TylerBKK

Typically, a 12 month bank statement is what's required to ensure you maintained at least an 800K balance for the 3 months immediately following the date that your previous extension was issued, that your balance did not fall under 400K for the next 7 months after that, and that your balance was back up to 800K for the two months prior to today. I'm actually a bit surprised they even accepted the 3 month statement. Anyway, if you had provided a 12 month statement to the IO with all your other documents (same cost as a 3 month statement at most banks) then you probably wouldn't have run into this issue of them wanting to see the old bankbook. 
 

Also, it sounds like you might be using the same bank account for maintaining your 800K as you do for your regular expenditures, just based on the fact that the bankbook filled up. Many people often have two separate accounts at the same bank, one used for visa purposes, and the other one just for daily spending. Keeping the funds in separate accounts helps reduce the number of entries that will appear in the 800K account and the book from filling up, but also helps prevent ever accidentally going below the 800K requirement from any daily expenditures made from the account. 

19 hours ago, josephbloggs said:

Thank you. I will read through that thread and yes, UbonJoe is sorely missed - a truly wonderful, knowledgable and helpful man. RIP.

Your welcome. Wishing you all the best in processing your family visa and hope all goes smoothly and quickly with it. 👍🏻

Is the funds needing to come from abroad just a CM thing? 
 

AFAIR, when I did my O retirement at CW many years ago, I entered on visa exempt, but my funds were already in Thailand since I worked for a long time in Thailand, saved some money locally, and then retired.
 

Many foreigners who work for a long time in Thailand, and then retire, could be in a position where they don't really have any funds saved abroad. So I was surprised when I read in this thread that the funds need to come from abroad for a O retirement visa. 

25 minutes ago, brianp0803 said:

I keep seeing conflicting information. People claiming impossible, and other people claiming it is possible.

Office: Bangkok Chaeng Watana

Currently on non-b (work permit teaching) 63 year old American. 

Can it be converted no non-o (TM-7 reason retirement) in-country?

  I have copy of passport, TM 30, 90-day, pictures.

 

I am hoping when the school takes me to immigration to update my status, I can immediately apply for a non-o (reason for retirement)

 

If I have to leave the country, do I renter on: Visa on Arrial, tourist Visa, on-O visa?

 

Transfer of 800,000 Baht from America in process (using Wise).  Marked the category - For Long-Term-Visa.

 

It has all been covered above already. 
 

Cannot convert B visa to O visa in Thailand. Must leave country after visa and work permit are cancelled. 
 

Easiest thing is fly to Singapore or Malaysia and return to Thailand on same day. Reenter Thailand on 30 day visa exempt. 
 

Then start the process of applying for O visa within 14 days after returning to Thailand. You will get a 90 day O visa from immigration to begin with and then can extend it to one year. 
 

Read the 3 page link posted above (4th post from the top). Post is from 2017 and read all replies containing the responses from Ubonjoe. That will give you all the steps you need to follow and in detail. 

48 minutes ago, Liquorice said:

As already posted you'll have to leave Thailand and obtain a Non Imm O visa first, before proceeded to apply for a 1-year extension based on Thai spouse.

 

You have a number of options:

1. Re-enter visa exempt will grant a stay of 30 days, which you can extend for a further 30 days and an additional extension of 60 days to visit Thai spouse.
You can then apply for the Non O status at local Immigration but have at least 15 days permission of stay remaining (21 days at certain IO's).

For the Non O based on Thai spouse application, the 400K funds are only required to be in the bank on the day of application.
Procedure here: VE-TV to Non O Spouse.pdf 

The 400K THB is only required to be on deposit in a Thai bank account, your sole name, for 2 months prior to submitting the 1 year extension application.

 

2. Perhaps simpler, apply for the single entry Non Imm O visa from the Thai Consulate in Savannahket.
No proof of funds required for the single entry.
On entry, you will be granted a stay of 90 days, which can be further extended by 60 days to visit Thai wife.
You can then directly apply for the 1-year extension based on Thai spouse as soon as your 400K funds have seasoned for 2 months.

 

It may assist if you post at which IO you use in case of abnormalities due to being a rogue office.

