Red Phoenix

Yes, every Imm Office has the authority to add additional requirements or make minor amendments to the broad 'official' rules. And so it is always wise to contact your local Imm Office to ensure that on a first application for a Non Imm O Visa or extension you are not taken by surprise by local Immigration rules. Re the 800K Bank Balance Check 90-days after your 1-year extension application for a Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement > Some offices introduced that additional check to avoid that applicants would use up the 800K once they got the Permission to stay stamp. Some retirees are tempted to do this and instead of re-applying for the 1-year extension - the requirements which they would not be able to meet - then simply made a border-run, returned Visa Exempt an re-applied for a 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement.

As I am living in this province, I won't rock the boat and will simply comply with the rules as applied in my SiSaKet Imm Office, which is a strict, no hanky-panky but very friendly and efficient office.

At SiSaKet Immigration they staple the Notification with due day of next 90-day report on the last page of your Passport. And when you did your 1-year extension of stay application, that Notification ALSO contains a sticker with the Bank Balance check due date (which is on same day). I didn't tempt to ignore that Bank Balance check and do my 90-day report on-line. So I did it in person at the office, and they did make a photocopy of my updated Bank Pass-book when I did that combined 90-day Report and Bank Balance Check at their office. And to answer your question > I did not get any confirmation in writing that they checked the Bank Pass-book, but they simply took out the previous Notification and replaced it with a new one showing the next 90-day report due date, stapled on the last page of my passport..

From what the OP wrote I understand that he currently has a 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of marriage. When he applies for the 1-year extension based on that Non Imm O Visa, it is recommended to do this in the last week before Visa expiry. And this because he would lose the 'not used days' of his Visa Permit to stay, as the approved 1-year extension of stay will start from the day of application. Note that there will be no 'lost days' when applying for another 1-year extension from your current 1-year extension (it will be the same expiry date, only 1 year later). Hence there is no reason to wait to apply for renewal of your 1-year extension, and it can be done at any time convenient for you in the period from 30 or 45 days before expiry up until the day of expiry.

For what's it worth. At my SiSaKet Imm Office, having done your 1-year extension appliation based on a Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement, you need to return after 90 days for the 'Bank Balance check'. But as SiSaket Imm Office also automatically does your 90-day Report when applying for your 1-year extension, you can do both the 90 days Report and the 90 day Bank Balance check at same time. Also for that 90-day Bank Balance check they just want to see your same-day updated Bank Pass-book. This in contrast with the 1-year extension application where they require on top of the Bank Account statement also a 12-month Bank Transactions statement issued by your Bank.

Immigration wants applicants for the 1-year extension of their Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement, to provide evidence that on the day of application: - The required funds have been kept on a personal Thai bank-account, and that - The required funds never slipped under the 800K and 400K tressholds during the 12 months preceding his application. An updated Bank Pass-book on the date of application will provide evidence of the latter (provided the entries on his Bank Pass-book are complete and were not consolidated < some Banks consolidate the transactions on your Pass-book when you do not regularly update it, making it impossible for Immigration to check whether he met the requirement during the period when his transactions were consolidated). Obviously if the specific personal Thai Bank-account where he keeps his Funds does not come with a Pass-book, Immigration cannot require that he presents it. But he can go to his Bank branche and request to provide him with the following 2 Bank-statements which would provide the required evidence: #1 - A Bank Account statement, which is a letter from the Bank stating that he is the owner of the account, as well as the Balance on the date that statement was issued. Such statement can be issued by the Bank on the spot, so he should first do a transaction on that day, and then ask the Bank for the Statement which will then show the current balance as a result of him having done that latest transaction. #2 - A Bank Transactions statement showing ALL transactions made during the last 12 months. In absence of a Pass-book that statement will provide the evidence that the balance on his account never slipped under the required tressholds. Be aware that it is possible that his local Bank branche may not be able to create that statement, and in that case they will have to request Headquarters to provide it (which might take some days before it will be available at the Bank branche). So he would need to check with his local Bank branche whether they are able to create that statement on the spot, and if not order it some days before he wants to do his 1-year extension application. = = = Doing the above and presenting both documents on the day of application, provides the evidence that he meets the financial requirements. However, this is Thailand and it would be prudent to contact the Chiang-Mai Immigration Office, and ask whether doing this would be accepted by them. And of course he should make it clear that his personal Thai Bank-Account does NOT come with a Bank Pass-book, so if the Imm Officer tells him that he needs this, he should ask to talk to the Officer in charge as otherwise he won't be able anymore to meet the requirements when CM Immigration insists on a Bank Pass-book.

