Thai retirement funds cannot be touched under any circumstances.

[Hamus Yaigh]

11 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

But the funds used to pay the local Thai baht are from another country.  It is recorded by Bangkok Bank as a foreign telegraphic transfer (FTT),

Maybe its a special case for BBL? With KBank the Wise transfers all show up as domestic transfers, which is in line with my previous description on how they keep prices down and transfer from their local in country bank networks? I.e. You give Wise the money in the foreign country and they just tell the Wise already in Thailand to give you the money?

[lopburi3]

1 minute ago, Henryford said:

 

Many banks don't show the money as coming from abroad, my Krungsri doesn't (even though i use WISE as well).  Plus you only need to miss one month as being clearly from abroad and you risk losing your visa.

But you can obtain a credit advise slip from paying Thai bank to prove foreign origin.

[lopburi3]

1 minute ago, Hamus Yaigh said:

Maybe its a special case for BBL? With KBank the Wise transfers all show up as domestic transfers, which is in line with my previous description on how they keep prices down and transfer from their local in country bank networks? I.e. You give Wise the money in the foreign country and they just tell the Wise already in Thailand to give you the money?

Yes it is why most of us use Bangkok Bank for this account payment.  But as said credit advise slips can be obtained as well as Wise paperwork and this is normally accepted by immigration.

[Henryford]

3 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

Or have adequate medical insurance.

 

Even then you might have to have funds available to pay up front before getting re-imbursed.

[Hamus Yaigh]

3 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

But as said credit advise slips can be obtained as well as Wise paperwork and this is normally accepted by immigration.

So Wise paperwork with a (Kbank) bank book that shows only domestic wires are accepted by immigration?

[lopburi3]

2 minutes ago, Hamus Yaigh said:

So Wise paperwork with a (Kbank) bank book that shows only domestic wires are accepted by immigration?

Some will - other will want the credit advise slips for bank in Thailand paying for Wise.  Immigration is getting to be knowledgeable about such transfers as they become more common.

[JimTripper]

40 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

But you can obtain a credit advise slip from paying Thai bank to prove foreign origin.

Assuming you get it with no problems. The tellers at the bank I work with are pretty dull. Even doing an in person cash deposit seems confusing. Best thing to do is make a flat deposit and forget it in my opinion. The less interaction the better.

[roobaa01]

Gday

Under current circumstances I would deposit the THB 800 k in a foreign currency fixed deposit account in USD to earn higher interest. Foreign currency accounts  are permissible as long as they are kept at a Thai bank.

 

Wbr

Roobaa01

[bbi1]

On 2/15/2024 at 4:35 PM, Pattaya57 said:

No it hasn't. It used to be 800,000 was decided that's what's required to live off as a retired person so 800k needed in bank to last the year. Then all the agents started bypassing the rules with fake 800k deposits immediately withdrawn so they made it 800k for 3 months after, 400k for 7 months and 800k for 2 moths before extension.

 

Funny how the reason for the change was to stop agent fake 800k deposits but now agents don't even do that, it's now a paid for fake 800k deposit letter from the bank that says it's been deposited for 3 months.  

 

So it's the bank staff which are producing fake bank statements? Isn't that considered fraud and a serious criminal offence?

[G_Money]

1 hour ago, Hamus Yaigh said:

 

How can this be true if the funds are already in Thailand for your international transfers? I thought Wise does not actually transfer the funds internationally, but instead uses a network of local bank accounts in different countries. When you send money using Wise, they will use their network of local accounts to transfer the funds from a bank account in your country to a corresponding account in the recipient's country. This way, they can avoid the costly international wire transfer fees that banks usually charge.

“How can this be true if the funds are already in Thailand for your international transfers? “

 

The funds should not be in Thailand already.  That’s the point of transfer from ones country to ones Thai bank account and show as coming from abroad.

 

 

[lopburi3]

10 minutes ago, G_Money said:

“How can this be true if the funds are already in Thailand for your international transfers? “

 

The funds should not be in Thailand already.  That’s the point of transfer from ones country to ones Thai bank account and show as coming from abroad.

 

 

The funds for buying are not in Thailand.

[G_Money]

1 hour ago, Henryford said:

 

Many banks don't show the money as coming from abroad, my Krungsri doesn't (even though i use WISE as well).  Plus you only need to miss one month as being clearly from abroad and you risk losing your visa.

