Simple Transferwise immigration question

[1]

Very simple question has anybody applying for their retirement visa extension and their monthly transferwise payments not showing as coming from overseas managed to use these payments as proof of money coming into the country to satisfy Jomtien immigration guidelines.

 

I don't require any other advice as I'm very aware of the situation with regards to different options. Thanks

Edited November 3, 2019 by 1

[kralledr]

depends on the immigration i guess.. 

[Exploring Thailand]

I can't direct you to the post, but a few weeks ago somebody posted that they had been able to get a letter from the bank confirming that it was an international transfer, even though it was marked as internal in the bank book. There was also a recent post in which someone had had copies of the TransferWise receipt accepted as proof. Personally, I'd think the former method would be more reliable than the latter.

[Moonlover]

3 minutes ago, Exploring Thailand said:

I can't direct you to the post, but a few weeks ago somebody posted that they had been able to get a letter from the bank confirming that it was an international transfer, even though it was marked as internal in the bank book. There was also a recent post in which someone had had copies of the TransferWise receipt accepted as proof. Personally, I'd think the former method would be more reliable than the latter.

The latter was probably me. I used the T/W transaction slips which were accepted. I haven't heard of anyone obtaining a letter from the bank to confirm the deposits are international. I did ask but it was not possible through Krungsri.

 

It may be possible if the issuing account and the receiving account are in the same bank, but I cannot confirm that.

[1]

8 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

I used the T/W transaction slips which were accepted.

Would you be able to tell me if you married them up to bank statements/book or you just simply used the transfer receipt? Thanks

[don long]

34 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

The latter was probably me. I used the T/W transaction slips which were accepted. I haven't heard of anyone obtaining a letter from the bank to confirm the deposits are international. I did ask but it was not possible through Krungsri.

 

It may be possible if the issuing account and the receiving account are in the same bank, but I cannot confirm that.

I use uob and manager agreed to sign letter stating money transfer to military bank the transfer to uob

[Moonlover]

15 minutes ago, 1 said:

Would you be able to tell me if you married them up to bank statements/book or you just simply used the transfer receipt? Thanks

I presented Krungrsi bank statements (downloaded from on-line), the T/W transaction slips all nicely married up with statements with highlighter and a standard letter from the bank. In addition I handed over my 3 annual pension statements as evidence of foreign, sustainable income.

 

The only additional request was for a copy of my bankbook. (front page only as I do not keep it up to date)

 

The IO had already dealt with a previous applicant who also used T/W so he was familiar with them.

 

As a Krungsri customer my statements do have these, much discussed 'international codes' but the IO didn't seem to bothered about that. I don't think he even looked at them.

[jacko45k]

A pal of mine used his, but most were showing FTT. To substantiate the couple that didn't, he had the Transferwise receipts, actually for all the transfers. He bombarded them with paper I bet, and got his extension at Jomtiem.

[Moonlover]

5 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

A pal of mine used his, but most were showing FTT. To substantiate the couple that didn't, he had the Transferwise receipts, actually for all the transfers. He bombarded them with paper I bet, and got his extension at Jomtiem.

I have long believed that the vital necessity for this FTT code is merely an urban myth, started and sustained within the TVF community.

 

If you've got them, fine, no worries, (providing the IO knows what they mean of course) but many folk cannot get them because they are in the 'wrong' banks, me included. So they have no choice but to present alternative evidence and the IOs will have to be flexible and use their judgement.

 

I chuckled at your comment, 'bombarded them with paper'. Last year, i presented one sheet, the embassy letter. This year it morphed into 37 sheets! I'm working on streamlining it for next year, but I don't think I'll be able to get it below 20.

[WhatupThailand]

I have to ask a Common Sense Question.

If you are over 55, and on a Retirement Extension, but receive monthly deposits over B65k,

Who would think you have some kind of money tree in Thailand ?

 

Why the big deal to show that the money comes from outside Thailand ?

One could have a Thai Sugar Mama with connections outside, to send you money monthly.

So whats the point ?

 

[treetops]

5 hours ago, WhatupThailand said:

Why the big deal to show that the money comes from outside Thailand ?

To stop 10 mates from shovelling the same 65K baht round all their accounts in a month which would be easy and free.

[Toadie]

First, I was asked for an additional letter from bank (Krungsri!). For the life of me I cannot recall exact wording. I've never heard of such a letter. Something like, "statement of credit advice".

 

Now this is an AUD account with Krungsri. Statements show correct codes etc however additional letter / statement etc was requested by immigration.

