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My trip to Jomtien Immigration


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3 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

OK Joe, but if someone does not know how much his 12 month imports will eventually be, how would they know how much to top-up in month 9.

They would have to guess and put in more than they think is needed due to exchange rate fluctuations during the 3 months needed.

I think most be people would be sending in the same amount every month in their home country currency. 

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11 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

OK Joe, but if someone does not know how much his 12 month imports will eventually be, how would they know how much to top-up in month 9

It's not what they will be, it's what they were for the previous 12 months

Edited by Tanoshi
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18 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

OK Joe, but if someone does not know how much his 12 month imports will eventually be, how would they know how much to top-up in month 9

Apologies, I may have misinterpreted your question.

 

If your extension was due say Sept 2019, no Embassy letter and using the combo method.

Immigration would only accept the income deposited in your Thai bank as proof of income.

If you haven't been depositing your income for the 12 month period, then they could only calculate from the month you started making those deposits.

 

2019 is suppose to be a transitional year and Immigration are supposed to be lenient with applications until a full 12 months has lapsed. From Jan 2020 they'll calculate on a full 12 months of deposits.

 

The easiest option would be to proportion  the months from Jan, up to the date of application, 

If you were applying in Aug, that would be a total of 8 months from Jan.

If 800,000 is the annual figure, divide by 12 x 8 = 533,333Bht requirement for a combined total of funds and income deposited over an 8 month period. The funds must still have been seasoned for 3 months.

However I'm not an IO!

 

I suspect each IO will adopt it's own method of calculations and levels of 'leniency'

I think they're still confused about the combo method.

 

 

 

 

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13 hours ago, Spidey said:

As for the US and Australian Embassies, it would have been a fairly simple matter for them to change their requirements for proof of income to match the procedures of the British and other embassies, which would probably have satisfied TI and allowed them to continue issuing the letters.

Apparently BE did not think that it was enough proof and you would expect US to adopt the same procedure that BE was saying not good enough. US could have asked for a certified 1040 (tax returns) from IRS (costs $50) which is good for proving your income for all sorts of US loans, including mortgage loans. 

Edited by onera1961
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Just now, onera1961 said:

Apparently BE did not think that it was enough proof and you would expect US to adopt the same procedure that BE was saying not good enough. US could have asked for a certified 1040 (tax returns) from IRS (costs $50) which is good for proving your income for all sorts of US loans, inclduing mortgage loans. 

Tax forms show last year.

At the very least they should be able to easily verify government pension documents. 

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11 hours ago, luckyluke said:

I am Belgian with a monthly net pension of 2300 Euro ( +/- 82000 ThB ).

My pension amount is not in the low level, but definitively not in the highest level.

Just curious, how does your embassy verify your incomes? Wondering why US, BE, or AU, DK could not do the same.

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11 hours ago, possum1931 said:

In that case so should everyone who comes in to live in the UK or any other western country including the many Thais. Whats for the goose is for the gander.

How could one live in the UK? Being a US citizen, they kicked me out after three months. I was self funded and spending my money but they told me I have no business living in the UK. I can go back to the USA. 

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6 hours ago, onera1961 said:

how does your embassy verify your incomes?

I present a download of my monthly payments  by the Belgian Office of Pensions together with a download of my Belgian bank statements showing the monthly amounts paid by the Belgian O. o. Pensions.

This at the Austrian Consulate in Pattaya. 

To my knowledge the Consulate only confirm incomes from an National Office of Pensions. 

Austrians, Belgians, Dutch, Germans, Luxemburgers ( maybe more nationalities? ) can use their services. 

I use the Austrian Consulate for about 10 years now, never had to show anything else than the L. o. I. from the Consulate, at the Immigration in Jomtien. 

Will see if the same this year, I will do my yearly extension next week. 

 

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7 hours ago, onera1961 said:

Just curious, how does your embassy verify your incomes? Wondering why US, BE, or AU, DK could not do the same.

They don't and can't 'verify' incomes, they continue to 'certify'' the letter and continue to use that wording.

 

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11 minutes ago, Spidey said:

The new method of proving monthly income, is less convenient and more expensive than before, but hardly rocket science. I have already started transferring 70k baht/month by SWIFT or TransferWise. I'm sure that after a few months, I will have forgotten that there was any other method.

I assume you were already transferring funds to Thailand for living expenses anyway, or were you using another method.

