Thai immigration policy or operations and can't predict or guarantee anything. If an immigration officer says, either on a whim or by office policy, sorry, we no longer accept the letter, then what? It's simply not believable that the consulate will train Thai immigration staff to review and verify American financial statements when the consulate itself doesn't even do so. The only solution I can see is proof of monthly incoming funds to a Thai bank account, because banks can verify the overseas origin. Or tea money.

And your reply  is one reason why very few who attended the meeting are commenting.

I would appear that post number 2 was just about on the money, or at least not knowing what to do with the money! ????

1 hour ago, jmd8800 said:

And your reply  is one reason why very few who attended the meeting are commenting.

I don't really understand your comment, but I'm not trying to discourage anyone from sharing information. I was just giving my opinion that assurances from foreign consulates have little bearing on the actions of Thai government departments. Whatever, it doesn't affect me one way or the other. Carry on to your heart's content.

Lol...

’pay him the two dollars!’