What's next, possibly?

[swissie]

Certainly not posting anything new here, the more stringent application of Immi-Legislation has not escaped most Farang- Residents in Thailand. No (legal) Farang would object to the currently conducted "raids", designed to flush-out the "Bad Apples". But those efforts seem to go beyond those parameters.

- Over the years I have maintained close contact with my Thai-Lawyer friend. He has practised law in Pattaya for 36 years, his customer base consists of Farangs only. Therefore he is well familiar with issues concerning Farangs. He is politically very well connected and his oldest son is a "Member of Parliament".
On his recent visit to Europe (among many other issues), I had the chance to discuss the "status" of long-term Farang residents in Thailand with him. Below, I give a short summary of what he had to say concerning this matter:

- A growing number of "Members of Parliament" are of the opinion that the financial requirements for long-term residency in Thailand are too low, not having been "actualised" for a very long time. Also, the idea to raise the age for "Retirement-Visa" privileges to 65 seem to be gaining momentum among a certain influentual group of "Lawmakers".
------------------------
As mentioned, he is very well connected, but it's still only one man's opinion and assessement. This post is not meant to increase the anxiety-level of Farang residents any further. But unlike some European countries, Thailand seems to be in the process to formulate an upper limit concerning long-term Immigrants. One way or the other.
Under these circumstances, it's advisable for Farangs to use a certain amount of caution when it comes to "Retirement-Plans" in Thailand, especially if those plans include major "Financial Commitements". Always remembering, that "Legislative-Adjustements" in Thailand are not proceeded by lenghty debates in parliament. They happen overnight.
Cheers.

[jackdd]

Unless somebody has citizenship or permanent residency i wouldn't consider to stay at any place safe (and i wouldn't make a big commitment if my permit to stay isn't safe).

Currently i consider Thailand my favorite country, if the government makes it too unattractive i will just go somewhere else, not too big of a deal

So let's see if the Thai government decides that they don't need all those foreigners, but until i see it i doubt that they will do this

Edited December 21, 2018 by jackdd

[Rc2702]

Having read  less than 15 words I'd say you were not breast fed.

 

Telephone......

[swissie]

1 hour ago, Rc2702 said:

Having read  less than 15 words I'd say you were not breast fed.

 

Telephone......

Persons, not willing and capable of reading beyond 15 words are not invited to comment in this particular thread.
Over consumption of Alcoholic-Beverages late in the day will not improve the ability to comprehend anything.
- 2 Tablets of Alca-Seltzer before going to sleep and 2 tablets of Alca-Seltzer during Breakfast usually restores the capability of digesting sentences that consist of more than 15 words.
Try it.

[473geo]

4 hours ago, swissie said:

This post is not meant to increase the anxiety-level of Farang residents any further

Really

[luckyluke]

4 hours ago, swissie said:

...but it's still only one man's opinion...

Every opinion is worth the effort  to read.

Than each and every can handle it in his own way.

[marko kok prong]

Interesting post,of course those making these decisions have no idea of the impact on their fellow Thai's who are supported by expat's,let make an example expat A- Has married a Thai woman,she has 2 children from her ex Thai husband,she has an elderly Mother and Father,the expat husband provides her with a monthly amount of money that it would be in most cases impossible for her to earn otherwise,this removes her from poverty,thus saving the Govt money. Then they move the goalpost's as Swissie's lawyer friend suggests cue an exodus of expats,many having invested a large amount of money in Thailand,broken hearts,tears at the airport,and thousands of Thai families thrown back into poverty a hard blow as they have got used to living a better life, realistic options for the majority of the  women well if they are young enough and pretty enough of course prostitution. But of course the generals and politician's have no grasp of this,and knowing the Thai propensity for greed probably don't care if they did ,really i think they would like to have all expats on an Elite visa at what is it ,i may be wrong but 500,000 a pop. At the deep dark heart of this is the Thai elite's xenophobia of anything non Thai. 

[fforest1]

Well you dont have to be Einstein to see the visa tightening has been going on sense 2009....And the visa tightening shows zero signs of stopping....

 

The real question is what is the ultimate goal?....Is it to kick all farang out of Thailand unless they can cough up 500K for a elite visa? or what ?

