New Long Term Visa - Not Easy To Obtain.

Mel Malinowski said:
On October 31, I applied for a 10 year 'Long Term Visa' under the 'Wealthy pensioner' provision. Supposed to take 20 working days, enable doing it all on line, and make it easy. As of January 9, it's still pending. I think the Board of Investment's intentions are good, but I seem to be running into bureaucratic obstacles that look familiar. In one case, they didn't like my tax return not being on blue colored 'official' paper (which is only used if you hand write your return). A lack of familiarity with USA tax returns. In order to avoid having to buy health insurance here, you must have had $100,000 USD on deposit since a year before you apply (?!?) (possibly to weed out people faking being rich?), although it does not have to be at a Thai bank. Someone didn't like the looks of my Roth IRA statements from well-respected Vanguard, because they don't look like a Bangkok Bank statement perhaps? Regardless, I'm still waiting, and will have to go ahead and renew my annual Retirement Visa to avoid losing it if this falls through. It's all kind of silly for Thailand to worry so much that wealthy retirees will not pay for their health care, on the penalty of being kicked out :sweatsmile: I get my health care when needed at pricy but excellent Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, and dental work at Bangkok's superb Dental Hospital. I just pay cash, which they are happy to accept. If I got some expensive illness such as cancer, I'd just fly back to the USA where I have full medical coverage. But Thailand worries about it. Truly making it easy for prosperous people to retire here would certainly benefit Thailand, but there seems to be an urge to make it complex and difficult. I'll post how this turns out when I know.
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No progress on LTV. They are being rigid about the deposit requirement meeting their narrow, arbitrary and unlikely to be met description, and will not respond to appeals. It perplexes me as to why the bureaucracy seems to feel a need to make getting a visa hard, as if they secretly want to keep us out. Crazy given how much farang husbands spend when here. I can understand trying to keep hippy backpackers from camping out long term, but this is not that. Oh well. It sure makes me reluctant to invest more here. (I can't say you didn't warn me :smirk:)
 
Mel Malinowski said:
No progress on LTV. They are being rigid about the deposit requirement meeting their narrow, arbitrary and unlikely to be met description, and will not respond to appeals. It perplexes me as to why the bureaucracy seems to feel a need to make getting a visa hard, as if they secretly want to keep us out. Crazy given how much farang husbands spend when here. I can understand trying to keep hippy backpackers from camping out long term, but this is not that. Oh well. It sure makes me reluctant to invest more here. (I can't say you didn't warn me :smirk:)
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Yes we warned you but we all secretly wanted you to succeed, to prove us wrong, as it would mark a change in the Thailand we all know so well.
With a big sigh, I say "welcome to our club". Now you have had the rose coloured glasses slapped of your face. It happened to us all. :anguished:
 
Rice said:
Now you have had the rose coloured glasses slapped of your face. It happened to us all. :anguished:
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Rice, you certainly have way of delivering your point home.

Personally I wouldn't want to share my financial details with an Immigration service (Police) if it's not a requirement just to make a visa.

(For anyone who has dealt with their own governments internal tax and revenue departments those rose coloured glasses sure were quickly shed as well.)

As a foreigner ('expat') I find Thailand almost equivalent to Mejíco for retirement. (Albeit not too sure about the murder rates for each.)

It's happy hour again...somewhere...cheers Rice! :)
 
Rice said:
Yes we warned you but we all secretly wanted you to succeed, to prove us wrong, as it would mark a change in the Thailand we all know so well.
With a big sigh, I say "welcome to our club". Now you have had the rose coloured glasses slapped of your face. It happened to us all. :anguished:
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Mel, I am not sure, nor, do I want to know your circumstances however, if your resources permit, go hard on your dreams or other.
I speak truthfully when I say, unless you cannot afford to loose, you cannot afford to gamble, even Superman was susceptible to kryponite.
Realistically, was with mining for 30+ years for BHP both underground and surface so, with the obcene money I made,
I still would not even consider injecting jack sh*t into this Jurasic park as security for 1 ass kissing Rai of clay.
Although, my wife and myself have houses and farms--for + 12-15 years
If you have that bank roll, place it in the market, in blue chips, not in a rice paddy, FFS man, wake the F*ck up.
What will your annual return be, .75-1.1% ?.
Between 7 -11% is industry average, so, good luck.
 
FERRET said:
Mel, I am not sure, nor, do I want to know your circumstances however, if your resources permit, go hard on your dreams or other.



I speak truthfully when I say, unless you cannot afford to loose, you cannot afford to gamble, even Superman was susceptible to kryponite.



Realistically, was with mining for 30+ years for BHP both underground and surface so, with the obcene money I made,



I still would not even consider injecting jack sh*t into this Jurasic park as security for 1 ass kissing Rai of clay.



Although, my wife and myself have houses and farms--for + 12-15 years



If you have that bank roll, place it in the market, in blue chips, not in a rice paddy, FFS man, wake the F*ck up.



What will your annual return be, .75-1.1% ?.



Between 7 -11% is industry average, so, good luck.





