Impact of getting married with Thai person

[Aforek]

Hello 

 

I speak of a retired person point of few ; we have seen that for the story of thai insurance for O-A visa holders, Thai government decides what he wants,

they decide what we can do or not ; so far, non O visa are not concerned

but for future ? Retired people don't weigh much, but retired and married, does it weight more ? Do you think it doesn't change anything or the government will not make any problems if the farang is married with a Thai person ? ( I speak on visa extension, mandatory insurance etc ) 

married people have a family, take care of Thai people, it's not the same than to be just retired 

thanks 

[Salerno]

1 hour ago, Aforek said:

Retired people don't weigh much, but retired and married, does it weight more ?

 

No; unless you are female married to a Thai.

[kokesaat]

Not often discussed, but should be:  Anyone moving to Thailand under existing visa rules (be it length of stay or insurance, etc) should consider that the rules are subject to change at any time.  

When we first moved to Thailand in 1996, there was no retirement visa, no insurance requirement for Non OA, bank account had to show 200k for just the day you went to immigration, Thais married to foreigners were not allowed to own land, no pink ID cards, lifetime driver's licenses (not pegged at 5 years)......among many of the things that have changed over the years.  

I agree that foreigners married to Thais who reside in Thailand probably contribute more to the economy than others......but in the big scheme of things, I'd say we're a drop in the bucket.  

[CharlieH]

Whilst immigration may be different (400k/800k) in the bigger scheme of things I dont think being married makes any difference whatsoever if they dont want you here or decide to make it even more difficult to remain.

The attitude towards "farangs" generally leaves alot to be desired from an immigration requirement stand point.(Imho)

[Kwasaki]

I think it's a case of visa changes over the years and also Thailand has progressed much with time so rules will change as well. 

As for staying here single retired OK for some but married retired is easier with 800k the 400k way has now got copy paperwork as thick as a book now. ????

You have to except the changes and just get on with it if you want to stay. 

 

The thread reminds me of the time my Mrs asked immigration why more and more papers every year, my wife was told but the short answer is there are so many foriengner scumbags, doing things to stay illegally one way or another.

There's obviously corruption within immigration which my Mrs knows of but they wouldn't tell her about that. 

[1FinickyOne]

11 hours ago, Aforek said:

Retired people don't weigh much

where do you get this stuff?

 

If you meet the requirements, you get the visa.. nothing has changed for me in 20 years. 

[natway09]

No, I do not think they will make harder for a genuine visa extension.

There was talk of doing away with the marriage visa extension for over 50's which would 

not worry me as I never bothered with the marriage extension anyway as always concerned that they required too much info on your wifes side which meant dragging her along for the annual pilgrimage which for us was going to be  a nuisance

[xtrnuno41]

Depends also from what country you come.

My country would cut your state pension when you are (getting) married. 

Also they would cut it, if you dont get married but just live together and they would know.

My country government is hunting on every penny they can get from you.

They certainly would investigate where i was living and with who, to cut me in pension then. 

"My" government is a gestapo-like institute, even ignore court rulings and just carry on. 

Guess it is the time we live in and i cant think of any country, or maybe Brunei?, where governments are there for  their own people. It's not about the people but just money, democracy it is a joke.

[BritManToo]

29 minutes ago, xtrnuno41 said:

Depends also from what country you come.

My country would cut your state pension when you are (getting) married. 

Only if you tell them, not sure OZ could discover your living arrangements in Thailand.

Edited March 3, 2021 by BritManToo

[xtrnuno41]

11 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Only if you tell them, not sure OZ could discover your living arrangements in Thailand.

Well you have to tell immigration, as you apply for mariage visa. Then it is registered in Thailand and therefor to be seen by my government. Maybe even Thailand is cooperating and send every year a list to the embassy about where a bouts of all our people in Thailand .  As I said, they are hunting for every penny and will get you.

If you even want to marry , you need papers from your country, so already would ring a bell.

