TallGuyJohninBKK

That's 30 minutes I'd prefer not to waste on the morning of my Immi visit. PS - Last I heard, Krungsri BKK CW was no longer providing the copy of the last bankbook page when issuing their income letters. They declined to give me a copy two years ago last time I did an income letter with them.

Re your first question about having a bank income letter from a province other than where you're applying to Immigration, I don't know the answer to that one... I don't know why that should/would be a problem. But I also don't recall ever seeing that addressed as an issue here. Re your second question, BKK CW says they will accept bank deposit confirmation letters issued up to 7 days prior to your actual Immigration visit. The letter doesn't have to be issued the day of your visit or even the day before. And, it's no problem if the balance listed on your bank letter is somewhat different than the balance of your bankbook update on the day of your visit. Just so long at your balances have always remained above the minimum amount/amounts specified by Immigration for your particular extension. PS - even though it's not required, I tend to like to get my income letter and day-of update balances to match. So the way I do that is.... 1. Get my income letter prior. 2. Immediately after getting my letter, do a 100b deposit at that same branch. 3. The morning of my Immigration visit, do a 100b ATM withdrawal to have some activity that day to allow a bankbook update. 4. And then run my bankbook thru the update machine to get the printed update for the day. 5. letter and bankbook balances match.

When I was using the photocopy shop in the basement of BKK CW yesterday at various points between 8:30 am and 10 am, there was never any queue line of customers, and I was served immediately upon arrival. In and out within a minute or two, Also, when I went the in-branch, day-of income letter at the BKK CW branch two years ago, they made me wait 30+ minutes from the time I finished all the application paperwork and payment with them, until the time they actually issued the letter. They claimed that was the time it took for them to clear the letter through their HQ branch for some reason. As a result of that unexpected delay, I was somewhat late for my scheduled L section appointment that year. And on that day, I was the very first person in line when the branch opened, so it's not like my request/paperwork for the letter was stuck behind others who had made prior requests. This year, when I got my income letter at my home Krungsri branch in the Sukhumvit area on Monday, I had my income letter within 5 minutes of the time I signed the application request paperwork and paid the fee. My general philosophy is to try to get as much of my business done as possible PRIOR to the 8:30 am opening of the BKK CW Immigration office.

Dunno what to say about what happened with your situation. For me, I never had any problem last year with my old Krungsri bankbook. I got a new Krungsri bankbook earlier this spring, and periodic machine updates since then had worked fine. The first I encountered any failure for the machine to update my book was Monday when I went to get my income letter at my home branch. And then same again Tuesday at Krungsri BKK CW. All I know, is the bank staff at both branches claimed they're having some problem with their bankbook update machines system. If it was a problem with the bankbooks themselves, then I'm hardpressed to explain how/why my new book updated without problem in their machines from March through August.... but then ceased working just lately.... And yet when the bank staff ran my book thru their desk machines inside the branch, both Monday and Tuesday, they were able to update it just fine.

The advantage of being able to update one's bankbook, as required by Immigration, BEFORE the bank branch opens at 8:30 am is that you're then ready to be in the Immigration pre-queue before the Immigration office opens just before 8:30 am, and thus able to get a very low queue ticket number for the L section, meaning hopefully you'll be served and out more quickly. Remember, the updating the bankbook process also involves two steps -- first getting the bankbook itself updated, and then heading down the row in the basement of the Govt. Complex building to get an updated photocopy of the newly updated final bankbook page...and then schlepping back to Immigration. If a person already has a previously issued bank income letter and can do the bankbook update at the passbook update machine well prior to the 8:30 am openings of both the bank and Immigration, they'll best be able to get a low L section queue number... And yes, that assumes they haven't used the online system to make a scheduled appointment time with Immigration for the L section.

There have been several posted reports here lately, including one from me, of the bank book and photocopies being required lately. Given how Immigration operates, it's hard to know whether it's an all-emcompassing policy right now, or just being periodically and randomly enforced. But, FWIW, the IO supervisor at BKK CW last week told me in English that it is now their POLICY.

Dunno the address answer to your question above.... But in terms of making payments when applying for a new U.S. passport from Thailand... 1. the actual new passport fee is paid online to a U.S. govt website and can be paid just fine with a U.S. bank card. 2. The other fee is a 100 baht prepaid mailing return envelope fee, which I believe is supposed to be paid with a draft (similar to money order) from one of several Thai banks that you're to include as part of your mailed application paperwork sent to the U.S. Embassy in BKK... As part of that application paperwork, you're also supposed to send a copy of the payment confirmation email you get from the feds when you pay online for the new passport fee.

