Transfer Retirement Visa from UK passport to Irish passport

[hillman123]

Shortly I will be a holder of two passports, dual nationality, UK and Ireland.  I have lived in Thailand for about 15 years, initially working for 10 years, and then retiring here for the last 5/6 years.  My Thai visas have been issued on my UK passport.  I now want to have visas issued  on my Irish passport. The reason being I can show proof of income and get an income verification statement from the Irish Consulate/Embassy here in BKK, this proceedure is  no longer available to me as an UK citizen. I have to either deposit 800 000 THB in a Thai Bank account, or transfer the equivalent of 65 000THB each month, from the UK to a Thai Bank Account. I would rather have the flexibility of using my money as and when I wish, without the restrictions imposed, by immigration on my UK passport.

Has anyone had experience of this situation?  Can a visa be transfered from one nation's passport to another? or when renewing the Thai retirement visa, can the application be made in Thailand, with the new Irish passport. (showing previous evidence of my retirement visas in my UK passport)- Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[foreverlomsak]

Have you raised this question with your local Immigration Office.

I am of the opinion that if your entry visa was issued 15 years ago in the UK passport, transferred into a new UK passport (at some point in time) and you have since had 14 annual extensions of stay issued to UK passport holder, it will not be possible to transfer your extensions to your Irish passport as there will be no evidence of an Irish citizen having entering the country.

From your point of view I hope I'm wrong but I think you would have to leave and restart the retirement process.

[KannikaP]

A bit off topic but, how much do you need, in Bht, per month? Less than 65k?

Then consider the Combination method, eg 50k per month = 600k per year, plus 200k in the bank. My IO here in P'lok is happy with that for me.

[skatewash]

5 minutes ago, foreverlomsak said:

Have you raised this question with your local Immigration Office.

I am of the opinion that if your entry visa was issued 15 years ago in the UK passport, transferred into a new UK passport (at some point in time) and you have since had 14 annual extensions of stay issued to UK passport holder, it will not be possible to transfer your extensions to your Irish passport as there will be no evidence of an Irish citizen having entering the country.

From your point of view I hope I'm wrong but I think you would have to leave and restart the retirement process.

Yes, I believe you're right.

I had a Thai American friend enter Thailand on her US passport (not illegal but a very bad idea) and the only thing she could do to change that fact was to exit Thailand on her US passport and re-enter Thailand on her Thai passport.  Otherwise, immigration was going to make her apply for an extension of stay for reason of being a Thai citizen (no kidding!) after her 30 day visa-exempt entry expired.  She would have also had to do 90-Day Reports. ???? I don't believe they allow you to change the nationality of the passport you used to enter Thailand while you are in Thailand.

[OJAS]

12 hours ago, hillman123 said:

Can a visa be transfered from one nation's passport to another? or when renewing the Thai retirement visa, can the application be made in Thailand, with the new Irish passport. (showing previous evidence of my retirement visas in my UK passport)

 

The only way in which you can achieve this would be by exiting Thailand on your UK passport and re-entering on your Irish one. And, before you can hit the annual retirement extension of stay trail once again, you will need to have obtained in your Irish passport either (1) a fresh real genuine McCoy visa of the non-OA or non-O variety from a Royal Thai embassy or consulate, or (2) a non-O conversion at your local immigration office. Unfortunately, in view of various COVID-19 restrictions both here in Thailand and in foreign parts, this is likely to prove easier said than done at the present time, so you may have little choice in practice other than to bide your time until the overall situation improves.

Edited May 15, 2021 by OJAS

[Tuvoc]

Yes, I believe you do have to leave the country and start all over again. I'm in the same boat, I currently have a retirement Visa in my UK passport, and at some point I'll prefer to use my New Zealand passport instead. It was simple enough to get the 90 day Non-O in the beginning, so as long as the rules don't change it won't be too difficult.