Retirement visa

[lowprofile]

Renewing my visa on Friday or early next week but not sure if I have to go to have the paperwork checked out by the lovely volunteers first, now that this type of visa is processed in another room. Could someone enlighten me, please?

Cheers!

[phuketjock]

There is no such thing as a retirement  VISA.

Visas cannot be extended and if you are renewing a previous extension your visa lapsed long

ago..

You are, I believe, renewing your extension of permission to stay on the grounds of retirement

and I believe you are still required to get your paperwork vetted by the wanabees but of course

this could have changed as things often do with Thai immigration, don't forget your foreign 

national info form (another new thing).

Edited October 6, 2016 by phuketjock

[Old Croc]

I believe you first have to attend the park over the road from Immigration where you need to complete an obstacle course by jumping a dirt bike through a series of hoops.

After that, there is a new form, conveniently printed on the back of another expat's passport copy, entitled "Foreigner, Potential Bad Guy, Ancestors", where you have to list every one of your ancestors back to the year 1800. You need full names, addresses, height, weight and skin colour. 

Your application for an extension will then be forwarded up the line to a General Admiral for approval and should be ready for pickup in time for your next application.

 

Edited October 6, 2016 by Old Croc

[federicoP]

www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/911456-retirement-extension-2016-latest-requirements/?page=1

 

But, since the 3d is very long and updated only until the 12th of September, you may decide to go first upstair and ask the volunteers about the last minute changes

[madmitch]

No. Just take your place on the seats outside the new room. 

[phuketrichard]

retirement extensions are on the first floor, NO FARANG needs vet ur paperwork!!!

only change since last year is u need photo of u standing where they can see ur house number in the pic ( same as those on Marriage extensions have always had to do)

[madmax2]

1 hour ago, phuketrichard said:

retirement extensions are on the first floor, NO FARANG needs vet ur paperwork!!!

only change since last year is u need photo of u standing where they can see ur house number in the pic ( same as those on Marriage extensions have always had to do)

you do that for a married to a Thai partner visa extension but i extended my retirement visa in may and no photo was required

I am legally married to my Thai wife but cannot be bothered going the married extension way to show a few less baht in the bank 

[madmitch]

21 minutes ago, madmax2 said:

you do that for a married to a Thai partner visa extension but i extended my retirement visa in may and no photo was required

I am legally married to my Thai wife but cannot be bothered going the married extension way to show a few less baht in the bank 

Changed now. New requirement. There are a couple of threads on this. Not quite sure how many photos of us they want: initial visa, every extension passport-style photo and one taken digitally, re-entry permit, every time in and out of the country, now one in front of the house. They have more photos of me than my mum has! 

[madmax2]

They never stop hassling people, you do not need to be married to a Thai person for a retirement visa extension, just over 50 years old and 800K baht in a Thai bank account, so why a picture of yourself and wife outside of house by the house number, can you just take a photo of yourself by house number.

They never stop hassling honest people, 3 times before they changed the rules and started making you come back the next day it was suggested to me that i do my visa extension through a agent to get it done quickly, my answer was forget it a visa extension costs 1900 baht not the huge fee the visa agents charge for the same service

Rather come back the following day for my visa extension than pay between 10 and 20k baht for it like some people do

Edited October 7, 2016 by madmax2

[LivinginKata]

9 minutes ago, madmax2 said:

They never stop hassling people, you do not need to be married to a Thai person for a retirement visa extension, just over 50 years old and 800K baht in a Thai bank account, so why a picture of yourself and wife outside of house by the house number, can you just take a photo of yourself by house number.

<snip>

 

I think the poster said only the applicant in the photo with house number for  the retirement extension. 

[LivinginKata]

11 minutes ago, madmax2 said:

They never stop hassling people, you do not need to be married to a Thai person for a retirement visa extension, just over 50 years old and 800K baht in a Thai bank account, so why a picture of yourself and wife outside of house by the house number, can you just take a photo of yourself by house number.

They never stop hassling honest people, 3 times before they changed the rules and started making you come back the next day it was suggested to me that i do my visa extension through a agent to get it done quickly, my answer was forget it a visa extension costs 1900 baht not the huge fee the visa agents charge for the same service

Rather come back the following day for my visa extension than pay between 10 and 20k baht for it like some people do

 

And a few K of the agent's fee goes to Immigration Officer.

[madmax2]

25 minutes ago, LivinginKata said:

 

And a few K of the agent's fee goes to Immigration Officer.

