Hi to my fellow expats. I'm married to a Thai lady and we currently have a savings account with the necessary 400,000 Baht to show the immigration officials for my yearly visa extensions. Question is, can we deposit this money into a fixed account which pays higher interest or does this have to be in a standard bank savings account? Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks!

Thaiboxer

The money needs to be in your account. Your wife's money is not acceptable. Normally a passbook type savings or time deposit account is accepted (you have immediate access to full amount in cash at any time). What is not accepted are non cash accounts such as funds and investments and current checking account (which is very hard to obtain in any case).

I keep this amount ( no more no less ) in a time deposit account under my name, it is okay. before you go to apply extension of stay, WITHIN THE WEEK you go to the bank and ask for a bank certified balance.

this amount was already in the bank for more than a year. the passbook didn't have any activity in last 3 months and no sum up balance neither. some officers don't get use to this format and I experienced a short delay after they checked my passbook with each other. technically no problem with time deposite account.

I keep this amount ( no more no less ) in a time deposit account under my name, it is okay. before you go to apply extension of stay, WITHIN THE WEEK you go to the bank and ask for a bank certified balance.

this amount was already in the bank for more than a year. the passbook didn't have any activity in last 3 months and no sum up balance neither. some officers don't get use to this format and I experienced a short delay after they checked my passbook with each other. technically no problem with time deposite account.

If you keep the 400,000 in the account, why not ask your friendly bank manager to make your account a locked account.

Which means you can not get out money in the normal way.

And to mention that fact in the letter to Immigration.

Never asked for the bankbook (Khon Kaen)

I keep this amount ( no more no less ) in a time deposit account under my name, it is okay. before you go to apply extension of stay, WITHIN THE WEEK you go to the bank and ask for a bank certified balance.

this amount was already in the bank for more than a year. the passbook didn't have any activity in last 3 months and no sum up balance neither. some officers don't get use to this format and I experienced a short delay after they checked my passbook with each other. technically no problem with time deposite account.

If you keep the 400,000 in the account, why not ask your friendly bank manager to make your account a locked account.

Which means you can not get out money in the normal way.

And to mention that fact in the letter to Immigration.

Never asked for the bankbook (Khon Kaen)

Thanks a lot for the replies!