21 minutes ago, jonw8uk said:

 

Ive thought the same; if they fined any business 1mil thb per illegal worker the problem would disappear instantly. 

 

They could walk into most any school/factory and find them easily enough. I wonder why they dont

 

   Because they realise that they need to workers in Thailand ?

When Prayruth came into power, many illegal workers fled back home to neighboring Countries and many construction sites came to a stand still

 

58 minutes ago, TSF said:

Can't you get a retirement visa and a multi re-entry visa, then you can base yourself in Thailand as a retiree and go as often as you please to the neighboring countries, returning to Thailand as often as you like. This is what I do and have done for the past decade. I live in Thailand on a retirement visa and go often to Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao, Malaysia, Australia.

 

Seems to me you are on the wrong visas. You talk about "retirement" but have been on tourist visas. Thailand has made it crystal clear they don't want foreigners using tourist visas and 30-day stamps for purposes other than tourism.

 

So get on the correct visa and enjoy your quite retirement.

You are only thinking of all the more well off expats, try thinking about the less fortunate, and don't say if a person cannot afford everything you have then they should not be here. A lot of us, like me, are not prepared to leave 800.000 Bt in the bank, and only keep enough to get by here at a time. Thailand is too unstable to keep most of our money in banks here. Don't forget, unless you have permanent residency you are only here for a year at a time.

In the planning stages the for service and sensibilities, which would be a better place to process visa  Penang or KL... Penang smaller might work faster?  KL more established processed longer?

 

Planning to apply for non O then extension of stay (Marriage visa)... This is what the official from a southern immigration office instructed.

1 hour ago, Asiantravel said:

 

can you explain why isn't someone who " goes often to Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao, Malaysia, Australia " and returns in between those times to Thailand  a tourist?

 

I could but I don't have to explain SFA to you Jimmy.

14 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

You are only thinking of all the more well off expats, try thinking about the less fortunate, and don't say if a person cannot afford everything you have then they should not be here. A lot of us, like me, are not prepared to leave 800.000 Bt in the bank, and only keep enough to get by here at a time. Thailand is too unstable to keep most of our money in banks here. Don't forget, unless you have permanent residency you are only here for a year at a time.

Then in that case I wouldn't step foot in Thailand. 

9 minutes ago, Rhys said:

In the planning stages the for service and sensibilities, which would be a better place to process visa  Penang or KL... Penang smaller might work faster?  KL more established processed longer?

 

Planning to apply for non O then extension of stay (Marriage visa)... This is what the official from a southern immigration office instructed.

 Avoid KL , Penang is much better

19 minutes ago, TSF said:

Then in that case I wouldn't step foot in Thailand. 

My answer to that is, In Thailand, the good outweighs the bad.

4 hours ago, Ianatlarge said:

Thanks for all the information. 

I will have a word with Jim, but it looks like I will be visiting Vientiane or Savannakhet next time. Jesus, all I want is a quiet and undignified retirement! Not hassles.

Then get an O visa and extend it annually based on retirement and get the multi-re-entry stamp -- you can come and go as you please for the year.

 

43 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

You are only thinking of all the more well off expats, try thinking about the less fortunate, and don't say if a person cannot afford everything you have then they should not be here. A lot of us, like me, are not prepared to leave 800.000 Bt in the bank, and only keep enough to get by here at a time. Thailand is too unstable to keep most of our money in banks here. Don't forget, unless you have permanent residency you are only here for a year at a time.

You don't need to have money in Thailand if you use the income method

As for residence, i guess for those who got the receipt of notification (which contains the address) in their passports, should be ok.

10 minutes ago, jpinx said:

You don't need to have money in Thailand if you use the income method

True, though it would help if the combination method was used for marriage extensions, same as retirement extensions. That is one of the reasons I feel the Thai government is not always fair to expats and tourists.

10 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

True, though it would help if the combination method was used for marriage extensions, same as retirement extensions. That is one of the reasons I feel the Thai government is not always fair to expats and tourists.

True, but you're allowed to work if you have a marriage extension.  Retirement extensions very specifically prohibit that. 

Even to work part time mainly for something to do?  Work permit on a marriage extention.. that with all the belles and whistle they want.

 

2 hours ago, possum1931 said:

 "it is good to know you can get 3 before receiving that stamp at Penang".

Don't be too sure about that, they can and will change their rules when it suits them.

 

Correct.  I should have added, "... this week," to the end of that statement.

 

2 hours ago, TSF said:

Thailand has made it crystal clear they don't want foreigners using tourist visas and 30-day stamps for purposes other than tourism.

 

They have definitely made it clear on 30-day visa-exempt stamps at land-borders, though still no clear and defined policy regarding repeated visa-exempt entries by air.  How long "out" is enough?  How long "in" is too much / year?  Who knows!

 

The policy on Tourist Visas is even less clear, with no restrictions on entry being imposed (if you have 20K Baht cash to show), and inconsistent policies at different consulates. 

 

If they wanted to impose a maximum-stay limit/year for Tourist Visas, they could have done it already, the same way they just imposed the land-border visa-exempt policy.  Evidently, at least some in charge seem to think long-stayers who can afford frequent trips for Tourist Visas are not necessarily a bad thing.

1 hour ago, sanemax said:

 

1 hour ago, sanemax said:

jonw8uk said:

Ive thought the same; if they fined any business 1mil thb per illegal worker the problem would disappear instantly. 

