Open Letter To PM Yingluck Re: Updating Laws Affecting Foreigners From Drew Noyes

[Nip]

I guess it's symptomatic of the general inattention to detail that an attorney submitted a document to the government with so many errors. Troubling beyond the content. Makes you think twice about trusting attorneys (like you need yet another reason).

I don't think the author is an attorney. Manages a law office, but not an attorney himself IIRC.

Of course he is not a lawyer and why should he want to change the laws when he benefits from our misfortune? Ill informed foreigners butter his daily bread. More importantly why has he avoided the most thorny issue in Thailand at the moment? Namely the shambolic state regarding 'Leases' and foreign interests in Thai companies? Personally I would like to see all the bent International Law Offices exposed. Especially in Phuket. They suck us in and blow us out in bubbles. Also ignored was the following statement from _{the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) chief Tharit Pengdit said yesterday (01-01-12) his office would crack down on foreigners using Thais as nominees to buy land and run businesses from which they are legally excluded. Tharit said many foreigners were using Thai nationals as nominees to run businesses prohibited for non-Thais under the Foreign Business Act 1999. The businesses include logging, newspapers and property development. He said the DSI was cracking down on foreign gangsters encroaching on forestland and running property projects. He urged members of the public to alert the DSI to any suspicious activities.} And Law Offices!!!!!!

[BHooUK]

I do hope he does not send this in on behalf of all foriegn citizens, This letter is baddly written and does not repesent the majority and yes I do think the Primeminister with all due respect has far more on her plate than foriegners moaning about the immigration laws and how unfair a small minority think they are. I think he has succeeded in making himself look a bit of a pr-t.

[renaissanc]

Isn't there a law that states that if it can be proven that the money used to buy a married couple's home came from the foreigner and not from the Thai, then the house can be confiscated. I thought I heard about this when some Land Department official in Phuket threatened to investigate homes in Phuket where foreigners were living. Maybe someone can shed light on this.

[Robbie Dye]

This is I am afraid the typical stuff coming from this source, mistakes and in part ill thought out, and I agree it is too long and the original should (maybe was?) submitted in Thai?? Glaring omission to me is the inability of a foreigner to own land, even just the one Rai that has so many times been talked about. We dont all live in condos Mr Noyes. Waste of effort I reckon

[caughtintheact]

All actions have unforeseen and unintended consequences. One possibility is an increase rather than a decrease in the requirements. Be careful of what you wish for. It might come true, but not the way you want it to.

[BHooUK]

What a load of rubbish, I do hope he does not send this in on behalf of all of us. It is very baddly written the grammar is awful and if he worked for me well lets just say he would not of got pass the interview stage.

With Due respect to the Prime Minister I am pretty certain foreigners and there trivial complaints about whats fair and what is'nt proberbly is not high on her priority list at the moment and why should it be. Perhaps he just wrote this because he wanted people to know he met her, mm another wanna be lol.

[Rama]

Drew noyes states - "..............investing in Thai stocks or depositing money into Thai bank savings accounts or interest-paying funds like Property Management and Development Co., Ltd." - if the letter is supposed to be a sincere open letter, why is there a plug for something that Drew has an interest in? Thai Visa should not give free publicity to investments that may be highly suspect.

[SymS]

I don't mind too much about the typos, but most of the changes asked would not benefit Thailand in any meaningful way. Actually the only I wish they could implement is not mentioned in this letter. I 'd like that foreigners who lived in Thailand X years (e.g. 7, 10 years) with proper visas could have residency without extra conditions, like it is done in Hong Kong.

[franzs]

Sir,

staying in Thailand since 1991, got married to a Thai lady in 1993, our son was born in 1992, he has dual citizenship,

all this didn't help to make my live here easier, it went so far in 2010 that I lost my one year visa I had for over 16 years,

my wife overlooked in 2009 to renew our business license, after that I made 3 month trips over the border,

trough Thai friends I meet 18 years ago a Thai cook, who went to my home country to work there,

he is also a friend of my older son living in the same city, that's why I know his story well,

first he worked as a Thai cook, he never paid for a work permit or permanent residence, he could change job,

not like here, you loose your WP, no 90 days,

he bought first a small condo, now he owns a Thai restaurant, owns now a house, land included and he is married to a Thai lady,

why is it that in my country a foreigner get the same treatment as a local,

my country shout treat a Thai the same way as I am treated in Thailand,

that makes me crazy,

Mr. Noyes wasted his time with this open letter,

he should think of her brother as PM, he made it difficult for foreigners to stay here,

before 2001 we paid for a visa application 500 Baht,

for one year visa married was 200 000 and retirement visa was 400 000,

he also came up that you could come back only a limited time with a non immigrant visa, then you had to stay away for 6 months, there were many more regulations at this time,

simple to explain: he wanted the cheap charlies out of Thailand,

that's why you should not ask his sister to go easy on foreigners Mr. Noyes

[cmcompdoctor]

It may not be the same in all countries but believe me in my country immigration laws are far worse than in Thailand.

