Money in the Bank-A friend has confused me

[geejay]

Hello all

I'm Shortly due to apply for a year extension to my visa based on retirement.

I have had in the excess of 800K in my Thai Bank account for more than a year.

I am aware that the funds have to be in place 3 Months before and 2 Months after.

Here's my confusion, my friend told me that he had in the excess of 1 Million baht in The SCB account and that immigration or the Bank had frozen the whole account until the 2 Months after had passed.

He said it was 4 years ago and as I said he was with The SCB.

My account is with The Bangkok Bank

Has anyone heard of this or did he get it wrong?

Another question, if you could kindly help, this will be my first extension since my initial deposit over a year ago, do I need to order a year's worth of statements or enough to show the 3 months before?

Thank you

 

[DrJack54]

The money requirement is 800k baht 2 months prior and 3 months after application and not below 400k at other times. 

The funds are not frozen by the bank.

 

Your immigration office can require 12 months of bank statements particularly if there has not been any transactions in some months. 

Obviously for first time extension the bank statements would only be required for 2 months prior to application. 

Edited May 4, 2023 by DrJack54

[geejay]

1 minute ago, DrJack54 said:

The money requirement is 2 months prior and 3 months after application. 

Thank you, but also my question regarding the possible freezing of my account and statements required. 

[DrJack54]

Just now, geejay said:

Thank you, but also my question regarding the possible freezing of my account and statements required. 

I added to post. 

[Skallywag]

9 minutes ago, geejay said:

my friend told me that he had in the excess of 1 Million baht in The SCB account and that immigration or the Bank had frozen the whole account until the 2 Months after had passed.

I have done 5 one year extensions.  Never had my Kasikorn Bank account frozen.  Never heard of this from anyone who does the annual Non-Imm O Visa extension

[geejay]

1 minute ago, Skallywag said:

I have done 5 one year extensions.  Never had my Kasikorn Bank account frozen.  Never heard of this from anyone who does the annual Non-Imm O Visa extension

Thank you, that's reassuring 

[Jingthing]

Sounds like a lost in translation thing.

The account won't be frozen.

[Lacessit]

The friend may have become confused.  If the 800K is drawn down to less in the 2 months/3 months period, depending on the office, it is picked up by an IO either at the next 90 day report, or the next yearly extension. Then he would be denied the extension.

 

Maybe it was just a friendly warning from an IO or bank officer.

[geejay]

5 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

The friend may have become confused.  If the 800K is drawn down to less in the 2 months/3 months period, depending on the office, it is picked up by an IO either at the next 90 day report, or the next yearly extension. Then he would be denied the extension.

 

Maybe it was just a friendly warning from an IO or bank officer.

Thank you, it makes sense

[Red Phoenix]

28 minutes ago, geejay said:

Here's my confusion, my friend told me that he had in the excess of 1 Million baht in The SCB account and that immigration or the Bank had frozen the whole account until the 2 Months after had passed.

Imo it is not you, but your friend who is utterly confused.

Most probably he made use of a 1-year Fixed Deposit account at SCB, and used that account to prove to Immigration that he met the financial requirements. 

He would have been able to withdraw funds from that account, but if the funds were not on the account for a full year, he would lose the interest that such Fixed Deposit account provides.  Most probably the bank desk officer tried to explain that to him, but the message as often in Thailand 'lost in translation'.

[worgeordie]

Last week did my retirement extension at Chiang Mai Immigration, 

made sure I had all the paperwork , handed it all over and they returned

all copies of Bank book, the Bank Books , 12 month statements , never

even looked at them  *, while other years ,they went through them with

a fine tooth comb , seemed the most important papers to them, now

they don't want ? .....to OP I would still take them ,12 months statements

can take 5 working days from Bangkok Bank.  * kept bank letter

 

regards Worgeordie

[KannikaP]

21 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

The friend may have become confused.  If the 800K is drawn down to less in the 2 months/3 months period, depending on the office, it is picked up by an IO either at the next 90 day report, or the next yearly extension. Then he would be denied the extension.

 

Maybe it was just a friendly warning from an IO or bank officer.

A 90 day report is NOT connected to the three months after your extension.