In short, YES! Not asked... demanded at BKK CW right now. Told by my IO and confirmed by her supervisor in English last week. Assuming you have at least retirement extension based on a Thai bank deposit (I dunno if the same is being applied to extension people doing monthly foreign bank xfers)... as part of transferring your stamp to a new passport: Immigration at BKK CW told me they are now requiring in addition to the various items on their official list of required documents: 1. that you bring the Thai bankbook associated with your deposit and do a printed balance update in the book on the day of your Immigration visit. 2. that you also provide them with signed photocopies of your bankbook pages covering the period from the start of your current extension up through the date of your Immigration visit to request the stamp transfer to the new passport. They're going to look through those carefully to make sure that your bank balance never dipped below the required amount from the time of your last extension up through the date you're requesting the transfer of your stamp to a new passport. I'm guessing, but can't say for certain, that the same requirement is going to be applied to marriage extension holders who rely on Thai bank deposits... Because, what the IO supervisor actually told me in English was, ANYTIME you're coming to the L section to transact any business there, they're going to be demanding to see your Thai deposit bank book and set of signed bankbook photocopies.

Is that something they do for free, or is it a paid service? Is it university students doing it as part of their English language training?

Previously, two years ago, I didn't provide them, and was asked for them, as were others who posted as much here at the time. Last year I provided them without being asked, based on the prior year's experience. And the two pages were not returned/kicked back to me, but kept by the IO as part of my paperwork. This year, I didn't provide them, and wasn't asked for them. YMMV

Thanks! I corrected and changed my language above.... Their normal request is just for regular signed photocopies of the bankbook.... Only if there is some issue or complication, as occurred with me today, do they then resort to asking for the formal, bank-issued official account statement that you have to pay the bank to issue.

I well know that.... ???? But that doesn't change the fact that Immigration had asked me for copies of those two years ago when I didn't have them in my submitted paperwork, and then accepted and didn't return the same from me last year ???? Just not today. And I was fine with that!

The weird and typically IO part of the bank books issue was.... I was out to BKK CW just last week to transfer my soon-to-expire current extension stamp into my newly issued, month-old new passport... (I wanted to get the transfer done separately before heading back to do the new extension on a different day). And as part of doing the stamps transfer process, as I've explained in other posts here lately, the IOs for that process are now carefully checking your bankbook and want photocopies of your pages as part of the stamp transferring process. The IOs a week ago scrutinized my bankbook very carefully and went line by line through the books and the regular signed photocopies of my bankbook pages to make sure I had complied with the deposit requirements since my last extension a year ago. And, they were perfectly fine, no complaints or issues. Today a week later, different IOs, and entirely different handling on exactly the same bank book paperwork. ????

Thanks! Good question... I have used the advance appointments system before at BKK CW.... but just chose not to mess with it or even check into its status this year (though I assume it's working because I did see some appointments people being called).... As it turned out, I got inside queue ticket number of 12 for the L section where retirement extensions are handled. And was in to start my visit with the IO by 9:30 am or so... So not really much time that I could have saved.

