oldcpu

My speculation is they figure anyone over age-50 won't live as long as someone under age-50. Hence (if there is inflation) it is 'safer' for BoI to set a specific income/wealth that is lower for those age 50 and older than it is for such a limit for those who are younger. They likely believed, once they set a 'lower wealth' criteria for "Wealthy Pensioners", as opposed to a higher 'wealth criteria' for Wealthy Global Citizens, they then needed to select an age limit to assign as a demarcation. Since age-50 is used for other immigration visas, they possibly that that was a good age to select. Again that is just my speculation as to what they may have been considering. .

Thankyou for that document. I'll make a note to save it. .... I guess in case needed, I will have to dig around to get the exact Chamchuri Sq Immigration office address. I suspect I won't need such thou for some years. I'm age-69 but I hope to keep traveling out of the country for short visits once or twice a year for the next 5 years and possibly longer. Fortunately in setting up the LTR visa, BoI had the foresight to allow "the counter" for one's one-year report to be 'reset' each time one left Thailand and returned. I obtained my LTR in June-2023, but left the country in August-2023 and did not return to Thailand until the last day in September-2023. Hence my 'report' is not due until end-September-2024, and I am likely to exit/return to Thailand long before then. Given the 90-day on-line reporting rarely worked for myself, I find this 1-year reporting (and it being reset after each journey out/into Thailand) a bigger psychological benefit than I anticipated.

It must be locally in case of Cigna. My health insurance is from Europe and from Cigna. It is superior to Thai requirements but it was not accepted by Thai immigration. Cigna Europe also refused to sign any Thai forms for insurance. I contacted the Thai branch of Cigna and asked if they would indicate to immigration my insurance adequate ( for a nominal fee) and they refused. They insisted I buy new ( double ) insurance from them, which wasn't as good as my current insurance ( and was more expensive as my current insurance is subsidized as part of my pension). As pointed out, proof not required for extensions. But if you are on a Type-OA visa and have left the country and are applying for a Type-O ( to avoid health insurance from Thai branch proof requirements) you may have to prove money from abroad dependent on the immigration office. In my case, when I switched from Type-OA to Type-O, I used same account I used years earlier (with proof of money coming into Thailand) and I was not asked to provide the proof.

I thought your post (that I quoted) by itself could be misleading (for someone who does not read the entire thread) which is why I bothered. I agree with you that calling a visa a "Retirement Visa" can be misleading and not helpful if one is trying to help. As pointed out, there is no such visa that goes precisely by that name.

It depends .... (as has already been pointed out on this thread). You are correct that for an underlying Type-O visa, one does not need to show health insurance for a one year extension based on retirement. But its a different story for a Type-OA visa where one does need to show health insurance (that meets rather specific Thai requirements) for a one year extension based on retirement. Initially, when the Health Insurance requirement was implemented (when I was on a type-OA visa), to avoid go for worthless (double) health insurance from the Thai branch of a health insurance company, I switched from an extension for reason of retirement, to an extension for reason of marriage. But where money was not an issue, the paper work requirements (and time to get permission to stay in Thailand extension approved) were more of a 'bother' with the marriage justification, then with the 'retirement justification' for the extension. So a number of us on this forum (such as myself) on Type-OA visas, (despite having great health insurance and despite having a Thai spouse), left Thailand to invalidate our Type-OA visas, and re-entered Thailand successfully visa exempt, and applied for a Type-O visa. We did this because of the implementation of the Thailand immigration health insurance requirement on extensions on Type-OA visas and because retirement extensions had less paperwork and were quicker then marriage extensions for both Type-O and Type-OA. Perhaps a salient point in regards to the Health Insurance, is one pretty much has to obtain their health insurance (when on the Type-OA retirement extension) from the Thai branch of a Health Insurance company, and not from a branch outside of Thailand (even thou our insurance from outside Thailand was massively superior). (I wish the type-OA visa would follow the lead of the Long Term Resident Visa where one on the LTR visa is allowed to self insure with $100K US equivalent in a bank account anywhere in the world - but to date, the Type-OA visa has not implemented that). Hence I think the recommendation of many is to go for a Type-O visa, and further if money is not an issue, go for an extension for reason of Retirement. Possibly the 'elephant' in the room is the recent concern about taxation of money being brought into Thailand but that is not relevant to the question asked in this thread, and further that topic is being beaten to death in other threads and need not be discussed here.

