Retirement Visa Queries...

[orientfan]

Any help offered here is gratefully received. I am a 53 year old teacher and hope to move to Thailand next year. I will be a volunteer English teacher at a charitable foundation that I know well and have taught at, off and on, for about 5 years. My house in UK will be sold and there be sum of capital to place in a Thai bank account.
The Visa sections of various embassy websites suggest that you need to prove monthly or annual ‘income’ which I will not have as I will be living off capital. Does that mean I am not eligible for a Retirement Visa? What type of visa would members recommend applying for?
Thanks again for any help here!

[paz]

You need to show GPB 20,000 for a retirement visa in the UK. If they make it difficult the requirement is the same for an extension to stay obtained in Thailand.

[SilverBeast]

http://canada.siam-legal.com/Thailand-Retirement-Visa-for-Canadian-Citizens.php

The way I read it was you needed to have 800,000 baht to qualify for a 1 year visa... I was reading it as either 800,000 baht or 65,000 baht income per month. And low and behold 65,000 baht * 12 months = 780,000 baht.

Personally I would recommend keeping some of your money in Thailand and some of the money in your home country in a different bank account where you can transfer money back and forth as necessary. Ya know, just in case a bank fails somewhere...

[orientfan]

Thanks for your comments. Are you sure that the THB800,000 permanently in a Thai bank account (and not monthly income) is enough to qualify for a RV? Cheers again!

[SilverBeast]

That's how I read it. You need 800,000 for the year. You'll need to show 800,000 for the second year. I assume once you fall below that threshold you'd be expected to go back to your home country for social assistance...

[orientfan]

So it seems as long as you are prepared to keep THB 800,000 untouched in a Thai a/c, you are OK for an RT?

[SilverBeast]

Well, it seems that they want you to have at least 800,000 baht to get through every eventuality for that year. So as long as your pension, retirement income or capital will have that amount of money for every year that you are alive you should be good to go.

Now with inflation over time I'd expect that value to go up. How much is hard to tell but it should rise eventually.

[orientfan]

Hi Silverbeast, the way I am reading this is that the Thai authorities do not expect you to touch the THB 800,000 (if you do not have monthly income) and I assume they'd want to see your Bank Book each time you go to identify your self with Immigration every 90 days...so you cannot use the THB 800,000 for expenses...

[laxman1960]

Actually they want you to spend that money. Requirement for an extension of stay based on retirement is 800k baht in a Thai bank account 2 or 3 months prior to application. If you have pension or other outside of Thailand income then you can use that as long as it is 65k a month or you can use a combination.

[larsjohnsson]

You are not allowed to work as a volunteer English teacher on a retirement extension

[paz]

Hi Silverbeast, the way I am reading this is that the Thai authorities do not expect you to touch the THB 800,000 (if you do not have monthly income) and I assume they'd want to see your Bank Book each time you go to identify your self with Immigration every 90 days...so you cannot use the THB 800,000 for expenses...

You need to show the bank book only once a year together with a letter from the bank. For the three months before better to leave it alone.

Edited August 27, 2014 by paz

[SilverBeast]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Hi Silverbeast, the way I am reading this is that the Thai authorities do not expect you to touch the THB 800,000 (if you do not have monthly income) and I assume they'd want to see your Bank Book each time you go to identify your self with Immigration every 90 days...so you cannot use the THB 800,000 for expenses...

What they don't want is for you to show up in Thailand with 10,000 baht thinking you are going to retire for the year and end up looking for some kind of welfare from them. They want you to have 800,000 baht so that you can spend that on rent, food, medical, tourist things etc. They want you to be able to survive and not apply for welfare or die in the streets.

If all you have is 800,000 then you could do a one year retirement and then you'd have no more money to spend so you'd get kicked out of the country. But if you've got 800,000 for year 2 please spend away is their opinion.

You are not allowed to work as a volunteer English teacher on a retirement extension

Is volunteering counted as work?

[Jingthing]

The 800K in bank method works this way.

You show it for the first retirement extension, and your Thai bank account must not go below 800K for two months before your meeting at immigration.

Then you can do whatever you want with the money.

Leave it there. Spend it. Whatever.

THE NEXT YEAR ...

go in again and show again 800K, and for this and all subsequent extension applications the Thai bank account balance can not go below 800K for THREE months before the meeting at immigration.

There is no requirement to actually SPEND the full 800K annually.

Yes volunteer work IS work and under Thai law requires a work permit.

Technically you are not supposed to do any work when staying on a retirement visa.

So this could be a problem.

If you intend to illegally volunteer without a work permit on a retirement extension certainly do not talk about that to immigration. (Duh!)

This is kind of a pet peeve of mine. In my OPINION, retired native English speakers should be WELCOMED to volunteer in this way. Instead, people with good hearts wanting to do that are CRIMINALIZED. Crazy, eh?

Edited August 27, 2014 by Jingthing

[SilverBeast]

800,000 is like $26,000 American so it shouldn't be hard to show that money especially if you are selling a property in England.

