CONFIRMED: Here is exactly what’s needed for retirement & marriage extensions (income method) from 2019

[jimn]

3 hours ago, JackThompson said:

I would not recommend trying to stay 7 mo/yr on Tourist entries, unless using law-abiding land-borders (all but Poipet/Aranya) to enter Thailand - exclusively.  

Even after the 5-mo out, some IO making up their own rules at a Bangkok airport could make problems upon return, based on saying the previous year's stay was "too long" - then stamp your passport as not having money (even if you are rich).  This has low odds, based on current reports, but snowbirds have reported this there.  It might get better or worse in coming years, but the trend is progressively worse.

Thanks for your comment @steve73. I agree with @JackThompson. Having been on a retirement extension for a few years I dont want to have to muck about doing border runs etc. Its not a case of that I dont have 65k per month, I do but I dont want to move my money into Thailand all year. I am one of these people who are asset rich but cash poor. House bought and paid for outright in UK and house (via wife) bought and paid for in Thailand. I dont want to go down the marriage extension route. So its either agent 12,900 THB all in or Non OA from UK 8,200 approx for 2 years, a bit of a hastle but doable.

[ubonjoe]

58 minutes ago, jimn said:

I dont want to go down the marriage extension route.

Why? It is not as hard as you might of heard. I am on my 11th one I can say that from personal experience.

[jimn]

1 minute ago, ubonjoe said:

Why? It not as hard as you might of heard. I am on my 11th one I can say that from personal experience.

Thanks UJ. I have thought about it. Its not the difficulty, but still the involvement of sending 40k a month into Thailand or 400k in the bank. I think its going to be the Non OA, I have until May 2020 to decide. There will be many months of people's experience by then.

[scubascuba3]

That is new to me.  Proof of receiving Bt800,000 in a single year is all I know.  My reason for harping on the "The Combo" method is that on the surface it looks like a credible way to obtain a Retirement visa.  You would need to show that you have been receiving cash from a retirement fund or better I think from your home country into either a home country bank a/c or a Thai Bank A/c.  Then beg steal or borrow the other funds perhaps Bt300,000 to make it up to Bt800,000 received in a single year (easy for Aussies as shown in my previous example post).  It might take a year to get that far, so if you haven't started showing proof that you received Bt800,000 in a single year,  you better get cracking.

i don't think you are right. Maybe someone can arbitrate? If you "retire" a month before you apply you aren't going to be able to show 12 months of income. Personally when i go for my new application I'll make 3 months of 65k payments. If it fails not the end of the world, ways round it

[mogandave]

irrelevant. If you read the new requirements its from when you "retire". Of course you could just put in 800k in to be sure

Or you could just transfer 65k a month.

[scubascuba3]

Or you could just transfer 65k a month.

yes but for new applications 65k a month for the previous 12 months isn't required

[farangx]

2 hours ago, mogandave said:

 

Yes, you are wrong. It’s not a crazy thread, and the the transfers do come from overseas.
 

Quote

We transfer funds locally they are coming from our local Thai bank account

&

In case you would need the funds to arrive internationally then we would not be able to help.

The above was the reply given by the company.  Does it say the transfers do come from overseas?

 

[ocddave]

1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:

Why? It is not as hard as you might of heard. I am on my 11th one I can say that from personal experience.

I'd agree with Ubonjoe, the first one felt overwhelming, but the second time everything was pretty much smooth. Hoping that my next one (3rd year) is as smooth, now doing the 400K route, so only one visit to the bank, not a visit to the US Embassy for an income letter, and another to MFA for their stamp. I just wish I didn't have to get the passbook and letter on the day I have to go to the Immigration Office, at least the Income Letter was good for 6 months.

[mogandave]

The above was the reply given by the company.  Does it say the transfers do come from overseas?
 

Regardless of what is or is not said, overseas transfers (by definition) come from overseas.

[scubascuba3]

Okay, absolutely irrelevant

Crystal clear?

[mogandave]

Crystal clear?

Yes, it is crystal clear to me that transferring 65k a month is acceptable.

What is it you are going on about? You do not have to be retired to get a visa or to transfer money.

