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New Special Tourist Visa: A drop in the ocean compared to 2019 as many retirees feel abandoned


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7 hours ago, Lacessit said:

I have not found it difficult to retire here, been on a retirement visa for 7 years now.

The big mistake many retirees make is to sink all their assets into Thailand. I've always operated on the principle 80% of my assets stay in Australia.

My only non-liquid assets here are a secondhand car and secondhand scooter. No big loss. My funds in several banks would be withdrawn lickety-split, and converted to currencies which are not printing more money, or gold. I could do that in the 7 days the authorities give if they are kicking someone out.

I'm sure my contribution is appreciated and valued by my Thai GF and her family. The Thai ruling class and their opinions are irrelevant to me, it's only the regulations I have to watch out for.

I'd agree that so far, retirees who have been caught outside Thailand have been treated badly. It's not as if they are in an age group that is reckless with coronavirus, unless they are Trump supporters.

Make sure that gold is in jewellery form.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customs_law_of_Thailand

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9 minutes ago, Bkktodd said:

There you go.  Who is speaking up for retirees /expats  now?  Anyone?  I know my 75,000b plus monthly helps the thai economy and not the USA economy.  Besides we which we dont exploit the tourist site like cheap back packers.  The VAT we pay for our vehicles, home improvement , and monies to help love ones families all benefit THAIS .   Please let us back in

A few times in past years I asked on this forum if there is any organized group to represent retirees to the Immigration Bureau.  Apparently not.  I think it would be a good thing.  In politics it's organized groups that speak up for themselves (politely and strategically, of course) who get results.  In other words a lobbying group.  There are some issues (like this re-entry issue but also ones like the medical insurance requirement for the OA, inconsistent extension requirements at different offices, etc.) that many of us would like to see addressed.

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1 hour ago, George FmplesdaCosteedback said:

It looks increasingly like I will face the same dilemma early next year too, and I have a 15 month old daughter to care for. I will have to go to settle my pension claim I think, but it looks like it will be very difficult to return.

Why? You can come back easily. You have a dependent. Many people back already in this situation. 

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A drop in the bucket would be extremely generous. It certainly is a tiny drop in the ocean. 300-500 passengers can arrive on ONE flight. 1200 per month = 40 per DAY! There are hundreds, possibly thousands, whom still have valid visas/extensions. Why not let them back in first...before coming up with more stupid, asinine schemes?!? 40 tourist per day is just more Thai lip-service and nonsense. T.I.T to the MAX! :post-4641-1156693976:

Edited by Skeptic7
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I think the good thing Thailand should do is that extend more for the foreigners who are staying there and cannot go to other countries now cuz of Covid. Moreover Thailand can do that kind of visa at the same time. This way will make more money and benefits for Thailand.  maintenance and development are good ways.
This is my story: My boyfriend is being stucked in Thailand and cannot extend visa more. And my country-Vietnam doesn’t let tourists come. Now he has to go to EU. It makes the distance bigger. We have to be in this situation like this more than 9 months. You guys should do something humanitarian. 

Edited by kellyoinkoink
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12 hours ago, chrisandsu said:

I really don’t know what people expect ? Personally I don’t want borders opened in my home country especially from places that have very high covid rates . Thailand will be opened for high season they are far to greedy to pass up that cash cow trust me . 

because you are miss informed about the real actual COVID-19 world wide situation.

Now, about COVID-19, we see in countries where they is lot of tests (so not Thailand, not Congo, not Ouganda, not all other poor countries) that there is lot of asymptomatic cases. 

For example we do test 1 Millions people a week there, and there is lot of asymptomatic positives but still 30 death in the month (on 67 Millions of people).

The virus power is now very low and can be compared with a season flue (please, do really compare it seriously, don't let you manipulate by anyone or monopoly invest players who have an interest to sale something like... a vaccine).

 

Instruct yourself, and check the source of the information, control if there is a conflict of interest with a business plan's origin to check if you can trust an information or not.

 

in this world of business predation and unscrupulous industrial monopolies, it is crucial to work a bit on this to not be manipulate.

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9 hours ago, hansnl said:

And it is so simple to debunk the ideas about retirees.

Say 250,000 retirees, some married, some single.

On average bringing inti the country 50,000 Baht, per month that is.

The total sum is not a pimple on the end of anything.

A former governor of a province once said that every retiree is good for 1.4 jobs.

But, the total amount is spread around, doesn't come into the greedy purses of the rich.

And that is a no-no.

 

50,000 x 12 = 600,000 baht ($19,000 USD) a year

 

$19,000 x 250,000 = $4.75 Billion USD a year.

 

I'd personally say that these numbers are on the low side. Even with these conservative figures, expat foreign exchange receipts since the 1997 financial crisis would add up to more than $100B USD - a nice chunk of Thailand's current $250B foreign reserves.

 

The Bank of Thailand will be well aware of the scale of expat contributions to the Thai economy.

 

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8 hours ago, Lokie said:

Best advice I ever got years ago from an old Expat was...

