Married, Not Working, Yearly Non O Visa

[issan2]

I am married to a Thai national from Issan and we have a

one year old son. I am 37 and we have a house in Issan. I

am quite lucky in that for the last fourteen years I have

worked in IT and now I can relax a bit. Im not rich but

money goes a long way in Thailand. I may start a business

in the next year or so but as I dont know yet what I want

to do I thought I would wait and see.

I have lived here since June 2003 and have received three

consecutive 3 month Non O visa's on the basis of our

marriage. I have always been on the road travelling for

work and felt that while my son was so young that this was a

time not to be missed. I prepared the following information

and documents.

* passport

* 220,000 baht in a thai bank account (joint account)

* letter from bank to indicate money from Europe

* Tabien Baan (house papers)

* marriage certificate (Thai 2000)

* wife's id (wife went with me)

* family and wedding photo's

We were visiting Udon Thani, and so my wife suggested that

we use the immigration office at the hospital there. It

was an unpleasant experience.

Both my wife and myself were interviewed, even with all of

my paper work the interviewing officer wanted to know how

much money I could supply each month.

He asked things like how much money I had in the whole world

and why didnt I move it all to Thailand. He then proceeded

to ask about my previous employment and then became

incredulous about my monthly salary. He asked for the locations

of my last three companies and said that I would have to

supply proof / papers to show this.

It was very unpleasant, he would send me away and call my wife

in and then send her away and call me. He told her to go

away at one point because our son was crying. At the same time

he told an old American chap to shut up.

I kept my cool and answered all questions politely but now I

have a stamp in my passport for returning on May 12th and dont

know whether I should get a yearly non O visa or leave the

country. I was planning for a future in Thailand given my

marriage and our son. But today I am not so sure.

I was lucky enough to talk to our hotel owner in Udon who

it appears work for the Immigration service in Udon and for

his respective embassy. He said that the Thai authorities

are pannicking because they dont want anything to impact

the tourist industry on which this country so heavily depends.

He also told me that having too many 3 month non O visa's in

one's passort would not be considered a good thing in the

future.

When I came over last year I didnt think to bring any details

of past employment. If Im asked for this information in May

I cant supply it. Rather than the immigration service trying

to protect tourism I felt that there was a definite anti

farang sentiment present.

But this is just my experience.

[lopburi3]

The fact that you can or will not provide details on your source of income has to be a major factor I suspect. Do you have a work permit? Or did you mean you travel overseas to work? Are you paying tax here? Or anywhere? Are you planning to work here without a permit? If you can not provide open details they are police and will naturally suspect something is amiss, especially in today's world. One thing that is required and you did not mention is a letter from bank that the funds are indeed in your account within a week of your application. Perhaps that was part of the other letter you mentioned?

I would go on May 12 and hope for the best. It may be a completely different experience. Folks do have good and bad days.

[issan2]

>The fact that you can or will not provide details on your

>source of income has to be a major factor I suspect. Do

>you have a work permit?

My savings are my income prior to June 2003. If that is not clear, my life savings are held in European bank accounts. The immigration oficer was asking me about PREVIOUS EUROPEAN IT CONTRACTS. Which I found spurious.

I DONT work in Thailand so I dont have a work permit. If the IT sector picks up in the next year or so then I may go back to a contract but its nice to sit out here and maintain my ExPat and tax free status.

I mentioned in the list that I had a letter from the bank indicating that the funds came from abroad.

My guess is that this guy was having a bad day but ... Im interested in other peoples experiences at Udon immigration.

[lopburi3]

but its nice to sit out here and maintain my ExPat and tax free status.

But that is probably exactly the kind of person they are not interested in helping stay here. That you can not provide a source for these savings is suspect. If you could provide copies of contracts etc things might have been a lot easier.

The letter I speak about is that on day xx your account had xxx,xxx baht signed by bank manager or above and not older than 7 days.

I have lived here since June 2003 and have received three

consecutive 3 month Non O visa's on the basis of our

marriage. I have always been on the road traveling for

work

The above quote did not make it clear you were traveling outside of Thailand to perform this work. I am trying to see it as the officer might have viewed it and do not mean to come across as accusing you of anything. Sorry if you take it that way.

[issan2]

No problem .. yes we had the bank letter you described ..

There is nothing suspect about my life savings saved from years of employment in the IT industry. And if it were to come up how many people could provide wage slips on the spot from their host countries showng historic and past income.

It seems to me not relevant and Im sorry I brought this up. I guess I caught this guy on a bad day or there was some confusion. But good luck to the next guy. And apart from going in May Ill choose another immigration office in the future.

[Udox]

You are not alone with your experiences at this office. I visited there a couple of weeks ago and found the whole experience daunting and even upsetting. Why they cannot treat you like normal people and instead make you feel like second class people is beyond me. All it takes is to tell you "you need this"" and then we produce it - easy, but on this day you also need this or that and why haven't you got it ?

Sometimes we don't realise how lucky we were in our home countries!