Disregarding the 90 day bank checking.

[Felton Jarvis]

55 minutes ago, giddyup said:

Discussing is not actually doing, and you could avoid the income requirement if you deposited the 400/800K, something you choose not to do, so pay the price.

You are apparently developmentally disabled. If I HAD the 800K, I might consider depositing it but I DON’T, so it’s a moot point. I still qualify to be here based on my income. When I came here in 2015, none of this was an issue. I was apparently “grandfathered” in to the old income rules which did not require a local bank deposit. My landlady has hinted that this is the case but I have never had it confirmed by Immigration. They keep approving me for another year and the same Immigration officer has signed off on my renewal of stay for every year I have been here. They know exactly what’s going on and they ENCOURAGE it, by routing retirees to agents. There is no other explanation.

[giddyup]

28 minutes ago, Felton Jarvis said:

You are apparently developmentally disabled. If I HAD the 800K, I might consider depositing it but I DON’T, so it’s a moot point. I still qualify to be here based on my income. When I came here in 2015, none of this was an issue. I was apparently “grandfathered” in to the old income rules which did not require a local bank deposit. My landlady has hinted that this is the case but I have never had it confirmed by Immigration. They keep approving me for another year and the same Immigration officer has signed off on my renewal of stay for every year I have been here. They know exactly what’s going on and they ENCOURAGE it, by routing retirees to agents. There is no other explanation.

So what are you actually whingeing about if you get approved every year? BTW, you never mentioned previously you didn't have the 800K. You can't, or won't comply with requirements so are forced to use an agent, who's fault is that?

[Felton Jarvis]

4 hours ago, giddyup said:

So what are you actually whingeing about if you get approved every year? BTW, you never mentioned previously you didn't have the 800K. You can't, or won't comply with requirements so are forced to use an agent, who's fault is that?

It’s not my fault that I don’t have 800k to park in a Thai bank for NOTHING!!! These rules came about because the Embassy imperiously decided that it was not their job to certify income statements. I moved here under an entirely different set of rules and would have gone to Cambodia if I had been able to see what was ahead. Your arrogance almost stretches the bounds of credibility. Not all of us retire wealthy. I still make eight to ten times the average wage in Thailand, I qualify to live here and Immigration apparently agrees after you grease their greedy palms. Get your nose out of the air. You are nothing special.

[georgegeorgia]

7 hours ago, pomchop said:

the guys that told me their story said they did not have 800 k in bank but agent put the money in got it printed out then immediately took the money out as it was the agent's money...sure sounds illegal to me...plus they had to leave their passport with the agent for a week or two and not sure i would want to do that...anyway...it has been going on for a while as far as i know and there is little doubt in my mind that the immigration offices are fully aware of it and get a cut of the agent fees to just do it...i do wonder if someday somebody might say ok we want to check with the bank to see activity in and out of the account and either fine or deport a ton of farangs who got approved this way...it would take a brave thai to do this though as i suspect the food chain of kickbacks goes way up the chain to a lot of wealthy powerful people...

Isn't it a risk putting the 800k in another's bank account?

What if the agent does it and the person refuses to withdraw?

How do they prevent this?

Anyone have any idea 

[Felton Jarvis]

43 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

Isn't it a risk putting the 800k in another's bank account?

What if the agent does it and the person refuses to withdraw?

How do they prevent this?

Anyone have any idea 

Totally speculative post. I was accompanied to the bank and my agent handled everything. I was just instructed where to sign. There was no option to refuse the withdrawal. This was a very smooth process and the bank and the agent had obviously done this hundreds of times. Obviously if I refused, I would not get my renewal and would now be living in Cambodia. That is part of my plan anyway because the Thai renewal process has become too expensive and dodgy to continue. I should not be paying more than 1900 baht for a renewal and there should be someone at Immigration that can read enough English to ascertain that my income is what I say it is.  This is not brain surgery. There is very little room for fraud in this process. My documents are straightforward and easily verifiable.

[giddyup]

30 minutes ago, Felton Jarvis said:

Totally speculative post. I was accompanied to the bank and my agent handled everything. I was just instructed where to sign. There was no option to refuse the withdrawal. This was a very smooth process and the bank and the agent had obviously done this hundreds of times. Obviously if I refused, I would not get my renewal and would now be living in Cambodia. That is part of my plan anyway because the Thai renewal process has become too expensive and dodgy to continue. I should not be paying more than 1900 baht for a renewal and there should be someone at Immigration that can read enough English to ascertain that my income is what I say it is.  This is not brain surgery. There is very little room for fraud in this process. My documents are straightforward and easily verifiable.