[farangx]

32 minutes ago, mogandave said:

Regardless of what is or is not said, overseas transfers (by definition) come from overseas.

 

Even if there is no proof and the company said it is not .... ????

 

Edited January 12, 2019 by farangx

[scubascuba3]

Let me give it a shot here.
 
If you look at the middle column "Document" of 2.22 (3) & (4), it states income or income combo.  The Procedures column shows only the income part of it.  The top-up amount for seasoning is implied.
 
Immigration is giving you a discount for that 800K seasoning.  Otherwise you would have failed the income method and also the 800K seasoning. [emoji1787]
 

See post #1073, i don't think "The top-up amount for seasoning is implied" this document is about the Income method not combination method

[tropo]

1 hour ago, scubascuba3 said:

Crystal clear?

Excuse me if someone has already answered this over the past 72 pages, but what of extension renewals over the next 11 months by expats that don't have 12 months of deposit history to show? Will they get a pass on showing a full 12 months of deposits?

[Mickmick]

4 minutes ago, tropo said:

Excuse me if someone has already answered this over the past 72 pages, but what of extension renewals over the next 11 months by expats that don't have 12 months of deposit history to show? Will they get a pass on showing a full 12 months of deposits?

You have to show a deposit for every month from now until you do your renewal.

[tropo]

2 minutes ago, Mickmick said:

You have to show a deposit for every month from now until you do your renewal.

Thank you. 

[yuiop]

2 hours ago, Mickmick said:

You have to show a deposit for every month from now until you do your renewal.

Excuse me if this was already covered, but does this apply to all nationalities or only to those not having the income letter from the Embassy/Consulate anymore?

[mogandave]

Excuse me if this was already covered, but does this apply to all nationalities or only to those not having the income letter from the Embassy/Consulate anymore?

Anyone without a letter

[gk10002000]

13 hours ago, farangx said:

Why make it so hard?  Don't do it when just a single deposit of 800K in a bank 3 months will do.  You can even cart in the baht yourself without any foreign bank transfer.  For those who are in staying just 7 months in a year, a tourist visa would make more sense. 

 

Many people don't want to use 800k baht method or don't have 800 k baht.  If one is staying 7 months the SETV visa(s) would be challenging and require a few trips to get two 60 day SETVs with a 30 day extension of each which would only be 6 months, leaving other things necessary to get the other month.  And all that would negate the idea of being able to do a simple retirement type visa/extension that is easy and convenient for the farang

[farangx]

1 hour ago, gk10002000 said:

Many people don't want to use 800k baht method or don't have 800 k baht.  If one is staying 7 months the SETV visa(s) would be challenging and require a few trips to get two 60 day SETVs with a 30 day extension of each which would only be 6 months, leaving other things necessary to get the other month.  And all that would negate the idea of being able to do a simple retirement type visa/extension that is easy and convenient for the farang

There is no denying that this retirement extension is simple and cheap. While one can choose the 800K method, for those who are unwilling or unable to put this money into your savings account here for 3 months, the income method is a simple option.  Tied to monthly costs of living, this money transferred from overseas monthly is all yours for you to keep or spend or not.  Very few countries like Thailand let a foreigner to just retire in the country without a proper visa like a PR.  All these for a few hundred bucks a year, why make it so hard?

 

[kraftyhl]

Regarding the income/bank balance combo, I checked with CNX Thai Immigration last week and it continues to be in effect. The big change is that before, we had to certify monthly income via an embassy affidavit. That was it. Now we have to certify via our bank manager that the money was actually deposited in our Thailand bank account. That's a big change for a lot of people.

[ubonjoe]

Several posts for baiting, bickering, off topic, flames and etc have been removed.

[JLCrab]

22 minutes ago, kraftyhl said:

The big change is that before, we had to certify monthly income via an embassy affidavit. That was it. Now we have to certify via our bank manager that the money was actually deposited in our Thailand bank account. That's a big change for a lot of people.

It's a big change for everybody who wants to use the monthly income route but especially for those who had their monthly income certified when they didn't have it.

[JackThompson]

3 hours ago, JLCrab said:

It's a big change for everybody who wants to use the monthly income route but especially for those who had their monthly income certified when they didn't have it.

