Bank deposit documentation for O-A visa application in the UK ?

[Lookme]

I am in Thailand at the moment but for timing and logistical reasons I am going to apply for a multi-entry O-A visa in the UK. I need to go down the 800,000 Baht route as I don't have enough of the right kind of income.

I'm looking at "Required Documents" on thaiembassyuk.org.uk and it's not at all clear what documentation is required. The wording on the website is, "Copy of bank statement or evidence of adequate finance showing a deposit of the amount equal to and not less than 800,000 Baht or an income certificate with monthly income of not less than 65,000 Baht, (approximately GBP 14,000.00/annum) or a deposti acocount plus a monthly income totaling not less than 800,000 Baht".

It's not clear whether this means UK funds or funds in Thailand. I have both in place, but if it's Thai funds they want I need to know what to get from my Thai bank before I go back to England. And if it's UK funds, surely they are not going to accept a statement printed off the internet as it's far too easy to fake?

Can anyone provide any clarification please?

One other question: The website says that "Applicants can submit their applications at the Royal Thai Embassy or Royal Consulates in UK and Ireland". Does this mean I have to go there in person, or can this be done by post?

[ubonjoe]

You only need the equivalent of 800k baht in a UK bank. There is no requirement for the money to be in a Thai bank.

[sunnyjim5]

The statement " adequate finance showing a deposit of the amount equal to and not less than 800,000 Baht" seems pretty clear to me !

At current rates of exchange approx £16,000 would need to be evidenced as being held in a British bank to meet the Embassy's requirement.

[lkv]

Can the OP get his non O-A visa in the UK with documentation from the Thai bank. If so, what is needed? Bank book, original stamped statement or what.

[elviajero]

• If using funds in a UK account the amount needs to be the equivalent to 800k baht, but I don't know what exchange rate they use. The £14,000 quoted on the website has never been changed so I wouldn't go by that number.

IMO there is no reason why you couldn't show the funds in a Thai bank or any other country as long as the amount is the equivalent of 800k.

A statement printed from the internet probably won't do. "5. In case attached copy of bank statement, the original reference letter from the banking concerned is necessary." http://thaiembassyuk.org.uk/?q=node/51

[lkv]

Yep, so I guess if he went to his Thai bank and took an account statement that was stamped say 1 day before departure and then went back to to the UK and applied for his non O-A that should be sufficient.

I can see some people (not the OP) in a situation where they moved most of their money out of the UK, that's why I was asking.

[sunnyjim5]

• If using funds in a UK account the amount needs to be the equivalent to 800k baht, but I don't know what exchange rate they use. The £14,000 quoted on the website has never been changed so I wouldn't go by that number.
• IMO there is no reason why you couldn't show the funds in a Thai bank or any other country as long as the amount is the equivalent of 800k.
• A statement printed from the internet probably won't do. "5. In case attached copy of bank statement, the original reference letter from the banking concerned is necessary." http://thaiembassyuk.org.uk/?q=node/51

The £14000 equates to an exchange rate of 57Bht/£1 !

Today the rate is 49 Bht/£1

[Lookme]

Wow, that was quick. Many thanks for all the answers. I will call my bank in the UK and get a printed statement. I will post back if I hit any problems. Thanks again.

[Pib]

From looking at the Thai Consulate UK website I can see where the confusion could arise regarding which bank the funds need to be in. I think the Thai Consulate in the US/Los Angeles put it clearer in specifying U.S. bank statements when applying in the U.S.

http://www.thaiconsulatela.org/service_visa_detail.aspx?link_id=48

- applicant's bank statement (U.S.) showing a balance in the amount of not less than 800,000 Baht (current Thai exchange rate is available from the Bank of Thailand web site)

[OJAS]

Wow, that was quick. Many thanks for all the answers. I will call my bank in the UK and get a printed statement. I will post back if I hit any problems. Thanks again.

And make sure that their printed statement includes their address. As I recall from my OA visa application to them in 2008, the London Embassy were insistent on this point.

If your UK bank doesn't include its address on its statements as a matter of course (as mine doesn't), then you'll need to obtain a letter from them on headed paper including their address, which basically states that you hold an account with them (as I had to).

