I am hoping to renew my retirement visa in a few months without needing to transfer 800k thb here. Bank interest is lousy here, but ok in Australia. It seems from other posts that a letter from my Embassy stating I have over 65k THB per month income is an acceptable alternative for Immigration. I mainly want to know how recent the letter from the Embassy (in my case, Australian, a simple stat dec) should be. I live in CM and will have to make a special trip to Bangkok, and do not want to go there unnecessarily.

I get mine from the UK Embassy and do it all by post , maybe you can do the same for Oz

Why do you have to go to Bangkok?

My Australian neigbour goes to the Australian Consulate in Chiang Mai for his letter.

I didn't know there was an Australian consulate in CM. Wonderful! Can you let me know address ? And many thanks for your help. I really like how supportive other falang are through TV.

I have just renewed my retirement visa in March.

It is the first time I have used the Statutory Declaration option. All previous years I have been transferring funds for the 800K option.

I had to go to Bangkok a week before my visa was due for renewal so I visited the Australian Embassy.

It took ten minutes.

I just stated on the stat dec I have a minimum income of 65K/month added my passport details, I signed it, they signed it, and that was it.

When I went to immigration for the renewal they just accepted the stat dec and other necessary documents and it was all over.

I was not aware of the 65K option in previous years unfortunately.

Could not believe it was all so easy.

Australian Consulate in Chiang Mai

http://www.dfat.gov....tries/thch.html