Canadian Embassy to discontinue income affidavit notary service April 1st, 2025

[Tod Daniels]

ATTENTION; CANUCK MEMBERS
 

This was the update on the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok F/B page

They will discontinue the affidavit of income from abroad on April 1st, 2025

REMEMBER; that income affidavit is valid for 6 months from the date it's issued so if you use one and have an extension coming up in the next 6 months GET it just before they stop issuing it

What this means is IF you as a canadian passport holder want to use monthly income to meet the proof of funds for extensions you will have to do what the Britz, 'Muricanz & Auzziez do since their embassies stopped issuing the letter. You have to transfer in to the country the required monthly minimum for the extension you want (40K baht for marriage, 65K baht for retirement) each month, every month for the previous 12 months BEFORE you apply for the next extension.



Here's the link to their f/b page
Canada to stop income affidavit 

[DrJack54]

Hells Bells. Big change for Canadian folk. 

You are not alone. Just joining UK, USA, AU.

NZ folk getting nervous? 

[jerrymahoney]

So now, just like with Americans before, the only real hassle is for persons who claimed to have 65K+ baht per month as sworn in their affidavit but do not have 65K+ per month to deposit.

[Lacessit]

I don't know why they are called civil servants.

 

They don't act like servants, and usually are not civil.

[300sd]

56 minutes ago, Tod Daniels said:

ATTENTION; CANUCK MEMBERS
 

This was the update on the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok F/B page

They will discontinue the affidavit of income from abroad on April 1st, 2025

REMEMBER; that income affidavit is valid for 6 months from the date it's issued so if you use one and have an extension coming up in the next 6 months GET it just before they stop issuing it

What this means is IF you as a canadian passport holder want to use monthly income to meet the proof of funds for extensions you will have to do what the Britz, 'Muricanz & Auzziez do since their embassies stopped issuing the letter. You have to transfer in to the country the required monthly minimum for the extension you want (40K baht for marriage, 65K baht for retirement) each month, every month for the previous 12 months BEFORE you apply for the next extension.



Here's the link to their f/b page
Canada to stop income affidavit 

Interesting statement from the Cad Embassy: 

"Because the Embassy of Canada has no means of confirming a Canadian citizen’s income, a notarized affidavit from the Embassy of Canada has never met the requirement to prove a minimum income level for a non-immigrant long-term stay visa."

 

You mean showing Canadian Tax returns, to this embassy, are not proof of income? They should tell the truth. They just don't want to bother!

[bamnutsak]

37 minutes ago, jerrymahoney said:

So now, just like with Americans before, the only real hassle is for persons who claimed to have 65K+ baht per month as sworn in their affidavit but do not have 65K+ per month to deposit.

 

 

Yes, for some, assuming they have not been making monthly transfers, this will be an issue given the April 1 date + 6 months. So those with renewal dates after September 2025 may be hosed.

[Caldera]

43 minutes ago, 300sd said:

Interesting statement from the Cad Embassy: 

"Because the Embassy of Canada has no means of confirming a Canadian citizen’s income, a notarized affidavit from the Embassy of Canada has never met the requirement to prove a minimum income level for a non-immigrant long-term stay visa."

 

You mean showing Canadian Tax returns, to this embassy, are not proof of income? They should tell the truth. They just don't want to bother!

 

Interesting statement, yes, they're basically confirming that they've been useless clowns all along. 

[jaideedave]

1 hour ago, 300sd said:

Interesting statement from the Cad Embassy: 

"Because the Embassy of Canada has no means of confirming a Canadian citizen’s income, a notarized affidavit from the Embassy of Canada has never met the requirement to prove a minimum income level for a non-immigrant long-term stay visa."

 

You mean showing Canadian Tax returns, to this embassy, are not proof of income? They should tell the truth. They just don't want to bother!

I've used my current year T4 slips as proof of income previously. I thought that was pretty solid pfroof.wtf? Was someone caught with bogus papers? 

[DrJack54]

23 minutes ago, jaideedave said:

I've used my current year T4 slips as proof of income previously.

Proof of income to who. 

I realize it's part of application to Canadian embassy for income letter however they cannot verify it. 

 

Cut/paste from AI...

"The Canadian Embassy in Bangkok will no longer provide income affidavits, also known as income letters, starting April 1, 2025. The embassy cannot verify income and is not legally required to do so. 

Explanation 

The embassy's practice of issuing income affidavits was informal and not regulated"

 

[jaideedave]

53 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Proof of income to who. 

I realize it's part of application to Canadian embassy for income letter however they cannot verify it. 

 

Cut/paste from AI...