That’s good information. I think your post will be more useful for him because my posts were based on retirement visa and your post is based on marriage to a Thai citizen, which is what he needs. 

I just found the information below posted by JackThompson on the second page in the topic I linked above. This confirms my point about needing to apply for the 90 day visa within 2 weeks after arrival back in Thailand on the 30 day exempt visa because they wont give the 90 day extension for some reason if you have less than 15 days left on your 30 day exempt visa apparently. I don't know if this has changed though or not since when this post was made in 2017. Also, if you are not in Bangkok you might even have less time to apply. I don't know how this is all going to fit in with your need to wait another 30 days first.

Quote

Just a heads-up, and I advise applying for the Conversion as soon as possible, so as to have plenty of time to handle any surprises.  The application must be accepted while you still have 15 days left on your current permit-of-stay (but 21 days in-advance is reported required in Chang Mai - as one example of arbitrary rule-variations you may encounter).

I think the best thing to do (from memory) is to go to immigration within the first 2 weeks after entering Thailand on the 30 day visa exempt and then apply for the 90 day visa extension on the basis of an O visa. I think maybe there was an issue (with waiting longer than 2 weeks into the 30 day period after you arrive on the visa exempt to apply) but I can't remember exactly what it was. But the sooner you apply for the 90 day O visa extension after arrival the better I think. I am not sure about extending the 30 day visa exempt though for another 30 days before applying for the 90 day O visa extension. Ubonjoe was really the best person for all of these fine details, but unfortunately he is no longer with us. I was also on various B visas in the past, but I think the last one I was on before I switched to the O visa was for about 5-6 years. After some digging through some old Ubonjoe posts, I found an old 3 page discussion from 2017 which may cover some of the details you are wondering about. I would suggest reading Ubonjoe's replies in the discussion linked below and maybe it can answer some more of your questions:

7 minutes ago, Confuscious said:

 

I don't know what times you are talking about, but I get everything done at the local UOB Branch at Nakhon Ratchasima.
Already many years.
Also, withdraw money from my FCA account to top-up my Savings account (EUR -> THB) at the local branch in Nakhon Rathasima.
No need to go to Bangkok every time for that.
I didn't try it yet, but it should be possible to do everything via the UOB-TMRW Application (prompt pay) also .

Changing everything to Thai baht is not a good option for me because I am in the frame window of a Visa extension now and I plan anyhow to return to Europe soon.

Understood. Then no need to change anything. Sorry, I thought you were in Bangkok and that you planned to stay in Thailand a longer time.
 

Hopefully they will accept your screenshot again next year. But if you can get a letter in the future from UOB in Korat to confirm your FCA balance that might be better. Best wishes. 

1 minute ago, DrJack54 said:

So much about nothing. 

Kasikorn is one of the 3 banks that WISE do transfers to Thailand up to 2 mil baht.

They also have branch at CW.

They can also do yearly bank statements on the spot, however takes solid 30 mins.

I suggest obtain the annual statement day or 2 prior. 

Personally, I am not a fan of KBank because of their low credit rating and I prefer only making one visit to the bank and on the same day that I go to immigration. But, again, to each his own. 👍🏼

9 minutes ago, jingjai9 said:

I used an agent last year to do my marriage visa. This year I want to do it on my own as I have the  necessary funds in the bank. 

Will I encounter any problems about my bank account balance? The agent withdrew the necessary funds from my account as soon as the visa paperwork was accepted and I had the necessary stamp in my passport (pending). When I apply for the visa in June, I will have had the required balance in the bank just a shade over three months. Therefore, my bank account will show a balance below 400,000 from June 2023 until March 2024. How will this look when the immigration sees my bank statement for the past 12 months?

I will be using the same immigration office as I did with the agent. 

 

Hi. This thread is really about retirement visas. Not about family visas. Thus, it might be better for you to start a new topic about your family visa situation so that people don't get confused. Personally, I don't know the answer to your question or I would have given you an answer. Sorry. 

17 minutes ago, Confuscious said:

 

I agree that it is not easy with the different banks in Thailand.

A few years ago, te requirements changed from 400K baht to 800K baht and I wanted to top-up my current bank account at Bangkok Bank.
Although I had a FCA (USD), they didn't allow me to top-up my existing account.
I needed to have a letter from my Embassy the they would guarantee my account, which was not possible.

