Non Immigrant O-A (Long Stay) London Embassy

[silver sea]

I am applying tomorrow for my first 12 month Long Stay Multiple Entries Visa (some people call it informally a Retirement Visa).

 

I have previously had a whole series of tourist visas over the last six years. I now have a new British passport with only one entry, which is for a tourist visa 24th May -10th August 2018.

 

I am filling in the O-A forms and have one or two questions.

 

1. It asks for “purpose of current visit”. I have written simply “Long Stay” rather than tourism or retirement (both apply to me). Is that ok?

 

2. It asks about “Duration of Proposed Stay”. Can I write in “12 months” or do I have to write in “60 days”?  I have no travel plans other than to visit my Thai girlfriend and seeing friends in other parts of Thailand. I used to live on Samui but have moved to Hua Hin. I rent a room in a hotel, but at some stage will move into a condo with my girlfriend.

 

3. It asks for a bank statement showing 800,000 baht or equivalent. My bank is in UK with HSBC so the statement is in GBPs. It is my most recent statement, but it is dated only up to 4th August 2018. I assume that is recent enough?

 

4. Also it only asks for one bank statement, while the multi entry tourist visa asks for evidence covering the last six months. So I am assuming I only need to show my most recent statement for one month?

 

I have the police criminal record certificate, and the medical certificate, and the additional application form plus copies, but I shall be flying from Heathrow this Friday 31st August. So I want to get the application right first time, hence this post to check with those who have made the same application with the RTE in London in the recent past.

 

I have found the staff on the front desk at London helpful, when applying for tourist visas, but if I have missed anything your advice will be most welcome. 

 

 

[Phuket Man]

1. I would put retirement but it probably does not matter.

2. 12 Months

3. 800,000

4. Yep. They only want the bank balance.

 

I would have thought that you were cutting things a bit fine but I could be wrong.

 

[elviajero]

1 hour ago, silver sea said:

1. It asks for “purpose of current visit”. I have written simply “Long Stay” rather than tourism or retirement (both apply to me). Is that ok?

Long stay. (You don’t need to be retiring or retired).

 

1 hour ago, silver sea said:

2. It asks about “Duration of Proposed Stay”. Can I write in “12 months” or do I have to write in “60 days”?

12 months, OR 1 year, OR any duration within a year.

 

1 hour ago, silver sea said:

3. It asks for a bank statement showing 800,000 baht or equivalent. My bank is in UK with HSBC so the statement is in GBPs. It is my most recent statement, but it is dated only up to 4th August 2018. I assume that is recent enough?

I would assume it’s recent enough.

 

1 hour ago, silver sea said:

4. Also it only asks for one bank statement, while the multi entry tourist visa asks for evidence covering the last six months. So I am assuming I only need to show my most recent statement for one month?

Yes, just one statement is required.

[SheungWan]

Does O-A no longer require notarisation?

[BritTim]

15 minutes ago, SheungWan said:

Does O-A no longer require notarisation?

It depends where you apply, but I fear you may be correct, and the supporting documents may need to be notarized. Hopefully, if this is needed, the embassy can suggest a notary near the embassy who can get the job done within an hour or two (though I bet it will be expensive).

[Kadilo]

It depends where you apply, but I fear you may be correct, and the supporting documents may need to be notarized. Hopefully, if this is needed, the embassy can suggest a notary near the embassy who can get the job done within an hour or two (though I bet it will be expensive).

There is a link on the website for a company near Covent Garden, I forget the name, but it was £5 for each document to be notarized around £40 in all from memory. He gets loads of customers from there due to the link. Very quick and helpful.


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[ubonjoe]

5 hours ago, Kadilo said:

There is a link on the website for a company near Covent Garden, I forget the name,

That would be this one. http://www.ashtonssolicitors.co.uk/

[Kadilo]

2 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

That would be this one. http://www.ashtonssolicitors.co.uk/

That’s the one. Very close to covent garden tube, £10 for the first paper then £5 thereafter for each paper. 

[OJAS]

18 hours ago, Phuket Man said:

I would have thought that you were cutting things a bit fine but I could be wrong.

Indeed, he does appear to be cutting things rather fine! Based on my own experience of applying for an OA visa at the London Embassy, he will need to wait 2 days before he can collect his passport plus visa. So, assuming that by "tomorrow" he actually means what is now today (29th) when he will be applying for the visa, he will have to make his second trip to the Embassy on the same day that he is due to fly out here. So I only hope for his sake that he is booked on a flight which is scheduled to take off in the late evening rather than around lunchtime!

 

I also hope for his sake that there is a minimum balance of £19,500 on his HSBC account, since that is what 800,000 THB equates to these days in GBP terms, rather than the £18,000 figure quoted on the Embassy's website.

[silver sea]

Hey guys

 

Thanks for all of your replies,  for your concerns about my application, and for the links. Very useful information for the future.

 

You will be pleased to hear that I have just had a happy ending in the RTE in London.

 

I made the application on Wednesday 29th August, and today, Thursday, 30th August, I went back to the London RTE and got my multi entry O-A long stay visa.

 

When I applied yesterday, I enclosed with the two application forms my latest bank statement (upto 4th August), the medical certificate, and the police certificate, with copies of all three documents.

 

The only other thing I included was a “visa letter” from my local HSBC branch office. I went into the bank at 4.55 pm on Tuesday just as it was closing. As always, the bank staff were very helpful and typed up and signed the letter for me there and then. And there was no bank fee for the letter! 

 

It showed my balance at the close of Tuesday and so supplemented my bank statement dated 4th August. It was not asked for on the Embassy’s webpage, but I included it just to make sure there were no problems.

 

i was applying only on the basis that my UK bank balance exceeded the equivalent in GBP, 800,000 THB; the application did not relate to income. For this reason, none of my documents was notarised. 

 

The webpage seems to be saying that if you have only a photocopy of your bank statement, then it would need to be certified by a Notary Public; by implication, an original bank statement would not need to be notarised.

 

At the embassy on Wednesday, I handed over the papers. The Thai lady at the counter then scrutinised each page of each document. And then went through them all a second time. I felt as though she was trying to find a fault or omission, which was good to see. I appreciated her attention to detail.  

 

She then told me that I needed to report to Immigration every 90 days and wrote on my application form the letters ”O-A”. I took that as a clear sign that my application was O-K.

 

Today, I collected the visa, but they kept my original bank statement, even though, as requested on their web page, I had provided a photocopy. I asked for the original back, but she just smiled and said they needed to keep both the original and the copy.

 

Anyway, thanks again for your helpful posts. As Young Mr Grace used to say on “Are You Being Served”: “You’ve all done very well.”

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p6ddSA9lrkc

 

Finally, I confirm that I am flying on Friday evening from Heathrow at 9:35 pm. 

 

Usually, in the past, I have booked my flight for the same day as my return trip to London to pick up my passport and tourist visa. This time, as it was my first time for a non immigrant visa, I did not want to risk upsetting fickle Fate, and so I gave myself some room for manoeuvre, by booking my flight for Friday instead.

 

In summary, I would say:

1. the London Embassy processes the application in a professional way; 2. if you are applying because your savings, rather than your income, exceed the equivalent of 800,000 THB, then an original bank statement does not need to be notarised;

3. it may be helpful to include an original “visa letter”, which confirms the bank balance for the day before your application, although this document is not requested on the Embassy website;

4. the original bank statement is not returned even though you gave them a copy.

 

Below are a photo of my multi entry O-A visa and a screen shot of the Embassy’s web page relating to O-A Long Stay visas.