What's the difference -- for these guys it was petty cash.

1 hour ago, JerryM said:

People here talk of raising the 800K baht as if this is the primary decision and the 65K is an alternative afterthought.

IT MAY BE JUST THE OPPOSITE. The 65K may be the primary decision as to what is an adequate monthly amount for a retired non-Thai person in Thailand and the 800K is the alternative for persons who do not have a demonstrable 65K baht monthly income.

And as noted on the 2.22, the 65K option is (3) and the 800K option is (4).

Don't see your point.

The amounts are almost equivalent.

4 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Don't see your point.

The amounts are almost equivalent.

It is how the decision is made.

The talk on here is of bank access to deposit funds or emergency spending and that might not be their principal consideration.

Edited September 1Sep 1 by JerryM

On 8/29/2026 at 2:30 PM, NanLaew said:

You sound like another member with an inordinate sense of grievance over things that other totally unknown strangers do, that neither concerns you nor impacts you. It's like some weird type of online proselytizing.

@JerryM are you just going to sit there and let him talk about you like that?

9 hours ago, Oliver Holzerfilled said:

@JerryM are you just going to sit there and let him talk about you like that?

Sure. Wouldn't be the first time. For those strangers 'any port in the storm' when the law is not on their side.

And for some of the experts on AN, if you don't like the way the law reads, make up your own.

Edited September 2Sep 2 by JerryM

Do you know how many non-Thais live in Thailand? 3 Mil to 4.5 Mil and some say 6 Mil. Now subtract the labors and you get about 1/2 Mil to 1.3 Mil. that are retires, skilled labor and teachers, ect. Now how many of those do you think have an extra $90,000 laying around to put in a Thai bank that only receive 0.015% interest about $1,350 per year vises 0.06% interest $5,400 back home per yea, if they even have $90,000 available to deposit it in a Thai Bank? How many have a $100K per year income or 3 million baht in a Thai bank, very few. I could do it, I have $126,000 per year income and right now 4.5 Mil baht in Thai banks, but if they make those changes and I'm gone, the reason is the Thai goverment would clearly be saying we don't what you here. I can live very comfortable back home on my income plus my stocks.

 

king about the long standing level of 800K bank method OR 65K a month income method.

On 8/27/2026 at 7:30 PM, Jingthing said:

People have been predicting it was about to go up for the last 10 to 15 years but it has not happened.

Recently such predictions are heating up.

It's a safe, logical and superficially superficially probable prediction.

But I submit it is probably a wrong prediction.

Why you ask!?!

Multiple reasons.

The current level reflects within a range that is dominant globally for retirement visas including in Europe.

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Basically the mainstream level is between 1000 USD and 2000 USD a month.

Thailand added new visas that can be used instead.

The Long-Term Resident Visa (LTR Visa) which does have higher financial requirements and also the Privilege Entry Visa (ex Elite) that is widely acknowledged now to be very overpriced.

So they have already raised the financial requirements if you choose those options!

The standard option serves Thailand's purposes well and I submit at the current levels will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

What are you saying dude? Have you gone batty?

Well the agent system which apparently is quasi legal is a boon for certain people in the system. Make the original offer too high and you'll scare off a lot of people even to get to the point of paying agents.

The filtering out system long in place is CACHING central. Why would you mess with it?

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Every new retired expat in Thailand is a big old cash now in creating new households, importing lots of money (now may be taxed), maybe buying condos and cars, etc.

Whether the new expat lasts one year or forty. Thailand makes almost no commitment to them so inviting masses of them is almost all reward, and almost no risk.

The ones who flame out for all the well known reasons, so what does Thailand care?

They leave or die. End of story.

If being able to afford to live here was the main problem, they'll just flame out. Doesn't hurt Thailand.

So I submit it is against the self interest of the government of Thailand to increase the financial requirements for the classic basic retirement path (OA or O).

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Why didn't I put this topic in the Thai visa section?

Because topics like this are NOT WELCOME there.

Otherwise I would have.

If I read this again a few times would is start making more sense?

But I don't want to encourage any changes or speculation about them.

40 minutes ago, Dickp said:

I could do it, I have $126,000 per year income and right now 4.5 Mil baht in Thai banks, but if they make those changes and I'm gone, the reason is the Thai goverment would clearly be saying we don't what you here. I can live very comfortable back home on my income plus my stocks. 

All good points. Still ... Some of us have Thai family based on our spouse, and its now their turn to live in Thailand after living for decades outside of Thailand with us. And some of us, even without Thai family, ... just like Thailand and like staying here. Its not always about the money.

Re: your income, >$80,000 US/year, if it is passive income, and if you are over age 50 and given you have 4.5 million THB in a Thai bank (I assume cash where that is greater than $100,000 US$) then it qualifies as self health insurance. So you could likely qualify for an LTR-Wealthy Pensioner visa, and not have to think about this 800,000 THB in a Thal bank.

My having typed that, I suspect you considered the LTR and either age, or the "passive" income aspect, or perhaps the self health insurance aspect, put you off.

