Retirement visa based on combination of deposit/income; what minimum deposit required.

[cdemundo]

 

from https://bangkok.immigration.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/8-1.pdf

"7. Evidence of deposited money under Clause 5 and evidence of income under Clause 6 (for one year) showing

the total amount not less than Baht 800,000"

 

I have heard a minimum standing deposit of 400.000 THB, and 33,000 THB deposit per month.

This makes it sound like other combinations are possible.

 

Are other breakdowns of standing deposit and monthly deposit possible?

 

 

[Jingthing]

I think the base minimum of 400K but the higher the better. Obviously if it's higher the income flow can be reduced accordingly. As with the full income method, the deposits need to be monthly and coded as foreign sourced. Check with your local office to see if they will even process such applications and if so what are their particular rules. They really are more complicated arguably MUCH more complicated and best avoided unless you absolutely need to do it that way. In other words if you don't have the 65K income do the full 800K bank method if you can. 

Edited October 17, 2021 by Jingthing

[cdemundo]

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

I think the base minimum of 400K but the higher the better. Obviously if it's higher the income flow can be reduced accordingly. As with the full income method, the deposits need to be monthly and coded as foreign sourced. Check with your local office to see if they will even process such applications and if so what are their particular rules. They really are more complicated arguably MUCH more complicated and best avoided unless you absolutely need to do it that way. In other words if you don't have the 65K income do the full 800K bank method if you can. 

My pension is greater than 65K THB as long as THB/USD is 29.3 THB/USD or greater.

But if the exchange rate changes I will not have enough.

Also, it would be advantageous not to put my entire pension payment into a Thai bank.

So, above 400k should be doable.

 

Why are they much more complicated? 

That isn't immediately obvious to me.

I understand that bureaucrats can make anything complicated.

Edited October 17, 2021 by cdemundo
spelling vs autocorrect

[Salerno]

2 minutes ago, cdemundo said:

Why are they much more complicated? 

Because nobodies knows what the rules actually are which makes the local interpretation even more confusing for both sides of the table. For example, technically there is no limit for the cash in the bank, could be 200K, 400K 500K whatever as long as that figure and the total monthly deposits equal minimum 800K, the problem was when the changes came in, and as far as I'm aware has never been explained (but I may have missed it) how does that sit with the minimum 400K in the bank for the 7 months as is required using the 800k deposit?

 

It's also more complicated for the IOs to check compared to a clean printout of an account with 800K sitting in it for 12 months (or minimum 400K for 7 months and the other 5 800K).

 

@Jingthing from memory you where involved in a thread back when the changes came in was the 400K issue ever resolved to your knowledge?

[Salerno]

Found a thread (think it was the one I was thinking of) that includes an on the ground example that illustrates the potential confusion. No idea what happened the year after.

 

 

Just seems a bit too vague and easy to get caught out to chance going below 450K deposit to me and pretty sure there's been a few rogue IOs saying you can't even do it now.

 

Dump and forget, or work towards transfer to 65K a month for peace of mind I think.

Edited October 17, 2021 by Salerno

[ubonjoe]

There is no written rule for the minimum amount you have to have in the bank other than what is needed to reach 800k baht in combination with your annual income to apply for the extension.

Some offices only want what is needed to reach 800k baht and others say 400k baht that written in the rules for when you keep 800k baht in the bank for the extension.

The link you posted is fto apply for a non-o visa and it only states that they accept proof of income from you embassy. Can you get such proof?

[cdemundo]

1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:

There is no written rule for the minimum amount you have to have in the bank other than what is needed to reach 800k baht in combination with your annual income to apply for the extension.

Some offices only want what is needed to reach 800k baht and others say 400k baht that written in the rules for when you keep 800k baht in the bank for the extension.

The link you posted is fto apply for a non-o visa and it only states that they accept proof of income from you embassy. Can you get such proof?

No UbonJoe; I cannot get proof of income from embassy.

Am I looking at the wrong page for the requirements for a retirement visa?

 

I am asking; you guys are the experts.

 

 

 

 

[ubonjoe]

15 minutes ago, cdemundo said:

Am I looking at the wrong page for the requirements for a retirement visa?

You can only apply for a non-o visa for retirement and then get a 90 day permit to stay at immigration. And for that they will not accept transfers into into a Thai bank to prove the income part of the total of 800k baht.

Then near the end of those 90 days you can apply for a one year extension of stay (it is not a visa) based upon retirement.

