Using agent for retirement extension

[clarty boots]

The extension is based on an “O” visa and expires this month (Feb.)

This regards a French passport holder, living in Pattaya, who renews his extension of stay at Jomtien (he is not married to a Thai so has to stick with the retirement option)

 

This person is not very mobile due to illness and was not even aware his extension was due for renewal earlier than usual due to renewing his passport towards the end of last year (usually renews extension around June/July each year)

Unfortunately due to many hospital visits over the last few months he has had do withdraw money from his bank account, putting his balance below B800,000 and although he is hoping to have his balance above the required B800,000 by the end of today he will not meet the requirement of having the money in the account 2 months prior to application, so, would I be correct in informing him that his only option would be to use an agent to obtain his extension (and also change stamps from old to new passport)? And if so, what would he expect to pay for this service? B15,000 – 20,000? or higher?

 

 

***I initially told him to wait and see what happens with covid extensions (at end of Jan.) as he could have possibly avoided using an agent by changing to a covid ext. then back to retirement when his cash had been in the bank for >2months, but it appears that the new rules for the covid extensions would mean this option no longer stands***

 

I hope the info. above is enough for someone to confirm I am pointing him in the right direction or maybe there are other options.

 

Cheers

Clarty Boots

[DrJack54]

He can use an agent.

Think better option is to try and obtain a covid extension.

There were changes to covid extensions after Jan 25, however he could point out the money in bank overnight and him needing extra time to season his funds.

Immigration may give him a covid extension. 

 

[itsari]

I believe your friend will be OK for a medical visa . 

 

[clarty boots]

29 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

He can use an agent.

Think better option is to try and obtain a covid extension.

There were changes to covid extensions after Jan 25, however he could point out the money in bank overnight and him needing extra time to season his funds.

Immigration may give him a covid extension. 

 

Thanks for the reply DrJack54, I will look into that option. but I suppose that would possibly still require the services of an agent?, due to his extensions being based on a NON O visa (although maybe cheaper for him than obtaining a retirement extension via an agent)

Edited February 1, 2022 by ubonjoe

[clarty boots]

21 minutes ago, itsari said:

I believe your friend will be OK for a medical visa . 

 

Thanks for this info. I know nothing about this option so will look into it.

[KhunBENQ]

Aside from the savings your friend does not have regular income/pension which could be used for combination method?

 

[clarty boots]

1 hour ago, KhunBENQ said:

Aside from the savings your friend does not have regular income/pension which could be used for combination method?

 

As far a I know, he has had a savings account for years with a balance of over B800,000 which was very rarely withdrawn from until just recently and another for everyday living that has not had regular monthly deposits (I think topped up a couple of times a year).

I have a couple of options to look into and in the meantime I will try to locate an agent in Pattaya to obtain a price. Thanks all

 

 

[BritTim]

You should be able to find a reliable agent in Pattaya who will handle the retirement extension for around 14,000 baht. There are rumours of scrutiny by the higher ups, but the better agents with their friendly officials can still navigate their way through the difficulties.

 

I personally do not think trying to get a Covid extension would be a good investment, even if possible. There is no guarantee that there would not still be complications with a later retirement extension.

 

Medical extensions are difficult to get unless actually in hospital.

[clarty boots]

1 hour ago, BritTim said:

You should be able to find a reliable agent in Pattaya who will handle the retirement extension for around 14,000 baht. There are rumours of scrutiny by the higher ups, but the better agents with their friendly officials can still navigate their way through the difficulties.

 

I personally do not think trying to get a Covid extension would be a good investment, even if possible. There is no guarantee that there would not still be complications with a later retirement extension.

 

Medical extensions are difficult to get unless actually in hospital.

Thanks BritTim, I think you could be correct in your thinking that trying to obtain a Covid extension could lead to problems further down the line and going straight for the 1 year retirement extension looks the best option to keep things straightforward for him (as well as recent illness, his memory is not great!).

 

I know nothing about agents so your figure of B14,000 at least give me an idea of what to expect.

Someone has suggested I should explain the circumstances to immigration and they might “assist” in obtaining the extension.

[DrJack54]

1 hour ago, BritTim said:

I personally do not think trying to get a Covid extension would be a good investment, even if possible. There is no guarantee that there would not still be complications with a later retirement extension.

If he did in fact obtain a covid extension there would be zero impact on him obtaining a 12 month extension based on retirement later. 

Has been done often. 

 

As I suggested earlier, in my thinking this is one case where talking with immigration is imo good idea. 

[Buffy Frobisher]

I had a similar issue last year doing my Retirement renewal at Chaeng Wattana, where funds were depleted because of an unexpected costly and lengthy hospital stay in Bangkok. I took the detailed hospital bills to Immigration and showed that they matched with the amount depleted from the account. Explained everything to them humbly and asked for their kind consideration, and they were more than happy to give me the renewal with a promise from me that I'd get the account back in shape by next year. As others have suggested, go and talk with them nicely. At the end of the day they're mainly interested that we have enough money to cover our costs, and aren't afraid of pumping it into the economy.

[PeachCH]

The option to use an agent is probably the best in this case. No headaches, goes smoothly ????

