If cannot fly out to convert to Non-O retirement

[Peter Denis]

13 minutes ago, JimGant said:

...

Anyway, had not realized there were some premiums in the low 5-figure range for 75-year olds; and would make the alternative goat ropes -- Kor Ror 22 paperwork, embassy visits, amphur visits; border out and ins, should the border open; or a trip to HCMC, which albeit probably interesting, is not high on my bucket list. So, 16000 baht for a quack insurance policy -- sounds like a viable alternative (especially when I was even investigating the 500,000 baht Elite Visa). So, just pay the crooked TGIA, and move on to the next year -- and whatever interesting hurdles that may present.

It is only because of the closed borders that you are now almost 'forced' into extending your present O-A retirement Visa, which necessitates subscribing to a thai IO-approved health-insurance policy.

Next year, you simply exit Thailand and then apply for a 90-day Non Imm O - retirement Visa (either at a foreign consulate or after having returned VisaExempt apply for it in-country at your local IO), and in the last 30 days of that 90-day Non Imm O - retirement Visa you can then apply for the 1-year extension of stay based on that Visa.  The requirements/conditions when applying for a 1-year extension of stay based on an O - retirement Visa or an O-A Visa are identical, except for the fact that the O - retirement extension does NOT require the thai IO-approved health-insurance policy.

[JimGant]

A few months back I recall a thread about what dates you should use for your O-A required health insurance. But I can't locate that thread. In short, one chap was told by Immigration that his insurance should start on his date of application for extension renewal, which was about 30 days before expiration. Another was told the insurance only needed to be inclusive of his extension days. Was this ever resolved? Anyone?

[Maestro]

Removed an incomprehensible post.

[DrJack54]

2 hours ago, JimGant said:

A few months back I recall a thread about what dates you should use for your O-A required health insurance. But I can't locate that thread. In short, one chap was told by Immigration that his insurance should start on his date of application for extension renewal, which was about 30 days before expiration. Another was told the insurance only needed to be inclusive of his extension days. Was this ever resolved? Anyone?

Yes that thread was about insurance start date needed to be same date as application. That caused issue.

[WalkingOrders]

I suggest that Americans tranferring funds to Thai bank use Bangkok bank and not Transferwise. It is far cheaper.

[Peter Denis]

10 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

Yes that thread was about insurance start date needed to be same date as application. That caused issue.

Yes, that was at CW.  And the dim-witted female immigration officer insisted that she could not process the application for a 1-year extension on the basis of applicants O-A Visa for reason of retirement, because at the moment of application (a couple of days before the expiry of his permission to stay which did NOT need mandatory health-insurance) 'his health-insurance policy was not yet active'.

Since the permission to stay expires at midnight, but thai insurance policies start at a different hour, the situation was impossible to resolve.  But finally she agreed to process his application on the last day of his permission to stay just before CW office closes...

If I recall well he had to come back 3-4 times (obviously each time having to update his bank-book and statement), and applicant was quite rightly utterly disgusted by this display of utter incompetence.

 

[JimmyJ]

18 hours ago, WalkingOrders said:

I suggest that Americans tranferring funds to Thai bank use Bangkok bank and not Transferwise. It is far cheaper.

Are you referring to sending funds via ACH to BB branch in NYC and having them xfer it to Thailand?

 

This has no longer been possible for a long time per many reports here.

 

When is the last time you did that?

Edited April 19, 2020 by JimmyJ

[ubonjoe]

33 minutes ago, JimmyJ said:

This has no longer been possible for a long time per many reports here.

It is still possible if the transfers are sent in the IAT format for international ACH transfers.

Still getting my SSA payments that way.

[JimmyJ]

36 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

It is still possible if the transfers are sent in the IAT format for international ACH transfers.

Still getting my SSA payments that way.

How does one set that up?

 

Did you call SSA and the cs person who answered was familiar with that and able to set it up?

 

Do you know how I can arrange that with my bank in the USA, not for SSA but for an ACH xfer for USA to BBank in Thailand?

 

I'm imagining that if I speak to a cs person at the bank they won't have a clue what I'm talking about and I'd be surprised if one of the desk people (supervisors) would know either, although they can hopefully call somewhere and find out.

 

 

[ubonjoe]

10 minutes ago, JimmyJ said:

Did you call SSA and the cs person who answered was familiar with that and able to set it up?

 

I did not have to do anything. SSA had already started doing the that way for most people. A few that were not using a Thai address had problems getting it sorted out.

Most banks will not have a clue about it or are unwilling to do it.