 

I tried different banks to store the additional 400K baht, but everywhere the rules for opening a bank account were not possible for me (work permit, tax-id number, etc.)
Only UOB, where I had already an account was willing to open an FCA account, but the minimum was 25,000 EUR.

Now, with the phone banking account and the UOB-TMRW account (prompt pay) rulse seems to have changed and it would not be strange if Immigration will adapt their rules too.
 

Yes, FCA can be tricky as you experienced. I like UOB a lot but the fact that the statements are monthly only on an FCA, that there is no bank book, and because they only do the letter at the head office branch, I decided it was too much headache for me. 
 

Your experience with immigration accepting a screen shot of your online banking is great, but there is also no guarantee that they will accept that again in the future. 
 

The main reason I was using an FCA before was because the Thai Baht was very strong and I didn't want to convert a lot of dollars into Baht at a low exchange rate at that time. But when the Baht hit 35 to the dollar I changed it all over to Thai baht and got rid of the FCA.

FCA can also be a problem if you aren't keeping more than an equivalent of approximately ฿800,000 in the FCD account. The issue is, if the Baht strengthens a lot in the future, one could suddenly find that they don't meet the requirements anymore of having ฿800,000 equivalent in the account, which could then be a much bigger problem.

If I were in your situation right now, I would probably convert some of the FCA money into ฿800,000 and put that in a regular Thai Baht savings account with UOB. The exchange rates are also still very good right now.
 

Then, when you extend your visa in the future, you can just go to any UOB branch and get your letter, your account book updated, and a 12 month statement done immediately with no problems.
 

UOB does not have a Branch at CW, but they do have a Branch on CW Road close to the Don Muang highway CW Road intersection that you could use if you want to use a UOB branch close to CW immigration. 

Sorry, I don't know all the answers to all your questions. But what I can tell you is that when I was on a B visa with work permit that I was told I couldn't converted to an O visa when I retired. So I left the country, flew to KL and flew back to Thailand the same day. I came back in on the visa exempt 30 day, then I applied for the O visa at immigration within two weeks of entering in on the visa exempt. Then immigration gave me either a 60 or 90 extension (can't remember exactly what it was) and they processed my O visa application. No problem at all that I was on a B visa before, exited and recentered on a visa exempt 30 day and then applied for the O. Hope that helps. 

25 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Why would you choose SCB...One of the few banks that does not have  a branch at CW..

At the time I was looking for an alternative bank to UOB for a foreign currency deposit account. I already had a Thai Baht account at SCB so it was easy for me to just move it there. And since SCB provides a bank book with an FCD account, it was a big incentive for me.
 

I think some banks also wouldn't open an FCD account for a foreigner at that time unless they had a work permit. In the end though I found FCD accounts to be a hassle in general. The only way to easily update the bank book for an FCD account is to do a small withdrawal of your foreign currency into Baht. At least with Thai Baht account you can transfer 50 Baht in from another Thai Baht account via a mobile app and then just update the book very easily.  
 

Now that you can book an online queue for an appointment time at immigration, it also doesn't matter to me so much if there is a branch of the bank at CW or not. As long as you have an afternoon appointment time, you can go to your local bank branch in the morning, get all your paperwork, then go to CW in the afternoon, and you will not have to wait very long to renew you visa extension. 
 

To be honest, I've found many of the banks have their pros and cons. Bangkok Bank has a branch at CW, but they have that issue with taking 3-4 days to issue a 12 month statement, which makes them much less desirable for using with a retirement visa, even though they have a branch at CW.
 

If you really want a bank with a branch at CW then Krungsri or KBank are probably your best options. KBank had their credit rating downgraded though by S&P in 2022.
 

But as I said, with having the online appointment queuing system now available for immigration, I don't feel that it's critical for me to choose a bank with a branch at CW anymore. 

4 hours ago, Confuscious said:

 

I am a little bit confused about #4.
I have the 800,000 baht at UOB bank in EUR (Foreign Devices).
UOB bank doesn't supply customers of a FCA with a Bank Book but send every month a statement of the balance in that account.
Immigration accepted the monthly statements (3 months prior to the aplication), certified by the bank.