[Lacessit]

2 hours ago, KannikaP said:

A 90 day report is NOT connected to the three months after your extension.

There are posts on other threads, which state IO's in some offices are demanding to see bank books on the first 90 day report after an extension.

I haven't had that experience in Chiang Rai.

You might think a 90 day report is not connected, apparently some IO's do.

[Myran]

Your friend is talking rubbish. Immigration has no authority or access to freeze anyone's account and the bank certainly don't have any reason to in regard to immigration matters.

[Red Phoenix]

3 hours ago, Lacessit said:

There are posts on other threads, which state IO's in some offices are demanding to see bank books on the first 90 day report after an extension.

I haven't had that experience in Chiang Rai.

You might think a 90 day report is not connected, apparently some IO's do.

@KannikaP Yes, as Lacessit wrote, there are indeed quite a number of Imm Offices that require you visit them 90 days after the 1-year extension of your Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement for a Bank Pass-Book check.  This to ensure that you kept the +800K on your personal Thai Bank-Account in the first 3 months, required to meet the conditions under which that 1-year Permit to stay has been granted to you. 

E.g. in my Imm office in SiSaKet it is required. In that office they also automatically renew your 90-day report when applying for an extension of your Non Imm O Visa, so the 90-day Pass-Book check is actually combined with the first 90-day report that you need to do.  Because of that Bank balance check (you only need to show your same-day updated Bank Pass-book) you are of course not able to do that first 90-day report on-line or by mail. 

Edited May 4, 2023 by Red Phoenix

[DrJack54]

5 minutes ago, Red Phoenix said:

Yes, as Lacessit wrote, there are indeed quite a number of Imm Offices that require you visit them 90 days after the 1-year extension of your Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement for a Bank Pass-Book check

"quite a number" ?

Please list a few.

Don't start with Jomtien as that was never enforced. 

[Red Phoenix]

11 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

"quite a number" ?

Please list a few.

Don't start with Jomtien as that was never enforced. 

SiSaKet and Buriram for starters.  For sure there are other offices too, but I would need to look it up and it's actually of little relevance.  The main point being that in some offices there IS a connection between your 90-day report schedule and your 1-year extension of stay application, and some offices also require a 90-day Bank Pass-book check linked to your 90-day report schedule.    

So I don't understand your Vendetta against posts that provide factual information about this.

YOU might not be interested (but why are you reacting then), but it's useful info for members living or relocating to those provinces where the Imm Office has a different approach than the 'regular' one. 

[DrJack54]

1 minute ago, Red Phoenix said:

SiSaKet and Buriram for starters.  For sure there are other offices too, but I would need to look it up and it's actually of little relevance.  The main point being that in some offices there IS a connection between your 90-day report schedule and your 1-year extension of stay application, and some offices also require a 90-day Bank Pass-book check linked to your 90-day report schedule.    

So I don't understand your Vendetta against posts that provide factual information about this.

YOU might not be interested (but why are you reacting then), but it's useful info for members living or relocating to those provinces where the Imm Office has a different approach than the 'regular' one. 

Stop.

You list 2 offices.

There are approximately 75 offices.

What would be more sensible is to provide ONE report of refusal of extension due to not doing the report back for bank book check. 

 

Obviously the financial requirements are checked carefully at application for next extension. 

 

 

[billd766]

7 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

I added to post. 

My advice to you would be to contact the Bangkok Bank centre in English and get the information firsthand from them and not secondhand from a friend.

 

If you still have a problem contact your IO directly and ask them.

 

The bank and the IO are familiar with all the details as they deal with it all the time.

[DrJack54]

5 minutes ago, billd766 said:

My advice to you would be to contact the Bangkok Bank centre in English and get the information firsthand from them and not secondhand from a friend.

 

If you still have a problem contact your IO directly and ask them.

 

The bank and the IO are familiar with all the details as they deal with it all the time.

Do not understand one part of that post.

Not even why you quoted me.

The OP has been given correct advice in the thread.

There is absolutely no need to contact bank or immigration office.

The requirements are crystal clear. 