This is one of those cases where having bought a Re-Entry Permit is actually a burden, as you will be stamped in by Border Immigration on entry for a permission to stay till 2nd May, If you didn't have that Re-Entry Permit you would be stamped in for 30 days and would be able to extend that 30 days for another 30 days. But you could ask the Border Immigration officer to stamp the Re-Entry Permit as USED and provide you with a Visa Exempt 30 days Permit to stay. Not sure if your request will be honored, but you could try, In case you want to stay longer than 2nd of May in Thailand, you have three options: #1 - Apply for a 1-year extension of stay of your current Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement (but you indicated you do not want to do this). Note that it is also possible to apply for a 1-year extension of that Non Imm O Visa for another reason that retirement (e.g. marriage to a Thai national, or Thai dependant children). #2 - When you are married to a Thai national or have Thai dependant children you can also apply for a 60-day extension of stay for reason of visiting your family #3 - You can do a border-bounce, i.e. exiting Thailand latest on 2nd May and immedately - or after a short holiday in the country where you excited - return to Thailand where you would be stamped in for 30 days which can be extended with an additional 30 days.

@protonYour question answered in this post >

The Bank Account Statement or 'letter', is a document that can be created on the spot by your Bank and it shows Ownership of the account, as well as the Balance. But that document alone is not sufficient, as your Immigration Office also wants you to show evidence that you never slipped below the tressholds of 800K and 400K in the 12 months preceding your application for the 1-year extension of your Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement. And there it is that the difference between Immigration Offices appear, as some simply want to see your updated Bank Pass-book (and of course copies of all the pages with transactions during those 12 months), so that hey can check that requirement. However, if you have a Savings Account and you do not regularly update your Pass-book, some Banks - to save space in the Pass-book - consolidate the transactions you made in the previous period in one entry on the Pass-book. And then Immigration will not be able to check if you met the +400K/+800K during that consolidation period. And that's the reason that some offices require on top of the Bank Account Statement (ownership and balance) and an updated Passbook, also want you to provide a Bank Transactions Statement as issued by your Bank as such Transactions Statement will show ALL transactions you made during the 12 month period. Of course the sensible thing to do would have been to ONLY require such Bank Transactions Statement in the odd case when one or more of the transactions in your Bank Pass-book have been consolidated. But instead some offices have made such a Statement required, even if you have a Fixed Deposit Account or when none of the transactions on your Savings Account have been consolidated (it's only some Thai banks that do this). So to tackle that odd exception, Immigration created a difficulty for ALL applicants as many Banks need to order such Bank Transactions Statement from Headquarters (as the local branche often only has access to the last 6 months of your transactions). Crazy Thai bureaucracy!

In your case I would suggest to keep your official residence in Germany. If you are the owner of your current house/flat, you can simply keep it and rent it out. But this does not mean that if you are NOT the owner of your current house/flat, that you need to keep on renting it. In that case you could officially move to the house of your parents or other relatives (brother/sister). And you would need to do this a couple of weeks before you would move to Thailand. And once you made your official move to that new German address (where you have a room with a bed and a desk, as evidence of it being the place where you reside), you can then start a German one-man consultancy firm from that address. That would allow you to send invoices to your German clients, for your work using that German address. Where you do the work doesn't matter, and that you are 'on holiday' abroad most of the time is perfectly acceptable. As previous responses already confirmed: Thai authorities have no problem with digital nomads doing work while residing in Thailand, the main thing they are concerned about is that you would be 'taking work' from Thai nationals. But you doing work on-line for non-Thai customers will be of no interest for them. Obviously - even if what you are doing is fully legit - you should not mention that you are doing 'work' here to Thai Immigration to avoid any unnecessary inconvenience for you as it would raise questions from their part. Note that keeping your official residence in Germany also has additional benefits as it will preserve all your German rights. Officially moving to Thailand has several disadvantages, and when staying in Thailand on a Non Imm O Visa for reason of marriage, doesn't make you a Thai resident (you are a NON immigrant). You are simply permitted to stay, and need to apply every year for a new extension of that privilege. Good luck and smart of you to already check out the options before making your Big Move!