But there was a problem to show the balance on the Bank book at the extension day.
I showed the Immigration officials my phone banking application which showed the balance at the time of the extension and the immigration officer accepted that (after taking a picture of the screen of my phone and printing it).

Seems that the Immigration accepted the phone banking screen as proof of the balance.
 

I used to have an FCD (foreign currency deposit) account at UOB before too. It was always a challenge to satisfy immigration requirements because they didn't provide me with a bank book for that account.
 

And only the head office branch of UOB was able to give me the letter I needed to verify the account balance on the account. So I used to go to the head office in the morning (before going to immigration) to get the 12 monthly statements printed out by the bank and the letter. It would take them 1.5 to 2 hours to do everything. By the time I got to immigration it was already lunch time. I would then get a queue number at 1:00 and I didn't finish at immigration until 4:30. It was a whole day used up. 
 

And then I still had problems sometimes with immigration because there was no bank book with the account. Also, my FCD account balance didn't show in the UOB mobile internet banking app at that time. But that's changed now with UOB it sounds like from what you said. 
 

Eventually I moved the funds to SCB though. They give you a bank book with foreign currency deposit accounts. They can also print a 12 month statement for you at any SCB branch. So that made things much easier for me. So with SCB (on an FCD account) you can get the letter, the 12 month statement, and get the bank book all updated at any SCB branch, just like a normal Thai Baht account. So using SCB made things much easier than using UOB. So I would get everything done at my local SCB branch in the morning and then go out to CW. 

Now I'm no longer using an FCD account and I have a regular Thai Baht account for the 800K Baht, but for using an FCD account for immigration purposes I found that SCB was much easier than using UOB. 

1 hour ago, Negita43 said:

Did the renewal today all forms pre-filled and pre-signed - got to the bank at 8:30 first in queue - got to Immigration 9:30 second in the queue. BUT what you can't plan for - their internet down! (Korat) eventually got out about 11:30 otherwise smooth and painless.

Excellent news. Glad to hear it went so smoothly. Now you have another year to relax and not worry about it. 

1 hour ago, DrJack54 said:

Don't understand this thread .

Some folk going to in depth chit-chat re fillable forms etc.

My experience since this was required  at CW the io pushed them in front of me. I signed and did nothing more.

Talk about a storm in a T cup

TBH, I would rather fill them out in advance if I can rather than having the IO wait for me to do them at her desk. It isn't a big deal as you said, but anything to make the process a bit smoother and faster isn't a bad thing in my opinion. I've always done the same as everyone else and filled them out on the spot. But going forward I will plan to have them prepared in advance, thus one less thing to deal with on the day. 

There are a number of issues on the horizon that could potentially challenge Thailand's natural environment, urban environment and food supply over the coming years. 

With the changes to climate it could cause Thailand to face extended periods of drought and/or floods, which could then hinder the ability to produce enough continuous agriculture for food. Floods could also impact life in the low lying cities and eventually cause people to move to higher ground, thus sparking large domestic migrations. 

Then you have the issue of plastic dumping in the oceans and overfishing in the Mekong, the Andaman Sea and the South China Sea which is also a threat both to food supply and ecologically.

Thailand may also grow increasingly hotter as a result of global warming making weather during the hottest times of the year more uncomfortable. 

Then there is the air pollution issue from crop burning and forest fires, which normally blankets the country for 3 to 4 months out of the year and causes residual harm to both wildlife and the environment. 

And with sea levels rising, Bangkok continues to be under threat of eventually ending up underwater. 

I believe the issues are real, but I don't know how seriously they will or will not affect life in Thailand in any negative way or to any large degree over the next 10-15 years. Or if the timeline to when life and the environment in Thailand may become more challenging is much shorter or even longer than that. 

If anyone has any knowledge or thoughts on any of this, then I would be interested to hear from you.

22 minutes ago, BigStar said:

But you've no basis for your understanding other than speculation. 

 

WRONG

 

No, if they really wanted it, they'd just say so, as they're notorious for doing.

 

WRONG AGAIN

 

They've never told me any reason whenever it was rejected, and I think normally they don't. I find your story a bit unlikely for this particular online form.

