To use an agent or not

[wmlc]

I thought of writing this after reading a gazillion recent posts in ASEAN Now/Thaigher. So here goes:

 

Use an agent 

1. You don't qualify so you need an agency to facilitate it
2. For visas that require a fixed deposit, you prefer to keep your money elsewhere invested 
3. You don't want to wait in line
4. You would rather spend your time doing something more productive
5. Time is money
6. Its easy
7. Most charge reasonable rates
8. You can't be bothered with all the red tape that comes with doing it yourself.   
9. The good ones offer great customer service
10. They can recommend multiple options, as the good ones are knowledgable

 

Not use an agent 

1. You hate the idea of somebody earning a living for something you can do yourself.
2. You can't afford it
3. You don't mind waiting all day 
4. You are the resident visa expert and you would lose face if you hired an agent 
5. You love to brag about your knowledge and expertise on the Thai immigration system
6. You are afraid of getting scammed 
7. You just hate to see lawyers and visa  agents in Thailand being successful, so you won't use one or promote the use of one as you will be miserable seeing them successful. 
8. They are all scammers. ALL OF THEM!!!!
9. You are retired, you have lots of time, and would rather spend the money (saved by not spending the money on agent) on a good dinner with friends.

 

[DrJack54]

Not sure of the point of your thread.

Mind you think for "use an agent" you left out one important reason.

That being opportunity cost of maintaining 800k + on very low interest Thai bank account. 

[wmlc]

2 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Not sure of the point of your thread.

Mind you think for "use an agent" you left out one important reason.

That being opportunity cost of maintaining 800k + on very low interest Thai bank account. 

The point is many people ask me this. I was already adding that before your post. Cheers though. 

[oldcpu]

Add to the "Not Use an Agent"

 

9. You are retired, you have lots of time, and would rather spend the money (saved by not spending the money on agent) on a good dinner with friends.

[DrJack54]

3 minutes ago, oldcpu said:

Add to the "Not Use an Agent"

 

9. You are retired, you have lots of time, and would rather spend the money (saved by not spending the money on agent) on a good dinner with friends.

As opposed to having 800k baht in eg shares etc earning LOT more than cost of agent obtained extension. 

[itsari]

13 minutes ago, wmlc said:

I thought of writing this after reading a gazillion recent posts in ASEAN Now/Thaigher. So here goes:

 

Use an agent 

1. You don't qualify so you need an agency to facilitate it
2. For visas that require a fixed deposit, you prefer to keep your money elsewhere invested 
3. You don't want to wait in line
4. You would rather spend your time doing something more productive
5. Time is money
6. Its easy
7. Most charge reasonable rates
8. You can't be bothered with all the red tape that comes with doing it yourself.   
9. The good ones offer great customer service

 

Not use an agent 

1. You hate the idea of somebody earning a living for something you can do yourself.
2. You can't afford it
3. You don't mind waiting all day 
4. You are the resident visa expert and you would lose face if you hired an agent 
5. You love to brag about your knowledge and expertise on the Thai immigration system
6. You are afraid of getting scammed 
7. You just hate to see lawyers and visa  agents in Thailand being successful, so you won't use one or promote the use of one as you will be miserable seeing them successful. 
8. They are all scammers. ALL OF THEM!!!!

 

One problem is when you want to stop using the agent if you never qualified for the funds as the immigration will demand to see you had the funds . 

Only way if possible is to use the agent one more time using the required funds and the following year apply your self at immigration.

[oldcpu]

Two of my good friends (both retired and 10 years older than myself) at present time always use an agent. They would agree with the "Use an Agent" items 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9.  I note also they are very well off, so money is not an issue for them. Its all above board for them (ie 100% legal) and they in essence give the agent limited power of attorney to handle their retirement extensions on their Type-O non-immigrant visas.  

 

I prefer not to use an agent. I am not sure why - possibly I prefer to be in control of my own details?  Hence I suspect the "not use an agent" #3, and #9 applied to me (that is before I changed to the LTR visa - now its all a mute point).  Also at this stage of my aging life, re-investing the 800k (to make even more money than I already have) is not important to me - as earning more money simply means more tax paperwork to file - where likely I will never spend that additional money (above and beyond my current savings - where I am not likely to spend my current savings).

 

I think everyone is different here - and its best to go with the approach one prefers based on one's own situation.
 

[wmlc]

3 minutes ago, itsari said:

One problem is when you want to stop using the agent if you never qualified for the funds as the immigration will demand to see you had the funds . 

Only way if possible is to use the agent one more time using the required funds and the following year apply your self at immigration.

I tend to disagree with this as they will evaluate each individual application. I have never seen or heard of an example of this happening. Here is one good example. You want to use the income method for your retirement visa. However, for the first time, you can't show 12 months bank statement. So, for the first one you use an agent. Then during that year, you prepare to do your next extension by yourself using the income method. You can now show the 12 months of deposits via your bank statements. The guys do this all the time. 

