OJAS

Could your wife not travel to Turkey on her Thai passport instead? According to the following Turkish MFA link, in the case of Thailand "Ordinary passport holders are exempted from visa for their travels up to 30 days":- https://www.mfa.gov.tr/visa-information-for-foreigners.en.mfa That said, however, might she then be likely to experience problems in re-entering the UK without a British passport? In this connection, does your statement "She maybe denied entry" relate to Turkey or to the UK? If the former I can't see what the problem would be; but if the latter it could be potentially very serious, of course.

I am beginning to suspect that whatever response was received by the Embassy from the MFA consisted of 2 words, the second of which was "off".

So Jomtien are still enforcing that particular rogue requirement as regards the 800k method then?

It strikes me as highly unlikely that the need to consult foreign ministries collectively on this particular "brilliant idea" has actually crossed the minds of the MOPH "geniuses" who were responsible for dreaming it up. Were they to do so, then I think that, in the UK's case, we can confidently predict that they will be informed (in diplomatic terms, of course) by the FCDO up which bodily orifice they can then stick their "brilliant idea" - in precisely the same way as their Immigration Bureau colleagues were a few years ago in connection with another equally "brilliant idea" to force detailed income verification requirements on the Embassy here, which subsequently led to the discontinuation of their income confirmation service for annual extensions of stay.

I think that's now a guaranteed certainty in his case in any event!

In that case, then, unless you can somehow make 300k THB magically appear out of thin air this month, the only option open to you are 60-day COVID extensions (assuming that you are not married to a Thai national).

Another point worth bearing in mind, should this particular statement mean that you already have 500k deposited in a Thai bank account, is that you can use both this and your pension income to prove finances up to an aggregate total of 800k, under the "combo" method which is allowed for retirement extension applications. In this situation you would only require your regular monthly income to total the equivalent of 25k THB!

What nationality are you? Unless you're Australian, American or British (which would appear unlikely from the tone of your OP) and are in receipt of regular monthly income from your home country totalling the equivalent of at least 65k THB, you should be able to obtain an income confirmation letter from your home country embassy in Bangkok, which Immigration will, in your case, accept as sufficient financial proof in lieu of 800k THB deposited in a Thai bank account in your name.

Well good luck in trying to get DWP to send us Brits our State Pension life certificate requests, then!!

And I have my parents to thank for that in my case, through their decision not to bestow any middle name on me when I popped out of my mother's womb 70+ years ago!????

So that presumably means that I won't be able to switch from the 65k monthly income method to the 800k bank balance method for my next retirement extension application in mid-July, then, does it? This despite the fact that I had already accumulated the necessary 800k in a separate bank account which I have opened for this purpose by mid-January - well in advance of the 2-month deadline of mid-May but, alas, for considerably less than one year prior to my next retirement extension application! Oh well, looks like I'll just have to keep soldiering on with 65k minimum monthly FTT transfers for a few more months then...☹️

I can think of no more ghastly place to live, personally, than Bangkok!☹️

One particular downside, which @Eff1n2ret and others living locally may be able to confirm, is with the local Thailand Post mail delivery service, which, I understand, is erratic at best and virtually non-existent at worst. Delays in receiving mail can be a particular PITA in the case of correspondence sent from your home country and requiring attention within a specified deadline (in particular State Pension life certificates in the case of us Brits). This appears to be a Ban Chang-specific issue, however, since the postal delivery service provided by my local post office at Kram has, in my experience, generally been excellent.

You may well know what HSBC's and BKKB's charges may be, but the biggest unknown as alluded to by @Stocky is how much HSBC's agent bank in Thailand will charge you. This is certainly an issue which has in my case also cropped up in the past with SWIFT transfers from my UK bank to BKKB accounts. Makes me seriously wonder whether agent banks the world over (and not just in Thailand, I should hasten to point out - as exemplified by @Stocky) have adopted some flexible formula for calculating their slice of the charges cake, of which route numbers of passing busses are an integral component!????

Well, maybe the reason why @Freddy42OZ and his girlfriend decided to take a taxi instead was that, once they had passed through the ticket barrier, it then became apparent to them that there would be an extremely long wait for the next train. On the London tube, for example, there are screens displaying next train arrival info placed near to ticket barrier entry points at most stations. But presumably that is not the case at BTS stations.

Don't know about the specific HK position, but, generally speaking, the perceived wisdom on here is that it is better, from the charges angle, to have the originating foreign bank make the transfer in "their" currency, with the conversion to THB being performed at the Thai end. But, depending on the size of your transfer, might the optimum solution from the charges angle be to perform this transfer through Wise? https://wise.com/gb/currency-converter/hkd-to-thb-rate

Yet another instance, in addition to passport renewals, where we British expats are being treated as third-class citizens by our "beloved" home country government, I think. And contrast DWP's sloth-like performance in processing State Pension claims submitted from abroad which you and others on here are experiencing with the remarkable turn of speed which, on the other hand, they are somehow able to exhibit in the processing of Life Certificates. Miss their deadline and you can be sure that some itchy finger at their end will be eagerly and gleefully poised over a button which, when pressed at 00:00:01 the day after the deadline expiry, will ensure that your State Pension payments are suspended with immediate effect!

Certainly not required in the case of retirement extensions. But my understanding has always been that a fresh TM30 is, indeed, normally required when starting over with a new visa, as per the non-O conversion which you were seeking on this occasion. So maybe you were fortunate at having encountered an immigration officer who had got out of bed the right side (for you) that morning on this particular point at least!

Not at all clear how you managed to deduce from my posting that I was saying "just update the passbook"!!!

Updating the passbook on the same day when you submit a retirement extension application should be no problem if the requisite 800k is held in a Bangkok Bank account since the Passbook Update Machine will print out a further line confirming the existing balance under the code "B/F". In the case of other banks, though, you will need to perform a token transfer of, say, 100 THB so as to activate the Passbook Update Machine to print a further line. And it is essential that you do this before seeking the account confirmation letter since, otherwise, the balance totals indicated in this letter and the passbook will be out of kilter with each other by 100 THB - and, hence, could provide Lopburi Immigration with a further excuse for denying a retirement extension application. Although Chaengwattana Immigration (Bangkok) have been reported countless times on here as considering a 100 THB discrepancy between the 2 figures to be acceptable, it doesn't, of course, follow that other immigration offices will be equally tolerant!

The Thai passport renewal process is a darn sight more efficient than that pathetic shambles of a passport renewal service offered by HMPO for us Brits living here in Thailand! The 4 weeks quoted by the HMPO office in Glasgow almost certainly relates to passport renewal applications submitted in the UK. Whereas the VFS estimate of 13 to 15 weeks is for passport renewal applications submitted from Thailand, from which it could IMHO be reasonably inferred that HMPO accord the very highest of tip-top priorities to ensuring that UK-based applicants are always first in line for their new passports, with applicants based in Thailand being expected to await their turn at the back of the queue, consistent with their perceived status as third-class British citizens.

Were SCB also Wise's "Banking partner" for this particular transfer, as reported on the second page of their Transfer Confirmation pdf?

In which case a moot point would be to what extent Visa's revised percentage and Mastercard's, Amex's and Eurocard's existing percentages compared with each other - assuming, of course, that the necessary information was readily available, which it might not be.

But he lives on Samui! That said, though, your point is IMHO well made in the case of anyone living in Bangkok and reading this thread with a similar question to his.

And then get carted off to the IDC, charged a further 20,000 THB and, finally, kicked out of the country for overstaying!!