80,000 baht per month into Thai bank AC but cannot get extension

[Macclad]

I currently get approx 80,000 baht per month paid into a Thai bank account but I am unable to get an extension. 

Approx 60,000 baht is from a company pension with code FTT against it which is acceptable to Immigration but the other 20,000 is my UK state pension with code BTN which is not acceptable. 

I believe the UK state pension is paid via Citibank and not direct into my Thai bank account. 

I have been married to a Thai national for 16 years but Immigration won't accept 40,000 monthly. They say it's either got to be a lump sum of 40k baht or 80k baht for retirement which I haven't got available. 

Is there any way I can get around this   ?

I also look after our 5 year old granddaughter since she was 3 months old and her teenage parents split for good. I am down as her "legal guardian " so I wonder if that could have any effect with Immigration. 

I am currently on a Non Immigrant Multi O from Savannakhet based on marriage which expires at the beginning of August. 

Any ideas, thoughts, advice appreciated. 

Many thanks. 

[Malawi]

The national rule for marriage extension is 400,000 in a Thai bank or 40,000 monthly income so they cannot refuse you.

[Sheryl]

Contact your bank and see if you can get *credit advice* for the BTN transfers, this may show overseas origin.

 

What Imm Office is this?

 

 

[ubonjoe]

22 minutes ago, Macclad said:

I have been married to a Thai national for 16 years but Immigration won't accept 40,000 monthly. They say it's either got to be a lump sum of 40k baht or 80k baht for retirement which I haven't got available. 

I think there is a misunderstanding. 

Ther requirement is 400k baht in a Thai bank for 2 months or proof of 40k baht income for an extension based upon marriage to a Thai.

The income has to proven by 12 months of transfers into a Thai bank from abroad. But for the first extension application only 2 months of transfers is required.

[JackThompson]

32 minutes ago, Macclad said:

They say it's either got to be a lump sum of 40k baht or 80k baht for retirement which I haven't got available. 

I assume you mean 400K or 800K.

 

Since you get over 40K/mo from your company-pension, that alone qualifies you for the marriage-based extension. 

 

Which immigration office is trying to break up your family?

 

  

29 minutes ago, Malawi said:

The national rule for marriage extension is 400,000 in a Thai bank or 40,000 monthly income so they cannot refuse you.

Who is going to make them follow the law.  They never did for me.  If not for Non-O-ME Visas, they would have forced my wife and I apart years ago.

Edited May 27, 2020 by JackThompson

[Upnotover]

Got a UK bank account?  Get your pension paid into that and send it over yourself.  You may lose a few baht but might get your extension.

[ubonjoe]

Two off topic posts and a reply to one have been removed.

[john terry1001]

I contacted the BOT direct regarding Bahtnet coding and this was their reply:

 

Dear Sir,
Customer can ask for credit advice from Bank and Branch that you open the account to receive the money to state that the transfer actually originated from overseas”
For more information, contact BAHTNET team : [email protected] Tel. 0-2356-7020/ 02 283-5053

 

So just go to your Thai bank branch and ask for a credit advise to cover the relevant Transfers.

[Macclad]

Yes sorry I  meant 400k and 800k not as stated. 

The office is at Udon Thani.I called in last week to ask about requirements for an extension. 

The guy I spoke to was pleasant enough but dismissive of my monthly income claims. 

He intimated I could only go down the lump sum route. 

I,ve had up to 60k paid monthly into my Thai bank account since January 2019 and 80k since January 2020.

I,ll check with my bank about the source of my Government pension originating in the UK. 

I should certainly qualify for an extension based on marriage with FTT transactions since January 2019.

I think sometimes it depends which IO you speak to on a certain day for the answer you get. 

This reminds me of when I was on holiday on Jomtien in 2005 and went to the Immigration office there to ask for the requirements for a marriage extension. 

He asked "will you be working? " I said "no".He then said you have retired. You must get a retirement extension not the marriage one. 

Of course soon afterwards I found out he said that because an extension based on retirement is less work for Immigration. 

