Mekong Posted June 16, 2008 Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 Basicaly sums up what I have been saying all along. The rules and regulations are in place, 800,000 THB in a Thai Bank with NO interest for 6 months would loose me STG 412 per annum, or approx STG 8 per week. Surely if one is considering retirement plans these "hidden" overheads have to be included in your overall plan. Not that I would follow that route, I wouldn't even consider retirement here with at least twice as much per month income as required for a retirement visa at it will be coming from overseas, as others have mentioned the coding on bank accounts shows where the money has come from. Then again when I finish work I will go from Biz Visa to Marriage Visa and the wifes income alone is more than enough to satisfy immigration (Didnt someone ask recently why get married ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardy641 Posted June 16, 2008 Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 I also have been considering a move to Vietnam but more for business than private reasons. You canâ??t compare Vietnam with Thailand. Laws are enforced here strictly â?? which is good for business though â?? but not for leisure as it is still illegal to take girls to your Hotel. One nice example is the enforcement of wearing helmets. A year ago hardly any of the thousands and thousands motorbike drivers in Saigon has been wearing a helmet. Since December 2007 it is required to wear a helmet when driving a motorbike. Since the day of enforcement you hardly can spot anybody driving without a helmet. They all obey. In Thailand they are trying to enforce the same for over 5 years with very limited success. Another annoyance are more and more so called May Goks (ethnic Vietnamese but born and/or living abroad mainly the US) who are returning to their country. They blowing away tons of money and are mainly responsible that entertainment became so expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardy641 Posted June 16, 2008 Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 While agree I agree with your statement concerning tourists I strictly disagree if it comes to business and investment VISA. If working in Thailand, the only option I have is to go for non-IM-B, which is limited to 1 year only. Same accounts for my work permit. So even after 12+ years working here I have to go through the nuisance of renewing my VISA on an annual basis but much worse I have no guarantees whether I will also receive it. Worse if having to go to Suan Plu I will get by default only a month VISA first until they made a decision on my work permit extension. After 1 month I will normally receive my 1 year non-IM â??B but I could be refused without given reason any time â?? it happens to me in March 2001 after TRT claimed power. Not a really secure procedure on which I would like to build my future. Being in the project business showing a once month VISA under consideration doesnâ??t really a clientâ??s confidence. The abolishment of the non-IM-O Investor VISA back in 2005 actually proves how unsecure many existences of foreigners in Thailand are. First they doubled the amount to qualify then they completely abolished this kind of VISA. The PR does not help much as it wonâ??t ensure my work permit. Still have to apply annually for a WP and the multiple entry extensions. Not mentioning the ridiculous amount of almost 200K THB I have to pay without having any guarantee to also receive the VISA. Ideally a foreigner working in Thailand with a valid work permit should be offered PR incl. work permit after a certain time letâ??s say 3, 4 or 5 years. This is very common in most countries in the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted June 16, 2008 Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 Hi, Fully agree. We recently set up a BOI approved company and I am in the process of moving from our old company to this one. Problem is that my visa & wp expired last Friday. We had all the paperwork for the BOI application with us when we went to Immigration asking if I could get 14 days rather than 7, after canceling my wp so it can get moved over. No go, 7 days is all I could get. Now of course there is the fun part of seeing if we can get the BOI to get the visa sorted within 5 working days I've been on wp & 1 year Non-B for about 4 years now, have all the paperwork in order to show that I am moving over, but none of that matters one bit. Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gadfly Posted June 16, 2008 Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 The rules and regulations are in place, 800,000 THB in a Thai Bank with NO interest for 6 months would loose me STG 412 per annum, or approx STG 8 per week. Surely if one is considering retirement plans these "hidden" overheads have to be included in your overall plan. Let me use your example as an example of why the regulations don't make sense. If you are here on a retirement visa, you are prohibited from having a work permit. Bank of Thailand regulations provide that a foreignor cannot open a bank account in Thailand unless they have a work permit. The retirment visa rules require THB 800,000 in a bank account. Think about it. The Bank of Thailand has sent notice to banks threatening fines and punitive action if they don't close any account held by a foreigner who cannot produce a work permit. What happens to retirees if all banks start complying with this regulation? (Many already do.) It is the law after all. It makes no sense, and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of similiar examples here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gadfly Posted June 16, 2008 Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 While agree I agree with your statement concerning tourists I strictly disagree if it comes to business and investment VISA. Having given an example involving retirees, let me give an example pertaining to work. No form of immigration visa in Thailand permits foreigners to work in Thailand. The term work is defined so broadly that it even includes attending a business meeting. This means a foreigner entering Thailand for a single business meeting is technically required to apply for a get an urgent 15 day work permit. In practice, of course, 99.99% of foreigners don't even know about this rule, let along comply with it. This is not good. But it gets worse. Every once in a while, a foreigner is arrested and deported for doing something as simple as attending a single business meeting - typically (actually every example I can think of) when it is in the interest of a local interest to have them deported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardy641 Posted June 16, 2008 Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 Exactly my point. They give a shit about your work history. My former boss worked had a WP for 15 years, invested over 7 Million Euro in a business and 3 condominiums. 2 year ago during the annual VISA renewal he got the usual 1 months extension and for some reason the lawyer made a mistake and issued single entry and not multiple entry. Being a frequent traveler and he has been barred of reentry after the second trip abroad within 1 week. Of course you can claim that he should have checked his VISA and it is has been his fault but still considering all the history and that he employed over 100 locals, he was treated like jerk and without respect. He had to leave the country within 7 days and fly back to Europe to apply for a new non-IM-B and redo the whole VISA and WP approval process. TIT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardy641 Posted June 16, 2008 Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 There are plenty of inconsistencies and imbecilities within the Thai immigration rules. Just a few related to your examples. A single retiree requires 800K THB in his bank account to prove he has enough to survive in Thailand. If married he only needs 400K THB. What a BS! As he would only need half by taking care of a wife and most likely her whole family too. The opposite is true of course. I have been working in Thailand as a consultant for my first 7 years. Work permit are only valid for our registered office. Naturally consultants work on projects at the customer office. Until today the immigration laws are unable to handle jobs where foreigners are required to work at different customer sites. I have no chance but violating the immigration law and we had to pay off immigration twice. It might sound unbelievable but there is no way to comply with the Thai immigration laws here. Is it because Thais are just dumb and unable to come with some practicable laws? I doubt. I rather believe they are doing this on purpose to open the door for rampant corruption allowing authorities to take advantage of foreigners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Posted June 16, 2008 Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 There are plenty of inconsistencies and imbecilities within the Thai immigration rules. Just a few related to your examples.A single retiree requires 800K THB in his bank account to prove he has enough to survive in Thailand. If married he only needs 400K THB. What a BS! As he would only need half by taking care of a wife and most likely her whole family too. The opposite is true of course. If necessary, they'd be expected to look after him, hence he doesn't need as much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardy641 Posted June 16, 2008 Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 Oh of course you are so right. There are thousands of Thai spouses eagerly waiting to support their old hubbies with 400K a year. Shame on me thinking bad about the lovely daughters of Issan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.