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jpinx

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Posts posted by jpinx

  1. On 7/6/2019 at 6:45 AM, Mitkof Island said:

    AGAIN nothing has really changed. Its mostly made up drama over a lot of nothing. Put 800,000 in a Thai bank account and leave it there. End of problems.

    Is the income method similarly unchanged?  I had many years of extensions based on my retirement "income"  (investment income paid to my accounts outside Thailand) and confirmed by my embassy (Ireland).  After this spell of 2years hospital treatment I would like to go back to Thailand again.

     

  2. 33 minutes ago, JohnnyBD said:

    You probably should have left the details out about your fiancée, the cost of the ring and your wedding plans and just asked about the bank. Reason, you will probably get lots of comments from people about those things and they have nothing to do with your question,

    ...perish the thought ???? ....

     

    Quote

    which is what is the best bank to open an account while on a 30 day visa-exempt stay? I would try Bangkok Bank or Krungsri.

    Krungsri have been very good to me over the years.  Opened savings account on retirement extension without raising an eyebrow. Not sure about your 30 day exempt, maybe better if you had the non-O at least.  No matter what your situation, get internet banking sorted immediately - before you walk out of the bank. That might be the only way to get your money out as your circumstances change and new, previously unknown rules come into force. If you end up with a savings account, make sure you do at least one credit and one debit transaction per month to stop it being "frozen", possibly when you are out of Thailand and unable to attend personally to reactivate it - a trap I fell into.....  ????

    Quote

     

     

  3. 14 hours ago, farangx said:

    PE is long term. Extensions as in retirement and marriage are short term.

     

    Without going into "How long is long-term?", 1, 5, or 10 years makes little odds since the rules, policies and requirements change more frequently than that.  The system has grown like Topsy, without a cohesive structure.  It's too late to change things fundamentally, so we are presented with these modified rules as circumstances arise.  Health/travel/accident insurance keeps raising it's head, but it's just too difficult to deal with for all nationalities and visa-types.

     

    Happy Xmas! :)

  4. On 11/21/2018 at 8:34 AM, Suradit69 said:

    Many of us have been getting such letters from our embassies for many years. Won't help if your embassy has announced they will no longer certify income. Still uncertain whether Thai immigrations will continue accepting such "proof" of income from any other embassy even if they continue to issue letters in 2019. 

     

    Best to develop plan B if you were thinking of using the income method.

    I got a very prompt and polite reply from my embassy to say that they are continuing to issue "proof of income" letters and no mention of any cut-off date.  Their wording is

    "If Thai immigration still accept the confirming letter from the Embassy, we would be...... etc, etc,,,"

    thus telling me that they are happy with the proof I give them, but they do not guarantee that Thai Immigration will continue to accept their letter.  Not entirely clear yet, but given that I'm not travelling before Xmas things might have been sorted out by then.

     

    I'm avoiding the O or OA route because of police and medical checks.  I see that the criminal record check is needed from your country of residence *and* your passport issuing country -- not the same in my case and the hassle factor of getting both would be considerable.

     

    From http://www.thaiembassy.org/london/en/services/7742/84508-Non-Immigrant-visas.html#7

    "Certificate of criminal record clearance from own country and country of permanent residence with validity of at least 3 months. Applicants residing in the United Kingdom will need to have a police clearance issued only from here."

     

    But maybe different from here...

    http://www.mfa.go.th/main/en/services/4908/15385-Non-Immigrant-Visa-"O-A"-(Long-Stay).html

    "- A letter of verification issued from the country of his or her nationality or residence stating that the applicant has no criminal record (verification shall be valid for not more than three months and should be notarised by notary organs or the applicant’s diplomatic or consular mission)."

     

    This kind of confusion is what pushes me to go the tried-and-tested route of entry stamp > O visa > extension.

  5. 11 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

    I think that is the UK embassy by looking at your posts done in the past. If you don't send in a application for a income letter prior to December 12th you will not get one.

    It takes about 2 weeks for approval on average. That is why you have to have at least 15 days remaining on your entry when you apply.

    You keep your passport while waiting for the approval.

    Sorry to have unintentionally mislead you, I am on an Irish passport, not UK.  I'll email the embassy for confirmation of their intentions regarding issuing this letter in 2019 and beyond.  I haven't read anything to say that immigration will not accept them after this year, only that some embassies have decided not to issue them anymore because of new interpretation of immigrations requirements of what the embassies accept as proof.  Frankly I am amazed that the "self-affirming" style the USA embassy have been allowing has not been queried before now. 

     

    As usual, there's more to all this than initially meets the eye. It makes sense to get my re-entry permit and whatever certificate of residence i need, all at the same visit to the immigration office. What else have I forgotten?