 

There was a man in Thailand, my country, and the government gave "some tips" about drugs and money.

Then Thailand started their own investigation and he ended up in jail. It was money he made when soft drugs was legal in our country. He was investigated in our country for other things, but to Thailand they simply mentioned drugs and money. That did the job for them and he was jailed.  

Even older people playing bridge are jailed. TIT

I don t know what other countries do or what rules are there, but "my country" will.  

[BritManToo]

Just now, xtrnuno41 said:

Well you have to tell immigration, as you apply for mariage visa.

So apply for a tourist VISA, then change to a marriage extension once you're here.

Never tell your government where you are or what you're doing, it's not their business.

Edited March 3, 2021 by BritManToo

[xtrnuno41]

3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

So apply for a tourist VISA, then change to a marriage extension once you're here.

Then still you will be registered with how , when or what.

[Aforek]

2 hours ago, 1FinickyOne said:

where do you get this stuff?

 

If you meet the requirements, you get the visa.. nothing has changed for me in 20 years. 

I mean that they decide which requirements they want ; as for me, I had an O-A visa, I had to go to Laos to change it in a non O ( my immigration refused to do it herself ) 

and if they decide that we must have 5 millions bahts in a Thai bank and this money must stay always, not spent ? it's exagerate, I know but we are not here for ever for sure ! I lived in Ivory coast before, no problem then but a few years ago , many foreigners had to leave because they feared for their lives : who knows future ? 

They have no reason to get rid of retired , married people , I just ask ... but we depend of what the government decides 

[1FinickyOne]

33 minutes ago, Aforek said:

who knows future ?

That is no different anywhere in the world... life is not a straight line, things happen. For me, Thai visa has been amazingly consistent through 20 years...

 

It is always good to try and plan but there are way too many things beyond our control... hopefully we can just go with the flow as they say..

[ramrod711]

3 hours ago, natway09 said:

No, I do not think they will make harder for a genuine visa extension.

There was talk of doing away with the marriage visa extension for over 50's which would 

not worry me as I never bothered with the marriage extension anyway as always concerned that they required too much info on your wifes side which meant dragging her along for the annual pilgrimage which for us was going to be  a nuisance

Same for me, rather than have agents come to the house and take photos and provide a map to the house etc. I just renew my OA every year, have the insurance and bring 65,000 baht per month.

[OneMoreFarang]

Even if it would be easier to stay in Thailand being married, is that really a reason to marry?

Lots of us heard stories of married guys who lost a lot more than they ever thought possible.

If all is fine then fine. But in case things go wrong and a farang is married to the "wrong" Thai woman then things get really difficult and expensive.

I would only marry if I absolutely must do that. To many risks for too little upside.

[BritManToo]

1 minute ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I would only marry if I absolutely must do that. To many risks for too little upside.

No  risk at all, as long as you're not foolish enough to give her access to your money or assets.

[OneMoreFarang]

6 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

No  risk at all, as long as you're not foolish enough to give her access to your money or assets.

Unfortunately, as far as I understand, that is not entirely true.

I remember a guy who was married to a Thai girl. As some stage they were not happy anymore. He bought an apartment for himself and he didn't tell her about it. But she found out. And she visited his new apartment. And it seems she got access to his apartment because she was legally married to him. (Sorry I don't remember the details of how). And after she got access to his new apartment she ransacked that place. And what could he, the married man, do against that? Nothing! Because she was his wife she could do that without any consequences.

Did I verify this story? No. But I think it's true and it seems the married wife can do lots of things which the girlfriend can't do. Personally I don't want to find out how far that can go.

This is just a random picture from the internet for demonstration

 

[BritManToo]

Just now, OneMoreFarang said:

Did I verify this story? No. But I think it's true and it seems the married wife can do lots of things which the girlfriend can't do. Personally I don't want to find out how far that can go.

If he'd rented the apartment, there wouldn't have been a problem.

Assets in your home country, monthly spending money in Thailand ........ easy.

