2 minutes ago, Ebumbu said:

Photoshop is your friend.  ????

 

I assume the proof of funds will be needed to be shown in home country when applying for visa...... wonder if a chopped document will fly ?

11 minutes ago, oznomad said:

Anyone that lives in the world beyond mainstream media wouldn't have 500k baht in the bank, earning zero, or negative, interest rates.

Possible impending bank failures, central bank digital currencies and the like are very good reasons to put your wealth elsewhere.

Cash in the bank should be at a minimum. Enough to cover bills and emergencies.

Try explaining that one to your local Thai embassy.......

 

Who said the funds need to be in a zero interest account ?

 

10 hours ago, webfact said:

Foreigners who wish to apply for a Single Entry Tourist Visa (SETV) to Thailand are now required to provide 6 months worth of bank statements showing a bank balance of at least 500,000 THB.

Is it a bank balance in a thai bank or in the country of the "tourist" ?

Korea sounds nice ????????????????????

If they keep this rule , there won't be any tourist longer then 30d staying in Thailand . 30d simple stamp in passport , Ohhhh... you want to stay 60 d ... wait ... a small bank statement needed . Crazy ...

And the retirement visa for 800k in the bank if im correct , i think you should start looking at a extra 0 in the end .

 

And thinking about what it brings to them ? Beside extortion , there cannot be anything else .

10 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

Hmm. No mention re the Chinese embassies

https://thaiembbeij.org/cn/purpose_of_visit_rev/tourism-leisure-activities/

120000 RMB for 6 months

It's the same. 

3 hours ago, from the home of CC said:

real 'tourists' will utilize the voa. Real 'tourists' live in another country and are coming for a holiday and presumably have a job they have to return to. Living on the border of the US  for 40 years I entered frequently, their main concern? did I have a job back in Canada? which would necessitate my return. Most countries have a similar concern. They don't want a bunch of foreigners running around doing whatever they deem necessary to keep living there including breaking laws and  offering bribes. I have friends (retired) that apply for a tourist visa every year, they usually spend 3 months. They are real long stay tourists, in my home country we call them snowbirds. They are not wealthy by any standards but will have absolutely no problem providing this requirement. But as I say, these are real tourists not folks trying to circumvent laws to live in another country..  

Which VOA would that be?

The brown boys simply dont want the punters anymore and they do everything to achive this. Bar centers are replaced by condos, the "appearance" of the Walking Street will be different once the improvement have been made, they invest increasingly in infrastructure upgrades, extensive medical centers are being build in Phuket, a monorail in Pattaya, infamous Beachroad will be upgraded continuously to accommodate even more bus loads with Chinese travelers, visa requirements are extremely beefed up to avoid dealing with the usual back-to-back travelers in the future, security cams are installed all over the places, immigration is chasing the remaining expats and/or illegals and last but not least - the wristband to control tourists even closer will be in place soon etc..etc.. The Covid-19 pandemic is just increasing the speed of the military dictators planning process for a clean and modern "Chinese style" Thailand. 

3 hours ago, treetops said:

Try this one.  Bottom of the page.

 

https://london.thaiembassy.org/en/publicservice/119247-requirements-for-certificate-of-entry-during-travel-restriction

 

That's the Thai Embassy in London. He meant the UK Bangkok embassy website, which doesn't mention it yet.

Another nail in the coffin for tourism to Thailand, will the regime ever realize or care about the importance of tourism for the country?

16 minutes ago, Techno Viking said:

 

Who said the funds need to be in a zero interest account ?

 

Virtually all bank accounts these days are effectively zero interest. In EUR it may actually be a negative rate.

 

And despite some here saying that it doesn't have to be a "bank" account, I have seen no confirmation of that.

 

I am a professional investor and obviously have far more than the required amount, but it is in various brokerage accounts. I only use a bank account as a pass-through for paying monthly bills, keeping the balance to a minimum.

 

No one that is financially savvy with half a brain would choose to keep US$17k in a "bank account".   And from previous experience, when the term "bank account" is used, "bank" is exactly what they mean.  We previously had a dependent visa for my wife rejected in a Thai embassy because I could only show 7-figure brokerage accounts, not money languishing idiotically in a "bank account"... Almost no one keeps this amount of money sitting idly in a bank these days, regardless of their actual wealth!

27 minutes ago, daejung said:

Is it a bank balance in a thai bank or in the country of the "tourist" ?

Suggest you read the OP - it's all there

7 hours ago, Techno Viking said:

500k baht aint exactly a huge sum of money in this day an age.

Being disconnected from reality doesn't make you smart.

Most people who holiday in Thailand, even if you exclude begpackers and all undesirables, will not have had 500k in a single bank account for 6 consecutive months. Probably less than 10% of them would have. I have more than 500k in liquid assets, but I haven't had 500k sitting idle in a single bank account for several years. I keep a few grand handy for whatever I may need it for, sometimes I may have $10-20k or more in the bank but never consistently sitting idle - it'll get put into shares or some other investment, because I don't like dead money.

