Latest Retirement Extension a Warning .

[smedly]

12 minutes ago, Thailand Outcast said:

You will get between 6% to 8% return if your 800k is in a diversified

at my stage in life I prefer to put my money (capital) into a non risk investment - there are certainly options to get the returns you are quoting but the higher that percentage goes up the bigger the risk - lets wait for the next banking crash and see where that money goes - yes we have had one 10 years ago and looking at the state of certain economies especially around Europe I would not be confident with any of them, that's just me everyone to their own

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎4‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 8:03 PM, khastan said:

With the greatest respect I am not concerned that readers are well aware of the incompetence of immigration staff. My OP is a genuine heads up and a warning and to try help anybody who is applying for a extension now or in the future to make sure that three months have elapsed since they transferred funds into a Thai bank before applying for a second or more extension.. Fortunately I have only missed it by 1 day others might not be so lucky.

Always was 3 months for second and subsequent extension. When did it change?

 

I was once threatened by an IO that didn't know what a TM 28 was.

Edited April 21, 2019 by thaibeachlovers

[marcusarelus]

1 minute ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Always was 3 months for second and subsequent extension. When did it change?

On ThaiVisa a couple of months ago.  In reality no one knows.

[dick dasterdly]

39 minutes ago, Joe Mcseismic said:

Money is the easiest way to cull the herd. Get rid of the poorer expats and keep the richer.

This kills two birds with one stone. Reducing the total amount of retirees and increasing the perceived quality of the remaining retirees.

 

I still haven't heard anyone come up with an explanation as to WHY the rules have changed.

"I still haven't heard anyone come up with an explanation as to WHY the rules have changed."

 

Purely my opinion of course, but I think Immigration indicated strongly that they expected the Embassies to verify income - before issuing 'proof of income' letters.  An almost impossible task for any embassy, and so a few decided to just not bother providing the proof of income letters anymore.....

 

This resulted in a headache for Immigration, as it was the 'big players' that decided to stop providing income letters.....

 

Consequently, they had to come up with new ideas for the 'proof of income' method (for expats from those countries), which resulted in a total overhaul of the requirements for retirement visas.....

[thaibeachlovers]

1 minute ago, marcusarelus said:

On ThaiVisa a couple of months ago.  In reality no one knows.

I never knew what new documents they were going to ask for when I did my extensions, which was why I used an agent the last couple of times.

[marcusarelus]

I got attacked by so many guys for saying you don't have to lose control of your money I thought I'd explain it to all of you new guys who don't know about the Visa extension rules.

 

All but 4 countries you can still get an income letter so no problem.  In those four countries where you can't get an income letter you can go home and get a 2 year visa with no money in a Thai bank.  If you don't want to go home you can show 65k baht coming into Thailand every month and not put any money into a Thai bank. 

 

Personally I keep a few mill in a Thai bank because I think it's prudent to have some cash available. 

 

What has my actual interest rate been taking into consideration currency fluctuations since I put the money in in 2000?  Some math guy can figure it out. 

[marcusarelus]

9 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

"I still haven't heard anyone come up with an explanation as to WHY the rules have changed."

1.  The rules have changed to keep certain ethnic minorities out of Thailand.  I heard this from Immigration workers. 

 

2.  The rules have changed for 4 other countries because the embassy workers are lazy. 

 

3.  Further rule changes will follow in May. 

 

If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

Edited April 21, 2019 by marcusarelus

[marcusarelus]

9 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I never knew what new documents they were going to ask for when I did my extensions, which was why I used an agent the last couple of times.

I always know feel free to ask.

[WorriedNoodle]

On 4/17/2019 at 3:22 PM, Thailand said:

 

I suppose any certified correct document that states 'balance must be no less than THB 400,00 or;" can lead us to hope for no better. 

[dick dasterdly]

3 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I never knew what new documents they were going to ask for when I did my extensions, which was why I used an agent the last couple of times.

Same here.  I just got tired of the endlessly changing 'rules', which resulted in my becoming very stressed every time I had to go to Immigration for 90 day reports/retirement extensions.

 

Far less stress now that I've employed an agent to deal with this on my behalf.  Even so, when renewing my extension this year, I was told that I needed to go to Immigration for a 'photo to be taken by them.  Thankfully, it was as easy as my agent promised, and I was in and out within minutes, although I did notice that all the employees in the office turned to stare at me!

 

Presumably they were curious as to why on earth I would pay an agent a lot of money, when I am perfectly legal ????!

[rabas]

1 minute ago, WorriedNoodle said:

I suppose any certified correct document that states 'balance must be no less than THB 400,00 or;" can lead us to hope for no better. 