 

I only ask because recently discussing the new income method with an old friend who also complained of the cost involvement, I found out for the last 17 year he's been withdrawing from his UK bank using his debit card in an ATM.

Approx 3 times a month!

Not only was his UK bank applying a fixed £6.54 charge, the ATM charged 200 baht for each withdrawal.

His UK banks exchange rate was about 2BHT less than BKK TT rate.

 

After we sat down and worked through some figures, he'll actually be £'s in profit making regular monthly transfers.

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1 minute ago, Tanoshi said:

I assume you were already transferring funds to Thailand for living expenses anyway, or were you using another method.

 

I only ask because recently discussing the new income method with an old friend who also complained of the cost involvement, I found out for the last 17 year he's been withdrawing from his UK bank using his debit card in an ATM.

Approx 3 times a month!

Not only was his UK bank applying a fixed £6.54 charge, the ATM charged 200 baht for each withdrawal.

His UK banks exchange rate was about 2BHT less than BKK TT rate.

 

After we sat down and worked through some figures, he'll actually be £'s in profit making regular monthly transfers.

I was transferring funds by withdrawing funds on my Halifax Clarity CC. Went into the bank, teller put my card in the card reader, withdrew the funds and deposited them in my Thai bank account. Zero charges by either bank and got the Mastercard exchange rate, which seems to be the same as TT. Not found a better exchange rate.

 

This month used SWIFT transfer, got a really poor exchange rate, was charged i.r.o. 500 baht by my UK bank and 200 baht by my Thai bank. Did the calculations and found that this method would cost me an extra 12k baht/ year. Will try TransferWise next month in the hope that it can reduce my costs.

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1 hour ago, Spidey said:

Will try TransferWise next month in the hope that it can reduce my costs.

Yes they can, but if you wish to get an extension based on income, can you take the chance of a few transfers not showing up as International?

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1 hour ago, Spidey said:

I was transferring funds by withdrawing funds on my Halifax Clarity CC. Went into the bank, teller put my card in the card reader, withdrew the funds and deposited them in my Thai bank account. Zero charges by either bank and got the Mastercard exchange rate, which seems to be the same as TT. Not found a better exchange rate.

 

This month used SWIFT transfer, got a really poor exchange rate, was charged i.r.o. 500 baht by my UK bank and 200 baht by my Thai bank. Did the calculations and found that this method would cost me an extra 12k baht/ year. Will try TransferWise next month in the hope that it can reduce my costs.

Whilst the HCC is one of the best cards you can use overseas, it still isn't free.

Although no ATM or withdrawal charges, cash withdraws still incur interest rates, even when repaid in full.

 

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23 hours ago, Spidey said:

It's my contention that the British Embassy took the course of action they did because they were moving to a new, smaller embassy and this action served to reduce staff and office space required. It's significant that the decision was made as a result of a Foreign Office audit, not a Bangkok Embassy decision.

I suspect that is the more likely reason, with the introduction of GDPR being the final nail in the coffin.

 

The mutually agreed General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force on May 25, 2018, and was designed to modernise laws that protect the personal information of individuals.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-gdpr-uk-eu-legislation-compliance-summary-fines-2018

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22 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

A German friend from Jomtien was there on Fri, Jan 4th.

He had his income confirmation(!) from the German consul and a bankbook for the missing amount (untouched since years).

No problem, no questions. Picked up his extension the following Monday.

Confirmation: German consulate/honorary consulates always required documents to proof income which is easy for pensioners.

well the Germans are always efficient.  The Brit Embassy is a disgrace. 

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11 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Tax forms show last year.

At the very least they should be able to easily verify government pension documents. 

My point exactly.  I used my verified tax return reply letter from HMRC and p60s.  If they don't believe their own documents whats the point of any of it, or them for that mater. 

And before anyone points out that the primary reason for having an embassy at all is to promote trade and business activity on behalf of the UK, I tried that with them in my last company and the BE in BKK turned out to be as useless and unhelpful at that 'duty' as well. As I say, they are a waste of space and good tax payers money. 

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If any of us have learnt anything in Thailand, its that quoting their own law to an IO, a Policeman, or an Amphur, producing official documents that support your argument, even showing them what they permitted the last time you visited,  is all a waste of time and will get you nowhere.   You can't reason with arrogance, close mindedness, stubbornness, just plain stupidity and indeed, in some cases, institutional racism. 

