FARANG LIVES MATTER

Wanderer said:
I have never wanted nor needed a big cash pot sitting dead as a dodo in a bank in Thailand.
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I am at loss to understand why money in Thailand is "dead as a dodo" in comparison with other countries. I have been "accused" on here of "locking ฿800,000.00 of my money up" for extension of stay purposes when I could be using it more productively it elsewhere. I have yet to discover where "elsewhere" is.
 
Wanderer said:
I had got the wrong ducks lined up.
I cannot do the seasoned amount in the bank as less than 2 months left on visa and I don't carry cash amounts any longer. Unless they change the rules again I would qualify through my two pensions.
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The two pensions would only qualify if you can evidence 40,000 Baht or 65,000 Baht coming into a Thai bank account each and EVERY month for the proceeding 12 months.

Failing that, bite the bullet and buy a retirement extension for 18/20k Baht.
Prakhonchai Nick said:
I brought a sizeable chunk of cash here a couple of days before the UK voted for Brexit. The rate then was 51 as against 39 today. Still existing on what I brought in, and no intention of replenishing stock until the rate improves substantially, or I run out................or I croak!.
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Bollocks!

Any substantial amount transferred in June 2016 would not come close to covering your Jameson consumption over 4 years !! :)
 
Wanderer said:
OK. Back on parade. Been out sorting out appointment for new driving licence etc.

With a property, grandkids etc in UK I have the usual outgoings there, and then the same outgoings here, plus 2 at University.
My company pension and state pension are well used and I transfer money across to here as and when required.
Therefore, while I keep a reasonable balance over here, I have never wanted nor needed a big cash pot sitting dead as a dodo in a bank in Thailand.
And, to put it mildly, now is not a good time to sell assets in UK in exchange for baht sitting in Thailand.

I agree that if I were going to live here full time, then it would be logical to organise things differently, as you have all done.
But 90-days back and forth was always the best plan for both of us, and we had done that since my wife had completed her 25 years as a (Government Officer) Nurse.
That system had worked perfectly well but this year has totally buggered it up.
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John, you must surely spend 400k Baht in any given annual period (OK, let's say 9 months) in Thailand. I see no reason why (subject to availability of funds) you could not move that across and arrange a marriage extension.

I believe that there is still time to do that (I assume you are on a single entry visa? - apologies for not keeping up :))...... as a "married to Thai" I think you can apply to Surin Immigration for a 60 day extension ... transfer funds just before that and tell that you are requesting the extension a prelude to a 12 month marriage extension application.
 
CO-CO said:
John, you must surely spend 400k Baht in any given annual period (OK, let's say 9 months) in Thailand. I see no reason why (subject to availability of funds) you could not move that across and arrange a marriage extension.

I believe that there is still time to do that (I assume you are on a single entry visa? - apologies for not keeping up :))...... as a "married to Thai" I think you can apply to Surin Immigration for a 60 day extension ... transfer funds just before that and tell that you are requesting the extension a prelude to a 12 month marriage extension application.
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I think maybe a confusion - I send a hell of a lot more than 400k baht to Thailand each year - I simply don't keep a lot of cash around in UK or Thailand.
I'll drop you an email.
 
Yorky said:
I am at loss to understand why money in Thailand is "dead as a dodo" in comparison with other countries. I have been "accused" on here of "locking ฿800,000.00 of my money up" for extension of stay purposes when I could be using it more productively it elsewhere. I have yet to discover where "elsewhere" is.
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I understand you Yorky. You are using it every day to service your life as a permanent Thai resident. Therefore it is crucial for that.
I am not doing the same. I don't hold that amount of cash, or anything like it, anywhere. We divide our time between Thailand and UK.
In the UK it would be dead money.
In Thailand I would get some interest on it, but I have never needed to hold money here. I feed cash regularly, as required, into an account held in my wife's name with direct debits /s. orders for as many things as possible, with a schedule for car insurances etc. and a buggeration factor running float.
That had been perfectly fine until the present mess.
 
