Any Solution For Our Retirement Visa Problem

[agko]

hello

does anybody have a solution for our visaproblem? my husband (60 years) and me(46 years) live in thailand now for 3 years, my husband is retired and has proof of income for 550.000 baht a year (45.000 per month on thai bankaccount), I work every year a few months in my homecountry Holland, salary and return tax per year for me is around 350.000 baht(comes also on the same thai bankaccount)

so together we have 900.000 baht per year. we are married already for a long time (we are both dutch people)I asked dutch embassy in Bangkok to give paper of proof of income for the money we have together to put on his name, but they refused, they said they could not do that, only separate.

last year we already went with all the correct papers and proof of income (proof from dutch embassy that my husband had 550.000 baht per year) and 350.000 on the thai bankaccount and proof of my income from Holland, to Penang and ask for non-imm O visa (idea was after 3 months change to retirement for my husband and for me dependent visa), they refused us and up till now they still do ( they said we need proof of min. 65.000 per month from my husband alone or/ and 800.000 baht on the bank. we live here now for 3 years on touristvisa's, every 2 or 3 months to penang, makes especially my husband very tired.

we do not know what to do, does anybody have a solution how to get the non-o so we can change to retirement and dependentvisa, I really do not understand this all, we are married, together we have 900.000 baht per year, and it is still not allright. by the way, first to get 800.000 on the bank will not be the solution because we live from his and mine money, 350.000 on the bank is really our maximum to keep.

please, who has a good solution or a place where we can go (now we always go to penang and for extension to samui)

thank you for response

Agko

[astral]

I am sorry to hear of your situation.

I am sure you are not the only ones who fall in between the Income and Money in the Bank options.

Why not move to Penang?

Malaysian Immigration will stamp you in for 3 months on arrival (free).

Inside the country you can get a 2 month extension (MYR100 - 1000 baht).

Then take a car ride to the Thai border, or flight in and out for a visa run and start again.

[lopburi3]

First you obtain a retirement extension of stay for your husband - your have the paperwork to do it and will only take a few minutes once any time requirement is met. He will need the Embassy letter for the 550k pension and the bank book for the 350k plus the normal bank letter of account balance. For all bank money it would have to be in account for three months prior to application so they may require that but we have not had any reports from those using the combination income/deposit method since the change so not sure. But this can be done from a tourist visa entry with more than 21 days remaining on permitted to stay stamp. First step is converting visa and same combination pension/deposit should qualify him for that - cost is 2,000 baht. Then the extension of stay for one year at 1,900 baht. Once he has the extension of stay your visa can be converted and/or extended for one year to match his extension for the same fee(s).

You should be talking with Immigration inside Thailand - not to a Consulate.

[Fred Sanford]

I am sorry to hear of your situation.

I am sure you are not the only ones who fall in between the Income and Money in the Bank options.

Why not move to Penang?

Malaysian Immigration will stamp you in for 3 months on arrival (free).

Inside the country you can get a 2 month extension (MYR100 - 1000 baht).

Then take a car ride to the Thai border, or flight in and out for a visa run and start again.

That's a good suggestion. Penang is a really nice place for a farang couple

[agko]

thanks for the solutions but I think we take the solution lopburi gave us, we do not like penang and like to stay in Thailand.

just another small question, I am curious how they do this,maybe somebody knows the answer: how does Thai embassy or immigration check your proof of income (the paper you get from your own embassy), do they call to dutch embassy to ask if it is correct? and if I go to dutch embassy for a proof of income with my yearmoney, how do they check, do they call to holland ? I was wondering how the control system works because of privacyrules but also because I read americans can fill in what they want and get proof of what they wrote down from american embassy, dutch people have to come to their embassy with papers of proof from year income.

Agko

[Krub]

thanks for the solutions but I think we take the solution lopburi gave us, we do not like penang and like to stay in Thailand.

just another small question, I am curious how they do this,maybe somebody knows the answer: how does Thai embassy or immigration check your proof of income (the paper you get from your own embassy), do they call to dutch embassy to ask if it is correct? and if I go to dutch embassy for a proof of income with my yearmoney, how do they check, do they call to holland ? I was wondering how the control system works because of privacyrules but also because I read americans can fill in what they want and get proof of what they wrote down from american embassy, dutch people have to come to their embassy with papers of proof from year income.

Agko

Each Embassy have their own rules regarding the paperwork they require toissue the letetr of income for immigration.

Rememebr that the Embassy letter does not certify the income itself just the fact that you have submited the income information.