As for the volunteering...yeah, that is odd. You shouldn't be doing something illegal if you are volunteering and helping. Although without an injured party I wouldn't go so far as to call it criminal. Thai justice might call it criminal.

So...Just "talk english to people" instead of "volunteering", lol.

[Smokin Joe]

800,000 is like $26,000 American so it shouldn't be hard to show that money especially if you are selling a property in England.

As for the volunteering...yeah, that is odd. You shouldn't be doing something illegal if you are volunteering and helping. Although without an injured party I wouldn't go so far as to call it criminal. Thai justice might call it criminal.

So...Just "talk english to people" instead of "volunteering", lol.

Would you really want to work for a "charitable" foundation that expects you to break the law and work illegally?

[SilverBeast]

Me personally?

I'd just hang out and talk with people. No formal volunteering agreement. Just enjoying my retirement. How could that be illegal?

Crazy right?

[JLCrab]

I am familiar with a large Thai Foundation where -- instead of giving birthday presents -- the Thai family of the birthday-er buy lunch and ice cream for the kids on a Sunday in the birthday-er's honor. One might work out some similar arrangement whereby you are providing some small gift (school supplies?) and then have a chance to connect via English with the kids at the school and you would not be 'volunteering'.

[ubonjoe]

You are not allowed to work as a volunteer English teacher on a retirement extension

That is no exactly correct. If you could get a work permit there is no rule or regulation that says you could not do it.

There are some work permit offices that would do the work permit which according to the regulations is allowed. It is only local policy at many work permit offices not to do any work permit for a non-o or extension based upon retirement.

[ubonjoe]

To the OP. If you have an organization that is willing to sponsor you to get a work permit and extension of stay you can can get a single entry non-o before traveling based upon being a volunteer.

You would need no financial proof unless they asked for the normal 20k baht for all non immigrant visas..

[scatalyst]

You are not allowed to work as a volunteer English teacher on a retirement extension

That is no exactly correct. If you could get a work permit there is no rule or regulation that says you could not do it.

There are some work permit offices that would do the work permit which according to the regulations is allowed. It is only local policy at many work permit offices not to do any work permit for a non-o or extension based upon retirement.

I hope I'm understanding your comment correctly. Could you provide a link to the pertinent section of the regulations that shows that a work permit is allowed for someone on a long-stay (for purposes of retirement) extension of stay? Preferably in Thai, but an English translation would also be very helpful. I think my local work permit office might be open to this arrangement. Thanks in advance for the link(s).

[larsjohnsson]

Hi Silverbeast, the way I am reading this is that the Thai authorities do not expect you to touch the THB 800,000 (if you do not have monthly income) and I assume they'd want to see your Bank Book each time you go to identify your self with Immigration every 90 days...so you cannot use the THB 800,000 for expenses...

What they don't want is for you to show up in Thailand with 10,000 baht thinking you are going to retire for the year and end up looking for some kind of welfare from them. They want you to have 800,000 baht so that you can spend that on rent, food, medical, tourist things etc. They want you to be able to survive and not apply for welfare or die in the streets.

If all you have is 800,000 then you could do a one year retirement and then you'd have no more money to spend so you'd get kicked out of the country. But if you've got 800,000 for year 2 please spend away is their opinion.

You are not allowed to work as a volunteer English teacher on a retirement extension

Is volunteering counted as work?

Yes it's work. And you need a WP

[ubonjoe]

 

 

You are not allowed to work as a volunteer English teacher on a retirement extension

That is no exactly correct. If you could get a work permit there is no rule or regulation that says you could not do it.

There are some work permit offices that would do the work permit which according to the regulations is allowed. It is only local policy at many work permit offices not to do any work permit for a non-o or extension based upon retirement.

 

 

I hope I'm understanding your comment correctly. Could you provide a link to the pertinent section of the regulations that shows that a work permit is allowed for someone on a long-stay (for purposes of retirement) extension of stay? Preferably in Thai, but an English translation would also be very helpful. I think my local work permit office might be open to this arrangement. Thanks in advance for the link(s).

 

I wish I could post a link to the most recent ministerial regulations but I have never seen a link to them in Thai much less a translation of them. They were not made public when they were done in early 2011 or late 2010.

All that is required is non immigrant visa to get a work permit. You can download one of the work permit forms here and that is all they say is needed. http://wp.doe.go.th/wp/index.php/2013-07-25-03-44-08/form-english

[RikDao]

http://canada.siam-legal.com/Thailand-Retirement-Visa-for-Canadian-Citizens.php

The way I read it was you needed to have 800,000 baht to qualify for a 1 year visa... I was reading it as either 800,000 baht or 65,000 baht income per month. And low and behold 65,000 baht * 12 months = 780,000 baht.

Personally I would recommend keeping some of your money in Thailand and some of the money in your home country in a different bank account where you can transfer money back and forth as necessary. Ya know, just in case a bank fails somewhere...

Huh? Yo, nobody ain't gonna be transferrin' no money fum no fail bank, y'all.

[orientfan]

Thank you everyone for your very helpful comments!