Thai immigration to show leniency to foreigners applying for retirement & marriage extensions

[jesimps]

5 hours ago, farangx said:

Embassy letters that can implicate the embassy if they turn out to be false.

Mine from the Brit Embassy only said that they'd seen the evidentary documents that I'd presented to them. Hardly implicating themselves. I'm still yet to be convinced that all the other embassies apart from famous four thoroughly verify the evidence at source.

[jesimps]

This thread's turning into the usual battle between those who want to genuinely sort out the present problems over the new monthly income rules and those smug, self-satisfied twots whose embassies still issue an income letter and/or those with plenty of money. Time to bale out, nothing to be learned here.

[dick dasterdly]

I haven't read the thread as 15 pages suddenly appeared in such a short space of time!  So I apologise if this has already been pointed out.

 

But it occurred to me this a.m. (yes, I can be a bit slow....) that those of us using the income method need to be a bit careful about when transferring our income to our Thai bank account.

 

e.g. I've had a very expensive month and my laptop is playing up, so I thought it might be a good idea to transfer money (using internet banking from my uk account) to my Thai bank account immediately - just in case my laptop gives up entirely.

 

BUT, then it occurred to me 'hang on a minute - you transferred money pretty recently.  If I transfer enough money to cover Feb. now, I may fall outside the future 'monthly' rules'....

 

So..... I updated my bankbook, and sure enough the last transfer was only a couple of weeks ago - so I need to wait until Feb. to transfer more money .

[HalfLight]

7 hours ago, ancharee said:

I was told for the marriage extension it was 2 months prior

Always used to be, maybe still is. Check the Thai Immingration Dept site (has a version in English or is in English as I recall).

Edited January 23, 2019 by HalfLight

[bkk6060]

5 hours ago, ginjag said:

Looks that way,  20 thousand English pounds,    if you only have 20-30k English pension, you are in Something street,  and if you got 800k how can you withdraw it---or transfer it back if you left  ??

OR throw in the towel and get a 5 year Elite card. for 500k....Or do we risk an agent to make up the 300k as I have 500k here.

OR leave after 14 years living here,   bought many new cars  over that time.......how much a good ex pat you have been, they want Quality ex pats only.    But they put up with mostly non quality Chinese here that do not spend into the local Tesco, food markets, cars, motor bikes,  leases, electric, water bills and buying petrol over a long period.  We are looked on very badly............big problem also if we have pets here and we are sort of given notice,  they are family, very worrying.

Just seems so utterly selfish.

Many posts like this all the lifestyle choice reasoning that this country owes you something.

Buy a car-your lifestyle choice.

Get married-your life style choice.

Have kids-your lifestyle choice.

Buy a condo/house- your lifestyle choice ( with no property taxes by the way).

And you have been paying your food, electric, water and gasoline. Whoop dee doo you want a free lifetime Visa?  I play golf 3 days a week maybe I deserve one too?

Seems like you like most are ¨being a good expat" for themselves and not for Thailand.

 

Now if you told me you have been donating 1 million baht a year for 14 years to Father Ray then maybe you deserve a bone.  Otherwise, you chose to live here and choose your lifestyle which sounds better then 95% of Thais.  So no, you get nor do you deserve anything back and are required to follow the laws/rules dictated by this country or like you said, choose otherwise.

 

[Jingthing]

It doesn't mention the 800,000 option. Is that still viable?

Yes.

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

[GreatEastern]

What if the money isn't transferred into the Thai bank account?  Citibank penalizes me about 1 Baht per dollar for transferring, but if I withdraw cash at the Citibank ATM here in Bangkok, I get the current exchange rate.  Thus, I have been withdrawing in cash instead of transferring every month, of course, not knowing that anything was going to change with the requirements.  Has anyone had experience with this?

[RJRS1301]

 I am not keen on having funds transferred into a Thai Bank, do not like the charges, fees and all the other stuff, especially in this day of internet banking to access funds

I have a 12 month multiple entry visa (retirement) , issued from Thai Embassy Canberra.

I have done my first reporting of residence to local office in Phitsanulok .

Can I just leave and reapply from Australia leaving my funds in my Australian accounts, and supply the embassy with relevant bank and superannuation statements, health certificates and police clearance?

 

 

Edited January 23, 2019 by RJRS1301
corrected incorrect statement

[KhunFred]

10 hours ago, NanLaew said:

How did you manage last year?

Thai law should MANDATE that bank accounts be available for this purpose. No bank wants to deal with FATCA regulations, so the logical solution is to FORCE them to make accounts available.

[Jingthing]

What if the money isn't transferred into the Thai bank account?  Citibank penalizes me about 1 Baht per dollar for transferring, but if I withdraw cash at the Citibank ATM here in Bangkok, I get the current exchange rate.  Thus, I have been withdrawing in cash instead of transferring every month, of course, not knowing that anything was going to change with the requirements.  Has anyone had experience with this?

If you're asking if you can do an income application without embassy letter that way, I think the answer is definitely no. They don't want to see you've freakin' atm slips.