Edited September 3Sep 3 by oldcpu

7 minutes ago, oldcpu said:

All good points. Still ... Some of us have Thai family based on our spouse, and its now their turn to live in Thailand after living for decades outside of Thailand with us. And some of us, even without Thai family, ... just like Thailand and like staying here. Its not always about the money.

Re: your income, >$80,000 US/year, if it is passive income, and if you are over age 50 and given you have 4.5 million THB in a Thai bank (I assume cash where that is greater than $100,000 US$) then it qualifies as self health insurance. So you could likely qualify for an LTR-Wealthy Pensioner visa, and not have to think about this 800,000 THB in a Thal bank.

My having typed that, I suspect you considered the LTR and either age, or the "passive" income aspect, or perhaps the self health insurance aspect, put you off.

Or he's just a bullsh*ter

8 hours ago, greeneking said:

But I don't want to encourage any changes or speculation about them.

Whatever Thailand does or doesn't do, it won't come from reading anything on here.

18 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

Or he's just a bullsh*ter

I just stumbled across another of his posts - where he noted his age.

He is a good 10+ years older than myself - which IMHO explains why LTR would not appeal to him. I did not know such when I replied suggesting LTR to him.

Likely if I was his age I might consider the LTR 50,000 THB a waste of money (as I can't see myself living into my 90s) , and I would start giving away my assets to family, making self health insurance more difficult to maintain. ... and further if I was in my mid-80s/90s (if I should I be so lucky to live that long) I likely would only use an agent, passing to the agent legal power of attorney to legally handle all my immigration aspects.

For @Dickp - stay healthy!! Good on you for still staying active in Thailand.

Edited September 4Sep 4 by oldcpu

On 9/4/2026 at 3:11 PM, oldcpu said:

I just stumbled across another of his posts - where he noted his age.

He is a good 10+ years older than myself - which IMHO explains why LTR would not appeal to him. I did not know such when I replied suggesting LTR to him.

Likely if I was his age I might consider the LTR 50,000 THB a waste of money (as I can't see myself living into my 90s) , and I would start giving away my assets to family, making self health insurance more difficult to maintain. ... and further if I was in my mid-80s/90s (if I should I be so lucky to live that long) I likely would only use an agent, passing to the agent legal power of attorney to legally handle all my immigration aspects.

For @Dickp - stay healthy!! Good on you for still staying active in Thailand.

I made a mistake when I said yearly it should have said monthly income of $100. I never said I had a yearly income of $80,000, I said I Had a yearly income of $126,000 ( all passive ) and that dose not include my US stocks which are doing real good. My age is 83 years 5 months and I have lived in Thailand 35 years with my Thai Wife age 83. We have Tricare ForLife health insurance which is real good I pay strating the first of 1 Jan each year the first $300 we pay. Then after that I pay 25% of the bill insurance covers thr rest. But once my Co pay of 25% adds up to $3,000 thats normally in early June, The insurance pays 100%. For all the last 35 years I have done my own extension of stay. And renewal of my driver License. We have 0 debts, house and car were pay cash. So we plan on buying what we what and no plan on saving. Have one daughter which her and her husband, live in the US and are well off, so no need to save for them. And I am no bullsh*ter !!! And I really mean it " if they make those changes then I'm gone, the reason is the Thai goverment would clearly be saying we don't what you here.

3 hours ago, Dickp said:

I made a mistake when I said yearly it should have said monthly income of $100. I never said I had a yearly income of $80,000, I said I Had a yearly income of $126,000

I think you made another mistake with the maths.
Surely you meant a monthly income of $1,000.

3 hours ago, Dickp said:

My age is 83 years 5 months and I have lived in Thailand 35 years with my Thai Wife age 83.

So your extensions are already grandfathered on the lower financial requirements ?

Edited September 6Sep 6 by Liquorice

6 hours ago, Liquorice said:

So your extensions are already grandfathered on the lower financial requirements ?

He says: For all the last 35 years I have done my own extension of stay.

He doesn't say whether via retirement or marriage extension. There is no marriage grandfathering 2.18(6) 2014 Police Order.

On 8/28/2026 at 7:39 AM, Jingthing said:

Then why has there NEVER been a crackdown?

One reason is that is that the regs on bribery assume that the the official soliciting a bribe and the potential bribee are sitting at a table across from each other and the bribee KNOWS who is this official. And since the most common reported corruption complaint regards local government procurement, that likely holds.

But it falls apart when the potential bribee has no idea who is the official or officials or office involved and only knows an intermediary 'facilitating' agent. Indeed this is the standard NACC official corruption complaint form (edited).:

Edited September 6Sep 6 by JerryM

6 hours ago, JerryM said:

He says: For all the last 35 years I have done my own extension of stay.

He doesn't say whether via retirement or marriage extension. There is no marriage grandfathering 2.18(6) 2014 Police Order.

Immigration first introduced the baseline for 400/800K as a financial requirement (Police Order No. 606/2549), which went into effect on Oct 1st 2006.

