Phuket Immigration says help coming for expats caught in permit-to-stay crisis

By The Phuket News

 

 

PHUKET:-- The Phuket Immigration Office is asking any foreigners staying on a non-immigrant B (Business) visa who cannot satisfy the minimum income requirement for a one-year permit-to-stay to delay filing their annual application pending a “possible” temporary reprieve issued by officials in Bangkok.

 

The news comes only after the issue was brought to the attention of The Phuket News, whereby foreigners legally living and working on the island are no longer earning the same income as before the outbreak, and now face having their usual application for a one-year permit to stay being refused.

 

The ‘visa amnesty’ issued by Cabinet approval allows such foreigners to stay until Sept 26, yet the Immigration Bureau has urged foreigners to start filing their usual applications early to avoid a crush in the run-up to the amnesty expiring.

 

Full Story: https://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-immigration-says-help-coming-for-expats-caught-in-permit-to-stay-crisis-77177.php

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2020-09-01

 

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So, does this mean that they will also lower the 800k and 400k amounts? Come on now! Be fair, guys. ????????????

Sounds like rubbish as there's no real income requirement for a non-B, just a fictional salary depending on nationality written in the work permit.

7 hours ago, NHJ said:

Sounds like rubbish as there's no real income requirement for a non-B, just a fictional salary depending on nationality written in the work permit.

Not in my case with many, many extensions. They have always required tax records to prove that I was paid the minimum income and that I paid tax on it.

 

 

If they want to avoid a mass exodus they are going to need to change every single one of their regulations.

 

This money thing often crops up in forums...

800k is a paltry amount of money to keep in an account to ensure one can remain in the country.  If people ares truggling to follow this, then surely they are not very well set for retirement.

7 minutes ago, Crusader said:

This money thing often crops up in forums...

800k is a paltry amount of money to keep in an account to ensure one can remain in the country.  If people ares truggling to follow this, then surely they are not very well set for retirement.

This is nothing to do with retirement, it's about people working on reduced salaries who no longer qualify due to the reduced salary.

 

Would you have them all fired and told to leave?

 

If you don't earn enough then you're out. Doesn't matter how much you've got in the bank.

 

Many people are working on reduced salaries due to total economic collapse which is happening all around you.

 

They have some crazy regulations which specify minimum earnings based on the country you come from.

 

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

PHUKET:-- The Phuket Immigration Office is asking any foreigners staying on a non-immigrant B (Business) visa who cannot satisfy the minimum income requirement for a one-year permit-to-stay to delay filing their annual application pending a “possible” temporary reprieve issued by officials in Bangkok.

 

No change = exodus.

11 minutes ago, Crusader said:

This money thing often crops up in forums...

800k is a paltry amount of money to keep in an account to ensure one can remain in the country.  If people ares truggling to follow this, then surely they are not very well set for retirement.

20,000 pounds or $25,000 is a paltry amount of money?

Crusader OUCH  Maybe you are set well and 800k Baht is not important to you.. A Husband and Wife are required  1.6 million.  Maybe the amount is not unreasonable, maybe it is.  Add in a car, house or condo, insurance and entertainment one gets an elevated amount.  

What is wrong?  Isn't Immigration policy or help suppose to be a whole and not just Phuket?  This has always been a big problem here with immigration lets get on the same page for once? ????

45 minutes ago, Crusader said:

This money thing often crops up in forums...

800k is a paltry amount of money to keep in an account to ensure one can remain in the country.  If people ares truggling to follow this, then surely they are not very well set for retirement.

Haven't seen one of these "You aren't rich like what I am, you shouldn't be here" posts for a while. They're almost as bad as "If you don't like it here, go back to where you came from".

Just now, jesimps said:

Haven't seen one of these "You aren't rich like what I am, you shouldn't be here" posts for a while. They're almost as bad as "If you don't like it here, go back to where you came from".

No, they're far worse by implying anyone without the ability to keep $25,000 in a wobbly 3rd world bank must be a worthless loser, that's far more than a year's gross wage to most of the world. 

    Again all smoke and mirrors, empty words mean's nothing only action does.

31 minutes ago, american2 said:

Crusader OUCH  Maybe you are set well and 800k Baht is not important to you.. A Husband and Wife are required  1.6 million.  Maybe the amount is not unreasonable, maybe it is.  Add in a car, house or condo, insurance and entertainment one gets an elevated amount.  

Husband and wife only require 800K.

1 hour ago, Crusader said:

This money thing often crops up in forums...

800k is a paltry amount of money to keep in an account to ensure one can remain in the country.  If people ares truggling to follow this, then surely they are not very well set for retirement.

Aaaah, so you're a hi-so member, that also knows every farangs financial predicaments, amazing......................................................

35 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

No, they're far worse by implying anyone without the ability to keep $25,000 in a wobbly 3rd world bank must be a worthless loser, that's far more than a year's gross wage to most of the world. 

don't give that show off @Crusader attention. he is not worth it.