As others have noted, I suspect you should have no problem going through the Thai immigration line with your Thai wife. I have a passport from an EU country, and I have been going through the Thai line at immigration, when accompanied by my Thai wife, for the past two decades in both Phuket and Bangkok airports, with no issues. .

My recollection is when one obtains an information request, and then goes to one's BoI account login, one will see an entry "Staff Name". Under that it will have typed "screen-x" where "x" is some number. For the sake of an example, lets say it says "screen5". When I phoned BoI and asked for confirmation what I submitted was adequate, or asked for clarification on the request, I would typically be asked, what 'screen number' processed the request. After providing such , if that person was in the office, they would forward me to them. If they were not available (busy or away from the office) then typically the person on the phone would try to handle my case. I never once asked to speak to the specific person listed in the "Staff Name". Rather I was asked whom.

In my case I applied in January and obtained approval (and the LTR-WP) in June. However I think it was pretty clear as to what was holding mine up each step of the way. Despite providing all the information per their requirement list at the start, I received multiple requests for more documents (in some case asking for the same document twice (they failed to spot the document in the initial upload), and in other cases because they rejected the document proof in my initial application - and they wanted different proof). My pension income coming from multiple sources (different countries) complicated it a bit for BoI, I suspect. After the first couple of document rejections, I started calling the BoI office to get a better handle on why they did not like any specific document I provided, ... or ask BoI if a document I had just provided after a request was satisfactory. The biggest delays for me were being asked for my 2022 tax returns [I initially provided my 2020 and 2021 returns] .. (when I still had not filed the 2022 return in January 2023) and a delay in proving to their satisfaction the paperwork I had was adequate to prove my investment in Thailand, meeting their investment requirements (this also took me some weeks).

Friend one - as long as the country he worked in had a Double Tax Agreement (DTA) with Thailand, he should have nothing to worry about, assuming he has already paid tax on his savings, and any money he brings into Thailand will be covered by the DTA. Again - no worries, as as long as the country he worked in had a Double Tax Agreement (DTA) with Thailand and he paid taxes there. There is a massive amount of unwarranted scare mongering about this topic. Simply incredible.

I googled this and I read for the UK : "A double tax agreement may specify that the pension is taxable only in the UK, or only in the other country. In the latter case, the double tax agreement effectively overrides the UK domestic position and no UK tax is due" (but one still may be required to report the pension the the HM Revenue & Customs). So again, DTA (double tax agreements) plays an important factor here and one may not in the UK have to pay tax on foreign pension money brought into the UK, based on the DTA with the originating country of one's pension. Also - even if taxed in the UK on one's foreign pension, the DTA typically allows one to get the taxes back that one paid in the foreign country. So there is no double taxation by bringing pension money into the UK.

I seriously doubt for LTR visa holders that savings from past years (prior to obtaining the LTR visa) will be taxed when transferred to Thailand. Further in many cases those now on pension in Thailand were likely already taxed by countries that have tax agreements with Thailand, and they have saved that already taxed money, which means no double tax (due to such tax agreements). Obviously, if a pensioner in Thailand was also working in Thailand, prior to obtaining the LTR visa, and they did not pay Thai tax the LTR visa is NOT going to suddenly exempt them from what they failed to legally do in previous years. But to see beyond that to think past already taxed savings from abroad would suddenly be taxed when the money is brought into Thailand to invest, or to use for Thailand living expenses, is contrary to the entire reason of the LTR and in my view highly unlikely. Honestly - I just read a bunch of scaremongering on this thread about potential tax changes - full of speculation.

Reads to be good news for LTR visa holders whose pension income brought into Thailand comes from abroad ....

