Big Joke: Promises easier, faster and more "watertight" Immigration rules

[fforest1]

21 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

Ditto'ing this.

 

For a US citizen at least, all you have to do is at the time of a green card application show that you have enough resources, and you are correct, and as I recall it's $24K annual income, or assets equal to 3x that, and that she won't be a burden on the public for 2 years.

But she enters the US as a permanent resident (green card), same rights, work privileges, freedom of movement etc as any other US citizen. 

The only thing she can't do is vote essentially, and at the end of 3 years she's eligible to become a US citizen by default.

 

A tad different to how the farang spouse of a Thai citizen is treated, don't ya think?

O-Hell just keep cranking out that foot high stack of documents,the maps to your residence,the photos of you and you wife standing in front of the house and in the bed room every year and you will be fine....

[malagateddy]

Just a pity that the UKBA eere not like thst.
I think that well over 1 million would and should be booted out

Sent from my SM-G7102 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Odysseus123]

7 minutes ago, malagateddy said:

Just a pity that the UKBA eere not like thst.
I think that well over 1 million would and should be booted out

Sent from my SM-G7102 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

That's more like it....

 

These little nitwits are all thinking that "booting out" a million or so should fix the myriad of problems.

[GinBoy2]

1 hour ago, fforest1 said:

O-Hell just keep cranking out that foot high stack of documents,the maps to your residence,the photos of you and you wife standing in front of the house and in the bed room every year and you will be fine....

Gotta laugh.

 

We had already decided to move back to the US and I was in the process of selling up our rental condo's when I needed to renew my extension.

We started to do a marriage extension as I draining down the bank account and I thought it would be easier.

 

It was a typical Thai bureaucratic bizarre experience. When we were in immigration, being asked as said for pictures of us standing in our bedroom, I just laughed, said forget about it and just did the retirement extension, just for ease of it, and left the ฿800K in the bank until after the passport was stamped

[marcusarelus]

14 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

Gotta laugh.

 

We had already decided to move back to the US and I was in the process of selling up our rental condo's when I needed to renew my extension.

We started to do a marriage extension as I draining down the bank account and I thought it would be easier.

 

It was a typical Thai bureaucratic bizarre experience. When we were in immigration, being asked as said for pictures of us standing in our bedroom, I just laughed, said forget about it and just did the retirement extension, just for ease of it, and left the ฿800K in the bank until after the passport was stamped

That is what they wanted you to do so mission accomplished Thai Immigration.  1.  They wanted you to switch to retirement visa and even better move back to USA - work load even less. 

[Dmitry2222]

11 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

That is what they wanted you to do so mission accomplished Thai Immigration.

But lost in long term.

[marcusarelus]

2 hours ago, fforest1 said:

So how much money a person has determines their worth in life?........I bet there a plenty of dead billionaires who are having 2nd thoughts about this money thing....lol 

Yes of course it does.  The billionaires lived much longer and had a better life than poor people.  I've been rich and I've been poor.  Being rich is better.  Thailand wants tourists with more money to spend and wants expats with more money to spend so the VAT is bigger and Thailand can afford more submarines.  God knows we need them. 

[mania]

16 hours ago, marcusarelus said:

The ones who are flush with cash are not bothered by immigration and didn't go home.  

 

555 Didn't go home?

They never stayed in the first place

 

[otherstuff1957]

2 hours ago, CMNightRider said:

I don't think the Issan women married to westerners who will lose their marriage visas will take this laying down.

Those women and their families usually don't vote for the "good people" anyway.  The once and future dictator could care less if he causes them hardship.

[otherstuff1957]

A friend recently went to register his marriage.  After wading through the stack of paper required, the clerk began to question everything.  She called his employer to verify his income, etc., etc.  After reducing his wife-to-be to tears, she finally confessed that she was just following orders from higher-up.  All marriages to foreigners were to be regarded as fraudulent and were to be discouraged or prevented if at all possible.

 

This is probably part of Big Joke's "more watertight" policies!

[sumrit]

1 minute ago, otherstuff1957 said:

A friend recently went to register his marriage.  After wading through the stack of paper required, the clerk began to question everything.  She called his employer to verify his income, etc., etc.  After reducing his wife-to-be to tears, she finally confessed that she was just following orders from higher-up.  All marriages to foreigners were to be regarded as fraudulent and were to be discouraged or prevented if at all possible.

 

This is probably part of Big Joke's "more watertight" policies!

Where in Thailand was this?

 

[Artisi]

18 hours ago, GinBoy2 said:

Gotta laugh.

 

We had already decided to move back to the US and I was in the process of selling up our rental condo's when I needed to renew my extension.