"The Canadian Embassy in Bangkok will no longer provide income affidavits, also known as income letters, starting April 1, 2025. The embassy cannot verify income and is not legally required to do so. 

Explanation 

The embassy's practice of issuing income affidavits was informal and not regulated"

 

The NR4 Slips I receive from CRA every tax year were direct from the gov't. These days I suppose a creative person could generate bogus ones quite easily. I'll just revert to the monthly transfers that I send to my bank here in any case. If agents are not available in the future I'll go back to doing it myself as before.

[DrJack54]

26 minutes ago, jaideedave said:

If agents are not available in the future I'll go back to doing it myself as before.

You have those two options.

Last line of my copy/paste....

"The embassy's practice of issuing income affidavits was informal and not regulated"

 

Somewhat related....I was at a gig and senior Oz woman that works at AU embassy was there...

So I asked "why did embassy stop providing income letters" 

She stated that they never should have been dealing with statutory declarations as they are are only valid for use in Oz.

Think USA called them affidavits.

 

Goes back to the point that embassies cannot verify the statements 

 

[BrandonJT]

10 hours ago, Lacessit said:

I don't know why they are called civil servants.

 

They don't act like servants, and usually are not civil.

I very highly doubt that embassy staff have access to the Canadian tax database or other financial systems in Canada.  They have no way to verify that the information is genuine and could easily be created fraudulently.  They are basically admitting that they are doing the same thing that the US and other embassies were dinged for previously.  They are just "notarizing" your statement and immigration will not accept that as authentic proof.

[kingstonkid]

17 hours ago, jerrymahoney said:

So now, just like with Americans before, the only real hassle is for persons who claimed to have 65K+ baht per month as sworn in their affidavit but do not have 65K+ per month to deposit.

 

The thing is that the embassy used to ask for proof of funds so I am not sure where they get that they can not verify.  I used to have to print out my monthly bank statements and attach them to get the letter.

 

I agree just taking a person's word these days is downright STUPID

[Goethe]

7 hours ago, BrandonJT said:

They are just "notarizing" your statement and immigration will not accept that as authentic proof.

Until now Thai Immigration HAS accepted the letter from the Canadian Embassy as sufficient. A consular official told me that the Consulate needed to have your financial statement on file IN CASE Thai Immigration one day asked for such evidence. I have seen no evidence that Thai Immigration officials have been questioning the validity of the Canadian Embassy letter. 

[DrJack54]

12 minutes ago, Goethe said:

. I have seen no evidence that Thai Immigration officials have been questioning the validity of the Canadian Embassy letter. 

Don't follow.

If the Canadian embassy ceases to provide the "income letter" (which seems the case) it's irrelevant what immigration does as there is no letter to consider

[BrandonJT]

56 minutes ago, kingstonkid said:

 

The thing is that the embassy used to ask for proof of funds so I am not sure where they get that they can not verify.  I used to have to print out my monthly bank statements and attach them to get the letter.

 

I agree just taking a person's word these days is downright STUPID

I can make or edit a bank statement in 5 minutes.  How is that verification of anything? There's a reason a bunch of the SE Asian Thai embassies were requiring people to come in and open their banking app on their phone and show the live balance along with bank statements for a while.  Thailand doesn't trust foreign bank statements (as they shouldn't).

[300sd]

3 hours ago, Goethe said:

Until now Thai Immigration HAS accepted the letter from the Canadian Embassy as sufficient. A consular official told me that the Consulate needed to have your financial statement on file IN CASE Thai Immigration one day asked for such evidence. I have seen no evidence that Thai Immigration officials have been questioning the validity of the Canadian Embassy letter. 

Thank you. That's really the whole point. Thai immigration WOULD accept the income letter from Canadian embassy. Canadian embassy is making an excuse. They do not want to bother with old expats living here.

[WDSmart]

Yes, the US Embassy did this a long time ago, maybe 15 years or so. The instructions about transferring an amount to your Thai bank account every month are correct. That's what I'm doing now.

[DrJack54]

2 hours ago, 300sd said:

Thai immigration WOULD accept the income letter from Canadian embassy.

Not the point. 

Embassy cannot verify the income. 

And for that reason UK, USA, AU have not been providing letters for some time. 

Citizens of those countries can still use income method.

Just requires monthly transfers of 65k + .

Need to show 12 monthly transfers 

[300sd]

3 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Not the point. 

Embassy cannot verify the income. 

And for that reason UK, USA, AU have not been providing letters for some time. 

The Cad. embassy says they can't guarantee the income in the letter. The point is that the Thai immigration accepts the letters anyway. So we'll have to agree to disagree.

