Am I Able To Be A Resident?

[toxsickcity]

Hello,

I am an Australian Citizan and wish to prepair myself to get a THAI Resedent Visa.

I am married to a Thai Citizan

I am currently on a Multiple Entry VISA Allowing me stay in thailand for 1 Year, Every 3 months I must leave the country every 3 months at re stamp my visa.

I usually fly to singapore for a day trip to do this

In order for me to have a residency VISA I must have a NON Immigrant VISA for 3 years or something.

Does my VISA class as this?

My current Stays in thailand.

In 2001-2002 I spend 6 months in thailand

In 2003-2004 I spend another 6 months in Thailand

in 2004 - current I am on my 2nd month my my 12month multiple entry visa.

all up that is 1 year 2 months, will this class as allowing me to get a residence visa in 1 Year and 10months more of stay?

any information you provide to me will be much appriciated.

Yours Truly

Shaun Collins.

[sas_cars]

No.You are supposed to be extending your visa since last 3 years (1 full year extension by the local immigration office)not the Mulitple entry visa you are currently holding.And you have to be very gainfully employed guy in thailand earning salary at least 80,000 Baht/month and paying income tax according to this amount of salary.And a lot more requirements.Just being married to a thai is just like climbing a little hill in the very beginning on the way to Mount Everst(thai PR).

[Dutchy2]

Correct, it's sad but that's the way it is.

Good luck

Dutchy

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Correct, it's sad but that's the way it is.

Good luck

Dutchy

It is not sad, but it is the way it is.

[toxsickcity]

is there any other way?

say..... in easier way... hehehe

[toxsickcity]

okay... if I get a working visa etc... is 80,000 the minimum limit? that seems quite high as I am earning pretty much what a young thai person would be earning...

I wont say how much but it is below the 25k!!!

[sas_cars]

There isn't any easy way for it mate.Don't compare yourself with a thai national.It's just not the way rules are looked at foreigners in the eyes of immigration.You can't even qualify for working legally in thailand if you don't get a work which pays you enough salary so u can pay the 18.000 Baht income tax.Usually you pay such amount of tax on a salary ranging from 30-35,000 Baht,But even getting this amount of salary,you are still not eligible to apply for a long 1 year visa extension at the immigration.You will still have to rely on multiple entry B visas and have to leave the country every 90days and get back again.Living and working legally in thailand isn't as easy as one may think !

[PvtDick]

Just to be clear, foreigners are not taxed at any higher rates than Thai nationals are.

But if your salary is less than 25K a month, you're not even eligible for a work permit, much less PR.

[sas_cars]

Just to clarify a bit more,

As being married to a thai citizen,you can get a work permit even if you don't meet the minimum income tax requirement of 18K/year.As you told us that your salary is more than 20K.But you can't extend your visa to 1 year.You will still have to do visa runs every 90 days.In order to extend your visa for a long 1 year,You have to meet

1,40,000 minimum salary Or

2,400,000 Baht deposited in a thai bank to show that u can support your wife.

Good Luck

[Roger13]

In order for me to have a residency VISA I must have a NON Immigrant VISA for 3 years or something.

Just to amplify what others have said ...

You must have just the ONE Non Imm Visa which

you have to extend annually - continuously for three years.

Among other things already mentioned.

If you have that Visa / extension - I don't think it is neccessary

to be in Thailand all that time - I don't think they calculate

the number of months you are here - it is the time that

you have the extensions for.

But having said that you do need to have the requisite tax paying

records for three years.

Roger

[keestha]

You can't even qualify for working legally in thailand if you don't get a work which pays you enough salary so u can pay the 18.000 Baht income tax.Usually you pay such amount of tax on a salary ranging from 30-35,000 Baht,But even getting this amount of salary,you are still not eligible to apply for a long 1 year visa extension at the immigration.You will still have to rely on multiple entry B visas and have to leave the country every 90days and get back again.

Sas cars, in this case you might be (exceptionally) not fully correct. My salary is presently still 35000 baht per month, and I pay a few thousand over 18000 Baht income tax per year. I applied for a one year extension, and till now I got a provisional 1 month extension twice already. It takes a bit of time because the Immigration office in my home province has to wait for the final approval which can only be granted by the main Immigration office in Bangkok. Since the local Immigration office already accepted my paperwork as being sufficient for a 1 year extension though, I reckon this is a mere formality. In my case it might play a role that I have my own company which also employs a number of Thais, conceivably the situation might be different if you have a purely employee status. To go back to the original subject, PR status is very very difficult to get indeed. A European pensioner I know who is rich also by European standards, who has had one year visa extensions for a large number of years and who has custody over the two children of his Thai wife who passed away, was simply told to forget about it.

[sas_cars]

Keestha,You just luckily escaped the new immigration regulations since last 2 days i.e. July10 2004.You started the process 2 month ago,so u could be able to extend your visa on your current 35,000B salary.But from the next year,You have to meet the new minimum salary requirements according to your nationality.How much you have to have the minimum salary to extend your visa from next year,you can easily find it searching on this website.