how many days before visa expires should i do retirement extension?

[scott60]

Hi

I did mine at CW 30 days in advance no problem

They gave me 3 papers to sign in Thai. I used the 800 000 bt  bank method and made a transaction deposit of 100bt that morning

 

[Isaanman]

23 hours ago, Peter Denis said:

I went in 6 days early and was told I was too late ???

Did Phuket IO deny your application for a 1-year extension of stay based on your original Non Imm O-A Visa, while you applied during the 30-day till permission to stay expiry date window? 

Or am I missing something...

 

So, for the record then . . . those of us who have a final day stamped in our passports obtained at Customs at the airport when we entered the LoS on an O-A visa still have right up until that stamped date of expiration to get all our paper work in (including health insurance with an already effective policy at the time of request, bank statements certifying seasoned money, etc) and obtain the 1-year O-A extension, right?  

[fishtank]

9 minutes ago, Isaanman said:

So, for the record then . . . those of us who have a final day stamped in our passports obtained at Customs at the airport when we entered the LoS on an O-A visa still have right up until that stamped date of expiration to get all our paper work in (including health insurance with an already effective policy at the time of request, bank statements certifying seasoned money, etc) and obtain the 1-year O-A extension, right?  

I doubt if you entered at customs but yes, you have until your current permision to stay expires

[Peter Denis]

2 minutes ago, Isaanman said:

So, for the record then . . . those of us who have a final day stamped in our passports obtained at Customs at the airport when we entered the LoS on an O-A visa still have right up until that stamped date of expiration to get all our paper work in (including health insurance with an already effective policy at the time of request, bank statements certifying seasoned money, etc) and obtain the 1-year O-A extension, right?  

Yes, that's fully correct. 

In the case of the OP, it turned out that he entered on a Tourist Visa and wanted to apply for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa at his local IO.  Indeed in that case you need at least 15 days left on the permission to stay from that Tourist Visa entry (or VisaExempt entry). 

But when applying for an extension of stay, that can be done until last day of the permission to stay stamped in your passport.  Obviously it is not recommended to wait till very last days, as that would make it difficult to get hold of any missing documents/evidence on your application, and hence it is recommended to do it approx 1 week earlier.

Note: In case of a Non Imm O-A extension that requires the mandatory health-insurance policy it is best not to apply too early as that would cap the permission to stay you would receive till insurance policy expiry date.  Having the insurance policy start on the day or day before you do the application (and say 2-3 days before permission to stay expiry) would be ideal.

[sometimewoodworker]

13 hours ago, Peter Denis said:

13 hours ago, Isaanman said:

So, for the record then . . . those of us who have a final day stamped in our passports obtained at Customs at the airport when we entered the LoS on an O-A visa still have right up until that stamped date of expiration to get all our paper work in (including health insurance with an already effective policy at the time of request, bank statements certifying seasoned money, etc) and obtain the 1-year O-A extension, right?  

Yes, that's fully correct

Apart from the point, that doesn’t change the final outcome, that it was immigration not customs that stamped the passports.

[jacko45k]

On 12/6/2020 at 9:08 AM, cmarshall said:

 

And some banks, like Bangkok Bank, require a week or so to prepare the 12 month statement of deposits.  So, you have to plan in advance.

I can only add, I decided to use a fixed deposit I have instead of my regular savings account. I have regularly updated the latter to prevent a consolidated entry (and have it as a fall back), but it would have meant a lot of copied pages and the use of 2 books. As it was, the Fixed Deposit book copies was fine for them. 

[Isaanman]

23 hours ago, Peter Denis said:

But when applying for an extension of stay, that can be done until last day of the permission to stay stamped in your passport.  Obviously it is not recommended to wait till very last days, as that would make it difficult to get hold of any missing documents/evidence on your application, and hence it is recommended to do it approx 1 week earlier.

For stupid, ignorant oversights of my own making, I am not going to be able to verify that I have had ฿800k seasoned in the bank for exactly 2 months until only 2 days before my stamped permission to stay expires! ☹️ Are you guys aware of anyone who has made an appointment with the local IO ahead of time (a few days to up to a week) to confirm that everything is totally in order except the seasoning of the funds in order to attend to anything missing like Peter Denis and others recommend? Will Thai banks (in my case, BB) write up a letter of verification a couple of days (or a week) ahead of that final day of seasoning to confirm that sufficient deposits were made and were FFT along with the actual date they will be in the account for 2 months . . . demonstrating to the IO that I only need to go back there and submit a verified document from the bank that validates the actual fullfillment of the 2 months? Or, if I talk to folks at IO ahead of time, should I merely show them my BB passbook, so that they can see that sufficient FFT deposits were made and are still in the account such that they can expect that the verification letter from the bank will be acceptable? 