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

[GreatEastern]

6 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

If you're asking if you can do an income application without embassy letter that way, I think the answer is definitely no. They don't want to see you've freakin' atm slips.

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

I can show the cash deposits on my bank statements for the past 12 months (no atm slips needed ????????????).  The question is if that's going to work instead of showing (overseas) bank to (local) bank transfers. 

[Jingthing]

Just now, GreatEastern said:

I can show the cash deposits on my bank statements for the past 12 months (no atm slips needed ????????????).  The question is if that's going to work instead of showing (overseas) bank to (local) bank transfers. 

You're supposed to show 12 monthly international transfers from abroad into a Thai bank account with no transfer under 65K per month. First year, partial year will be OK. Shown with records from the Thai bank.  Does that answer your question?

[JackThompson]

2 hours ago, dick dasterdly said:

...

BUT, then it occurred to me 'hang on a minute - you transferred money pretty recently.  If I transfer enough money to cover Feb. now, I may fall outside the future 'monthly' rules'....

 

So..... I updated my bankbook, and sure enough the last transfer was only a couple of weeks ago - so I need to wait until Feb. to transfer more money .

Yep - in the same boat.  Waiting to transfer and spend money, because I need to "parse it out" now, vs xfer it when I need something, like I always could before. 
 

45 minutes ago, RJRS1301 said:

Can I just leave and reapply from Australia leaving my funds in my Australian accounts, and supply the embassy with relevant bank and superannuation statements, health certificates and police clearance?

Yes - and that is the best option for many - especially those who do not stay here year-round, and who return to their passport-country anyway.

[GreatEastern]

3 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

You're supposed to show 12 monthly international transfers from abroad into a Thai bank account with no transfer under 65K per month. First year, partial year will be OK. Shown with records from the Thai bank.  Does that answer your question?

Yes, I'm aware of what the requirement is.  But obviously nobody knew this change was coming with them doing away with the embassy letters, otherwise I would have been transferring the money monthly to jump through the hoop.  The question is if anyone has experience with them making an exception if it's not a transfer, but cash deposits.

[dick dasterdly]

3 hours ago, dick dasterdly said:

I haven't read the thread as 15 pages suddenly appeared in such a short space of time!  So I apologise if this has already been pointed out.

 

But it occurred to me this a.m. (yes, I can be a bit slow....) that those of us using the income method need to be a bit careful about when transferring our income to our Thai bank account.

 

e.g. I've had a very expensive month and my laptop is playing up, so I thought it might be a good idea to transfer money (using internet banking from my uk account) to my Thai bank account immediately - just in case my laptop gives up entirely.

 

BUT, then it occurred to me 'hang on a minute - you transferred money pretty recently.  If I transfer enough money to cover Feb. now, I may fall outside the future 'monthly' rules'....

 

So..... I updated my bankbook, and sure enough the last transfer was only a couple of weeks ago - so I need to wait until Feb. to transfer more money .

 

5 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

You're supposed to show 12 monthly international transfers from abroad into a Thai bank account with no transfer under 65K per month. First year, partial year will be OK. Shown with records from the Thai bank.  Does that answer your question?

Hence my post above.

 

I would like to transfer money immediately, but know that I need to leave it until Feb. - to avoid even more bank charges for swift transfers .

[Jingthing]

1 minute ago, GreatEastern said:

Yes, I'm aware of what the requirement is.  But obviously nobody knew this change was coming with them doing away with the embassy letters, otherwise I would have been transferring the money monthly to jump through the hoop.  The question is if anyone has experience with them making an exception if it's not a transfer, but cash deposits.

I'll punt on that one. If I were you I would switch to the proscribed method ASAP. Good luck. 

[GreatEastern]

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

I'll punt on that one. If I were you I would switch to the proscribed method ASAP. Good luck. 

Thanks ????

[JackThompson]

1 hour ago, bkk6060 said:

... you chose to live here and choose your lifestyle which sounds better then 95% of Thais.  So no, you get nor do you deserve anything back and are required to follow the laws/rules dictated by this country or like you said, choose otherwise.

I don't think you are considering the Thais who benefit from his spending - past, present, and future.  That's the reason we are allowed to be here in the first place - fair enough - but immigration driving us out, is driving the Thais we support out of business (and families out of providers, in many cases), so it is a stupid thing for them to do (if they cared).

 

5 hours ago, sambum said:

As long as you are one of the lucky ones whose Embassy is still issuing letters!

 

... and if your pension is insufficient to cover the 40,000 baht a month requirement (I would suspect that would mean a lot of people), the way I read it is that the 40,000 baht a month (or possibly the difference between your pension and 40,000 baht - this is not clear) has to be paid into a Thai bank account.

There is no "combo method" for Thai-family based extensions - it's 40K Baht/mo income OR 400K in the bank.  If that fails, get a Non-O Visa and do border-runs ("will be dealt with next" according to a resident doomsayer), or break up the family. 

