FaFaHead Posted July 23, 2019 Author Share Posted July 23, 2019 21 minutes ago, overherebc said: You can even disregard the 90 day reporting by having a day or two break in a nearby country every 89 days. When you leave and come back to Thailand it resets the 90 day timing. Thank you for this... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Formaleins Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 On 7/22/2019 at 8:12 PM, glegolo said: I am puzzlled still after 11 years over many of us expats and their lack of thinking and reacting. I have heard so much shit about Chiang Mai, so I would never in my lifetime have to do anything at all with that cesspool to Immigration upp there. Why even try to live there. There are really nice immigration-offices where it is actually nice to go to and have a chat and they are really trying to help you out.... Screw Chiang Mai and just move to another nicer place in Thailand. glegolo Chaiyaphum immigration.... is great... Very true, they got so bad here in Chiang Mai over the years that I seriously considered moving to another province where I did not ever need to ever see those vile creatures again. However, there has been a marked improvement over the last two years, this year an almost 100% turnaround in both attitude and service, so I am hanging in here for a while longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emptypockets Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 11 hours ago, griffon2011 said: Over a period of 50 years I have traveled to 55 different countries via airlines, sailboats, private aircraft, autos etc. for business and pleasure and have encountered many unpleasant immigration and customs officials. You are correct, it is best to remain polite as difficult as that may be. However, Chiang Wattana is the only place where I have had my passport tossed at me or have an IO just look through me instead of at me and refuse to reply to or actually to acknowledge a polite question. I can understand someone having a bad day and can deal with it but this type of behavior is unacceptable. What do you plan to do about it? Obviously unacceptable....so?? Or do you mean upsetting but acceptable?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emptypockets Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 9 hours ago, Tanoshi said: That's how I also read and understood his financial position. Provided he had one 65K International transfer to an account in his sole name that should have been enough evidence for the change of Visa status to Non O. If the OP is using TW and not using BKK, then the transfers won't be coded as FTT in his local Passbook. Because of the technical issue in July, TW transfers were routed through KK to BKK and were coded as SMT transfers. It may be easier for the OP to try and obtain a NON O from a nearby Thai Embassy/Consulate but which one is another question. Perhaps the OP's attitude and demeanour may have been a factor? He admits to getting abusive after the rejection. Who knows what the situation was before that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elliss Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 (edited) 19 hours ago, arithai12 said: After all these years, I also am amazed at the amount of very informed posts one can find on the forum. Yes of course, why live in CM when one can live in ... in... Chaiyaphum? Never heard of it, had to look it up. Looks really enticing. No bars there , enticing for my kindle and me... However that said , easy visa , will do nicely.. Edited July 23, 2019 by elliss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elliss Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 (edited) 7 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said: AFAIK, at least at some Immigration offices, you can get Immigration to issue you a single entry 90-day Non-O for purpose of transitioning from something like a tourist visa or visa exempt entry into an ultimate retirement extension. That's one of the few or only exceptions to the general proposition that visas are issued by Thai embassies and consulates abroad. Where , where. Any links .. Edited July 23, 2019 by elliss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee65 Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 My advice to the OP: take what you experienced seriously because that type of degrading experience is what you're gonna get a lot of in your time in Thailand - and for years it has been getting worse. If you stay, don't dig yourself in deeper: keep it light, one foot out the door, an eye on better things. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanoshi Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 Like the OP I have a friend who screwed up and lost his Embassy Income letter, which was issued in December, which he intended to use in June for his retirement extension. In May he approached TI who advised him to obtain a TV in Savannakhet and come back in August to apply for the Non O as part of the conversion process to obtain an extension again November. He obtained said TV Visa beginning of July, then as happened with many this month his 65K TW transfer went through Kasikorn, coded as an Interbank transfer (SMT) on his bank statement. The visit today was to ask if TI would accept his TW pdf receipts as proof of foreign transfers and surprisingly they stated they would be fine as supporting evidence to his Thai bank statements. So far so good, then they noticed the TV in his passport and the tune changed. He reminded them of the issue and had followed their advice in obtaining the TV and would revisit in 3 weeks to apply for the Non O ……. then the proverbial hit the fan! They noted he was an Australian and the mood changed to questioning about his Embassy. They showed us another Non O application from a Canadian citizen and an Embassy Income letter issued by his Embassy. Verbatim "Your Embassy, the UK and US now cause us many problems and work because they do not issue this letter, so now we make it hard and difficult for you too. Go back to Loa, get a Non O Visa before you come back again, or ask your Embassy to give you a letter again" They also mentioned Thai bank statements now giving them more work to process There were 3 witnesses to this conversation, I was one of them. I just wonder from all the expat experiencing such problems now, how many are US, UK, or Australian citizens. Their appears to be clear resentment towards these citizens. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
