I"m a bit confused about this 800,000 Baht, Do you have to have it in the Bank every Year to get your extension of stay,as i think i read somewhere that it is only for the first year otherwise you have 15000 Quid sitting in a Thai bank every year unable to spend it unless you top up what you used,

you have to show you have it in bank at least 3 months before application, as far as i'm aware you must prove you have these funds every year

Edited November 20, 201411 yr by bigjules007

Yup, it needs to be there every time you extend your retirement stay. You can spend it once you've got the extension and top up next time.

Don't forget there's the pension income option and for retirement you can use a combination of the two.

Moving to the Visas forum for specialist coverage.

For the first extension it only has to be seasoned for 2 months, follow on extensions three months. In a Thai bank in your name only where the funds are accessible. A fixed account with withdrawal penalties is acceptable to most immigration offices, as long as the money is accessible.

After the first time do you still need a bank letter saying it came from abroad?

....If you spend some during the year and top it up again 3 months before renewal, with e.g. a cash deposit in Thailand.... would that be a problem?

Thanks

You need a bank letter for every extension, but it does not have to state that it came from abroad.

As long as the average daily balance of the account is above 800k for three months before it does not matter how the account is used or "topped up".

You need a bank letter for every extension, but it does not have to state that it came from abroad.

As long as the average daily balance of the account is above 800k for three months before it does not matter how the account is used or "topped up".

Thai bank passbooks do not show "average" daily balance. They show a balance at the millisecond in time you updated the passbook and X-amount of recent transactions. So, if you say withdrew some money today that took your 800K (or more) down to say 799K, you updated the passbook to show such, and that 799K amount fallls within the 2 or 3 month seasoning period and the immigration spots that one time you were below 800K, even if below for a few minutes, you would not meet the seasoning requirement.

OK, then just don't update the passbook to avoid the 799K from being printed in the passbook. Well, that's why immigration officers want to see a very recent update to the passbook which force prints all the recent transactions & balances to print to the passbook which could very well printout that 799K amount depending on how many transactions you have done....if there are many transactions sometimes they only printout a limited, recent range of transactions...like maybe the last half dozen or so.

Don't let the account go below 800K during the 2 or 3 month seasoning before the day you apply. Anytime out of that window take the account down to one baht if desired, but during the seasoning period keep it at or above 800K.

You need a bank letter for every extension, but it does not have to state that it came from abroad.

As long as the average daily balance of the account is above 800k for three months before it does not matter how the account is used or "topped up".

The balance can't drop below 800,000 at all. They don't take the daily average, but the actually amount. You can't go under 800K in the morning then top up in the afternoon to get an average above 800K.

Agree, should not have used "average daily balance"!