Retirement Visa Renewal Problems

[dinfisher]

When I came to Thailand 6 years ago on a non immigrant visa I had no problem in showing a bank account with over 800,000 baht in it and getting the 1 year retirement visa. Before my wife (over 50 also) came in some months later the Immigration offfice in Singkhon advised me to change the bank account from my name to a joint one for both of us. After application to HSBC, and I think the Bank of Thailand, this was done and we have renewed our 1 year visas without problems until now. I went in this week to renew mine and was told that the joint account is no longer acceptable and that I must have the money in an account in my name only. They advised me that when my wife's visa expires in August she can present her marriage certificate, which is a Thai one, and she will not need to show any bank details but, with a copy of my passport and visa and the Thai amphur marriage certificate, they will extend hers to the date of mine in future ie til Jan 14th 2011. Thereafter we will be able to renew based on my single name bank account and over 800,000 baht in it. It seems crazy that I had to change the account to a joint one and now have to change it back again before they will accept renewal. They agreed to overlook the problem of the account in joint names this time for an extra consideration and renewed mine. I can not find any regulation to say that one can not have a joint bank account, so do not want the hassle of changing accounts but fear that in August my wife may have problems if I do not do it. Does anyone know the actual rules about the bank account? Is a joint one acceptable by law? David Fisher

[Jingthing]

I recall reading reports they don't want to see joint accounts. In any case, what does it matter what a written rule says? The officer YOU deal with at the office YOU must use has told you what they require. It seems to me you have no choice but to comply if you want continued extensions.

[davyboy]

Last July I was told the same about joint accounts, as the rules have been changed!

[davyboy]

I recall reading reports they don't want to see joint accounts. In any case, what does it matter what a written rule says? The officer YOU deal with at the office YOU must use has told you what they require. It seems to me you have no choice but to comply if you want continued extensions.

Totally agree!!

Who holds the ACE card??

[lopburi3]

Your wife should have never received such an extension unless you had the bank account at 1.6 million as each must meet the requirement if they want to use retirement extension of stay. But only one needs to meet the requirement, as they are telling you, and other uses dependent matching extension of stay process. But you need to prove 800k and to do that it should be in your name only. They have become much more restrictive on that in the last year or two.

[IMA_FARANG]

*** MOD WARNING ***

This post contains incorrect information

As I understood it the rule always was a Thai bank account be established in the name of the person requesting the retirement extension for one year. Now this being Thailand, as anyone who has been here long enough knows, rules are never written down in stone. If some immigration officials wanted to overlook the fact that some accounts were joint acounts, well they just did it. If they chose to give that person a break, they did. Apparently now, that is no longer happening.

Something similar may be going on with the 800,000 Baht rule. Once it seems to have been required to have that 800,000 Baht in the bank for 3 months before the extension was granted. Then once the extension was given, it was possible to use some of the money for living expenses. As ths long as the next extension time showed 800,000 Baht available, the fact that the amount had dropped below 800K during the year was irrelevent. Now people seem to be sayng that immigration officers are specifically pointing to anytime that the amount in the account drops below 800K during the whole year's extension as a bad thing.

Yes, the goal posts do seem to be changing...but the government always does have the final say on the "rules". If you want to play ball, you have to play by their rules. And you always actually did.

See posts below for correct information - thaiphoon

[Jingthing]

Something similar may be going on with the 800,000 Baht rule. Once it seems to have been required to have that 800,000 Baht in the bank for 3 months before the extension was granted. Then once the extension was given, it was possible to use some of the money for living expenses. As ths long as the next extension time showed 800,000 Baht available, the fact that the amount had dropped below 800K during the year was irrelevent. Now people seem to be sayng that immigration officers are specifically pointing to anytime that the amount in the account drops below 800K during the whole year's extension as a bad thing.

OMG, that is totally false information! The rules (retirement extensions using the 800K in a Thai bank) --

First extension, account must be over 800K for TWO MONTHS before date of application

Subsequent extensions, account must be over 800K for THREE MONTHS before date of application

For dates BEFORE the required seasoning parameters, there is absolutely no problem with spending the money! Where do people pick up such false rumors as shown above in bold?

[thaiphoon]

As I understood it the rule always was a Thai bank account be established in the name of the person requesting the retirement extension for one year. Now this being Thailand, as anyone who has been here long enough knows, rules are never written down in stone. If some immigration officials wanted to overlook the fact that some accounts were joint acounts, well they just did it. If they chose to give that person a break, they did. Apparently now, that is no longer happening.

Something similar may be going on with the 800,000 Baht rule. Once it seems to have been required to have that 800,000 Baht in the bank for 3 months before the extension was granted. Then once the extension was given, it was possible to use some of the money for living expenses. As ths long as the next extension time showed 800,000 Baht available, the fact that the amount had dropped below 800K during the year was irrelevent. Now people seem to be sayng that immigration officers are specifically pointing to anytime that the amount in the account drops below 800K during the whole year's extension as a bad thing.

Yes, the goal posts do seem to be changing...but the government always does have the final say on the "rules". If you want to play ball, you have to play by their rules. And you always actually did.

The immigration requirements for extension of stay are clearly set out in Police Order 777/2551. The rules changed from funds being held in joint account to sole account at the end of 2008. What Jingthing says in his post above is correct. There is no such rule that 800k has to be in the account for the whole year.

2.22 In the case of a retiree: Permission will be granted for a period of not more than 1 year at a time.

(1) The alien has obtained a temporary visa (NON-IM);

(2) The applicant is 50 years of age or over;

(3) Proof of income of not less than Baht 65,000 per month; or

(4) Account deposit with a bank in Thailand of not less than 800,000 Baht as shown in the bank account for the past 3 months at the filing date of the application. For the first year, the applicant should have that amount in his bank account for not less than 60 days or

(5) Annual income plus bank account deposit totaling not less than Baht 800,000 as of the filing date of application

Please refrain from posting incorrect information.