Financial statements helpful getting visa?

[Saradoc1972]

Got a question and would appreciate someone helping me out here.

I am retired at age 41 and getting a life-long pension paid monthly from Germany. At the current exchange rate this pension is above the limit for a retirement visa, even discounting additional income form rentals.

I am planning to permanently move to Thailand sometime in May 2014, when I am done settling my affairs in Germany, and am presently having my law degrees translated and legalized in case I want to take up a teaching career in Thailand, health permitting.

For the first couple of months I am planning on getting multi-entry tourist visa (plural) while I get some orientation in Thailand starting in Sin City. In the long run I will obviously enough take the venue of getting an ED visa studying Thai language.

With the present uncertainties regarding getting a "red stamp" in passports when repeatedly applying for tourist visa I am labouring under the following nagging uncertainties:

- will it help providing proof of above income by means of a nice professional translation coupled with current bank statements to allay any suspicions of under the table work to avoid getting said red stamp?

- will those translations be useful to get ED visa?

- will taking prolonged excursions on visa runs e.g. to Cambodia for a couple of weeks, maybe a month, instead of getting back-to back visa help?

- should I wave my law degrees when applying for visa to have some "standing" in Thai culture as "ta nai quam"?

Thanks in advance for any input.

[Maestro]

My suggestion:

1. Start off with a triple-entry tourist visa, for which you apply at a Thai consulate in Germany. As you already seem to have plans to visit other countries in Southeast Asia, accompany your visa application form with a covering letter to the consul giving details of your tentative itinerary and asking for the visa to be valid for travel to Thailand within a period of six months from its date of issue.
   
2. If and when you find a prospective employer, you can apply for a work permit whilst in the country as a tourist. Once the permit is ready to be picked up, you go to a Thai consulate in a neighbouring country with the necessary paperwork to get a non-immigrant visa category B (non-B visa), back in Thailand pick up the work permit and start working, then get annual extensions of stay for the reason of employment.
   
3. If you will stay in Thailand for years on end as a tourist you will need to apply for repeat tourist visas at Thai consulates. The only concern of the consulates will be that that you are indeed using the visas to travel to Thailand for the stated purpose of tourism, not to work illegally, ie without a work permit, and in this connection a translation of your German pension statement and a Thai savings account book showing incoming transfers from abroad are useful documents to give a consulate this assurance.
   
4. Forget about "ta nai quam", whatever you may have intended to express with that.

[Mario2008]

Tha nai kwam is a lawyer in Thai, waving papers like that is not useful.

[Saradoc1972]

Tha nai kwam is a lawyer in Thai, waving papers like that is not useful.

I'll take that advice then.

[digitalchromakey]

- should I wave my law degrees when applying for visa to have some "standing" in Thai culture as "ta nai quam"?

Letting officials know you that are/were a lawyer may not be particularly helpful to your cause as offering legal service and litigating in Thailand are both occupations reserved for Thais.

Some Thai officials may be led to think that if you are applying for repeated tourist visas to allow you to stay whilst working illegally in Thailand as a lawyer.

[Saradoc1972]

Letting officials know you that are/were a lawyer may not be particularly helpful to your cause as offering legal service and litigating in Thailand are both occupations reserved for Thais.

Some Thai officials may be led to think that if you are applying for repeated tourist visas to allow you to stay whilst working illegally in Thailand as a lawyer.

That's not the point. I know that practicing law is out of bounds for farangs in Thailand and doing so would be completely insane as you are bound to run into officials doing so by the very nature of practicing law.

I have just found I get respect when I tell Thais what I am, which I only do upon specific questions as to my profession and not blowing my trumpet or something. Immigration will certainly not be awed by it but I thought I might make myself more presentable as the kind of tourist they want.

[Saradoc1972]

Folks, thanks for the input so far, just forget the lawyer thing for the time being.

I'd be more interested in how to set up banking in Thailand for those financial statements.

So far, I've been opening an account with German DKB Bank who will not charge any fees for withdrawing money from foreign ATMs and even reimburse me for fees the other bank is charging (those famous 160 Baht).

From what I read here opening a bank account as a tourist is possible, depending on branches and Kasikorn bank being the best bet. Do I get a Thai bank account and have money wired on a monthly basis then?

Next thing: ED Visa studying Thai will serve me some 3 years from what I read with Immigration getting more and more suspicious when renewing it. Can I switch to studying, e.g. English after that for another couple of years if need be?

[Mario2008]

Strictly speaking you do not need a Thai bank account, but it might make things easier with montly payments such as the rent.