Maybe this is a similar scenario? 

Many thanks for the helpful replies. They have put my mind at rest. 

No good me living in Laos if the wife and granddaughter are in Thailand 

[ubonjoe]

4 minutes ago, Macclad said:

I,ve had up to 60k paid monthly into my Thai bank account since January 2019 and 80k since January 2020.

I think the transfers since January of this year are the problem. You need 12 months of transfers of 65k baht unless it is your first extension.

If you had 80k baht in a Thai bank for 2 months you could combine that with your income to reach a total of 800k baht for the retirement extension.

You certainly qualify for the extension based upon marriage using the transfers since January of last year.

[Moonlover]

I had some UK state pension payments which I was able verify with 'Foreign Exchange Transaction' (FET) forms from my bank. They where printed off, signed and stamped in about half an hour and accepted by Immigration.

 

That may be of help to you.

 

The bit I don't understand is why you can't have a marriage extension as your company pension well exceeds the requirement. 

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by Moonlover

[DPKANKAN]

You need to get a letter from your Thai bank showing both coming from out of the country, plus a copy of it coming out out of your own Countries bank. Timing should tie up and no problem!!????????????????

[johnmell]

I had 4 one year marriage extensions , but this year changed to a one year multiple entry from Vietnam, which expires October.

Was wondering if i could go back to the one year extension if i can show 2 months transfers of 40,000 baht, or would they want 12 months.

 

 

[ubonjoe]

3 hours ago, johnmell said:

Was wondering if i could go back to the one year extension if i can show 2 months transfers of 40,000 baht, or would they want 12 months.

It should be accepted if you can show transfer at least 40k baht into the country from abroad for at least 2 months since it would be your first extension after entering with a non-o visa.

[nickmondo]

just put 400k in the bank and be done with it

its not rocket science.

if you have not got that much.......get it

[ubonjoe]

2 hours ago, nickmondo said:

just put 400k in the bank and be done with it

How would he be able to do that now since it has to be in the bank for 2 months on the date the application is done?

No need to it that anyway since he has over 40k baht of provable income.

[Moonlover]

2 hours ago, nickmondo said:

just put 400k in the bank and be done with it

its not rocket science.

if you have not got that much.......get it

The O/P has already said he cannot, so why do you raise such a moot point?

[chilly07]

You  clearly qualify  for an extension  based on marriage with 12 months of FTT . TI are trying to  push you into a retirement extension. For the future put all pensions in a UK bank and transfer via Transferwise to get the credit  advices for 65k or 40k FTT transfers monthly and represent the advices to  your bank annually for your  letter for your extension 

[Pilotman]

get an agent to sort it out for you. 

[Moonlover]

47 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

get an agent to sort it out for you. 

Not necessary and a pure waste of money in the O/P's situation. He has a legitimate claim to a marriage extension and might be able to get a retirement if he can prove that his state pension qualifies, which I was able to do in similar circumstances. 

 

It might be that the IO is angling for an agency application. There was a post a while back about Udon Thani trying a similar trick, but it's too long ago to recover it now.

 

IMO the O/P should stick to his guns and push for his right to an extension.

[Moonlover]

1 hour ago, chilly07 said:

You  clearly qualify  for an extension  based on marriage with 12 months of FTT . TI are trying to  push you into a retirement extension. For the future put all pensions in a UK bank and transfer via Transferwise to get the credit  advices for 65k or 40k FTT transfers monthly and represent the advices to  your bank annually for your  letter for your extension 

They can't be trying to push him into a retirement extension, or they would be looking more leniently at his State pension payments.

 

I agree with you about using TransferWise though. It worked a treat for my last marriage extension.

[Macclad]

I,m going to go to my Thai bank to try and get proof that my UK pension entries originated there which should take me up to well over the 65k monthly requirements .

If they won't accept,as maybe I won't have 12 months entries, I will fall back on the monthly marriage requirements which I have met in a Thai bank since January 2019.

