Thailands Visa Requirements for Medical Travellers

Bangkok and Pattaya are known for their nightlife and shopping. Phuket and Ko Sumai are known for beaches and water sports. But, the medical services available in Thailand are also well known. Thailand is a good destination for your medical needs. This phenomenon, termed Medical tourism, is growing in Thailand and setting new standards of comfort, medical treatment, savings and experiences. So, here are the benefits of medical treatment in Thailand:

• There are a lot of internationally accredited private hospitals in Thailand that have acquired certification from ISO and Joint commission of international accreditation. With these latest technologies, facilities and services, you can enjoy equivalent treatment and health support as you would in any hospital in western country.

• Professional expertise of the doctors, nurses and paramedical professionals in private hospitals matches that of their international counterparts. They are equally well-informed and well-trained about the latest medical procedures and surgeries that most people opt to travel for.

• Post-treatment care for most medical tourists includes three extremely important rewards:
o Thai therapeutic massages and other alternate treatments are really beneficial for the patients. No wonder they are incorporated into follow up treatments.
o Thai hospitality offer excellent support to recuperating patients,
o Thai tourist destinations can be great and valuable distractions for the medical tourists.

• The medical treatments in Thailand are much more affordable than their international counterparts.

The documents required for Medical Visa to Thailand are:

• Valid passport
• Visa application form
• Proof of financial eligibility to afford the stay and medical treatment in Thailand
• Proof of hotel accommodation
• Return flight ticket

However, you will also need to submit medical documents to apply for Medical visa of Thailand. Here are the supporting documents that are ideally suggested by Embassy or the visa specialists:

• Medical reports from your hospital that needs medical treatment from Thai hospital.
• Letter of acceptance from Thai hospital.

When you submit all the required documents along with visa fee, your medical visa to Thailand would get approved and you would step into this paradise. You would receive the medical treatment and follow up. Then you can step out and enjoy the beaches of this tropical destination with a sip of margarita.

The medical visa is typically approved for 90 days. However, the international period of validity is for 1 year. But, these kinds of approvals are based on country of origin. So, get well soon and head home.

How to save tax with mutual funds

As February approaches, most of us start looking for tax-saving solutions. Tax saving mutual funds can be efficient investment avenues that may help reduce your tax burden and at the same time increase your wealth.

In an endeavor to cut down the tax liability by as much as possible, a number of us end-up making hasty investment decisions, typically with long-term repercussions. This is true for most of us. We tend to our tax-saving investment choices for the last few weeks. However, it’s imperative that one carefully plans and executes his or her investments well ahead.

While it’s vital to possess adequate information concerning the various tax-saving provisions under the income tax Act, it’s also critical to find out about the main tax saving instruments that allow you benefit from these provision.

ELSS Funds

ELSS – An Ideal Tax saver- Equity Linked Savings Schemes (ELSS) offers a simple option to obtain tax benefits and a chance to harness the potential upside of investing within the equity market. The primary objective of the scheme is to generate long-term capital appreciation from a portfolio that is invested predominantly in equities along with income tax benefit.

Since it’s an equity fund, the returns from this scheme are market determined. Over a longer period of time ELSS funds deliver higher returns with tax-efficiency. It has also been observed that these funds tend to outperform other classes where returns are concerned.

Features of ELSS Funds

Tax-saving
Three-year locks-in period. This encourages long term investment among investors and also gives them enough time to manage their portfolios of stocks.
Can be held even after the completion of 3 years
Offers dividend as well as growth options
Option of starting with investing small amounts of as low as Rs. 500 a month.
Tax Treatment of ELSS Funds

The returns from an ELSS fund are tax free in your hands. The long run capital gains from an ELSS are tax free as well. This is as a result of no tax is levied on equities that are held for over a year. Since an ELSS falls under section 80C, you’ll be able to claim around Rs. 1, 00,000 from your investment as a deduction from your gross total income.

What Is Document Attestation?

While applying for a new passport or renewing an old one, all citizens are required to provide a list of documents for perusal. While the requirements for the same may vary from country to country, by and large, the list includes a proof of address, proof of date of birth as well as a document to prove citizenship. These documents, once submitted, have to be verified, and the process is called Document Attestation.

The Document Attestation Process involves authenticating or legalising the submitted documents by respective embassies and is a process most often followed when applying for a visa to different countries. Apart from these required documents, embassies also accept document attestation for other necessities like education degrees, marriage certificates, any kind of diploma, police clearance certificates and so on.

As part of the document attestation process in countries like India, there are, by and large, three types of attestations:

State Attestation: different kind of documents will require different kind of state authorities to attest the same. For example, in case of an educational document, the State Education Department will be required to validate the document. In case of a personal document, however, different departments will be called to verify the same.

Ministry of External Affairs Attestation: MEA attestation is a document attestation process that normally follows state-level document attestation. For the most part, three kinds of documents get attested: Educational, Non-educational and commercial documents.

Embassy Attestation: After state-level and MEA-level attestation is completed, various embassies will also be called upon for document attestation. While this process may seem a bit tedious, many consulates and embassies also outsource their services to visa and consulate service firms. These firms will help you not only run through the document attestation process, but also help with document scanning service, and in many cases, also offer to help you digitize and protect your hard copies.

This document scanning service is invaluable when it comes to safety, as it helps to safeguard your documents, do away with the worry of damage and can be retrieved very easily. These firms also help to make the process of document attestation relatively painless, as many offer to take up the entire process for a certain fee and promise to deliver in a fixed time frame. It is important to check whether these firms work in tandem with the embassy that you wish to apply for a visa with and the kind of fees that the same charge for.