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Retirement visa overhaul in the wind, gangs run out of town : Tim Newton Today - August 2


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Posted
  On 8/2/2023 at 4:05 AM, redwood1 said:

So would requiring 1.2 million instead of 800,000 prove anything or help anyone?........Nope it sure would not....It would just tie up more money that could not be spent in the economy....

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I get what you're saying about freezing money expats might spend, but on the other hand money in the bank is circulated to the economy by the banks.

Posted
  On 8/2/2023 at 3:50 AM, redwood1 said:

The grandfathering you speak of from way back, is to my knowlage the last time anything visa wise has been grandfathered.....

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as far as i know that was to only change to thresholds

 

 

as for clamping down on bad actors - they may do criminal checks on certain people, increasing financial requirements contributes nothing to keeping criminals out of the country, also there are many people staying here (almost everyone i know) that use agents to circumvent the financial requirements, there is a high possibilty that they will clamp down on that

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Posted

Malaysia recently did a big overhaul of the MM2H program and it has seen numbers drop significantly.  Makes places like the Phils and Cambodia look more attractive by the day. Heck in Cambodia all it takes is $170 for a one year visa.  No signing in, no reporting, and it is multiple re-entry as well. I think in the Philippines you just need $10,000 for your visa. Or you can pretty much stay for 3 years by renewing and renewing your original visa free entry. 

 

A mistake IMHO if the financial requirements in Thailand are raised. Stricter enforcement, perhaps making the rules less subject to regional variations and the whims of individual immigrantion officers, those would make sense. 

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Posted
  On 8/2/2023 at 4:59 AM, Hanaguma said:

Malaysia recently did a big overhaul of the MM2H program and it has seen numbers drop significantly.  Makes places like the Phils and Cambodia look more attractive by the day. Heck in Cambodia all it takes is $170 for a one year visa.  No signing in, no reporting, and it is multiple re-entry as well. I think in the Philippines you just need $10,000 for your visa. Or you can pretty much stay for 3 years by renewing and renewing your original visa free entry. 

 

A mistake IMHO if the financial requirements in Thailand are raised. Stricter enforcement, perhaps making the rules less subject to regional variations and the whims of individual immigrantion officers, those would make sense. 

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About Malaysia. 

There are loopholes. 

Much lower requirements for Surawak and coming soon similar for Sabah.

Posted
  On 8/2/2023 at 3:17 AM, proton said:

All speculation, but whatever they do re the requirements they need to close the loophole allowing officers to take bribes to ignore them, as well as extensions being issued to those from other provinces. If they don't, upping the requirements will just increase the corrupt agents business

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A feature, not a bug.

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Posted
  On 8/2/2023 at 2:36 AM, grain said:

For a couple of years now I've been expecting the retirement ext requirements to change. My guess is the 800K will see a 50% jump to 1,2M, perhaps even doubled to 1,6M. Police clearances from our home countries could also become a condition for extensions, plus compulsory health insurance. Anyway, these are just my guesses. If such changes did come in hopefully we'll get grandfathered on the existing regulations. If not it'll be adios Thailand for many of us.

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Thailand loves shooting itself in the foot.

Terrified of aliens.????????

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Posted
  On 8/2/2023 at 3:17 AM, proton said:

All speculation, but whatever they do re the requirements they need to close the loophole allowing officers to take bribes to ignore them, as well as extensions being issued to those from other provinces. If they don't, upping the requirements will just increase the corrupt agents business

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What do you mean by "extensions being issued to those from other provinces"?

Posted
  On 8/2/2023 at 6:24 AM, proton said:

Common practice for visa agents to bribe officers to issue extensions from a province applicants do not live in, either because they do not have the corrupt contacts where you are, or it's cheaper to get them elsewhere, usually up country offices. 

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Perhaps but then aren't the expats sometimes locked into using that agent for future matters? Doesn't that complicate address reporting?

Posted
  On 8/2/2023 at 4:05 AM, redwood1 said:

So would requiring 1.2 million instead of 800,000 prove anything or help anyone?........Nope it sure would not....It would just tie up more money that could not be spent in the economy....

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What about using 65k a month.

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Posted
  On 8/2/2023 at 6:34 AM, Kwasaki said:

What about using 65k a month.

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Presumably if they up the deposit to 1.2Million, they’ll up the 65K to 100K pm

 

Thats a significant income to have to have each month, especially as it needs to be Nett of all taxes & any expenses in your home country (approx. £31,500 pa before tax or £2,308b pm after tax).

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Posted

Let's hope those biker gangs are kicked out for good, or at least not allowed to wear their colours. The last thing I want in Thailand is to see Banditos or Hell's Angel criminals. Foreigners should respect Thai culture and these outlaws certainly don't. 

Perhaps retirement visas should be made reciprocal with the rest of the world. Thailand has developed a lot in the past decade and visa fees remained the same, and currently it is far from fair when a Thai must pay invest 17 million baht in the US to get a retirement visa, and it's very hard in the UK. I'd say at least 10 million baht for those from the US in the bank at all times, until the US government reciprocates. As for Brits and Australian, they should  show at least 150k baht a month in pension, again unless their governments reciprocate. Retirees in Thailand have had it easy too long and the police are not happy with all the foreign crime, so anyone with a criminal record should not get a long-term stay.

 

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