 

 

[theguyfromanotherforum]

On 12/22/2018 at 4:40 AM, swissie said:

Persons, not willing and capable of reading beyond 15 words are not invited to comment in this particular thread.
Over consumption of Alcoholic-Beverages late in the day will not improve the ability to comprehend anything.
- 2 Tablets of Alca-Seltzer before going to sleep and 2 tablets of Alca-Seltzer during Breakfast usually restores the capability of digesting sentences that consist of more than 15 words.
Try it.

 

But your post was 15 words.

 

The rest was glorifying this man.

[Kerryd]

Who has time to read 15 words these days ?
Oops, I've said too much already ! (That was 15 words.)

Considering that they currently expect foreigners to have a higher monthly income (65,000/month for single people) than many senior government and military officials get after retirement, I'd say they went overboard when they raised that limit back in '98. 

They probably got their information (back then) from "tourist" statistics, when the main demographic was somewhat "whiter" and more affluent than it is now (from the sounds of it). 20 years ago it was unusual (very) to see even a couple of Indians or Arabs or Chinese/Korean/Japanese in places like Walking Street. It was rare enough that if an "Asian" tour group went by, people would literally stop and stare !

Money was flowing faster than the buses bringing new "talent" from Isaan to the big cities and places like Pattaya were booming ! Much of the large developments came about as a result of that boom and I suspect some are still being built as people hope that will happen again.

"Tourists" were referred to as "2 week millionaires" because they usually came for 2 weeks (or less) and spent money like they were millionaires. I've spoken to a lot of Thais (including business owners) and they seemed to think that all "farang" were rich like that, all the time. They couldn't understand than many (if not most) of those tourists may have saved up for years for that one trip and may not ever come back again (or it may take more years for them to save up enough to do it again).

About 12 years ago, I remember that TAT put out stats back then that showed the average length of stay and the average spent. Not sure quite how they calculated that but they came up with a figure around $100 US per day on average and apparently the average "stay" was 10 days. 

I'm guessing the numbers (and exchange rates) were a bit different 20 years ago and that they used the average daily spending by tourists as the basis for the financial requirements for "long stay" Visas/Extensions. That could be how they came up with the idea that the average expat needed a little over 2,000 baht per day to live in Thailand as that was probably around what the average tourist was spending per day, 20 years ago. (For accommodation, food, entertainment, drinking and "other" expenses.)
They probably then decided that a married man would spend half that, as he wouldn't be out in the bars as much and therefore his "other" expenses would be considerably less. (I'm guessing they didn't take their own experiences with their own mia nois and kiks into consideration !)

I was kind of surprised that the age limit for the "retirement" visa was only 50. I'm guessing that was to try and attract a lot of the "newly rich" people that were able to retire at a much earlier age than was traditional. In my early working days I seem to recall ads for "Freedom 55" retirement plans (which of course I totally ignored) and that was long before the "dot com" craze and the hordes of people who've been able to "retire" earlier than ever before. (Though I suspect many of them have done so without taking into consideration that things in the future would cost a lot more than they did when those people chose to retire.)

The current financial requirements still seem to be out of whack though, regardless of what the average tourist is spending these days. It's obvious from the posts on TV that a lot of people are getting by quite nicely on far less than what the government expects. A lot of that depends on a person's individual standards of living of course. 

Some people seem to struggle on 65,000/month while others have a hard time spending 45,000 a month. Some prefer fancy "serviced" apartments and eating all their meals in restaurants every day while others are content in small houses or condos where they do their own cooking and cleaning.

Some people can live a quiet life in the countryside and be content on less money per month than someone in the city would spend in a week (or a weekend).

If anything, the financial requirements should be reduced to a more realistic level and then, if some spend more than that, who cares ? But at the same time, they could reduce the financial requirements and then add the health care insurance requirement.

That would (should) still be less per year than current requirements making Thailand more affordable for many people, and would also see most of them having some level of health insurance (which I suspect most of them don't currently have).

Though from the sounds of things, pretty soon it will be getting pretty lonely here as everyone will have moved to Vietnam (or the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Panama, etc, etc) ! 

 

[swissie]

17 hours ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

 

But your post was 15 words.

 

The rest was glorifying this man.

No, it's just that I value this Thai Guy's opinion more than a Farangs opinion, sitting next to me at the bar.

[AlexRRR]

New government new opinions, the rules at present are not hard to meet, Thailand isn't a backwater outpost of the empire you know its way better than Cambodia and Philippines as a place to live.