 

Just because a bank says it doesn't or doesn't know really doesn't mean much. Try getting them to put a total directly under 2 figures. I gave up instead of telling them to hit tab key....

 

This is in HH and everything got copied and sent to BKK for processing. So I assume (mistake) somebody central wants it. But dealing with 2 different officers here, they where requiring slightly different things.

 

Second, reason to show they're international transfers you could simply drop 65k thb into an account here and withdraw it each month. Or someone else doing it. At least being international makes it harder more costly. Generating that income internally your working or some sort business investment, not retired. Yeah... assuming again, mistake...

[jacko45k]

14 hours ago, WhatupThailand said:

I have to ask a Common Sense Question.

If you are over 55, and on a Retirement Extension, but receive monthly deposits over B65k,

Who would think you have some kind of money tree in Thailand ?

 

Why the big deal to show that the money comes from outside Thailand ?

One could have a Thai Sugar Mama with connections outside, to send you money monthly.

So whats the point ?

 

Multiple reasons,but mainly they have a phobia about people working illegally on retirement extensions. 

[john terry1001]

16 hours ago, Moonlover said:

16 hours ago, Exploring Thailand said:

I can't direct you to the post, but a few weeks ago somebody posted that they had been able to get a letter from the bank confirming that it was an international transfer, even though it was marked as internal in the bank book. There was also a recent post in which someone had had copies of the TransferWise receipt accepted as proof. Personally, I'd think the former method would be more reliable than the latter.

The latter was probably me. I used the T/W transaction slips which were accepted. I haven't heard of anyone obtaining a letter from the bank to confirm the deposits are international. I did ask but it was not possible through Krungsri.

 

It may be possible if the issuing account and the receiving account are in the same bank, but I cannot confirm that.

And the former was probably me. During a software upgrade several transfers in early July arrived via a partner bank instead of coming directly to your preferred bank. Mine came via Kasikorn to my Bangkok account so was labeled as a SMT (local, internal) transfer. Kasikorn have an International section at their Pattaya Klang branch and they supplied me with a Credit Advice Receipt to confirm the Transfer originated from the UK via Transferwise. Immigration at Si Racha confirmed that was acceptable proof of an overseas transfer. 

[a977]

In the drop down section of your transfer in the section stating the reason for transfer go to the bottom line "to suit Thailand immigration" click on that and no more worries it will show as FTT all the time

[Jip99]

4 minutes ago, a977 said:

In the drop down section of your transfer in the section stating the reason for transfer go to the bottom line "to suit Thailand immigration" click on that and no more worries it will show as FTT all the time

The actual option is:-

 

“Funds for long-term stay in Thailand”

 

On my Kasikorn account the statement entry is still “Dummy Branch MCL...” which is defined as a ‘smart transfer’.

 

The reason for transfer will appear on the TW transaction advice.

 

[Moonlover]

27 minutes ago, a977 said:

In the drop down section of your transfer in the section stating the reason for transfer go to the bottom line "to suit Thailand immigration" click on that and no more worries it will show as FTT all the time

A. That will only work if you bank with one of the three 'partner banks' that T/W use in Thailand.

 

B. There have been enough reports posted that, even then it hasn't always worked and

 

C. As has been proved by myself and others, this much coveted FTT code is not the 'holy grail' of income proof anyway. My bank doesn't have them, but it didn't stop me from extending my stay 3 months ago.

 

But fine if it works for you.

 

 

Edited November 4, 2019 by Moonlover

[Kadilo]

5 hours ago, Jip99 said:

 

The reason for transfer will appear on the TW transaction advice.

 

You mean the receipt? 

if so I cannot see any reason on my last transaction despite choosing the correct drop down. Only which bank it was internally transferred from. 

Edited November 4, 2019 by Kadilo

[billd766]

23 hours ago, Moonlover said:

The latter was probably me. I used the T/W transaction slips which were accepted. I haven't heard of anyone obtaining a letter from the bank to confirm the deposits are international. I did ask but it was not possible through Krungsri.

 

It may be possible if the issuing account and the receiving account are in the same bank, but I cannot confirm that.

I changed from a retirement to a married extension in August 2019 at Khampaeng Phet using income only and at my first attempt I gave in too much paperwork including the TW transfer slips. She wasn't interested in them and on the second try the following week we updated the bankbook before going to Immi. That was OK but the bank letter was wrong. My wife did the photo copy and I went to the other BKK Bank branch to get another letter.

 

They weren't sure what was wanted so I called my wife and passed my mobile to the bank lady and my wife gave hers to the IO and they sorted out what was necessary.