My Thai bank, Kasikorn shows the money coming from abroad when using WISE and Long term stay in Thailand from the drop down menu.  I send every month, sometimes twice so that eliminates the chance of losing my retirement extension.

 

Every year they print out the statement showing the monthly transfers and it goes with the rest of my documents to immigration.  Never had any problems.

 

If your bank doesn’t show coming from abroad I would inquire as to why or change banks.

 

If I were to open a second bank account it would be with Bangkok Bank.

[G_Money]

8 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

The funds for buying are not in Thailand.

buying what?  Talking about transfers of funds for retirement extensions.

[Hamus Yaigh]

1 hour ago, G_Money said:

The funds should not be in Thailand already.  That’s the point of transfer from ones country to ones Thai bank account and show as coming from abroad.

But Wise uses a kind of decentralized network of banks so the funds you receive from overseas seem to come from a local bank in Thailand that is on their network of banks, to reduce their costs. That's what I see on my KBank international money in transfers from Europe, they appear as local transfers on the bank statement no matter what description I put on Wise web site when initiating the tx.

[lopburi3]

1 hour ago, G_Money said:

buying what?  Talking about transfers of funds for retirement extensions.

Buying the baht to put into your Thai account.

[Sophon]

4 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

It was always 2 months prior (but several offices required 3 months - and for marriage it was suggested to keep in account during review process making it 3 months) - there was no requirement for money in account after extension was issued.

 

That is not correct, it used to be 3 months before.
From police order 606-2549:

 

It was then changed to 60 days before for first extension and 3 months for subsequent extensions.

From police order 777-2551:

[mokwit]

6 hours ago, bigt3116 said:

 

Just where did Immigration state this?

 

Media reports quoting Surachote Hapkarn who was then Head of Immigration Bureau.

[bigt3116]

5 minutes ago, mokwit said:

Media reports quoting Surachote Hapkarn who was then Head of Immigration Bureau.

 Big Joke was head of Immigration from Sept 2018 - 2019

 

The new financial rules for retirement extensions came into effect in 2021

 

What is he, a fortune teller?

[G_Money]

1 hour ago, Hamus Yaigh said:

But Wise uses a kind of decentralized network of banks so the funds you receive from overseas seem to come from a local bank in Thailand that is on their network of banks, to reduce their costs. That's what I see on my KBank international money in transfers from Europe, they appear as local transfers on the bank statement no matter what description I put on Wise web site when initiating the tx.

did you use “long term stay in Thailand” from the drop down menu on WISE?

 

If you did and not showing as coming from abroad you should have this discussion with your Thai bank.

[G_Money]

1 hour ago, lopburi3 said:

Buying the baht to put into your Thai account.

All I can say is when I send via WISE from the USA I send in USD.  By the time it reaches my Thai bank it’s been converted to Thai baht somewhere along the way.  
 

Not exactly sure but I believe my Thai bank makes the conversion into baht before posting to my account. 

[BigStar]

On 2/15/2024 at 4:00 PM, up2you2 said:

I do remember hearing something about the fact that these funds were to be put aside in the event of health issues.

 

You heard wrong. Immigration never said that. Over the years our posters have fretted and soiled the knickers in the struggle to understand the inconceivable WHY any money is required for anything, though other countries also require proof of assets and deposits/investments in their countries, often a lot more than Thailand requires.

 

So the "health reason" is one of the forum myths our posters came up with to help allay the pain and rationalize the need for the requirement.

 

And, contrary to myth, the funds aren't frozen. You can take out all you want, anytime. However, if you do you may not meet the requirements for your next extension and will have to get a new visa to stay in Thailand.

 

[lopburi3]

23 minutes ago, G_Money said:

All I can say is when I send via WISE from the USA I send in USD.  By the time it reaches my Thai bank it’s been converted to Thai baht somewhere along the way.  
 

Not exactly sure but I believe my Thai bank makes the conversion into baht before posting to my account. 

It is like the old Chinese shophouse keeper exchange system - you deposit money into local account in your currency and they inform fellow shophouse keeper in destination country to pay out in that countries currency.  

