Retirement Visa

[paul700]

Lite Beer, the latest is I've been to the bank and cancelled the credit card. Now I will have to wait until the 100,000 baht guarantee is refurbished onto the main bank computer. They reckon it will be about Thursday before this shows up. So hopefully Thursday I can go to the bank, get my letter with the true amount on, then travel to immigration and get my visa. Apparently they hold back 100,000 baht even though I only had a 50,000 baht credit limit because I do not have a work permit. That is the only explanation for this. Obviously I won't have a work permit if I'm retired. I did have a work permit when I first opened the account in 2003.

[Lite Beer]

Lite Beer, the latest is I've been to the bank and cancelled the credit card. Now I will have to wait until the 100,000 baht guarantee is refurbished onto the main bank computer. They reckon it will be about Thursday before this shows up. So hopefully Thursday I can go to the bank, get my letter with the true amount on, then travel to immigration and get my visa. Apparently they hold back 100,000 baht even though I only had a 50,000 baht credit limit because I do not have a work permit. That is the only explanation for this. Obviously I won't have a work permit if I'm retired. I did have a work permit when I first opened the account in 2003.

From what I gather that is normal bank practice They are not going to give a credit card to a foreiner who is not working.

[WilliamIV]

...Please tell us the exchange rate they used...

Ok Bill , my wife told the officer 81.00, I do believe she wasn't far out, but when we came out of there my wife said I wish I had told her 87 now. Meaning , she wished she had told her a high enough rate so that we could qualify. It seems silly really. If I was an immigration officer, I would have a printout of the daily rates on my desk. What do you think Bill? Good idea? It's not rocket science! Let me know your thoughts on this.

Well I wondered if 81 was a typing error

but then you mentioned 87 ... !!!

You say you know how to calculate 800,000

but you still did not show us how the Officer calculated 787,000

Bill

[Jingthing]

I use Pattaya immigration to do my retirement visa, you can go a month early and they are very good there,

Note that Pattaya encourages retirement extensions as early as THREE MONTHS early and no special excuse needed either.

[WilliamIV]

As for my five hours wait there, I am not joking it was a nightmare. It was hot, maybe air conditioning not 100%, people coughing everywhere, children screaming....a total nightmare. I have been there many times before over the last 9 years but has never been as bad as this day.

Paul

When you can see you will be in for a long wait..

Do as I did ...

Go accross the road - there is a nice cafe there.

Have a Coffee and read the Newspaper or a Book for an hour or so.

Bill

[tjansen]

My sympathies, Paul. What a hel_l of a day that must have been.

Thank you for sharing. It helps others like me, who will be jumping through the same hoops this time next year.

Hope it goes smoothly next week.

Paul,

I wasn't going to comment, but you asked for comments a couple of times, so I will. I am a newcomer to the process, at least I was. I am in the process of, hopefully without too much of a hitch, getting a Retirement Extension. I have used this forum as much in advance as possible to find out what I have to do and have found it to be the most informed group consensus of what the real world is. One point from my case that is similar to yours is that the date of my bank account crossing the threshold of 800k is about 3-4 days short of the 60 days now required to make the transition in one step from a Tourist Visa to a Retirement Extension. Someone on the Forum said that Immigration has been know to cut some slack and might do both steps in the same visit. BUT, and here is my main point, if I go in there and they require me to stick to the rule and first get an extension on my Tourist Visa, I think it would be a waste of my emotional energy to get upset about it and actually a bit silly. Of course, I must admit, if I had spent a long frustrating day because of trusting incorrect or incomplete advice, I would probably be singing in your choir. Chok Dee and thanks for relating the details of your experience.

TomJ

[paul700]

Thanks for listening and reading about my story. The latest is: This morning at 9am I checked with the Bank that I went to on Tuesday morning and where I cancelled my credit card so that the 1000,000 baht guarantee money could be put back into my bank account. They had assured me that today Thursday it would be back in my account. This was my plan before I went to the bank for another letter showing the right amount of money. My bank gave me a number to check with their head office in Bangkok to make sure the new amount would show up on the letter. When I rang the Head Office they checked my account and said that they had no information that the credit card had been cancelled.

Okay, to cut a long story short, even if they had the notification of cancellation it will take about a month before it will show on the main computer. In other words I haven't got the 100,000 baht for a month. Therefore my account is short and I had to find cash from elsewhere and take it to my bank so they would guarantee a letter for the immigration. I gave them 65,0000 baht in cash which was more than enough but even when they gave me the letter it was still 100,000 baht down on the right amount but enough to cover me for the 800,000 baht required by immigration.

I went straight to immigration, walked in gave them the paperwork and paid for the visa. I arrived there at 3-05pm today and walked out at 3-55pm from room 101 with my one year O-A retirement visa.

This is the end of my retirement visa story now. To all those people out there that didn't believe my story, or though that I was out of touch or stupid in some way, I can assure you it is true.

I have learned a lot about Thailand and people who like to do their job exactly following the rules with no flexibility at all.

I was able to find some extra cash, but this does not take away the fact that I have 100,000 baht in cash lying in a Bangkok bank even though my 50,000 baht credit account was cleared and cancelled on Tuesday morning that I cannot touch for one month. It is not fair and it is not right.

Anyway, my story has a happy ending, I hope it has been a help to people who are planning to go for a retirement visa in the future. I would like to state that my original letter was written in frustration, I understand that the bank screwsd it up for me, but after lots of negotiating, telephone calls, and trips across Bangkok, I have changed into a wonderful happy man again who is looking forward to another fantastic year in Amazing Thailand. I look forward to hearing your comments.

[Lite Beer]

One comment. You have not got a Retirement Visa. You have a 12 month extension of your permision to stay.

Enjoy it.

[paul700]

One comment. You have not got a Retirement Visa. You have a 12 month extension of your permision to stay.

Enjoy it.

Lite Beer,

I know it is an Non Immigrant O-A Visa, but for all people who read these comments it is easier to explain it as a retirement visa. In fact it is stamped stamped right across the page on my passport in block capitals it reads RETIREMENT, then the date in February 2010.

[Lite Beer]

One comment. You have not got a Retirement Visa. You have a 12 month extension of your permision to stay.

Enjoy it.

Lite Beer,

I know it is an Non Immigrant O-A Visa, but for all people who read these comments it is easier to explain it as a retirement visa. In fact it is stamped stamped right across the page on my passport in block capitals it reads RETIREMENT, then the date in February 2010.

You now have 12 months to sort your bank out. Go and have a beer.

[paul700]

You now have 12 months to sort your bank out. Go and have a beer.

I will, without a doubt ....lol