I will be emigrating to Thailand on an Ed Visa and am looking to change it to an extension based on retirement when I am 50 in a few months. A question regarding the B800,000 that has to be held in a Thai bank account. Can this account be a Foreign Currency Account with one of the Thai banks (planning to open an account with Bangkok Bank) with the money held as Sterling ie: £16,000?

Some immigration offices will accept a foreign currency account. You should check with the office where you will be applying before opening the account.

You might might want to put a little more than 16k pounds in the account. At today's rates that is only 3500 baht over 800k baht. A small change in exchange rates during the 60 days it needs to be in the bank could cause problems.

No

You might also have difficulty in obtaining an extension based on retirement from an ED visa.

I show the equivalent of 65,000 Baht being deposited into a Canadian bank account for one month, to get a letter from my embassy for immigration to give me the yearly extension. I provide a printout of the funds in my account.

Based on my brief experience of holding a GBP FCD account with Bangkok Bank a few years ago, I would strongly advise you against opening one. I swiftly closed mine after being hit with a hefty transfer charge of which no inkling had been provided on their website. These days I make transfers to my Bangkok Bank THB savings deposit account from my UK account via their London branch, as described at

http://www.bangkokbank.com/bangkokbank/personalbanking/dailyBanking/TransferingFunds/TransferringIntoThailand/ReceivingFundsfromUK/Pages/ReceivingFundsfromUK.aspx

In effect, therefore, I am continuing to use my UK account as my GBP one here!

And reverting to the topic at hand, it would be far better in my view for you to accumulate the required 800,000 THB for annual extension of stay purposes in the local currency since you will then be immune from the effects of wild GBP exchange rate fluctuations which, unfortunately, are a fact of life these days.

Edited April 28, 201610 yr by OJAS

I was under the impression that it has to be guaranteed by the Thai Government....that's why fixed deposits are almost always OK, but mutual fund accounts or other accounts that could lose value are almost never OK. It's more trouble than it is worth to do the FDA....and I doubt it is guaranteed, either....you won't get the TT rate,w when you exchange, either. Another reason, of many, that the O-A from home is the way to go...you have about two years to bring over the 800K...and if you use the BKKBank, London method, it is very reasonable.

Last Sept when I went to renew my retirement extension at Chaeng Wattana I was told that next time I came to renew they would not accept my USD account in Kasikorn. They said that the funds had to be in thai baht. I had used my USD funds in Kasikorn for many years to renew my marriage and retirement extensions.

Thanks for the replies. Converting an Ed Visa to an extension based on retirement is another problem altogether!! I can only ask at the Immigration Office when the time comes to do it. If they say 'No' then nothing lost. When I was in Patong last month on holiday I stopped by the Office there and spoke to a guy from an agency and he claimed that he would sort it all out for me for B15,000. Would be worried about doing it this way as might just lose B15K for nothing.

Re-the advice about the FCA, I'll have to ask at Bangkok Bank when I open a normal Savings Account. I wanted to be able to transfer Sterling to a FCA and then just exchange it when the rate is good and always leave £16K+ in there to satisfy the requirements of the extension.

I guess it will be a case of smiling at the IO, maybe!

Thanks for the replies. Converting an Ed Visa to an extension based on retirement is another problem altogether!! I can only ask at the Immigration Office when the time comes to do it. If they say 'No' then nothing lost. When I was in Patong last month on holiday I stopped by the Office there and spoke to a guy from an agency and he claimed that he would sort it all out for me for B15,000. Would be worried about doing it this way as might just lose B15K for nothing.

Re-the advice about the FCA, I'll have to ask at Bangkok Bank when I open a normal Savings Account. I wanted to be able to transfer Sterling to a FCA and then just exchange it when the rate is good and always leave £16K+ in there to satisfy the requirements of the extension.

I guess it will be a case of smiling at the IO, maybe!

"Would be worried about doing it this way as might just lose B15K for nothing."

What might be particularly worrying if I were in your shoes would be if, rather than sorting matters out with your local immigration office, the agent were instead to sort out the necessary stamps with a mate of his who was an expert in forgery!

"I wanted to be able to transfer Sterling to a FCA and then just exchange it when the rate is good and always leave £16K+ in there to satisfy the requirements of the extension. "

This would, of course, mean that you would need to monitor the GBP:THB exchange rate extremely closely throughout the seasoning period in particular, and take immediate corrective action in advance if the £16k+ looked like falling even a single satang below the required 800k THB minimum. By having this amount safely stashed away in the local currency prior to the commencement of the seasoning period, on the other hand, you should then have 1 less thing to worry about at annual extension of stay time IMHO.