Went out to BKK CW this morning to apply for my annual retirement extension based on the 800,000 baht deposit in a Thai bank account. Arrived at 8 am, got number 168 in their pre-queue lineup list, got inside by 8:30 am, got my new retirement extension and then did the separate process of applying for a re-entry permit, and was able to escape just before noon time with both in hand. The basic document requirements were pretty much unchanged from last year.... See my prior more detailed trip report from last year below, which also has PDF weblinks to the various misc statements that Immigration wants you to complete in addition to the basic TM7 extension of stay application form: https://aseannow.com/topic/1232914-2021-trip-report-for-retirement-extension-with-thai-bank-deposit-at-bkk-cw/ There were a couple overall updates: 1. Although I had copies of my latest 90-day report receipt and TM-30 residence form stapled inside my passport just in case, the IO handling my retirement extension application didn't ask me for copies of either, unlike a past visit to BKK CW two years ago. But I'd bring them anyway, just in case. 2. Because I had one bankbook get filled during the past year and then was issued a new bankbook for the remainder of the year, the IO on my case and her supervisor had some problem with the way my bank handled the changeover, and kept insisting it looked like I had a "gap" in time between the end of the old and the start of the new books. Thus they required me to get an official bank statement, costing 200 baht, covering the period where they were worried about a gap... which in the end, satisfied them that I had maintained the proper bank balance as required. That ordeal set back completing the retirement extension part of the visit by about an extra hour all in all. 3. Elsewhere, unlike last year, this year, both the retirement extension officer and the re-entry permit officer both wanted to take new digital photos of me with the webcams on their desk, even though my appearance hadn't changed much at all from last year or the year prior... So the face mask had to come off each time for them to take their photos. 4. Speaking of face masks, of course, face masks continue to be required for entry into the Government Complex building where Immigration is located. Likewise, while you don't have to show any proof of COVID vaccination in order to enter, you DO have to fill out and sign a form where you're asked if you've had COVID lately, if you've been around other people with COVID lately, if you've traveled internationally lately, etc etc.... Dunno what happens if one ends up having to answer YES to any of those questions. 5. For the past two years when I went to BKK CW, there was no queue tickets system being used at the re-entry permits desk area C2. You just walked up and handed them your paperwork. This year, of course, since nothing ever stays the same, the re-entry permits section was back to using the queue tickets system again, just like the L section for extensions of stay. In terms of travel, I took the BTS Sukhumvit line from central BKK, leaving home at 7 am, heading for the Mochit Station, and then catching a taxi there to take the paid tollway out to Chaengwattana. The meter taxi cost about 110 baht, while the tollway fare was 80 baht. And no traffic whatsoever all the way out on the tollway. Arrived at BKK CW just before 8 am. Ahh... PS to anyone having their bank deposits at yellow Krungsri Bank right now... for unknown reasons, their public passbook update machines are NOT working properly right now, and will fail to actually update your bankbook.... Meaning you can't use the update machines outside the branch downstairs at BKK CW earlier in the morning, and instead have to wait for the Krungsri branch to open at 8:30 am and then have the staff inside do the bankbook update on their machines, which delays the process a bit. The regular public update machines outside the branch were nice, when they worked, because they were available prior to the 8:30 am opening of the branch (which is also the official opening time for Immigration). No ETA given of how long Krungsri's bankbook update machines are going to be on the fritz. It's not just a problem with the machines at that one branch, but supposedly, is a Krungsri-wide issue right now... so two different branches told me in the past two days. Ahh... PPS - Since I had a new passport issued by my home country in the past month, I had been hoping on Tuesday to also do an early 90-day report while I was already at BKK CW for the day.... so that I'd be able to do online reporting with my new passport number for future reports.... But, the 90 day report staff were having none of it.... telling that because my next 90-day report isn't due until the end of October, it was too early for them to accept a 90-day report from me today... I explained to them that I just wanted them to update my record in their system with my new passport number so that I'd be able to do online reporting the next time out. One IO agreed to do that and started that, but then was countermanded by another officer, who insisted I'd have to physically travel out to BKK CW again toward the end of October, and they wouldn't/couldn't do anything today to allow me to avoid that.... Yeesh!

The one thing I always wondered about in that kind of situation was... unless you're a farang who actually reads Thai.... how are you supposed to know exactly what the will you're submitting, written by someone else in a foreign language, is really saying.... For all you know, the lawyer in the will might be leaving your entire estate to the lawyer... And before anyone says anything on that point, stranger things have happened here in Thailand, where the legal profession isn't exactly renowned for their professionalism. ????

An extension holder already has to prove they've maintained the required bank deposits amount every time each year they go to apply for a new extension, and Immigration carefully checks their account balance for the prior 12 months.... If they haven't maintained the required balance, they won't get a new extension. Adding another check of the same mid-cycle just because you want to transfer an existing, still valid stamp to a new passport just seems like overkill and make work B.S. on their part. They're not issuing me a new extension or extending the period of an existing extension. They're just moving the stamps for the same extension from one expired passport to a newly valid passport..... And if the IO IS going to make that a requirement, they ought to DANG well list it on their required documents sheet for the stamp transferring process, so people don't keep getting caught out by an invisible "requirement".

I thought the info in the Living Will section of that article was more helpful and accurate than some of the other content relating to the regular will... For example, on the section regarding bank accounts, the article fails to recognize that Thai Immigration won't let you keep the required 400K marriage extension deposit or 800K retirement extension deposit in joint accounts (unless you double the deposit amounts you keep on deposit). And likewise, nor does it mention that, on the flip side, Thai banks do typically have a different method that will allow you to make a Thai wife as a silent, invisible name listed on your account. Which Immigration would never see or be aware of... But registering that with the bank would allow the Thai wife access to the funds in the account if you were incapacitated (or just died and the bank wasn't yet informed of the death).

I think the OP likely meant extension of stay as opposed to visa... (but yes, my long ancient last visa issue did get briefly cited when they also entered the full version of my latest extension of stay stamp in my new passport.) I was one of those who posted on this recently. And indeed, last week when I went to BKK CW to have my retirement extension stamp transferred to a new passport, BKK CW said they WERE requiring extension holders using the Thai bank deposits method to produce... 1. their Thai bank book for inspection, 2. update the bank book the day of the visit to show the current balance, and 3. provide regular signed photocopies of the bank book pages for the prior period of the existing extension. I too noted that NONE of that was listed on the Immigration document showing the document requirements for the process of transferring stamps to a new passport. So I ended talking to a supervisor there at BKK CW, and she confirmed this is what they're going to be doing for all extension holders who rely on the Thai bank deposits method, when they want to transfer their stamps to a new passport. I hadn't had a new passport, prior to last month, for the preceding 10 years. So I tried, but was unable to get them to clarify for me if the whole bank book stuff was a new requirement of some kind, or just something that I hadn't encountered from them in prior memory. On the day of my visit to BKK CW last week, if I hadn't brought along my Thai bank book out of an abundance of caution because of reading on the issue here, I would have been screwed and had a wasted trip and wasted day. Because the IO wasn't budging on this requirement.

