Changing Retirement Visa To Marriage Visa

[garnet]

For many of us with a Retirement visa but who are also married

the Marriage visa is now looking like a much better option [cheaper]

How straightforward is it to make the change?

I remember a post a couple of months back [can,t find it] that said

it was incredibly difficult or not possible ??????

Does any one have first hand experience of doing this or up to date

information regarding how best to go about it , thankyou

[Lite Beer]

You are talking about Extensions of Stay not Visas.

It should be pretty straight forward.

Within the last 30 days of your Retirement Extension you go to Immigration and apply for a 12 month Extension of Stay based on being married to a Thai National.

Take your Wife with you to be interviewed. Take marriage certificate, Wife's ID Card and House registration book, proof of income or bank balance, photos of you and your Wife in and around the house. A map showing the way to your house.

You will be given a 30 day under consideration stamp. Go back in a month and get the remainder of your extension.

[Mobi]

The immigration officials will also go to your house and interview your staff/neighbours to to ensure your marriage is genuine, and that you are still living together as husband and wife.

If you apply anywhere other than Bangkok, the application will be sent to Bangkok for review and approval. Many people have had the 30 days "under consideration" extended for further periods until they receive the file back from Bangkok. In the meantime you can't leave the country.

Three points to consider before making the switch.

Provided you fulfil the financial requirements, you will have no problems renewing your retirement extension, and depending on which office you go to, subsequent extensions (and indeed the original granting of the extension) are usually completed within an hour and you walk away with 1 year extension.

The requirements for a marriage extension are far more onerous and each application is studied with a fine tooth comb to ensure their are no irregularities. As mentioned above, all applications must be approved by Bangkok and can take as long as 2 - 3 months for final approval, depending on where you are applying. It is by no means uncommon for the application to be apparently "approved" by the local office, and then subsequently rejected by Bangkok on some minor technical matter. Remember - many of the immigration officials get a kick out of rejecting your application. For some reason they are not keen on farangs getting permission to stay here on the back of their Thai wives.

If you are on a marriage extension, you lose your "independence." You are reliant on your continual co- habitation with your wife to keep the visa valid, and to ensure later extensions.

For me, I'd much rather stick with the retirement extension for all the reasons stated above, despite the fact that the financial requirements are more rigorous. This year I switched to the "monthly income" requirement instead of the 800K in the bank, and I had no problems.

[ballbreaker]

If you can afford financial requirement for retirement visa then don't change because you will lose your independence.