We started to do a marriage extension as I draining down the bank account and I thought it would be easier.

 

It was a typical Thai bureaucratic bizarre experience. When we were in immigration, being asked as said for pictures of us standing in our bedroom, I just laughed, said forget about it and just did the retirement extension, just for ease of it, and left the ฿800K in the bank until after the passport was stamped

The IO would prefer to process a retirement visa than put a marriage visa into the system that requires stacks of paperwork on your part as well as theirs. therefore they do not encourage you to apply. 

[otherstuff1957]

14 minutes ago, sumrit said:

Where in Thailand was this?

 

Bangkok!

[marcusarelus]

19 minutes ago, otherstuff1957 said:

A friend recently went to register his marriage.  After wading through the stack of paper required, the clerk began to question everything.  She called his employer to verify his income, etc., etc.  After reducing his wife-to-be to tears, she finally confessed that she was just following orders from higher-up.  All marriages to foreigners were to be regarded as fraudulent and were to be discouraged or prevented if at all possible.

 

This is probably part of Big Joke's "more watertight" policies!

Isn't there more than one immigration office in Bangkok?

[otherstuff1957]

^^ You don't register a marriage at immigration, this was at a local district office and I don't remember which one.

[GinBoy2]

32 minutes ago, otherstuff1957 said:

A friend recently went to register his marriage.  After wading through the stack of paper required, the clerk began to question everything.  She called his employer to verify his income, etc., etc.  After reducing his wife-to-be to tears, she finally confessed that she was just following orders from higher-up.  All marriages to foreigners were to be regarded as fraudulent and were to be discouraged or prevented if at all possible.

 

This is probably part of Big Joke's "more watertight" policies!

That is a bit of a ratcheting up.

 

The visa marriage extension was always, I now realize a pain in the a**ss 

But if they are now questioning just getting married! 

 

If that is really policy, and TIT, so anything is possible, and not necessarily uniform across the Kingdom, that would be worrisome.

 

When we got married a few years ago. 

Yeah you had to get the declarations from two people you know, the affidavit stating you are free to marry, usual Thai piles of paper stuff.

But nobody tried to suggest it was fraudulent

[marcusarelus]

41 minutes ago, otherstuff1957 said:

^^ You don't register a marriage at immigration, this was at a local district office and I don't remember which one.

Oh I get it.  I didn't read it well the first time sorry. 

[tracy3eyes]

On ‎3‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 11:45 AM, fforest1 said:

He retired here under certain rules and expectations....So he should be grandfathered in under thoes rules....

 

Spain sounds like the perfect country for all condescending posters who full of themselves.....    

Concur! Some people are just dicks.

[ICELANDMAN]

On 3/28/2019 at 9:49 AM, otherstuff1957 said:

Big Joke seems to equate poor = bad and rich = good.  I guess it never occurred to him that a successful criminal might have no trouble showing enough money!

Dirty money is also well received in Thailand, poor resident are not welcome anywhere in the world, dirty but rich take the Elite card ????

[BritManToo]

8 minutes ago, ICELANDMAN said:

poor resident are not welcome anywhere in the world,

Definitions of 'poor' are relative.

I would define 'poor' as having less income than the official wage of a Thai immigration employee.

That definition works for immigration officials and foreign residents in every country in the world.

[CMNightRider]

2 hours ago, otherstuff1957 said:

Those women and their families usually don't vote for the "good people" anyway.  The once and future dictator could care less if he causes them hardship.

The "good people," lol ????

[Odysseus123]

8 minutes ago, CMNightRider said:

The "good people," lol ????

He is classically educated and using the Roman Republican terms..

 

"Boni"-the good men.

and presumably the antithesis.

"Populares"

 

It is not a bad description of the way Thais present themselves,methinks.

[ICELANDMAN]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Definitions of 'poor' are relative.

I would define 'poor' as having less income than the official wage of a Thai immigration employee.

That definition works for immigration officials and foreign residents in every country in the world. 

I agree with this limit, Definitions of 'poor' are relative. many immigration agents easily return poor foreigners while bowing when rich foreigners arrive.
The Big joke executes this order .... there are few illusions to make for the future for foreigners living in Thailand

[248900_1469958220]

So again...this thread just keeps going without any further evidence of the marriage visa financial requirements going up from 400,000 to 800,000. Again, my wife read the article and it was NOT clear! It seemed to be referring to the retirement visa when speaking of 800,000 needed. It could be just a poorly written/ confused article and people are getting their knickers in a twist about it.

 

So, again....for us blokes that are in legitimate marriages with Thai ladies. IS THERE ANY FURTHER EVIDENCE to back any of this up?

