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marriage and Retirement extension refused


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42 minutes ago, rosst said:

As I read this, I thank my lucky stars that I made the move to the Philippines. 

Not perfect but predictable 

I am sad to think of the Thais whose jobs relied on the income you were spending - but given what immigration is doing to us, one can hardly blame you for bailing out.  At least some nice Filipinos have been hired with your income, in place of the Thais who were "de-employed" by Thai immigration's policies.

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4 hours ago, JackThompson said:

I am sad to think of the Thais whose jobs relied on the income you were spending - but given what immigration is doing to us, one can hardly blame you for bailing out.  At least some nice Filipinos have been hired with your income, in place of the Thais who were "de-employed" by Thai immigration's policies.

Actually I don't think so. with the big and always bigger amount of tourists the thais not even will know of a few expats leaving.

100 leaving and another 100'000 are coming… for them the statistics look perfect.

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7 hours ago, HampiK said:
12 hours ago, JackThompson said:

I am sad to think of the Thais whose jobs relied on the income you were spending - but given what immigration is doing to us, one can hardly blame you for bailing out.  At least some nice Filipinos have been hired with your income, in place of the Thais who were "de-employed" by Thai immigration's policies.

Actually I don't think so. with the big and always bigger amount of tourists the thais not even will know of a few expats leaving.

100 leaving and another 100'000 are coming… for them the statistics look perfect.

The expenditure of expats in Thailand hardly amount to a small fraction of revenues the bring in, especially when Thailand depends on tourism.  These numbers don't lie.

 

Edited by farangx
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13 hours ago, JackThompson said:

I am sad to think of the Thais whose jobs relied on the income you were spending - but given what immigration is doing to us, one can hardly blame you for bailing out.  At least some nice Filipinos have been hired with your income, in place of the Thais who were "de-employed" by Thai immigration's policies.

 

8 hours ago, HampiK said:

Actually I don't think so. with the big and always bigger amount of tourists the thais not even will know of a few expats leaving.

100 leaving and another 100'000 are coming… for them the statistics look perfect.

You're likely right, the Thais in tourist areas probably won't notice the departure of a few expats

 

But what about the Thais who depended on those who depart in areas that aren't tourist areas? They will most certainly miss those who go.

 

While I'm a firm believer in playing by the rules and having the appropriate visa or extension, it seems to me very short-sighted of the Thais to forego any foreign currency brought in to the country, especially if the folks bringing it in aren't costing 'the country' anything and those expats are living outside of tourist areas; at the end of the day, income is income, even if it's small and, from my point-of-view, any income brought into a non-tourist area would be more valuable precisely because it's a non-tourist area.

 

A rising tide lifts all boats, to steal a phrase.

 

While Thailand is certainly booming and there are likely a lot of Thais believing the great press about how good it is, at the end of the day Thailand really doesn't amount to a hill of beans, economically speaking, in the grand scheme of things, so it seems counter-productive to forego opportunities to maximize hard currency income.

 

It seems to me that it's better all around for the tourists to spend their money in the tourist areas doing tourist things and the expats to spend their money in expat areas doing expat things.

 

No one questions that tourism is booming, but Thailand can't (and doesn't) survive on tourism alone and one day the tourism bubble will burst. After all, all of the recent changes that are giving so many expats grief is nothing more than Thailand enforcing (and rightly so), for the most part, rules that have been on the books; the thing that the 'bosses' driving the changes are likely missing is that these changes, plus other 'uncomplimentary' things hitting the newspapers world-wide are tarnishing the appeal of Thailand to tourists and expats alike. 

 

Of course, as JackThompson pointed out, some Filipinos somewhere are likely very happy and even more thankful for their manna from heaven.

 

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On 2/12/2019 at 10:52 AM, tilaceer said:

Where have I not complied ?

I have used the same verbage for 6 years without issue. Everything they asked for was suppied.

The fact that they changed their reason for refusal a few times seems to indicate to me that they realise they have made a mistake and are not willing to admit it. Especially in light of the new option they have given me, which I will provide here if succesful.

They clearly stated that the wording on your affidavit was noncompliant.

The fact that the affidavit wording was a non-issue for the past six years is irrelevant.

The headline news for many months has been the change to the income method.

Thus, one would expect this to be the most difficult route to take for some time going forward.
Your OP is a wakeup call for everyone filing with the income method.

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2 hours ago, timendres said:

They clearly stated that the wording on your affidavit was noncompliant.

The fact that the affidavit wording was a non-issue for the past six years is irrelevant.

The headline news for many months has been the change to the income method.

Thus, one would expect this to be the most difficult route to take for some time going forward.
Your OP is a wakeup call for everyone filing with the income method.

How can it be not compliant if they do not provide a template to Australians, (as it appears they do to US citizens), for us to comply with ? (and nor was it clearly stated...but ummed and ahhed).

How can it be irrelevant if you have used the same wording for 6 years without any issue ? Surely that implies there is no problem and no reason to change, unless pointed out by those who review ?

 I also know of other Australians who use deposit instead of income and had no problems.

Please also bear in mind the wording was the second "reason" they came up with to justify the refusal. They originally said I was using a stat dec that was no longer valid as the Embassy no longer notarised them, despite the fact this was was signed before the cut off date.

I do not believe this was the real reason for the refusal, but a red herring, and will post more should I get a decision in my favour this coming Friday.

Edited by tilaceer
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  • 3 weeks later...

So on the 4th March, I was granted my extension based on marriage.

This was backdated to when my previous extension had expired, so there was no likelihood of overstay.

 

My wife and I had to supply further information to my local IO, such as bank statements, bank letters and I had to write a document similar to what would be written in a stat-dec. The information was outside the normal requirements for an extension, but it seemed the locals were trying to assist. The big boss said that this was a one off and next time I would have to follow the rules, (I still don't know what rule I didn't follow and nor would they elaborate).

So my application was resubmitted to KK and they said good luck.

 

Two weeks later we received a message saying that KK had approved the extension, but the boss had not signed off on it yet as he was extremely busy. I was advised not to worry about overstay, as the mistake was theirs and they would resolve any problem. So they have admitted they made a mistake, and this implies the original application should have been approved.

I firmly believe that they were not aware of the 6 month grace period for stat-decs, and once advised of this, they realised their error. 

So I would advise anyone in a similar situation that, if faced with a similar scenario, do not just accept it and run for the border, (as some here advised), but maintaining respect and equanimity, be firm and stand your ground.

 

This now leaves the attitude of the Australian Embassy who could have resolved this in one day, but refused to assist, as they told me three times, "we do not offer this service anymore" in reference to another stat-dec concerning earnings.

To me, this brings up an interesting point, and one that I have brought to the attention of the head of Consular Services Bangkok.

Perhaps someone on here has more knowledge on this than me and can elucidate.

The function of an authorized witness in regard to a statutory declaration is nothing more than to identify the person making the declaration, witness signing and then provide their own details and signature. They are not to be concerned in anyway with the contents of the declaration.

If this is the case, and the Embassy is still providing this notarial service, (which they are), I think I am safe in assuming that I can present any document to the notary, and that they must perform their duty irrespective of content. They cannot decide which forms they will witness based on the content. Should this be correct, I cannot see how the Embassy can refuse to witness stat-decs that reference earnings. If they do I believe they are failing in their notarial obligation.

 

Waiting for a reply on this.

Anyhoo, that's it.

For those who offered advice and contributed in a positive way, thank you.
 

 

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