For your information, if you use Transferwise to move your money each month, you can download a full and detailed spreadsheet of all your transactions for the year or relative 12-month period. While this spreadsheet is too detailed to present to Immigration in its raw state, anyone with a working knowledge of spreadsheets can easily manipulate the data to make a very useful record of all monthly transfers to Thailand. These can then be displayed and totalled month by month, to demonstrate that you meet the monthly 40,000 baht (marriage) or 65,000 baht (retirement) transfers that Immigration needs to see. This spreadsheet, supported with a 12-month bank statement from your Thai bank, was readily accepted by Immigration when I extended my permission to stay 11 months ago. I will prepare the same documentation again this year when I submit my application at the end of December.
 
nomad97 said:
For your information, if you use Transferwise to move your money each month, you can download a full and detailed spreadsheet of all your transactions for the year or relative 12-month period. While this spreadsheet is too detailed to present to Immigration in its raw state, anyone with a working knowledge of spreadsheets can easily manipulate the data to make a very useful record of all monthly transfers to Thailand. These can then be displayed and totalled month by month, to demonstrate that you meet the monthly 40,000 baht (marriage) or 65,000 baht (retirement) transfers that Immigration needs to see. This spreadsheet, supported with a 12-month bank statement from your Thai bank, was readily accepted by Immigration when I extended my permission to stay 11 months ago. I will prepare the same documentation again this year when I submit my application at the end of December.
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That's good to hear, thanks (for future reference).
 
nomad97 said:
For your information, if you use Transferwise to move your money each month, you can download a full and detailed spreadsheet of all your transactions for the year or relative 12-month period. While this spreadsheet is too detailed to present to Immigration in its raw state, anyone with a working knowledge of spreadsheets can easily manipulate the data to make a very useful record of all monthly transfers to Thailand. These can then be displayed and totalled month by month, to demonstrate that you meet the monthly 40,000 baht (marriage) or 65,000 baht (retirement) transfers that Immigration needs to see. This spreadsheet, supported with a 12-month bank statement from your Thai bank, was readily accepted by Immigration when I extended my permission to stay 11 months ago. I will prepare the same documentation again this year when I submit my application at the end of December.
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I print the PDF of the transfer each month and attach that to the certified bank statements, cross referencing the 65,000 Baht transfer with an orange highlighter pen.
 
Wanderer said:
I think maybe a confusion - I send a hell of a lot more than 400k baht to Thailand each year - I simply don't keep a lot of cash around in UK or Thailand.
I'll drop you an email.
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Unfortunately, Thai Immigration are very specific about HOW that money is brought in.

The two options are:- evidencing 400k in a Thai bank account in YOUR name for 3 months (2 months on first application) or having certified bank statements evidencing 40k going in each and every month. No prizes for near misses as a friend discovered.

In the 'good old days' you could have used evidence of your UK income to obtain an Income Letter from the British embassy......... sadly, no longer.
 
CO-CO said:
Unfortunately, Thai Immigration are very specific about HOW that money is brought in.

The two options are:- evidencing 400k in a Thai bank account in YOUR name for 3 months (2 months on first application) or having certified bank statements evidencing 40k going in each and every month. No prizes for near misses as a friend discovered.

In the 'good old days' you could have used evidence of your UK income to obtain an Income Letter from the British embassy......... sadly, no longer.
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"Sadly no longer", my arse! I have used that proof of income letter for 15 of the past 16 years. I hate to think about how much that letter has cost. At the very least, at an average of 2,500 baht/letter, including 200 baht for EMS, some 37,500 baht. Not to mention a visit to the embassy in the early days, plus the cost of a hire car and overnight accommodation in Bangkok for two. Conservatively, I reckon well over 50,000 baht, and for what? A letter that transcribed the figures from my 3 annual pension statements to a letter with a red embossed sticker on the bottom of the embassy. Since the letter was discontinued, I now save 2,500 each year, more than the cost of the extension to stay (1,900 baht), and the 3 pension statements I used to provide to the embassy, are now copied and attached to the paperwork I submit to Immigration. Without a doubt, a much improved and cheaper renewal process.
 
nomad97 said:
"Sadly no longer", my arse! I have used that proof of income letter for 15 of the past 16 years.
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I used the same letter (dated 2002) for a number of years until Immigration informed me that I would need a new one every year. According to Ms Big Tits, it was a requirement of the British Government as guys were dying and their widows didn't tell and thereafter continued to receive the pension. She didn't explain why a dead bloke would need an extension of stay.
 