Several offices do this. At my local Imm Office (SiSaKet), when applying for the 1-year extension, they automatically also do your 90-day report and staple the notification for your next 90-day report in your passport. That's handy because they also require a 90-day Bank-balance check when you are on an extension of an original Non Imm O or O-A Visa for reason of retirement. And because of this re-setting of the 90-day reporting clock, you can do both at same time. And indeed when doing your last 90-day report before your extension is due, Immigration will set the due date of your next 90-day report on the same day as the expiry date of your extension.

Thanks. I have been looking for the official Immigration issued rules on this, but couldn't find them. If anybody can post the link or the document that would be helpful. Note: As this is Thailand, different Imm Offices will apply their own interpretation to whether it can be applied, and some might outright not even allow it. But if you have Thai dependent children it is certainly useful to check at your local Imm Office whether they would allow you to apply for your Visa/extension for this reason.

I live in the sticks in rural Thailand (SiSaKet province), and the adult son of of my girlfriend caught Covid-19 almost a year ago. He was quarantained for 10 days at his home, and the small local Hospital prescribed Paxlovid which he got from the Hospital pharmacy. If you can get it here, you surely can get it in Bangkok...

You will have no problems leaving Thailand when you didn't do your 90-day report. And when you return the 90-day clock starts ticking again from the date of entry. When you do that 90-day report after your return, the Imm Officer might notice the gap in your 90-day reporting history, resulting in a 2.000,- THB fine (with no other consequences). As drJack wrote, you can do you current 90-day report within seconds using the on-line app, and avoid the possible fine later. And if it is not totally inconvenient at the moment, you could do it in person at your Imm Office prior to your departure.

Thanks. Note that @DrJack54 mentioned some additional useful info re the combined Bank accounts. And dr Jack also mentioned the option to apply for a 60-day extension of stay for reason of visiting your wife (1.900,- THB). Normally you should be fine with the evidence of both Bank Accounts, but in case the Imm Officer handling your application would have a bad hair day and makes problems, you could apply for a 60-day extension of stay for reason of visiting your wife (and that would give you sufficient time to season the funds). But that option is only available if you did not already use that 60-day extension option since your last entry into Thailand on your Non Imm O Visa.

Two questions, the answer to which might solve the issue: #1 - Did you move the money to another bank-account that was also on your name? In that case, it would be a matter of having the Bank(s) make a Bank Statement for each of the 2 accounts, which combined would provide evidence that you did not went under the required +400K (except for the few seconds in cyber-space during the Bank transfer). #2 - Do you have Thai dependant children? If so you could instead of applying for reason of marriage to a Thai national, apply for reason of dependant children and in that case the +400K does not require any seasoning but only needs to be available at the time of application.

Clarification for 'confused' Somebody. OP wrote that even if he waits till last day of his current Permission to stay, he will only have his 400K seasoned for 52 days when applying for his 1-year extension of stay. And when he applies for reason of marriage to a Thai national 60 days of seasoning are required of those funds at the day of application, which means such application for reason of marriage will not be accepted as he does not meet the requirements. . However OP also wrote that he has two dependant children (I presume they have Thai nationality), which makes him eligible to apply for a 1-year extension for reason of dependant children. When doing so, the +400K only needs to be available on his personal Thai bank-account at the moment of application with no seasoning required. So doing that will solve the whole issue.

What you describe is the reason that most Imm Offices now require for your 1-year extension for reason of retirement, on top of the Bank Statement and an updated Pass-book, also a Bank Transaction Statement, showing every individual transaction you made over the past 12 months. And that requirement is entirely due to some banks lumping your transactions together when not regularly updating your Passbook. But that additional requirement from Immigration can create once again an administrative nightmare for applicants, as some Bank branches do not keep records longer than 6 months, and thus that required document covering 12 months has to be created by the Bank Headquarters and can take up to 5 days before you can pick it up at your local Bank branche. Which means you have to request it a couple of days before you plan to do your extension application. And on the day you pick it up, you can then make a small transaction and ask the Bank to provide you with an on the spot created Bank Statement (showing that you are the owner of the Account, and the balance of your funds on that day) and also do a Passbook update. And then it is off to the Immigration Office, as many of them require that your Bank Statement and Passbook have been updated on the same day that you go to Immigration for your retirement extension application.

