I did a transfer from 'Retirement' to 'Marriage' in Chai Nat.  OK - there is more paperwork but I found it straightforward to prepare and the local bank branch near the IO prepared the letter free of charge and very quickly [about 20 minutes] even though I bank at at different branch.

 

I do keep 400k in a bank but I was warned that sometime in the not too distant future they will start to ask for evidence of an income as well as the deposit.  Not seen much about this but the IO seemed to think it was coming.

 

Police visit to the house was actually quite a pleasant experience.  The two policemen were really friendly and non-intrusive.

 

Financially, I prefer the marriage extension plus it does seem to be more acceptable to Thais as it shows some commitment [I may be wrong about this but it is my experience].

 

Just to let you know I am not a 'newbie' - my wife and I have been together almost 15 years and married for 10 of those.

19 hours ago, Malawi said:

Correct. Mariage extensions are pretty straightforward to do.

Don't believe all the scare stories as they are simply not true.

Well we applied last January in Jomtien, it took three straight days to and from the Imm office

first day the 25 pages of docs x 2 were not in the correct order they were handed  back.

i asked if they had a list of how they should be and was given a list in Thai, we eventually found space in a cafe away from the Imm office to try and figure what was what.

 

on the second day they accepted the documents but noticed we had been on holiday to Udon Thani

and they mentioned the TM30....in sixteen years using Jomtien this was my first TM30 Mention?

i was basically informed it needed to be done =1400 bht fine for what?

 

( this year i filled in the TM30 all done, and the IMM lady asked me why? i told her i do not want

to be fined again? she shook her head and said but you do not have to do this?) but be warned they will use anything they can to stop you changing to a ''Married visa'' WHY what is so different ? if my bank would give me proof that my pensions come from the uk (tried to change to BB, imm said we do not give proof of residence any more) i have 400 k in the bank, now they have a buy some paper for 70k bht and next year pay 120k sorry they call it ''medical insurance''  that i cannot use as it would be like burning money ( Sarcastic comments are required at this point) 

all of this to me does not smell right...they do not like people from Bangkok checking their work. why?

they seem to spend an awful lot of time, trying to push punters towards no check from BKK plus 800k in the bank?  

 

third day they decided the pictures we had (that they had checked three times already)were not what they wanted we went and got all new pictures, and they looked as if between my wife her friend (a retired school teacher) had got the message over that we were not going to roll over, we wanted a 

legitimate Visa we were following the rules and regs....i have never seen my wife so angry and her friend was disgusted   

22 hours ago, zoza said:

Well we applied last January in Jomtien, it took three straight days to and from the Imm office

first day the 25 pages of docs x 2 were not in the correct order they were handed  back.

i asked if they had a list of how they should be and was given a list in Thai, we eventually found space in a cafe away from the Imm office to try and figure what was what.

 

on the second day they accepted the documents but noticed we had been on holiday to Udon Thani

and they mentioned the TM30....in sixteen years using Jomtien this was my first TM30 Mention?

i was basically informed it needed to be done =1400 bht fine for what?

 

( this year i filled in the TM30 all done, and the IMM lady asked me why? i told her i do not want

to be fined again? she shook her head and said but you do not have to do this?) but be warned they will use anything they can to stop you changing to a ''Married visa'' WHY what is so different ? if my bank would give me proof that my pensions come from the uk (tried to change to BB, imm said we do not give proof of residence any more) i have 400 k in the bank, now they have a buy some paper for 70k bht and next year pay 120k sorry they call it ''medical insurance''  that i cannot use as it would be like burning money ( Sarcastic comments are required at this point) 

all of this to me does not smell right...they do not like people from Bangkok checking their work. why?

they seem to spend an awful lot of time, trying to push punters towards no check from BKK plus 800k in the bank?  

 

third day they decided the pictures we had (that they had checked three times already)were not what they wanted we went and got all new pictures, and they looked as if between my wife her friend (a retired school teacher) had got the message over that we were not going to roll over, we wanted a 

legitimate Visa we were following the rules and regs....i have never seen my wife so angry and her friend was disgusted   

Did ours in Jomtien ,no problems whatsoever ,did not try to make me keep retirement ,smiles when i said i wanted to change ,i must admit i had to go next door to photocopy a couple of things we missed and i had to put the paperwork into two piles ,but otherwise nothing ,even the guys that came to the house ,did not even want to look around .

On 6/15/2020 at 1:34 PM, JimGant said:

You didn't say, but is your marriage from abroad? If so, you're heading for a headache. First and foremost, you may not even be able to get a marriage certificate acceptable to Immigration. Why? Your embassy/consulate is probably closed  -- and you need an affidavit from them attesting to the validity of your marriage. Then, this affidavit and your marriage certificate need to be certifiably translated into Thai. Then, a trip to MFA to validate such certified translations. Then, when MFA validates such, you need a trip to your local Amphur, which may want your poo yai baan to accompany you, in order to receive your Kor Ror 22. This is the form you give to Immigration.

 

I also saw this as a big negative factor, but after exchanging posts with some on Thai Visa, I went ahead and successfully did this in December-2019, staying in Phuket the entire time, while the Embassy I needed to certify the marriage (as we were married outside of Thailand) is in Bangkok.  It was mostly a matter of locating a Bangkok based translation office that offers this as a service.  After I provided them power of attorney specific to this paperwork (which was easy to do as they provided the form for me to fill in (which I edited a bit to ensure it was limited to the marriage aspects)), and I couriered to them in Bangkok my foreign marriage paperwork, passport copies and power of attorney. 

 

They then conducted almost all the points you noted for me as part of their service - i.e. took the marriage certificate to the Embassy and obtained the Embassy certification.  With that now done, as official translators they certifiably translated all the documents to Thai language and took them to the MFA to validate the certified translations.  They then couriered back me the appropriate documents.

 

The ease of doing the above was a major and pleasant surprise to myself.

 

My Thai wife and I took the paperwork we received from the translator to our local Amphur in Phuket and we received our Kor Ror 22.  Possibly the only complication/difficult part in this entire process, was the Phuket Amphur we went to, wanted two witnesses also who knew us to be present - so we had to ask a favour of a couple of Thai friends to leave work and come to the Amphur - and sign document as our witnesses.  ... Fortunately we timed it such they only had to be at the Amphur for about 15-minutes (my wife and I were there for a couple of hours - waiting for our turn in line).  It did provide us an excellent excuse to buy our friends lunch that day - so it all worked out very well.

 

I have yet to go through the other hoops to get an extension on marriage, but it doesn't seem that difficult.  Everyone has a smartphone with a camera, so getting some pictures taken at home are not difficult. Further drawing a map to where we live is not something I also see as difficult.

 

Immigration is a 15-minute car drive from where my wife and I live, so that also makes it pretty easy for us.

 

I guess the degree of difficulty all relative - based on one's situation.  I go for my extension (likely based on marriage) in February-2021, so I will find out then as to how difficult this will ultimately be.

Edited June 26, 20206 yr by oldcpu