Visas regulations: Twisting the knife?

Dear Sir,

Barry Kenyon’s article (Pattaya Mail, 15th Jan. ’99) on the new Thai visa regulations makes very depressing reading.

I first visited Thailand as a tourist in 1988 and liked it so much that I came again in 1989 and twice in 1990. In 1990 I had the opportunity to take early retirement from a well paid job in local government service and after weighing up all the pros and cons I decided to take the plunge and live off my monthly pension in Thailand. After producing all the necessary documentation I was issued with a Non-immigrant ‘O’ visa from the Royal Thai Embassy in my home country on the basis that I was genuinely retired and in receipt of a pension of approximately 15,000 baht per month, sufficient to cover all my living expenses in Thailand. I was then 50 years old and under the prevailing visa regulations I would be able to obtain a one-year renewable visa when I reached age 55.

Roughly one year before my 55th birthday the regulations were changed, meaning that I would not be eligible to apply for a one-year visa until I reached 60 years of age. Sadly, I was consigned to another 5 years of regular trips to Penang or some other dreary destination to obtain a new Thai visa. I didn’t want to spend my money in Malaysia (of Hong Kong, or Manila); I wanted to spend it in Thailand!

I am now approaching my 59th birthday and was looking forward to getting my one-year visa, but guess what! The regulations have been changed again. And no, I don’t have 800,000 baht with which to help re-capitalize the Thai bank of my choice, but over the past years I have brought around three million baht into Thailand. If I were to stay here for another 8 years I would be injecting at least a further four million baht into the Thai economy - and that’s an interest free foreign currency investment!

I think that very few retirees will be willing and/or able to deposit 800,000 baht in a Thai bank but for every one that does there must be 50 more who would be more than happy to maintain a deposit 50-60,000 baht. So I would like to ask His Excellency, the Prime Minister, which would benefit Thailand more, one retiree with a one-year visa depositing 800,000 baht or 50 with similar visas each depositing 50,000 baht? Multiply the result by the total number of foreign pensioners living in Thailand, consider then the foreign currency injection of their monthly pensions and you have an appreciable sum. And don’t forget to add in the amount of money they would no longer be spending in Malaysia or elsewhere on avoidable ‘visa runs’.

The new regulations may not force existing pensioners to leave the country ‘en masse’ but they will definitely deter others from coming to settle in Thailand after retirement: their monthly income - foreign currency - will go elsewhere and the Thai banks will lose their potential savings deposits. In his article, Barry Kenyon began by saying that "the regulations change frequently". Well, Prime Minister, please, please think again. Get it right this time and the regulations could remain unchanged far into the future.

You could, for example, regulate for a new three-month retirement visa, issued and renewable in Thailand, conditional on proof of a monthly pension from abroad of, say 20,000 baht and a balance of 60,000 baht in a Thai bank (i.e. three times the required monthly income for a three-month visa). This could run along side the new one-year visa requirements but in both cases banking requirements must be fixed at a REALISTIC level that will maximise Thailand’s potential income from abroad. Set them too high and the pensioners and their money will go elsewhere.

With regard to the loss of fees income at Thai Embassies/Consulates abroad, less than 10% of the cost of a visa run is spent on fees, the remainder funding travel costs, food and accommodation, entertainment and purchase of items that are cheaper abroad than in Thailand. If that money was spent in Thailand, the VAT alone would compensate for the reduced fees income at Thai consulates and the money would circulate within the Thai economy. (And you wouldn’t need to employ so many consular staff, many of them foreign nationals). Doesn’t it seem odd that at a time when Mahatir Mohamed is preventing his own nationals from taking Malaysian ringgit across the border into Thailand, the Thai government is forcing foreign pensioners to spend Thai baht, dollars, pounds, deutchmarks, etc., in Malaysia?

Quoting visa regulations in other countries, Barry Kenyon mentioned ‘stool samples in the Philippines’ and ‘cremation insurance in Indonesia’. Well, I assume the stool is required for medical tests and not simply to satisfy a fetish. And you could cremate an awful lot of people for 800,000 baht!

