Up To Date Advice Please

[lioness]

I am making this enqiry on behalf of an elderly friend of mine who is not computer literate.

Facts:

He is here on a retirement visa and his 1 year is up in August.

He has spent some of the 800,000 he had in the (Thai) bank last year and doesn't want to replace it by bringing money out from the UK due to the poor exchange rates.

He does however have a partial UK pension which is paid into his bank account in the UK.

My thoughts were that one could make up the 800,000 in several ways i.e. part money in Bank and proof of a pension. If this is correct does that pension need to be paid into Thailand?

I was also under the impression that one didn't need to have the funds in Thailand at all, he does have bank accounts in the UK which exceed the required 800,000.

I am no expert and could be thinking along the wrong lines, so expert advice from those that know would be appreciated.

The other thing being if he can use his pension payments in the UK and or rely on a UK bank account what exactly does he need to do?

The local immigration office never mentioned any of this to him and it only came to light last night after he came to tell me he would have to leave Thailand.

Thank you in advance.

[lopburi3]

The requirement is 800k in account or 65k monthly income/pension or a combination to meet 800k level per year.

To use income/pension a letter must be prepared by the UK Embassy of the amount each year and that is presented to Immigration. The money does not need to be transferred into Thailand. And there is no three month in account time required when using this method. You should be able to download instructions from the UK Embassy Bangkok web site for him.

If using bank account method the money must be in Thailand. Only when obtaining a non immigrant OA visa in home country can the money be there.

[lioness]

The requirement is 800k in account or 65k monthly income/pension or a combination to meet 800k level per year.

To use income/pension a letter must be prepared by the UK Embassy of the amount each year and that is presented to Immigration. The money does not need to be transferred into Thailand. And there is no three month in account time required when using this method. You should be able to download instructions from the UK Embassy Bangkok web site for him.

If using bank account method the money must be in Thailand. Only when obtaining a non immigrant OA visa in home country can the money be there.

Excellent, Thank you for your assistance.