Thinking about using an agent this year

[lamyai3]

5 minutes ago, bigginhill said:

I doubt they would notice, they would be looking for the 3 months after the sxtension date and the following 6months and then the last  3 months. All of which you take in. If all tallies up I think they would just approve. I doubt they would look to see what was provided the year before. But this is just my guess. 

This is only true for people using an agent to bypass the paperwork, but who are fulfilling the financial requirements themselves. They will have no problem, and could easily change to another agent or ditch them altogether and do it themselves.

 

The problem is for those using agents to cover the 800/400k. Immigration has already stated that a failure to meet the post-seasoning money will result in a rejection of the next extension, so it's unclear how they'll check that money, which is clearly not going to be there in the bank book. 

[sameasb4]

1 hour ago, IvorBiggun2 said:

And the link is...……..

your grasping at straws looking for links TIT your intentional movement to dissuade anyone from using agents on TV is nauseating and full of negative speculation the only people on the ground who know are the agent paymasters they talk directly the rest of us have to read between the lines.

I wont be visiting immigration again i hate the place.

[Fairynuff]

13 hours ago, wgdanson said:

Bht 800,000 is £21,000 today. How many properties in UK would you have to sell to raise that amount please?

If it’s in London you could sell a quarter of your bathroom and have enough left to buy a whole street up north.

[Fairynuff]

7 hours ago, jacko45k said:

About time this place sorted itself out and got to grips with the corruption.

Not going to happen in our lifetime 

[trd]

I go the legitimate route with 800k in the bank but I use an agent to do it which is not illegal, simply because I can't be bothered doing it myself. She used to also provide the option for those who didn't have the funds, but she told me that agents can't do it anymore because of the new requirements of maintaining a balance.

[Fairynuff]

So after 7 pages here's a breakdown of the situation;-

 

its illegal to use an agent, or it might not be.

agents can’t do it anymore, but some can.

you'll have problems if you stop using an agent, or you might not.

your agent might use another province and cause you problems, but it might not be a problem.

 

i hope I’ve been able to clarify everything for you, or maybe not.

can anyone give a definitive account of THEIR experience using an agent since the new rules? 

 

 

[lamyai3]

1 hour ago, Fairynuff said:

can anyone give a definitive account of THEIR experience using an agent since the new rules? 

No - at best all they can report on is what the agent has said they'll do next time. Since part of the new rules pertain to post-seasoning checks, no one can report back definitively on what will happen until that bridge is crossed. The new rules came in from 1st January 2019 so the earliest we might start getting solid feedback on this is around December this year (allowing for the 30/45 days advance application for retirement extensions). 

[balo]

9 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

Go to the website for one of the major agents in Pattaya and this pops up before you even get a chance to click on something.

Is it any different to paying a mortgage broker to get you a loan when the bank said no, or hiring a lawyer to go to court for you and win a case you would loose ? Like a broker or a lawyer, the agents have contacts, know the system and the rules, and one of those rules is "a high level IO can approve an extension without correct fund/seasoning.

 

Or just a personal loan from a friend. Only difference with an agent the money only stay in your account 1-2 days. Legal according to the agents, as long as the immigration officer they work with approve the application. 

 

[Nowisee]

For those over 70 or with preexisting conditions.
Will agents be able to help you with a mandatory insurance policy for OA extensions?  
If not, that is going to be the big new obstacle and/or another cause for leaving.
 

[IvorBiggun2]

2 hours ago, balo said:

Or just a personal loan from a friend. Only difference with an agent the money only stay in your account 1-2 days. Legal according to the agents, as long as the immigration officer they work with approve the application. 

Err no. If things go tits up it won't be the immigration officer, who put the stamp in your passport, or the agent for being piggy in the middle, who will walk but farang.

 

Quote

 

My advice is to just play by the rules.

Living in Thailand is pretty easy. Sure, immigration is a hassle: documents, reporting, visa runs, queues, etc., but why not just do an easy visa run?

You might think you are in with “the mafia”, so to speak, as they take your passport and money and give you a nod, but when that guy gets caught and is asked to give up names to get himself off the hook, do you think he will think twice about giving yours?

Rackets like this only run for as long as the necessary dodgy people are in their departmental posts. Once they are caught and ousted, an investigation ensues and someone's head has to roll.

And let me tell you, it won't be the guy taking your money who will go to jail, it will be the “stupid farang” that gets the blame, and possibly extorted for money like my friend did.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 28, 2019 by IvorBiggun2

[Tomahawk21]

I need to top up my bank account to 800k within the next week but the bad UK £ exchange rate is giving me second thoughts. If I add 400k at today’s rate of 38 (or even worse as it’s sinking like a brick today) it will cost £10,500. A few months ago at 41 it would of cost £9700. So say I use an agent for say 20k baht and hope the £ recovers a bit next year are there any consequences. Will I be able to do normal extensions again with my own money?