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45 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

If any of us have learnt anything in Thailand, its that quoting their own law to an IO, a Policeman, or an Amphur, producing official documents that support your argument, even showing them what they permitted the last time you visited,  is all a waste of time and will get you nowhere.   You can't reason with arrogance, close mindedness, stubbornness, just plain stupidity and indeed, in some cases, institutional racism. 

Those symptoms are more "cover" than "cause."  It's all about the money.

 

Often, they use the "blame your fellow farangs" angle - repeated here by their apologists (Stockholm Syndrome, paid, or who knows).  It is usually a variation on: "We tightened-up the requirements to stop-fraud."
... for which the real-world translation is: "Generate more payoff agent-applications, which are completely fraudulent."
 

It's not unique to immigration - can be any "foreigner" related activity.  The same angle is used at many amphoes, to block marriage applications, as I found out first hand a couple years ago.  Use an agent and, suddenly, your relationship is genuine, after all. 

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39 minutes ago, Puchaiyank said:

It is this type of officialdom corruption IMHO that will keep Thailand from being seen as arguably the best retirement destination on planet earth.

I, and I'm sure many others have never personally experienced corruption at an IO.

Perhaps it's those up-market high cost areas you live in.

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47 minutes ago, Puchaiyank said:

It is this type of officialdom corruption IMHO that will keep Thailand from being seen as arguably the best retirement destination on planet earth.

It was only ever seen by some people as the best retirement destination on earth because it was cheap to live and easy to get visas. Regarding 'Living' I actually mean living a decent life and not existing because you can. All said and done, that is fast changing on both accounts.

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34 minutes ago, Lovethailandelite said:

It was only ever seen by some people as the best retirement destination on earth because it was cheap to live and easy to get visas. Regarding 'Living' I actually mean living a decent life and not existing because you can. All said and done, that is fast changing on both accounts.

Can you explain what is indecent about living in Thailand?  Scratching my head here.

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1 hour ago, Tanoshi said:

The BE didn't 'verify' them, they can't, so who verified them?

They are legal documents in the UK, issued on behalf of HMRC by your payer, or by HMRC itself.  You can't get better than that. 

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1 hour ago, Lovethailandelite said:

It was only ever seen by some people as the best retirement destination on earth because it was cheap to live and easy to get visas. Regarding 'Living' I actually mean living a decent life and not existing because you can. All said and done, that is fast changing on both accounts.

Cost is higher for those who have been here a long time, I suppose - I have heard stories about how cheap things were way back when.  But, it is still very affordable in my book.  Only the truly poor from higher-wage nations would find Thailand's living-costs "expensive."

 

The primary impediment preventing more people from living well and spending more here is immigration - not the cost of living.  Their efforts not only drive away countless would-be spenders, but also redirect chunks of money from those who stay which would otherwise be spent into Thailand's market-economy - spent instead in other countries for visa-trips, "extra fees" for ED-extensions, agent-fees, the elite, etc.  It's a "lose-lose" policy-shift, for honest businesses.

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14 minutes ago, JackThompson said:

Cost is higher for those who have been here a long time, I suppose - I have heard stories about how cheap things were way back when.  But, it is still very affordable in my book.  Only the truly poor from higher-wage nations would find Thailand's living-costs "expensive."

 

The major cost factor and increasing year on year is the FX rates for those not working here. Yes, I agree that the cost of living in Thailand has not risen greatly in itself but things are getting more and more expensive.
If the next 5 year FX forecasts come anywhere near forecast, it is looking likely to not be that far out with the issues these country's have coming, with the US dollar forcast at 28, the AUS Dollar at 19 and sterling around 34, Visas I would suggest, would be the least of peoples problems. 
 

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3 minutes ago, Lovethailandelite said:

The major cost factor and increasing year on year is the FX rates for those not working here. //

This has been discussed many times in the past, but many retirees have chosen to invest in Thailand to avoid this kind of problems, and some of them must be smiling now thinking about those who - 10 years ago - said they were crazy/stupid to do so... :wink:

I bought condos in 2008 when the Euro was at 54 Baht. Today it's at 36 Baht.  (+50% on re-sale with exchange rate only) :cool:

I invested in the Thai Stock Exchange. It gave me nice profits and also is FX rate proof when living here. :smile:

You can't protect 100% your future, but not putting all your eggs in one basket highly reduce risks. :thumbsup:

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