extension for retirement

[pluto123]

Hello UbonJoe and others, 

 

i already have 800k in bangkokbank for over 6months and a yellow tabien baan.  if i am currently oversea and next year when everything is back to normal I will fly into 

Thailand and automatically gets a 30 days without any tourist visa.

My question is can i then go straight to chiangmai immigration and get a 1 year extension for retirement or do i need others paperworks like insurance and homecountry police report, etc. 

 

 

thank you

[fishtank]

Yes you can.

[jacko45k]

Actually you cannot directly.... the Visa Exempt Entry will need to be converted to a Non-Imm-O entry first. If that is based on retirement, you have to show the money came from outside Thailand. Otherwise straightforward. (If over 50 years old)

[ubonjoe]

The first step is to apply for a 90 day non-o visa entry at immigration. You will need to show the 800 baht is in the bank on the day you apply plus proof it came from abroad. At this time Chiang Mai immigration requires you have at least 21 days remaining on your 30 day visa exempt entry or the 30 day extension of it.

Then  during the last 30 days of the 90 day entry you can apply for the extension of stay based upon retirement.

No insurance is required for any of the above. Same for police clearance and etc.

[Tanoshi]

You can only get a 1 year extension from a Non Imm type Visa (not a VE or TV entry).

 

If you enter VE as already explained there is a process to apply for a Non O stamp at your local Immigration office once in Thailand. You can then apply for the 1 year extension. This process requires 3 trips to your Immigration office within a short period.

 

Alternatively, if you can obtain and enter on a Non O Visa obtained from your local Thai Embassy before entry, you can then apply directly for the 1 year extension within the last 30 days of entry.

[Peter Denis]

Alternatively, if you do not like having to visit your local IO three times in a 3 month-period, you could of course apply for the 1-year MultipleEntry Non Imm O-A Visa in your home-country.

That Visa does allow you to stay almost 2 years IO hassle-free in Thailand, with no need to visit a local IO for an extension of stay application, and with no need to park/transfer funds to a personal Thai bank-account.  Since you already have 800K on your Thai bank-account, you can even use proof of those funds to apply for that Visa in your home-country, and once you got the Non Imm O-A Visa you are free to use the funds as your please. 

The only draw-back of the Non Imm O-A Visa is that since October 2019 you need a Non Imm O-A compliant health-insurance policy to apply for that Visa at the Thai Embassy/Consulate in your home-country.  But contrary to the common narrative obtaining such an insurance policy is neither difficult nor costly (if you know how).

>> PM me if you like to receive a Guideline document on how to meet that insurance requirement when applying for the Non Imm O-A Visa.

[Kiujunn]

On 1/16/2021 at 8:50 AM, ubonjoe said:

The first step is to apply for a 90 day non-o visa entry at immigration. You will need to show the 800 baht is in the bank on the day you apply plus proof it came from abroad. At this time Chiang Mai immigration requires you have at least 21 days remaining on your 30 day visa exempt entry or the 30 day extension of it.

Then  during the last 30 days of the 90 day entry you can apply for the extension of stay based upon retirement.

No insurance is required for any of the above. Same for police clearance and etc.

1. If arrived on a tourist visa TR (not visa-exempt), can I change my visa at Chaengwattana into a non-Imm 0 (and then later get a retirement extension)?

 

2. If 800,000 have been in my Thai bank account for over 3 months already,  would Chaengwattana still want proof that the money once came from abroad in order to give me a non-Imm 0?

[ubonjoe]

24 minutes ago, Kiujunn said:

1. If arrived on a tourist visa TR (not visa-exempt), can I change my visa at Chaengwattana into a non-Imm 0 (and then later get a retirement extension)?

Yes

 

25 minutes ago, Kiujunn said:

2. If 800,000 have been in my Thai bank account for over 3 months already,  would Chaengwattana still want proof that the money once came from abroad in order to give me a non-Imm 0?

They should accept it. But it is not hard to get proof it came abroad if it was  transferred it recently.

People that have been before for a long time have problems since it could be several transfers over a number of years.

[Peter Denis]

1 hour ago, Kiujunn said:

...

2. If 800,000 have been in my Thai bank account for over 3 months already,  would Chaengwattana still want proof that the money once came from abroad in order to give me a non-Imm 0?

Do you already have a personal Thai bank-account with +800K parked on it. or would you open such a bank-account immediately on arrival and then spice it with +800K?

In the latter case, IO would insist on you providing evidence that the funds originated from abroad.

When you already had a Thai bank-account with the +800K parked on it before arrival in Thailand Visa Exempt or on a 60-day Tourist Visa, and you cannot get hold anymore on the bank-evidence that it originated from abroad, it would be worthwhile to contact your local IO before applying for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa, and asking whether they would still want you to provide evidence of the foreign origins of the Funds.  If so, you would have to go through the crazy exercise of having to transfer the funds abroad again (e.g. DeeMoney provides such service), and then transferring them back in again (e.g. by making use of TransferWise).  Obviously you would have to pay twice a transfer-fee and even when using the cheapest transfer service providers that would easily amount to 2% of the full sum (so approx 20.000 THB transfer service fees for transferring the 800K out and back in again).  