Prior to that they accepted 200K -250K per annum (income or funds) based on both retirement and marriage as sufficient evidence of being financially self sufficient.

You are correct they didn't grandfather extensions based on marriage, but they advised and allowed those on marriage extensions to switch to retirement extensions so they would be grandfathered. I know someone who did exactly that, but in 2018 departed for a visit to the UK forgetting to obtain a re-entry permit and blew his grandfathering.

6 minutes ago, Liquorice said:

You are correct they didn't grandfather extensions based on marriage,

I just looked at the Police Order.

As to your UK friend the current 'grandfathering' clause says: has been consecutively permitted to stay in the Kingdom

and could be part of any future grandfathering

Edited September 7Sep 7 by JerryM

47 minutes ago, JerryM said:

As to your UK friend the current 'grandfathering' clause says: has been consecutively permitted to stay in the Kingdom

and could be part of any future grandfathering

As I pointed out, he blew his consecutive extensions of permission of stay by not obtaining a re-entry permit in 2018, so had to start from scratch again.

An agent has posted that their pricing is this way to avoid any confusion.

The only government fee for the yearly extension is ฿1,900. Any amount above that is our service fee - and if you handle the extension yourself, there is no service fee at all.

That assumes that you have 800K baht in the bank yourself -- with the 'service fee', it does not.

So it was never obviated in the prior topic how the 'service fee' results in an applicant not havering to have 800K baht if the bank (except for maybe 5 minutes).

Edited September 19Sep 19 by JerryM

A post and the replies in violation of the following Forum Rule have been removed:

7. You will not post defamatory or libelous comments. Defamation is the issuance of a statement about another person or business which causes that person or business to suffer harm or loss. A statement does not have to be false to be defamatory. Libel is when the defamatory statement is published either as a drawing, picture, painting, motion picture, film, or letters made visible by any means or by broadcasting, dissemination or propagation by any other means. Defamation is both a civil and criminal charge in Thailand and elsewhere in ASEAN.

Edited September 20Sep 20 by metisdead

On 8/31/2026 at 8:09 AM, JerryM said:

Reports indicated that top immigration commanders in regions including Khon Kaen and Chiang Mai accepted bribes ranging from 100,000 to 300,000 baht per approved visa.

Please provide sources for those accusations!

10 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

Please provide sources for those accusations!

Visa racket report fingers 107 immigration officers

Police submit 139,000 pages of documents to graft-busters on enablers of Chinese nationals

PUBLISHED : 9 Mar 2023

The accusations first surfaced after former politician Chuvit Kamolvisit alleged that three Immigration Bureau commanders in Khon Kaen and Chiang Mai were accepting bribes of between 100,000 and 300,000 baht for each non-immigration visa approved.

The approvals were issued to a total of 3,325 Chinese nationals between 2020 and 2022, according to Mr Chuvit.

The disclosures prompted the national police chief to set up an inquiry panel.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2524191/visa-racket-report-fingers-107-immigration-officers.

23 minutes ago, JerryM said:

The disclosures prompted the national police chief to set up an inquiry panel.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2524191/visa-racket-report-fingers-107-immigration-officers.

The only reason these things get looked into is because the people were committing crimes while in Thailand (illegal business, drugs, money laundering, etc). If they're just living in Thailand and behaving well, no one cares.

1 hour ago, JerryM said:

So it was never obviated in the prior topic how the 'service fee' results in an applicant not havering to have 800K baht if the bank (except for maybe 5 minutes).

As posted by Expert VISA Forum AUG 20:

Q:What is an "in and out" deposit. Seriously.

A: It is exactly what it sounds like. Agent deposits funds needed for extension. Update bank book and get other needed bank documents. You return money to agent. Maybe there for 5-15 minutes.

OR as Graham Nash CS&N sang:

Come to me now

And rest your head for just five minutes

Everything is done

Thai banks pay 1% interest on 800K deposits. They then lend those funds out at 6%.

Assume half the retirees in Thailand have either 400K or 800K on deposit. There are about 75,000 of them, out of 150,000 total. 2.25 billion baht in bank profit. Not to be sneezed at.

Let's say the Thai government doubles the financial requirement. That drives potential retirees to other countries, and existing ones into quitting, or using agents.

It is not just the funds on deposit. My monthly spend here is 2-3 times what the average Thai spends, which boosts the economy.

Whether the Thai authorities can see it would be shooting themselves in the foot is a different question.

50 minutes ago, BrandonJT said:

If they're just living in Thailand and behaving well, no one cares.

Certainly not the ones who are cashing in on it.

Edited September 20Sep 20 by JerryM

3 hours ago, JerryM said:

Certainly not the ones who are cashing in on it.

Oh Jerry Jerry. I'm sure your life isn't so mt you need these endless crusades. Go have some fun.

10 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

Oh Jerry Jerry. I'm sure your life isn't so mt you need these endless crusades. Go have some fun.

Thanks for the move-along nothing to see here.

Sometimes people say things that maybe later wish they had not said.