Thai Wife 1 Yr Extension Application at Phetchabun IO

[joebrown]

I recently applied on the basis of monthly pension(s) of at least 40k bht being paid into a Thai bank a/c. I previously had extensions supported by an Income letter from UK Embassy. I submitted UK pension letters, supported by Barclays Bank statements which were satisfactory. These statements were returned to me. Since January 2019 I have used Transferwise to move money to Thailand, but only about 20% of these transactions were notated FTT in my passbook/statement. I thought his might be a problem so I obtained all the 'non - FTT' money exchange (FET) documents from Tranferwise's Thai Banking Partners, and handed these over to the IO Police Captain who shrugged her shoulders and gave them back to me without checking them to my bank statements! The transactions in the bank passbook weren't cross checked to the statements, but the latter were checked thoroughly to confirm monthly receipts. I was asked why I never transferred all of my UK pension funds  to Thailand. I responded by saying the minimum transfer requirement is 40k bht, and my wife and I could live comfortably on this amount.  My answer was grudgingly accepted!

BY far the most time consuming process of the 2 hour interview was spent on the marriage papers, pasting the 'happy couple' photos into an album, and countersigning seemingly endless rubber stamps the IO had applied to every document. We  were shown copies of Forms TM 28 & 30 and there supposed importance was explained. The IO had a computer record of our 'out of province' hotel stays, the most recent being December 2018. I asked if the TM 28/30 was a new law, and was told it has been 'dormant' for decades, but current security procedures had prompted it's resurrection. I said in which case I would comply in future, but would not be accountable for a law I couldn't possibly have been aware of despite visiting IO every 90 days and then annually for 13 years, without it previously being brought to my attention. My point of view was accepted, and I only paid 1,900bht for an 'Under Consideration' stamp. Despite a couple of differences of opinion the interview was conducted in a friendly manner, and I left the IO wondering why I had worried so much about it beforehand.