I recently returned to Phuket after 1 month outside Thailand, traveling in Europe. I could not find a 'Fast Track' line at the Phuket International Airport, so my Thai wife and I entered the Thai line, which I note had no one in line waiting to clear immigration. This was in stark contrast to the line to clear immigration for non-Thai, which was very long. I venture a 30 minute or longer wait in line to clear immigration. My Thai wife entered first, and noted to the Immigration officer that I was 'accompanying her' (she did not say we were married, although we are married) and she advised the IO that I was on an LTR visa. At my turn on line, the Immigration officer (IO) looked at the LTR visa in my passport, and then the IO left the immigration booth for about a minute with my passport. I could hear in Thai the word LTR being noted back and forth among 3 or 4 immigration officers talking. Then the IO returned, stamped my entry into Thailand in my passport (with a permission to stay until June-2028) and I cleared immigration. All in all, very quick. Maybe a few minutes at most. It sure beats 30 minutes in line if forced to go in the non-Thai line. Although I note when I had a Type-OA Visa (and also when I entered Thailand visa-exempt) that when I was accompanied by my Thai wife, I would often go through the Thai line, which was faster than the non-Thai line at immigration. After my clearing immigration and talking to my wife, she noted the Thai immigration officials were chatting (while my entry at Phuket immigration was being processed), about the fact that I had an LTR visa and that they had not seen one very often. This was also the first LTR visa that the specific IO processing my passport had seen before. My wife also noted she had asked the IO (who processed her Thai passport) if there was a Fast Track line in Phuket International Airport for LTR visa and she was advised that Phuket had not yet setup such a Fast Track line.

It is actually very standard that those renting long term in Thailand will also, in addition to the rent, need to pay for water and electricity. The landlord can not guess in advance how much water and electricity the tenant will use, so the bill for those will be passed on to the tenant. As for cleaning, many landlords will require that the tenant pay for a maid to come some TBD time per month (from 1 to 4 times per month) to clean. Having the placed cleaned after departure is very common. I rented in Germany for 2 decades, and it was common there for the tenant to pay for electricity, water, and for cleaning.

I am curious if you had any success with your Cigna Health insurance for the LTR visa? Today I went to the Cigna site and printed out the latest certificate, so I have proof of my Health Insurance during some upcoming travel where one of the countries that I am passing through may ask for Health Insurance proof. I noted in the small print of the one-page Cigna form, that it has the date in which the print out was produced (ie today's date) and then further in the small print it states the form is valid for only one month ! As you known the "end date" of Health Insurance coverage in the one page form is blank, but the small print does clearly state that the form itself is only valid for one month after its print date. That makes me very suspicious that BoI won't accept that form for Health Insurance proof for the 5-year permission to stay in a 10 year LTR visa.

Further to Dr Jack54 suggestions, note that this would be a Type-O based on marriage to a Thai. At your age of 46, if you and your Thai spouse were to split, I suspect it could be difficult to maintain that Type-O Visa (as I believe one needs to be age-50 or over to obtain 1-year extensions of the Visa of reason of retirement). Hopefully all is well in your relationship and that my comment is a mute point, but its something worth understanding, I believe.

