Retirement Extension

[doctormann]

Hi

Just been looking at the Pattaya Immigration website - a lot of info. on there but some bits seem not to work properly yet as the site is quite new, I think. However, I was trawling the site for info. on retirement extension requirements and found something that i had not seen anywhere before:

Pension in the amount of 800,000 THB, certified by embassy and proof that pension has been transferred to Thailand (possibly not the exact wording but you will get my drift).

The 800,000 THB requirement is familiar, as is the embassy letter, which I have. What I have not seen before is the 'proof of transfer' bit and this could maybe cause a problem.

My pension has to be paid into a UK bank - no way around that - and I certainly do not transfer it to Thailand every month as the transfer charges are silly. I tend to transfer rather larger chunks, to pay for large items - like cars and houses - and sometimes to live off. Mostly though I just get cash from the ATM straight from my UK account. I don't really like keeping much cash in my Thai account anyway - negligible interest and uncertainty about where the Baht is going.

So, I think that it might be quite difficult to 'prove' that the pension has all been spent in Thailand although my Thai bank book, ATM records and bank statements do show that a considerable annual sum has found its way into the Thai economy. What sort of 'proof' do you think that Immigration are after? Should I be concerned with this issue anyway or is it merely a requirement that is rarely implemented?

Anyone out there experienced any difficulties with this? Any advice or comments would be welcome.

DM

[oldmandan]

I have gotten one year extensions on my non-imm visa 4 times in the past 6 years. I have always gotten a letter from Bangkok Bank showing that I had on deposit in excess of 800,000 baht. The letter never has shown that the money had been transferred from overseas but I have never had any question about it at Immigration. I have always received my extension within one hour of application.

Good luck

Dan

[rishi]

... Mostly though I just get cash from the ATM straight from my UK account. I don't really like keeping much cash in my Thai account anyway - negligible interest and uncertainty about where the Baht is going.

So, I think that it might be quite difficult to 'prove' that the pension has all been spent in Thailand although my Thai bank book, ATM records and bank statements do show that a considerable annual sum has found its way into the Thai economy. ..

The 800k is not a spending requirement - its a posession requirement. Your bank account must show minimum 800k on the buttomline around the time of extension - regardless on how much you might have spent throughout the year.

[Tywais]

Pension in the amount of 800,000 THB, certified by embassy and proof that pension has been transferred to Thailand (possibly not the exact wording but you will get my drift).

The 800,000 THB requirement is familiar, as is the embassy letter, which I have. What I have not seen before is the 'proof of transfer' bit and this could maybe cause a problem.

You need either 800,000 Baht in the bank or 65,000B/month or a combination of the two making a total of 800,000B. In your case you have a pension and satisfy the 2nd requirement (if it is at least 65K/month. Take the pension letter to the Embassy to get a verification letter from them and take these to immigration.

Our resident expert, Lopburi, will probably be along to verify the information.

[doctormann]

Pension in the amount of 800,000 THB, certified by embassy and proof that pension has been transferred to Thailand (possibly not the exact wording but you will get my drift).

The 800,000 THB requirement is familiar, as is the embassy letter, which I have. What I have not seen before is the 'proof of transfer' bit and this could maybe cause a problem.

You need either 800,000 Baht in the bank or 65,000B/month or a combination of the two making a total of 800,000B. In your case you have a pension and satisfy the 2nd requirement (if it is at least 65K/month. Take the pension letter to the Embassy to get a verification letter from them and take these to immigration.

Our resident expert, Lopburi, will probably be along to verify the information.

Thanks Tywais

I am fully aware of the 800,000 Pension / Bank Account combination and of the verified pension letter, which I already have. This is not the point at issue. What I am trying to say is that Immigration appear to require 'proof' that whatever pension I declare has been 'transferred to Thailand'. I don't know what to provide as 'proof' as the pension is not transferred on a regular basis - my Thai bank book shows deposits that I make from time to time and these are probably traceable as having come from outside of Thailand but this is not proof of pension transfer.

I think that I may have to pay Immigration a visit and get some clarification.

DM

[Noel]

Thanks Tywais

I am fully aware of the 800,000 Pension / Bank Account combination and of the verified pension letter, which I already have. This is not the point at issue. What I am trying to say is that Immigration appear to require 'proof' that whatever pension I declare has been 'transferred to Thailand'. I don't know what to provide as 'proof' as the pension is not transferred on a regular basis - my Thai bank book shows deposits that I make from time to time and these are probably traceable as having come from outside of Thailand but this is not proof of pension transfer.

I think that I may have to pay Immigration a visit and get some clarification.

DM

For the last three years I have only shown Immigration my passbook, plus a letter of balance certification from the bank. The rules certainly say that the money must have been transferred in a foreign currency from overseas, but I have never been asked to prove that it did. I have always assumed that they can see from the bank code against deposits that the funds were foreign sourced, otherwise they would need to see what used to be a TT3 that has now been replaced by a 'FETF' (Foreign Exchange Transfer Form) as from May 2004 as I recall.

If you were applying on the basis of regular pension income, a certified letter from the Embassy should suffice as, by definition, the funds are yet to be received so you cannot prove they have been 'transferred to Thailand'.

