€15,000 required on savings account for STV

[Peter Denis]

5 minutes ago, treetops said:

The one you've linked to shows me cover of 3,200,000 THB which XE tells me is 102, 683 USD so it exceeds the requirement of 100,000 USD surely?

 

Yes, but these TGIA policies ONLY cover covid-19 for +100.000 US $, and the requirement 6.4 stipulates that it should cover ALL medical expenditures INCLUDING covid-19.

So these policies do NOT meet the requirement!

Hence my Wow!

 

 

[treetops]

6 minutes ago, Peter Denis said:

Yes, but these TGIA policies ONLY cover covid-19 for +100.000 US $, and the requirement 6.4 stipulates that it should cover ALL medical expenditures INCLUDING covid-19.

So these policies do NOT meet the requirement!

Hence my Wow!

Got you now, thanks.

 

The STV was supposed to have "Medical and Travel Insurance options with a minimum 100,000 USD coverage for Covid-19 medical treatment and a minimum coverage of 400,000 THB for other medical and accident expenses" so the wording makes it look (a bit) more like that, but I still think it's something this Embassy has cobbled together by themself.

Edited October 12, 2020 by treetops

[Peter Denis]

2 minutes ago, treetops said:

Got you now, thanks.

 

The STV was supposed to have "Medical and Travel Insurance options with a minimum 100,000 USD coverage for Covid-19 medical treatment and a minimum coverage of 400,000 THB for other medical and accident expenses" so the wording makes it look (a bit) more like that, but I still think it's something this Embassy has cobbled together by themself.

Yes, that sounds logical but indeed it is not what the Helsinki Embassy published.

Also they did not provide the link to those covid-19 TGIA issued only insurance policies >  https://covid19.tgia.org/

Note: These policies are ridiculously expensive anyway considering that they only cover covid-19 capped to 100.000 US $. 

You can buy a 250.000 US$ coverage travel-insurance policy with SafetyWing (irrespective of your nationality or where you are currently residing), that covers accidents/illnesses (INCLUDING covid-19) for a smaller premium than these TGIA policies.

[ChomDo]

Does anyone know if the 15,000 euros requirement can be avoided by doing the STV trough Thailand Long Stay Company? At least their list of requirements does not state it http://www.thailongstay.co.th/stv_visa.html. They charge 10,000b for the service but if the 15k bank statement for 6 months can be avoided, it's well worth it. 

[farang51]

2 minutes ago, ChomDo said:

Does anyone know if the 15,000 euros requirement can be avoided by doing the STV trough Thailand Long Stay Company? At least their list of requirements does not state it http://www.thailongstay.co.th/stv_visa.html. They charge 10,000b for the service but if the 15k bank statement for 6 months can be avoided, it's well worth it. 

My guess is that their website is not updated. It makes sense to require money in the bank; as far as I know all the other long term tourist visas has some kind of money requirement.

[ChomDo]

13 minutes ago, farang51 said:

My guess is that their website is not updated. It makes sense to require money in the bank; as far as I know all the other long term tourist visas has some kind of money requirement.

And I've asked this before in this thread but got no answer yet: can the 15k come from many accounts in different countries? Of course I would assume nobody knows yet – the embassies don't clarify that either. I'm sure most people applying for this STV are foreigners living in Thailand but stuck outside and want to use the STV to come back. In that case they might don't keep much cash in their home country, so the only option would be to show bank statements from foreign accounts.

[ubonjoe]

On 10/12/2020 at 5:17 PM, Peter Denis said:

The link refers to https://longstay.tgia.org/home/companiesoa

Wrong page. Try this one. https://longstay.tgia.org/home/companiesstv

Go to the home page and you will see 3 choices now.

[ubonjoe]

8 hours ago, ChomDo said:

And I've asked this before in this thread but got no answer yet: can the 15k come from many accounts in different countries?

They will normally accept the money in the bank for other visas so it should not be a problem to have the money in bank here and/or elsewhere.

[Peter Denis]

On 10/12/2020 at 12:17 PM, Peter Denis said:

The link refers to https://longstay.tgia.org/home/companiesoa

 

10 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Wrong page. Try this one. https://longstay.tgia.org/home/companiesstv

Go to the home page and you will see 3 choices now.

 

Thanks for the update.

The Helsinki Thai Embassy website still refers to the page with the O-A approved companies, but from that page you can now go to the page with the STV approved companies.

