Interview with US Consul from BKK re visas in Thailand

[Pattaya46]

9 minutes ago, Longcut said:

The USA wasn't the first to initiate this.

Maybe not the first one to make its public announcement,

but from the interview it seems it was the leading embassy for the "negotiations".

[mfd101]

48 minutes ago, Pattaya46 said:

Maybe not the first one to make its public announcement,

but from the interview it seems it was the leading embassy for the "negotiations".

Judging from the Consul-General's interview, it was a JOINT US/UK effort to explain to the Thais the facts of life. The Thais understood and started, very slowly as always, to scratch their collective heads.

[JackThompson]

1 hour ago, mfd101 said:

Judging from the Consul-General's interview, it was a JOINT US/UK effort to explain to the Thais the facts of life. The Thais understood and started, very slowly as always, to scratch their collective heads.

The interviewer mentioned collaboration between US/UK - but neither the UK nor USA reps ever confirmed this - or anything that was done behind closed doors - in their respective interviews.  It has been confirmed, however, that discussions began in May, and they hoped a replacement system would be put in place sooner.

 

I still don't see why the letters needed to be pulled, though.  What was the rush on the USA/UK side of the table?  Why not let Thai Immigration come up with their new policy in their own sweet time, and then pull the letters?

[OJAS]

11 hours ago, Pattaya46 said:

So in short, many expats of many countries could soon be in trouble because the USA Embassy decided to stop emitting "Embassy Letters" and persuaded Thai Immigration to modify its rules to adapt to this decision... 

But at least the USA Embassy does actually appear to be making a conscious attempt to persuade the Immigration Bureau to modify its rules! In stark contrast to its British counterpart who, after being the first off the block in withdrawing its income confirmation service, has since sat on its collective hands doing sweet FA other than making thus far unsubstantiated claims regarding the acceptability of monthly income sighted in a Thai bank account!

[OJAS]

30 minutes ago, JackThompson said:

I still don't see why the letters needed to be pulled, though.  What was the rush on the USA/UK side of the table?  Why not let Thai Immigration come up with their new policy in their own sweet time, and then pull the letters?

Agreed - strikes me that both they and their Australian and Danish counterparts have rather put the cart before the horse here!

[OJAS]

15 hours ago, Pib said:

I think that sucks for folks who would totally or partially use the monthly income method (I don't but use the Bt800K in the bank method), but do not want 65K/40K monthly income flowing into a Thai bank...instead, want it to continue to flow to their home country bank account.

Playing devil's advocate, I suppose that a counter-argument, in the case of those who do not actually need as much as 65k/40k to subsist on each month in LOS, might be that they will eventually build up sufficient balances in their Thai bank accounts so as to enable them to switch to the 800k/400k method, when they can stop transferring funds from their home countries each month solely in order to meet the 65k/40k minimum requirement. 

[mfd101]

2 hours ago, OJAS said:

Agreed - strikes me that both they and their Australian and Danish counterparts have rather put the cart before the horse here!

Perhaps that was the only way to get the donkey to move!

[Pattaya46]

2 hours ago, OJAS said:

But at least the USA Embassy does actually appear to be making a conscious attempt to persuade the Immigration Bureau to modify its rules! //

That's the problem.

Expats of other countries are happy with current rules and don't want this change...

[doctormann]

6 minutes ago, Pattaya46 said:

That's the problem.

Expats of other countries are happy with current rules and don't want this change...

Possibly, the new Police Order, when it is issued, will not modify existing arrangements for those who can still obtain Embassy letters but will merely add extra options, such as showing regular deposits into a Thai bank account.  We won't know until we see the new document.

[Pattaya46]

9 minutes ago, doctormann said:

// the new Police Order, when it is issued, will not modify existing arrangements for those who can still obtain Embassy letters but will merely add extra options, //

Unsure if it was in the interview itself or in one of comments following it, but I stayed on the impression that days of "income letter method" were already counted... 

If the method was to continue, my above comments/posts should be ignored.

[BritTim]

16 minutes ago, Pattaya46 said:

Unsure if it was in the interview itself or in one of comments following it, but I stayed on the impression that days of "income letter method" were already counted... 

If the method was to continue, my above comments/posts should be ignored.

What was confirmed in the interview is that income affidavits issued by the US Embassy would continue to be accepted for six months after they were issued. That suggests the income letters may continue to be accepted generally (when your embassy will issue them) though it may only imply they will be accepted during a transition period. Time will tell.