overherebc Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 1 hour ago, FaFaHead said: Thank you for this... Sent you a PM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hanuman2547 Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 This all seems a bit odd. As your wife holds a job, a visa, and I'm assuming a Work Permit, I would think that you would be attached to her visa as a dependent since you are not working. The Thai person who secures the visas for the farangs that are employed at the international school should be doing this for all of the dependents. The only thing that I could think of is if they have a different set of services they offer depending upon if your wife is an "overseas hire" or a "local hire". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallGuyJohninBKK Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 3 hours ago, elliss said: Where , where. Any links .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallGuyJohninBKK Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 4 hours ago, FaFaHead said: As I said in an earlier post I had all of that and more. Maybe I missed some of your comments/info elsewhere in the thread... But what I recalled from your OP was you talking about: --having a joint account up until some point in the process...which Immigration generally doesn't want. --using Transferwise as the entity to handle your foreign funds transfers, an entity that's been having problems lately with coding that shows up in Thai bank book entries looking like domestic transfers even when they're not. --and in the event you get that kind of bad coding in your Thai bank book from a Transferwise transfer, the Thai bank typically won't include/list that/those transfers in their foreign transfers letter to Immigration. --presenting Immigration with Social Security and other non-Thai financial documents as evidence of your foreign transfers... which while correct and good evidence in a different world... are not really documents that Thai Immigration usually wants to see or is willing to rely on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallGuyJohninBKK Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 15 hours ago, Tanoshi said: I just wonder from all the expat experiencing such problems now, how many are US, UK, or Australian citizens. Their appears to be clear resentment towards these citizens. Which Immigration Office was involved in that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyp Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 49 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said: Which Immigration Office was involved in that? As an American I’ve never experienced any resentment toward me from anyone in Thailand. If IO officers were complaining about US policy regarding the income affidavit then I would heartily agree with them. It’s more work for them and it is more work for us too! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallGuyJohninBKK Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 (edited) 46 minutes ago, Martyp said: As an American I’ve never experienced any resentment toward me from anyone in Thailand. If IO officers were complaining about US policy regarding the income affidavit then I would heartily agree with them. It’s more work for them and it is more work for us too! I haven't experience it either, at my local office being BKK CW.... But as is pretty well understood here, attitudes and even requirements can vary considerably from one Immigration office to another, depending on who's running the local show. That's why I asked which Immigration office was involved. Also, to be clear, after all this time, I think it's still pretty UNCLEAR who was the causal factor in the death of income affidavits at the US, UK and Aus Embassies. There's some suggestions the governments did it themselves. There have been others that they were forced into it by Immigration. Who knows what the truth of the matter is...and we'll probably never know for sure. Edited July 24, 2019 by TallGuyJohninBKK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyp Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 32 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said: I haven't experience it either, at my local office being BKK CW.... But as is pretty well understood here, attitudes and even requirements can vary considerably from one Immigration office to another, depending on who's running the local show. That's why I asked which Immigration office was involved. Also, to be clear, after all this time, I think it's still pretty UNCLEAR who was the causal factor in the death of income affidavits at the US, UK and Aus Embassies. There's some suggestions the governments did it themselves. There have been others that they were forced into it by Immigration. Who knows what the truth of the matter is...and we'll probably never know for sure. My conspiracy theory is that Immigration questioned them about the process and the US decided that verifying incomes was not a part of their Consular mission. They weren’t doing it before and they weren’t going to start doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThaiBunny Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 39 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said: There have been others that they were forced into it by Immigration. What the conspiracy theorists who propose that notion need to explain is why not force it on every Embassy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanoshi Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 2 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said: Which Immigration Office was involved in that? Roi Et. They want him to have his Australian Embassy 'authenticate' his Pension statement as supporting evidence to the 3 x 65K monthly transfer to his Thai bank account. The Embassy can only notarise 'public' documents, not 'private' documents, but can certify copies, but that aint good enough for Immigration. Even shown TI the reply from the Embassy stating they cannot stamp the original document, so TI are just telling him to get a Non O elsewhere. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallGuyJohninBKK Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 (edited) 15 minutes ago, Tanoshi said: Roi Et. They want him to have his Australian Embassy 'authenticate' his Pension statement as supporting evidence to the 3 x 65K monthly transfer to his Thai bank account. The Embassy can only notarise 'public' documents, not 'private' documents, but can certify copies, but that aint good enough for Immigration. Even shown TI the reply from the Embassy stating they cannot stamp the original document, so TI are just telling him to get a Non O elsewhere. Not really surprising, is it? US, UK, Aus pension statements pretty much are worth nothing with Thai Immigration these days in the absence of Embassy certification, except as potential backup documentation for authenticated foreign bank transfers. Edited July 24, 2019 by TallGuyJohninBKK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallGuyJohninBKK Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 39 minutes ago, ThaiBunny said: What the conspiracy theorists who propose that notion need to explain is why not force it on every Embassy? I'm not a conspiracy theory person, but the argument might be, to make life tough for the largest white/western expat nationalities here. The ones who press issues about Thai democracy and human rights and trafficking and illegal fishing, etc etc. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThaiBunny Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 3 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said: Not really surprising, is it? US, UK, Aus pension statements pretty much are worth nothing with Thai Immigration these days in the absence of Embassy certification, except as potential backup documentation for authenticated foreign bank transfers. I hadn't realised the Aussie pension was 65K baht per month Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallGuyJohninBKK Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 4 minutes ago, ThaiBunny said: I hadn't realised the Aussie pension was 65K baht per month The transfer itself needs to be 65K. The backup documentation would be the funding sources for that transfer, which could include multiple income sources such as a government pension, savings, interest-dividends, etc etc. Most U.S. Social Security monthly payments don't reach the 65K baht threshold either. But, in the past, that income could count toward one's overall Embassy income affidavit. And these days, in the absence of income affidavits, if Immigration wanted backup documentation proving it really was YOUR 65K being transferred, source documents could serve that purpose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyp Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 17 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said: The transfer itself needs to be 65K. The backup documentation would be the funding sources for that transfer, which could include multiple income sources such as a government pension, savings, interest-dividends, etc etc. Most U.S. Social Security monthly payments don't reach the 65K baht threshold either. But, in the past, that income could count toward one's overall Embassy income affidavit. And these days, in the absence of income affidavits, if Immigration wanted backup documentation proving it really was YOUR 65K being transferred, source documents could serve that purpose. As far as I know, at Bangkok CW, they just want to see the bank statement that the income is from a foreign source. They don’t even ask that for the 800,000 baht method. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanoshi Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 43 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said: Not really surprising, is it? US, UK, Aus pension statements pretty much are worth nothing with Thai Immigration these days in the absence of Embassy certification, except as potential backup documentation for authenticated foreign bank transfers. He can provide the proof requested for the conversion of his TV toe a Non O as laid down in their procedures, but their requesting additional documents and making it up as they go along and blaming his Embassy. He's followed all their instructions to the letter, but now their requesting the impossible. I've never had any problems with TI and until now always thought expats must be at fault when they have problems, but what I witnessed yesterday, was sheer malice and discrimination. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leaver Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 On 7/22/2019 at 11:35 PM, FaFaHead said: Back home to the states. Why? $185USD for a 1 year multiple entry visa to Vietnam. No other requirements to meet. Here's just one of the many online agents. Check the price out for yourself. https://www.myvietnamvisa.com/vietnam-visa-cost.html 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neeranam Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 I can't see the big fuss. Pay $500 a year, if you don't have the money in the bank and your visa is done. Cheap for peace of mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surangw Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 all the depts not using the same rules, or making them up as they go? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timendres Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 9 hours ago, ThaiBunny said: What the conspiracy theorists who propose that notion need to explain is why not force it on every Embassy? They did force it upon every embassy. The difference being that the other embassies are fully willing to stand behind the income letter as being a verified income. The US embassy simply refused to actually verify the income and produce an income letter stating that the income was verified - it was only a notarization of an affidavit up until it was discontinued. I can actually imagine Thai Immigration not quite understanding why the US embassy refused to take this extra step to verify the income, and possibly resenting the disruption that it caused and the extra work forced upon them. I can also understand the US embassy not wanting to verify incomes - with the single exception of SS payments, which should have been a simple matter for them to verify. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThaiBunny Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 13 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said: The transfer itself needs to be 65K. I'm perfectly well aware of that. I was wondering what use the pension statement would be if it didn't reflect 65K per month Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonowl Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 On 7/22/2019 at 2:35 PM, FaFaHead said: Back home to the states. I’m in a 3 year lease and that’s a consideration. I live in a great neighborhood and have a nice house here in Doi Saket. This Immigration stuff sucks. As I scooped up my papers I told the Thai officer that they didn’t want Falangs and this Immigration attitude was bullshit and walked out. The wife and I spend some pretty good BHt every month here. Really pisses me off. Coming here was a mistake I think. Breaking the lease, etc., is going to be a hassle. Damn Thailand! Well, looks like the diseases from the mozzies is only going to get worse, you're probably better going home anyways and leave them all to it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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