Not that it makes much difference, as it are exactly the same 14 approved thai insurance companies for the O-A or the STV.

But it is interesting that the STV website-page does NOT contain a link to download the Foreign Insurance Certificate!  So it looks that even if your foreign/international insurance meets the insurance coverage requirements, that you are still obliged to subscribe to one of those thai insurance companies issued policies. 

[ubonjoe]

9 minutes ago, Peter Denis said:

But it is interesting that the STV website-page does NOT contain a link to download the Foreign Insurance Certificate!  So it looks that even if your foreign/international insurance meets the insurance coverage requirements, that you are still obliged to subscribe to one of those thai insurance companies issued policies. 

That could be a omission  when they set up the page. Best to the ask the embassy or official consulate where applying about it.

[Peter Denis]

8 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

That could be a omission  when they set up the page. Best to the ask the embassy or official consulate where applying about it.

I appreciate your positive outlook.

But I strongly suspect that the TGIA deliberately omitted the link to the Foreign Insurance Certificate.

The 14 Thai approved companies for the Non Imm O-A and the STV are exactly the same, so why not copy the O-A website-page and simply replace O-A for STV in the header?

When comparing the two pages it actually looks like they did that, but then omitted the link to the FIC.

[ChomDo]

4 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

They will normally accept the money in the bank for other visas so it should not be a problem to have the money in bank here and/or elsewhere.

Thanks for the info. I hope so. That would for sure make it a lot easier for many of us to apply.

[ChomDo]

So now there's talk that the 15k requirement has disappeared from the list of requirements for the STV. That sounds odd, but I don't see it on the list of requirements anymore. Has anyone heard about this?

[farang51]

3 minutes ago, ChomDo said:

So now there's talk that the 15k requirement has disappeared from the list of requirements for the STV. That sounds odd, but I don't see it on the list of requirements anymore. Has anyone heard about this?

I just got an email from Thai longstay company which includes this:

 

Quote

The Thai government has approved to us (Thai long stay company) that you won’t need to have the bank statement of 500,000THB for the last 6 months anymore if you apply the STV Visa with us.

 

The bank statement is still included as a requirement on the Thai embassy's website (Denmark).

[DrJack54]

Foreigner from a low-risk country according to the Public Health Ministry regulations....

 

Which countries are low risk. Iceland perhaps.

[ChomDo]

5 minutes ago, farang51 said:

I just got an email from Thai longstay company which includes this:

 

 

The bank statement is still included as a requirement on the Thai embassy's website (Denmark).

Wow this is great news! The requirement is gone at least from the list in the Australian and Finnish embassies. That changes things a lot, and if they can still get the 10 quarantine going, all the better.

[DrJack54]

6 minutes ago, ChomDo said:

Wow this is great news! The requirement is gone at least from the list in the Australian and Finnish embassies. That changes things a lot, and if they can still get the 10 quarantine going, all the better.

Is Finland a low risk country?

Re Finland

• During the most recent fourteen-day monitoring period (21 October – 3 November) 2,773 new cases were diagnosed. The incidence of new cases in relation to the population was 50.0 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

[ChomDo]

2 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Is Finland a low risk country?

Re Finland

• During the most recent fourteen-day monitoring period (21 October – 3 November) 2,773 new cases were diagnosed. The incidence of new cases in relation to the population was 50.0 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

Yea I really don't know, and what's the money requirement got to do with the risk anyway? Do rich people have less covid haha. Besides that, if you demand incoming tourists to stay locked up in a hotel room for 15 days and have tests before they come, what difference does it make where they are coming from? Of course I do understand that it would create more hassle if you have people coming from high risk countries.

 

50 cases per 100,000 in the past 14 days is probably the lowest in Europe but yea high compared to many Asian countries. Just as comparison Belgium and some other EU countires are around 2000 cases per 100,000.

[ukrules]

43 minutes ago, ChomDo said:

So now there's talk that the 15k requirement has disappeared from the list of requirements for the STV. That sounds odd, but I don't see it on the list of requirements anymore. Has anyone heard about this?

I wouldn't be surprised if nobody applied for the visa, hence the change.

[farang51]

1 hour ago, ukrules said:

I wouldn't be surprised if nobody applied for the visa, hence the change.

I applied for the Special Tourist Visa (STV), and I got it.