Don't like the way it is here ? You are always free to find another place to stay, no one is forcing you.

Of course, beers and girls are usually more expensive elsewhere .... but if thats why you are staying you should really consider leaving.

[w11guy]

This has to be the most idiotic thing ever, I take it the person responsible for this naive idea has just arrived in Thailand as anyone who has spent time here knows quite defiantly that NON Thais are viewed as buffalo dung by any Thai elite or Hi-So

More like an advertising campaign that has also not been thought about........oh and good luck on renewing your work Permit and company registry as you will be well and truly placed on the watch list

Take it from me over 40 years here ...NOTHING will ever change for the good of Foreigners here especially the 4 points raised

Just look how a Thai woman gives up here rights when marrying a non Thai

What rights does a Thai woman give up when marrying a non-Thai? I wasn't aware of any?

[inquisitive]

There are other foreigners in Thailand besides the Pattaya expat community and the issues are much broader than it would seem the OP seems to realise - this is a very ego-centric effort.

If foreigners are really interested in "changing" their situation in Thailand then a pan-national organisation should be formed and given the remit to produce a document to be presented to the Thai government that is truly representative of the needs of foreigners living in Thailand........ Not a onesided doc produced over lunch by a few (myopic?) US expats.

So what's holding you up?

[seefah]

Good luck with the letter, but as others have pointed out it might not fully reflect the views of all foreigners who live here, and not just on the points made.

I would be far more impressed if all the foreign forum web sites and foreign news papers related to expats in different parts of Thailand all got together and ran a questionnaire to establish what we currently feel is the issues that affect us, then the following month or so to run a poll based on the highlighted issues. Wouldn't that united voice come across as a much better and bigger representation of many foreigners here in Thailand, which the Thai officials might take more notice of. I'm sure the media would and that seems to be what helps things happen. At the same time, in that month or so gap between listing issues and poll, the foreign media outlets in Thailand can run articles that offer more details like correct foreign ownership rules or teaching requirements, or whatever. That's maybe not explained perfectly, but hopefully you'll see the point I'm trying to make.

[yumidesign]

Please dont send that letter, people in power have no respect whatsoever for arse lickers (even less than they have for the small insignificant guy's like us).

Also as the previous poster just said, have a good look at who your sending it to:

A.) it's in English

B.) it's written by a farang

C.) it's more than a few sentences long

D.) she's going to wonder why you are talking about her penthouse when she has none -- she lives in a house XD (no really, she IS that daft)! Worse she might think you're referring to Penthouse the magazine XD

Not slaggin mate but that letter dosent represent me, the issues yes but not the tone of it.

me either its pathetic and bad in so many ways

[marinediscoking]

This is just another attempt to "make your own front page news" to sell papers by Pattaya Times. This technic was used a couple of years ago by pattaya people newspaper as well with a front page news story "Foreigners to own 1 rai of land". The article then went on to state this was an open letter to the government. Of course nothing ever happened and no follow up news about it. In pattaya if you don't have front page news then make your own. I am surprised TV would would ad this news topic considering the sorce.

[metisdead]

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[freedom4life]

I agree with the general content of the letter. There should be 100% support for the content of this letter, especially amongst foreigners. Really, what's with you blokes?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Hmm... I see, via the Google search suggested above, that Andrew Drummond has been doing a lot of writing/reporting on the author of the open letter here...

The articles are certainly worth reading...and are enough to give one considerable pause....

Kinda makes me glad I don't live in Pattaya or have anything to do with the variety of questionable things that go on there.

[franzs]

It may not be the same in all countries but believe me in my country immigration laws are far worse than in Thailand.

Don't like the way it is here ? You are always free to find another place to stay, no one is forcing you.

Of course, beers and girls are usually more expensive elsewhere .... but if thats why you are staying you should really consider leaving.

You are right, when you don't like it leave,

it's not about the girls, I am still with my wife, since more than 20 years, the beer is here more expensive than in my home country,

and I spend the last 13 months in my home country, it was great, not to check all the time you passport,

anyway I am back in BKK, my son study here, we still have our business running and all my friend are here,

[blackthorn2005]

You cannot be serious!

