On 3/12/2019 at 1:36 AM, Banana7 said:

If you're American, come to Canada. We love Americans, and the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok Thailand, will certify and give you a document accepted by Thai immigration as to your true and complete income.

 

You'll have to become a Canadian citizen, pay Canadian income taxes and file Canadian income tax returns.

Shortly after the initial announcement by the UK last year, a poster on here mentioned being told by the Canadian Embassy that they would also be scrapping letters in the near future. Whether the embassy has this in the pipeline, or are holding off to see if immigration ratchets up the pressure isn't currently clear. 

On 3/10/2019 at 7:51 AM, ThaiBunny said:

I agree completely.  I get a Social Security pension from the US together with a pension from a completely different country where I also worked. There's no way any one embassy could possibly verify my income (even if they wanted to)

Wherever there is a will there is a way. Wherever there is laziness or lack of incentive ....

Another example of this situation is faked Degrees for work permits. Of course they could be authenticated. But the authorities don't bother. Can anyone suggest a line of income that could not be authenticated?

It is what it is.

Comply, or go.

On ‎3‎/‎9‎/‎2019 at 11:59 PM, Jingthing said:

I have mentioned this before, but I will mention it again for those that haven't heard it.

I feel extremely angered (and I think others should be as well) that our U.S. embassy has basically shafted us by refusing to do ANYTHING for us in the way of income letters.

 

This action on their part has contributed to my feeling that living in Thailand is becoming not viable for me. I would need to do a COMBO method, and the COMBO method "rules" without an income letter are a total mess.

 

I will be more specific.

Social security benefits letters.

Military pension letters.

The USA embassies in Peru and Colombia can and do officialize such GOVERNMENT pension documents to the satisfaction of the immigration offices of Peru and Colombia. These are nations that normally require an APOSTILE for such documents, but the USA embassy officialization replaces that need.

 

The obvious question is WHY this can be done for our citizens in those two places (and perhaps others I don't know about) WHY can't the U.S. embassy do the EXACT same thing in Thailand?

 

I think the answer is obvious. They can do it but they won't do it. Perhaps they haven't even considered limiting the service to be for GOVERNMENT pensions.

 

In any case, this situation is awful and extremely unfair. 

All fine and good for pensions.  But that leaves a wide range of other income types to consider.  Dividend, interest, rent income.. etc.  Frankly one of the best tests may be a person's last year 1040 income tax form.  It will show many of these types of income.  However, if a person's stock and bond portfolio is held inside IRAs or 401k (Pre Tax or Roth components), those incomes do not show up as income unless one makes distributions.  I have about 1/2 of my investment income coming from inside my ROTH and Traditional IRAs.  But I won't be making distributions from them yearly, and even if I did, a distribution by itself does not prove there was actually sustainable income. Etrade provides a very nice and simple easy to read income estimator which lists all the projected dividend and interest from your holdings, using the latest or last dividend/interest rate they paid. 

The idea that pensioners in Chiang Mai are forging bank statements is ridiculous. Some in Zimmer frames. Wordpress a foreign comcept