[Maestro]

Our resident expert, Lopburi, will probably be along to verify the information.

I wonder why Lopburi should bother, seeing that the original poster (OP) did not have the courtesy of posting the link to the text he alludes to.

For all others, here is the link and here is the text:

RETIREMENT VISA Application for Non Immigrant O Visa. Retirement

1.Application from TM7 with 1x2 inch square photo attached.

2.Application fee Baht 1900.00. Effective 26th August 2003.

3.A valid passport.

4.A Guaranteed bank statement

You must be more than age 50 and show a guaranteed bank statement of no less than Baht 800,000 or a pension of Baht 65,000 per month both Bank statements and pension can be taken into account to make Baht 800,000 per annum.

5. Medical of certificate of Doctor in Thai stating your health conditions under Thai Law clause 17 1992

ลงวันที่: Thursday September 11, 2003

Now compare that to the OP’s report, please.

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Maestro

[Noel]

For all others, here is the link and here is the text:

RETIREMENT VISA Application for Non Immigrant O Visa. Retirement

1.Application from TM7 with 1x2 inch square photo attached.

2.Application fee Baht 1900.00. Effective 26th August 2003.

3.A valid passport.

4.A Guaranteed bank statement

You must be more than age 50 and show a guaranteed bank statement of no less than Baht 800,000 or a pension of Baht 65,000 per month both Bank statements and pension can be taken into account to make Baht 800,000 per annum.

5. Medical of certificate of Doctor in Thai stating your health conditions under Thai Law clause 17 1992

ลงวันที่: Thursday September 11, 2003

Now compare that to the OP’s report, please.

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Maestro

I also previously wondered why no link had been provided, but did not trouble to find it.

Thanks Maestro.

As it currently stands, the website makes a dog's dinner look tidy, but it does not quite explain the OP's comments.

Perhaps he will enlighten us?

They also appear to have an interactive forum capability.

If they are seriously going to run it, they had better dedicate a full-time resource to it and the 'moderating' officers will have to be rather proficient in the Editing function and use of the Delete key methinks.

Passport Number required for access to facilitate post-banning follow up...?

[doctormann]

Our resident expert, Lopburi, will probably be along to verify the information.

I wonder why Lopburi should bother, seeing that the original poster (OP) did not have the courtesy of posting the link to the text he alludes to.

For all others, here is the link and here is the text:

RETIREMENT VISA Application for Non Immigrant O Visa. Retirement

1.Application from TM7 with 1x2 inch square photo attached.

2.Application fee Baht 1900.00. Effective 26th August 2003.

3.A valid passport.

4.A Guaranteed bank statement

You must be more than age 50 and show a guaranteed bank statement of no less than Baht 800,000 or a pension of Baht 65,000 per month both Bank statements and pension can be taken into account to make Baht 800,000 per annum.

5. Medical of certificate of Doctor in Thai stating your health conditions under Thai Law clause 17 1992

ลงวันที่: Thursday September 11, 2003

Now compare that to the OP’s report, please.

--------------

Maestro

OK, the mystery deepens. My apologies for not posting the link

It appears that Pattaya Immigration has more than one web site. Their 'new' site is www.pattaya-immigration.org and this is not the same site as the one that you were looking at. Why two sites? I've no idea.

Anyway, follow this link

http://www.pattaya-immigration.org/visas.p...enuOther=_Click

And you will see what I have been trying to convey.

DM

[Maestro]

As it currently stands, the website makes a dog's dinner look tidy

I love that turn of phrase... and I couldn’t agree more.

They also appear to have an interactive forum capability.

If they are seriously going to run it, they had better dedicate a full-time resource to it and the 'moderating' officers will have to be rather proficient in the Editing function and use of the Delete key methinks.

Now there’s a job opportunity for a farang webmaster with spare time on his hands. Start by using a character encoding labelling and DOCTYPE declaration, and generally verify each page on http://validator.w3.org/

I am serious: if the tourist police employs farang cops, certainly Immigration can employ a farang webmaster. However, I do not see why each Immigration Office has to duplicate the same information on its site. Some data may be specific to a particular office, but laws, regulations and forms are the same for the whole country and the web site of a regional offices should merely contain a link to that information on the site of the main office, and that site should get cleaned up first to make it W3C compliant.

--------------

Maestro

[doctormann]

Update:

Went to Pattaya Immigration Office - they say that proof of pension transfer is NOT required.

So, why is the requirement clearly stated on one of their web sites - http://www.pattaya-immigration.org but not on the other - http://pattaya-immigration.e-webonline.com? I'm sure that they are not deliberately trying to confuse but a bit of consistency would be nice.

DM

[lopburi3]

I was upcountry two days so have just seen this. The quote is

3.1 Letter from Embassy showing an external Pension of not less than 65,000 baht per month, together with proof of money transfer into Thailand. (OR)

So my take is that are saying what they have always said. You can qualify with the Embassy letter for pension income of 65k or more but you must also present a bank book showing some amount of funds transferred into Thailand. Nothing new. Have a bank book and obtain the bank letter so they know you are importing some of that pension.