how241 Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 why are $20 an $10 worthless? work fine for me +1...You can change them at the same places you change your 50's. You will get a slightly lower rate but nothing that amounts to much difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoshowJones Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Actually the process for certification of documents by The Embassy of The Kingdom of the Netherlands in Bangkok is pretty close to the protracted US Procedure: Requesting and legalising documents can take several months. When requesting a document, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is dependent on local circumstances and cannot therefore guarantee that the document requested will be supplied. We regret that your fee cannot be refunded if the document requested is not available, since costs will nevertheless have been incurred. http://thailand.nlembassy.org/services/consular-services/legalisation-of-documents/legalising-dutch-and-foreign-documents.html Your willingness to commit fraud and a felony against your own government regardless of the possibility (for now) of getting caught speaks loads Look at the fraud the British government commit against their own people. All the UK state pensioners living in Thailand and many other countries are getting their annual pension increases stolen, yes stolen from them. I never new this until I came to live in Thailand, and do you know, I was not surprised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phuketrichard Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 (edited) To be clear, I for for one am not complaining about this point, I merely seek to highlight it and maybe even discuss it. I only first became aware of this issue about three weeks and to be honest I was amazed, it seemed to me that it's only a matter of time before the Thai Immigration folks catch on and the rules get tightened up, that's typically what happens here. So in that respect there's a false economy involved here and if Americans were complaining of being squeezed when USD went sub 30 baht, maybe part of the reason why rests in this issue - the minimum retirement income level is a check and balance issue, the Thai government needs reassurance the individual has sufficient funds to live here but the individual needs that same assurance, if he's allowed to deceive himself and others the system falls down, some folks actually need saving from themselves. starting last year, for PHUKET immigration to get extensions for Americans they ask for other proof as well as the notarized embassy letter. if your using that for your extension. Last year i used the letter from my US bank stating how much i have in my account an how much i get wired in monthly seems to work fine. I use the combo method BTW Evilbaz However, the Captain there told me this year "the balance" will have to be in the bank for three months (same as the 800K deposit) So another change in the fluid Immi requirements - before there was no "seasoning period" required for the balance in the "mix and match" option. I showed the Captain the Regulation saying, in effect, you only had to have the balance in the Bank on the day of application (without "seasoning"). when did u speak with the lady boss? i got my letter from the US outreach end of April when they were down in Phuket and they had the big lady volunteer there an she did not mention this when i asked her about seasoning of the thai bank money This could really screw up some people as there has been no announcement about this. US passport renewal is easy and costs the same as if yo did it in the US. Make an appointment, get pictures, go in fill out the form, pay $110, and go back 7-10 days later and pickup the new passport (email sent to advise of arrival, no appointment necessary to pickup). agree and you can do this at the outreach as well, no reason to travel to Bangkok +1 Only thing that pisses me off is having to pay $84 for what were before free additional pages, Edited June 12, 2014 by phuketrichard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pizzachang Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Keep the positive reports coming they're nice for a change. Most of the complainers are just envious and jealous because their countries don't trust them and make them bring piles of BS to prove what they say is true. They also make them jump through hoops at an increased cost to renew their passports and then have to "beg" for the required letter to immigration to get there current extension stamps transferred.. US passport renewal is easy and costs the same as if yo did it in the US. Make an appointment, get pictures, go in fill out the form, pay $110, and go back 7-10 days later and pickup the new passport (email sent to advise of arrival, no appointment necessary to pickup). You can even have the new one Ems-ed to you. The old passport remains a valid travel document until the new one is picked up! Obviously I'm an American and I'm certainly not saying that I agree with a lot of the US policies, but I think that they got this one right. Agree with you on this! Just got my new passport and cost is the same. Got my income affidavit - Why would you need to "lie" about social security income. How could you live in Thailand without income? Some of the whiners are bit much. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLCrab Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 (edited) Look at the fraud the British government commit against their own people. Why? If you want to commit a fraud upon your own government because you feel they have committed a fraud upon you, up to you. Guys on this forum have been saying that for years. But really you are defrauding the Thai government and someday they might take to kindly to that. Edited June 12, 2014 by JLCrab Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Usual Suspect Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 I took proof of my income and was surprised when they didn't ask for it. Procedure was simple and straightforward. Just wish my dealings with the Thai government could be that easy. Bring your proof with you when you go to Thai Immigration. They probably won't ask but they have every right to do so. Yeah,true.....my wife got me in the habit of doing that. Now, when I go to immigration I carry all my relevant documents with me.Most times they don't ask me for anything, but it's nice to be able to whip out whatever they ask for when it happens. They haven't "stumped the chump" yet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wandasloan Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 New to ThaiVisa and thinking what great resource it could be, I now see clearly that it is one huge bitching place Completely agree. This is the home of Thailand's Puritans, deadly afraid that someone is having a good time and being helpful. And to be clear, that is "bitching" not "bitchin'" as in Valleyspeak: . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kensisaket Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Correct.. crazy procedure to be honest. No checking nothing just swearing you have the money. Why would one not lie to free up money. Most of use need to keep money in the bank they can just swear.. US citizens are trustworthy. Trust me! I did the same thing on Monday this week. Took that paper, my passport, my wife/passport and house certificate to the local immigration office in Sisaket on Tuesday. Paid 2000 baht each and got a 1 year retirement visa. Have to report to them every 3 months. Also got a paper (several pages long) from the US embassy for reporting foreign address to the US Social Security Administration. Have to send it back to embassy after getting it filled out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suradit69 Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 (edited) I think he means that the exchange rate is lower on the smaller bills Sent from my GT-I9505 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app So why did he not pay in Thai baht and then cash the $100 at a currency exchange later or hold on to it? I suppose calling the affidavit he signed a "money certificate" suggests the whole experience was new to him and maybe he got a little confused & excited about raising his hand & swearing to something (sweaty palms, raised blood pressure, furtive looks, etc). Edited June 12, 2014 by Suradit69 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HannahD Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 There is cash income and there is imputed income. If you are an employee (or even a retiree) and your employer/former employer is paying you a cash salary (or pension) and also paying a large portion of your health insurance, that employer portion of the health insurance costs really is income to you. For a typical US Gov't civil retiree the employer share of the health policy is in the neighborhood of 30,000 baht per month. For private employers or labor unions who provide health insurance the amount would probably be similar. Although in making an affirmation of income at the Consulate it would be totally honest to count these payments as income there is the possibility that should Thai authorities wish to see documentation this might not fly. A similar case could be made if an employer is paying for your apartment. That is income. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiang mai Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Look at the fraud the British government commit against their own people. Why? If you want to commit a fraud upon your own government because you feel they have committed a fraud upon you, up to you. Guys on this forum have been saying that for years. But really you are defrauding the Thai government and someday they might take to kindly to that. For those of us that don't speak crab, can you please translate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manassas Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 My question is: why pay $50. if you have legitimate income of B800,000 or more? I go to Bangkok Bank. ask for a letter of international deposits to my account. Pay the B300 fee and I am done in 20 minutes. My thanks to the OP for the informative post. 40 minutes is indeed good service. But what I focused on is the $50 fee. That seems a bit much for a routine piece of paper. But visa services everywhere are drawn out, complicated and expensive. If the embassy can do it's part efficiently I am satisfied. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLCrab Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 (edited) Look at the fraud the British government commit against their own people. Why? If you want to commit a fraud upon your own government because you feel they have committed a fraud upon you, up to you. Guys on this forum have been saying that for years. But really you are defrauding the Thai government and someday they might take to kindly to that. For those of us that don't speak crab, can you please translate! I was just trying to figure out what your fellow countryman was saying (Post #62): Look at the fraud the British government commit against their own people. All the UK state pensioners living in Thailand and many other countries are getting their annual pension increases stolen, yes stolen from them. I never new this until I came to live in Thailand, and do you know, I was not surprised. Hard enough speaking crab without having to learn Possum. Edited June 12, 2014 by JLCrab Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dinger Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 There is cash income and there is imputed income. If you are an employee (or even a retiree) and your employer/former employer is paying you a cash salary (or pension) and also paying a large portion of your health insurance, that employer portion of the health insurance costs really is income to you. For a typical US Gov't civil retiree the employer share of the health policy is in the neighborhood of 30,000 baht per month. For private employers or labor unions who provide health insurance the amount would probably be similar. Although in making an affirmation of income at the Consulate it would be totally honest to count these payments as income there is the possibility that should Thai authorities wish to see documentation this might not fly. A similar case could be made if an employer is paying for your apartment. That is income. Not sure I would want to go there with this one. As you have stated you just gave yourself a 30,000 baht a month raise in untaxed income and your income taxes should go up accordingly. A bit off topic though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMCMANGOMAN Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 My 2 cents. The US Consolate income statement affidavit used to be only $30 dollars right up until Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State. That was 2008. I asked the consulate staff why the price increase? One word -- HILLARY. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dao16 Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 There certainly could be fraud through this system, but I assume there are other checks in place. That said, anyone lying to an embassy official for an affidavit should know that they are committing perjury (or, apparently, any of another in a broad range of crimes, depending on circumstances) and, if caught, will face time in a not-so-fun federal prison and/or other penalties. They would have no problem extraditing someone like that just to remind people. That is the power of the document, something I am sure the Thai government is also aware of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dao16 Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 My question is: why pay $50. if you have legitimate income of B800,000 or more? I go to Bangkok Bank. ask for a letter of international deposits to my account. Pay the B300 fee and I am done in 20 minutes. My thanks to the OP for the informative post. 40 minutes is indeed good service. But what I focused on is the $50 fee. That seems a bit much for a routine piece of paper. But visa services everywhere are drawn out, complicated and expensive. If the embassy can do it's part efficiently I am satisfied. I paid 90USD (oviously, listed official price at the embassy....nothing sketchy) for an affidavit at a US Embassy in another Asian country to certify I had never been married. Cheaper here for whatever reason. Could be worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaijack2014 Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 I think your ambassy (like mine) doesn't care how much you earn. All they state is that you get a certain monthly income and YOU declare this. They don't confirm your income, nor ask anything from you. They only confirm that you came to the ambassy and that YOU wrote your income. I thought the dutch are expensive. It costs me 1400 Baht to do the same. You have to show the immigration office that your income is what you say it is.