nomad97 said:
"Sadly no longer", my arse! I have used that proof of income letter for 15 of the past 16 years. I hate to think about how much that letter has cost. At the very least, at an average of 2,500 baht/letter, including 200 baht for EMS, some 37,500 baht. Not to mention a visit to the embassy in the early days, plus the cost of a hire car and overnight accommodation in Bangkok for two. Conservatively, I reckon well over 50,000 baht, and for what? A letter that transcribed the figures from my 3 annual pension statements to a letter with a red embossed sticker on the bottom of the embassy. Since the letter was discontinued, I now save 2,500 each year, more than the cost of the extension to stay (1,900 baht), and the 3 pension statements I used to provide to the embassy, are now copied and attached to the paperwork I submit to Immigration. Without a doubt, a much improved and cheaper renewal process.
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Whilst your point is valid Nomad, I fear that you may have missed mine.


In Wanderer's case he has not been transferring money in on a monthly basis so his options are very limited. At least under the extortionate embassy letter scheme Wanderer could have evidenced UK income.
 
CO-CO said:
Whilst your point is valid Nomad, I fear that you may have missed mine.


In Wanderer's case he has not been transferring money in on a monthly basis so his options are very limited. At least under the extortionate embassy letter scheme Wanderer could have evidenced UK income.
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He still can, if he takes his income source documents to Immigration, it's something I have always done.
 
nomad97 said:
He still can, if he takes his income source documents to Immigration, l something I have always done.
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Are you saying that Surin Immigration do not need to see evidence of monthly income into a Thai bank account?


That would be great news for Wanderer but it is not what other Immigration offices are doing.


In Buriram a friend's application was originally declined because 10/12 of his monthly payments went into his sole Thai bank account...... 2 were sent to his joint account.


(The above comments carry the obvious caveat that, where additional payments are made :cool:, anything is possible when dealing with Thai Immigration).
 
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CO-CO said:
Are you saying that Surin Immigration do not need to see evidence of monthly income into a Thai bank account?


That would be great news for Wanderer but it is not what other Immigration offices are doing.


In Buriram a friend's application was originally declined because 10/12 of his monthly payments went into his sole Thai bank account...... 2 were sent to his joint account.


(The above comments carry the obvious caveat that, where additional payments are made :cool:, anything is possible when dealing with Thai Immigration).
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To answer your first point, no, I did not say nor imply, that Immigration did not need to see evidence of monthly income. Previously, I have made it very clear that Immigration did need to see monthly income for each and every month of the year. In my own case, I submit a full spreadsheet, broken down with monthly totals, the source of which is Transferwise. I do this because I have 3 sources of UK income (pensions) that are payable at different times of the month. I can, and do, transfer these payments as and when I feel the bank rate is looking good. Secondly, this breakdown is fully supported by a 12-month Thai bank statement. I highlight the monthly transfers that correspond exactly to the first spreadsheet. The only difference, the Thai bank statement does not show the total sum transferred each month. Finally, I prepare the third spreadsheet, that totals my 3 pensionable incomes, supported by the annual statements provided by the pension providers, that shows my total UK income for the year. This effectively is the same information, with supporting documents, that the letter of income from the embassy provided. I successfully used this format to substantiate my monthly income some 12 months ago and intend to do so again this year.
 
nomad97 said:
To answer your first point, no, I did not say nor imply, that Immigration did not need to see evidence of monthly income. Previously, I have made it very clear that Immigration did need to see monthly income for each and every month of the year. In my own case, I submit a full spreadsheet, broken down with monthly totals, the source of which is Transferwise. I do this because I have 3 sources of UK income (pensions) that are payable at different times of the month. I can, and do, transfer these payments as and when I feel the bank rate is looking good. Secondly, this breakdown is fully supported by a 12-month Thai bank statement. I highlight the monthly transfers that correspond exactly to the first spreadsheet. The only difference, the Thai bank statement does not show the total sum transferred each month. Finally, I prepare the third spreadsheet, that totals my 3 pensionable incomes, supported by the annual statements provided by the pension providers, that shows my total UK income for the year. This effectively is the same information, with supporting documents, that the letter of income from the embassy provided. I successfully used this format to substantiate my monthly income some 12 months ago and intend to do so again this year.
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Thank you, that clarifies your post #136
 
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