Free atm withdrawels is of course cheaper than wiring mmoney for which you will pay, but gives a (better) record of the money being transferred into Thailand. That is important if you want to buy a condo for instance.

Yes, after your study is finished you can start another study.

[ubonjoe]

There is no three year limit on studying Thai. The only limit is the ability of the school to provide more advanced studies.

You can attend school for various reasons and obtain extensions of stay. Once you have obtained a sufficient level of fluency in Thai you could even study Thai law.

Having a Thai bank account showing regular transfer of funds from abroad is the most acceptable financial proof you can have.

[SPIKECM]

I retired too early to Thailand. Just watch your days are used productively otherwise you can find your life slowly destroyed.

I was a workaholic when I came here and after 14 years of not having to do anything, this life has tried to slowly destroy me. None of it is Thailand's fault, but the "retired life in paradise" is not as good as it may sound.

Edited January 20, 2014 by SPIKECM

[MeowBundit]

Just to confirm, the financial proofs from home country deposited regularly and statements will make things easier. There is actually no limits of tourist visas, if you able always show your proofs. Then, you will able to spend 9 years combining ED and tourist visas.

Edited January 20, 2014 by MeowBundit

[MeowBundit]

I retired too early to Thailand. Just watch your days are used productively otherwise you can find your life slowly destroyed.

I was a workaholic when I came here and after 14 years of not having to do anything, this life has tried to slowly destroy me. None of it is Thailand's fault, but the "retired life in paradise" is not as good as it may sound.

A lot of people working here and happy. My friend who is retire next year, commercial airline pilot, already in contact with private flying clubs.

[Saradoc1972]

I retired too early to Thailand. Just watch your days are used productively otherwise you can find your life slowly destroyed.

I was a workaholic when I came here and after 14 years of not having to do anything, this life has tried to slowly destroy me. None of it is Thailand's fault, but the "retired life in paradise" is not as good as it may sound.

I appreciate that post of yours. Thing is: I already AM retired and struggling to apply myself to anything productive.

So I can either do that here or in Thailand, where my money is stretching further and things might be more fitting to my day and night rhythm.

The last thing I want to do is to continue practicing law which is either as boring as filling in tax returns or as demanding as taking up other people's burdens such as not having electricity for 2 years running and criminal proceedings on top.

[Saradoc1972]

I retired too early to Thailand. Just watch your days are used productively otherwise you can find your life slowly destroyed.

I was a workaholic when I came here and after 14 years of not having to do anything, this life has tried to slowly destroy me. None of it is Thailand's fault, but the "retired life in paradise" is not as good as it may sound.

A lot of people working here and happy. My friend who is retire next year, commercial airline pilot, already in contact with private flying clubs.

That's what I mean. I wish I had trained to be an engineer or a craftsman. I respect that line of work.

Life in Asian countries is far easier, you can (alien regulations permitting) do a lot more things where at home you'd need formal qualifications you can't reasonably get at a later point in life.

As a lawyer I am retired, I presently work over here upholstering a friend's chairs in his medical practice and looking into his PBX (i.e. phone and computer setup). I like it, it's not for the money but to be occupied meaningfully and for some social law reasons I won't bother you with.

A teaching career whether English or German, I don't care, really sounds more promising than anything I could do over here given my lack of qualifications (that's a German joke among lawyers as in: I've never learned anything decent, got my A-levels and went to university after that ;-))

[SPIKECM]

I know, but that is what I am meaning too. Unless you are obsessed with some hobby or interest, you need to find work. I guess my trade is that I am an entrepreneur and in Thailand between perfect competition and the mafia, it isn't easy to find any business. Not impossible, but no where as easy to be successful. I was self employed and focused 7 days a week on what I was doing for years. I didn't have any hobbies and I have failed to come up with any here. I previously lived by the sea and any interest outside work was with the sea. Now I live in Chiang Mai! The South just doesn't appeal to me and I couldn't live in the likes of Phuket. I love Chiang Mai and know all the pluses about Thailand. I would find it hard to live outside Thailand now, but still the life is driving me crazy and I am actually considering a move back to the UK.

I retired too early to Thailand. Just watch your days are used productively otherwise you can find your life slowly destroyed.

I was a workaholic when I came here and after 14 years of not having to do anything, this life has tried to slowly destroy me. None of it is Thailand's fault, but the "retired life in paradise" is not as good as it may sound.

A lot of people working here and happy. My friend who is retire next year, commercial airline pilot, already in contact with private flying clubs.