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benmart Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Question is, did you use gross or net income and/or, did you tell the whole truth?An odd question about "the whole truth". I'm not in a position to act as the Police of Truth. Seems pointless to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oneday Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Many people misunderstand what a "notary" does. All they are notarizing is that you signed the paper and you are who you say you are by showing proper ID. Maybe the US embassy goes further by having you swear that what you are signing is true, but that exceeds what a notary does. "I looked notary in the eye as I swore my info was correct." It would be nice to know exactly what "info" he was swearing to. Swearing to the content of the letter or that he is who he says he is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawker9000 Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 I think he means that the exchange rate is lower on the smaller bills Sent from my GT-I9505 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app Just save those bills for your next visit to Laos....unless the bills were old and crappy looking. you mean Cambodia>> laos does not use $$ they use the kip My $$ worked fine for me there (only a couple of weeks ago)... But exchanging for kip at an exchange does work out better; businesses will gladly take your $$, but at a much worse rate (and of course your change will be in kip). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IAMSOBAD Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Stop with all the BS about this or soon WE WILL NEED PROOF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spidermike007 Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 The real question is, who is this statement shared with? You can bet it is shared with both the state department, and the IRS, at a bare minimum. Do not think for one second that this form just sits in a file. It is immediately scanned into an intelligence gathering database. So, beware of declaring anything that is not real, verifiable, nor anything you would not want the IRS to know about. Spidermike Chaiyaphum, Thailand Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerbalEd Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Question is, did you use gross or net income and/or, did you tell the whole truth? Why? you his mother. The OP said he swore the information was correct. Yeah. And even if he lied he'd be an idiot to confess it here in print. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLCrab Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 The real question is, who is this statement shared with? You can bet it is shared with both the state department, and the IRS, at a bare minimum. Do not think for one second that this form just sits in a file. It is immediately scanned into an intelligence gathering database. So, beware of declaring anything that is not real, verifiable, nor anything you would not want the IRS to know about. Spidermike Chaiyaphum, Thailand Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app Last time I did it (2013) the Consular Officer doesn't even keep a copy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshstiles Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 so what......what's the point? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slipperylobster Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 I think he means that the exchange rate is lower on the smaller bills Sent from my GT-I9505 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app Just save those bills for your next visit to Laos....unless the bills were old and crappy looking. you mean Cambodia>> laos does not use $$ they use the kip At the border, in laos...you are better paying off in usd. And yes, you can often pay in usd at many restaurants and hotels. Problem with kip is that you cannot use it outside the country....once you buy it, you are stuck with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Aleman Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 As usual the US taxpayer gets screwed by it's own embassy ! $ 50 for a notary stamp available at any US currency exchange for $ 1 and some $ 80 for extra passport pages - both are ripoffs as we pay these peoples salaries, and supply autos, some homes, and fat expense accounts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justanotherpassword Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 Actually the process for certification of documents by The Embassy of The Kingdom of the Netherlands in Bangkok is pretty close to the protracted US Procedure: Requesting and legalising documents can take several months. When requesting a document, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is dependent on local circumstances and cannot therefore guarantee that the document requested will be supplied. We regret that your fee cannot be refunded if the document requested is not available, since costs will nevertheless have been incurred. http://thailand.nlembassy.org/services/consular-services/legalisation-of-documents/legalising-dutch-and-foreign-documents.html Your willingness to commit fraud and a felony against your own government regardless of the possibility (for now) of getting caught speaks loads Look at the fraud the British government commit against their own people. All the UK state pensioners living in Thailand and many other countries are getting their annual pension increases stolen, yes stolen from them. I never new this until I came to live in Thailand, and do you know, I was not surprised. Stolen? I don't think so. The British have a policy for non resident Britons not to recieve "Cost of living" increases. The British choose this with eyes open to live in Thailand. They are taking money out of the mother country. A pensioner in Britain is keeping the money at home to the benefit of the "butcher, baker and candlestick maker." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoli Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 I think he means that the exchange rate is lower on the smaller bills Sent from my GT-I9505 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app Just save those bills for your next visit to Laos....unless the bills were old and crappy looking. you mean Cambodia>> laos does not use $$ they use the kip You both mean Myanmar, where they will only take new, crisp, unfolded,$10's and $20's USD? Cambodia will take anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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