[Khaeng Mak]

5 hours ago, CMNightRider said:

I have never met a westerner who "buys clothes at second hand markets."  Actually, I doubt if you have either.  There are a lot of people from the US that have pensions that far exceed what Thai Immigration requires that are leaving Chiang Mai, as their visas come due.  Retiring in Thailand is no longer worth all the nonsensical requirements that go along with it.  The 800,000 baht in a Thai bank and 65,000 baht monthly deposit was the last straw for most westerners.  

 

The visa agencies are already feeling the impact from loosing customers, not to mention many of the large condos with ever increasing empty apartments. 

 

Many believe Thai Immigration will go after the westerners next who have married Thais.  Look for this change under the guise of "easier, faster and more water tight immigration rules."  If they go through with this suspected change for the marriage visa, it will stir up a hornets nest when the western bread winner no longer is able to meet immigrations new visa requirement.  I don't think the Issan women married to westerners who will lose their marriage visas will take this laying down.

 

We won't have to wait long for immigrations "easier, faster, and more water tight immigration rules."  It appears like they will make this historical (idiotic) announcement in May. ????       

Long term expats in Thailand are currently under siege. Next on the chopping block is the marriage visa. The pending changes will be sold on the basis that they are to do away with the sham marriages by Indian and Nigerians. Reality is they are just a drop in a bucket and could easily have been addressed  by weeding out the corrupt immigration officers that are central to those schemes.

 

As TotallyThaiUp has rightly pointed out, most guys married to a Thai lady are quite and law abiding and just want to get on with a simple and relaxing life with their partner.

 

But the real reason the nationalistic elite are chomping at the bit to make changes to the marriage visa is that they just plain hate it when a foreigner marries a workaday Thai girl.  That union cuts to the very core of their beloved sakdina.

[Lingba]

start packing your bags as you won't find it any easier to stay here...so much foreign investment and currency has poured into this country in the past 2 decades and has built the place up...to some degree and has turned it into a major destination area of the world...Now that they have all of this ..they have realized they don't need anything to do with foreign anything anymore except for tourists and their dollars for their short time visits...they have it ..they own it and they can handle it on their own now...bye bye farangs..thanks for your money..we don't need you anymore

[stanleycoin]

3 minutes ago, Lingba said:

start packing your bags as you won't find it any easier to stay here...so much foreign investment and currency has poured into this country in the past 2 decades and has built the place up...to some degree and has turned it into a major destination area of the world...Now that they have all of this ..they have realized they don't need anything to do with foreign anything anymore except for tourists and their dollars for their short time visits...they have it ..they own it and they can handle it on their own now...bye bye farangs..thanks for your money..we don't need you anymore

Have i got time to go back and get me coat,  before i go to the airport. 

[stanleycoin]

21 minutes ago, Khaeng Mak said:

 Indian and Nigerians. Reality is they are just a drop in a bucket and could easily have been addressed  by weeding out the corrupt immigration officers that are central to those schemes.

And there is the true problem. 

Behind the smoke and mirrors. 

 

 

[CMNightRider]

2 minutes ago, 248900_1469958220 said:

So again...this thread just keeps going without any further evidence of the marriage visa financial requirements going up from 400,000 to 800,000. Again, my wife read the article and it was NOT clear! It seemed to be referring to the retirement visa when speaking of 800,000 needed. It could be just a poorly written/ confused article and people are getting their knickers in a twist about it.

 

So, again....for us blokes that are in legitimate marriages with Thai ladies. IS THERE ANY FURTHER EVIDENCE to back any of this up?

I know there are at least two visa agencies that are concerned this may happen when Thai Immigration announces their "easier, faster, and more water tight immigration rules" in May.  You just can't make stuff like this up.  

 

I certainly hope immigration is not going to make qualifying for a legitimate one year marriage visa more difficult but I didn't think they were going to make the one year retirement visa more difficult either.

 

Personally, I believe Thai Immigration is sending westerners a very clear message, they do not want westerns retiring in their country.  This goes for westerners who have married Thais as well.  Why else would immigration have such nonsensical rules for their one year visas such as 90 day reporting, TM forms for everything under the sun, and now depositing money in a Thai bank.    

 

I don't know about the Europeans but the American government treats Thais married to Americans very well.  Once the Thai spouse qualifies for their green card and moves to the states, they have the same freedoms as American citizens.  Then to top that off, all they need to do is live in America, for three years and they are eligible to become US citizens.

 

What Thai Immigration does in return to American spouses is nothing short of pathetic and demeaning.  ????  

 

 

[metisdead]

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