The two differ in that the Type-OA visa has a Health Insurance requirement, while the Type-O Visa does not have such (when applying for an extension based on retirement). Further the source of Health Insurance accepted by Thai immigration for the Type-OA visa is limited mainly to Health Insurance obtained from the Thai branch of a health insurance company. Dependent on one's age, such Health Insurance can be expensive. Insurance from non-Thai branches of Insurance companies are in general not accepted. It would be helpful, if those with foreign Health insurance, who managed to obtain a one year extension on their Type-OA visa, would post their experience. I have yet to read of one such case. That Health Insurance requirement, mostly from a Thai branch of a Health insurance company, has 'driven' a number of expats away from the Type-OA visa. Note that to change from a Type-OA to a Type-O visa, will require you to leave Thailand (without a re-entry permit on the Type-OA visa) to invalidate the Type-OA visa, and then return to Thailand (possibly return Visa Exempt) to apply for a Type-O Visa. Upon re-entering Thailand to obtain the type-O visa, there will be typical Visa application paper work required, and possibly you will again need to prove the 800K THB money you have in a Thai bank came from abroad, and that it was not money earned in Thailand. Different immigration offices implement the rules in different manners - so one's "mileage may vary". If the 1st time you enter Thailand Visa exempt, the main challenge, as you note, will be opening a Bank account. I was able to do such 7 years ago (when buying a condominium in Phuket when I was on a Visa exempt status), but I have read that is mostly not possible currently. However I have read claims on this forum that use of an agent can help overcome this difficulty in opening a bank account when in Thailand Visa Exempt. One possibility, is if you visit Thailand either on a Tourist Visa, or Visa exempt, BEFORE retiring, you could at that time try to open an account (possibly using an agent). Not succeeding in such an initial trip won't be a disaster as your retirement move will come some time later. And if you are successful in opening the bank account, I think your 'way forward' (type-O or type-OA visa) should be more clear.

You can "TRY" when first applying for a Type-OA 1 year extension, to have a foreign health insurance company sign that form - but I think it unlikely to be successful. I know from my 1st hand experience that European Cigna REFUSED to fill in such a form - despite multiple efforts on my part contacting different levels of management. Further, from 1st hand experience, when I contacted the Thai branch of Cigna, showed them my coverage from the European Cigna, and asked them (the Thai Cigna branch) if they would do the appropriate processing for my European Cigna insurance to be accepted (for a nominal fee to them the Thai branch) they REFUSED to do such. They would ONLY do such if I purchased double health insurance from them. Further, the form is only good for when 1st applying for a type-OA Visa. My understanding is that form can NOT be used for Extensions ... and I have yet to read of anyone's experience successfully using such a form (signed by a foreign health insurance company IF they can find one to sign) when applying for a one-year extension on their Type-OA visa (with foreign health insurance). and then IF also succeeding with such a signed form to have Thai immigration accept such (on the 1 year extension). In fact, for my 1st extension on my Type-OA visa, for reason of retirement, I had to buy worthless (due to massive deductible) double Health insurance from the Thai branch of a Health Insurance company, while still retaining my massively superior European Health insurance. I think the forum members would be most curious to learn of a foreign health insurance company that will be accepted by Thai immigration for one year Type-OA visa extensions. Not just the initial application, no I specifically refer to the subsequent 1 year extensions. Most accounts that I have read on this forum, were people like myself, who had to buy Health Insurance from a Thai branch of a Health Insurance company, to have it accepted by Thai immigration (in my case double health insurance as I refused to give up my superior European health insurance). Again - I wish the $100K US$ equivalent in any bank in the world approach (for self health insurance) accepted by BoI for the LTR visa, would be applied to the Type-OA visa. .

True - its good to have health insurance. BUT the downside is that the implementation by Thailand pretty much requires it be Health insurance from the Thai branch of a health insurance company. There are a number of us on this forum, who have SUPERB international health insurance (from Europe or North America) that exceeds the Thai Health Insurance requirements (and its cheaper than Thai health insurance because it is subsidized for us by our pension) , but our Health Insurance is NOT accepted by Thai immigration because it is NOT from a Thai branch of a Health Insurance company. It was because of that VERY Type-OA health insurance requirement from a Thai branch (mostly only) (extensions for reason of retirement) that I ended up switching to a Type-O visa. By changing to a Type-O visa I was able to keep my superior international health insurance (from Europe) and NOT be forced to purchase double insurance from a Thai branch of a Health Insurance company (when going for 1-year extensions based on 'retirement'). I wish that Thailand immigration (for Type-OA visa) would adopt the policy of the Long Term Resident (LTR) visa, where one can self insure by having >$100K US$ equivalent in a bank account anywhere in the world. But they don't - one needs to buy their Thai health insurance from a Thai branch (mostly) for the Type-OA Visa. Its important to point that out to anyone thinking of going to a Type-OA, who may naively think their European or North American health insurance is OK, could be disappointed. The odds are their foreign branch health insurance will not be accepted in Thailand.