Immigration seem to be satisfied with this most of the time without any further checks. they sometimes ask for supporting documents. There does not seem to be any systematic ccheck of the income itself by either the Embassy or immigration.

[agko]

hello lopburi

one last question, if i understood you correctly we have to go with all our papers(letter dutch embassy for income, bankletter and bankbook etc) to immigrationoffice, not to penang.

like I understood you we do not have to go to penang if my husband still has more than 21 days remaining on his touristvisa (he still have 44 days remaining now), so end of this week we want to go to dutch embassy in bangkok and the bank for the proof and then it would be the easiest to go directly to immigrationoffice in bangkok. I ask this because samui immigration said last time that first we have to go to penang to ask for non-o, then come back to them for change to retirement, but if I understood you correctly we can change (hopefully) my husbands touristvisa to extension retirementvisa at the immigrationoffice in bangkok.

please let me know if I am correct.

Thanks

Agko

First you obtain a retirement extension of stay for your husband - your have the paperwork to do it and will only take a few minutes once any time requirement is met. He will need the Embassy letter for the 550k pension and the bank book for the 350k plus the normal bank letter of account balance. For all bank money it would have to be in account for three months prior to application so they may require that but we have not had any reports from those using the combination income/deposit method since the change so not sure. But this can be done from a tourist visa entry with more than 21 days remaining on permitted to stay stamp. First step is converting visa and same combination pension/deposit should qualify him for that - cost is 2,000 baht. Then the extension of stay for one year at 1,900 baht. Once he has the extension of stay your visa can be converted and/or extended for one year to match his extension for the same fee(s).

You should be talking with Immigration inside Thailand - not to a Consulate.

[lopburi3]

As long as you meet the conditions for an extension of stay for retirement (have proof of the funds) immigration can change your tourist visa to a non immigrant type visa and then extend your stay for the one year period. There is an extra 2,000 baht fee and form involved in this method. It used to be that only Bangkok could do this but believe all offices are allowed to do this change now. But you have to be in Bangkok to get letter so best to do here.

[LivinLOS]

Instead of working for only a couple of months per year, why not suck it up and work to save the actual 800k needed to qualify..

Also I understood the extension for retirement can be based on a combination of income and savings (still that way ??) So with his 550k pension you need to have 250 (lets say 350 to be safe in case of a difficult officer) cash in the bank..

You really saying that 2 people are trying to retire overseas and dont have 350k baht between you ??? Thats just nuts to me.

[cathyy]

If he can qualify for the retirement visa (65K monthly income, 800K in the bank, or a combination thereof) then after he gets his retirement visa you will have to leave the country to get your non-immigrant visa, which your local office can then change to a dependent visa. BTDT, as half a farang couple. We found a quick trip to Vientiane suited our budget better than a trip to Malaysia, particularly with the ability, if needed, to make multiple trips between Nong Khai and Vientiane for more paperwork. We didn't need to. You'll need the Dutch marriage license translated into Thai and certified by the Thai Foreign Ministry, which they will not do until the Dutch embassy certifies the Dutch copy of it.

Your issue seems to be the money in the bank. It has to be in his name only to be used to meet the financial requirement, so a joint account won't work. It also has to be there 3 months before applying for the retirement visa. It won't matter who earned that lump deposit in the bank once it's in his account. Maybe you can go to your local immigration office and ask how much they want in there in combination with the pension, acting like you have piles of money in your homeland and just need to know how much to transfer. I get 240,000 baht when I do the math. You are allowed to "spend down" that lump sum during the year, provided you top it off again for the next year.

[agko]

Thanks for the responses, also about how to get the dependentvisa (I did not know that has to be translated in Thai), I go back to holland end of june so I try there to get it, they said on the telephone if I bring proof of his retirementvisa it is oke, so let's wait and see.

lopburi, thanks for the quick response, we hope everything works out fine this time in Bangkok(better then penang and Samui I hope)

and yes, it sounds strange, but really 550.000 baht proof of income and 350.000 on the bank and they refused my husband in Penang for non-o or retirement in Samui (they said: no, 800.000 on the bank or 65.000 income per month, combination of the two was not allowed they said) but maybe it was because we had a joint bankaccount at that time, that problem we have solved a few months ago, and no I don't go to Holland to work untill I have the 800.000 baht on the bank here, I think we have more than enough money here and we act by the rules Thailand made ,so I hope now that immigration in Bangkok is better informed than Penang or Samui

If he can qualify for the retirement visa (65K monthly income, 800K in the bank, or a combination thereof) then after he gets his retirement visa you will have to leave the country to get your non-immigrant visa, which your local office can then change to a dependent visa. BTDT, as half a farang couple. We found a quick trip to Vientiane suited our budget better than a trip to Malaysia, particularly with the ability, if needed, to make multiple trips between Nong Khai and Vientiane for more paperwork. We didn't need to. You'll need the Dutch marriage license translated into Thai and certified by the Thai Foreign Ministry, which they will not do until the Dutch embassy certifies the Dutch copy of it.

