I have been married for 5 years -- Originally we had a married visa but after two years my wife was persuaded by an Immigration member of staff at Pattaya that a retirement visa using part pension and part capital was the answer.

Since then the value of sterling has collapsed

I have this been considering going back to Married Visa

We married in Bangkok but my wife retained her previous married name so the Family book and her identity card have not been changed -- will she need to change her name and family book and id card? as mentioned in the postings in answer to Clira -Has Any Rules Changed For Non-o Mariange Extension Since Last Year?, Please help recap documents needed, Thank you!

Previously for us there was no problem with family book and my wife's ID card.

For retirement visa I had always used a mixture of capital and Pension and understood that as long as the capital was in the bank a day or so before there was no problem -- Has this changed? some of the postings are giving me the impression that it has.

BHJH

For retirement you can still use the combination and there is no time requirement. But for family (marriage) you do not have an option to use combination - it is either 400k in bank account for 2 (or 3 months/being asked by many office) or 40k per month income. Money must be yours and account should be in your name from most reports.

She should change to "Mrs" for ID and home register even if not changing name. Some reports say this is required now.

If you can not meet current requirements you can obtain a 60 day extension of stay and Multi entry non immigrant O visas are available at nearby Consulates.

Retirement Visa using Pension is best is you have a very strong pension, as you know no need to drag the the wife along each time.

Thank you Lopburi 3 and Big snake -- you have answered my questions

My wife was already using the prefix Mrs on all her documents so we had to get the death cert of her previous husband before we could get married so there should be no problems with docs and I have an monthly pension of 860 pounds sterling.

For retirement visa we have some savings , my pension and can borrow some from her sister so this would seem the way to go.

BHJH

On a lighter note --I explained the problems to my wife and she promptly started phoning round her family. I appears that she had made some loans that I did not know about and was demanding repayment. The moans,groans and excuses went on for a long time but it appears that at least some of them had been "secured" by signed promises-- I don't think we shall have so many family visits in the future as my wife was very angry when she finally finished.