Hi guys, after all of the awesome advice I've got from here, just wanted to give a little bit back to share my experience of getting a non-imm O (retirement/over 50) visa from Penang.

 

By way of background, I'm from the UK, am 52, & have been living/working in Singapore for the last 10 years; Fell in love with Thailand the 1st time I visited (10 years ago) so it's been my dream since that time to be able to live there.

 

Basics; what did I need...

1. Bank Account - I'm very time poor (if only I was equally as rich) & needed to sort out a Bank Account on a Friday afternoon (Weekend visit) so I paid Siam Legal 3,000 THB to "Help Me" through the process, some might scoff, money well spent in my book
2. 800,000 THB - Once the account was set up, I transferred over enough to meet the requirement
3. Letter from British Embassy - After reading on here, I decided my best option was to get the Non-Imm O from Penang so reading some guys experiences in doing the same, I figured it best to get an Income statement from BE - No problem, all done online, sent them my last 3 months pay slips & got a letter back from them in a couple of days (Best to have a Thai Address to send it to) - £52 all-in

 

Getting It done...

1st was a weekend in Bangkok (not exactly a hardship, I love the place) to get my Bank Book updated (So easy, stick your passbook in the machine & job done) & confirmation of funds (not so easy, nobody in the branch spoke English, fortunately there was a customer there who helped me to translate, lovely lady) - 100 THB, But you don't need this in Penang they just want your Bank Book

 

 

2nd was the trip to Penang, Stayed at Chulia Mansions (It's OK, maybe a little better than OK) & off to Banana Visa (as recommended on here) to "Do the deed"... Flawless service, young lady took my details, filled in the forms for me, sign on the dotted line & come back tomorrow ? - (One thing I would say here is she did ask me how I got my Thai Bank Account as many people had been in saying they hadn't been able to open one so maybe money well spent ? )

 

Came back the next (yester) day to a Non-Imm O Multi 

 

Highly Recommend Siam Legal (Rex) & Banana Visa (Julia) if you're on the same path, PM me if you need phone numbers / email addresses.

 

 

 

Again, massive thanks for all the advice & tips you guys have shared, I hope this little report can in someway help another brother to do the same ?

 

 

 

MTV

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have in the past used banana for tourist visa and found the vans to be death traps. Racing the other companies to the border.

After that experience I figured safer to fly there and use jims service a few doors from chulia.

As for Chulia mansion I thought it was fantastic in comparison to bananas hotel or their overflow hotel mingood. Only thing I didn't like about Chulia was the mosque 10 metres from my window pumping their religious humming and whining from 6am over a loud speaker and then again in evenings.