[bamnutsak]

16 minutes ago, WDSmart said:

Yes, the US Embassy did this a long time ago, maybe 15 years or so.

 

Effective 1/1/19

 

Announced 10/26/2018

 

Affidavits were honored for six months, and Immigration allowed fewer than 12 months for the 65k route. <I think>.

 

https://th.usembassy.gov/u-s-mission-in-thailand-to-cease-providing-income-affidavit/

[DrJack54]

19 minutes ago, 300sd said:

The point is that the Thai immigration accepts the letters anyway.

You can check out the announcements from various embassies that announced change in providing "income letter".

It was triggered by Thai authorities requesting verification.

The 3 countries mention in thread quickly stopped providing the letter.

Eventually Thai backed down but too late. 

Here is snippet from UK embassy...

 

"The British Embassy Bangkok is stopping the certification of income letters because it is unable to fulfil the Thai authorities’ requirements to verify the income of British Nationals" 

 

Another cut/paste re date of change.....

"With effect from 1 January 2019, the British Embassy Bangkok will no longer provide British Nationals" with letters confirming their income.

[300sd]

27 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

You can check out the announcements from various embassies that announced change in providing "income letter".

It was triggered by Thai authorities requesting verification.

The 3 countries mention in thread quickly stopped providing the letter.

Eventually Thai backed down but too late. 

Here is snippet from UK embassy...

 

"The British Embassy Bangkok is stopping the certification of income letters because it is unable to fulfil the Thai authorities’ requirements to verify the income of British Nationals" 

 

Another cut/paste re date of change.....

"With effect from 1 January 2019, the British Embassy Bangkok will no longer provide British Nationals" with letters confirming their income.

Ok Doc, I agree with you if Thai Immigration really asked British Embassy for verification. Or is it just talk to not do it anymore? I imagine the British Embassy was real busy doing it for their expats. It seems sort of like the money laundering excuse for all the roadblocks we come across these day.

[black tabby12345]

On 2/18/2025 at 10:56 AM, DrJack54 said:

Hells Bells. Big change for Canadian folk. 

You are not alone. Just joining UK, USA, AU.

NZ folk getting nervous? 

 

Other countries you listed, stopped that practice as early as 2017, as far as I remember.

Due to the demand from Thai Immigration Bureau.

 

[DrJack54]

37 minutes ago, 300sd said:

Or is it just talk to not do it anymore?

Probably bit of both.

Bit off topic but I'm currently switching from money in bank method to income method.

Being Oz I need to show immigration 12 monthly transfers for next extension.

I also need to run the "money in bank method" in tandem for the change over.

Just pointing out that you can still do income method without letter. 

65k/month  is pretty modest amount to live off. 

[DrJack54]

2 minutes ago, black tabby12345 said:

Due to the demand from Thai Immigration Bureau.

Yes that's how it occured. Thai made a bet and those 3 embassies called the bluff.

Thai authorities then modified that request but the gate was closed.

 

[black tabby12345]

1 minute ago, DrJack54 said:

Yes that's how it occured. Thai made a bet and those 3 embassies called the bluff.

Thai authorities then modified that request but the gate was closed.

 

 

Hi, thank you for your reply.

So, Thai immigration did it to try their luck(not fully expecting the result they wished)?

But to their surprise, it turned out to be as they like?

 

I have heard Thais often do this trick to test their luck though...

 

 

 

 

[Patong2021]

On 2/17/2025 at 11:14 PM, Lacessit said:

I don't know why they are called civil servants.

 

They don't act like servants, and usually are not civil.

 

All that because the  Canadian embassy no longer wishes to be part of a sham?

[Patong2021]

2 hours ago, 300sd said:

Thank you. That's really the whole point. Thai immigration WOULD accept the income letter from Canadian embassy. Canadian embassy is making an excuse. They do not want to bother with old expats living here.

 

That is unfair.  What is your solution? How do you expect the Canadian consulate to verify the income statement? It does not have access to annual CRA filings and it does not have access to the person's bank accounts. What's your methodology to allow the  consulate to issue an accurate declaration?

[Lacessit]

16 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Probably bit of both.

Bit off topic but I'm currently switching from money in bank method to income method.

Being Oz I need to show immigration 12 monthly transfers for next extension.

I also need to run the "money in bank method" in tandem for the change over.

Just pointing out that you can still do income method without letter. 

65k/month  is pretty modest amount to live off. 

I consider I live quite well, on less than 65K/month. OTOH, I don't drink or smoke. My only luxury is golf.

 

I tried the income method for one year, found it to be a major PITA. Not worth the aggravation for the sake of not keeping 800 K on deposit.