My trip to Jomtien Immigration

[a977]

Went to Immigration Jomtien 24/01, spoke to lady behind counter where you pick up your passports at counter 8. Asked her about the combination method and what proof do I require to substantiate my pension income, was told 800,000thb in bank. I then showed her a copy of police order 327/2557 which details what is required of an alien to obtain an extension in particular section 2.22 number (5) which states I quote "Must have an annual earning and fluids deposited with a bank totalling no less than Baht 800,000 as of filing date" after reading this she asked me to wait a moment while she consulted with a superior who is the inspector (last door on left side). Anyway after a couple of minutes came back an once again stated 800,000 in bank nothing else and it was my Embassy's fault ( which I totally concur with). So there you have it folks straight from the horses asses mouth At Jomtien . When is someone going to explain to these cretins the difference between what the police order states and what a Memorandum is PLEASE 

[steve187]

its not really the embassy's fault immigration demanded something they could not do, immigration have come up with a new plan, but local offices choose to ignore it, they are making too much on the side

[glegolo]

To my understanding we all are still waiting for a decision from thai gouverment and a new law that confirm what is valid in order to apply for an extension of stay marriage or retirement.

 

You guys from the "troublesome four" countries have to wait and see there is NO common valid rules as yet... Jst different rules applied on different Imm.officies.

 

So you are wrong I guess and should slow down a bit

 

glegolo

[glegolo]

1 minute ago, steve187 said:

its not really the embassy's fault immigration demanded something they could not do, immigration have come up with a new plan, but local offices choose to ignore it, they are making too much on the side

Bull.. there were absolutely no "demands".. That is just an after-construction from your embassies side,, in order to not look like <deleted> when stopping issuing these income-letters... Specially when the whole rest of the would is doing them......

 

glegolo

[john ianson]

So who is the Commanding Officer of Immigration ? Obviously not " Big Joke " ! So do  the people at Jomtien office make their own rules ? I think YES so they can keep the dodgy visa money rolling in !

[jesimps]

1 hour ago, steve187 said:

its not really the embassy's fault immigration demanded something they could not do, immigration have come up with a new plan, but local offices choose to ignore it, they are making too much on the side

In my opinion it's the embassies' fault, viewing your docs or swearing an affidavit is a verification. All the embassies had to do was issue a letter saying that they'd verified your income as per the docs, or verification provided. I'm sure half the embassies still issuing letters don't do a verification at source, the famous four gave in too easily.

The old chestnut about people being able to forge docs is valid, but anything can be forged, passports, bank statements, bank letters etc. You have to draw the line somewhere or you go on ad infinitum. Official stamped and signed docs from a persons home country should be considered valid. So should sworn declarations.

[NE1]

What 

1 hour ago, a977 said:

Must have an annual earning and fluids deposited with a bank totalling no less

I only know one bank that accepts " fluids "

[steve187]

26 minutes ago, NE1 said:

What 

I only know one bank that accepts " fluids "

i have some goods in that bank

[Spidey]

28 minutes ago, jesimps said:

You have to draw the line somewhere or you go on ad infinitum. Official stamped and signed docs from a persons home country should be considered valid. So should sworn declarations.

Sworn declarations were far too easy to abuse. I wouldn't be surprised to find that the original request by TI for greater scrutiny, was aimed at these embassies in particular.

 

The BE however, always required 2 documents to prove income before issuing the income letter. I'm unaware of anyone using forged documents to obtain their BE embassy letters, if there were any, I'm sure that it was a rare occurrence. As a number of other embassies, using similar if not identical means of verification, have continued to issue letters without any change of procedure, it's fair to assume that the BE had no real justification for discontinuing the issue of income letters.

 

As for the US and Australian Embassies, it would have been a fairly simple matter for them to change their requirements for proof of income to match the procedures of the British and other embassies, which would probably have satisfied TI and allowed them to continue issuing the letters.

 

 

[AlQaholic]

"fluids", could that be tomato juice?

Joke aside, "Must have an annual earning and fluids deposited with a bank totalling no less than Baht 800,000 as of filing date" can't possibly be the correct translation from Thai, because what it says is that you must have an income and keep 800,000 in the bank.

[Spidey]

It's highly likely that TI have assumed that people requiring an extension via the income method have had the sense to obtain their embassy letters in advance of them being ceased, thus giving everyone the option of using an embassy letter for proof of income up to late June.

 

Therefore TI won't see the urgency of rolling out the new procedure (65k baht going into a Thai bank account every month from a foreign source), as everyone should still be using embassy letters.

 

It begs the question, why didn't the OP obtain his embassy letter in advance of the cut off date?

[Puchaiyank]

The 800k baht has been a requirement for retirement visas for years...the embassy income letters have been exposed as a farce...put the money in a Thai bank and move on...or just move.

[onera1961]

2 hours ago, steve187 said:

its not really the embassy's fault immigration demanded something they could not do,

But all other embassies, may be few dozens were able to do it. 