 

They could walk into most any school/factory and find them easily enough. I wonder why they dont

   Because they realise that they need to workers in Thailand ?

When Prayruth came into power, many illegal workers fled back home to neighboring Countries and many construction sites came to a stand still

 

After that event, the Cambodian government offered heavily-subsidized cheap passports, and many/most of those workers returned legally. 

 

If the firms doing the construction and manufacturing were willing to pay Thai wages, they would not need the foreigners.  But it would appear that the calculation is, it's better to have the factories operational in Thailand, to some benefit, than in Vietnam or China, instead.

2 minutes ago, JackThompson said:

 

If the firms doing the construction and manufacturing were willing to pay Thai wages, they would not need the foreigners. 

 

   I do not think that its all about money . 

There are an estimated 2 million illegal workers in Thailand , there just isnt the local manpower to replace those workers with Thais .

   Maybe paying a huge salary may encourage some idle Thais to work, then that would cause inflation 

1 hour ago, jpinx said:

True, but you're allowed to work if you have a marriage extension.  Retirement extensions very specifically prohibit that. 

Well if a Farang can do the job that Thais can't do, fine, but that is nothing to do with Thailand not allowing the combination method for the marriage extensions, it is just another reason why Thailands government does not get any respect from for me the way their treatment is towards expats and tourists. 

9 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

Well if a Farang can do the job that Thais can't do, fine, but that is nothing to do with Thailand not allowing the combination method for the marriage extensions, it is just another reason why Thailands government does not get any respect from for me the way their treatment is towards expats and tourists. 

The reasoning might be that the married farang would be younger, not retired and would need to work to support his thai family, so allowing him to work legally makes sense.

 

An older farang who qualifies as a retiree can get his extension based on retirement and use the combo method

1 minute ago, jpinx said:

The reasoning might be that the married farang would be younger, not retired and would need to work to support his thai family, so allowing him to work legally makes sense.

Of course he should be allowed to work legally, I did it, but I may be wrong, I believe that the majority of married expats do not work, and are retirees, or maybe even living of other means with income from their own country, ie, letting out their home.

2 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

Of course he should be allowed to work legally, I did it, but I may be wrong, I believe that the majority of married expats do not work, and are retirees, or maybe even living of other means with income from their own country, ie, letting out their home.

What I am suggesting is that an older farang married to a thai does not *have* to get an extension based on marriage unless he wants to work.  Otherwise he can get an extension based on retirement and take full advantage of the combo method.

Go to Savannakhet. No hassle and pretty quiet. Been there twice now and never had an issue with the consulate.

AsianTravel -- sure, I can get a retirement visa, or an ed visa or whatever, but I do not spend enough time in Thailand to make that worthwhile. A TV suits me. Though, I suspect that in the future there will be restrictions on how many TVs one person can obtain each year.

1 hour ago, jpinx said:

What I am suggesting is that an older farang married to a thai does not *have* to get an extension based on marriage unless he wants to work.  Otherwise he can get an extension based on retirement and take full advantage of the combo method.

Very true, but the combo method means 800.000 Bt  or a combination of some of that and income coming in, or go the marriage extension way of 400.000Bt in the bank, which is still a lot of money for some, like I said  some people like myself do not want to keep all that money in a Thai bank for reasons I have already stated.

One of my gripes here is why can't the Thai government not allow the same combination method, as for the retirement extensions? They only want the expats here who have  plenty of money in the country. then are made to report every 90 days, I say that is ridiculous, IMO once a year is sufficient.

8 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

Very true, but the combo method means 800.000 Bt  or a combination of some of that and income coming in, or go the marriage extension way of 400.000Bt in the bank, which is still a lot of money for some, like I said  some people like myself do not want to keep all that money in a Thai bank for reasons I have already stated.

One of my gripes here is why can't the Thai government not allow the same combination method, as for the retirement extensions? They only want the expats here who have  plenty of money in the country. then are made to report every 90 days, I say that is ridiculous, IMO once a year is sufficient.

Most people who stay in Thailand have learned to accept the rules as they are - if for not other reason than they can not change them   The reason the rules are as they are is lost in the morass of political thinking over many years.

3 hours ago, sanemax said:

   I do not think that its all about money . 

There are an estimated 2 million illegal workers in Thailand , there just isnt the local manpower to replace those workers with Thais .

   Maybe paying a huge salary may encourage some idle Thais to work, then that would cause inflation 

 

You may be correct about the total labor-needed, given Thailand's generally low unemployment rate.  But I do think that if factories, in particular, were required to pay Thai min-wage to foreign-workers, they would pull up stakes and move asap.  

16 hours ago, jonw8uk said:

 

Ive read the above post many times now, and maybe I'm stupid, but I'm yet to understand your point? I get the feeling you're trying to have a go at someone or make a point about something, but it really isn't clear. Now that you're sober would you like to try again? 

I am sober all the time, due to that I not drink. The point was that it´s always good to know what you are doing before you do it. The information is available in all embassies and consulates.

5 minutes ago, Get Real said:

I am sober all the time, due to that I not drink. The point was that it´s always good to know what you are doing before you do it. The information is available in all embassies and consulates.

Actually you need to check with the specific Embassy or Consulate you intend to use, because they all have their own interpretations of the rules.

Ok, one last question ( i hope). Vientianne or Savannakhet for my next tourist visa? I prefer to use an agent, to make sure it gets done right and to release me of the burden of offical interaction. Which is the best destination for me? Thanks.