I have been here 14 years, never paid an agent, only paid the 1900 baht renewal fee, never had a problem either. If you meet the requirements it's a breeze. Nothing to do with being wealthy, because I'm not.

[pomchop]

9 hours ago, georgegeorgia said:

Isn't it a risk putting the 800k in another's bank account?

What if the agent does it and the person refuses to withdraw?

How do they prevent this?

Anyone have any idea 

I was told the agent did it without them even being present but it was apparently an account in their name...i did suggest to them that gee i would want to be sure to change the password if the agent still has access to that account going forward or what is to stop agent from helping himself down the road if u have some $$ in the account.........not sure if u can even change the password if done by someone else....bit dodgy all around for my taste....

[jacko45k]

14 hours ago, georgegeorgia said:

Isn't it a risk putting the 800k in another's bank account?

What if the agent does it and the person refuses to withdraw?

How do they prevent this?

Anyone have any idea 

I wouldn't worry about that, the agents protect themselves.... and I suspect if the 800k  was retained somehow, you would not be getting your passport back. I heard of 2 cases, one a pal, had to hand over ATM card and the PIN, he kept a near empty account for this purpose. He got an SMS of the money going in, and it being removed several minutes later. Another told me he never saw it happen and yet a bank letter appeared... he suspected they used their own account somehow. In some cases a senior IO can probably just sign off on there being no bank letter. 

[Hugh Cow]

On 8/14/2023 at 8:57 AM, pomchop said:

Ever notice how people that hire these agents to hand out bribes also often complain about corruption in Thailand?

Ever notice those holier than thou expats are not above paying a "fine" to make a "problem" go away?

[jacko45k]

10 hours ago, Hugh Cow said:

Ever notice those holier than thou expats are not above paying a "fine" to make a "problem" go away?

Nothing wrong with going along with the way things are done and get done. 

[Felton Jarvis]

On 8/14/2023 at 4:28 PM, georgegeorgia said:

Isn't it a risk putting the 800k in another's bank account?

What if the agent does it and the person refuses to withdraw?

How do they prevent this?

Anyone have any idea 

My agent is my landlady. It is highly unlikely that she will pull a fast one. She has been very reliable for three years.  Immigration seems to know her well and they go out of their way to expedite things for her.

[Felton Jarvis]

18 hours ago, Hugh Cow said:

Ever notice those holier than thou expats are not above paying a "fine" to make a "problem" go away?

I haven’t seen a single post that meets that criteria. “Corruption” is more than just a small bribe to get an otherwise legal document. Sometimes hundreds of thousands of baht change hands to get things “handled”. Many procedures are deliberately made more difficult in order to extract “tea money”.

[Mike Teavee]

On 8/13/2023 at 11:13 AM, giddyup said:

I have a dedicated term deposit purely for the 800K, so that money never changes except to increase slightly when interest gets added. So proving it's still there after 90 days is absolutely pointless.

I used a Fixed Deposit account for the 1st time this year and was told that I needed to make a small Deposit (100B was mentioned but Bangkok Bank Mobile App wouldn't let me Xfer less than 10,000B) before getting the Book updated & photocopied for Immigration, did you not have to do this? 

 

Also, just curious to know whether doing a transfer the other way (FD-2-Savings account) would do the job, I don't see why not as it seems Immigration just want to see some movement on the account around about the time your doing your extension. 

 

 

[EVENKEEL]

Corruption is awesome in Thailand. It's so embedded in day to day business but yet the foreigner do gooders always complain. This agent business is a win win for everyone. I'd wager a very large % of foreigners in Pattaya rely on using an agent.

 

Oh and by the way the price in Pattaya for 90 day Non O and the 12 month extension with your own bank account is roughly 26,000 thb and in the 12-15,000 thb range for 12 month extensions.

[giddyup]

2 hours ago, Mike Teavee said:

I used a Fixed Deposit account for the 1st time this year and was told that I needed to make a small Deposit (100B was mentioned but Bangkok Bank Mobile App wouldn't let me Xfer less than 10,000B) before getting the Book updated & photocopied for Immigration, did you not have to do this? 

 

Also, just curious to know whether doing a transfer the other way (FD-2-Savings account) would do the job, I don't see why not as it seems Immigration just want to see some movement on the account around about the time your doing your extension. 

 

 

I deposit 100 baht the same day I get the bank letter, just to update the bank book.

[jacko45k]

3 hours ago, giddyup said:

I deposit 100 baht the same day I get the bank letter, just to update the bank book.

