Retirement Visa

[Lite Beer]

Sorry but I am still confused. I am planning to retire in Thailand in December and am wondering how to enter the country, deposit money in a Thai bank, and season it for 90 days without having to make a "visa run"? My pension is not enough to qualify, but the 800000B is not a problem. The problem as I see it, is complying with the 90 day rule. Any suggestions?

One option is. Arrive with a single Tourist Visa. In the first week open a bank acc. and put the money in it.

Go to Immigration and change your Tourist Visa to a Non O Visa (2,000 Baht fee)

30 days before the Non O expires go back to Immigration and apply for the reirement extension.

The 800,000 will then be seasoned.

Another option is to apply for a O-A Retirement Visa in the USA. That would need a police check and a medical.

Edited August 3, 2008 by Lite Beer

[Sophon]

#2 is showing proof of income less than the above, but still OK. A formula is applied that requires a certain amount of monies to be on deposit to compensate for this shortfall. Say your pension is only half of the requirement, to use an example: 32,500 B/month. You will need to show a deposit amount, in a Thai bank account 90 days prior to your application, of 400,000 B. This is assuming you are single. Married- different rules and different money requirements.

Your calculations are not completely accurate.

The rule is that your yearly pension (or other income) plus your bank deposit must total THB 800,000. So with a monthly pension of THB 32,500 you would need a deposit of THB 800,000 - 12xTHB 32,500 = THB 410,000.

Not much of a difference I know, but it could just mean the difference between your extension being granted and denied.

Sophon

[Sophon]

Sorry but I am still confused. I am planning to retire in Thailand in December and am wondering how to enter the country, deposit money in a Thai bank, and season it for 90 days without having to make a "visa run"? My pension is not enough to qualify, but the 800000B is not a problem. The problem as I see it, is complying with the 90 day rule. Any suggestions?

You can do as Lite Beer suggests, or you can go the "combination route" since you do have some pension income.

Let's say your pension is THB 30,000 per month, then you can make up for the shortfall in your income with a bank deposit. You would need to have a deposit of THB 800,000 - 12 x THB 30,000 = THB 440,000 (but I would probably err on the side of caution and deposit something like THB 500,000). And the important factor in your situation is, that the money do not need to be in your bank account three months prior to application when using a combination of income and bank deposit.

When ready to apply for your extension, i.e. within the last thirty days of your permitted stay, you go to your embassy and get a certification of your pension income. You also go to your bank and get a letter certifying your bank deposit. With these certifications (as well as the other bits and pieces such as photos, copies of passport etc.) you can then get your extension.

Sophon

[Maestro]

Whether it was "erroneous" or not is yet to be finally determined...

“Erroneous” as in “not in conformity with official, published rules”

...The law is in THAI, so English translations are only a guideline for us. BTW, a number of people have reported being told the same thing I was at Jomtien.

But neither you nor any of the others who were given that information at the Jomtien office have since then come back to report that they applied for and received the repeat extension at that office without the seasoning of the money in the bank.

Facts speak louder than words.

I believe it serves no purpose to have any further repetitions and discussions of Jingthing’s argument. I am now closing this topic and suggest that a new topic be started

– if and when somebody has written confirmation from an immigration officer at Jomtien that he will grant future retirement extensions without the 3-month seasoning of the money, or

– if and when somebody receives a new repeat retirement extension without the 3-month seasoning of the money

That sounds fair, doesn’t it?

--

Maestro