There are many not counted such as myself.

My wife and I (both Americans) moved to Thailand in November 2017.  She is on her 2nd ED Visa.  I work outside of Thailand on a Rotation Schedule... when I return after each Rotation, I am coming into Thailand on Visa Exempt.

 

I know many others that also come in on same. For example,  one guy I worked opposite lives in Pattaya for years and has always came back on VE.

People such as this are very hard to count as they are basically in the system as nothing more than a holiday tourist.

What if I am retired staying with my Thai spouse and her resident family? Which box am I in please?

A long wooden one if you stop paying the bills !!

Certainly it would seem that there are much fewer than most people thought, at least those doing things legit. Therefore, getting rid of farang expats will have a negligible effect on the economy, so that explains why they are trying to get us out. Unfortunately for my wife's family, if I am eventually forced out because I can't produce documents to confirm that the moon is made out of cheese and that I am actually alive on a quantum level, it is them who will suffer, I suspect they will become completely destitute.

33 minutes ago, jabis said:

At 73000 old farts going with the 800k option, that would be guaranteed ฿58.4Bn at Thai banks' balance sheets rolling on and off while the minimum yearly (required) balance would be ฿29.2Bn, plenty of cushion to leverage for new household and car debts for locals 

About as much as spent on experimental carp farming.  

Hard to digest - I'm an insignificant minority. But back home I'm an insignificant majority. Who said whitey has it easy. ????

800000 x 72969 = Thb 58375200000

2 minutes ago, Felt 35 said:

800000 x 72969 = Thb 58375200000

Thai economy = 16.316 trillion baht

(= 2018 GDP from Wikipedia)

58,375,200,000 / 16,316,000,000,000 = 0.00358

which works out to expats collectively being worth about 3/1000 of 1% of the Thai economy.

 

Of course, Felt 35 is counting only Imm deposit money. We contribute in other ways too. Still even multiplying by 10 we're 3/100th of 1%.

21 minutes ago, Chicksaw said:

Thai economy = 16.316 trillion baht

(= 2018 GDP from Wikipedia)

58,375,200,000 / 16,316,000,000,000 = 0.00358

which works out to expats collectively being worth about 3/1000 of 1% of the Thai economy.

 

Of course, Felt 35 is counting only Imm deposit money. We contribute in other ways too. Still even multiplying by 10 we're 3/100th of 1%.

so really we count for <deleted>

Thai economy = 16.316 trillion baht
(= 2018 GDP from Wikipedia)
58,375,200,000 / 16,316,000,000,000 = 0.00358
which works out to expats collectively being worth about 3/1000 of 1% of the Thai economy.
 
Of course, Felt 35 is counting only Imm deposit money. We contribute in other ways too. Still even multiplying by 10 we're 3/100th of 1%.

Assuming all retired expats had the 800.000B in a Thai bank account this would mean a 0.358% of Thai GDP for 2018.

4 minutes ago, Mai Mee Tang said:

39 minutes ago, Chicksaw said:

Thai economy = 16.316 trillion baht
(= 2018 GDP from Wikipedia)
58,375,200,000 / 16,316,000,000,000 = 0.00358
which works out to expats collectively being worth about 3/1000 of 1% of the Thai economy.
 
Of course, Felt 35 is counting only Imm deposit money. We contribute in other ways too. Still even multiplying by 10 we're 3/100th of 1%.

Assuming all retired expats had the 800.000B in a Thai bank account this would mean a 0.358% of Thai GDP for 2018.

I think you can assume less than half of that and the reason for all the expat aggro against thais over the last 6 months..They just dont have it.

2 hours ago, ukrules said:

Maybe that was before everyone left?

It has never been 1 million foreigners working and living in Thailand, except during the Vietnam war.

It has been around 250-300k at the most.

1 hour ago, NCC1701A said:

f Figures on visas issued in 2017 were shared by the Thai Immigration Bureau upon request by
the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
 

 

Interesting to see the reported ratio between retirement "visas" vs. marriage "visas", which presumably is the "stay with Thai spouse" category....  I would have thought, the marriage group would have been a larger relative contingent, not just over 22% of the retired contingent.

 

2 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

the word Sex appears 321 times in this report!

Thanks for counting...

It has never been 1 million foreigners working and living in Thailand, except during the Vietnam war.

It has been around 250-300k at the most.

