Patriciachas

Maybe useful for me to post my experience, having entered Thailand today with my new O-A issued by RTE in London (The Thai Embassy).

The embassy is in Queens Gate, near the Natural History museum, a short walk from Gloucester road underground. It is open Mon - Fri, from 9.30 to 12.30. I went with the required paperwork and lots of back up stuff, just in case.

Arriving at 9.20, waited in queue of about 12 people, outside until gate open. No cover, so need umbrella if raining. Visa section in basement and enough room and chairs, to seat about 40 people, (also toilets)

On entering 2 ticket machines, one for visa application (blue) and one for collection (green). Half the people had queued for collection so only a few in front of me. I waited about 20 minutes and watching those applying, found the embassy lady was polite, excellent English and helpful, one man had no money with him, and was told where nearest ATM was and agreed he could come back to front of queue on return.

I submitted docs, which have been well detailed in this thread, 3 copies of main form with photo on each and 3 copies of supplementary O A form are required. I mention this because the numbers stated on each form are contradictory to other info on website.

I had the required forms signed by a solicitor who signed as a Commisioner of Oaths, copying the wording done by a solicitor local to the embassy, seen on a friends forms. I can list the docs and the wording if anyone requires.

I had the solicitor sign and copy a pension payslip, and a letter detailing a second small AVC pension, and a letter from my offshore bank, obtained free on request from the bank. There seemed no problem with the bank letter being 3 weeks old, (had to be because the bank would only send to my Thai address and I wanted to be sure I got it). Also no problem that this sent to Thai address, and CRO record sent to UK address, as was pension letter. Seemed no problem that I had lived in Thailand for 11 months and I still had a valid Non Imm O. This was not cancelled.

I also took, my yellow tabien bahn, copies of UK bank account which pension paid into, copies of my Thai bank books, and the original books, a personal data form as mentioned on THai MFA site, and a written reference from MD of a Thai company. Also a printout of total income from interest, pension etc. Non of these documents of interest to embassy. Would not accept additional docs unless certified by solicitor, but did not need them anyway. Seemed to be a case of a lot of preparation not being neccessary, but who knows when the document not taken is the one they want to see.

This was Thursday 1st Nov, passport ready from Monday on, so on 3rd working day.

Fee is £100, same as multi, non O. Took cash, no credit cards, not sure if cheque OK, take cash to be safe. Time for application, 35 minutes, time to pick up, 10 minutes. I found the embassy staff, clear, polite and helpful, even returned a wai on leaving.

My logic was simple, for same cost as Non O, plus £10 for CRO, and doctors report, (for me free), plus £5 for Brecon solicitor to sign 5 documents, I now only have to leave Thailand once in 1 years time to have 2 years entry. Just need to fill in TM 47 and report address every 90 days. That saves me a lot of passport pages and fees for Laos visa etc. I also can leave my money in offshore bank earning 6.8% for nearly 2 years.

One problem then averted at the airport. As I had 2 visas; I as Lopburi 3 suggested entered the new O -A number on the arrival card, and put the card in the passport next to it. Very short queue at immigration, I checked passport handed back to me by immigration officer, and had 90 day stamp. I went straight back, said Khor Thot Khrap, and he saw me straight away, The Thai embassy had typed O-A on the visa, but had overstamped with a little Thai emblem and had written, 'long stay' over it. It was not very clear. The man consulted with his colleague, apologised to me and then had to manually alter his date stamp, to stamp the right date, (he had a stamp with 30 days and another one for 90 days set up), he crossed out with biro the 90 day stamp (4 Feb 2008), stamped 07 Nov 2008, initialled it and wrote Long stay on it.

He then picked up the wrong arrival card and was about to alter the date on it. I had to speak again, lean over and pick up my arrival card and offer it to him, he apologised again. He was very gracious about it, I tried to deal with him in a pleasant way, so face not lost. ( Luggage arrived within 10 minutes, so thumbs up for the new airport on this arrival)

So for me, as I was in London anyway for a week, it seemed a no brainer to go for this visa. If I had not been going, I would have extended my Non O instead in Thailand. I expect I will be doing that in 2 years.

Lopburi 3

Can you help me with this regarding the thai embassy in uk documents 2.4 to 2.8 i.e medical ,police check,bank statements,it says

Documents as stated in 2.4-2.8 must be certifyed by notary public or from the competent authority concerned of the country of application.

Does this mean that our solicitor can certify all documents or do we need to go to solicitors that are also public notary of which their is only one in our town.Thanks

Does this mean that the Thai Consulate in Hull is issuing incorrect information

at points 2.4, 2.5 and 2.6 below, copied from thier web site .