 

why  not open a sterling account send and keep the money in sterling thats what i do

[yodsak]

57 minutes ago, Tomahawk21 said:

 

 

why  not open a sterling account send and keep the money in sterling thats what i do

And watch it depreciate.

[TheThai]

For those that say it would be hard to extend your visa in the up coming following year if you stopped using an agent. 

How would immigration know that your stamp from the previous year was not gotten by using the 65k a month income method, and that for this extension you decided to use the 800k method. 

A person could say for various reasons after they extended last time they no longer deposit 65k a month in Thailand, therefore they switched to the 800k method.  since you only need bank statements showing 800k from 2 months prior to your extension request ... and they would have those. ... why would I/O investigate any further.   Is a record of which method you used to obtain the stamp from the previous year.  Can't you switch from one method to the other. 

Edited July 28, 2019 by TheThai

[ubonjoe]

21 minutes ago, TheThai said:

For those that say it would be hard to extend your visa in the up coming following year if you stopped using an agent. 
How would immigration know that your stamp from the previous year was not gotten by using the 65k a month income method, and that for this extension you decided to use the 800k method. 

All they would have to do is pull your previous extension application from their files to find out your were not telling the truth.

Some may even do that as routine check. Easy for them to find your record since the file number is shown with your extension stamp.

[gamini]

18 hours ago, possum1931 said:

Were the people who took part in the traveling passport scam not pardoned? Or was that another one.

No they weren't and an associate of mine tried this and he got a two-year suspended jail sentence and a heavy fine

Edited July 28, 2019 by gamini

[gamini]

10 hours ago, trd said:

I go the legitimate route with 800k in the bank but I use an agent to do it which is not illegal, simply because I can't be bothered doing it myself. She used to also provide the option for those who didn't have the funds, but she told me that agents can't do it anymore because of the new requirements of maintaining a balance.

This is absolutely correct. I have also heard this from a high ranking immigration official

[Pilotman]

8 hours ago, lamyai3 said:

No - at best all they can report on is what the agent has said they'll do next time. Since part of the new rules pertain to post-seasoning checks, no one can report back definitively on what will happen until that bridge is crossed. The new rules came in from 1st January 2019 so the earliest we might start getting solid feedback on this is around December this year (allowing for the 30/45 days advance application for retirement extensions). 

Quite right; some here will need to book their flights out of Thailand now to get the best deals for when their next extensions are refused.   

[gamini]

20 hours ago, phuketrichard said:

Sure, BEFORE and 100,000 % NOT relevant now, when it was ONLY 800,000 before and that money could be used throughout the year to live on.

BUT NOW, your required to keep 800,000 3 months AFTER you get your extension and than never less than 400,000

if you switch back to try and do it on your own they will see that you did NOT keep the balance when you submit your bank book copies.

Anyway, go ahead and try next year and report back how its sooooo unfair   LOL

the goal posts have changed!!!

The goalposts have changed to try and stop the illegal practice of having other people put the money in your bank account

[Olmate]

26 minutes ago, gamini said:

This is absolutely correct. I have also heard this from a high ranking immigration official

This is absolutely incorrect. 

[NoshowJones]

35 minutes ago, gamini said:

No they weren't and an associate of mine tried this and he got a two-year suspended jail sentence and a heavy fine

Thanks for telling me, but I do know that a few years ago, a few foreigners were caught with fake stamps in their passports, and were pardoned. Any other poster remember this?

[Olmate]

28 minutes ago, gamini said:

The goalposts have changed to try and stop the illegal practice of having other people put the money in your bank account

It’s not illegal to have other,s pay in to your account! What next!

[Olmate]

37 minutes ago, gamini said:

This is absolutely correct. I have also heard this from a high ranking immigration official

Was he “friend”of yours, if not what would you expect him to say....????

[yuiop]

It seems Pattaya is the easiest and cheapest place to find a good agency.

 

You go there, stay hotel for few days, find agency, give them your hotel address and passport, come back when all is ready and then go back to your city/village wherever.

 

Agency will make 90 days report for you.

 

Biggest problem I see is sending passport via post every 3 months to the agency, what if it gets lost? They do need your passport for the 90 days report right?

 

You result living in a hotel in Pattaya but you don't actually, could Immigration go and check it? I doubt if you get the good agency.

