The necessity of having sufficient funds in a Thai bank in order to get an O-A retirement visa is ubiquitous on the Web, but the Seoul Thai embassy's written instructions said to merely provide proof that I had the money in any bank. So I dropped into the nearest branch of one of my banks, got a stamped document (in Korean, but with the all important information in numbers), and the Thai embassy was satisfied. I do not have, and have never had, a single baht in a Thai

bank, yet I have a year O-A, and was stamped in for a year.

Am I confused here? Do I in fact have to have the funds in a Thai bank for 60 days at the time of my first visit to Thai Immigration for the 90-day visit?

aeolion

No. The requirements for an O-A Visa are that the money can be in your own country.

When you come to applying for a 12 month extension next year the money has to be in a Thai bank for a period of 3 months before you apply.

No. The requirements for an O-A Visa are that the money can be in your own country.

When you come to applying for a 12 month extension next year the money has to be in a Thai bank for a period of 3 months before you apply.

There is an interesting detail here. When applying from your first retirement EXTENSION starting with an O visa, the money only needs to be seasoned two months for the first extension but three months for subsequent ones. Are you certain people on O-A's doing their FIRST extension have to season the money for three months, not two?

O-A was defined as a pre-approved extension of stay from immigration and that is the meaning of the (A) ((Approved)) and indeed the original process required sending the information to Bangkok Immigration prior to Consulate visa issue. Expect extension from O-A will be treated as second extension of stay and require 3 month. But do not believe there has been any post directly reporting on this.

Another arcane visa mystery solved! Thanks for that.

Thanks. Love those simple answers, with the added fun little twist at the end, a case history of how a curious thing arose from an unquestionably logical flow.