This is an English translation and therefore not legal law in Thailand, even if immigration translated it. I have not seen the Thai version posted here. I have also not seen the rest of the 'new rules' in writing from Immigration. Does anyone have a reference to such documents? I

[dick dasterdly]

9 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

1.  The rules have changed to keep certain ethnic minorities out of Thailand.  I heard this from Immigration workers. 

 

2.  The rules have changed for 4 other countries because the embassy workers are lazy. 

 

3.  Further rule changes will follow in May. 

 

If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

Ummm, it was Joe Mc that posted that comment - not me!  I just replied to it!

 

Please quote the correct post....

Edited April 21, 2019 by dick dasterdly

[hml367]

6 minutes ago, rabas said:

This is an English translation and therefore not legal law in Thailand, even if immigration translated it. I have not seen the Thai version posted here. I have also not seen the rest of the 'new rules' in writing from Immigration. Does anyone have a reference to such documents? I

https://www.immigration.go.th/read?content_id=5c515d0a753d2c5d3589c929&fbclid=IwAR3ayW7yso7pKo8HmKosLBfCMvj_R61tkMVokDYuBr0hgkT3s34M8g3wKd8

[ubonjoe]

9 minutes ago, rabas said:

This is an English translation and therefore not legal law in Thailand, even if immigration translated it. I have not seen the Thai version posted here. I have also not seen the rest of the 'new rules' in writing from Immigration. Does anyone have a reference to such documents? I

All the recent changes in Thai and English are posted in this pinned topic.

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/981135-laws-regulations-police-orders-etc/

 

[Joinaman]

On 4/18/2019 at 7:25 PM, scubascuba3 said:

 

 

Why is it complicated? it has to add up to 800k at the end of the year. 12 months income + balance = 800k

 

yes, thats the way i see it, but they dont seem to be able to work that out

so can i now start to spend the 800,000 after i have got this years visa, as long as any money in bank, plus income payments ?

But the income can be 6 months, 3 months plus balance as long as the total in the bank at the end of the year equals 800.000 ?

Can It ?

immigration said no spend 800,000 for 3 month then transfer 65,000 , , which would be maximum of 9 months income, plus balance, 

[ramr]

On 4/17/2019 at 6:53 PM, khastan said:

You are all more than welcome. My main reason for the original post was to prevent others from facing the same dire situation.. I have printed the rules out and when I go tomorrow I will asked her if these rules made in January 2019 are no longer applicable now. Maybe I am to sensitive but I left Nong Khai Immigration feeling like I had been treated like something brown you scrape off the bottom of your shoe..

 

A familiar feeling for those of us unfortunate enough to need to deal with NK immigration, I'm afraid.  I always knew they were rude and clearly relished lording it over Westerners.  Now we know they're incompetent and obfuscatory...likely willfully so until you either make a bunch of attempts and they decide you've had enough or you give up and go through an agent.

 

They are especially bad news.  Steel yourself, plaster on a bland smile and your best fake politeness, ignore the frequent justified urges to strangle and defenestrate, and resign yourself to more nitpicking on their end and running around pointlessly on yours.  Sorry.

 

Edited April 21, 2019 by ramr

[Joinaman]

10 hours ago, Thailand Outcast said:

When you look at it, objectively, they say the deposit of this money is to ensure you can support yourself, but you can't use it to support yourself this year, otherwise, you don't get a visa for next year.  So, it's not money you can use at all, really.  ????

 

It's just a cheap loan to Thai banks. 

Thats what i was trying to explain to the officer

its not 800,000 we need in the bank, but well over 1 million, because you wont allow us to spend the money, that last year you said we needed to live on and pay bills

When i asked about maybe having an emergency, like a large hospital bill or something, what would happen if i use the 800,000, she just smiled and said,"not good"

[khastan]

Wow my op has now changed topic into something of an hot potato. In my humble opinion these new financial requirements have been done for one thing and one thing only, and that is cheap loans to Thai Banks. They can then invest your 800.000/400.000 baht relatively safe in the knowledge that you cant touch it. I expect similar conditions going forward to apply to the 65000 baht method.

Edited April 21, 2019 by khastan

[rabas]

53 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

All the recent changes in Thai and English are posted in this pinned topic.

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/981135-laws-regulations-police-orders-etc/

 

In my browser, the new info in items 11,12,13,16,17 is not accessible and all show a small black popup saying "Not accessible". All other items work.