Edited March 3, 2021 by BritManToo

[Neeranam]

4 hours ago, 1FinickyOne said:

where do you get this stuff?

 

If you meet the requirements, you get the visa.. nothing has changed for me in 20 years. 

Even if you don't meet the requirements, you can pay an agent to bribe immigration. Only $500 a year. Compared to Thais retiring in the US, this is nothing. There, I would have to invest $500,000 to get a visa. 

 

[Neeranam]

28 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Unfortunately, as far as I understand, that is not entirely true.

I remember a guy who was married to a Thai girl. As some stage they were not happy anymore. He bought an apartment for himself and he didn't tell her about it. But she found out. And she visited his new apartment. And it seems she got access to his apartment because she was legally married to him. (Sorry I don't remember the details of how). And after she got access to his new apartment she ransacked that place. And what could he, the married man, do against that? Nothing! Because she was his wife she could do that without any consequences.

Did I verify this story? No. But I think it's true and it seems the married wife can do lots of things which the girlfriend can't do. Personally I don't want to find out how far that can go.

This is just a random picture from the internet for demonstration

 

This room is obviously not Thailand.

 

Spot the 10 differences! 

[OneMoreFarang]

5 hours ago, Neeranam said:

This room is obviously not Thailand.

 

Spot the 10 differences! 

Maybe that is why I added the following sentence in that post...

5 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

This is just a random picture from the internet for demonstration

 

[1FinickyOne]

12 hours ago, Neeranam said:

There, I would have to invest $500,000 to get a visa. 

I am from USA so no further investment, but you would not be able to use your terrific language abilities.. as well as confronting other issues there...

 

ps - I meet the requirements and never have to give it a thought.. if I could not live here legally, I would not want the added stress of living anyplace as an illegal... 

Edited March 4, 2021 by 1FinickyOne

[NCC1701A]

On 3/3/2021 at 4:24 AM, Aforek said:

I speak of a retired person point of few ;

one of if not the easiest "visas" to qualify for is the retirement extension of stay. 

 

why complicate your life with the crazy requirements and be dependent on your wife every year at immigration? 

 

the 1st class way to go is 800,000 baht in a Thai bank year round. If you get a fixed account you just need a letter from the bank stating the balance never dropped below 800,000. Take 15 minutes at Bangkok Bank. This is what I do. 

 

2nd class is the mixed income/saving route or the 800,000 then removed after the required time period. This can cause some problems with immigration reading your statements which leads to other headaches. still far less headache than marriage visa requirements.

 

3rd class is to use a agent if you don't quality. Of course immigration loves you because you can be exploited year after year. 

Of course there are people who have real reasons for using a agent like they are physically unable to get to the immigration office.

 

this class structure is how the Thais see everything. 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

[1FinickyOne]

5 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

the 1st class way to go is 800,000 baht in a Thai bank year round. If you get a fixed account you just need a letter from the bank stating the balance never dropped below 800,000. Take 15 minutes at Bangkok Bank. This is what I do. 

I have done this for near 20 years now... 

 

and now that I live a lot less Baan nork, there are agents here.. and despite the fact that I qualify, I don't mind paying a fee for them to do all the paperwork.. All I have to do is get the bank letter and "sign here" as they flip the pages... they send me reminders and will even drive me to IMM and back... though I have a car, I don't need to worry parking etc or appointments.. I am in and out in 5 minutes... Imm knows that the agent has filled out all the forms properly and has all copies etc... 

 

It is worth the fee to make everything in life easy...

[Aforek]

I know it's easy to get the extension, but for instance, people stranded out of Thailand because of Covid  can't enter Thailand, unless they are maried with a Thai person

that's why I wonder if Thai autorities don't favor people maried with Thai people

[connda]

On 3/3/2021 at 4:24 AM, Aforek said:

married people have a family, take care of Thai people, it's not the same than to be just retired 

Trust me.  If you are a foreign man married to a Thai woman, your family doesn't mean a d**m thing to the authorities.  They will look for a reason to boot you out and destroy your family unit on an annual basis.

