i remember from previous reading that when you are planning to buy a condo and you send money to Thailand for this purpose you are supposed to make this declaration for whatever legal reason. i want to buy a condo in 6-12 months and i want to lock in the current thb-usd exchange rate.

possible? how long of a period do i have from transferring funds until i must make a home purchase - or have these currency policies been amended?

Possible. Just declare what the money is to be used for.

As much for Homeland Security as for Thai formalities. After 9-11 the rules changed.

As I understand it you have to be explicit. So I don't think this will work.

When I did it last year I had to provide a copy of the selling agreement. But things may have changed since.

Kasikorn Bank wanted a copy of the purchase agreement when I bouhgt a place before they would credit the money to my account.

But how many $$ are you sending? If it's less than 20k then you don't have to declare it's for a condo purchase.

You only need to declare the amount to be transfered in if you want a Currency Exchange Certificate so that you can transfer the money out in the future. The 20K limit that posters are talking about was the OLD rule to prevent the Thai government from taking 30% withholding. That law was designed to prevent Baht speculation. It has since been repealed so now no funds are withheld.

My advice for you would to be to talk to your bank and see what they require. I don't know since SCB issued the Currency Exchange Certificate prior to my transferring the condo into my name at the Land Office. The Land Office then made a copy of the Currency Exchange Certificate, and listed the exact amount that the condo cost on the back of the copy, certified it and then returned it to me with the Tor whatever (deed).