A/O Long stay from London

[berybert]

Reading thru the rules to get an A/O long stay visa from the Thai embassy in London it mentions you need to have 800,000 baht in the bank. Am I right in thinking this has to be the equivalent in my bank in the U.K. and not in Thai bank account ?

Thanks.

[ubonjoe]

You inverted the letters it is a OA long stay visa.

The money needs to be in a bank in the UK.

[Liquorice]

For a Visa obtained from a Thai Embassy/Consulate in the UK, the funds should be deposited in your UK bank account.

If at the end of the Visa you decided to remain in Thailand, then you can apply for an annual extension of stay based on retirement at a local Immigration office within Thailand. In this situation, the 800,000baht funds should be deposited in a Thai bank account.

[elviajero]

Yes it's the equivalent of 800k THB in your UK account. Not sure what exchange rate they use though.

[OJAS]

Yes it's the equivalent of 800k THB in your UK account. Not sure what exchange rate they use though.

Their website* does quote a 14,000 GBP figure in 2 places - which, if still current, is based on an exchange rate of 57 THB per GBP! The actual rate stands at around 54 THB per GBP at the present time, though (= slightly under 15,000 GBP).

So, unless the OP can obtain a clear answer on this point from the Embassy (easier said than done, in my experience, as they seem to have developed the art of studiously refusing to answer the telephone and ignoring emails to ultimate perfection), my advice to him would be to err on the side of caution and assume an exchange rate of 50 THB per GBP (= 16,000 GBP).

* http://www.thaiembassyuk.org.uk/?q=node/51

Edited November 17, 2015 by OJAS

[ubonjoe]

The 14,000 pounds number would be low anyway since it is annual income number for an income of 65 baht which is only 780k baht.

[berybert]

Cheers for the answers. I will make a point of having 20 thousand pounds in the account before getting the visa.

OA not AO indeed joe. Well spotted.