I do not understand why that is necessary..... (he mentioned Bangkok Bank)..... I have accounts with BB and  I can update the books without a transaction, and an update line is printed. This occurs with my savings and my fixed deposit books. I accept this is not the case with some other banks.

[scottiejohn]

30 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

I do not understand why that is necessary..... (he mentioned Bangkok Bank)..... I have accounts with BB and  I can update the books without a transaction, and an update line is printed. This occurs with my savings and my fixed deposit books. I accept this is not the case with some other banks.

I agree.

I use the fixed deposit account with BKK and all the IO want is the letter and the updated passbook.  I make no transaction to update my book.  The only transactions that ever shows in the book is the interest ones!

In the past the CM IO used to ask for evidence of daily living expenses so I always have my regular passbook with me but no specific update just for the IO!  The have not asked for that for a few years now.

[jacko45k]

13 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

In the past the CM IO used to ask for evidence of daily living expenses so I always have my regular passbook with me but no specific update just for the IO!  The have not asked for that for a few years now.

Various regional offices having their own special requirements is such BS. I used to use my savings account, but was always in fear of not updating the book for a while, then you would get a consolidated entry... that would not specifically prove you had retained the 800/400kbaht as stipulated.. and I just feared getting grief over that. Now I use an agent, they seem more liberal of things when one does! 

[Mike Teavee]

15 hours ago, jacko45k said:

I do not understand why that is necessary..... (he mentioned Bangkok Bank)..... I have accounts with BB and  I can update the books without a transaction, and an update line is printed. This occurs with my savings and my fixed deposit books. I accept this is not the case with some other banks.

You can update the Bank Book on the Day but the Immigration Office (at least Jomtien & CW in my experience) seem to want to see a transaction on the day you get your "Certificate" from the Bank confirming your Balance, makes no sense to me as an updated Bank Book confirms the balance, but it's just another one of those little "Hoops" that we seem to need to jump through each year.    

[Mike Teavee]

14 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Various regional offices having their own special requirements is such BS. I used to use my savings account, but was always in fear of not updating the book for a while, then you would get a consolidated entry... that would not specifically prove you had retained the 800/400kbaht as stipulated.. and I just feared getting grief over that. Now I use an agent, they seem more liberal of things when one does! 

Exactly the same here & fortunately my Bangkok Agent spotted the consolidated entries and took me to the Bank to get the necessary statements to prove I hadn't gone below the 400/800K limits. 

 

Would be great if Thailand had an option to stick 800K somewhere "Official" (say a Government Bank/Bond) & if you didn't dip into it you get a simple letter saying "Yep, all good", no need for statements or copies of Bank Book etc... If you did go below the limits then you could revert to showing certificates/bank balances/bank books from elsewhere. 

 

 

 

 

  

[jacko45k]

1 hour ago, Mike Teavee said:

You can update the Bank Book on the Day but the Immigration Office (at least Jomtien & CW in my experience) seem to want to see a transaction on the day you get your "Certificate" from the Bank confirming your Balance, makes no sense to me as an updated Bank Book confirms the balance, but it's just another one of those little "Hoops" that we seem to need to jump through each year.    

Never had an issue, but maybe sometimes I drew out some spendies at the same time. I certainly don't do it with my FD account which I switched to after a few years.. that seems much easier to use, not having 3/4 transactions per week at least, and the savings account often adding the need to get a new passbook, and take 2 along with me. The FD gets only 3 transactions a year, two interest additions, and the 'update' (without deposit or withdrawal) at  extension time. 

[jacko45k]

1 hour ago, Mike Teavee said:

Would be great if Thailand had an option to stick 800K somewhere "Official" (say a Government Bank/Bond) & if you didn't dip into it you get a simple letter saying "Yep, all good", no need for statements or copies of Bank Book etc... If you did go below the limits then you could revert to showing certificates/bank balances/bank books from elsewhere. 

Although that sort of defeats the original purpose, which has faded and now is a distant memory. That purpose was simply proving you had money to live off for the year of the Extension.....  The seasoning came in, and now we have the requirement to have money in the bank that you can not spend... nonsensical. 

[Hugh Cow]

On 8/17/2023 at 6:24 PM, Felton Jarvis said:

I haven’t seen a single post that meets that criteria. “Corruption” is more than just a small bribe to get an otherwise legal document. Sometimes hundreds of thousands of baht change hands to get things “handled”. Many procedures are deliberately made more difficult in order to extract “tea money”.

I dont disagree with you but I doubt anybody on T/V will be able to fix the problem.