[Lookme]

And make sure that their printed statement includes their address. As I recall from my OA visa application to them in 2008, the London Embassy were insistent on this point.

If your UK bank doesn't include its address on its statements as a matter of course (as mine doesn't), then you'll need to obtain a letter from them on headed paper including their address, which basically states that you hold an account with them (as I had to).

Thanks OJAS, I will watch out for that !

[Expattaff1308]

For the O-A Dont forget you will also need the medical form completed by your doctor http://thaiembassyuk.org.uk/forms/medicalcertificate.pdf a Police report and have all these verified by a Notary Public. http://thaiembassyuk.org.uk/?q=node/51

[jacksam]

For the O-A Dont forget you will also need the medical form completed by your doctor http://thaiembassyuk.org.uk/forms/medicalcertificate.pdf a Police report and have all these verified by a Notary Public. http://thaiembassyuk.org.uk/?q=node/51

In AU They want to see the medical not only signed but with a stamp either from doctor or clinic

[OJAS]

For the O-A Dont forget you will also need the medical form completed by your doctor http://thaiembassyuk.org.uk/forms/medicalcertificate.pdf a Police report and have all these verified by a Notary Public. http://thaiembassyuk.org.uk/?q=node/51

Actually, it looks like an "ordinary" solicitor may now be able to perform the necessary verification as well as a Notary Public. To quote from your second link:-

Note: Documents 4 to 8 inclusive must be certified by a Notary Public officer or Solicitors

That said, it looks like the solicitor in question should only be one employed by Ashtons (as per link to their website via the word "Solicitors"). If this is, indeed, the case and Covent Garden is awkward for the OP to get to, he will hopefully be able to identify a Notary Public nearer to home through The Notaries Society website at http://www.thenotariessociety.org.uk/

[Lookme]

My interpretation of "Documents 4 to 8 inclusive must be certified by a Notary Public officer or Solicitors" was that any solicitor would do. I can't think of any logic that would require a specific solicitor, and if they do only accept one specific solicitor, they should say so explicitly.

Unless anyone knows differently, I will use my local solicitor. He charged £15 to authenticate documents for a probate application a few years ago. It was good enough for the Probate Registry. And as he said himself, he can't check the authenticity of documents anymore than anyone else.

Amazing how everything about Thai visas is so ambiguous.

I will report back on how I get on. Won't be for another few weeks yet.

[Lookme]

I am in England now and almost ready to go to London to submit my O-A application. I was hoping to do it by post but then I saw (here) that "those who are applying for O-A long stay must apply in person at the Thai Embassy in London".

I now have the medical form, the police check, and bank statement. But I have one remaining question. On this page the requirements for bank documentation are:

4. Copy of bank statement or evidence of adequate finance showing a deposit of the amount equal to and not less than 800,000 Baht or an income certificate with monthly income of not less than 65,000 Baht, (approximately GBP 14,000.00/annum) or a deposti acocount plus a monthly income totaling not less than 800,000 Baht.

5. In case attached copy of bank statement, the original reference letter from the banking concerned is necessary.

It's #5 that is bothering me. I have an original statement from my bank showing a lot more than the required £16,000. And yes, the statement does show the bank's address. But what the heck is #5? Is there something else they are looking for?

I have emailed the embassy but so far no response. It's a long hard journey for me to get to London. I'd really like to understand this requirement better before I go. Can anyone shed any light on this please?

I promise to post a full report on all of this once I get the visa!

[ubonjoe]

They want a letter from the bank confirming your account and balance on the date written.

[Lookme]

They want a letter from the bank confirming your account and balance on the date written.

Damn. I honestly don't have any confidence that my bank will be able to provide that. Are you sure? I have a statement that shows many times the required amount. Is it worth a try with just the statement? Has anyone actually done this in London recently?