[pontius]

Regardless of the 4 points that in their current presentation would do me nothing, I must say that with all due respect, as a falang I'd rather not be represented by a Pattaya resident. No offense, but that's like having your Bangkok office on the fifth floor of Nana plazza.

[Artisi]

Keep it for the 1st of April, but please correct all the mistakes first as there are people out there actually trying to improve the competency and correct English usage by Thai people.

[MRToMRT]

I commend the OP for trying. A few posters should hope that cynicism is not a fatal malady though!!

I myself have just one"law" I would like to be see amended, or officially sanctioned work around proffered. That's land ownership, why cant we buy a little bit for the purposes of living on?

[jomtienbob]

I guess it's symptomatic of the general inattention to detail that an attorney submitted a document to the government with so many errors. Troubling beyond the content. Makes you think twice about trusting attorneys (like you need yet another reason).

I don't think the author is an attorney. Manages a law office, but not an attorney himself IIRC.

Which I guess is equally as troubling that he can easily have an attorney check it, but I guess they already did ;-D

[cmcompdoctor]

It may not be the same in all countries but believe me in my country immigration laws are far worse than in Thailand.

Don't like the way it is here ? You are always free to find another place to stay, no one is forcing you.

Of course, beers and girls are usually more expensive elsewhere .... but if thats why you are staying you should really consider leaving.

You are right, when you don't like it leave,

it's not about the girls, I am still with my wife, since more than 20 years, the beer is here more expensive than in my home country,

and I spend the last 13 months in my home country, it was great, not to check all the time you passport,

anyway I am back in BKK, my son study here, we still have our business running and all my friend are here,

Well if your country is so great just why are you living here ? Please explain, I don't see the point of : "i'm living here because all of my friends does" it is not even valid.

And of course you don't have to check your passport in your own country it's your own ......

I wonder how simple it is for a Thai to live in your country.......

[samsiam]

Several posts containing link to site which could contain libellous/defammatory content. Thai Visa does not wish to be drawn into a libel/defammation case which has the potential to escalate in this topic if the posts were not removed. If you have an further question regarding this, please email to support[at]thaivisa.com

This is completely understandable, however, I think it would be in ThaiVisa's interest to not give this gentleman a platform.

I also think it would be in ThaiVisa's interest to check this gentleman's background before posting up his writings and so, not expose themselves to possible embarrassment.

Too late...TV had a rather nice relationship with this guy in some legal conference thingy that was aired to the world via TV here.

[khaowong1]

Bet she'll be giggling after the second sentence.

Or break down crying! :-)

[franzs]

It may not be the same in all countries but believe me in my country immigration laws are far worse than in Thailand.

Don't like the way it is here ? You are always free to find another place to stay, no one is forcing you.

Of course, beers and girls are usually more expensive elsewhere .... but if thats why you are staying you should really consider leaving.

You are right, when you don't like it leave,

it's not about the girls, I am still with my wife, since more than 20 years, the beer is here more expensive than in my home country,

and I spend the last 13 months in my home country, it was great, not to check all the time you passport,

anyway I am back in BKK, my son study here, we still have our business running and all my friend are here,

Well if your country is so great just why are you living here ? Please explain, I don't see the point of : "i'm living here because all of my friends does" it is not even valid.

And of course you don't have to check your passport in your own country it's your own ......

I wonder how simple it is for a Thai to live in your country.......

see my post on page 3, it explains how a Thai is living in my country,

[samsiam]

I wonder how simple it is for a Thai to live in your country.......

Yeah I wonder...what with student visas, work visas, marriage visas, all allowed to stay, live and work...even buy land and live forever, setup businesses and have a hoot of a time....oh...then there is even the right to social security benefits of every description.

[madjbs]

Some newspapers in Thailand and Pattaya in particular (no names mentioned) are complete jokes which simply serve the purpose of inflating the owners ego (again, no names mentioned) and publicising their own businesses, agendas and in some cases cons.

Another side note (again no names mentioned) is that some law firms are run by convicted criminals. Eg, a convicted con-man and in another case a convicted murderer. Some law firms (again no names mentioned) are also under investigation by the DSI for participating in real estate scams and cons in Thailand.

Disclaimer: This is a general statement of fact and is in no way related the the paper and law firm in the OP, it is simply a side note for people interested in newspapers and law firms operating in Thailand and their owners...........