Hi all, I renewed my retirement visa in Pattaya 2 weeks ago, it was done within 25 minutes, arrived at 9.00 am, apart from the new information sheet no changes, the same great, helpful and polite service like the previous 9 years in Pattaya.

3 hours ago, possum1931 said:

Whatever change there is in the immigration rules, there is never anything to the advantage of the average  expat.

This new visa is only going to benefit the richest of the expats, which again proves that only them are really welcomed

here in Thailand.

 

I think this visa option, is as they have said, aimed at those wanting to be here as a retiree but coming for medical treatment. The idea being that they won't have to worry about annual renewals, border runs or all those sort of things. 90 day reporting on-line. So their treatment, recovery and convalescence can be without too much inconvenience.

 

If they provided a long term stay visa for spouses of Thais and parents of Thais then I think they'd be surprised at the amount of additional investment that would facilitate. Maybe that thought will occur. Hopefully before I peg-it!

Very sensible post, especially your last paragraph. But I cannot see the Thai government doing anything positive  for people like us, they are only interested in the retirees with plenty of money.

Edited December 1, 20169 yr by possum1931
added something.

3 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

For the money in the bank option a recent letter from the bank is needed and a bank book update on the date of application.

At CW they want both on the same day the application is done.

Not so Ubonjoe.

 

I did my extension yesterday at CW based on B800k and the bank certificate was from the previous day (Tuesday) as was the passbook update.

No requirement for a personal ID form either.

 

I'd suggest that not only do different immigration locations have different requirements but quite possibly different officers at the one location.

53 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

Very sensible post, especially your last paragraph. But I cannot see the Thai government doing anything positive  for people like us, they are only interested in the retirees with plenty of money.

 

They do do something positive, they let you stay here longterm with very few requirements if you are a retiree

I too enjoyed my 4 1/2 hours wait while people were allowed to jump the queue

7 minutes ago, darrendsd said:

 

They do do something positive, they let you stay here longterm with very few requirements if you are a retiree

Yes, true. The more money you have the less requirements. You state longterm, after about ten years of being a good citizen and married to a Thai, why can they not give you permanent residency?

43 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

Yes, true. The more money you have the less requirements. You state longterm, after about ten years of being a good citizen and married to a Thai, why can they not give you permanent residency?

 

The more money you have does not really matter if you are a retiree, it doesn't matter if you have 800,000 in the bank or 80 million, you will still get the same extension of stay

 

The new visa seems to be targeting a different sort of visitor to Thailand according to what Immigration have said

5 hours ago, possum1931 said:

It really all depends on a persons life style, I know a guy who bought a house for around 600.000Bt, lives on only about 40.000Bt per month, and has a wife and son to keep. He has no debt to pay but this is upcountry.

Spot on, thats 500,000 per year x 30 years is fifteen million baht.  So I think a guy should have fifteen million if he is planing on living 30 years on 40,000 per month. Hopefully you friend has that in pension form in case he lives longer.

        I live up here in the jungle too, and I know many living on that and some less.  I wouldn't stay here on that but to each his own.

As the topic is about Hua Hin Immigration I was there today, arrived around 3ish, took 10 minutes for copy's and to fill the forms in, went inside and was back out in less than 10 minutes, really can't complain about the service at this office