Retirement Visa/Customs Exemption

[junglechef]

Is there a one time exemption from tax with a long stay (retirement) visa to import ones personal belongings? Also what are the taxes since I've heard of both tax together with vat?

[LJW]

I have never paid ANY taxes on my personal items.

[NancyL]

Hubby and I moved to Chiang Mai in late 2008. Hubby had a O-A retirement visa, granted by the Chicago consulate, but for some reason they gave me just an O visa even though we submitted identical paperwork in the same envelope. They also took much longer than expected to process the visas, with them arriving just a couple days before our departure. Frankly, we didn't notice the difference and happily headed off for retirement in Thailand.

We had one pallet of personal items, less than 100 kilograms, that followed us a few weeks later, shipped to the Chiang Mai airport. We had insured the shipment for about $7000. It was an absolute nightmare to get those items out of customs. We tried ourselves initially, but got nowhere since we had zilch knowledge of the language. We enlisted the aid of a Thai lawyer, actually more of a para-legal -- a Thai woman who had lived many years in the U.K. and was much more assertive than the average Thai woman. We went to the airport with her and spent half a day watching her talk to people. We were told the problem was that we didn't qualify for the "retirement exemption" because I had an O visa, not an O-A. The shipment was addressed to both my husband and me, so it wasn't going to be exempt from taxes and duty.

So, I went off to the U.S. consulate for an income verification letter and spent another day in immigration with our Thai para-legal getting an O-A retirement visa, with no credit granted for the visa fees I'd already paid to the Chicago consulate (of course).

Also, the paralegal secured the services of a Chiang Mai freight forwarder, which we had been told by the U.S. shipper wouldn't be necessary.

Once I got the O-A visa, the Thai para-legal said she'd handle everything else and two days later our stuff arrived at our condo. I'm not certain what she did or said to the customs people at Chiang Mai airport, but judging from her bill, I think some money changed hands. The total bill for her services, about 10,000 baht seemed a bit high in light of the time she'd spent with us. Plus we owed the freight forwarding company four or five thousand baht, but at least they carefully brought the items directly into our living room.

Since then, we've learned that the customs people at Chiang Mai airport have a bad reputation for doing this to other new retirees. I wish the OP good luck, since the original post was in the Chiang Mai forum.

[dutch]

http://www.customs.go.th/Customs-Eng/HouseholdEffects/HouseholdEffects.jsp?menuNme=HouseHold

Careful:

Note : Nonresidents entering into the Kingdom with a non-immigrant visa "code O" who wish to retire in Thailand or accompany spouses of Thai residents are not qualified for (1)

Edited February 23, 2011 by dutch

[BB1955]

Well I didnt have any problem what so ever shipped 5 boxes and a bike from the USA they made it fine within the 6 month time frame you are allowed to ship in . As far as the visa its my understanding that you will only be granted that type of visa once you arrive in the country and processed . Until that time you will only have a one year type O visa which allows you to stay but must re enter every 90 days until the one year extention is granted ...

[Mario2008]

Yes, you must be one a 1 year extension of stay from immigration and it must be in the first year of your stay to be allowed to import duty free.

Motorcycles are never allowed to import duty free.

Retirement is not a valid reason to receive a shipment duty free.

[clinique]

Shipped all our personal belongings to Chiangmai several years ago - no charges.

Just received 3 big boxes of stuff, also personal items, last month, again no charge.

The only thing in 20 years that customs ever had aproblem with was when my mother sent us 2 boxes of wine for my birthday - marked as such.

The duty they wanted was double the cost of the wine and shipping.

So I donated the 2 boxes of wine to the Customs officers.

They smiled, gave me 2 bottles.

Edited February 25, 2011 by clinique

[jazzbo]

With reference to Post #3: I was advised of this by a Bechtel-type engineering crew my first few months in Thailand and it has become my personal mantra: If you cannot bring it with you on the airplane, don't even bother and you probably don't need it ... I have brought the full 2 x 20 KG free baggage every trip to the Kingdom and once brought 30+ KG in excess and I have always made it through the Green Channel at BKK ...so Up to You.

BTW as of now 20 KG Priority Mail USA to Thailand 44 pounds $259.25

Edited February 25, 2011 by jazzbo

[Sophon]

Yes, you must be one a 1 year extension of stay from immigration and it must be in the first year of your stay to be allowed to import duty free.

Motorcycles are never allowed to import duty free.

Retirement is not a valid reason to receive a shipment duty free.

I believe the rule says that you have to import within six months of arriving - not one year.

Sophon