The vast majority affected had the total-income specified but, for many, a portion of that monthly-income was reserved for paying passport-country overhead/bills/expenses/taxes.  Under the new rules, they need to send the full-amount here, then some of it back to cover their passport-country expenses.

 

Of those who didn't have the required income, they can use the same method as the legit folks - but sending funds back to pad the next transfer, rather than pay passport-country expenses. 

 

But, in the majority of both cases above - legit and illegit - I think we all know where a chunk of their money will go to avoid the entire headache / process.

 

8 hours ago, farangx said:

Very few countries like Thailand let a foreigner to just retire in the country without a proper visa like a PR.  All these for a few hundred bucks a year, why make it so hard?

Very few lower-overhead countries make a PR as difficult to get as Thailand.  Much easier in many in Latin America. 

 

But, more to the point, those from higher-wage nations don't need any special "retirement" status to stay in the PI, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, or nearly all of Latin America for extended periods.  You are not at risk of stealing local's jobs - so your presence is all "upside" to their country/economy/citizens.  Some of those require border-bounces (PI every 3 years, never in Cambodia), but there is no "maybe" / worry about being let back in the next day.

[mogandave]

Very few lower-overhead countries make a PR as difficult to get as Thailand.  Much easier in many in Latin America. 
 
But, more to the point, those from higher-wage nations don't need any special "retirement" status to stay in the PI, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, or nearly all of Latin America for extended periods.  You are not at risk of stealing local's jobs - so your presence is all "upside" to their country/economy/citizens.  Some of those require border-bounces (PI every 3 years, never in Cambodia), but there is no "maybe" / worry about being let back in the next day.

The only time anyone would have to send their entire income, would be if their entire income were only ฿65K per month.

Everyone else would have to send only a portion.

And there is no requirement to send any money back.

You are confused.

[JLCrab]

56 minutes ago, JackThompson said:

 

But, in the majority of both cases above - legit and illegit - I think we all know where a chunk of their money will go to avoid the entire headache / process.

 

Leona Helmsley (1920-2007) the "Queen of Mean" was famous for (supposedly) saying:

"Only the little people pay taxes."

 

In Thailand, maybe only the "little people" actually go to Immigration.

[racyrick]

23 hours ago, JLCrab said:

That's because I saw this on the UK Embassy - Bangkok website and after the 26 OCT announcement from the US Embassy I made the first trans early NOV 2018.

 

Understand, but what if your renewal was due say March thru August this year.

You still would not have 12 straight months of transfers when the time came.

We still need to hope that TI understands this and if they see at least 3-4 months of transfers, they will ok for now with no exceptions starting Jan, 2020.

[JLCrab]

12 minutes ago, racyrick said:

but what if your renewal was due say March thru August this year.

add 'next year' to the bottom

Edited January 13, 2019 by JLCrab

[farangx]

1 hour ago, JackThompson said:

The vast majority affected had the total-income specified but, for many, a portion of that monthly-income was reserved for paying passport-country overhead/bills/expenses/taxes.  Under the new rules, they need to send the full-amount here, then some of it back to cover their passport-country expenses.

....

But, in the majority of both cases above - legit and illegit - I think we all know where a chunk of their money will go to avoid the entire headache / process.

 

The money they spent every month should still be the same, how they process that may be in a different order.  The extra costs could be 30 to 60 bucks a month for transferring the money to and from. Other than that there is practically no change.  Why is it still so hard?

 

1 hour ago, JackThompson said:

Of those who didn't have the required income, they can use the same method as the legit folks - but sending funds back to pad the next transfer, rather than pay passport-country expenses.

Wait a minute Jack, are you saying they lied about the money they had previously? ????

 

 

 

Edited January 13, 2019 by farangx

[orchidfan]

I notice that the new directive mentions "or income verification by embassy or consular" (para-phrased)

So will they accept a sworn income affidavit stamped /notarised by an Embassy/consulate of your nationality from another country...like Singapore, Hong Kong, etc?

It doesn't specify "which" Embassy or consulate must issue this document? ?ie. That it must be your embassy in Thailand!