Many posters refer to the 'Bank letter', which can be confusing as there are actually TWO documents required (as well as your updated Bank pass-book) when applying for the 1-year extension of your Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement. These are the TWO statements that you need: #1 - Bank Account Statement > Statement issued by the bank that you are the owner of the Bank-account, as well as the Balance that account shows. That Bank Account Statement can be issued on the spot by your bank and you should have it produced by your Bank - after having done a small transaction - on the day of your application before going to Immigration. #2 - Bank Transaction Statement > A document issued by the bank showing the transactions that were done on that Bank Account, such that Immigration can see that the balance has never been under the 800k and 400K tressholds in the twelve months preceding the issue of that document. The info on that Bank Transaction Statement is same as on your Bank Pass-book NOTE: That your Bangkok Bank branche will as good as certainly have to ask Headquarters to issue that Bank Transaction Statement for you (as records older than 6 months are often not accessible anymore at the local branche), and it can take up to 5 days before you get it. So you need to ask the Bank when that Bank Transaction Statement will arrive (or better still have them contact you), and on that day or day after go to the Bank to pick it up. When you are at the Bank you should then also do a small transaction, and then ask the Bank to print your Bank Account Statement which will then feature the updated balance on that day. And also your Pass-book should be updated with that latest status. Since many Imm Offices want that Bank Account Statement up-to-date on the day of application, it means that you need to go straight to the Imm Office once you have the 2 documents and the updated Pass-book in your possession.

When apply for a 1-year extension based on a Non Imm O Visa for reason of dependant children you ONLY need the 400K on your personal Thai Bank-Account at the moment of application. So doing such application would solve the issue for you.

Should be OK with paying the fine, but let us know how it worked out for you this morning at Phuket Immigration.

You are fully correct. The 12-month Bank Transactions Statement was introduced because on Savings Bank Accounts when not updating your Bank Pass-book regularly, some banks do consolidate the transactions you made in between, making it impossible for Immigration to check whether during such consolidation period you did not slip under the required funds tresshold. But obviously when you have a Fixed Deposit Account such a 12-month Bank Transactions Statement is bureaucratic nonsense as the Pass-book from an FD Account will show each and every transaction you made. And when your Immigration Office requires that a transaction was made on your Account at the day of application for your extension, the 12-month Bank Transactions Statement will not even feature that transaction (as the transactions are processed overnight). And so Immigration also wants to see your updated Pass-book (which contains all the information that the Bank Transactions Statement contains + that latest transaction). To summarize > When you have a Fixed Deposit Account, and apply for your 1-year extension, you will need 3 documents: - A Bank Statement, showing that you are the owner of the Account and the balance on that account. At many Imm Offices that Bank Statement needs to be up-to-date at the date of application, so you first need to go to your Bank and do a small transaction on your Bank-Account and then have the Bank Statement created and your Pass-book updated - The Pass-book of that account, updated with a small transaction on the date of application - The Bank Transaction Statement, which as explained higher is total bureaucratic nonsense for an FD account, but a necessary 'tick-the-box' item for Immigration.

You are not well informed. Thai Immigration offices explicitly allow application for a Non Imm O Visa when you entered Thailand VisaExempt or on a Tourist Visa For citizens of some countries, it would be advantageous to apply for a Non Imm O Visa once they entered Thailand VE or on a TR, rather than applying for such Visa at the Thai Embassy/Consulate in their home-country. E.g. in Australia, applying for the Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement requires Thai Health-Insurance coverage. While such insurance is NOT required when applying for that Visa in Thailand. https://sydney.thaiembassy.org/en/publicservice/non-immigrant-visa-type-o-retirement

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Thanks for the write-up detailing your case with this issue as well as your sensible comments. And after reading what you wrote, I now remember the Phuket Imm Office argumentation for not allowing to apply for a marriage extension on your first extension-application for the Non Imm O-A Visa. Their reasoning being that the Non Imm O-A Visa is a different type Visa than the Non Imm O (which is correct). And since the Non Imm O-A Visa is meant for 'retirement' their argument is that you can only use that reason when doing your first extension application. And once you have done so, on your NEXT application you can then switch to a different reason (e.g. marriage or dependant children). That was and probably still is the Phuket Imm Office stance on the issue. So you are fully correct that it would be wise to enquire at your local Imm Office how they would handle an extension for reason of marriage for a Non Imm O-A Visa, when you plan to do this.