Royal Thai Consulate

Priory Court Saxon Way Priory Park West Hessle HULL HU13 9PB

Tel: 01482 581668 Fax: 01482 628877

Email: [email protected] Website: www.thaiconsul-uk.com

INFORMATION ABOUT RETIRING IN THAILAND

(Non-Immigrant Category "O-A" Retirement Visa)

The necessary qualifications and required documents to enable a British passport holder to apply for retirement status

in Thailand are as follows:-

1. Qualification of an applicant

1. British passport holder aged 50 years or above.

2. Not prohibited from entering the Kingdom under the Immigration Act BE 2522 (1979).

3. No criminal record in the UK, in the country of residency (if different) or in Thailand.

4. No medical record of contagious disease.

5. Able to support themselves financially.

Please note it is not possible to work in Thailand with the "O-A" visa.

2. Required documents for visa application

2.1 Validity of passport for at least one year from date of entering Thailand.

2.2 Three "Non-Immigrant Category „O-A‟ Visa Application Forms" with three passport

size recent photographs attached – see page 7/9.

2.3 Three "Additional Application Form for Non-Immigrant „O-A‟ Visa" – see page 8/9.

2.4 Obtain a written confirmation of financial position which is available only from the

British Embassy in Bangkok. Applicants need to demonstrate to the Consul at the

British Embassy, Bangkok that they meet the financial requirements of minimum

lump-sum equivalent to Baht 800,000 or minimum monthly income of Baht 65,000.

See page 10/10 for more information.

2.5 Criminal Record – you need to contact your UK Area Police Force and request a

"Subject Access Report". Please be aware that it can take up to 40 days for it to be

issued. Furthermore, please note it must be submitted to the Thai authorities within

three months of date of issue.

2.6 Medical record, issued no more that three months prior to application, stating that

applicant has never been infected with any contagious disease in accordance with

Thai Immigration Act BE 2522 – see page 9/9. This document is for completion by

a doctor in Thailand.

The above documents (2.1 to 2.6) to be presented to Thai Immigration Bureau in Thailand

Af(1/10) 02/Jul/2007

1/10

Patriciachas

10% band goes in April 2008 except for interest on savings.

No one that have pay tax for, to get, one year visa?

Hi I have a UK fire service pension and have lived here for 2 years +, I still own a house in uk but only visit 2 weeks a year. Should I be paying tax on my pension ? Many thanks for your time.

then tax bands are 0-£2,150 10% £2,151-£33,300 22%

The real estate bubble will burst. It's just a question of when and not IF ! I'd sell and buy some nice safe mutual funds. There are tons of them available.

The UK is a different propert market than the USA though - a lot less land and high population density;-)

Yes there has been a correction before but it usually bounces back quite quickly - depending on the location of the property and how much equity he has in it I think he might be better off keeping it.

You do not use a re-entry permit until your multi entry visa has expired. You get visa November 1 and enter Thailand November 4, 2007 and get a stamp for one year until November 3, 2008. If you wish to extend your time rather than making application for an extension of stay you can exit/enter anytime before Nov 3, 2008 and get a one year permitted to stay from the day you enter. So if you make an entry on November 2, 2008 you will be permitted to stay until November 1, 2009. Almost two years from first entry until you need to visit immigration to extend your stay. After November 3, 2008 you no longer have that valid multi entry visa so if you want to travel again you will require a re-entry permit during that time (just as you would on a normal one year extension of stay from Immigration).

And you are still wrong - obtaining a new one year permitted to stay stamp is done by an entry into Thailand using a multi entry O-A visa. You do not obtain additional time using a re-entry permit (which only provides your current permitted to stay date). Use of a re-entry permit would prevent getting a new one year permitted to stay stamp. Once you take the action and obtain the extra one year permitted to stay stamp is when you would obtain/use a re-entry permit. While the multi entry visa is valid you do not want a re-entry permit as you get "one year" permitted to stay on any entry - using the re-entry permit you only get to keep your current permitted to stay until date.

My sins of omission are as great as anybody else's I guess. I never said when to get the re-entry permit. If I had, I would have said to do it as late as possible (to allow for an unexpected last minute trip out/back into Thailand to give the maximum permission to stay.) I never fully laid out the process. I would only do that if it were applicable. It is NOT applicable to the OP's post, so I did not go into the nth degree of detail. I thought I made it quite clear in my reply to Maestro that "there was a bit more to my proposal" that I would have detailed if it were applicable to the OPs situation. It wasn't, so I didn't. I guess I was wrong.