[Pib]

OP,

  As Jingthing said, sounds like a communications disconnect.....your friend was probably confused/never clear as to why his SCB acct was frozen--if it ever was "really frozen."  Your friend probably misunderstood something the bank or immigration (or maybe an agent) told him about income requirements to qualify for a visa extension. 

 

   Before I switched to a LTR visa late last year I did around a dozen Non OA retirement/marriage extensions using the bank deposit method...and the acct I used always had a little more than 1 million baht in it as it served as my annual extension and emergency money pot.   Now while immigration has requirements as to how long and how much money needs to be in a bank acct to meet the retirement/marriage extension of stay requirements those requirements had no effect on my bank acct....immigration does not reach out to your bank to freeze funds for x-amount of time when you renew your visa extension.

 

   A bank will only freeze an acct when a possible/actual fraudulent transaction is detected, the account goes dormant,  police/govt agency submits a court order or other official govt order to freeze the acct because of some law violation, etc.

 

   Expect your friend who appears to be using the deposit income method vs monthly income method was told to ensure his acct does not drop before a certain amount for X-months after receiving his retirement extension of stay, otherwise, he would violate the extension income requirements and his next extension renewal will be disapproved because of it.  But your friend misunderstood this requirement to be a freeze on his bank acct when actually it was not....just a heads-up to keep his acct balance above a certain level.  

[DrJack54]

16 minutes ago, Pib said:

But your friend misunderstood this requirement to be a freeze on his bank acct when actually it was not....just a heads-up to keep his acct balance above a certain level.  

That's all you needed to post.

Which BTW is correct. 

Posted several times above. 

 

The preamble including that you are proud owner of LTR is irrelevant. 

Edited May 4, 2023 by DrJack54

[Lacessit]

4 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

Stop.

You list 2 offices.

There are approximately 75 offices.

What would be more sensible is to provide ONE report of refusal of extension due to not doing the report back for bank book check. 

 

Obviously the financial requirements are checked carefully at application for next extension. 

 

 

How many offices do you want listed before you accept it's a potential problem?

IIRC, IO's have absolute discretion over the granting of extensions. Citing the law to an IO regarding 90 day bank book requirements is poking the bear.

Bad advice.

 

[TheFishman1]

I’ve been using Bangkok Bank for over 10 years now and the day before I applied for my extension to stay I go into the bank to deposit like 100 bht the account I use for 

 

immigration. And then I sit down and it takes less than five minutes to take me out one piece of paper that says I’ve had the money in the bank for the search. And I have to type another letter. It takes about a minute or two is now in Chiangmai migration of prior to that from the bank. I’ve never heard of any frozen accounts that won’t happen. It’s a very simple procedure. TIT

[bigt3116]

18 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

The money requirement is 800k baht 2 months prior and 3 months after application and not below 400k at other times. 

The funds are not frozen by the bank.

 

Your immigration office can require 12 months of bank statements particularly if there has not been any transactions in some months. 

Obviously for first time extension the bank statements would only be required for 2 months prior to application. 

Add the fact that the 2 months after and not below 400k is not even a 4 year old rule and it is easy to see that the OP's friend is "confused".

 

[Skeptic7]

If his bank account was "frozen", it was not due to immigration's funds-in-the-bank policy. The money is yours to do with what you please...however, dropping below during those 5 months (2 months prior and 3 after) will be found out at your next annual extension and possibly/probably not granted the extension. 

[1FinickyOne]

20 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Sounds like a lost in translation thing.

The account won't be frozen.

It's just too hot here for anything to be frozen outside a freezer.. 

[Tubulat]

19 hours ago, geejay said:

Thank you, it makes sense

In my opinion it is not possible to frozen the amount on the bank account.

Supposed I use an agent, a neighbor of mine did that once, the agent put the 800k on his account and after he got his retirement extension, the agent took the amount back.

[brianthainess]

20 hours ago, geejay said:

I am aware that the funds have to be in place 3 Months before and 2 Months after.

Your friend is wrong be aware 2months before and 3months after. A friend of mine with Kasikcorn told me once he was unable to use his ATM for 24hrs after applying for his extension, more like a bank glitch, than immigration.  

[Expat68]

The only thing I have noticed is that they (the bank) freeze the account if no transactions in a year