It doesn't matter if a guy can support a family better here on 30K/mo net-imported-income than what the majority of citizen-families live on.  Nor is the foreign-worker-depressed wage many wives would be forced to work for in his absence considered - maybe a third of that (while his income is spent paying overhead to live somewhere else).  Evidently, immigration knows better than Thai Wife if she has a good provider, so dad gets the boot.

[Suradit69]

On January 22, 2019 at 3:12 PM, NCC1701A said:

thank you Farangs for helping us understand our mistake. we do not think past our nose. but we like to watch Farang turn red and go crazy in immigration office.

Yes, if only they could have handled it with the same informed, intelligent consideration and sensitivity as the farang clowns at the US and British embassies who were apparently incapable of understanding the implications and consequences of stopping the issuance of income "letters" and appeared to make the decisions they did much like petulant  children.

[dick dasterdly]

"Yep - in the same boat.  Waiting to transfer and spend money, because I need to "parse it out" now, vs xfer it when I need something, like I always could before."

 

Annoying and extremely unfortunate for both myself and Thailand that I can no longer transfer large sums of money as and when needed - but I also realise that it has to be made easy for Immigration to see one 65k bht plus transfer p.m.

 

But wouldn't it be even easier (for banks and Immigration) to show 800k income transfers over the past 12 months?

 

Edit - Sorry, I'm a bit annoyed at having to wait another week or so to transfer another couple of thousand ponds over to my Thai bank account - as a result of 'timing' .
 

Edited January 23, 2019 by dick dasterdly

[Maestro]

On 1/22/2019 at 3:38 PM, Nyezhov said:

How do you say mutatis mutandis in Thai?

mutatis mutandis in Thai.mp3

 

And this is how you write it, in case you were wondering:

โดยอนุโลม

[RJRS1301]

Perhaps we all need to contact our home country respective foreign ministers about the emabssies refusing to issue the letters, and see if they will consider the effects it is having on their expats

 

[sweatalot]

2 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

Just seems so utterly selfish.

Many posts like this all the lifestyle choice reasoning that this country owes you something.

Buy a car-your lifestyle choice.

Get married-your life style choice.

Have kids-your lifestyle choice.

Buy a condo/house- your lifestyle choice ( with no property taxes by the way).

And you have been paying your food, electric, water and gasoline. Whoop dee doo you want a free lifetime Visa?  I play golf 3 days a week maybe I deserve one too?

Seems like you like most are ¨being a good expat" for themselves and not for Thailand.

 

Now if you told me you have been donating 1 million baht a year for 14 years to Father Ray then maybe you deserve a bone.  Otherwise, you chose to live here and choose your lifestyle which sounds better then 95% of Thais.  So no, you get nor do you deserve anything back and are required to follow the laws/rules dictated by this country or like you said, choose otherwise.

 

Interesting the way you interpret his statement. Where does he say he is a good expat and should be kind of awarded?

What he says is: During his stay he contributed a lot to the Thai economy.

So if he would be forced to leave the country - the country would lose (money, not him)

Seen in this light the problems the imigration causes to expats causes a problem to Thai economy as well. A lose lose scenario

[lamyai3]

39 minutes ago, RJRS1301 said:

Perhaps we all need to contact our home country respective foreign ministers about the emabssies refusing to issue the letters, and see if they will consider the effects it is having on their expats

 

This was happening at the end of last year, with a petition etc to the UK embassy, but seems to have fizzled out somewhat. 

[vinegarbase]

Foreign lambs being led to the slaughter as always. 

[Thainovice 88]

Wondering about the new rules for 65000 per month. Is that for one person? Does it for a couple you need 130,000 to show? What about people who have bought property? Does it count or we still have to have the said amount every month?

Many thanks in advance for the info.

[Jingthing]

5 minutes ago, Thainovice 88 said:

Wondering about the new rules for 65000 per month. Is that for one person? Does it for a couple you need 130,000 to show? What about people who have bought property? Does it count or we still have to have the said amount every month?

Many thanks in advance for the info.

I can answer part of that definitively. Owning property is completely 100 percent irrelevant in an income based application of any kind. That would include full 65K or combo applications with or without embassy letters. 

[ukrules]

I have a feeling that there's going to be many changes coming.

 

There's an election in March, the supposed result of the election will follow sometime later in the year.

 

 

[StefanBBK]

Only time will tell how things are going to be implemented. 

 

For me it seems that something will be better than previously. I am not receiving a pension in Germany nor do I generate any other income there. Hence I never could have gotten an income letter anyway. 

I do however transfer more then the required amounts monthly from abroad to my Thai account. So if K-Bank can provide a 12 month statement showing that, I could easily skip the current method of keeping lots of funds in my account for the three months aging. That would be a good thing, no?   

[jinners]

On 1/22/2019 at 3:22 PM, Mister Fixit said:

12,900 if you know where to go ...

and where's that? I'll probably be needing it for the 1st time since this dogs breakfast was implemented. PM me