Clarification on Retirement Visa

[Slinky1958]

I’m a UK citizen married to a Thai National my wife as a Uk passport and we have house in both countries 

I’m looking to retire to Thailand I have a non O marriage visa and will be converting this to a Retirement Visa

i have Sufficient funds in a Thai bank account and we send over at least 100,000 per month form the UK

I been told that the easiest way is to just leave the 800,000 in the bank

Albeit the interest rate is not to good When I asked can I use the 100,000 per month route I was told that the UK doesn’t support this any more

can someone please clarify 

Cheers

 

 

 

[Upnotover]

If you already have a non-O for your first extension ("retirement") you will need to show 800k in the bank.  Later years you can switch to 65k/month if you want to.  Not sure what the UK has to do with any of this.  Or you could just extend based on marriage., 400k.

[DrJack54]

28 minutes ago, Slinky1958 said:

I’m looking to retire to Thailand I have a non O marriage visa and will be converting this to a Retirement Visa

What does that mean? 

Do you currently have a valid Non O based on marriage OR do you have an extension based on marriage? 

You don't convert to "Retirement Visa" 

Having UK pp means you cannot obtain income letter from embassy.

That means to use income method you need to show 12 months of transfers.

Your OP is not clear.

State exactly current situation and ongoing plan for best advice.

 

BTW:  the financial requirements for extensions based on marriage are very low bar compared to extension based on retirement. 

 

[johng]

If you are already on marriage  extension then easiest and cheapest is to just leave 400,000 + a tiny bit   in an account  and stay married. 

[Slinky1958]

Thanks guys I was told that the UK government does not issue proof of monthly income letters so to leave the 800k there spiff I show 100k per month for one year from UK to my Thai Bank account that should enable me to go down that road 

Any update advice would be greatly appreciated 

[Slinky1958]

Apologies about the spelling 

[BrandonJT]

24 minutes ago, Slinky1958 said:

Thanks guys I was told that the UK government does not issue proof of monthly income letters so to leave the 800k there spiff I show 100k per month for one year from UK to my Thai Bank account that should enable me to go down that road 

Any update advice would be greatly appreciated 

You can use monthly income to get the non-O visa from the Thai embassy. But then once you get to Thailand, you cannot use income for the first 1-year extension. You would need to deposit the 800k and have it in your Thai bank account for at least 2 full months before you can apply for your extension.  Once you get the extension, your bank account must remain at 800,000 for 3 months after, and then it can never drop below 400,000.

 

While you are doing this, you can start doing the monthly transfer.  The following year, after your first annual extension is ending, if you can show 12 full months of monthly transfers exceeding the required amount (you said retirement so that's 65,000 per month) you would then be able to show that for your 2nd year extension.  Once you receive that extension, you could then remove the 400,000 from your Thai bank account and continue doing monthly transfers for as long as you want to live in Thailand.

[Slinky1958]

Brilliant news thanks  guys great help 

[Slinky1958]

Must it go into my account only or our Joint account which would be better for us

[BrandonJT]

3 minutes ago, Slinky1958 said:

Must it go into my account only or our Joint account which would be better for us

You would need to check with your immigration office.  Some offices will not accept joint counts at all.  For those immigration offices that will accept a join account, you must double all amounts as only 50% of the money is considered yours.  I have never heard of anyone trying to do the monthly transfers to a joint account, only the banked money method.