[Roy111]

For the O-A Dont forget you will also need the medical form completed by your doctor http://thaiembassyuk.org.uk/forms/medicalcertificate.pdf a Police report and have all these verified by a Notary Public. http://thaiembassyuk.org.uk/?q=node/51

Actually, it looks like an "ordinary" solicitor may now be able to perform the necessary verification as well as a Notary Public. To quote from your second link:-

Note: Documents 4 to 8 inclusive must be certified by a Notary Public officer or Solicitors

That said, it looks like the solicitor in question should only be one employed by Ashtons (as per link to their website via the word "Solicitors"). If this is, indeed, the case and Covent Garden is awkward for the OP to get to, he will hopefully be able to identify a Notary Public nearer to home through The Notaries Society website at http://www.thenotariessociety.org.uk/

Just to add a little more to this - I emailed Ashtons about this and their reply was that they certify documents at a cost of £5 per page. As the OP says it is not really clear what the requirement is here as my understanding is that a Notary does actually check the authenticity of documents whereas a solicitor will just certify that a document is a true copy of the original.

Lookme - thanks for this thread, I intend to go through this process later in the year so I am very interested in how you get on and what they do actually require.

[Lookme]

Thanks for that Roy111, I'm glad it's not just me that finds this process unclear.

I called my local solicitors yesterday and they said that the wording "Notary Public officer or Solicitors" was very odd, and their feeling was that in the absence of clarification it would be better to go with a Notary. I then called three Notaries, none of which were particularly close to my home. None of them answered the phone so I have no idea how much they charge, but I'm guessing it's more than solicitors.

Putting that together with the doubts I have about the bank letter, I decided that the trip to London is too risky. For personal reasons I can't go to London alone, so with train fares and a night in a hotel the total cost of the trip was in the hundreds of pounds - which is ok if it was guaranteed to produce a visa, but not with it being so risky.

I was really hoping to provide a full report on this but I'm afraid I have now abandoned this approach. My condo in Jomtien is 5 minutes walk from the immigration office so I'm going to try to do it there. It should be possible to convert a tourist visa to an O with 800,000 in the bank and baked for two months, which I already have.

My feeling now is that the A-O in the UK is only viable if you live close enough to the embassy that you can afford to fail once or twice. If you have a long journey to London, it's just too risky with so many unknown unknowns.

[Seraphina]

O-A visas, it's an O visa if you're over 50

@ Newbie

May I suggest you re-vist the following page: http://thaiembassyuk.org.uk/?q=node/51 and note that four of the documents need to be notarised.

You don't normally apply for a non-immigrant visa WITHIN your target country and you can only seek notarisation of UK documents IN the UK for obvious reasons.

Secondly, you can ONLY apply for A-O visas at an Embassy, not a Consulate. The UK has three Consulates, so ignore them for this type of visa. It's London or bust, I'm afraid.

@ Lookme

Your bank need only write a letter saying what your balance is. ALL banks can do this unless you're using the man in the street in a back of a van!

You yourself need to provide three x monthly bank statements showng your balance the money is there and and the your pension income, if indeed you are...The notary attests this with your bank!

A notary public is NOT a solicitor. They exist in most European countries as far as I know, and there is a UK register. They do NOT need to be located in your region! There are same day services in the UK. The notary system has been inherited from the French where they are less expensive and more available than lawyers.

The alternative to an O visa is the three month visa.

@ everyone

1. I have seen NO evidence that you must apply for an 0 visa in person. In fact, quite the opposite! However, I'm more happy to be corrected. If so, please provide the weblink and the line that indicates this rule.

2. What is less clear is whether the one year visa is a multi-entry visa, but I think it is.

3. I live in France, so I have to apply to the Paris Embassy. Don't bother ringing the Thai Embassy in London. They don't like answering the phone or emails.

[Lookme]

I already provided the link to "those who are applying for O-A long stay must apply in person at the Thai Embassy in London"...

www.thaiembassyuk.org.uk/?q=node/401

It took three phone calls and three weeks to get a printed statement from National Savings and Investments. I have little confidence that they could provide a letter, and since the embassy don't specify what the letter needs to say, we are really only guessing. There is nothing the letter could say that isn't on the statement, so I come back to my question, why the letter, and what exactly does it need to say?

How can a Notary attest anything with my bank? A bank are never going to talk to a third party about a customer's account. All the Notary can do is sign what I put in front of him. It seems utterly pointless to me. It appears that the embassy are creating obstacles simply to deter people from using this route.