I think it depends on the Provincial Immigration office as to whether grandfathering for type-OA visa (for not needing medical insurance) is followed. Phuket immigration does allow grandfathering ... and the details for such are noted on the "Phuket Immigration Volunteers" web page , where it notes: .... " From October 2020 an medical insurance is required for every retirement extension if it is based on a original Non-OA visa (Issued at the Thai Embassy in your home country) following the criteria explained below than it has to be shown and included in the extension based on retirement. – If the Non-OA visa from your home country is issued In or BEFORE 2017 then the health insurance is NOT required for your extension. – If the Non-OA visa from your home country is issued in 2018 or later but the last entry date is before 1 October 2019 then the health insurance is NOT required for your extension. – If the Non-OA visa from your home country is issued in 2018 or later but the last entry date is AFTER 1 October 2019 then the health insurance is IS required for your extension. " .... That is all a bit complex. In my case, with a Type-OA visa issued in year 2018 in Germany, when I was in Phuket I was not grandfathered (due to my entry dates), so I was required to obtain health insurance from a Thai immigration approved Health insurance source. My superior coverage with my European Health insurance (which was also heavily subsidized as part of my pension) was not accepted by Immigration, so for my 1st extension on my Type-OA visa I purchased inexpensive worthless insurance from the Thai branch of a Health Insurance company (as I was not yet allowed to go for an extension based on marriage to a Thai). A year later, for my next extension on my Type-OA, I was allowed to go for an extension based on marriage to a Thai (and I did not have to buy worthless 2nd insurance that year). After going through all that, I switched to a Type-O visa (which does not require the Health Insurance proof). But now with the LTR visa, I have switched again, now to that LTR Visa, and I simply 'self insured' myself by proving the equivalent of over $100K US$ in a bank account (somewhere in the world). I think it would be a step forward if Immigration would follow the lead of the LTR visa and for Type-OA visa extensions accept $100K US$ (in a bank account anywhere in the world) as self health insurance.

Indeed - my experience (in Phuket) is also that a Yellow Book is definitely not necessary, but if one has such it will suffice. The last time I went for an extension on a Type-O visa (when I still had such a Type-O visa), at Phuket immigration, the "Phuket volunteers" (who help the immigration officers) advised me to get a Blue Book (copy) and a copy of the ID of my condo owner. When I advised them that I was the owner of the condo, they told me then to bring my Chanote (with a copy) and also bring the Blue Book (plus copy) - where bringing the Blue book made no sense to me as I am not a Thai resident (and hence my name is not in the Blue book). When I next showed up (when meeting the IO) with my Yellow book (plus copy) and my Chanote (plus copy) the IO handed back to me the Chanote and the Chonote copy, and kept the copy from the Yellow book. Still as noted not everyone wants nor does anyone need a Yellow book", and hence I believe the Chanote (plus copy) would have sufficed for the residence proof (in addition to other documents noted (TM30 copy and TM47)).

I wonder how this works in practice at Chiang Mai and Hua Hin before and after the country wide health insurance requirement for type-OA(retirement). I wonder, because prior to the Thailand immigration countrywide requirement for holders of a Type-OA visa, applying for a 1 year extension (based on retirement), I do not believe there was an immigration database setup for the entry of the Health Insurance data. At the same time as the Thailand requirement for Health Insurance (for type-OA visa holders for 1-year retirement extensions) was implemented, Thai immigration implemented what I think was a new database (for the Visa holder's insurance data to be entered). My understanding is the Health Insurance companies are required then to enter the proof of health insurance into the Immigration database, for an individual on a type-OA visa (seeking a retirement 1 year extension) who is purchasing the Health Insurance to meet the new country wide requirement. My experience is that offices of Health Insurance companies outside of Thailand will not enter such information into a Thai immigration database. Further the Thailand branch of a Health Insurance company will not enter the data into the Thai immigration database UNLESS the insurance is purchased from their specific Thai branch. In essence this means in most cases, one must have Health Insurance from the Thai branch of a Health Insurance company. Superior health insurance from outside the country does not count (for a Type-OA extension(retirement) if the Health Insurance office that issued that health insurance refuses to enter the data into the Thai database (which foreign offices typically refuse to do). Hence I think that drove a number of us (who were on a Type-OA) to switch to a Type-O visa (as our superior non-Thai branch health insurance was not accepted by immigration), or in other cases, take advantage of the new LTR Visa where we could instead self insure by having sufficient money in the bank. Am I correct in assuming that your Health Insurance is from a Thai branch of a Health Insurance company ? (and hence willing to fill in the appropriate data into the Thai immigration database)?