 

I just want to have as much of this already approved (or vetted by IO for approval) beforehand as possible, so as to not be blindsided out of nowhere with unexpected requests for further documentation. I am just not familiar with the protocol of fund seasoning and approved HI policies, as we did not need these when I obtained my O-A extension back in 2018. 

[Bluetongue]

I just renewed my annual extension this morning, 42 days early. Comment was made and I explained I was flying out prior to the date of effect. I had already been in and asked (his superior) if my plan was OK. As a general rule I would go in and ask them if I was unsure about something coming up, but my office is small, provincial really. Apart from that nothing was said about anything else, they did require a map and a copy of tabien baan and wife's ID this year.

[ubonjoe]

2 hours ago, Isaanman said:

 Are you guys aware of anyone who has made an appointment with the local IO ahead of time (a few days to up to a week) to confirm that everything is totally in order except the seasoning of the funds in order to attend to anything missing like

Most offices do not require appointments. For some it is optional.

You could to immigration and ask them if your documents are correct.

 

2 hours ago, Isaanman said:

Will Thai banks (in my case, BB) write up a letter of verification a couple of days (or a week) ahead of that final day of seasoning to confirm that sufficient deposits were made and were FFT along with the actual date they will be in the account for 2 months .

The bank letter needs to done closer to the day you apply and many only accepting one done the day before and they want a bank book update done on the day you apply.

There is no requirement to prove the 800k baht came from abroad.

[Peter Denis]

2 hours ago, Isaanman said:

For stupid, ignorant oversights of my own making, I am not going to be able to verify that I have had ฿800k seasoned in the bank for exactly 2 months until only 2 days before my stamped permission to stay expires! ☹️ Are you guys aware of anyone who has made an appointment with the local IO ahead of time (a few days to up to a week) to confirm that everything is totally in order except the seasoning of the funds in order to attend to anything missing like Peter Denis and others recommend? Will Thai banks (in my case, BB) write up a letter of verification a couple of days (or a week) ahead of that final day of seasoning to confirm that sufficient deposits were made and were FFT along with the actual date they will be in the account for 2 months . . . demonstrating to the IO that I only need to go back there and submit a verified document from the bank that validates the actual fullfillment of the 2 months? Or, if I talk to folks at IO ahead of time, should I merely show them my BB passbook, so that they can see that sufficient FFT deposits were made and are still in the account such that they can expect that the verification letter from the bank will be acceptable? 

 

I just want to have as much of this already approved (or vetted by IO for approval) beforehand as possible, so as to not be blindsided out of nowhere with unexpected requests for further documentation. I am just not familiar with the protocol of fund seasoning and approved HI policies, as we did not need these when I obtained my O-A extension back in 2018. 

HI,

From what you wrote it looks like you want to apply for a 1-year extension based on your original Non Imm O-A Visa and that you will be using the funds-in-bank method, but that the funds on your personal Thai bank-account will only be fully seasoned for two months (as required by IO) two days before the expiry of the permission to stay from that Non Imm O-A Visa.  Also note that when using the funds-in-bank method that there is no need to prove the foreign origins of the funds.

Two days before is short but it should NOT be a problem, and indeed you can visit your local IO beforehand to check already whether the application you are planning to do would be in compliance with your local IO requirements.

Also be aware that when you plan to apply for that 1-year extension based on your original Non Imm O-A Visa and you do this for reason of RETIREMENT, that you also need to meet the mandatory health-insurance requirement for such application.  Most IOs require that the policy is already active on the moment of application, so it is recommended that the start-date of your policy is on same day (or 1 day earlier) than the date you plan to apply for the 1-year extension.

As your permission to stay will be capped to the insurance policy expiry date, applying weeks earlier than your permission to stay expiry date with an already active policy would result in losing those weeks.  

So for a relatively simple 1-year extension application, the fact that you will have to wait till almost expiry-date of your permission to stay (to meet the 2 month seasoning requirement) might in fact turn out to be a blessing in disguise as it will allow you to have that mandatory health-insurance policy start at the date you plan to apply for the 1-year extension.

[Isaanman]

8 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

There is no requirement to prove the 800k baht came from abroad.