[smedly]

1 hour ago, marcusarelus said:

If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

what's the best way to roll meatballs 

[ubonjoe]

12 minutes ago, rabas said:

In my browser, the new info in items 11,12,13,16,17 is not accessible and all show a small black popup saying "Not accessible". All other items work.

No problems shown when I go to the page using Chrome on Windows 10.

[khastan]

Also all this talk about Thailand having a foreign population explosion is utter nonsense. Ex pats bring nothing but benefits to Thailand economy. Try going to areas in the UK such has Bradford, Birmingham, Blackburn, Leicester etc etc and then you will see a foreign population explosion. I had a friend who was a teacher in a Bradford school who left because out of the whole school there was one white pupil. They are at the moment 102 mosques in parts of Bradford alone and that increases year on year. Now that is real foreign population explosion!

Edited April 21, 2019 by khastan

[hml367]

31 minutes ago, rabas said:

In my browser, the new info in items 11,12,13,16,17 is not accessible and all show a small black popup saying "Not accessible". All other items work.

Be sure you are signed into your Thaivisa account...  when I am not signed in I get the notice you are describing.... When I am signed in I do not.

[rabas]

20 minutes ago, hml367 said:

Be sure you are signed into your Thaivisa account...  when I am not signed in I get the notice you are describing.... When I am signed in I do not.

Silly me, that was the problem.

[khastan]

At the end of the day It really does not matter what the official or otherwise rules say because they can change them at will and we can do little about it. Like certain posters keep saying it's their country etc.. A small example. The immigration officer who refused my extension because i was one day early told me I must go and get new bank letters when I came back the next day, which I did. The next day I was attended to by a different officer who would have accepted the previous days bank letters. Like I keep saying we have no security whatsoever and are totally at the mercy of that particular immigration officer whether we can remain in Thailand or not.

[marcusarelus]

2 hours ago, dick dasterdly said:

Same here.  I just got tired of the endlessly changing 'rules', which resulted in my becoming very stressed every time I had to go to Immigration for 90 day reports/retirement extensions.

 

Far less stress now that I've employed an agent to deal with this on my behalf.  Even so, when renewing my extension this year, I was told that I needed to go to Immigration for a 'photo to be taken by them.  Thankfully, it was as easy as my agent promised, and I was in and out within minutes, although I did notice that all the employees in the office turned to stare at me!

 

Presumably they were curious as to why on earth I would pay an agent a lot of money, when I am perfectly legal ????!

I didn't know they were endlessly changing.  Since I've been here (20 years) no changes for me.  The embassy changed a rule so I'm switching to the income method because I no longer have to pay for an embassy letter.  5000 baht cheaper.  Every little bit helps.

[marcusarelus]

16 minutes ago, khastan said:

At the end of the day It really does not matter what the official or otherwise rules say because they can change them at will and we can do little about it. Like certain posters keep saying it's their country etc.. A small example. The immigration officer who refused my extension because i was one day early told me I must go and get new bank letters when I came back the next day, which I did. The next day I was attended to by a different officer who would have accepted the previous days bank letters. Like I keep saying we have no security whatsoever and are totally at the mercy of that particular immigration officer whether we can remain in Thailand or not.

You can't file taxes one day late in America could cost you millions.  Don't see why you think the government has time rules if they don't enforce them?  One day or one year it's still a time rule eh?

[tgeezer]

As a matter of interest, anyone left that qualify under the rules at the bottom? 21 consecutive extensions?

If there are then they know who they are. These provisions are senseless because they are dated 2019 and since they refer to age there is absolutely nobody at all who entered before 1998 at the age of fifty who is not over sixty.

This could mean that whoever signed it did not read it or did not understand what it said. I have pointed this out so often and been ignored that I begin to doubt myself so thanks for posting.

 

Sent from my iPad using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[marcusarelus]

1 hour ago, khastan said:

Wow my op has now changed topic into something of an hot potato. In my humble opinion these new financial requirements have been done for one thing and one thing only, and that is cheap loans to Thai Banks. They can then invest your 800.000/400.000 baht relatively safe in the knowledge that you cant touch it. I expect similar conditions going forward to apply to the 65000 baht method.

I think the new requirements will lower bank deposits not increase them because more will switch to the income method or marriage or use agents so not really a sound argument. 

Edited April 21, 2019 by marcusarelus

[ubonjoe]

7 minutes ago, tgeezer said:

This could mean that whoever signed it did not read it or did not understand what it said. I have pointed this out so often and been ignored that I begin to doubt myself so thanks for posting.

Nothing is new in number 6. It is identical to what has been in all the police orders since that grandfathering rule was first done.