renewal of the Retirement Visa

[spiroinusa1]

You can send a DS-4194 to U.S Department of State Office of Authentications, with Verification Letters of Income from i.e. your Pension Income Verification letter notarized and your Social Security letter notarized and they will Authenticate. See web site follow through to "other" on Authentications. You go there because Thailand is not a signer of Haugue Convention on this matter. Yes it gets weird. I just sent a letter to Embassy and Consulate regarding this. They, Embassy and Consulate, could do the same thing when it comes to this is they wanted. They could reform their letter of Verification of Income to include ones verification letters and Thai Immigration would not have a problem with this. They could do the same thing as the U.S. Department of State Office of Authentications. The USA Embassy and Consulate should come to our aide in this matter and treat us as the American Citizens we are. A lot of this is bureaucratic B.S. and they could simplify this part of the process for us. I have had letters every year for the last 12 years from my pension and ss and they do not even look. Thai immigration wants letters from Embassy and or Consulate they could accommodate us.  

[Joe Mcseismic]

Oh dear.........the gazillion threads on this subject have spilled in to the Phuket sub-forum.

[lynchey]

The same report that American reported on RE: 65,000 per month is also being told to people in Hua Hin.

[KhunFred]

This is being turned into a more difficult matter than it has to be. There has to be a way to easily get any "verification" letters  translated and notarized and used for "proof of income. My annuity does not issue letters like Social Security and my State teacher's retirement, they merely issue a breakdown of the monthly income you can expect from your annuity. It's all in black and white with no clear way to get it accepted by Immigration. This seems like a deliberate attempt to force expats into the clutches of the expensive visa services. There is simply no rational reason other than GREED, that would make it necessary for so much documentation. Many immigration officers can't read the Embassy letters either. That does not seem to have affected their ability to accept them in the past.