[oldcpu]

On 2/16/2024 at 9:16 AM, Jimi007 said:

 Okay, I’m married to a Thai woman. We got married in the USA. They took our US marriage certificate without issue until last year the Phuket volunteers said something about it. But we were still approved but not this year. Now my Government needs to certify the marriage certificate! Well that is going to take a month or more, what now?

 

During COVID, when I was on a Type-OA visa, I switched from obtaining an extension for reason of retirement, to reason of marriage. (My immigration office is here in Phuket).

 

My Thai wife and I were married in Canada.  So we hired a Translation service (that is based in Bangkok) to do most of the work for us to obtain paper work we needed for Phuket immigration.   It made this all very simple for us (as Translation service did the work).

 

We couried to the Bangkok based Translation Service (from here in Phuket) copies of my Canadian passport (for translation to Thai) plus copy of my wife's ID. We also sent our Canadian marriage certificate, which they then translated to Thai.  We gave them 'limited' power of attorney for this marriage document handling (they provided to us prior (via email) the power of attorney form to fill in and to courier to them). They took this to the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok, and had the marriage document (and translation) certified as valid. They then took this to the Ministry of Foreign affairs in Bangkok, to have certified.  They then couried all that paperwork back to my wife and I here in Phuket.

 

We than took this to city hall in Phuket, had our marriage registered and obtained the Kor-22.  Phuket immigration accepted the Kor-22 (family status registration).

 

This all took less than 3 weeks, and the only travel we had to do was to go to a Phuket post office to courier documents to the Translation service in Bangkok, and go to Phuket City Hall after everything was couried back to us.

 

This approach was recommended to me by Ubon Joe (bless his soul) and it was a fabulous superb piece of advice.

 

@Jimi007 - PM me if you would like the name of the service we used.  It worked well for us, so I recommend such an approach.

Edited February 17 by oldcpu

[mokwit]

1 hour ago, bigt3116 said:

 Big Joke was head of Immigration from Sept 2018 - 2019

 

The new financial rules for retirement extensions came into effect in 2021

 

What is he, a fortune teller?

Jan/Feb 2019 was when he said it. Check your sources.

 

See the date on this vid discussing it.

 

Edited February 17 by mokwit

[Ben Zioner]

On 2/15/2024 at 4:59 PM, G_Money said:

I happily pay the monthly transfer fees to send the monthly requirement (and more) amount needed for a retirement extension.  Currently the minimum is 65,000 baht per month.  

Is it 65000 before or after income tax? Might become epic if it was after. Ending up at IDC just because you didn't transfer 65000 + 2000 for IT.

[G_Money]

17 minutes ago, Ben Zioner said:

Is it 65000 before or after income tax? Might become epic if it was after. Ending up at IDC just because you didn't transfer 65000 + 2000 for IT.

If you’re talking about Thai income tax, there is no requirement to pay if pension income as I’ve already paid USA taxes on it.

 

 

[up2you2]

1 hour ago, BigStar said:

 

You heard wrong. Immigration never said that. Over the years our posters have fretted and soiled the knickers in the struggle to understand the inconceivable WHY any money is required for anything, though other countries also require proof of assets and deposits/investments in their countries, often a lot more than Thailand requires.

 

So the "health reason" is one of the forum myths our posters came up with to help allay the pain and rationalize the need for the requirement.

 

And, contrary to myth, the funds aren't frozen. You can take out all you want, anytime. However, if you do you may not meet the requirements for your next extension and will have to get a new visa to stay in Thailand.

 

Again thank you for dispelling the myth about the so called "health reason " for these funds to be deposited.
At least they are there in the event of, so I suppose that's one consolation.

Yes for sure these funds are not technically frozen, but if one wishes to renew one's retirement visa on the back of them, then I would say that they are effectively frozen.

[Ben Zioner]

40 minutes ago, G_Money said:

If you’re talking about Thai income tax, there is no requirement to pay if pension income as I’ve already paid USA taxes on it.

So are u assuming that there are only USA retirees around here?

[mokwit]

42 minutes ago, G_Money said:

If you’re talking about Thai income tax, there is no requirement to pay if pension income as I’ve already paid USA taxes on it.

 

 

There may yet be a requirement to prove that, though.

[G_Money]

1 hour ago, Ben Zioner said:

So are u assuming that there are only USA retirees around here?

Not at all but the question was to me and I am so I only concerned about what affects me.