If memory serves, there are several different ways of having a valid will in Thailand, each with their own rules and procedures, including a simple handwritten will (though that particular approach may have to be in Thai language, not sure if English versions would be accepted). Another method is having a so-called amphur will, where the will is accepted by and registered with a local amphur office, usually where the will-maker lives. The process may vary from amphur/khet to amphur/khet, but my understanding is it usually involves having witnesses accompany the will-maker to the amphur office, and can be a closed will (where the witnesses don't know the contents of the will) or an open will where the witnesses read the contents of the will before signing. The will-maker or his beneficiary get a receipt from the amphur, which the beneficiary can use to retrieve an official, registered version of the will upon the passing of the will-maker..... I think, but am not entirely sure, that one of the advantages of going the amphur will route is that it either entirely avoids or has a much expedited probate process in the Thai civil courts. But that last part, I'm doing from memory from conversations on the topic some years back. I wanted to do an amphur will some years back in BKK, but ended up being unable to do so because the local amphur staff changed, and thus their requirements changed and became more onerous, from when I first started the inquiry to the later point where I was ready to proceed. In my particular case, I don't have my own tabien ban being a renter, and the last version I heard from the then amphur staff handling wills where I live was that I was going to have to get my landlord to schlep down to the amphur office with me to be a witness and provide copies of their tabien ban, etc etc. If I had my own tabien ban, it probably would have been easier to handle.

I was going to say, the Thai govt is notoriously bad about predicting, and being vastly wrong, about the timing of completing major public works construction projects. Three months left in the calendar year, and weather forecasts says tons of rain likely in the months ahead, including possible flooding in the BKK region. All in all, I wouldn't be planning to make a dual track train booking for any BKK-HH trip before Christmas this year. PS - it would have been nice if the article had actually mentioned the specific locations of the train stations for this line in both BKK and HH.... Are we supposed to guess where to catch this train, and where you'll be let off?

If you mean the Red Line, a couple of reasons based on past experience: 1. the logistics for me aren't very good, with a long ride on the Blue line subway, then a long walk from its Bang Sue station to the Red Line's Bang Sue station, and then moreso, last time I tried, about 30 minute headways between Red Line trains, meaning I was sitting there wasting a lot of time. and 2. When I finally got off the Red Line at Laksi last time I tried, there were zero car taxis anywhere to be seen when I came down out of the Laksi station into the IT mall area heading toward BKK CW. Last week, I left home at 7 am, went the BTS to Mochit and then tollway taxi to BKK CW route, and walked in the door at Immigration at 7:55 am.

FWIW, I had to go to BKK CW last week in order to get my stamps transferred to a newly issued passport. As part of that process, much to my surprise, the IO there required me to do TWO things that normally are only required for new extensions -- provide photocopies of my bank passbook pages covering the past year, and update my bank passbook that day to show the current balance. I don't think they ever required that bank stuff last time I got a new passport 10 years ago. But last week, at BKK CW, I checked with a supervisor, and she confirmed that the bank book update and bank passbook photocopies now are going to be standard requirements anytime any of us with extensions based on Thai bank deposits are doing ANY business with the L section there.... (and that includes merely having stamps transferred to a new passport). PS - In my visit last week, I had TWO bank passbooks, a full one that ended a few months back, and a new one covering the past couple months. And the IO who handled my stuff wasn't troubled by the notion of my having two bank passbooks for the same account, each covering a part of the year. Nor did they require a bank issued 12 month statement, and were fine with my photocopies of the pages from both books.

BKK CW seems to run hot and cold on the issue of providing a copy of one's TM30 form as part of retirement extension renewals paperwork. Two years ago, to my surprise, they wanted a copy of mine, which fortunately I had. One year ago, they didn't ask and didn't care. Wonder what they'll say when I go back again there later this week for my annual visit.

For retirement extensions at BKK CW... for those applying on the basis of Thai bank deposits, USUALLY, BKK CW will be satisfied by inspecting your bank passbook AND you providing them with signed photocopies of your passbook covering the past 12 month period prior to your application -- which shows you met their 400K and 800K balance requirements. They DO NOT usually require a formal 12-month statement issed by the bank... as long as you have the bank-issued letter certifying the current balance of your account.