Retirement Extension Money In Bank Question.

[BobTH]

October 12th, 2013 is my deadline to go to get my one year extension of stay based on my retirement in Bangkok. This will be my second extension having arrived here October 9, 2011. I am 60 years old and use money in the bank and not income for qualifying. Not being married I am required to have 800,000 THB in the bank which I do. When I moved here in 2011 I deposited 1,000,000 THB in an SCB fixed saving account. The money has never left the bank but when the fixed account matures I have to open another fixed account at the new rates of course. Well last year at my first extension of stay report, the gentleman from Immigration told me that next year I would be required to have the money in the bank for 3 months prior to requesting for my extension of stay. You see the fixed account had matured about 2 1/2 months prior to my visit and on that day I open the new account. My take was that he only gave me credit for the new account when actually the money had been in the account since October 2011.

Ok, so this year I am required to renew my extension by October 12th, 2013. My current fixed income account matures June 25th, 2013 on which day I will again open a new fixed account at the current bank rates. My question is am I required to wait until September 26th to renew my one year extension or is this something that can just be explained better to immigration that the money has actually been in the bank in different fixed accounts since October 2011.

I feel like I am rambling like hell here but if any of you have been in this situation and could give me some guidance I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

[Mario2008]

You can apply for an extension of stay up to 30 days early, so 12 or 13 Sept. would be fine.

For first time extension the money has to be in your account for 2 months, for all extension after the first it has to be there 3 months. That is all the immigraiton officer pointed out to you.

Regarding the question if you need to have it in the same account, that is not in the rules and you should be OK. Especially if your bank writes a letter pointing this out. But different officers will give a different reading.

[harrry]

You can renew 30 days before the old extension expires. however you can renew right up to the day of the extension. If you renew any time after the 26th you should be fine

[lopburi3]

They most likely will allow if money in deposit same day and you provide both passbooks but if not you can always do after the 3 month period as you will have time.

As for the 800k requirement that would be the same if you were married if getting retirement extension.

[fvw53]

I had until now several extension based on income of a pension in my home country (with documents certified at my Embassy in BKK)

I came under the impression (false?) that applying for my next extensions based "on money in the bank" would make the process smoother at Immigration Office.

Now I really thought that money had to be in the bank at least 2 months before applying for extension....but I read in above posts that these 2 months are only for first application of extension.

I will not have the money 3 months but only 2 months and a half before the day I need to apply ...

Question : can my first application based "on money in the bank" also be considered as the first one in a new approach or shall I better rush to my embassy and do it as the previous years?

[NancyL]

You better rush to your embassy for yet another letter.

The purpose of the "60-day first time" rule is that many people come here on a 90-day O visa and they apply during the final 30 days of that visa for a 12-month retirement extension. Thus, it's difficult for the money to age 90 days for that first extension.

In your case, you've had several years to get everything organized. Incidentally, I don't think it's a good idea to "mess around" with the 800,000 baht amount during the 90 days before your retirement extension application. (i.e. don't change accounts) Just gives 'em one more reason to make life difficult for you.

[lopburi3]

As said you either will need to start again with a new non immigrant visa entry or use Embassy letter of income (which could be for anything as combined should not require bank money to be seasoned).

[IMA_FARANG]

Yes as has been pointed out before there are three ways to qualify for the 800K financial requirement.

1. To have the 800K in a Thai bank in your name. For first extension it must be "seasoned" for 60 days minimum, for all other extensions it must be in the bank for 90 days.

2. Get a letter from the embassy showing a pension or external source of income of at least 65K baht income monthly.

3, Use the combination method. That means having some funds in a Thai bank and a pension or income coming in also. For the combination method the total needs to be over the 800K figure.

So if you had 500K in the bank, and could show another 500K yearly income, it would be good enough.

I would ask one of the immigration officers if they accept this combination method BEFORE it was time to renew. They should, and most offices do accept this combination method. but it would be wise to be sure they will accept it before you try it.

One other point about "fixed accounts". Some offices don't have a problem with this, some mat question it. It would again be smart to know that ahead of time.

One thing many offices do insist open, not all but many, is that your money must be available at short notice. Those high interest accounts, where you have to give a written notice before you can withdraw your money and that may require a minimum waiting time before you can withdraw your money are usually not accepted by immigration.

Sometimes they do, but often they won't accept that kind of account.

P.S. Just by coincidence my 4th extension is due 15 October 2013, so I may be extending about the same time you will

[Pib]

OP: here a post I made earlier in another thread where I was in a similar situation to you. Link. Turned out to be a non-issue in my case..your results may vary.

[BobTH]

OP: here a post I made earlier in another thread where I was in a similar situation to you. Link. Turned out to be a non-issue in my case..your results may vary.

Thanks for this Pib, it helped and yes very similar to my situation. It seems the immigration officers would be used to this sort of thing; as you said it would crazy not to take advantage of the higher interest bearing fixed saving accounts.