Using an immigration website, it refers to "Show income more than 40,000 Baht/month" for Support Thai Wife annual extension. That equates to 480,000 Baht per year.

For years I have been using the 400,000 Baht method. I now receive the UK state pension, and am considering if I might change in the future to monthly income method.

UK state pension makes payment every 4 weeks; there are 13 payments every year. Due to exchange rates, the amount received is usually just a bit less than 40,000 Baht. However, as I receive 13 payments per year, I actually receive around between 494,000 to 516,000 Baht per year (depending on exchange rates).

I therefore receive MORE yearly income than the 480,000 Baht per year but LESS than 40,000 Baht/month.

So could I qualify for the income method or not?

Suggest anyone receiving income for example by way of pensions (as one example) to consolidate those payments into you home country bank account.

Do one transfer every month.

I choose the 14th of every month using WISE.

And since my extension is retirement I transfer well over 65k per month

Some offices do not require proof of source of funds.

Rather just 12 monthly transfers.

Note the source does not have to be from pension.

Note: for first extension using income method you would need to show 12 transfers.

So to swap over next extension you use 400k in bank (for two months) and at same time commence the monthly transfers.

Which immigration office do you use?

Sadly for you, the immigration office does not count the amount for proof of funds by monthly income any other way except 40K per month, each month, every month for the previous 12 months before you apply for an extension.

As was mentioned in the previous comment should you wish to change to proof of funds by monthly income you're going to need to find a way to bring in 40K per month..

Plus that's if your immigration office will indeed accept that. Some offices will not let you get a marriage extension using monthly income by transfer, they only allow monthly income for marriage extensions if you legally work inside Thailand..

Check with your office to see if you can even use monthly income by transfer for marriage extension.

2 hours ago, Tod Daniels said:

Check with your office to see if you can even use monthly income by transfer for marriage extension.

As Tod pointed out this is important.

Thinking CW (as one example) is bit touchy on this.

17 hours ago, Bredbury Blue said:

Using an immigration website, it refers to "Show income more than 40,000 Baht/month" for Support Thai Wife annual extension. That equates to 480,000 Baht per year.

For years I have been using the 400,000 Baht method. I now receive the UK state pension, and am considering if I might change in the future to monthly income method.

UK state pension makes payment every 4 weeks; there are 13 payments every year. Due to exchange rates, the amount received is usually just a bit less than 40,000 Baht. However, as I receive 13 payments per year, I actually receive around between 494,000 to 516,000 Baht per year (depending on exchange rates).

I therefore receive MORE yearly income than the 480,000 Baht per year but LESS than 40,000 Baht/month.

So could I qualify for the income method or not?

The text of your post sounds like you are considering using the DWP service to pay funds direct to a Thai bank account. I would advise against that, I used to do that some years ago but gave up for reasons other than transfers, was getting embassy letter at the time.

It would be better to have pension paid to a UK account and make the transfers from that, I still use my HSBC account. If you do not have a UK account you may have to look at other options. Wise is the most obvious, I opened mine from Thailand but you would need a UK address. Immigration will check that funds are sourced from abroad and may ask for origin, my office did.

Others may have suggestions on alternative accounts.

Thanks for the comments/advice everyone.

As a follow-up to the comments:

1. I already receive my UK pension in to my SCB account, a payment received every 4 weeks.

2. My next extension is due in Oct. I will use b400k bank method.

3. When I do my next extension, BOTH the b400k AND the every 4th-week international transfers in to my SCB account will show on my bank statement, and I will ask the imm officer's advice to my query.

Cheers!

13 minutes ago, Bredbury Blue said:

3. When I do my next extension, BOTH the b400k AND the every 4th-week international transfers in to my SCB account will show on my bank statement, and I will ask the imm officer's advice to my query.

Your query about whether a month receives less than 40k but greater than the total amount is a non-starter. No immigration office will accept that. The requirement is VERY clear. You must receive AT LEAST 40,000 baht EVERY SINGLE MONTH, for the previous 12 months before your extension application. The total amount you receive is irrelevant. Miss by even a day and you will not get an extension.

If you're not willing to make that happen, no point in even asking.

If you are, then you need to find out if they accept monthly transfers at all, because as Tod said, some immigration offices do not accept that for marriage extensions.

10 minutes ago, BrandonJT said:

Your query about whether a month receives less than 40k but greater than the total amount is a non-starter. No immigration office will accept that. The requirement is VERY clear. You must receive AT LEAST 40,000 baht EVERY SINGLE MONTH, for the previous 12 months before your extension application. The total amount you receive is irrelevant. Miss by even a day and you will not get an extension.

If you're not willing to make that happen, no point in even asking.

If you are, then you need to find out if they accept monthly transfers at all, because as Tod said, some immigration offices do not accept that for marriage extensions.

Spot on./...but I think "miss by a day" should perhaps be written as "Miss a single month" because there is no problem with 40k being received on the 5th March and the next one, say, 23rd April. 40k EVERY month is the point, as you stated.

That said, the last time I used the income method (retirement) the lady at Kasikorn International branch (Pattaya Klang) said "why Immigration need this form, you transfer more than 2m Baht".....and she printed off the form with about 9 months worth of transactions on.

The IO in Jomtien barely looked at it; he had his 'special form' from Kasikorn, he could tick his box.

35 minutes ago, BrandonJT said:

If you are, then you need to find out if they accept monthly transfers at all, because as Tod said, some immigration offices do not accept that for marriage extensions.

Indeed. The OP has not mentioned immigration office.

In this attached thread link @Tod Daniels mentions some issues with income method for marriage at CW.

https://aseannow.com/topic/1374578-marriage-visa-extension-using-40k-per-month-at-cw/#findComment-20121378

Samut Prakarn

As stated above, this year, as usual, I'll do baht400k method providing bank letter/statement for 3 months prior, but I'll ask the IO's opinion to my query.

You can close the thread.

Thanks for your contributions.

Thread closed at OP request.