I have made several new Thai friends during my stay in the Kingdom and it is them that I would miss the most if I were forced to leave. One of them is physically disabled (a deaf mute) and at a time when he was severely depressed due to his lack of employability, I helped him to get a job with a Bangkok computer company. Sadly his job recently fell victim to Thailand’s economic problems but he now realizes that he is capable of greater things. Next month he is planning to sit the university entrance exams and hopes to obtain a teaching qualification so that he can pass on his skills to similarly disabled students. Last June he entered the 20th FESPIC Thai national games in Sri Saket for the first time in eight years and won a total of eight medals (3 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze). So, if I have achieved nothing else during my stay in Thailand, I am proud of the fact that I helped to give him a new sense of self-esteem and a goal to aim for.

I really want to stay in Thailand but I am thoroughly dismayed (and disillusioned) at the prospect of a lifetime of visa runs punctuated by fortnightly visits to the local Immigration Office to beg for a further 15 day, discretionary extension.

Dave Freeman (Despondent Pensioner)

Barrie Kenyon writes: It is true that in the early 1990s the visa retirement age varied from 55 to 60. However, it has been 55 since 1996 and still is. So it looks as if Dave could have applied before the lifting of the minimum deposit to 800,000 baht with effect from November 1st 1998. Unfortunately, he does not seem to have been aware he was eligible from 1996 onwards as he says he is now nearly 59. The raising of the deposit is partly to compensate for the deterioration of the baht since devaluation. It is also worth noting that a retiree can live on the 800,000 baht during the twelve months but, admittedly, must top it up at renewal time. Dave’s point that farangs would sooner spend in Thailand money incurred on visa runs abroad has been made many times before, but to no effect. Immigration rules require most tourist and non immigrant visa holders to pass through the airport gates every few months. The main exceptions are those holding retirement visas, some work permits, residency or in certain cases marriage to a Thai national.

Demolition 101

Dear Editor,

Please allow me first of all to situate myself in the travel and tourism related sector. I am the general manager of a major European airline in the biggest market in Africa (Nigeria). I am also the vice president of Skal club Lagos (Skal club is a worldwide organisation regrouping all people in the tourism and tourism related fields). The 1996 Skal World Congress was held in Bangkok.

I have been coming to Pattaya for a little over 20 years now. I have the firm intention of continuing to spend all my free time here in the future. I am very disappointed, however, to hear that the authorities have decided that the famous "strip" along South Pattaya Beach Road will soon no longer exist.

Since the first time I came here, the strip has always been a place associated with Pattaya and fun. Just to stroll through that (now fortunately a Walking Street) in the evening, sit down for a cold drink or a good meal or step in to some shop and shop around, it’s part of the stay in Pattaya for me and I am sure a lot of other longtime Pattaya visitors. This strip made Pattaya famous in the world. Please do not forget that until the mid eighties it was about the only place to go in this lovely town.

PLEASE, those in charge, do not destroy this part of Pattaya’s history, I beg of you. Leave us the strip.

Many thanks for your attention,

Francois Theunissen

Shallow hospitality

Dear Editor,

Today I had an encounter with a Thai "amazon", a lady with quite a pleasant face who sells watches at the T-junction on Soi 14 or 15 facing Beach Road. Her merchandise was spread out on a table positioned at the inconvenience of passers-by. My husband and I were talking to a friend near her table and she angrily told us to go somewhere to talk. As we started to leave I told her "this is a public place". Needless to say she didn’t understand a single word, she just got to her feet, chased me and gave me that famous Thai kick-boxing performance, complete with a Thai punch which this time missed my left eye she was aiming for as I turned my head away. I was surprised I was still on my feet. I think her little right foot landed on my thigh.

When I finally realized what had just happened I turned to face this 4’10" lady without giving a hint of hitting back. An exchange of a few futile verbal rows followed. She probably just realized I’m not Thai when she heard me talk again as her eyes widened when I did. I didn’t want to appear uncivilized by hitting back and be in the most degrading of all situations as being in a fight with someone like her.

I used to like Thailand. Those friendly smiles the Thais wear on their faces all the time are quite a rarity on the faces of the people in my small hometown in the Philippines. That’s why I’m here feasting on the Thai hospitality. But today, I’m just amazed at the volatility of their character. Suddenly to me, it is a hospitality that’s shallow, that is motivated only by the prospect of making money out of tourists.

Of course there are genuinely nice Thais out there. But this woman certainly represents quite a handful of citizens of her kind in this part of the world, so quick-tempered, a lurking volatility behind her smiles, loud-mouthed, uncivilized, so unsophisticated, so uncool, unevolved!

Yours Truly,

Tiggy

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