[SPIKECM]

Maybe ideally you would try and do your work online and to the extent that you wish. You need to try and structure your day with exercise included. Laziness is like a cancer and will slowly try and take hold of your body if you let it.

I retired too early to Thailand. Just watch your days are used productively otherwise you can find your life slowly destroyed.

I was a workaholic when I came here and after 14 years of not having to do anything, this life has tried to slowly destroy me. None of it is Thailand's fault, but the "retired life in paradise" is not as good as it may sound.

I appreciate that post of yours. Thing is: I already AM retired and struggling to apply myself to anything productive.

So I can either do that here or in Thailand, where my money is stretching further and things might be more fitting to my day and night rhythm.

The last thing I want to do is to continue practicing law which is either as boring as filling in tax returns or as demanding as taking up other people's burdens such as not having electricity for 2 years running and criminal proceedings on top.

[SPIKECM]

A German joke!... and we didn't think you had any!

The life is easier in Thailand bit... well, the middle class Thais, mainly Chinese/Thai, really don't want to have farangs here messing with what they have. They had it good too until Suthep came along, but that is another story.

I have son here who is 18 now and finished International School and there are precious little opportunities here for him. They don't even want him for National Service, but that is also another story.

The main line of work for foreigners here is either online, connecting with the West in any which way and low paid teaching jobs and the like. The real plum jobs are occupied by people assigned to Bangkok by their companies. They didn't chose to come to Thailand.

I retired too early to Thailand. Just watch your days are used productively otherwise you can find your life slowly destroyed.

I was a workaholic when I came here and after 14 years of not having to do anything, this life has tried to slowly destroy me. None of it is Thailand's fault, but the "retired life in paradise" is not as good as it may sound.

A lot of people working here and happy. My friend who is retire next year, commercial airline pilot, already in contact with private flying clubs.

That's what I mean. I wish I had trained to be an engineer or a craftsman. I respect that line of work.

Life in Asian countries is far easier, you can (alien regulations permitting) do a lot more things where at home you'd need formal qualifications you can't reasonably get at a later point in life.

As a lawyer I am retired, I presently work over here upholstering a friend's chairs in his medical practice and looking into his PBX (i.e. phone and computer setup). I like it, it's not for the money but to be occupied meaningfully and for some social law reasons I won't bother you with.

A teaching career whether English or German, I don't care, really sounds more promising than anything I could do over here given my lack of qualifications (that's a German joke among lawyers as in: I've never learned anything decent, got my A-levels and went to university after that ;-))

[Maestro]

Tha nai kwam is a lawyer in Thai, waving papers like that is not useful.

Thanks. The Latin "quam" confused me, made wonder what Latin legal term he had meant to use.

[Maestro]

An English translation of your university degree may come in handy when applying for a job as a teacher, even though the degree is not in education. Others here with more knowledge on the subject will be able to shed some light on this.

[Saradoc1972]

An English translation of your university degree may come in handy when applying for a job as a teacher, even though the degree is not in education. Others here with more knowledge on the subject will be able to shed some light on this.

Thanks, that is what I am having them translated for in the first place regardless of tourist visa issues. I'll just see if they come in handy otherwise.

I am actually getting a Thai translation, it's only two one-page documents with twenty words max.

It never occurred to me "quam" could look like latin or legalese; it does actually

Edited January 20, 2014 by Saradoc1972

[SPIKECM]

Just to confuse you more, Thai lawyers are most frequently referred to as "tanai-kwai" by Thais..it is their little Thai joke.... kwai = buffalo, but a particularly insulting word in Thai.

Tha nai kwam is a lawyer in Thai, waving papers like that is not useful.

Thanks. The Latin "quam" confused me, made wonder what Latin legal term he had meant to use.

[Saradoc1972]

Just to confuse you more, Thai lawyers are most frequently referred to as "tanai-kwai" by Thais..it is their little Thai joke.... kwai = buffalo, but a particularly insulting word in Thai.

Everybody so likes lawyers, all people, all cultures ;-))

You'd be surprised how hard it is to make a living practicing law if you're just getting clients from yellow pages and the odd recommendation.

And your work is all the troubles in the world of other people; bit like dentists - you don't go see them unless it hurts.

How is this word actually put together? Kwam is law? Tanai is learned at s.th.? Or the other way round?

[SPIKECM]

Kwam only means law in this sense. Tanai alone can be used for lawyer and often is. Tanai kwam is the formal whole word.

Just to confuse you more, Thai lawyers are most frequently referred to as "tanai-kwai" by Thais..it is their little Thai joke.... kwai = buffalo, but a particularly insulting word in Thai.

