Gaybutton wrote:' ... One thing is for sure - if the US embassy ever starts requiring people to prove their income instead of just taking their word for it when they apply for the proof-of-income statement, there's going to be Americans in trouble ... '
Has anyone heard that the US Embassy income rules - i.e. providing actual proof - may be changing in the near future?
I'm Canadian and our Embassy has always asked for proof of income [usually the Best Proof is one's tax return from the previous year], so for some time I had always assumed that the US was doing the same. An American friend living in Thailand filled me in to the reality a few years ago.
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On my small Soi here in Hua Hin at least 3 foreigners on retirement visas are playing-the-game in various ways ... and this almost always requires paying, under the table, bribes of around 30,000 baht every year. The money, or good portions of it, always ends up in the hands of the Immigration Police. So in fact, the end game of whether they will end up in big trouble is weighted in their own favour; the Immigration boys and girls don't want to see their cash cow[s] all of sudden dry up. So, the 30,000 baht becomes protection money as well. No problem, they say.
The Embassy income letter is essentially moot because no proof is necessary. They know it, and most importantly, the Imm Police know it.
The money-in-the-Bank letter is actually technically true ... but part of the shenanigans is that the deposited money - for the proper number of months - has been loaned to them at a very high interest rate. After receiving the the 12 month Extension they pay the money back.
To me, this whole annual rigmarole must be very stressful.
If the rules change, and especially the Embassy income rules, I have no doubt that the little cabal of the farang, the Imm Police, and the necessary loan shark will figure out a way to get around any problem ... it is after all, the Thai way. The loss of 30,000-plus Baht [for each farang ... and the price will undoubtedly rise in lock step with the risks] is not to be taken lightly.
I was sitting in New Guy Bar the other night and an Englishman who I had never seen before asked me if he could join me. Certainly.
He was from Phuket where he had lived for 7 or 8 years.
The subject did in fact get around to visas etcetcetc [his was a Retirement Visa] and after some questioning he told me that he also was in the position of having not enough income, or deposited money in a Thai bank to qualify for his annual extensions.
I thought, yes, well I've certainly heard kind of stuff before. Talking a bit longer regarding this he then told me that around 80 percent of the farangs he knew in Phuket
were in exactly the same boat.
Given the fact that I did not know this guy - a perfectly nice fellow I should add - and giving some leeway for exaggeration, that percent number is still a formidable one.
Add in my experience with 3 farang on my quite small Soi [about 90 percent of the farangs I know fairly well on this soi], and I would not be very surprised if the Dark Way of getting a retirement extension is
much more prevalent that I would have thought. And I am a pretty serious cynic on some issues.
For myself, my annual Extension requires a sit-down of about 15 minutes [not including wait time] and an outlay of 1500 baht for the income letter, and 1900 baht for the Extension. No stress.
I wouldn't/couldn't enjoy living in Thailand always [theoretically] under a Damocles sword. And it never goes away ... other than a big lottery win.