[expat_4_life]

I thought that if u received approval for an annual extension of stay but due to passport expiration received a "permitted to stay until date" for less then the one year duration, that there was some way to revisit immigration and have them update the permitted to stay date.

 

Not sure when I read something about it. 

Have I been under the wrong assumption, is this possible? Can anyone clarify?

Edited February 2, 2022 by expat_4_life

[DrJack54]

16 minutes ago, expat_4_life said:

hat there was some way to revisit immigration and have them update the permitted to stay date.

I believe that is correct years ago.

Currently you cannot do that.

Your permission of stay will be granted till expiry of your passport and there is no "extend date when you have new pp"

Message to us all.....never allow pp to get close to expiry.

Get a new one even with a year validity remaining..

[Birdseye]

1 hour ago, PeachCH said:

The option to use an agent is probably the best in this case. No headaches, goes smoothly ????

My friend and I sent to Pattaya 2 weeks ago and he used an agent....14k as you said and painless

[Samyan]

I used an agent in Pattaya for the first time in nine years of living in Thailand. 14k baht and was quick and easy.

[DrJack54]

14 minutes ago, Birdseye said:

My friend and I sent to Pattaya 2 weeks ago and he used an agent....14k as you said and painless

In most cases of using an agent for extensions it is done ongoing.

The friend you refer to will most likely use an agent again.

If using money in bank method any extension without agent looks at the bank account retrospectively.

 

 

[Bogbrush]

17 hours ago, BritTim said:

 

 

I personally do not think trying to get a Covid extension would be a good investment, even if possible. There is no guarantee that there would not still be complications with a later retirement extension.

 

 

I agree 100%. Far better to keep it clean and continue rolling over the existing visa rather than stepping out into uncharted waters such as Covid extensions and medical exemptions. They might well work - now - But like many other things in this Wonderland, what’s good today is bad tomorrow.

[DrJack54]

1 minute ago, Bogbrush said:

I agree 100%. Far better to keep it clean and continue rolling over the existing visa rather than stepping out into uncharted waters such as Covid extensions and medical exemptions. They might well work - now - But like many other things in this Wonderland, what’s good today is bad tomorrow.

I do not understand this advice.

There have been numerous posts where people for one reason or another have used covid extension between their usual extension be that marriage, retirement etc.

As I posted earlier.....in the case of the OP, he is best advised to discuss with his immigration office regarding his options.

He is not in the position to "rolling over".

The immigration office may decide to let it pass or offer him a covid extension in order to season money in bank.

If neither then his fallback position would be use of agent..

[Bogbrush]

28 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

I do not understand this advice.

There have been numerous posts where people for one reason or another have used covid extension between their usual extension be that marriage, retirement etc.

As I posted earlier.....in the case of the OP, he is best advised to discuss with his immigration office regarding his options.

He is not in the position to "rolling over".

The immigration office may decide to let it pass or offer him a covid extension in order to season money in bank.

If neither then his fallback position would be use of agent..

There might well be people who have used a Covid extension, and there might well be people who managed to get back to their original extension afterwards; I am saying that I personally don’t like it as a first option. 
He could visit his immigration office to discuss his situation but, as so often happens, conflicting advice from that quarter tends to be a national sport.

He is in the position to roll over his EoS if he uses an agent to resolve the money aspect.

it’s really now down to the OP - all the options are there; the agent route would guarantee success, is all I’m saying.

[clarty boots]

15 hours ago, Buffy Frobisher said:

I had a similar issue last year doing my Retirement renewal at Chaeng Wattana, where funds were depleted because of an unexpected costly and lengthy hospital stay in Bangkok. I took the detailed hospital bills to Immigration and showed that they matched with the amount depleted from the account. Explained everything to them humbly and asked for their kind consideration, and they were more than happy to give me the renewal with a promise from me that I'd get the account back in shape by next year. As others have suggested, go and talk with them nicely. At the end of the day they're mainly interested that we have enough money to cover our costs, and aren't afraid of pumping it into the economy.

This was good to hear, thanks for that Buffy Frobisher

 

He topped up his bank account yesterday so we will call into Jomtien IO this week and if this does not resolve his problem then we will use an agent (I would welcome any private messages with agent contact details, thank you).

 

Thanks for all the input

Edited February 2, 2022 by clarty boots
Name spelling correction

[NoshowJones]

5 hours ago, PeachCH said:

The option to use an agent is probably the best in this case. No headaches, goes smoothly ????

Yes, and forget the 800.000Bt in the bank.

[DrJack54]

1 hour ago, clarty boots said:

(I would welcome any private messages with agent contact details, thank you

Here is a thread. I suggested KeyVisa and other posters have named some others. 

 

 

[natway09]

If the gentleman wishes to stay in Thailand for some years I would strongly suggest he 

try & maintain his present retirement extension.

Talking to a semi reputable agent may prevent future worse problems

Good on ya for helping

[clarty boots]

Just to update: he looked at options posted on here and has decided to use the agent on Soi Post office (B14000) and as no visit to immigration is required he can concentrate on resting and getting back to good health.

We will drop off any required documents at the agent next week and fingers crossed it all goes smoothly.

 

Thanks again all