A Little Help Regarding Building A House In Thailand....

[Farside]

One other thought, avoid living too near the in-laws ot they will be round drinking your beer and eating your food every night (or worse, moved in). IMHO 25km is a good distance, close enough to visit easily, far enough to avoid the above

Make that 50Km to be safe, or you'll be sorrry!

[RAZZELL]

With all due respect...what were you doing in Thiland for a year??? Because you don't seem to have learnt much???

Firstly...

Visas...don't use an an agent...

www.thailand-uk.com/ Is a mine of information about applying for Visa's to the UK...and yes "the reason to return" is the main stumbling block...

If your g/f has a job that will be kept open for her...that's a good start...Land, houses, money in the bank all help...

Condo's...well you say you lived in Jomtien for a year...surely you know the prices down there...??? Anything from 750,000 to 25 million and all amounts in between...

But at least you own it...

[Farside]

With all due respect...what were you doing in Thiland for a year??? Because you don't seem to have learnt much???

Firstly...

Visas...don't use an an agent...

www.thailand-uk.com/ Is a mine of information about applying for Visa's to the UK...and yes "the reason to return" is the main stumbling block...

If your g/f has a job that will be kept open for her...that's a good start...Land, houses, money in the bank all help...

Condo's...well you say you lived in Jomtien for a year...surely you know the prices down there...??? Anything from 750,000 to 25 million and all amounts in between...

But at least you own it...

I was living there with my mrs, Not planing on buying a place there as i had NO money so why would i be looking at the prices of condos? That would only get me down.

[Farside]

But at least you own it...

But only on certain circumstances :

In order to purchase a condominium certain requirements must be met, for example:

1: A foreigner has permanent residence in Thailand in accordance with Thai Immigration Law, or

2: A foreigner is allowed into or resides in Thailand in accordance with Thai Investment Promotion Law, or

3: A foreign legal entity is in accordance with the Announcement of the Foreign Business Act BE 2542 (AD 1999), and has been granted an Investment Promotion Certificate in accordance with the Investment Promotion law, or

4: A foreigner or foreign legal entity who brings foreign currency into Thailand, or brings in Baht currency from the account of a person residing abroad, or uses foreign currency from their deposit account. This requirement is normally met by the presentation of a Dor Tor 3 form which is provided by the bank receiving an incoming remittance from abroad.

The only one that is viable for me is number 4..... and that is only when i retire, For example when i would get my monthly pension paid into my account.

[RAZZELL]

But at least you own it...

The only one that is viable for me is number 4..... and that is only when i retire, For example when i would get my monthly pension paid into my account.

What are you talking about???

You can buy a condo at any time if you've got the funds...You just transfer the money from outside of Thailand, in your case the UK, get your certificate from the bank and the go to your lawyer and exchange contracts etc etc

And I suggest you get the "funds" sorted before you worry about the rest...

[Mossfinn]

Another thing i am having a problem with is getting a visa for her to come visit me, The advisor i have been talking to at www.medivisas.com

says that the reason i will have a problem getting a visa for her is because she can't proove she will leave the uk after her visa runs out. So how can i prove it? I don't know. The advisor said if she was at uni then that would be a good enough excuse ... She is at uni but she dosn't have long left at uni now so we can't use that because she will have finished her course by the time she would come here to visit me. Has anyone got some good info about getting a holiday visa / fiancee visa for my fiancee?

Farside, one of the main reasons for refusal is, ' Reasons for return', whatever the right or wrong of the application.

The ECO has to judge on the application, I think someone calls it a ' balance of probabilities', is the relationship genuine, not my words or judgement but almost certainly correct.

Scan through the immigration sub-forum there is a lot of knowledge there, post a few questions, but have a search first maybe, you will get a lot of info regarding this subject.

Good Luck

Moss

PS a poster above has mentioned don't ever trust an agent, this is generally true, but if you require good, legitamate advce you wont go far wrong with 'DaviesKhan'.

[huahinheartbreak]

1. You are 27 and you aren't ready to retire to Thailand to live

3. You have not known your Thai GF for very many years.

4. You have very limited funds and almost all your assets will be tied up in the house.

1. I am 27 and i AM ready to move to thailand to live (Not retire though),

2. Correct but i have known her for a few years,

3 Correct i have not much money and ALL my assets will be tied up in the house,

1. I rented a place at Jomtien beach road soi 7 for 1 year for us to live there,

2. Yeah saving is all i have been doing for 2 years now, Its hard though as i send my girlfriend most of what i have left after i have paid my bills. I have worked everyday (sometimes double shifts) without having a sick day for the past 2 years lol. haha.

someone wrote:

"Buy in Thailand when you stay here at least 1 year. The place is a lot different than you imagine.

What you are asking here says to me you still don't know enough to make such a big decision. And there is no rush"

I made many mistakes. The biggest one was not living here for "at least a year" before "trying to buy and build." I know nothing about building and apparently neither do many many "builders/developers." You may read many horror stories on Thaivisa, of which mine is one.

Thailand is much different than I imagined. This is not the UK nor USA as far as the "sanctity" of contracts goes. But I am a farang and cant read the language, dont know the culture of the legal system, bureaucracy. It seems so easy to get what you want if you have no fear of just saying "What will it cost to get that done?" The law seems to be what the bureaucrats say it is and getting things done will cost you what they say it will. This is very hard for me to get used to. I dont have a Thai spouse so I am a lamb led to the slaughter. A friend said, taxes are low in Thailand so look at "tea money" as added tax.

If I had followed my first plan, rent for at least a year to see if I really liked Thailand, if I had had experiences with visa runs, looked into rules on buying cars, motorcycles, look into building contracts, how to acquire the use of landand had not be seduced by the rising prices and desire to lock in a "good deal" I would have saved myself 10 million baht worth of heartbreak. My mistakes have now consumed two years of my life, greatly strained my happy marriage as we battle with land owners/lessors, developers, and lawyers, immigration officials, land dept officials, building permit dept officials, etc. I am exhausted. I am now renting, while trying to get a settlement on a building project gone bad.

You might get lucky and beat the odds of divorce rate, Thai ladys that marry a walking ATM, get a house built, etc. and ... either things go bad or they were planned all along. You send most of your savings to her. Good luck mate.

I read a book PRIVATE DANCER by a Brit, with a Brit as the male protagonist. It is a very dark story, with side servings of other dark stories. While not what Thailand is all about, it is what some of Thailand is about. And something I think every farang should read, probably other good "scare you cautious" books out there if someone could name a few, and also I would like to hear of some books telling of "dreams that came true." that hopefully have some good tips on "how to"

make it work in Thailand.

Just in passing I read recently that Malaysia has just offered a renewable 10 year "social visit pass" to those who deposit about $85,000 USD in a Malaysian bank, and I think for $50,000 you will be granted a retirement visa in Panama no matter what your age. I sure wish Thailand would make it easier to come and go.

sadder but wiser and cautiously optimistic