Changes To Retirement Visa For Bitish Expats

[kjmac]

The last couple of days have seen me renew my retirement visa again. It now costs more for the British consuls letter of confirmation of salary at an exchange rate of 50 baht to the Pound (Wouldn,t that be lovely) than Thailand charges for the visa.

The big change is that now you have to produce a new letter every year rather than every other year, hence doubling the cost. As usual I showed the Consulate my pension agreement but thay also wanted one years worth of bank statements to show the money coming in. Luckily I had 1 years worth of statements from the HSBC bank ( At no cost to me).

After waiting one day for a letter produced for me before and could have been produced again in around thirty seconds and paying my fee of 2200 and something baht. I hot footed into the Pattaya immigration office (Jontiem) via a 5 minute stop at the Thai TMBank who sat me down in a nice aircon environment offered me a drink as it was a hot day and preceded to eficiently produce a letter for me of money I had in their bank 200 Baht commision job done. At the British consulate only the thai staff get fans or aircon its the same as Bangkok you annoying 'customers' wait in the street.

To the point Pattaya immigration seems to have further got their act together as they now issue your passport then and their no more plastic tickets and come back tommprow. Well done nice . However they did want to see evidence of the money coming from England so I had to give them the same HSBC statements that the British consul had the day before. What is the point of the letter from the consul.

The only reasons I was given as to why the Consulate letter needed to be renewed every year instead of every other year. Was that they had privatised the consulate affairs, so obviously it is very nice for them to have to produce twice as many preformatted letters at over 2000 baht each at a probable cost of less than 5 baht. Dont we all wish we had a business like that !

Before going on to much I have to mention one other change an elderly gentlemen ie over 70 ( I,m old) in front of me in the line when given a form that he had never seen before, became very distressed that he had not ever been asked to fill in the form before and would need help as his eyesight was no longer up to much, anyway he dissapeared with the form to seek help. Next I am given the form to fill in I asked why and was told it was to help me, I said the official guidance given was that I show proof of income no forms are mentioned . I looked for the document number and revision status to no avail as it seems the Consulate office has just dreamed it up themselves. They also now photocopy your British bank statements that is also new and I wonder what for ?

Oh well the future looks very bright for us brits anyone fancy going home!

[Tafia]

I understand that an annual letter has been a requirement for some time (at Udon anyway). I have never had to produce Bank Statements but do have to supply my Pension Notice which sets out my earnings for the following financial year. I also have to fill in a form giving address, visa, reason for extension and amount which is supported by my Pension Statement.

So going on what you have said and my experience there is no change and business as usual. I do agree it's expensive tho.

[kjmac]

Are you talking about Thai immigrations TM.7 form. If you are then no, it hasn't changed at all. I was talking about a form at the British consulate. All UK government forms have a clear referance number and issue and/or date same as the thai form i.e TM.7 no form identity was present on this new form at the British consulate.

But yes you are right in differant regions, offices may have different requirements I am only talking Chonburi. Possibly I should have titled the post differantly.

[beano2274]

It is a new letter every year in Nonthaburi as well. And also within the last few months of applying.

And am on my 4th extension.

[evadgib]

So in summary there aren't any changes.....

[Tafia]

Are you talking about Thai immigrations TM.7 form

No the form you have to fill in at the British Embassy to get your letter.

[CharlieH]

Never had to produce more than 3 months statements, they dont have to be from UK as I have always used a Thai Bank without problem

Agree the cost for a template letter is ridiculous.

As with most things in Thailand, it depends who you deal with on the day I suspect.

[melsnet]

Confused!

Can anyone confirm this post, that to get notery confirmation of pension from British Consulate in Pattaya for the purpose of applying for retirement extension based soley on pension.

As well annual statement from pension company, you now need 12 months statements from my Uk bank showing pension payments. Or from my Thai Bank showing transfers from Uk bank

Never had to show bank statements before, nor letter from my bank confirming current funds since last year.

[phutoie2]

Are you talking about Thai immigrations TM.7 form

No the form you have to fill in at the British Embassy to get your letter.

I have always done the "income letter" by post and have never been aware of any form. Annual P60 from pension administrators in the UK is the only proof I send to Embassy. A friend just did his income letter recently and he had tel call from Embassy staff, forgot to include photo copy of passport ID page with his letter!.

[OJAS]

It's a new Embassy/Consulate proof of income letter each year at Maptaput as well. And they ensure I can't use the same letter again the following year by hanging on to it!

However, is anyone aware of any instances recently where Immigration have refused to accept a British Embassy/Consulate letter at face value and also demanded additional proof of income, as in the case of our American and Australian cousins (who, I gather, obtain their Embassy/Consulate letters on the basis of sworn affidavits rather than through the provision of documentary income evidence)?