TylerBKK

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.

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. 👍🏼

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Following is the list of all of the required documents from my personal experiences at Chaeng Wattana. I realize you are applying in Pathum Thani, but there may be some overlap that could be useful: 1 - Form TM.7 Completed and Signed - 2 Pages - Front & Back 2 - One recent 4X6CM Photo Of Yourself – Attach to back side of form TM.7 3 - A letter from your bank certifying your current account balance. Letter to be issued and dated the same date as the day when applying for the extension of stay. 4 – Update passbook at the bank on the same day as applying for the extension of stay and create a photocopy of the updated account balance to give to Immigration. Also, photocopy the front page of passbook showing your name and account number and photocopy any pages in between containing any deposits and withdrawals for the past 12 months. 5 – A certified (signed and stamped) bank statement issued by the bank for the 12 month period starting from the date that the last 1 year extension was applied for until the present date. 6 – Photocopy of the first page of the passport and photocopies of all passport pages containing visas stamps and passport entry and exit stamps pertaining to the current visa. 7 - Copy of the current receipt from immigration for form TM.47 (90 day notification of residence address in Thailand). 8 – Hand drawn map showing directions to your residence. 9 - A single page form that only says "Statement" at the top (provided to you at immigration). 10 - A single page form numbered STM.2 entitled "ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF PERMIT OF TEMPORARY STAY IN THE KINGDOM OF THAILAND". (provided to you at immigration). 11 - A single form entitled "The Acknowledgement of Penalties for A Visa Overstay" (provided to you at immigration). 12 - Copy of House Registration (if you have one). 13 – Copy of Pink Government ID Card (if you have one). *All of the above photocopied documents you submit need to also have your hand written signature somewhere on the photocopy (preferably in blue ink).

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.

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

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.

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.

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

You will still be able to obtain a retirement again visa in the future. But there have been reports of people no longer being able to obtain a Non-O retirement visa and only a Non-OA. At this point I think it could be good to consult with an immigration lawyer in Thailand to get definitive answers on your questions. Whatever people tell you in these forums, including myself, although intended to be the most correct information, may not be the same case for everyone. So speaking with a lawyer would better guarantee that you are working with the most correct information that applies to your specific case. Best wishes.

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.

What is a "permanent 800K bank deposit"? You mean the bank will never allow you to withdraw the money? Is it a long term fixed deposit of 5 years? I have never heard of them accepting a passbook updated the previous day. That's unusual. Did you also submit a 12 month bank statement?

That's good news that it worked. Some people have posted reports of submitting a map printed from Google maps and were asked to still hand draw a new map anyway. So it seems people's experience on this can vary. But one can always draw a hand written map in 2 minutes if they don't accept a printed one. So not a big issue.

If you are using a VPN, always good to disable it when trying to access Thai government websites. VPNs can cause some issues.

I think the short answer is that you are going to need to reenter Thailand on a brand new visa if you want to go from a retirement visa to a business visa and eventually obtain a work permit. When I went from a business visa to retirement visa I also had to leave the country first and reenter with a brand new visa and start the visa process over again as there was no way to convert it. And if you have a regular O visa now, then you may not be able to get a regular O visa again in the future if someday you want to switch back to a retirement visa. Most likely your only option will be an OA retirement visa, which also carries medical insurance requirements.

By the way, are you on a regular "O" or an "O-A" retirement visa now? If it is a regular "O", and you switch to a business visa for a while, and then one day you want to go back onto a retirement visa, I believe that O-A might be your only option at that point. And I believe O-A might have some medical insurance requirements. Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong, but that is my understanding. And when I was on a work permit before, I had to leave the country and come back in on a tourist visa in order to convert it to an O visa for retirement in Thailand. Since the regular O might not be available anymore, you might have to leave first and then obtain an O-A from an overseas Thai consulate if you would ever want to switch back to a retirement visa. Maybe someone else can chime in and reconfirm this though.