 

My rejection did provide a reason. It said phone number and visa expiry date as the reason, both of which I had left blank the first time. Then I filled these things in and resubmitted the form and it was accepted the second time. I've never left out first name, middle name, and building name to test those to see if they would cause a rejection too.

See my responses above. People can do as they wish as you suggested. I won't be responding again to this topic. 

22 minutes ago, allane said:

I'm the OP.  Just checked the website.  My application is now showing as pending, presumably on the basis of my applying as a new registrant.

Great, hopefully it gets approved within 24-48 hours. You should receive an email from immigration letting you know the updated status once it changes from Pending. 

27 minutes ago, BigStar said:

 

Was the past with the old online system or the new?

The current online form looks the same to me now as it did before when my application was rejected on the basis of missing information. There are still 5 boxes with no red star on the current form. But I suggest filling them all in anyway as I suggested earlier (building name, first name, middle name, phone number and visa expiry date). My understanding is that they want all of that information and, if you leave any of it out, then it opens up the possibility to having your application rejected. With the boxes that have a red star you can't complete the application and submit it without filling those boxes in. But with those five boxes that don't have a red star, you can leave them all blank and the system will still accept your submission of the form, even though they really want all the information filled in for those 5 unstarred boxes too. So some people could leave out some of those 5 boxes of information, submit the form, and then have it rejected for the same reason. 

52 minutes ago, timendres said:

 

I was on a Non-O based retirement extension for one year. I then converted to Non-B, then work permit extension for many years. In October 2023 I exited to Cambodia, returned on a Visa Exempt (US passport), obtained a Non-O for retirement in Thailand at CW, then got my retirement extension in January 2024. So, in my case, there was no issue with the Non-O, other than needing a lease, being 50+, and having 800K in the bank.

Excellent. And that should be good news for the OP. 👍🏼

1 hour ago, TPDH said:

 

It's the first time for this visa. But I've used the website for TM47s in prior years. Maybe that's not enough? 

 

Did they move the TM47 applications to the main government building/immigration in CW again? They used to have TM47 in temporary locations nearby before. 

Unfortunately there is no way to be 100% sure what the issue is. It might be the extension of the visa as someone else already mentioned. That's because the system might not know that your visa expiry was extended and the system is expecting you to leave the country based upon your previous visa expiry date. 
 

Yes, TM.47 submission is back being handled at the main immigration office at CW again. 

44 minutes ago, BigStar said:

 

Not really. Filling in every single box increases your chances of making a typo or not typing it exactly as you did the last time.

 

No red star really does mean not necessary. Don't overcomplicate. I never fill out those unnecessary fields and have always had prompt acceptance--until last week! Appears system is down.

 

In the past I had online submissions rejected for not inserting phone number and not including visa expiry date. So when I suggested earlier that you fill in every box I was speaking from experience. 
 

You shouldn't make any typos on your own name, phone number, visa expiry date or any of the other information required anyway. Common sense tells you that without saying. 

35 minutes ago, TPDH said:

Hi

 

Almost 3 months ago I got my 1 year marriage extension approved and at the same time I got a 90 day notification paper stamped into my passport. It says I gotta do my next TM47 filing on 13 March. 

 

https://tm47.immigration.go.th/tm47/#/login - Tried to file here on the website but I'm getting rejected. Only comment provided is "Please contact the nearest Immigration Office in person immediately."

 

I'm still living on the same address as last time and it's the same as my TM30. All info is correct. 

 

Any idea why it's getting rejected? 

 

If I gotta go in person, where do you do that in Bangkok nowadays? Would prefer not to have to go all the way to Chaeng Watthana again. 

Is this the first time you've ever tried to file using the website?

There are some information boxes on the online form where there is no red star to indicate that the information is necessary to submit.
 

These are things such as Given Name, Middle Name, Stay Visa Expiry, Building Name / Owner Name, and Phone No. 

Even though it may seem that some of these boxes of information are not required, if you don't fill in every box, then there is a chance they will reject your online submission. 
 

So it is best to fill in every single box when completing the online application. 

Otherwise, yes, you will have to go to CW to do it in person. But you can book an appointment online in advance to save time waiting in the queue when you arrive:

https://gov.immigration1.queueonline.net/appointment/login.html