Wow . . . I was not aware of that! I thought Thai IOs were insistent that these funds had to come from abroad to keep folks from working illegally within country to pad out/fulfill their ฿800k bank requirement.  That is good news, as one of my large transfers was an ACH transfer with TransferWise and that does not always go down in the BB passbook as an FFT! Cool! ????

[ubonjoe]

2 minutes ago, Isaanman said:

Wow . . . I was not aware of that! I thought Thai IOs were insistent that these funds had to come from abroad

It is not required for extensions of stay.

It is only required to apply for a 90 day non-o visa entry at immigration since there is no 2 months in the bank required for the application.

[Isaanman]

I am aware of the mandatory HI and that it will most likely need to be effective when I actually request the O-A extension and that my permission to stay will be capped to the insurance policy expiry date. It might be a blessing in disguise; but, I hate to come right down to the wire like this! This took place before when 3 years ago I submitted the same marriage certificate I used to get my O-A visa in the US and validate my marriage and relationships with my kids at the local IO, only to find out a few days before getting my family on my O-A visa that I had to travel to BKK to have everything validated by the US embassy and Thai Dept. of Foreign Affairs. With things changing so quickly, so often, I almost expect there to be some kind of last minute problem, and I want to avoid that to keep the wallet from getting too thin! ฿500 for 4 people a day adds up quickly! 

[Peter Denis]

12 minutes ago, Isaanman said:

I am aware of the mandatory HI and that it will most likely need to be effective when I actually request the O-A extension and that my permission to stay will be capped to the insurance policy expiry date. It might be a blessing in disguise; but, I hate to come right down to the wire like this! This took place before when 3 years ago I submitted the same marriage certificate I used to get my O-A visa in the US and validate my marriage and relationships with my kids at the local IO, only to find out a few days before getting my family on my O-A visa that I had to travel to BKK to have everything validated by the US embassy and Thai Dept. of Foreign Affairs. With things changing so quickly, so often, I almost expect there to be some kind of last minute problem, and I want to avoid that to keep the wallet from getting too thin! ฿500 for 4 people a day adds up quickly! 

When you are married to a Thai National (or with Thai dependent children), you could of course apply for the 1-year extension based on your original Non Imm O-A Visa for one of those reasons, instead of applying for reason of retirement.

The advantage of applying for Family reasons are multiple:

1 - When doing so you do not need to meet the health-insurance requirement, because that is only applicable when you apply for an extension based on that Non Imm O-A Visa for reason of retirement.

2 - When using the funds-in-bank method you only need to provide evidence of +400K on your personal Thai bank-account seasoned for two months at the moment of application when applying for reason of marriage.  And there is NO seasoning requirement for the +400K funds when applying for reason of Thai dependent children. 

 

The down-side is of course that you need to provide evidence that you are still married to your Thai wife, and at some IOs they can be rather picky and petty on that matter.  So with only 2 days left before permission to stay expiry, it is definitely recommended to check beforehand at your local IO whether the documents your prepared for your 1-year extension based on marriage are correct and complete.  

 

[ubonjoe]

26 minutes ago, Peter Denis said:

When you are married to a Thai National (or with Thai dependent children), you could of course apply for the 1-year extension based on your original Non Imm O-A Visa for one of those reasons, instead of applying for reason of retirement.

He is not married to a Thai. 

[Fat George]

On 12/6/2020 at 5:46 AM, jacko45k said:

Anyone using income should consider going a few weeks early as I would worry a statement from the bank showing 12 months of deposits might be asked for. 

Even with money on deposit, the requirement is they need to look back 12 months now. 

They definitely want 12 months of incoming bank transfers at CW. This caused a hiccup on my application for a one year extension ( marriage ). It's now been sorted. But wasted an entire day. 

[muffy]

 We do the same  Bs   every year why can't  you just  say no change stamp and go ?

[moontang]

On 12/8/2020 at 7:47 AM, jacko45k said:

I can only add, I decided to use a fixed deposit I have instead of my regular savings account. I have regularly updated the latter to prevent a consolidated entry (and have it as a fall back), but it would have meant a lot of copied pages and the use of 2 books. As it was, the Fixed Deposit book copies was fine for them. 

Yeah, I am wondering if they are going to want statements for the two FD books that have a zero balance.  Wouldn't be the most asinine request from them, that's for sure.  Had the 800 in a regular account for 7 months.  Many have been sent away for more stuff on their monthly income..