 

1 hour ago, Crusader said:

This money thing often crops up in forums...

 

 

1 hour ago, Crusader said:

This money thing often crops up in forums...

800k is a paltry amount of money to keep in an account to ensure one can remain in the country.  If people ares truggling to follow this, then surely they are not very well set for retirement.

Agree that it isn't much of an issue, 800k isn't exactly a fortune. The pinch is having to keep it above 400,000 at all times, so there is no wriggle room in case of emergencies if your money is tied up in property or investments. It also would be nice if they would allow this money to be in a foreign bank.

1 hour ago, Crusader said:

This money thing often crops up in forums...

800k is a paltry amount of money to keep in an account to ensure one can remain in the country.  If people ares truggling to follow this, then surely they are not very well set for retirement.

Perhaps you could donate this “paltry amount of money” to those in need.

No?? Didn’t think so

1 hour ago, american2 said:

Crusader OUCH  Maybe you are set well and 800k Baht is not important to you.. A Husband and Wife are required  1.6 million.  Maybe the amount is not unreasonable, maybe it is.  Add in a car, house or condo, insurance and entertainment one gets an elevated amount.  

totally untrue,

Husband puts 800,000 in the bank, wife gets extension as she is married to him

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The news comes only after the issue was brought to the attention of The Phuket News, whereby foreigners legally living and working on the island are no longer earning the same income as before the outbreak, and now face having their usual application for a one-year permit to stay being refused.

Usual Thai logic, I know many foreigners who are in this position.

Incomes have been disrupted by the Covid outreak, yet immigration thinks they have bottomless pockets and are millionaires.

Slow to catch on every time.

2 hours ago, ukrules said:

If they want to avoid a mass exodus they are going to need to change every single one of their regulations.

 

Nothing like a bit of exaggeration to start the day.

2 hours ago, ukrules said:

If they want to avoid a mass exodus they are going to need to change every single one of their regulations.

 

Why on earth would they want to avoid a mass exodus of foreigners? AFAIK, that's their whole raison d'être.

10 hours ago, NHJ said:

Sounds like rubbish as there's no real income requirement for a non-B, just a fictional salary depending on nationality written in the work permit.

Yes, there is a real income requirement, but as usual they can walk around the rules. In reality it means that a foreigner on such a Non-B extension is allowing his employer to get away with both an illegal salary as well as providing him with fake information that leads to an illegal extension.

2 hours ago, Crusader said:

This money thing often crops up in forums...

800k is a paltry amount of money to keep in an account to ensure one can remain in the country.  If people ares truggling to follow this, then surely they are not very well set for retirement.

And what pecentage of Thais are able to put away 800K knowing they can never touch it ?

1%  ?? Or perhaps 2% at a stretch

Why would they change anything with the existing 400/800k requirement. These rules are in place for years and everybody had to follow them. Now make an exeption because a few don't have the funds and still don't want to go home? Ridiculous.

 

The borders were closed in April, so everybody is here now for at least 5 months or more. That is more than sufficient time to deposit the required collateral. For a first time application of an extension of stay only 2 months in advance are required, subsequently 3 months. So if you did not make it till now, or alternatively don't have a monthly income of 40/65k then you do not qualify.

 

Suggest you book a flight home early as they are limited and will get more expensive towards end of September. Overstay will not make it any cheaper.

1 hour ago, zzzzz said:

totally untrue,

Husband puts 800,000 in the bank, wife gets extension as she is married to him

Even with a Thai wife, I was told I needed to have 1.6 million in our joint a/c

 

So I just moved 800K to my own a/c

 

And is it to help us travel in the country more easily that us retirees have ฿800,000 blocked for 5 months instead of 3 months and ฿400,000 blocked ad vitam æternam in a Thai bank?

 When it started I thought it was a guarantee because some expats have supposedly not pay their hospital's bill. Now we are insured for ฿400,000  but the ฿400,000 are still blocked for life 

3 hours ago, ukrules said:

If they want to avoid a mass exodus they are going to need to change every single one of their regulations.

 

with even more ridiculous  ones  no  doubt

2 hours ago, Crusader said:

This money thing often crops up in forums...

800k is a paltry amount of money to keep in an account to ensure one can remain in the country.  If people ares truggling to follow this, then surely they are not very well set for retirement.

Who wants to keep that much money in an account earning paltry interest?

1 hour ago, transam said:

Aaaah, so you're a hi-so member, that also knows every farangs financial predicaments, amazing......................................................

No, he just made a very valid point! But, It might be very hard for all the people that are living on the line and always fighting for their possibility to stay, right?

????????......yeah, Amazing!......How is it, is it working another year? Nobody knows...... or 

I guess that´s how it feels for many to not have the money for an extension. Why are you seeing that as Hi-So? Out of all the complaints and problem we read daily here on Thai Visa, it has become wide-spread it a fact about the fighting for enough money to stay.