 

You have to go back to Pattaya just once a year, maybe not even that?

Just send passport via post?

 

Could all this work out fine?

Edited July 28, 2019 by yuiop
ok.

[RichardColeman]

Think I can safely predict that if agents were no longer used half of Pattaya would be gone. 95% of people I know use them and when I have been in their offices, the passports are literally stacked to the ceiling. 

[sameasb4]

A couple of friends of used an agent in pattaya in the last couple of months and i am using him in 2 weeks time there is no change going with an agent it just people on here who are been malicious because it doesn't suit their narrative to and they are anti corruption TIT

[Tomahawk21]

4 hours ago, yodsak said:

And watch it depreciate.

depreciate  to what ? and why would it ? please explain your thoughts, im interested. 

[spornb]

Maybe no for retirement extension

 

Initially all done and in order

 

Then accident and motor bike driver dead

 

Police investigate, check visa, and ask where is the 400,000 you have to keep here all the time, and the account you use for extension

 

Maybe not such a good idea

[TheThai]

2 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

All they would have to do is pull your previous extension application from their files to find out your were not telling the truth.

Some may even do that as routine check. Easy for them to find your record since the file number is shown with your extension stamp.

My 1st thought would be the previous extension application would be filed as if it were a legitimate application.  Just because an agent is used doesn't mean the documentation filed at immigration looks any differently than legitimate documents.  Using an agent only means you are using a middleman with I/O to obtain legal document.  I would venture to say the I/O person that works with the agent is filing the documents so they look legit, to ensure they (the i/o officer) is not caught up if inspections do take place.  Therefore anyone looking at the records wouldn't know whether an agent was used or not.  It would look just like any other extension that was approved.

[newatthis]

2 hours ago, Pilotman said:

Quite right; some here will need to book their flights out of Thailand now to get the best deals for when their next extensions are refused.   

You're assuming that they'll be refused. Kickbacks have been paid for yonks all over the world. Although they'll deny it, banks employ people to calculate and negotiate the best payment so that their client's business venture will be successful in certain countries.

We may find this deplorable but that is the fact of doing business. Now if the upper echelons of society here thrive in getting "gifts" to do business, why would you deprive other levels of the public service from getting the same? 

Shock horror! Corruption, bribery, criminal, graft etc etc! Yes, it is! But this is not our country. We are aliens here!

And if this is the method they use to do business, then this is the way business is done. 69 million Thais in this country and if they're not jumping up and down about it, why should you?

Even more, if it is acceptable for Thais, then the alien [or his/her agent] is perfectly entitled to do business the same way. If it is good for the goose, it is good for the gander.

Many may find this abhorrent, however, as we are often reminded by some posters on TV, this is not our country. 

We will fit into the Thai way of doing things....OR.......

[Pilotman]

6 minutes ago, newatthis said:

You're assuming that they'll be refused. Kickbacks have been paid for yonks all over the world. Although they'll deny it, banks employ people to calculate and negotiate the best payment so that their client's business venture will be successful in certain countries.

We may find this deplorable but that is the fact of doing business. Now if the upper echelons of society here thrive in getting "gifts" to do business, why would you deprive other levels of the public service from getting the same? 

Shock horror! Corruption, bribery, criminal, graft etc etc! Yes, it is! But this is not our country. We are aliens here!

And if this is the method they use to do business, then this is the way business is done. 69 million Thais in this country and if they're not jumping up and down about it, why should you?

Even more, if it is acceptable for Thais, then the alien [or his/her agent] is perfectly entitled to do business the same way. If it is good for the goose, it is good for the gander.

Many may find this abhorrent, however, as we are often reminded by some posters on TV, this is not our country. 

We will fit into the Thai way of doing things....OR.......

You use the title 'public service' and therein should lie the difference.  Yes, in the commercial world there are all kind of kickbacks, bribes, legal and illegal activity and shady dealing,  but "Public Servants" should be held by us all to a higher standard of conduct and propriety. if that is not so, then the whole of society is negatively impacted, weakened and development slowed or stopped altogether. In my country, the UK, but for a very few bad apples, this higher standard is generally accepted and followed. In many parts of the so called 'developing World', public service means very little  and is indistinguishable from the shady parts of the commercial World.  Those countries and societies will never amount to anything unless that is tackled and largely eradicated.  Here in LOS, this lack of proper public service is amply demonstrated by allowing the Military and the Police to officially engage in commercial activity and to own and run businesses, an utterly ludicrous idea and a blue print for all many of shady dealing and pocket lining.  The Thais have the solutions staring them in the face, they just don't care enough to get on with stamping it out.