In the report it is estimated almost 5 million non-Thai population residing and working in Thailand.

2 hours ago, MalandLee said:

Temporary Stay
Stay with Thais 37,822 stay
Stay with a resident family 23,640 stay
Stay with Thai Spouse 16,276 stay
Retirement 72,969 stay
Special – Investment 45,882 stay and work
Special – Industrial Estates 2,331 stay and work
Special – Petroleum 1,190 stay and work

Total(s) 150,707 stay 49,403 stay and work 200,110 All

 

 

The devil's always in the details...

 

The report says the data was provided by Thai Immigration, and no further elaboration I saw...

 

So that would kind of seem to raise the question -- do those numbers only include the permissions/"visas' granted by Immigration, or do they also include all the comparable categories of actual visas issued by the Thai MFA through all the consulates and Embassies abroad?

 

1 hour ago, wgdanson said:

What if I am retired staying with my Thai spouse and her resident family? Which box am I in please?

I've been there - it's not a box it's a squirrel cage..

15 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Interesting to see the reported ratio between retirement "visas" vs. marriage "visas", which presumably is the "stay with Thai spouse" category....  I would have thought, the marriage group would have been a larger relative contingent, not just over 22% of the retired contingent.

 

post divorce numbers...

on the assumption the average expat brings over 600.000 baht,

thats an annual influx of 60 billion baht,

for about 100.000 expats

1 hour ago, Felt 35 said:

800000 x 72969 = Thb 58375200000

Far less than that in fact. Most retirees probably use the Income method or an Embassy Letter, so don't need 800k in the bank.

2 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

hey everybody! we ain't shit!

But you all live in a shit place

1 minute ago, White Christmas13 said:

But you all live in a shit place

No blud...."We all live in a yellow Submarine"

 

How 'bout you?

1 hour ago, marcusarelus said:

About as much as spent on experimental carp farming.  

no, but i think it can pay for public health care in thailand

17 minutes ago, faraday said:

No blud...."We all live in a yellow Submarine"

 

How 'bout you?

I got out of the sub many years ago I am on dry land now

2 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

Op this is a great find and completely changes the paradigm of the importance of retired expats.     

I think TV should make a story out of this report.    

 

actually this report is very damning in many ways. 

word count:

trafficking 239

sex 321

corruption 11

exploitation 126

unregulated 24

 

Is it the maids day off?

2 hours ago, Artisi said:

certainly highlights the nonsense "if all expats leave, the country will go broke " a mere drop  in the ocean.

You see expats in touristic places, but outside … last week I did my 90 days; I was the only farang and stayed more than 2 hours ; before me, 30-40 migrants from neighbouring  countries, several  with the passports of their colleagues ; a woman came with 48 passports ; so , yes, money comes from people from countries around Thailand and 73000 retirees are not much ; the woman in the IO made me feel that she cares the immigrants much more than I , farang 

54 minutes ago, Mai Mee Tang said:

In the report it is estimated almost 5 million non-Thai population residing and working in Thailand.

Oh dear4, I can also read. I was relating to the post in this thread that referred to expats. I thought you understood that when reading. Means that migrant workers from nearby countries id not included in their belief. However, now I explained it.

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Title says 'expats', they probably aren't all white.

A good percentage could be Laotians and Cambodians married to Thais...

The retirement figure to marriage may be right for visa issues but not right for situation. Nearly all the guys i know that wanted marriage visas, were sold retirement visas as they were easier ! 

I don't get the calculations in the above posts.  It seems to me that the amount of money we spend is more of a measure of our worth than the visa hostage money on deposit.  My figures would be more like:

 

Say 150,000 expats retired or married x Monthly cost of living say 50,000 per person = 90,000,000,000 baht per year.  As a percentage of the total economy it's still only just over half of one percent but....

 

1.  The spending is all from overseas funds and very largely directed at local businesses.  As such it assumes a much greater importance than the fraction of GDP would suggest.  If we all left tomorrow CP wouldn't notice but I bet our local shops, the private schools and the wider local economy would miss us.

2.  16,000 of us support families and many look after extended families. As step parents we pay for education that would likely have been out of reach if we weren't here.

3.  On top of all that, there's a final inflow of capital that many of the 16,000 will leave to their families when they emigrate Upstairs...

 

 

 

It will be double when all the expats take their 20 year old girlfriends with them.