[itsari]

4 minutes ago, wmlc said:

I tend to disagree with this as they will evaluate each individual application. I have never seen or heard of an example of this happening. Here is one good example. You want to use the income method for your retirement visa. However, for the first time, you can't show 12 months bank statement. So, for the first one you use an agent. Then during that year, you prepare to do your next extension by yourself using the income method. You can now show the 12 months of deposits via your bank statements. The guys do this all the time. 

I do not agree as i had first hand experiance of obtaining an extension after using an agent . When immigration saw that I used an agent previously they checked to see if i had funds for that year . If i did not have the funds they would of refused my application. Applicants can only go from an agent to doing the work themselves if they had the funds .

That is why I went for one more year using agents after having had   advice from Mr Ubon Joe .

[proton]

Agents are a damn nuisance when you are waiting at immigration and one comes in with 6 customers and 6 passports and goes straight up to the window without a ticket and you have been waiting for over an hour. Why not have a separate line for these parasite brown envelope distributers?

[proton]

6 minutes ago, itsari said:

I do not agree as i had first hand experiance of obtaining an extension after using an agent . When immigration saw that I used an agent previously they checked to see if i had funds for that year . If i did not have the funds they would of refused my application. Applicants can only go from an agent to doing the work themselves if they had the funds .

That is why I went for one more year using agents after having had   advice from Mr Ubon Joe .

 

Once you go via a bribing agent with not enough funds in the bank you are stuck with them, unless it's just hand holding where you have the money.

[Pattaya57]

How is "can't afford it" in the not use an agent section. Surely the ones that can't afford it are the ones that don't have the required 800k to put in a Thai bank

 

I think your "Not use an agent" reasons are mainly waffle so could all be replaced with:

 

1. It's not that hard to do yourself and it only costs the immigration fee (instead of 6x more for agent)

[itsari]

Just now, proton said:

 

Once you go via a bribing agent with not funds in the bank you are stuck with them, unless it's just hand holding

You are stuck with them if you never have the funds . As I just tried to explain , i used an agent one year as i was short of the 800 t . The next year I had the funds bit had to go one more year using the same agent to obtain the extension myself the following year .

 

[proton]

2 minutes ago, itsari said:

You are stuck with them if you never have the funds . As I just tried to explain , i used an agent one year as i was short of the 800 t . The next year I had the funds bit had to go one more year using the same agent to obtain the extension myself the following year .

 

 

So used an agent as short of cash- why another year with an agent if you had the funds? 

[proton]

1 hour ago, DrJack54 said:

Not sure of the point of your thread.

Mind you think for "use an agent" you left out one important reason.

That being opportunity cost of maintaining 800k + on very low interest Thai bank account. 

 

More than offset by the amount the agent charges surely, often thats just an excuse

[In Full Agreement]

10 minutes ago, proton said:

 

Once you go via a bribing agent with not enough funds in the bank you are stuck with them, unless it's just hand holding where you have the money.

 

We'll have to mark you down as being opposed to agent use. 

 

The cost of using an agent isn't a detriment to me and even though  I'm retired, I love avoiding standing in lines.

 

To each his own, however.

 

 

[itsari]

8 minutes ago, proton said:

 

So used an agent as short of cash- why another year with an agent if you had the funds? 

Because the  immigration  check if you had the cash when using an agent . If not your application is rejected.

[sungod]

19 minutes ago, proton said:

Agents are a damn nuisance when you are waiting at immigration and one comes in with 6 customers and 6 passports and goes straight up to the window without a ticket and you have been waiting for over an hour. Why not have a separate line for these parasite brown envelope distributers?

Why not use an agent as per 3,4,5 or 6?

[DrJack54]

4 minutes ago, proton said:

 

More than offset by the amount the agent charges surely, often thats just an excuse

My money is in my Cbus super fund.

Here is snip from annual report:

"It’s a very good outcome for our members, with our Growth (MySuper) option return of 9.49% over the 2023 calendar year"

 

So that's 90k+baht (funds in shares) vs 13k (cost of agent)

[NoDisplayName]

Wai not use an agent?

 

Less chance of passport being misplaced and then being ghosted by said agent.

[steven100]

A pointless thread that could be closed.     There are dozens of threads on this ...  don't need another.   

[OJAS]

18 minutes ago, Pattaya57 said:

I think your "Not use an agent" reasons are mainly waffle so could all be replaced with:

 

1. It's not that hard to do yourself and it only costs the immigration fee (instead of 6x more for agent)

 

IMHO the use of agents should, in general, be reserved for the truly difficult things in life. Like obtaining a visa to enable your Thai partner to accompany you on a trip back to your home country. Or renewing your passport it you're a Brit.

[DrJack54]

8 minutes ago, steven100 said:

A pointless thread that could be closed.     There are dozens of threads on this ...  don't need another.   

Agree. Will end up a bickering thread.

Thread closed