Your issue seems to be the money in the bank. It has to be in his name only to be used to meet the financial requirement, so a joint account won't work. It also has to be there 3 months before applying for the retirement visa. It won't matter who earned that lump deposit in the bank once it's in his account. Maybe you can go to your local immigration office and ask how much they want in there in combination with the pension, acting like you have piles of money in your homeland and just need to know how much to transfer. I get 240,000 baht when I do the math. You are allowed to "spend down" that lump sum during the year, provided you top it off again for the next year.

[LivinLOS]

Thanks for the responses, also about how to get the dependentvisa (I did not know that has to be translated in Thai), I go back to holland end of june so I try there to get it, they said on the telephone if I bring proof of his retirementvisa it is oke, so let's wait and see.

lopburi, thanks for the quick response, we hope everything works out fine this time in Bangkok(better then penang and Samui I hope)

and yes, it sounds strange, but really 550.000 baht proof of income and 350.000 on the bank and they refused my husband in Penang for non-o or retirement in Samui (they said: no, 800.000 on the bank or 65.000 income per month, combination of the two was not allowed they said) but maybe it was because we had a joint bankaccount at that time, that problem we have solved a few months ago, and no I don't go to Holland to work untill I have the 800.000 baht on the bank here, I think we have more than enough money here and we act by the rules Thailand made ,so I hope now that immigration in Bangkok is better informed than Penang or Samui

If he can qualify for the retirement visa (65K monthly income, 800K in the bank, or a combination thereof) then after he gets his retirement visa you will have to leave the country to get your non-immigrant visa, which your local office can then change to a dependent visa. BTDT, as half a farang couple. We found a quick trip to Vientiane suited our budget better than a trip to Malaysia, particularly with the ability, if needed, to make multiple trips between Nong Khai and Vientiane for more paperwork. We didn't need to. You'll need the Dutch marriage license translated into Thai and certified by the Thai Foreign Ministry, which they will not do until the Dutch embassy certifies the Dutch copy of it.

Your issue seems to be the money in the bank. It has to be in his name only to be used to meet the financial requirement, so a joint account won't work. It also has to be there 3 months before applying for the retirement visa. It won't matter who earned that lump deposit in the bank once it's in his account. Maybe you can go to your local immigration office and ask how much they want in there in combination with the pension, acting like you have piles of money in your homeland and just need to know how much to transfer. I get 240,000 baht when I do the math. You are allowed to "spend down" that lump sum during the year, provided you top it off again for the next year.

Would seem to me that 'the rules Thailand made' are telling you that your really scraping the fine line to try to get two people living here on under the requirements.. Remember the 800k needs to be in a bank for 3 months prior to its use date also, so that more shortfall your looking at.

My point was also less to do with the rules and much more to do with the fact of two people, trying to retire to a 3rd world country with little to no support system, and unable to scrape together for few 1000 Euro.. that would petrify me and I would be making sure I got some additional savings behind me for a lot more reasons than getting a non imm O.. Doubly so as I wouldnt be getting any younger or easier to make money.

What about trying at the Dutch thai embassy or consulate with his pension and the savings combined ?? Would they not issue him his initial non imm O (single entry or multiple) and then he can extend incountry based upon 300k ish savings and his regular pension ??? Once hes on annual extension you can then go dependant visa on his.

I even read immigration will change over a tourist visa or even a visa exempt stamp to retirement now.. Why not just extend incountry and forget Penang etc.. The definitely accept combinations if you have a bit of surplus and the money has been there for >3 months.

[Mahout Angrit]

If he can qualify for the retirement visa (65K monthly income, 800K in the bank, or a combination thereof) then after he gets his retirement visa you will have to leave the country to get your non-immigrant visa, which your local office can then change to a dependent visa

...... and remember if he gets his retirement extention and you want to travel out of the country to get your Non-Imm visa together then he must get a re-entry visa first to be able to return.