I've never seen this come up on the forum, but I just learned something new yesterday. If a married farang couple wish to retire in Thailand, it is very important how this is handled.

If both individuals apply for "retirement" status, and then establish a joint bank account, then 1,600,000 baht (2 x 800,000 baht) must be remitted.

The suggested way is for the husband to apply for retirement status, and the wife to apply for a Class O visa as accompanying spouse. Then, once in Thailand, establish a bank account in husbnand's name ONLY - and wire to that account 800,000 baht. Then apply for retiremnt extensionn for husband, and accompanying spouse extension for wife.

I continue to leran new things all the time.

Cheers!

Steve Sykes

Managing Director

Indo-Siam Group

Bangkok

[email protected]

www.thaistartup.com

Correct. The fact that spouse does not need to meet retirement requirements has been covered a few times. The next question might be if they would accept a joint bank account of 800k for the one (retirement visa) - I suspect (as with marriage extensions) that they would but probably only if other holder were the spouse. Perhaps would be best to have own account so question not asked.