Everybody so likes lawyers, all people, all cultures ;-))

You'd be surprised how hard it is to make a living practicing law if you're just getting clients from yellow pages and the odd recommendation.

And your work is all the troubles in the world of other people; bit like dentists - you don't go see them unless it hurts.

How is this word actually put together? Kwam is law? Tanai is learned at s.th.? Or the other way round?

[Maestro]

It never occurred to me "quam" could look like latin or legalese; it does actually

And Tanai, written as one word and capitalised, stands for Don, an honorific used in Italian and Spanish for a man of an elevated social status, which gave me the impression – false, as I now know – that you meant to parade as Don Saradoc. I may even have been wrong in assuming that your education included the study of Latin, as this language may also in German no longer be necessary to qualify as a lawyer. Errare humanum est.

Mention has been made of the (allegedly) low salary being paid to foreign teachers in Thailand. I don't know if this would also apply to native teachers of German at the Goethe Institute in Bangkok.

P.S. I wonder what the demand for teachers of Latin is in Bangkok.

[digitalchromakey]

Just to confuse you more, Thai lawyers are most frequently referred to as "tanai-kwai" by Thais..it is their little Thai joke.... kwai = buffalo, but a particularly insulting word in Thai.

Everybody so likes lawyers, all people, all cultures ;-))

You'd be surprised how hard it is to make a living practicing law if you're just getting clients from yellow pages and the odd recommendation.

And your work is all the troubles in the world of other people; bit like dentists - you don't go see them unless it hurts.

How is this word actually put together? Kwam is law? Tanai is learned at s.th.? Or the other way round?

ทนายความ - tá-naai is a solicitor and kwaam is a case.

There are different Thai translations for an attorney, lawyer and the law.

[Saradoc1972]

ทนายความ - tá-naai is a solicitor and kwaam is a case.

There are different Thai translations for an attorney, lawyer and the law.

Thanks for that transcription. Won't get to use it much, but those are the little things I like knowing.

Lawyer and Atty. would be two different things in English or German as well.

I know pay for language teachers is more or less lousy, but it'd only be pocket money for me and some part-time occupation.

I supposed I'd be harder pressed teaching German than English, as I had to learn the latter from scratch and hence know how it works.

Teaching Latin never crossed my mind... no, I supposed that needs study at a university. I "thoroughly enjoyed" it for 6 years at high-school, it's less of a language than a form of art.

You don't need it to be a lawyer in Germany, but you get derisive looks from some older professors if you lack it.

Actually the "Don" thing in Maestro's post above is funny. The Italian Mafia term for legal counsel like in the movie "The Godfather" would be Consigliere, and I sometimes got addressed as that, jokingly, by clients of Italian background. I actually had a poster of Marlon Brando as Don Corleone stroking his cat over my desk.

[SPIKECM]

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/20/opinion/krill-lawyers-suicide/index.html?hpt=hp_t5

Your's could be the right decision!

Just to confuse you more, Thai lawyers are most frequently referred to as "tanai-kwai" by Thais..it is their little Thai joke.... kwai = buffalo, but a particularly insulting word in Thai.

Everybody so likes lawyers, all people, all cultures ;-))

You'd be surprised how hard it is to make a living practicing law if you're just getting clients from yellow pages and the odd recommendation.

And your work is all the troubles in the world of other people; bit like dentists - you don't go see them unless it hurts.

How is this word actually put together? Kwam is law? Tanai is learned at s.th.? Or the other way round?

[Maestro]

Discover our Thai language forum and discuss it there. The advantage is that Thai language (Thai script and transliterations) may be used there to get into the finer details.

[Saradoc1972]

Discover our Thai language forum and discuss it there. The advantage is that Thai language (Thai script and transliterations) may be used there to get into the finer details.

Cheers, will do. My Thai is non-existent, the words don't seem to stick like they do with germanic or romanic languages. Bit like when I was learning some Gaelic studying in Belfast.

I joined open university over here for 5 sessions learning Thai, so now I can count and tell the hour. Big whoop.

[Saradoc1972]

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/20/opinion/krill-lawyers-suicide/index.html?hpt=hp_t5

Your's could be the right decision!

Thanks for that link, didn't know it was that bad over in the States. Tells about half of my story (without any attempts at suicide).

Round here we get a lot of struggling practices, insolvencies and some cases of embezzlement of clients' funds.

What I found odd was dentists and physicians ranked above lawyers with regard to suicide.

I'd have thought those people made decent cash with payment guaranteed from insurances and at least dentists would not be exposed to much suffering of other people.