Very true, and they think people do not know whats going on, Maybe the government will start checking on certain people and close family members assets as they have done with other people not involved with immigration

[LivinginKata]

17 minutes ago, madmax2 said:

Very true, and they think people do not know whats going on, Maybe the government will start checking on certain people and close family members assets as they have done with other people not involved with immigration

 

Not a chance that military gov will check on these lower level officials. My wife's nephew is a younger IO and he owns 5 homes (4 for rent), drives a benz, his wife has a fortuna. He lives way above his pay level and he has zero previous family wealth.  At least they seems to be starting  (??) to look at some of the higher level corruption.

[lowprofile]

Went to immigration this morning and queued in the main downstairs office just in case. Volunteer told me to just go straight to the other outside office. When there I was asked what I wanted and given a number and told to wait outside (fill in the forms and make sure all other docs are at hand). He calls you in from the window. Procedure takes about 20 minutes, unless an agent gets in ahead of you with a handfull of applications.

Yes, picture of self in front of house is needed, I did not have one so need to take it on Monday when I pick up my passport - couldn't process it today as the big fella was out of town.

[JetsetBkk]

5 hours ago, lowprofile said:

Went to immigration this morning and queued in the main downstairs office just in case. Volunteer told me to just go straight to the other outside office. When there I was asked what I wanted and given a number and told to wait outside (fill in the forms and make sure all other docs are at hand). He calls you in from the window. Procedure takes about 20 minutes, unless an agent gets in ahead of you with a handfull of applications.

Yes, picture of self in front of house is needed, I did not have one so need to take it on Monday when I pick up my passport - couldn't process it today as the big fella was out of town.

 

Thanks for the info about the picture being needed.

 

Edit:

 

Of course, in 6 months when I go again, who knows what they'll want.

Edited October 7, 2016 by JetsetBkk

[xylophone]

On 10/7/2016 at 5:30 PM, lowprofile said:

Went to immigration this morning and queued in the main downstairs office just in case. Volunteer told me to just go straight to the other outside office. When there I was asked what I wanted and given a number and told to wait outside (fill in the forms and make sure all other docs are at hand). He calls you in from the window. Procedure takes about 20 minutes, unless an agent gets in ahead of you with a handfull of applications.

Yes, picture of self in front of house is needed, I did not have one so need to take it on Monday when I pick up my passport - couldn't process it today as the big fella was out of town.

 

I went yesterday and exactly the same thing happened and I have to say it was very efficient, although with only two officers processing the retirement extensions, I hate to think how long the wait will be when the place gets very busy.

 

Not only that the attitude of the officer who was processing my passport and a huge amount of associated paperwork, was very pleasing indeed, smiling and quickly flicking through everything with just the occasional question.

 

This time I used my pension income from two countries as well as funds in the bank as proof of income and I expected quite a few questions on this, however just one question to clarify how much the two pensions amounted to, and me pointing to the additional funds in the bank and he was satisfied.

 

I took along a photograph of me standing in front of my apartment block and that was fine and I also filled in the new form which asks just about everything of you, apart from your inside leg measurement! Interestingly, all of the paperwork was put inside of my passport and handed to his junior next to him who was inputting stuff on the computer, however the new form as mentioned above was slipped into a large box under his desk and because he really didn't check it at all, I suspect that it's not going to be used as an integral part of anything here?

 

I have to say that this was the fastest I have ever been through this procedure and the way I was treated made the whole experience very satisfying indeed.

 

I, along with a couple of the people waiting (as well as the officer serving me) had a large chuckle when the officer behind him said to a farang who was going through this process, "how old is this photograph – – it doesn't look anything like you and perhaps it's more than 10 years old. You look like a young man in the photograph, but you are not, you are an old man!" (which was very true). And he said it in a rather upbeat and light-hearted manner as if he was ribbing the guy.....nothing serious.

 

Don't know whether he went to get another photograph or was processed normally.

 

One other point and I think this has been mentioned before, was on the subject of a dress code. I and just about all of the others at the office were dressed in what you would call smart casual clothes, shorts and all, whereas one guy came in wearing a T-shirt which I would not have used as a rag to clean my car, with tattered shorts, unshaven and looked as if he had just fallen out of bed.

 

Needless to say he got some sideways looks because he really did look scruffy and unwashed and surely it wouldn't have taken much to dress a little better. 

[JetsetBkk]

17 hours ago, xylophone said:

the new form as mentioned above was slipped into a large box under his desk and because he really didn't check it at all, I suspect that it's not going to be used as an integral part of anything here?

 

I suspect that that large box is the future paper source for the photocopier.

 

17 hours ago, xylophone said:

You look like a young man in the photograph, but you are not, you are an old man!" (which was very true). And he said it in a rather upbeat and light-hearted manner as if he was ribbing the guy.....nothing serious.

 

I often use a year or two old photograph, but try to match the shirt I'm wearing with the one in the photograph.