Never buy anything your not prepared to leave behind, keep a suit case packed, this is a country that cycles through military coups every ten yrs or so, No need to buy anything large as is so cheap enough to rent - If does go Pear shaped pick that suitcase up and just get on a plane out of here...

 

Cheers Eddy (from Wigan) 13 years later and all holds true

Certainly does - even more so these days!

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16 hours ago, connda said:

How many thousands long-stay retirees are there in Thailand?  And how many thousand guys supporting a Thai wife, children, and family.  And yet we are continually told that these demographics don't amount to a pimple on the butt-end of the Thai economic elephant.


And yet.......1200 Special, Privileged, Wealthy Foreign tourists per month will stem the tide of the Thai Tourism collapse.

Honestly.  What are these people smoking?  They are totally detached from reality.

By the way, this is a clear warning to any foreigner considering retiring here in the future.  Do so at your own peril.  As many retirees are now finding out, you can be separated from all your assets that you sink into Thailand indefinitely and the Thai government will not care one iota. 
Special "Elite" Tourists are the new target of Thai officialdom. 
You, my retirees friends, are not important in the least.  You truly are viewed by the the Thai ruling class as naught but a pimple on the butt-end of the Thai economic elephant.  You don't matter. 
So potential retirees?  Read and heed.  It might be best to sink retirement roots as well as money and assets elsewhere in a country where your contribution is actually appreciated and valued.

 

 

Great Post connda, and very true. 

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3 hours ago, jerolamo said:

because you are miss informed about the real actual COVID-19 world wide situation.

Now, about COVID-19, we see in countries where they is lot of tests (so not Thailand, not Congo, not Ouganda, not all other poor countries) that there is lot of asymptomatic cases. 

For example we do test 1 Millions people a week there, and there is lot of asymptomatic positives but still 30 death in the month (on 67 Millions of people).

The virus power is now very low and can be compared with a season flue (please, do really compare it seriously, don't let you manipulate by anyone or monopoly invest players who have an interest to sale something like... a vaccine).

 

Instruct yourself, and check the source of the information, control if there is a conflict of interest with a business plan's origin to check if you can trust an information or not.

 

in this world of business predation and unscrupulous industrial monopolies, it is crucial to work a bit on this to not be manipulate.

Have you net seen what's currently happening in Spain?

 

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16 hours ago, Berti said:

 

Why wealthy? The visa costs 2.000.- Baht.

It's not only 2,000B,  yes that's for the visa, 14 day quarantine at a government approved hotel cost 30,000B-40,000B and if you are a tourist staying in a cheap hotel, let's say 1,000B per night =90,000B that's only for a 90 day stay + your spending money, and that's not including your flight to get to Thailand, 

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7 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Nearly everyone I know spends at least that every month here. Some, far more. Some less. You cannot even qualify for a retirement visa on less than 65,000 a month. 

Not in the town you live in buster.

Most of the Falang in that town are not wealthy.

As for qualifying for a retirement visa there are many unscrupulous people who use agents to get their visa's and many agents have, apparently, been known to Blur the figures a bit.

 

 

I been living in your town for @ 6 years and i cannot think of a single Non-that who would spend any where near 100 000 baht a month.

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19 minutes ago, moose7117 said:

Not in the town you live in buster.

Most of the Falang in that town are not wealthy.

As for qualifying for a retirement visa there are many unscrupulous people who use agents to get their visa's and many agents have, apparently, been known to Blur the figures a bit.

 

 

I been living in your town for @ 6 years and i cannot think of a single Non-that who would spend any where near 100 000 baht a month.

Upon further  contemplation, the only non-that that i could possibly think of who would spend 100K a month would have been the owner of "top deck bar and restaurant".

he had a lot of staff, rent and business expenses.

So it wasn't his money he was spending it was money he generated from his buisness.

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6 hours ago, kellyoinkoink said:

I think the good thing Thailand should do is that extend more for the foreigners who are staying there and cannot go to other countries now cuz of Covid. Moreover Thailand can do that kind of visa at the same time. This way will make more money and benefits for Thailand.  maintenance and development are good ways.
This is my story: My boyfriend is being stucked in Thailand and cannot extend visa more. And my country-Vietnam doesn’t let tourists come. Now he has to go to EU. It makes the distance bigger. We have to be in this situation like this more than 9 months. You guys should do something humanitarian. 

Interesting Argument!
Why not let Vietnam do something "humanitarian". In this Forum I only see Thailand should do... 
Yes there are some countries which do better than Thailand.. but also other countries which do same or even worse!

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3 hours ago, Soikhaonoiken said:

It's not only 2,000B,  yes that's for the visa, 14 day quarantine at a government approved hotel cost 30,000B-40,000B and if you are a tourist staying in a cheap hotel, let's say 1,000B per night =90,000B that's only for a 90 day stay + your spending money, and that's not including your flight to get to Thailand, 

Know someone that just got back in ........ they said $3,500 was their total cost using the cheapest options on everything, just for the first 14 days (inc flights).

 

Plenty of decent serviced apartments for 5,000bht/month, you'd be insane to pay 1k/night.