Near enough to no one is going to put 500k in a bank account and not touch it for the sake of a holiday in Thailand. Could I? Yes, sure. Would I? If it was *necessary* to buy a house or get married or start a business or save a business or something, sure, no problem. If it's to take a holiday in a country where that money is more than two years' wages, heck no, I'm going to almost literally any other country. Holidays are not necessities. No one is forced to go to Thailand for their holiday, they can choose literally any other country. Other than a very small number of extremely dangerous countries which will not allow entry because they are in the middle of wars etc, I can't think of any country on the planet I couldn't go to if I had US$15,000 in the bank, so why would I choose to try to have fun in a country which forces me to beg, plead, jump through hoops, offers prison tours, wants to track me, insults me, has recently developed a deserved reputation for treating tourists poorly and making them feel unwelcome etc?

If I needed to go to Thailand, and that was the only hurdle, sure, I could stick the money in an account and leave it for six months. However, if I had the choice, which virtually every tourist does, I would not choose Thailand.

Let's look at the typical tourist. They work, they save up about US$5-10k and then go on a holiday. Call them plebs if you like, but that's the typical situation for most people (not me incidentally). They typically don't have 500k baht in an account at all, let alone for six months. If you want to exclude the vast majority of normal people, sure, you can do that, but you just killed your industry. Heck, even if I won the lottery and had a million dollars in my account, I'd go anywhere else to celebrate rather than sit around waiting for six months. Sure, I'm sure with that much money I could wrangle something, but again, since I don't have to, I'm just going to choose anywhere else.

So if I've 500k in the bank since 6 months, and I can prove i've no covid and have insurance and all the remaining requirements, can I travel to thailand from Italy?

 

3 minutes ago, lavezzi said:

So if I've 500k in the bank since 6 months, and I can prove i've no covid and have insurance and all the remaining requirements, can I travel to thailand from Italy?

 

You have to look at the embassy information there. But contrary to earlier statements they allow now tourists from high risk countries. 

3 hours ago, vangrop said:

Suppose you are a standard family of, will you have to show 4x500k?

 

Why not simply close TAT offices?

Because it would only remain the government to telling the jokes

Are they totally nuts? Anyone with that sort of money is going to move it into something other than a current account and make a little bit of interest. No one leaves 500K in a bank account for six months. And when in comes to a family of four, they have to show 2 million? 

what is the requirement for Chinese?

As a 33 year resident of this amazing place, I have to say, it gets funnier every day. Where do they find the people who make the rules? What are they smoking? Does anyone honestly believe that any foreigner will put themselves through that? Even North Korea does not demand anything like this. Joke, sick one at that.

There are new laws regarding Elite Visas, from january it will be 600k baht for a 5 year visa, and then just 400k for the 20 year extension visa that would make it a total of 1 million baht for 20 years of staying in thailand

This is a good scheme.

 

It's a nice compromise, hopefully attracting quality tourists - not backpackers. 

 

 

The question is who really benefits from this policy? Are they trying to reduce # of Western witnesses when they take drastic action to save the kingdom from the angry crowds?

The consensus from the Thais whom I know:

Goodbye Tourism!



I'd heard a few years back that they were trying to close down Khaosarn and other places of that sort. Lots of valuable real estate there.


 

I've never understood the hatred for backpackers.

I backpacked through Southeast Asia in my 30s. Took six months off and rolled out.

I wanted to see SEAsia not a bunch of high end hotels and fat, over indulged, whining White people in Asia.

 

No need to panic, as we all know that it`s a just a short-term, brainless idea. They totally lost their face with the STV, so that's the next step now.

I had plenty of experiences in the past with METV`s, so the reality is that no embassy cares, if those 500k are from a current, a saving or whatever joint account. Even if the METV was just 1/3 with 5000E I got it approved every single time without 5k on my current account, but in savings account.

 

They just imposed that rule, as they still think that a lot of tourists would come with "too low" requirements. However, they still don't get that the ASQ is the no go for 95% of the genuine tourists. For the other 5% those 500k Baht are so much better and easier than the ridiculous requirements in the past. 

 

This 500k requirement will disappear sooner or later. Even the health insurance will disappear, once mass tourism restarts one day. 

 

Edited November 11, 20205 yr by SpanishExpat

10 minutes ago, DaveK68 said:

I've never understood the hatred for backpackers.

I backpacked through Southeast Asia in my 30s. Took six months off and rolled out.

I wanted to see SEAsia not a bunch of high end hotels and fat, over indulged, whining White people in Asia.

 

I don't get it either, there seems to be an awful lot "I'm alrightJack" posters on TV at the moment with barely a compassionate bone between them

Thailand economy is doomed = Vietnam thanks Thailand ...

Well that’ll slowdown tourism even more...but not up to us....

9 hours ago, Techno Viking said:

 

A person 2 checks away from bankruptcy should not be considering an oversea's holiday, extremely irresponsible act but a mindset that has likely got them into their predicament.

You are wrong. That is how Capitalism is meant to work. Keep the masses up to their necks in debt and enslaved for life  through advertising and credit so that the 1% can get stinking rich! A work in progress now in Thailand wiping the Thai smile from the millions of previously content faces.

Even people, who have reasonable money, don’t usually have that amount joust sitting in a normal bank account.

They have it in shares or other investments that pay a higher rate of interest.