Thai Immigration Asks Foreigners For Bank Accounts, Social Media, Hangouts

[checkbin]

Thanks Flash.

My extension rite is due this week (at Chiang Mai).

Will post here details of any additional forms and income validation required if/when I survive the grilling.

[Flashermac]

Just got a call from him. He says it the Nonthaburi Immigration office that is asking for it. It's not required in Bangkok.

 

Nothing like a uniform policy.

[Stickman]

I wonder if Immigration has come to realise that there are some retirees getting this declaration from the embassy who don't actually have the 65,000 baht + per month income they purport to have. MANY stories of folks getting retirement visa extensions but they barely have a pot to piss in. There has long been a flaw in the system whereby all you had to do was make a (false) declaration at your embassy to get a letter which Immigration accepted. Maybe that's where the problem comes from?

 

 

Brad, just his normal extension. He said you have to go to the Ministry of the Interior, which is in another building at Jaengwattana. The Ministry needs to verify that your embassy statement is genuine! Supposedly takes six hours. That means more running around and maybe two days instead of one. As I said, he lives in Nonthaburi (retired US military officer). No idea if it's nationwide or just his office, but it sounds crazy. I keep 800,000 baht sitting in a Thai account drawing ridiculously low interest, so I wonder how this will affect me.

 

I don't have to renew for a while yet, so hopefully the dust will settle before I have to go there.

[Flashermac]

That's hard to do these days. The US embassy is the only one I know of that accepts your word for it. The others demand proof. But 65,000 is a figure they simply pulled out of the air anyway. If that's what the guv think it takes a Farang to live on, then why do even the top universities pay their foreigners less than half that much? Secondary school pay too. If you're in teaching, you can expect to get 30,000 to 35,000 for your base pay. Only the so-called international schools pay more than that.

 

BTW inflation is speeding up here. That 25 baht lunch you remember will cost you at least 35 to 40 baht now. Every time I go in the grocery, prices seem to have gone up a few baht. The expats can handle that, but I wonder about the ordinary Thais.

[waerth]

Yes food in supermarkets is ridiculously highly priced for a country that is net exporter of food. I found that in the Netherlands in supermarkets things are extremely cheap. Maybe it is because of the huge competition between the many different chains (although being the 2nd biggest exporter of food in the world after the US might have something to do with it).

[cavanami]

I put the $$$ in a CD. The interest rates have been going down. Now Bangkok Bank is at 1.5%.

 

Maybe Thai Immi would accept a CD? if not, go to another Immi office 555

[checkbin]

No grilling today - all Chiang Mai appointments allocated by the time I arrived at 09.00hrs after a two hour drive.

 

(Online appointment system crashed last July ...)

 

Early night tonight ....

[Flashermac]

Appointments? Something I've never heard of in Bangkok.

[checkbin]

Retirement Visa duly extended yesterday. No form/questions about social media usage, visits to Woodstock bar etc.

[Flashermac]

Mine is coming up in a month. Only new thing last time was Immigration demanded a copy of my rental contract. I showed them my 90-day report with my address, but they said that wasn't enough. The order had come from on high (military).