If you are a foreign woman married to a Thai man, your family is considered to be a real Thai family which is sacred and to be revered, and the authorities assist you in remaining in Thailand to care for your family forever.  Citizenship based on marriage is even a possibility.

But you as a retired man married to a Thai woman.  You mean nothing to Thailand nor does your family.  If they can find cause to break your family up - they will.

I renewed my marriage extension very recently.  The IO looked at the 20 entries spanning the last year in my bank book for at least 4 minutes. I'm looking at him like, "What in God's name are your looking for?",  I'm sure he was thinking, "What discrepancy can I find in order to deny and extension to this despicable foreign man who has probably been faking his marriage for 13 years and kick him out of Thailand?"  Yeah, of course I'm faking my 13 year marriage, faking putting my step son thought school and supporting him like he's my blood kin, helping him purchase a home, providing love and care for my granddaughter.  It doesn't mean a d**m thing.

They hate us.  So - if you are not married to a Thai woman but thinking about getting involved and considering marriage? 
*** Don't!  ***
Find a different country which welcomes the foreign cash inflows provided by a man married to their citizens.  Thailand is not that place.  You will never be accepted.  You will always be scrutinized as a potential criminal or vagabond or undesirable whose only intention is to harm Prathet Thai. You will never be anything but a temporary tourist temporarily visiting your temporary family and a permanent national security risk whom they would like to remove from their Thai Utopia if possible.

Up to you.  If I had it to do over again?  I'd move on to another more accepting country and create a family where you'll be appreciated.

[connda]

13 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

one of if not the easiest "visas" to qualify for is the retirement extension of stay. 

 

why complicate your life with the crazy requirements and be dependent on your wife every year at immigration? 

 

the 1st class way to go is 800,000 baht in a Thai bank year round. If you get a fixed account you just need a letter from the bank stating the balance never dropped below 800,000. Take 15 minutes at Bangkok Bank. This is what I do. 

 

2nd class is the mixed income/saving route or the 800,000 then removed after the required time period. This can cause some problems with immigration reading your statements which leads to other headaches. still far less headache than marriage visa requirements.

 

3rd class is to use a agent if you don't quality. Of course immigration loves you because you can be exploited year after year. 

Of course there are people who have real reasons for using a agent like they are physically unable to get to the immigration office.

 

this class structure is how the Thais see everything. 

 

I renewed my marriage extension recently.
NEW RULE!  Now you not only have to sign your name in cursive on each of the 50 or 60 forms in the stack they process, but you also have to now print your name out in full in block letters too.  That dog and pony show took me somewhere between 20 to 30 minutes.  Utterly amazing.  Yes, efficiency would dictate that it would be more expedient to do at home.  But - NO!  Each paper must be stamped with an official stamp, with cursive signature above and block letters below while the IO "witnesses" because?  Well, we're all sneaky foreigners trying to game the system - of course. Each and every one of us.

God help Thai Immigration when the next generation of foreigner kids show up and are unable to sign their names in cursive because it's not taught in school any longer.  Then what.  Thumb prints?  It would be faster!!!

Living in a digital 21st Century all this could be streamlined.  But?  No.  Go figure.

Edited March 4, 2021 by connda

[connda]

On 3/3/2021 at 8:45 PM, Neeranam said:

Even if you don't meet the requirements, you can pay an agent to bribe immigration. Only $500 a year. Compared to Thais retiring in the US, this is nothing. There, I would have to invest $500,000 to get a visa. 

 

Go to the US on a tourist visa, work without a green card in a sanctuary city, find a US citizen to marry, and -- Sam's Your Uncle.  Residency, green card, and a path to citizenship.  Bingo!  Winner!!!

[impulse]

Impact of getting married with Thai person

 

Depends...  How hard can your Momma slap you? 

 

Dad will be proud, of course.  But he can't say it with Mom around.

 

Edited March 4, 2021 by impulse