 

At the BKK Bank all my transfers are shown as FTT.

 

23 hours ago, Moonlover said:

I have long believed that the vital necessity for this FTT code is merely an urban myth, started and sustained within the TVF community.

 

If you've got them, fine, no worries, (providing the IO knows what they mean of course) but many folk cannot get them because they are in the 'wrong' banks, me included. So they have no choice but to present alternative evidence and the IOs will have to be flexible and use their judgement.

 

I chuckled at your comment, 'bombarded them with paper'. Last year, i presented one sheet, the embassy letter. This year it morphed into 37 sheets! I'm working on streamlining it for next year, but I don't think I'll be able to get it below 20.

 

Mine started at about 50 sheets (doubled as one set stays in KPP and the other goes to CM).

[Jip99]

58 minutes ago, Kadilo said:

You mean the receipt? 

if so I cannot see any reason on my last transaction despite choosing the correct drop down. Only which bank it was internally transferred from. 

 

My apologies. I have just checked my last two receipts and the reason for transfer is not there. I thought/read/assumed that it was included.

 

However, there is enough information on that PDF receipt to clearly identify the transfer as being from overseas.

[treetops]

7 hours ago, a977 said:

In the drop down section of your transfer in the section stating the reason for transfer go to the bottom line "to suit Thailand immigration" click on that and no more worries it will show as FTT all the time

Transferwise themselves have already said it's not guaranteed.  If the regular path used to obtain the FTT code has a malfunction, their systems may automatically use another path which doesn't. Essentially this is what happened in July when the problems arose.

[Kadilo]

2 hours ago, Jip99 said:

 

My apologies. I have just checked my last two receipts and the reason for transfer is not there. I thought/read/assumed that it was included.

 

However, there is enough information on that PDF receipt to clearly identify the transfer as being from overseas.

No problem. I thought I was maybe missing something. 

[Jip99]

20 minutes ago, Kadilo said:

No problem. I thought I was maybe missing something. 

It must appear somewhere or there would be no point in having that option.

 

I will email TW.

[Moonlover]

1 hour ago, Jip99 said:

It must appear somewhere or there would be no point in having that option.

 

I will email TW.

Those 'reasons for transfer' are not there for T/W's or the customers benefit. They they required by the financial watchdogs and all transactions to Thailand are thus monitored. If you did a SWIFT transfer from you bank, you would be required to give a reason.

 

It's all about monitoring and preventing money laundering and other such crimes.

 

Edited November 4, 2019 by Moonlover

[Jip99]

4 hours ago, Moonlover said:

Those 'reasons for transfer' are not there for T/W's or the customers benefit. They they required by the financial watchdogs and all transactions to Thailand are thus monitored. If you did a SWIFT transfer from you bank, you would be required to give a reason.

 

It's all about monitoring and preventing money laundering and other such crimes.

 

I fully understand that.
 

However, ‘funds for long-term stay in Thailand’ is not a money laundering requirement. Reasons for transferring funds to Thailand have been a requirement for donkeys years.... certainly there when I still worked in banking. Monthly living expenses or payment for goods/services would suffice........funds for long-term stay is far more specific and not a definition necessary for regulatory requirements.

 

I believe it to be service from TW intended to assist expats with immigration requirements. I will stand corrected but I see no other reason for that additional option on the drop down choices.

[PJPom]

I did my extension in July with six months of Bank statement from SCB which only showed my Transferwise from Australia as domestic, HOWEVER each deposit was coded MCL00001. Nobody in SCB knew what this meant and all they gave me was the letter showing current funds and stamped statement from Jan 2019. I was a bit worried until a poster on one of the many Transferwise posts got formal notice from Kasikorn that "teller I D MCL00001 " means international fund transfer from other bank with API system (application programming interface).  Armed with this and a printout of each months Transferwise transfer from Australia my I O made a phone call and after a couple of minutes of Da and Chai and a lot of Krap he said all OK.

2000baht and a wai and that was it,

My belated thanks to oxmermaid for his post on 7/5/2019 

[Moonlover]

8 hours ago, Jip99 said:

I believe it to be service from TW intended to assist expats with immigration requirements. I will stand corrected but I see no other reason for that additional option on the drop down choices.

I can understand your scepticism and no one is going to correct us either way, so this is purely an intellectual exercise. I do believe, along with you that T/W are doing their best to help. But if I were tasked with writing a software patch to achieve this aim (I do have experience) I would not do it the way you suggest.

