Affidavit of income

[Confuscious]

I was due to go to Immigration for my Visa extension this month and started to get all the required documents ready.
I am retired.

As a Belgian national, i asked the Belgian Embassy for an affidavit of income.
The affidavit of income from the Belgian Embassy ONLY checks your own signature.
Not your income.

You fill in on a page that you have an income of "x" baht/month and sign this after which the Belgian Embassy check you signature and state that they have checked you signature.
Price for that signature check (Affidavit of income) is 860 Baht.

 

As I read in ThaiVisa that a Belgian national was refused the Visa-extension as the affidavit was not accepted anymore, I decided to try to give a twist and tried something different.

I asked my Retirement funds in Belgium to send me a paper for Immigration purposes, stating my income and to sign it.
A day later, the paper was ready for download and the original was send by post.
As this paper was in Dutch, I let it translate into Thai.
Translation costs = 500 baht.

I went to Immigration with the Affidavit from the Embassy and the statement of my Retirement Funds, and the officer who was handling my extension gave me the Affidavit back and kept the Statement of my retirement funds.
When asking why he did not want the Affidavit, the officer said that the statement was more important.

I got my extension for 1 year.

[keithet]

What imagration office did you use? 

[Confuscious]

4 minutes ago, keithet said:

What imagration office did you use? 

Nakon Ratchasima

[Deerculler]

Goodluck.

[easydoor]

Dr Mr,

I have seen that topic on another forum before. What we don't know is 'why' the affidavit has not been accepted. Maybe the figures were so unreal IO refused it as a Belgian affidavit is still accepted in general.

[fvw53]

I was the Belgian national informing TVF members that my affidavit (the same as described by above Confiscius) was refused for the first time in more than 10 years. The reason given by IO was correct i.e. that the legalisation stamp applied by the Embassy only certifies it is my signature but not that my declaration of income is true (or not true).  

Indeed since more than 30 years I know that on the Belgian legalisation stamp it is mentioned in Dutch, French and German that "This legalisation does not guarantee the authenticity of the document".

Signing a false affidavit would be a criminal offense but I cannot blame the IO that from now on evidence of bank transfers would be required. Luckily I had records of bank transfers covering one year and much more than the amount legally required : the IO accepted this evidence to grant me another extension but asked that in future I would make monthly transfers and not sometimes every 2 or 3 months as I did in the past. However I was surprised when I asked if in future I would then only have to submit the monthly bank records supplied by my bank (SCB) and the answer was that I would need both the above legalised affidavit  + the SCB bank statement. I repeated my question to make sure there was no misunderstanding and I got the same reply about the need for both the legalised affidavit and the proof of bank transfers to my SCB account.

[Suradit69]

1 hour ago, easydoor said:

What we don't know is 'why' the affidavit has not been accepted.

Because it just certified the applicant's signature, but didn't verify that the claimed income was correct.

 

That's why some embassies stopped doing the affidavit ... they were unable and/or unwilling to verify the amount of income, only the identity of the person who signed the affidavit.

 

5 hours ago, Confuscious said:

The affidavit of income from the Belgian Embassy ONLY checks your own signature.
Not your income.

 

[Thingamabob]

1 hour ago, easydoor said:

Dr Mr,

I have seen that topic on another forum before. What we don't know is 'why' the affidavit has not been accepted. Maybe the figures were so unreal IO refused it as a Belgian affidavit is still accepted in general.

...because it is "not needed".

[StevieAus]

1 hour ago, fvw53 said:

I was the Belgian national informing TVF members that my affidavit (the same as described by above Confiscius) was refused for the first time in more than 10 years. The reason given by IO was correct i.e. that the legalisation stamp applied by the Embassy only certifies it is my signature but not that my declaration of income is true (or not true).  

Indeed since more than 30 years I know that on the Belgian legalisation stamp it is mentioned in Dutch, French and German that "This legalisation does not guarantee the authenticity of the document".

Signing a false affidavit would be a criminal offense but I cannot blame the IO that from now on evidence of bank transfers would be required. Luckily I had records of bank transfers covering one year and much more than the amount legally required : the IO accepted this evidence to grant me another extension but asked that in future I would make monthly transfers and not sometimes every 2 or 3 months as I did in the past. However I was surprised when I asked if in future I would then only have to submit the monthly bank records supplied by my bank (SCB) and the answer was that I would need both the above legalised affidavit  + the SCB bank statement. I repeated my question to make sure there was no misunderstanding and I got the same reply about the need for both the legalised affidavit and the proof of bank transfers to my SCB account.