  6. 16 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

    There was short period of time that only a few offices could issue the non immigrant visa but that was changed. Last year immigration made a directive that all offices can accept  the application. Your visa application will be sent to division 3 headquarters for approval after your application is accepted. You will not get the visa/entry stamps in your passport for about weeks when you return to have them stamped in your passport.

    Thanks again Ubonjoe, at least it sounds like I won't have to head up to Changwattana. I'm guessing it'll take two visits to Samut Prakan office get the job done, separated while Div3 communicate their approval to the local Immigration office - I wonder how long that might take and what is my passport status during that time.

  7. On 11/19/2018 at 1:52 PM, Pib said:

    OP, keep in mind that if you used the income letter method before vs evidence of foreign transfer of funds, that depending on what nationality you are you might not be able to get an income letter from your embassy.  Like the UK, US, and AU embassies are ending income letter issue over the next month or so...and the Danish embassy has already stopped.  It's expect other embassies will do the same over the coming months.

    Thanks for the heads-up on that.  Reading the extensive commentary in this and other forums, it would appear that the issue is mostly surrounding the individual embassys interpretation of the Thai immigration requirements for *Proof* of income. Fortunately my embassy has been dealing with me for some years on this and seem to be happy with the evidence I give them.  It has proved to be useful to have the government/state pension award letter to hand as well.

  8. My situation changed somewhat and I have not been in Thailand since March 2017.  I had been on multiple annual renewals of a retirement extension but that has all lapsed.  My question is:  Is it still possible to enter on a 30 day stamp and then get the necessary visa which will be extended based on retirement?  This how I originally got the annual renewal process working, all done at Samut Prakan immigration office.  Is this still possible and can it still be done at Samut Prakan?

  9. 5 minutes ago, Lamkyong said:

    Mee Tae Dai Savings | Bank of Ayudhya - ธนาคารกรุงศรีอยุธยา

    Mee Tae Dai savings account offers high interest rates, easy cash withdrawal and transfer, ATM and online services.

    Obviously I have read the whole website English version, but nothing in there was directly addressing my inability to attend the bank personally.

  10. 15 hours ago, jpinx said:

    Agreed -- the tourists are here for touristy things, but the expats do quite a lot of touristy stuff too -- sitting in bars, going for massage, eating out.  The Expats that are "up-country" are in a different situation, but we don't really have any idea what the split is between expats in Pattaya/ChiangMai/Phuket/etc and those who live "up-country"

    What part of that post implies that Chiang Mai is "upcountry".? Where I come from the "up" in "up country" has more in common with the "up" in "up yours" or "up the junction" than any reference to what direction your should move your finger on a map.  Having said that, I also managed to list the main centres of tourism, including Chiang Mai, as one half of the comparison, thereby eliminating Chiang Mai from the "up country" categorisation. 

     

    1 hour ago, chiang mai said:

    I think the split probably looks something like this:

     

    Expats spend their money on: real estate, home furnishings, cars/bikes, restaurants, supermarkets - more big ticket items, sex trade and bars to a lesser degree I suspect.

     

    Tourists spend their money on: hotels, restaurants, bars, tours, sex trade, souvenirs - small shops, mom and pop operations, small operator income.

     

    And by "up-country" I presume you mean rural Issan or the boonies?

    Rural Thailand - I know plenty of very rural places in southern Thailand, and I'd refer to them as "up country" too, even though they're "down there".  The ins and outs of the ups and downs is very confusing - especially when you always travel "up" to the big city -- even if you are actually travelling south.  But to admit that you're "going south" would be a hopeless gaffe    :)

  11. 1 minute ago, chiang mai said:

    Exactly, you're not missing anything, the expat presence from an economic viewpoint is highly desirable. Which is why Immigration and government holds feedback meetings such as the one in Chiang Mai several weeks ago. The only other point however is that expat spending probably follows a different pattern than does mass tourism spending hence both are required but for different parts of the economy/country.

    Agreed -- the tourists are here for touristy things, but the expats do quite a lot of touristy stuff too -- sitting in bars, going for massage, eating out.  The Expats that are "up-country" are in a different situation, but we don't really have any idea what the split is between expats in Pattaya/ChiangMai/Phuket/etc and those who live "up-country"

  12. 6 minutes ago, chiang mai said:

    But the only spend numbers you can use for tourists is TAT's own average of 5,400 baht per person per day for 9 days.

     

    TAT says 35 million tourists, estimates vary regarding long term expat residents from 2.5 million to 7 million, take your pick.

    Just out of curiosity...

    35 million less 2.5 million Expat residents is 32.5 million tourists at 9-days each = 292.5million  "tourist-days"

    2.5 million expats at 365 days each = 912.5 million "expat days"

    .....  so -- even using the lower estimate of expat numbers, the expats have far more influence on the country than the tourists -- or am I missing something?

     

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