Edited by BritManToo
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11 minutes ago, moose7117 said:

There have been a few cases lately where the appropriate people cannot accurately explain where the virus appeared from.

All i am saying is there is three sides to every story, Yours, mine and the truth somewhere in the middle.

Chinese agents with COVID spray IMHO.

I've rarely ever found the truth to be 'somewhere in the middle', with people usually one person tells the truth, and the other person lies (if it's a woman and a man it's easier, as it's the woman lying). If you're talking governments, the truth is nowhere to be found.

Edited by BritManToo
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My partner's home is a 4 bedroom, detached house where I could safely self-isolate for 2 or more weeks. That would be fine. But expecting me to pay some over-inflated prices to stay in a hotel is ridiculous, insulting and unnecessary. If anyone in authority reads this please take one minute to consider people such as myself.  We don't deserve to be penalised and should be welcomed with open arms. Thank you.

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19 hours ago, Brunolem said:

Already too late for that.

 

More generally, people are misinterpreting what mostly amounts to cluelessness.

 

The guys in charge are not devising some complex schemes to get rid of X and replace them with Y.

 

If that was the plan, then there wouldn't be a new plan every other day.

 

The simple fact is that they don't know how to reopen the country's borders, and probably neither do most of us.

 

No (significant) country is fully open.

 

Most are still under lockdown, partial or not, awaiting the arrival of winter and a second wave.

 

They, in Bangkok, have been watching what has happened in other countries.

 

And for the time being, Thailand is probably better off the way it is than, for example, emulating Australia's Victoria totalitarian nightmare...

Dear Brunolem, Did you just arrive? Or have you forgotten that we had a curfew, lockdown and most businesses in CM were closed. And we handled all this it happily and gratefully knowing it helped and all the time we wore a mask. The morons in Victoria who are breaking curfew, resisting the Govt, not wearing a mask  and being spoiled children, should be jailed!!!

Edited by Audragon
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10 minutes ago, moose7117 said:

...there are people shouting from the rooftops that Thailand is COVID free.

Yet when you look a bit deeper you see that Thailand is not testing as many other countries on a test - per capita basis.

remember if we don't test we don't get new cases.

There have been a few cases lagottely where the appropriate people cannot accurately explain where the virus appeared from.

is this simply that people in Thailand are asymptomatic and the sick people turning up at hospital are not being tested ?

When i took my wife to hospital with severe breathing difficulties recently she was admitted overnight and treated for "asthma" although she has never had it before.

The hospital staff were not interested in testing her for Covid.

I ain't saying she had it but i thought they would have tested,

imagine if she had tested positive it would have ruined the tremendous figures that Thailand is getting.

...

Thailand IS testing.  But not randomly and only those who enter the country from abroad and when people with covid-like symptoms go to a hospital for treatment. 

Such an approach makes sense.

Sure, when they would start a massive testing-program, they would find more 'cases'.

But the number of positive tests ('cases') is not a good indicator in itself, as it does not distinguish between 

- asymptomatic carriers (who wouldn't even have known they were positive, let alone whether they just carry debris from previous infection, or are infectuous) AND

- those with serious enough problems to warrant hospital treatment.

The fact remains that for months there have been zero new cases, and the two odd ones found recently did not have any health-problems.

If there would have been cases with severe symptoms, it would not have been possible in this 'connected' age to keep such cases silent.  Ergo > Thailand is indeed covid-free.

 

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12 minutes ago, Audragon said:

Dear Brunolem, Did you just arrive? Or have you forgotten that we had a curfew, lockdown and most businesses in CM were closed. And we handled all this it happily and gratefully knowing it helped and all the time we wore a mask. The morons in Victoria who are breaking curfew, resisting the Govt, not wearing a mask  and being spoiled children, should be jailed!!!

I only ever wore a mask when entering Tesco/7-11.

Same as all the Thais living around me in Chiang Mai.

 

None of my local business closed (except bars), even the booze shops remained open until they sold all their stock.

Edited by BritManToo
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I have been retired since February 2019 and I have been living in Chiang Mai with my partner since February 2020. I don't work, I don't break any laws, but I do spend money, lots of money. I don't want special treatment, but I would think special consideration should be given to those foreigners that wish to retire and live here in Thailand. No matter how you slice it, it is a boost to the Thai economy. My hope is that the Thai authorities realize that sooner than later. I have some ideas, I spent most of my career in the Orlando area. I can't think of a bigger tourist destination. Maybe the Thai Tourism Authority would open a suggestion box? Just a Thought.

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1 hour ago, HampiK said:

Interesting Argument!
Why not let Vietnam do something "humanitarian". In this Forum I only see Thailand should do... 
Yes there are some countries which do better than Thailand.. but also other countries which do same or even worse!

I’m vietnamese. But for me, all of asian countries are not “humanitarian”, at least for me (I mean my situation or the people who have same situation). Here in VN, we just open for Japanese, CHINA, Korea, Lao, Cambodia investors and Vietnamese citizen who want to come back. It is really annoyed me. That’s why I just hope that Thailand can extend visa for the foreigners who are being stucked there.

i wish someone works in Thailand government was in this forum. ????????

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