[DrJack54]

29 minutes ago, farang51 said:

I applied for the Special Tourist Visa (STV), and I got it.

Which country are you currently in and what's next step?

[farang51]

2 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Which country are you currently in and what's next step?

I am in Denmark, which was on the low-risk list until November 1st. I got the COE at the same time, and I was supposed to go to Thailand Thursday last week. However, due to problems in my family I had to postpone the trip.

 

The STV is still good but I need a new COE. By the way, now it is possible to apply for the COE on the Internet:

https://coethailand.mfa.go.th

[DrJack54]

Just now, farang51 said:

I am in Denmark, which was on the low-risk list until November 1st. I got the COE at the same time, and I was supposed to go to Thailand Thursday last week. However, due to problems in my family I had to postpone the trip.

 

The STV is still good but I need a new COE. By the way, now it is possible to apply for the COE on the Internet:

https://coethailand.mfa.go.th

No one else will be obtaining a STV in Denmark any time soon. Scandinavian countries were a token addition to China in order to show that Thailand was being "fair".

The visa was designed for Chinese.

Can't think of many countries that currently pass the "low risk" countries rule.

[farang51]

27 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

No one else will be obtaining a STV in Denmark any time soon. Scandinavian countries were a token addition to China in order to show that Thailand was being "fair".

The visa was designed for Chinese.

Can't think of many countries that currently pass the "low risk" countries rule.

Can we please let go of the Chinese conspiracy theories? Thailand is looking at the infection rates and other relevant data. It seems that people from Finland and Norway still can get the STV - even if they are not Chinese.

Edited November 9, 2020 by farang51

[daviddunham]

2 hours ago, farang51 said:

I applied for the Special Tourist Visa (STV), and I got it.

 

I applied for the Special Tourist Visa (STV), and I did NOT get it. (Switzerland)

[farang51]

10 minutes ago, daviddunham said:

 

I applied for the Special Tourist Visa (STV), and I did NOT get it. (Switzerland)

Did they give you a reason?

[daviddunham]

7 minutes ago, farang51 said:

Did they give you a reason?

Yep. Switzerland = high risk country (let's not discuss if that makes sense or not????). Only low-risk allowed (Norway, Finland, China, Taiwan, Vietnam etc.)

[ukrules]

2 hours ago, farang51 said:

Can we please let go of the Chinese conspiracy theories? Thailand is looking at the infection rates and other relevant data. It seems that people from Finland and Norway still can get the STV - even if they are not Chinese.

With your new 'mink' version of the virus I'm surprised you're able to travel anywhere

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-54851042

 

 

 

Quote

 

The UK has imposed a ban on non-UK citizens coming from Denmark amid concerns over a new coronavirus strain that has spread from mink to humans.

UK citizens can return from Denmark - but will have to isolate along with all members of their household for 14 days.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 9, 2020 by ukrules

[ChomDo]

3 hours ago, farang51 said:

I applied for the Special Tourist Visa (STV), and I got it.

Nice job! You're the first one I've heard of getting or even applying. I'm planning to do so too now that they took off that 15k/6 months on local bank account requirement.

 

Maybe you could share some info about the process, since the embassies are not keen on answering any questions. Like what I don't get is that you have to buy/book so many things and pay a lot before they actually review your application. How does this work? If for some reason the embassy doesn't accept your application then what? You just loose all that money or what? 

[farang51]

17 minutes ago, ChomDo said:

Maybe you could share some info about the process, since the embassies are not keen on answering any questions. Like what I don't get is that you have to buy/book so many things and pay a lot before they actually review your application. How does this work? If for some reason the embassy doesn't accept your application then what? You just loose all that money or what? 

First, your country needs to be on the low-risk list. Denmark was removed from the list two days after I applied, and as you can see from daviddunham's answer, you will not get the visa if your country is not on the list. I was lucky that they used the application date rather than the issue date; it may be different in other countries.

 

You may be able to get the money back from the airline, the hotel, and from the insurance companies if you do not get the visa. Please check their cancellation policy first - especially the hotels have very different cancellation policies.

 

I have written an article about getting the visa at my website; it is in Danish and it is for Danish citizens in Denmark. It may be different in your country. You can use Google Translate. https://rejse-til-thailand.dk/corona-rejse

 

Please note that the requirement of the bank statement is still in the article as that requirement is still on the Danish embassy's website.

Edited November 9, 2020 by farang51