@Bart *************

It gets even worse when the EU governments decide to implement a digital Euro, fully controlled by EU and the European bank.

Once setup, the governments can decide how you spend your money and what you can’t do with it. How much misery and mistakes will that deliver?

Imagine someone using the monthly income method for proof of funds. Then your monthly allowance is… erhm… is *not* coming in because some dick made one of those well known programming mistakes and all retirement payment to Thailand are automatically blocked.

You complain. The government apologizes and… sends the money three weeks later. Good luck at your next visa extension explaining why you had one month zero income…

I am landing every last penny I own in Thailand to protect myself against EU computer errors.

@Chanelle ********************

Something tells me this document is not right. I emailed and they sent me an official document stating the requirements. Rule #1: The cat must be chipped before vaccinations. Rule #2: The cat must bevaccinated against common cat diseases and rabies.

<more rules>

At least for EU citizens it is mandatory to have everything documented in an international passport. On top of that, a health certificate according to this and that model must be presented, not older than max 10 days before your arrival in Thailand, and verified by a national organisation (in Netherlands ‘the Food and Goods Authority’ - NVWA, don’t ask me why).

At the end the Thai rules stated that we do *not* need an import permit when the cat is flying with us in the same plane when we enter Thailand on Suvarnabhum Airport. The life stock inspection at the airport will check our documents and a permit is issued on the spot.

We had our cat in an IATA carrier and the cat was very carefully and gently handled by a security official who took her to a special area in the plane where a proper temperature for travel was maintained. I was quite impressed how well the cat was when we received him back at the airport. He doesn’t respond well when being mistreated but he was totally comfortable when they brought him into the cargo pickup area at the airport.

The Dutch lady from NVWA was complaining about the lack of a blood test. I told her it is not necessary and she insisted several times. In the end she said “You can be assured they won’t let the cat back into Netherlands when you return.” and I had to explain we were going on a one way ticket.

She asked “Don’t you like Netherlands?”. I smiled and replied “After the long monologue and irrelevant discussion we just had the move gets actually a lot easier.” 🤣

@Ravit *****************

They define ‘cargo’ as travelling without the owner. My cat was in a special cargo area in the plane which was considered to an accompanied cat.

I wonder how much trouble it causes to other passengers when a cat needs to pee and poop during travel in the cabin. Better have her separate in a suitable container.

@Chanelle ********************

30 day quarantine?? I’ve never seen that one before. No quarantine at all when I imported my cat one month ago…

@Jan *****************

I am completely happy to bank 1 mln baht and never look back. I consider it 1) My entrance fee to Thailand and 2) a little security in case something happens to my wife (i’ll need to convert to retirement visa in that case) and 3) a little security for my wife in case I come to pass away.

As I wrote above, she has my codes. I also landed some 700k in her savings account and told her never to touch it as long as I live. We take care of each other.

@Jan *****************

For 3500 I would also use an agent. But the fees I read here and there are a lot higher.

Things became a lot more complicated with the new regulations from early this year. SCB is in that respect the champion of giving me trouble. However, I have read you can use an SCB savings account, giving 2.5% interest, for your deposit. So I am quite anxious to get an account there.

@Frangipani ******

My sister in law came with me and had her housebook.

The embassy had made a mistake on my evisa, not showing the reason for the non-O. Pay attention when you get it. It should have stated “based on marriage”. That would have saved me lots of trouble with all those documents. Immigration, Kasikorn and SCB all wanted to see the marriage certificate (and my wife’s ID) because of this.

Obviously I needed to show my passport. The lady made all required copies and even took me to the hall to make a photo.

I didn’t fill out any form as the immigration lady did it all for us. First the TM30 registration and then the residence cert.

Very very painless procedure. I see all those terrifying stories here about expensive agencies and such and it surprises me again and again. There is really nothing to it, provided you follow the rules. Thai people are just amazingly friendly.

I paid 100 baht for the certificate, received an official receipt, so it wasn’t some sort of bribe.

@Jan *****************

Easy to open an account provided you choose the right bank.

There are only three banks which accept international transfers up to 2mln baht.

I tried Kasikorn, showed them my papers (including a residence certificate from immigration), and the girl immediately and without further questions started to open an account. Perfect! I landed 400k and a bit and was all set for the extension.

Then I went to SCB. Omg!!! They asked one document after another. Then the girl noticed my passport number had changed. Big problem! We don’t get our old passport in Netherlands.

Fortunately I had a picture of my old passport on my phone. She accepted that and then said “ We have everything. I will send it to headoffice (Bangkok) and I’ll call you when it’s approved.”

A few days (!) later she called and said my marriage certificate was missing. It wasn’t so I decided to visit the bank again to inquire about the certificate. It turned out they also wanted a K.R.2 which is a document from Amphoe detailing the specifics of the wedding (witnesses and such).

So went to Amphoe where the lady promptly gave us the wrong document. I told her I needed Kor Ror 2 and she told me she gave me the right document. I asked again, she repeated her statement. Then the next lady interfered and finally we received it.

Back to the bank. They took copies and told us again it would be sent to head office. That was a week ago and we are still waiting. All in all this theatre takes already more than 2 weeks.

@Steve ********

No harm done. It’s the intent that counts, despite my sarcasm.

I had found it already, but thanks anyway for the effort.

The reason I am asking is that we are about to start building a house. We arrived in June, which would make me a taxable citizen this year. Inserting a holiday abroad fixes that.

I’ve read too many contradicting comments about bringing in my initial bank balance and whether or not that might be taxable.

So we are looking for a timeframe to go elsewhere (Vietnam) preferably before starting the build, without losing the status of my visa / extension application.

@Steve ********

If “he” is looking for something they might consider asking “him” whether it’s the thing “he” is looking for.

But yes, he was looking for this timeline. He thought there were separate timelines for extension on retirement and extension on marriage. He had this one already, read it again after Ellie’s comment and noticed it’s one timeline for both extensions.

He hopes it helps them too and thanks them for trying to help him.

He wishes them a great day. 😉