If Retirement Extension Of Stay Holder Dies

[Duck Duck]

My wife and I will be retiring to Thailand in about a year and a half. The plan is that I will obtain an O-A visa and then the yearly extensions of stay. She will come over on a Non-Imm O Visa and then, when appropriate, get an extension of stay to piggy back on mine.

If I were to die before her, what would happen with the extension of stay that she has? Is she immediately told to leave the country? Since she would, at that time, qualify for her own extension of stay for retirement (after all the death paperwork, beneficiary adjustments to retirement funds and social security, etc) would she be able to stay in Thailand and convert to the primary retirement extension without leaving? or?

We are qualifying for our extensions to stay based on income exceeding 65K baht per month. Mine is in excess of that but hers is less than that and we would prefer to not tie up any money in a 0 interest account. My retirement accounts will continue at 100% to her if I die first so she would qualify on income at that time by herself.

We are both US citizens.

Thanks for any insight you can give.

Duck Duck

[Mario2008]

They moment the marriage no longer exists (divorce or death) she will need to leave the marriage. In the case of death, immigration is not that heartless and will allow time to arrange for the funeral etc. (It is not in the rules, so there is no fixed time given. But even months have not been an issue).

But in the end she cancels her permission to stay based as a dependent and at the same time can ask for an extension of stay based on being retired herself, with proof of finances which don't seem to be aproblem.

You can get interest on a Thai bank account, it is not 0%. There are several options.

[lopburi3]

As said interest here is likely to be better than in the USA for a bank savings account. Even in worst case she could easily obtain a single entry non immigrant O visa for a 90 day stay after losing extension, but it might be a bother for some. But in case of medical issues an in country extension would be available for that reason so as long as willing to work with immigration do not believe it a major problem. But remember it is 'Thai way' (things work out) rather than set in stone regulations that most Americans look for.

[ubonjoe]

If you get the one year OA visa from A Thai embassy or consulate your wife may not be able to get the dependent extension until you have extended your permit to stay after the OA visa expires.

I would suggest you try to get single entry non immigrant O visas from a honorary consulate in the states. That visa would give each of you a 90 day entry and then during the last 30 days you both could get your extensions. You would just need to get a income affidavit from the US embassy to prove your 65K income.

List of honorary consulates with contact info: http://thaiembdc.us/wordpress1/

[Duck Duck]

Thank you for all of your answers.

It's good to know that we can earn some interest in a Thai account. I know it can change at any time but could you give me an idea of what interest you can earn currently in an account that would be used for retirement extension to stay money and other low risk options?

Maybe when we come over in December we will open an account and move money into it.

Thanks

Duck Duck

[Lite Beer]

Current rates are around 2.8%

Plenty of reading here.

Suggest you start with the last few pages.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/560837-bank-savings-interest-rates/

[NancyL]

I researched this issue back in 2008 when Hubby and I (both Americans) retired to Thailand. Our situation i very similar to the OP's -- Hubby has pension income in excess of 65,000 baht/month, but I don't have pension income (yet). But, we have various joint accounts in the U.S., well in excess of 1,600, 000 baht.

We applied to the Chicago Consulate for each to obtain O-A visas (big mistake, we should have used an Honorary Consulate). We each had police reports, medical reports, and financial statements. But, we made the mistake of sending everything for both of us in the same envelope AND including a certified copy of our marriage license -- just for good measure.

What was returned -- just days before our big move to Thailand -- was an O-A visa for Hubby and a 12-month multi-entry O visa for me. We didn't realize the difference until we arrived and he was stamped for 365 days and I was stamped for 90 days. We made inquiries at the airport, convinced they'd made a mistake not to stamp mine for 365 days, but we were exhausted after 27 hours of travel and accepted "go to Immigration office in Chiang Mai" as the answer.

We hired a visa agent in CM, who explained I would have to do border runs during the first year and then I could get a 365 day extension as a dependent. I'm not certain now if that was totally correct. Could I have gone to CM Immigration and gotten a 365 day dependent extension immediately?

Also, we asked what would happen to my visa status if Hubby were to die. That same agent said my visa would be invalid and I'd have 7 days to leave the country, either apply for a visa in a neighboring country or re-enter on tourist exempt status and start the "two step" process toward getting my own retirement extension.

The explanation was muddled enough, but I figured I didn't want to take the chance that I'd have to leave Thailand within 7 days of Hubby's death -- I'd have plenty of other things to do at that time. So, we transferred 800,00 baht into Thailand and opened a bank account in my name. It's paying 2.8% interest (much better than our U.S. savings accounts) and we brought the money in at 38 baht/dollar, so we've made some nice returns on the currency value decline.

I don't know if the advice we got from the agent is good and none of my friends with dependent visas have lost their husbands, so I can't speak from first-hand experience. A few have husbands who have left them for Thai women, but they've never bothered to get divorced and their louts ("former" husbands) have the decency to show up at Immigration to assist the"wife" with her dependent visa extension. (These women are taking big risks in continuing to tie their permission to stay to the kindness of a known liar and cheat, but that's another story.)

Anyway, my advice to my lady friends is to always maintain their own visa, not to be tied to someone else's visa status as a dependent.

[lopburi3]

Note on above - non immigrant O-A visa is no longer available from any Honorary Thai Consulate so today using them would not be an option.

[ubonjoe]

At one time the honorary consulates in Houston and Hawaii were authorized to do OA visas. I think Houston still is because they will not issue single entry non-o visas for retirement.

I think perhaps there are other ones that have authorization because of distance from an embassy or official consulate or in some cases where there is none at all in a country.

[NancyL]

In retrospect, we would have been better using an Honorary Consulate with each of us requesting single entry O visas for the purpose of "exploring requirement". Then, in CM, we could have extended for 12 months due to retirement with Hubby using an income letter and me the 800,000 baht bank account. No need for police check, medical report or certification of amounts in U.S. accounts.

The reason we both wanted O-A visas was to avoid having to move funds into Thailand so soon -- we could have waited nearly two years if I'd had an O-A.

But as it turned out, we jumped thru all the hoops to get me an O-A, but I simply ended up with an O visa.