True proof-of-income now required in Chiang Mai

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2lz2p
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Re: True proof-of-income now required in Chiang Mai

Post by 2lz2p »

Gaybutton wrote:
2lz2p wrote:he was told that other arrangements were possible if I didn't have the funds
Without posting any personal details, can you give us any examples of what such arrangements might be?
Let's just say it had to do with drinking tea by the IO in question.
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Re: True proof-of-income now required in Chiang Mai

Post by Gaybutton »

2lz2p wrote:Let's just say it had to do with drinking tea by the IO in question.
I see. Understood. I should have guessed it.

Do you happen to know the answer to my question about renewing 3 months or limited to 1 month in advance of the retirement visa expiration date?
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Re: True proof-of-income now required in Chiang Mai

Post by 2lz2p »

Gaybutton wrote:I was under the impression that you can renew the retirement visa as much as three months in advance. One of my friends insists you can renew only up to one month in advance. Do you know which it is?
That was several years ago. For the past few years, it has been no more than 30 days with the exception being if you will not be in Thailand from 30 days before until after renewal. Even then, the earliest seems to be 45 days and maybe 60, but anything more than 30 is "up to the Immigration Officer."
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Re: True proof-of-income now required in Chiang Mai

Post by ceejay »

2lz2p wrote:
Gaybutton wrote:I was under the impression that you can renew the retirement visa as much as three months in advance. One of my friends insists you can renew only up to one month in advance. Do you know which it is?
That was several years ago. For the past few years, it has been no more than 30 days with the exception being if you will not be in Thailand from 30 days before until after renewal. Even then, the earliest seems to be 45 days and maybe 60, but anything more than 30 is "up to the Immigration Officer."
Interestingly, Chiang Mai will renew retirement visas up to 45 days in advance, with no questions asked or reason given. I know that for certain, because I did it in January.
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Bob
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Re: True proof-of-income now required in Chiang Mai

Post by Bob »

As Ceejay notes, the 45-day window is available here in Chiangmai without question. With respect to TJ's report [that CM Immigration has changed their policy and is requiring all US citizens (who rely on the income affidavit to obtain their annual extension based on retirement) to provide proof of the income claimed in the affidavit], I remain skeptical of that as this whole story started with the report of one individual. Unless and until there are continuing reports, it's difficult to believe that there has been any general change of policy on this issue.

Every once in a while, a given Immigration officer requires something different from a citizen or digs deeper (for whatever reason) into claims an applicant is making. That event alone doesn't justify starting a thread on ThaiVisa (or elsewhere) announcing a general change of policy at an Immigration office (by the way, I'm not criticizing TJ here....only the one individual who announced the so-called change of policy for all US citizens based on his one experience at CM Immigration).
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Re: True proof-of-income now required in Chiang Mai

Post by Bob »

Geez, now it turns out that the poster that announced the policy change that started all the hoopla (227 posts on 16 forum pages so far on ThaiVisa) actually got his information from his visa agent and not from CM Immigration. And a few hours ago he finally posted again saying:
"It wasn't even four hours when the girl at Assist Thai Visa called me back to tell that Thai Immigration had recinded their earlier requirement addition and now for U.S. citizens all that was needed was the notarized form from the Consulate. Works for me. Thank you Thai Immigration."

In other words (to steal a quote from Emily Latella of Saturday Night live): "Never mind!"
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Re: True proof-of-income now required in Chiang Mai

Post by Gaybutton »

Bob wrote:In other words (to steal a quote from Emily Latella of Saturday Night live): "Never mind!"
Thank you, Bob. I think you just caused at least a few reading this board a great sigh of relief.
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