I never meant to say that a re-entry permit would give him more time, I said there might be an option to spending the time and money to get a one-year extension. I think to many people (perhaps not you and Maestro) the bottom line of getting the re-entry permit, and hence avoiding the extension process for up to a year, has the appearance of "getting a second year out of" the O-A visa. I guess I was wrong.

You keep saying I'm wrong. That would be like me saying YOU were wrong when you didn't mention the re-entry permit option in post #2. You were trying to keep it simple, and that's not a crime in my book. I prefer to keep it simple, as well. But when someone says I'm misunderstanding when I'm not, and that I'm wrong when perhaps it's a matter of I'm not being clear enough, my testosterone requires that I defend my honor. <g> I guess I was wrong.

Perhaps I was bloody wrong, too, for trying to add constructively to this thread.

I really don't think you intend to be working my last nerve. For my sanity, though, I will NOT be responding within this thread any more.

Wow!!

Jai yen yen!!

I am getting a O/A retirment multi entry visa from UK am i right to say that when i have entered thailand and got the 1 year stamp if i exit in the last month of the year to stay on re entry will i then get another 1 year stamp.

As Mahout says, you are better off with a multiple-entry non-O visa, purpose of visit "to explore retirement possibility". Just don't let them talk you into a non-O-A (retirement) visa, which is what you don't want. For the record, you are not flying to Thailand to retire there, but to go and see if you might like it for retirement.

There are some Thai consulates in the world that ask for a return ticket when applying for a visa but most don't. I don't know about Boston; ask them.

--

Maestro

I got caught 4 months ago for fixing my kickdown cable on my own car in a gasstation in Pattaya (20 minute job). I even have a work permit, but not for this kind of work and not for this adress. They took me to the immigration office and only a very "well connected friend" could solve the problem foe me.

Did they say if it would have been OK if you had been doing it at your residence instead of at a gas station? If they are not going to let you work on your own car, then it seems things like working in your yard, cleaning your house, painting your fence, and other things like that could get people in trouble.

I currently reside in N. California and I am going through the paperwork for a Retirement "O-A" visa. I see that one of the requirements (see verbage below) is that some of the paperwork (medical, criminal, banking) needs to be notarised. How does one go about getting that done through a US consulates office and how would they know if the paperwork is fact or fiction?

FYI - The nearest Royal Consulate of Thailand Embassy to me in located in Los Angeles so my paperwork would go by the US mail.

- A letter of verification issued from the country of his or her nationality or residence stating that the applicant has no criminal record (verification shall be valid for not more than three months and should be notarised by notary organs or the applicant's diplomatic or consular mission). - A medical certificate issued from the country where the application is submitted, showing no prohibitive diseases as indicated in the Ministerial Regulation No.14 (B.E. 2535) (certificate shall be valid for not more than three months and should be notarised by notary organs or the applicant's diplomatic or consular mission).

Here is what I used ;

Police Check: letter from local police station stating "no wants or warrants" price: Free"

Medical Certificat: downloaded Thai medical form and VA doctor signed off on it: price: Free

For being notarised all I did was type a certified to be true on the bottom of each page and signed my own name. Each area is differant so what worked for me may not work for you ....Good Luck

Assuming you can meet the financial requirements for a retirement extension it may well be less hassle to get a non-o (single or multi entry) from Hull on the grounds of 'investigating retirement options' and then extend that visa once you arrive in Thailand.

We have decided to go the o/a visa route at the thai embassy in London do we need to get the bank document and the medical document notorized or are they ok with out, also any one know how old the bank statements can be is a week or two ok.We are both applying for oa multi entry visas any tips ?.

Who's your bank in Thailand? Could try emailing but Thai banks rarely reply to emails. Your bank in UK should be able to provide a written confirmation (not just fax) of key details. As long as the account name, number, address etc are correct, you're pretty safe. TT and swift transfers are one of the safest possible methods of transferring money. Only thing you may not know is the rate applied. Your UK bank may / may not be able to get that for you. More difficult if you transferred in GBP to be converted onshore.

If email, and phone prove difficult, you could always try fax:

If that fails, if you've got any good friends in here, you could perhaps draft a "power of attorney letter", plus a signed copy of your passport, and authorise them to go and check your bank account balance. Suggest balance only, and be very spefic what they can and cannot do. I've done this myself in the past for asking someone to pick up ATM cards on my behalf etc in different countries

Next time you're here, try and set yourself up with internet banking.