I agree about the embassy. I never got a response to my email. I haven't tried phoning, but I have read elsewhere that's a non-starter.

I have heard that it's straightforward to get an O visa from Jomtien, although they send the application to Bangkok so it takes a couple of weeks.

[RickBlaine]

I've been away from TV for some time, so I'm coming to this thread a bit late.

Interesting post, Lookme.

I was thinking of doing the same as you - getting my next visa/extension from UK instead of Thailand, but I didn't realize how difficult it's all become.

Are you sure, when you add up the pros and cons, it's worth the hassle of getting the visa in UK?

Maybe I missed something, but if you've got seasoned funds in Thailand, wouldn't it be easier, and cheaper to do it here?

I converted from a tourist visa to retirement (extension, I believe we have to call it, it's not technically a visa), without too much bother in Thailand. Few years ago I changed again to a marriage extension.

Every year I moan about the paperwork, and think about doing it in UK as part of a holiday - but not if it's that difficult now. (i, too, live an expensive journey away from London).

Also, if your visa is from out of Thailand, will you have to do the 90 day 'border-shuffle' when you're here?

Incidentally, the bank letter/statements you show the embassy in London - are you going to blank out the account number? If the letter proves the amount, in a recognized UK bank, that is surely enough information?

Good luck with it.

[Seraphina]

@ Lookme,

you seem to having problems. I think you're making the process unecessarily difficult. I rang my bank this morning and asked them for the following:

- an ATTESTION than my bank balance has exceeded 5000 euros over three specific months, February, March and April 2016.

- I asked them to sign it and stamp it with the bank stamp.

- send me the original by post.

SIMPLE!!

I chose this option because I use internet banking / e-bank bank statements require another step as they're not on proper letter-headed paper and still need to be stamped. Furthermore, the bank letter supercedes the bank statements at the Embassy...and there is no need to show the bank account number.

Are you saying, you can't ask the bank to do that for you?

[Seraphina]

BTW, I may be wrong, but th bank stamp supercedes the notary. What the notary may well do is notarise your bank statements. He can do this by simply asking a Yes/No question. He's verifying the amount and your pension income.

IF YOU HAVE NO PENSION INCOME, you are not eligible to appy for an 'O' visa no matter how much you have in the account.

You can in France, however!

[Seraphina]

Sorry, I mean the bank stamp on the attestation letter.

[tirekicker]

You only need the equivalent of 800k baht in a UK bank. There is no requirement for the money to be in a Thai bank.

Would a print -out of my U.K. bank statement be acceptable and what about the signed letter Immigration requires from a Thai bank.

[Seraphina]

I will cross check the pension part of what I said above. I was told this by someone iinside the Embassy. However, I will challenge it because it is NOT what is outlilned on the website you're talking about. It simply indicates that if you don't have a pension, your bank deposit needs to be far higher, but in reality, it's not that high.

Agree however, that a bank attestation need not be notarised, but your personal bank statements needing notarising: it's is a bit woolly because it combines several things. However, I would never expect to get a bank attestation notarised as it has its own clout, far more powerful than a notary's stamp in fact! At least here in France.

I wouldn't complain too much because while the pension problel isn't mentioned in my requirements; I have additional papers to submit.

[ubonjoe]

You only need the equivalent of 800k baht in a UK bank. There is no requirement for the money to be in a Thai bank.

Would a print -out of my U.K. bank statement be acceptable and what about the signed letter Immigration requires from a Thai bank.

Are you asking about applying for a OA visa or an extension of stay applied for here at immigration?

For the extension the money has to be in a Thai bank.

Not sure how the embassy would handle money in a Thai bank for getting an OA visa. If you have the money in a Thai bank it would best to apply for an extension at immigration.

[Seraphina]

@ tireticker

no, a print out of your bank account is NOT acceptable as it can soooooo easily faked. I could do it in 10 minutes.

You need to ask your bank to print the staements and then sign and stamp them OR ask a notary to do it.

The easiest thing to do, as I said to Lookme is to ask your bank to write an attestation letter. See my notes above!!!