[steve187]

3 minutes ago, onera1961 said:

But all other embassies, may be few dozens were able to do it. 

so far, maybe they added whatever immigration wanted they must have a way of checking the information, or took the easy way out

[onera1961]

14 minutes ago, Puchaiyank said:

The 800k baht has been a requirement for retirement visas for years...the embassy income letters have been exposed as a farce...put the money in a Thai bank and move on...or just move.

Not for other countless embassies that are still issuing "income letter"

[thequietman]

1 hour ago, NE1 said:

What 

I only know one bank that accepts " fluids "

Is it the Bank of Wife/Girlfriend/Boyfriend ?  ????

[watso63]

Obtain by whatever legal means to get the required funds deposited in the bank. A 2/3 month loan wouldn't incur too much interest and can be taken out to repay as soon as the extension is granted. It's not rocket science????

[Spidey]

Just now, watso63 said:

Obtain by whatever legal means to get the required funds deposited in the bank. A 2/3 month loan wouldn't incur too much interest and can be taken out to repay as soon as the extension is granted. It's not rocket science????

Easier and just as inexpensive to pay an agent to do everything for you, i.r.o. 15k baht.

[Briggsy]

fluids = liquid funds.

[Jingthing]

its not really the embassy's fault immigration demanded something they could not do, immigration have come up with a new plan, but local offices choose to ignore it, they are making too much on the side

Yes it is. They can do it. They are not willing to. Particularly in the case of the US embassy that are providing a similar service to retired expats in Colombia a d Peru.

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[Jingthing]

The 800k baht has been a requirement for retirement visas for years...the embassy income letters have been exposed as a farce...put the money in a Thai bank and move on...or just move.

Not a farce at all. We're willing to show income documents to either our embassy or Thai immigration.

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[overherebc]

From a logical point of view,

 

Nah, forget that, I'll have another coffee and start again later.

[wgdanson]

1 hour ago, AlQaholic said:

"fluids", could that be tomato juice?

Joke aside, "Must have an annual earning and fluids deposited with a bank totalling no less than Baht 800,000 as of filing date" can't possibly be the correct translation from Thai, because what it says is that you must have an income and keep 800,000 in the bank.

Sorry but I do not read it like you do, maybe depends on some punctuation. It says that the earnings plus the deposits must total 800k, as most of us understand. It's called the Combination Method.

[PatOngo]

IMHO if someone cannot afford to deposit 800,00 baht in an account then they are not ready for retirement!

[marcusarelus]

1 hour ago, Spidey said:

Sworn declarations were far too easy to abuse. I wouldn't be surprised to find that the original request by TI for greater scrutiny, was aimed at these embassies in particular.

 

The BE however, always required 2 documents to prove income before issuing the income letter. I'm unaware of anyone using forged documents to obtain their BE embassy letters, if there were any, I'm sure that it was a rare occurrence. As a number of other embassies, using similar if not identical means of verification, have continued to issue letters without any change of procedure, it's fair to assume that the BE had no real justification for discontinuing the issue of income letters.

 

As for the US and Australian Embassies, it would have been a fairly simple matter for them to change their requirements for proof of income to match the procedures of the British and other embassies, which would probably have satisfied TI and allowed them to continue issuing the letters.

Wasn't it the British embassy that first pretended that Thai Immigration wanted something new and they could not provide it and the US and Aussies just jumped on board to cut down on work load?   

[Orton Rd]

1 hour ago, Puchaiyank said:

The 800k baht has been a requirement for retirement visas for years...the embassy income letters have been exposed as a farce...put the money in a Thai bank and move on...or just move.

Exactly, the embassy's cannot be expected to research into the honesty of applicants financial affairs and them no longer being part of what, was in many cases fraud, has been brought about by people not telling the truth.

[Orton Rd]

29 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Not a farce at all. We're willing to show income documents to either our embassy or Thai immigration.

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Everyone was willing, the problem is many documents were fraudulent showing income people did not truly have.

[Spidey]

9 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

Wasn't it the British embassy that first pretended that Thai Immigration wanted something new and they could not provide it and the US and Aussies just jumped on board to cut down on work load?   

It's my contention that the British Embassy took the course of action they did because trhey were moving to a new, smaller embassy and this action served to reduce staff and office space required. It's significant that the decision was made as a result of a Foreign Office audit, not a Bangkok Embassy decision.

 

In the case of the Australian and US embassies, it's possible that they madew their decision for similar reasons but equally possible that they were in no way fulfilling the TI requirement for verification. I doubt that we'll ever know the truth from any of the embassies involved.

[Spidey]

5 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

Exactly, the embassy's cannot be expected to research into the honesty of applicants financial affairs and them no longer being part of what, was in many cases fraud, has been brought about by people not telling the truth.

Did anyone ask them to? Evidence? Many embassies continue to offer embassy letters using the same verification process as the British Embassy.

 

I haqve seen not one shred of evidence that anyone committed fraud when obtaining their income letters from the British Embassy.

[Jingthing]

Everyone was willing, the problem is many documents were fraudulent showing income people did not truly have.

Then limit the accepted documents to the obvious ones - - government pensions. Not a complete cut off. We now have a totally unfair two tiered system here. One for those with embassies willing to issue letters and another for those with uncooperative embassies.

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