I think that’s pretty much the same with the other embassies who are no longer providing the documentation to support income.

At the Australian Embassy I used to sign what was called a statutory declaration in which I declared my income, the signature was then witnessed and I think stamped by an official.

It is a criminal offense in Australia to provide false information in such a document.

The Embassy will still certify such documents for other purposes so it is not them being difficult as some on the site claim but because they are not able to confirm that the information is correct, which is not their role in any event.

 

[jesimps]

I bet that the Belgians aren't the only other embassy that doesn't verify the pension details in the home country. That's what's so annoying about this two tier income letter system.

[nickstav]

I just got my extension last Friday using an income affidavit obtained at the US Embassy in December, just before they stopped giving them (they're good for 6 months). I was told that for my next extension I'll have to show the 12 months of 65K transfers from the US and a statement of what the source of the funds are, in my case a pension. I asked if my original pension award letter, which states that x is the amount I will be receiving for life is sufficient and was told that it would be fine.

[Thaidream]

1 hour ago, nickstav said:

just got my extension last Friday using an income affidavit obtained at the US Embassy in December, just before they stopped giving them (they're good for 6 months). I was told that for my next extension I'll have to show the 12 months of 65K transfers from the US and a statement of what the source of the funds are, in my case a pension. I asked if my original pension award letter, which states that x is the amount I will be receiving for life is sufficient and was told that it would be fine.

Thanks for the report and info.  Could you please say what Immigration office you used?

[DJ54]

Nakon Ratchasima

[nickstav]

14 hours ago, Thaidream said:

Thanks for the report and info.  Could you please say what Immigration office you used?

Hua Hin

[OJAS]

On 5/24/2019 at 5:46 PM, nickstav said:

I just got my extension last Friday using an income affidavit obtained at the US Embassy in December, just before they stopped giving them (they're good for 6 months). I was told that for my next extension I'll have to show the 12 months of 65K transfers from the US and a statement of what the source of the funds are, in my case a pension. I asked if my original pension award letter, which states that x is the amount I will be receiving for life is sufficient and was told that it would be fine.

So, in the case of us Brits, the supporting evidence which our Embassy used to require us to provide for their income confirmation letters should presumably do the trick here?

[marcusarelus]

8 minutes ago, OJAS said:

So, in the case of us Brits, the supporting evidence which our Embassy used to require us to provide for their income confirmation letters should presumably do the trick here?

If that includes 12 months of bank transfers from abroad.

[jimmyyy]

In January of next year, i plan on printing off my DFAS and VA letters which are on official govt letterhead and taking them into immigration with the letter from kasikorn showing my 12 deposits.  The only thing i am worried about is some of them arrive on the 30th some on the 2nd, but if they count em all up they are there.  Does anyone see that as a potential problem.

[OJAS]

7 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

If that includes 12 months of bank transfers from abroad.

So do you mean 12 months of outgoing transfers in statements provided by our home country bank (in addition to incoming transfer statements provided by our Thai bank, which I shall be providing in any event)?

[jacko45k]

1 hour ago, OJAS said:

So, in the case of us Brits, the supporting evidence which our Embassy used to require us to provide for their income confirmation letters should presumably do the trick here?

Well not solely. You would need to show it coming into Thailand every month at 65,000 baht or more too. Along with bank letter etc etc. 

[Confuscious]

I used the Statement of my pension instead of the Affidavit of the Belgian embassy again this year.
Only, this year I did not bring an Affidavit with me.
Statement of pension accepted again without further demands.
Translation costs was this year only 300 baht as most of the text was similar as last year.

[fvw53]

7 hours ago, Confuscious said:

I used the Statement of my pension instead of the Affidavit of the Belgian embassy again this year.
Only, this year I did not bring an Affidavit with me.
Statement of pension accepted again without further demands.
Translation costs was this year only 300 baht as most of the text was similar as last year.

It saves a lot of time to get an affidavit legalised by the Embassy then translated and legalised at the Foreign Ministry. Two months ago I tried the same like you but Immigration Officer in Pathum Thani insisted that I would get also an affidavit legalised next to my detailed bank letter of my monthly transfers /  it really depends on the Immigration office.

The Belgian legalisation stamp explains clearly that this is only a certification of my signature and not of my (income) declaration but it is written only in our national languages i.e. Dutch, French and German

In which province is your Immigration Office?