I did hear that Udon Thani will only accept the lump sum 400k and not the monthly amounts for marriage but can they do that if the 40k monthly option is included in their rules and regulations  ?

[ubonjoe]

1 hour ago, Macclad said:

I did hear that Udon Thani will only accept the lump sum 400k and not the monthly amounts for marriage but can they do that if the 40k monthly option is included in their rules and regulations  ?

I not seen any post that they will only accept the money in the bank option. They have to accept it under the written rules.

[JackThompson]

16 hours ago, Moonlover said:

Not necessary and a pure waste of money in the O/P's situation. He has a legitimate claim to a marriage extension and might be able to get a retirement if he can prove that his state pension qualifies, which I was able to do in similar circumstances. 

 

It might be that the IO is angling for an agency application. There was a post a while back about Udon Thani trying a similar trick, but it's too long ago to recover it now.

 

IMO the O/P should stick to his guns and push for his right to an extension.

It should not be necessary to use an agent, to stay with your Thai wife, when meeting the published qualifications.  Unfortunately, due to how each office can operate without oversight, so can ignore the official rules, what should be, and what is the case, are not the same thing at all. 

They want that agent-provided envelope, and don't care about your Thai family one bit.

Edited May 29, 2020 by JackThompson

[Moonlover]

15 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

I not seen any post that they will only accept the money in the bank option. They have to accept it under the written rules.

 

1 hour ago, JackThompson said:

It should not be necessary to use an agent, to stay with your Thai wife, when meeting the published qualifications.  Unfortunately, due to how each office can operate without oversight, so can ignore the official rules, what should be, and what is the case, are not the same thing at all. 

They want that agent-provided envelope, and don't care about your Thai family one bit.

There was a case reported on the forum, maybe 2 months ago, by a French guy. There was some anomaly is his extension request, I don't recall the exact details but the bottom line was that the was a shortfall of 15,000 THB. The IO offered to 'fix it' for for 15,000 under the table. If I recall correctly, he did in fact pay.

 

Back on 2016 the pound fell (thank you Cameron) and my income fell to 65,000 per month. My request for a retirement was refused on the grounds that my annual income was less than 800,000 THB. The IO 'suggested' a work around. But what he didn't know was that I was married and I rejected his 'kind offer' and went the marriage route, which probably peed him off a lot.

 

What's the connection? Both these incidents occurred at Udon Thani. Need I say any more?

 

Are you reading this @Macclad?

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by Moonlover

[Max69xl]

On 5/27/2020 at 12:32 PM, Malawi said:

The national rule for marriage extension is 400,000 in a Thai bank or 40,000 monthly income so they cannot refuse you.

It's actually an average income of 40k/month. 

[Max69xl]

12 hours ago, JackThompson said:

It should not be necessary to use an agent, to stay with your Thai wife, when meeting the published qualifications.  Unfortunately, due to how each office can operate without oversight, so can ignore the official rules, what should be, and what is the case, are not the same thing at all. 

They want that agent-provided envelope, and don't care about your Thai family one bit.

You can always ask for a supervisor at every immigration office if something goes south with an officer. 

[JackThompson]

2 hours ago, Max69xl said:

You can always ask for a supervisor at every immigration office if something goes south with an officer. 

In my experience, they back the play of the jr-officer insisting on the made-up rule - probably because they, or their superior, invented it. 

The front line IOs are primarily "just following orders" - but some have been fed some awful propaganda in their training, which is where the bad attitudes towards us and/or our Thai wives originate.

[JackThompson]

2 hours ago, Max69xl said:

It's actually an average income of 40k/month. 

Good luck with that.  Not saying you are "wrong" - just that I would put money on one month under 40K torpedoing an "income based" extension application, regardless of if the next month was far over.

[Mulambana]

On 5/28/2020 at 2:53 AM, Moonlover said:

He has a legitimate claim to a marriage extension

He may have legitimate claim to a marriage extension but if goes to the immigration office for a retirement extension, his application will be treated as retriement extension.