I'll soon be doing a transfer from UK in GBP to my Kasikorn Bank savings account. There is a possibility that the amount will be slightly over the equivalent of $20K. I'm not in Thailand at the moment and wont be back for a few weeks. I want to do the transfers from the UK.

I've been in touch with Kasikorn Customer Services a few times and here's a consensus of what I've been told with regard to receiving the funds into my KBank savings account :

* If the amount is over $20K then withholding will have to be paid - TV members seem to say that so long as the reason for the transfer is personal use of condo/property purchase then this is not enforced and is avoidable

* Before the money is deposited into the savings account it is typically necessary for me to go to the account opening branch and need to sign for the money. It may be possible to talk to KBank customer service and ask to be put through to the inward funds department where I could talk to someone and have the funds deposited into my account just over the phone. This would be the preferred way as it could be done remotely. This seems to be an issue as I have not done a foreign inward transfer to my KBank account before and some documentation will not exist for this at the account opening branch (not exactly sure what this is). I understand that Kasikorn will not deposit the funds and should (!) keep hold of the funds indefinitely, till I can communicate with them over the transfer or visit the account opening branch. I asked if it would be a problem not going to the branch for several weeks and was told that this shouldn't be the case. This is slightly concerning because after some time, if the funds have not been deposited to my account, they may just disappear. Still I would have the receipt from sending and would attempt to communicate with kasikorn, sending faxes if necessary, that a transfer to my account has take place and stating what the purpose of the transfer is.

If you have sent foreign currency to a Kasikorn bank account, what has your experience been ? Is what I have been told above correct ? Do you have any further information on this topic to add ?

Thanks in advance

I spend most of my time outside Thailand but transfer funds regularly to my Kasikorn Bank account without any drama. I simply wire transfer in USD and it goes directly into my account. I can attest from personal experience that any transfer over 20K USD will create teh need to go to the bank in person to release the funds. There are douments that must be signed in front of the bank officer before they can release the funds into your account due to banking rules. I learned to keep all transfers below 20 K USD to avoid problems.

I have just transfered some funds from my uk bank account to my thai bank account by swift transfer.My uk bank have given me a fax confirming the money as been sent but i cannot get any confirmation from my thai bank that the money as been put into my account .can any one give me any advice as i would like to tansfer some more funds to thailand but am not going until end of January and that seems to be the only way i will get to know that the money is in the account,it is the first time that i have done this so it is all a bit new to me thanks for any advice given

Very interesting subject I am a pensioer,and I say in thailand on a 1 year visa but i am not a resient what makes you a resident .ie. not living in the UK?

Send by SWIFT transfer and send in Sterling only. Does not matter

whether you're in Thailand or UK although you need to have

a Thai bank account first.

The 30% withholding only applies on transfers over GBP 10k

and normally will not be applied if the funds are for living expenses.

I have never heard of a 5k limit, I transfer much more than that every year.

Naka.

i would like to know ,which is the best way to transfer money to thailand from a uk bank.Is it best to do it while i am in the uk or when i am in thailand.

I have also seen some posts saying that the bank withholds 30% if the transfer is for more than £10,000,how long do they with hold it for and for what reason any advice appreciated.

Can anyone give me some advice on how to get Kasikorn bank on 191/9 Chang klan road to reply to my e mails i dont seem to be able to get in touch with that branch direct by e mail i am in the uk at the moment any advice would be appreciated

That fits nicely ...those boxes contain at least a few hundred books, movie cassettes and DVDs

Would duty have to be paid on CD,s and own recorded DVD,s? or are they allowed

Total cost Visa 3900 Baht. Don't have to leave the country, for 15 months just 90 day reporting....

That was 2,000 Baht for the change from tourist visa to non-O, and 1,900 Baht for the annual extension of stay.

Important: if you plan to travel outside Thailand during the 15 months you are now permitted to stay in Thailand, please remember to get a re-entry permit before you leave Thailand so as to keep you current extension alive.

--

Maestro

I don't know but it is likely to look very suspicious to the reviewing officer to see the money vanish and then re-appear just before it is needed. That may well trigger a request for source information. If you are bringing in money to live from I would make sure it goes into the account first so there is some record of it.

We are moving to thailand soon we are transfering most of our money bank to bank as we hold thai bank accounts already we were going to bring our first years living costs in cash and travellers cheques it sounds like it would be best to transfer them as well to our account am i right to think that.

I would like to know if their is a limit to the amount of GBP cash that you can bring into thailand.In the region of 5,000 to 10,000 is that allowed the money will have been drawn from a Bank in the uk would their be any problem with this amount all advice much appreciated