Retirement visa if married to Thai spouse

[TomDaly]

With the new rules on marriage visas (if I'm right), your monthly income has to be about 45000 baht. 

When I retire, my pension will be a lot less than that, so I'm looking to put 800,000 in the bank and go for a retirement visa.

Does anyone know if there's any problem about applying for a retirement visa and sayng you live with your Thai wife?

Tom Daly

[ubonjoe]

For an extension based upon marriage the income requirement is 40k baht. Or you can show 400k baht in a Thai bank for 2 months.

No problem to apply for an extension based upon retirement if married to a Thai. Immigration prefers you to do that instead of marriage.

[TomDaly]

"40k baht. Or you can show 400k baht" for marriage visa

You don't need both then?

[ubonjoe]

4 minutes ago, TomDaly said:

You don't need both then?

No 

Only one of the two options.

[elviajero]

42 minutes ago, TomDaly said:

"40k baht. Or you can show 400k baht" for marriage visa

You don't need both then?

IMO it’s better — especially due to the recent changes — if you apply as a spouse rather than retiree. And if your actual pension income is less than 40K it’s probably best/easiest to use 400K in the bank. 

 

However, if you want to use the income route, and your pension income (monthly transfer to Thailand) is less than 40K, you could leave your cash in your home country and send one transfer of 40K per month made up from your pension income and cash.

 

Note:

If you apply as a retiree you could use a combination of income and cash in a Thai bank totalling 800K. E.g. 30K income x 12 = 360K plus 440K in the bank.

 

Any cash in your Thai bank used for a spouse application is accessible for 10 months of the year; whereas, if you apply as a retiree you need to keep 800K in your bank for 5 months per year and the balance cannot drop below 400K during the other 7 months.

 

1 hour ago, TomDaly said:

Does anyone know if there's any problem about applying for a retirement visa and sayng you live with your Thai wife?

Some offices/officers will try and push a retiree application if they see you have 800K plus in the bank; because it’s less paperwork and the extension can usually be issued the same day.

 

It’s unlikely they would object to you applying as a retiree even if married.

Edited April 19, 2019 by elviajero