+1
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Coffee said:
"Elite visa membership" for non-Emirs.
@Mel Malinowski I believe they really just want to see 'liquid cash' sitting in a bank account for one year in lieu of Thai health insurance policies and which are exclusive of pensions and retirement accounts holdings.

Up to them as always. Why bother ?
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I'm coming to that conclusion. I sent in a written appeal to the Board of Investment, making the case for a more flexible evaluation of liquid funds/ability to pay for yourself, with a self-addressed envelope asking for a reply. No response at all; perhaps it got filed in the round file? A cynical person might come away with the impression that they don't give a f***. But, this is "The land of smiles" :innocent: Cue up the scene from The Life of Brian: "Always look on the bright side!"
 
Mel Malinowski said:
I'm coming to that conclusion. I sent in a written appeal to the Board of Investment, making the case for a more flexible evaluation of liquid funds/ability to pay for yourself, with a self-addressed envelope asking for a reply. No response at all; perhaps it got filed in the round file? A cynical person might come away with the impression that they don't give a f***. But, this is "The land of smiles" :innocent: Cue up the scene from The Life of Brian: "Always look on the bright side!"
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There is no way I would consider the 'Elite Visa' program on principle. I'll just keep going with 800,000 THB earning no interest and declining in value through inflation, 90 day reporting, re-entry permits (?!?!?) and annual renewals. I was warned about the complications of renewal of a marriage visa, the main advantage being only 400,000 permanent deposit. Oh, well. I'm going to be in Bangkok in April on my annual commute to USA, and will show up in person at the Thailand Board of Investment to try to persuade them with eloquent rational arguments that Thailand could do better. Probably just tilting at windmills. They seem very attached to the hard *ss approach.
 
Mel Malinowski said:
There is no way I would consider the 'Elite Visa' program on principle. I'll just keep going with 800,000 THB earning no interest and declining in value through inflation, 90 day reporting, re-entry permits (?!?!?) and annual renewals. I was warned about the complications of renewal of a marriage visa, the main advantage being only 400,000 permanent deposit. Oh, well. I'm going to be in Bangkok in April on my annual commute to USA, and will show up in person at the Thailand Board of Investment to try to persuade them with eloquent rational arguments that Thailand could do better. Probably just tilting at windmills. They seem very attached to the hard *ss approach.
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The Charge of the Malinowski Brigade!
 
Mel Malinowski said:
There is no way I would consider the 'Elite Visa' program on principle. I'll just keep going with 800,000 THB earning no interest and declining in value through inflation, 90 day reporting, re-entry permits (?!?!?) and annual renewals. I was warned about the complications of renewal of a marriage visa, the main advantage being only 400,000 permanent deposit. Oh, well. I'm going to be in Bangkok in April on my annual commute to USA, and will show up in person at the Thailand Board of Investment to try to persuade them with eloquent rational arguments that Thailand could do better. Probably just tilting at windmills. They seem very attached to the hard *ss approach.
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Maybe the title of this thread should be amended in view of @Mel Malinowski's recent experiences?

Title amended.
 
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Yorky said:
Maybe the title of this thread should be amended in view of @Mel Malinowski's recent experiences?
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Why? Still a true statement. The only thing is "nobody qualifies" 555. Well not without a thick brown envelope.
Bet you did not have one of those in reserve. @Mel Malinowski . You strike me to be not the type that play those shenanigans.
Some people I know would rather not, but at times it can seem the only answer, when forced into a tight corner. Bye the way was there any nudge nudge wink wink going on?
Mind you most times I have experienced it. It comes across straight up and bare faced. No pretenses at all.
 
nomad97 said:
View attachment 60008


The Charge of the Malinowski Brigade!
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The charge is over. I've given up talking reason at the Thailand Board of Investment. The best I can guess is someone in the government (or TBI) is making money selling pointless health insurance to needy wealthy farang, which I am not. Either that, or they are so tightly bound by their rules that there is no room at all to exercise judgement. Keeping the likes of me out of the program on the grounds that I may not be able to pay for my own health care here is stubbornly foolish and counterproductive for Thailand. It boogles me that they can think that making getting/keeping a visa difficult for us benefits Thailand somehow. I'll just spend more time abroad in more welcoming countries, and spend our money there. Arrgh!
 
There many other countries around the world who seem to have no problem issuing some type of retirement visa without all the crap Thailand goes too.
The Philippines are a good example and there are other countries that offer even better examples.
Knowing what I know now.
I would not have stayed in Thailand.
Age and health now is a big restriction for moving.
I am not bitter. Life is to short and getting very short now.
At least the weather is good for my health.
 
Deerculler said:
There many other countries around the world who seem to have no problem issuing some type of retirement visa without all the crap Thailand goes too.
The Philippines are a good example and there are other countries that offer even better examples.
Knowing what I know now.
I would not have stayed in Thailand.
Age and health now is a big restriction for moving.
I am not bitter. Life is to short and getting very short now.
At least the weather is good for my health.
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I don't think the 'rules' in Thailand are that difficult. I think that some immigration offices/IO's can make life more difficult. I have encountered difficult buggers in Cambodia, Vietnam and Bali.

If you satisfy the financial criteria for Thailand it is fairly straight forward; if you don't, you can still buy your way in for 12,500 Baht.
 
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