Do export rights have a time limit after condo sale?

[Jingthing]

OK. If I sell my condo holding the foreign imported money letter from when I bought it, how long is that valid?

For example suppose I sold for 4 million baht but waited 3 years and then only had 2 million baht to export?

Would the original document still be honored for that later export?

I've never heard this question before.

Don't ask why I might want to do that. It's not relevant.

[KittenKong]

As far as I know the FET is valid indefinitely. Why should it be otherwise? The FET only proves that you did originally import the money. As you can prove that you imported it you have the right to export it again (though this right could be removed at any time by the Thai government in the case of economic problems).

I also dont see why you may not export only part of the original amount if that's what you want to do.

[wpcoe]

There's been a variety of data reported on here, some of it by me:

1. You can only export what you originally imported, as documented by the FETF from the time of purchase

2. You can export more than the amount of the FETF-documented amount if you show some document from the Land Office showing a higher sales price

3. You cannot export an amount less than the amount on the FETF (This is what I encountered at two Bangkok Bank branches in different cities.)

One thing I have not heard is that you cannot use the FETF/Tor Tor 3 from condo purchase time because it's too old, so it'll be interesting to see if there are any reports about that.

Good luck finding out what "the rule" is. Like so many things, you probably won't know for sure until it's your time and you find out what they will or will not let you do. Different/same day, different/same bank branch, different/same bank officer -- different permutations of those factors may result in different outcomes.

That said, if push comes to shove and for any reason you can't do a single transfer for the total amount of your funds, I've heard from various sources (bank officer, my realtor whom I trust, reports here on this and other forums) that you can set up a series of small transfers, under a certain threshold*, and get the money out that way. I did this -- transferred out money in a series of small transfers -- in January of this year. At the bank, the officer said to wait a couple weeks between transfers lest someone in the transfer department in the head office recall your name/details and go all anal and report you.

*Originally I was going to say the threshold is US$50k, but I just looked at the amount of my biggest transfer and it was just under US$40k and I remember it making the bank officer uncomfortable at being almost too high, so maybe the threshold is THB1.5m?

[Jingthing]

Thanks.

I agree you don't know for sure until you actually try to do something so I didn't even consider asking my bank. It's not like they will give me any guarantee of anything they say in writing, and even if they said no, it might be yes later.