If you cannot get proof of income the only way to apply for a extension is to show proof of income  transferred into a Thai bank from abroad and proof of money in the bank for 2 months to reach a total of 800k baht.

If you have only been here for a short period of time immigration will accept 2 or 3 months of transfers from abroad to do the first extension.

[Henryford]

I was thinking of doing the combination method and started sending 45,000 baht a month to my thai bank.  Initially it was shown as foreign income FTT. This month however as many people have mentioned WISE have stopped using FTT and now it shows as an internal transfer. Now there may be ways around this but i don't want any arguments/difficulties with immigration when i come to renew my extension at the end of the year. Resigned myself therefore to having to use the 800k in the bank, which is so easy.

Edited October 18, 2021 by Henryford

[ubonjoe]

1 minute ago, Henryford said:

Now there may be ways around this but i don't want any arguments/difficulties with immigration when i come to renew my expension at the end of the year.

If you get credit advises to prove your transfers came from abroad immigration will accept them.

[KannikaP]

My friendly Imm Officer accepts 50k per month as FTT plus 220k in a fixed account.

But as Henryford just said, Wise have 4ucked that up recently. 

[kg1947]

UbonJoe has the best info on this subject .....

Canadians are lucky that their Embassy still provide :

Letter of Income Verification .

-------------------------------------

Send them email with :

Request ... then you get 2 forms to fill in . everything done via email ,

no need to visit the Embassy anymore . 

---------------------------------------------------

Form: 1/  Affidavit , your data , your average monthly gross earnings in Canadian dollars - based upon copies provided by CRA for the FULL

previous year .... send them copies of your Tax Return Summary .

 

2/ $ 50.00 credit card authorization to pay for this document .

 

3/ Your LOCAL mailing address in Thailand . not sure if the Letter  will be mailed through

postoffice of transmitted as attachment to

the Embassy email system.

 

Other nationalities just follow UbonJoe's advice .

don't make it complicated for the Imm. Officer .

Good luck.   

[DeathShroud]

I get my pay from the US government into a bank in America.   I have four Thai Bank accounts.

Initially when i came here, I was set up with Bangkok Bank, a direct deposit account for SSI and other government pension.

I never used it.   For three years, I used Income verification with U.S. Consulate CM documents.  Easy peasy.
Now that U.S. Consulate has stopped that, I transfer money over to a Thai bank, via WISE.

I tried U.S. >> Wise >> Bangkok Bank. No help.  Plus they had dropped the Visa cards, using rabbit pay. Useless for buying where I need to.

For years, I liked SCB Bank.  I had a Nice debit card from them.

So I thought, U.S. Bank >> Wise >> SCB.   It ended up as interior Thailand Transfer.   I went to them, and tried to straighten it out.  
Though I had multiple San Baht in the bank, they said it was a problem "They Could not solve."  
In fact, the account guy at SCB on Nimman in CM Said, Quote, "He could not help me."   

Wow.   Drew out all of my baht that day (to their bemused consternation.)


Called Wise, in Finland and talked to some high powered people.  Friended them up on Twitter.  They directed me to their Australia Office.
Called them LD, using Skype.  After lengthy verification (Which I thought was good security), they said, "You need to use Kasikorn Bank. That is our local partner there in Chiang Mai."

Walked to Kasikorn Bank, walked in with a pile of cash, my passport, and explained to the day manager what I needed... "Overseas Funds Transfer Account for Immigration annual extension of retirement Visa. Can you do that?" 

He said, "Oh yes, we are perfect for that." He points to a woman that speaks English.  "Set this man up with an account."

Now I transfer U.S. >> Wise >> Kasikorn Bank. Zero problems.  Shown as international transfer.

Their phone app works smooth.  The only problem is sometimes, I guess for security, I have to reboot my phone.  Great.  First world problem.

in my account, No deposit amount minimum, I am going with multiple 1000 USD inbound, monthly.  I easily exceed the 65k Minimum, per month. I am happy.  

Smooth Sailing.  All I have to worry about is if the Baht rises to 20 per USD. Probably not. 

Or if the USD Crashes.  C'est la vie.   I survived a deployment to the Gulf, I can hack it.

 

 

Edited October 19, 2021 by DeathShroud

[david555]

Better inform to your Immigration office  if they accept combination method , as some are reluctant to it..., and could throw obstacles on pad to avoid it .