 

It's not a standard practice when writing code to search a 'comment table'. You would steer the software to the appropriate reference tables. I would write the following:

 

            1. Is the transfer request going to Thailand?

(Search table of country codes)

 

            2. If yes, Is the destination account one of our partner banks in Thailand? (search table of Thailand partner banks)

 

            3. If yes, steer this transaction to that specific bank. (set appropriate steering flag)

 

If any of the above return a 'no', then the transaction is left to follow the main path along with all the rest. In practice, it would quite simple bit of code to write and much less clumsy than referring to a 'comment table'.

 

So, why the additional line in the 'comment table'? Quite simply this. 'To let you, the customers know that we are doing something to help you'.

 

I would suggest that, even if you were to forget to 'tick the right box' your transfer would still reach the right issuing bank. (baring technical hitches of course)

 

Like you, I may be wrong, On my part I'm speaking as one with experience in software code, your speaking from your banking experience. Let's just agree to differ.

 

Have a nice day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            

Edited November 5, 2019 by Moonlover

[Jip99]

2 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

I can understand your scepticism and no one is going to correct us either way, so this is purely an intellectual exercise. I do believe, along with you that T/W are doing their best to help. But if I were tasked with writing a software patch to achieve this aim (I do have experience) I would not do it the way you suggest.

 

It's not a standard practice when writing code to search a 'comment table'. You would steer the software to the appropriate reference tables. I would write the following:

 

            1. Is the transfer request going to Thailand? (Search table of country codes)

 

            2. If yes, Is the destination account one of our partner banks in Thailand? (search table of                   Thailand partner banks)

 

            3. If yes, steer this transaction to that specific bank. (set appropriate steering flag)

 

If any of the above return a 'no', then the transaction is left to follow the main path along with all the rest. In practice, it would quite simple bit of code to write and much less clumsy than referring to a 'comment table'.

 

So, why the additional line in the 'comment table'? Quite simply this. 'To let you, the customers know that we are doing something to help you'.

 

I would suggest that, even if you were to forget to 'tick the right box' your transfer would still reach the right issuing bank. (baring technical hitches of course)

 

Like you, I may be wrong, On my part I'm speaking as one with experience in software code, your speaking from your banking experience. Let's just agree to differ.

 

Have a nice day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            

 

You too.

 

 

 

I will post the TW reply when I receive it.

[Moonlover]

7 hours ago, PJPom said:

I did my extension in July with six months of Bank statement from SCB which only showed my Transferwise from Australia as domestic, HOWEVER each deposit was coded MCL00001. Nobody in SCB knew what this meant and all they gave me was the letter showing current funds and stamped statement from Jan 2019. I was a bit worried until a poster on one of the many Transferwise posts got formal notice from Kasikorn that "teller I D MCL00001 " means international fund transfer from other bank with API system (application programming interface).  Armed with this and a printout of each months Transferwise transfer from Australia my I O made a phone call and after a couple of minutes of Da and Chai and a lot of Krap he said all OK.

2000baht and a wai and that was it,

My belated thanks to oxmermaid for his post on 7/5/2019 

This is very interesting. Thanks so much for posting this information.

 

Prompted by this, I'm going to give a shout out to ALL KRUNGSRI account holders. Grab yourself a statement Look up a T/W transfer and then have a look in the 'Channel' column on the right. You should find 1274H. This code is unique to T/W deposits on my accounts.

 

This is likely to have the same meaning as the code that @PJPom has referred to with his bank. It could be well worth ones time make some inquiries about this code.

 

If my hunch is right, we could be on track to dispelling the notion, once and for all,  that the FTT code is the only kid in town that can prove a foreign transaction.

 

Next time I'm in town, I'll make an inquiry with my friendly Krungsri branch and report back.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 5, 2019 by Moonlover

[john terry1001]

6 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

This is very interesting. Thanks so much for posting this information.

 

Prompted by this, I'm going to give a shout out to ALL KRUNGSRI account holders. Grab yourself a statement Look up a T/W transfer and then have a look in the 'Channel' column on the right. You should find 1274H. This code is unique to T/W deposits on my accounts.

 

This is likely to have the same meaning as the code that @PJPom has referred to with his bank. It could be well worth ones time make some inquiries about this code.

 

If my hunch is right, we could be on track to dispelling the notion, once and for all,  that the FTT code is the only kid in town that can prove a foreign transaction.

 

Next time I'm in town, I'll make an inquiry with my friendly Krungsri branch and report back.

 

 

 

 

Wouldn't it be so much better if all Thai banks used the same codes for the same transactions.

 

Out of interest, do banks in other countries have their own different and individual codes or do all banks in a particular country use the same codes?