No I did not use an agent. And yes immigration did keep my passport for 2 weeks. This was an application for a 90 day Type-O visa in Phuket in the late October to early December timeframe last year. I posted previously on this. You may find it weird but those are the facts.

As noted the time to get the 90-day type-O visa (for reason of retirement) likely varies from office to office. Last year I applied for a type-O 90-day visa in Phuket immigration, with about 30-days left in my (then 45-day visa exempt entry) ... It ended up taking much more than the 30 days. I applied and Phuket immigration told me to report to the immigration a few days prior to my Visa exempt expiring (ie almost 30 calendar days after my applying), and when I reported they assured me all was on track to get the 90-day BUT it had not yet been approved. They then at that time took and kept my Passport. It was more than 10 days AFTER that before I was able to get my passport back with my 90-day Type-O visa approved and inside. Phuket needs to send the approval outside of Phuket province, and that can take time. Needless to say , for the more than 10 days when I had no passport (and I had already passed the permission to stay stamp in the passport that I did not have (as Thai immigration had my passport) i was a bit nervous. (I did have photocopies of my passport and its stamps) ... But it all worked out in the end. Now when applying for a 1 year extension on your 90-day Type-O Visa (for reason of retirement) is is VERY quick (pickup next day for me in Phuket). But for applying for your 90-day type-O visa? My advice? Go the very first day that your immigration office will allow you to go to apply for such.

I have a yellow book (and the pink ID) and in the most part, other documents will suffice instead. But still, I can't deny that the yellow book and pink-ID have come in handy at times. As pointed out on this thread when purchasing a Thai government saving's bond, a number on the yellow book (and pink-ID) can come in handy when buying the bond. The bank manager at a Bangkok Bank in Phuket where I purchased Thai government bonds advised us he would only allow his staff to process the application for a bond purchase for a foreigner who had the yellow book/pink ID. We tried a couple other banks (one was Krungsri) and the branch we went to simply would not sell a foreigner Thai government bonds. Perhaps if we had walked to many more banks, we might have eventually found one willing to sell Thai government bonds to a foreigner without a yellow book/pink-ID, but who wants to spend the time going to do that? .... (I needed the Thai government bonds to top up my investment in Thailand for an LTR visa). When I last renewed my Thai driver's licence in Phuket, I provided my Yellow book (and a copy of its salient pages) instead of having to go to Phuket immigration and obtain a certificate (or letter) of residence, which is what most foreigners in Phuket are required to do for the Phuket licence bureau. Before I obtained my LTR Visa, I was on a type-O visa. I previous obtained a one year extension of my 90-day type O visa (for reason of retirement). The Phuket immigration accepted my Yellow book (and salient copies) instead of the blue book with my wife's Thai ID (as her name is the last name in the blue book). So thanks to the Yellow Book, one less photocopy and my not having to nag my wife to get a copy of her Thai ID. I have on occasion been able to use the pink-ID (which one can obtain after getting the yellow book) when checking in to a hotel, BUT on the most part, I found hotels still insist on seeing one's passport. I had a couple occasions the opportunity (when entering a park and had to pay a foreigner's fee) to flash my pink-ID, but frankly, I forgot that I even had the ID. ... So I missed that chance.