[Kiujunn]

What kind of proof would Chaengwattana want to see if they insist on proof that the money came from abroad?  FET from the bank?

Is it necessary that the money comes from my own foreign bank account,  or can someone else send 800000 from abroad into my Thai bank account? 

[RickSee]

On 1/17/2021 at 4:38 AM, Peter Denis said:

Alternatively, if you do not like having to visit your local IO three times in a 3 month-period, you could of course apply for the 1-year MultipleEntry Non Imm O-A Visa in your home-country.

That Visa does allow you to stay almost 2 years IO hassle-free in Thailand, with no need to visit a local IO for an extension of stay application, and with no need to park/transfer funds to a personal Thai bank-account.  Since you already have 800K on your Thai bank-account, you can even use proof of those funds to apply for that Visa in your home-country, and once you got the Non Imm O-A Visa you are free to use the funds as your please. 

The only draw-back of the Non Imm O-A Visa is that since October 2019 you need a Non Imm O-A compliant health-insurance policy to apply for that Visa at the Thai Embassy/Consulate in your home-country.  But contrary to the common narrative obtaining such an insurance policy is neither difficult nor costly (if you know how).

>> PM me if you like to receive a Guideline document on how to meet that insurance requirement when applying for the Non Imm O-A Visa.

I don't understand the ref to staying "almost two years".  What does the O-A holder need to do to get the second year?

 

[ubonjoe]

8 minutes ago, RickSee said:

What does the O-A holder need to do to get the second year?

Leave and re-enter the country to get another one year entry before the OA visa expires. And of course insurance valid for one year from the day you enter.

You need a re-entry permit to keep that entry valid if you want to travel.

[Peter Denis]

5 minutes ago, RickSee said:

I don't understand the ref to staying "almost two years".  What does the O-A holder need to do to get the second year?

A 1-year Multiple-Entry Non Imm O-A Visa will provide you with a 1-year permission to stay stamp on entering Thailand during its 1-year validity from date of issue.  By exiting and re-entering Thailand just before your 1-year Non Imm O-A Visa validity expire, you will thus once again receive a 1-year permission to stay.  Hence you can squeeze almost two years of stay out of that Visa.

Note: Be aware that the 1-year permission to stay you will receive on re-entry will be capped to the validity of the mandatory health-insurance for the Non Imm O-A Visa. 

[RickSee]

7 minutes ago, Peter Denis said:

A 1-year Multiple-Entry Non Imm O-A Visa will provide you with a 1-year permission to stay stamp on entering Thailand during its 1-year validity from date of issue.  By exiting and re-entering Thailand just before your 1-year Non Imm O-A Visa validity expire, you will thus once again receive a 1-year permission to stay.  Hence you can squeeze almost two years of stay out of that Visa.

Note: Be aware that the 1-year permission to stay you will receive on re-entry will be capped to the validity of the mandatory health-insurance for the Non Imm O-A Visa. 

Thanks for that.  Does that mean one must demonstrate that the health insurance used for the initial application for the O-A must stipulate at least two years validity?

[Peter Denis]

3 minutes ago, RickSee said:

Thanks for that.  Does that mean one must demonstrate that the health insurance used for the initial application for the O-A must stipulate at least two years validity?

Ideally, if you can get your international insurer to mention on the Foreign Insurance Certificate that it is valid for 2 years, and those 2 years are taken over by the Thai Embassy on the insurance note on the Non Imm O-A Visa sticker, that would solve the issue. 

A Thai insurance will only provide 1 year of coverage, so it would be a matter of renewing that insurance before exiting/re-entering to take advantage of that 2nd year the Non Imm O-A Visa can provide you.  Also if your foreign insurance only provides coverage for 1 year (as mentioned on the FIC) , you would have to subscribe to a Thai insurance to get hold of that 2nd year.

Sounds difficult, but is actually quite easy and not costly to meet that health-insurance requirement.

PM me if you'd like to receive a comprehensive Guideline document with full details/options of how to do that.

[cormanr7]

On 1/17/2021 at 6:14 PM, Kiujunn said:

What kind of proof would Chaengwattana want to see if they insist on proof that the money came from abroad?  FET from the bank?

Is it necessary that the money comes from my own foreign bank account,  or can someone else send 800000 from abroad into my Thai bank account? 

You can ask your Thai bank to write a letter stating that xxx,xxx Baht arrived in your Thai account on y-y-y dates totalling at least 800 K  (does not have to be 800,000+ in one go, some countries only allow 10,000 US$ or the equivalent to send abroad without a paper hassle. Note that the seasoning period only starts when it reaches 800,000+). This is how I did it anyway. From the codes in your passbook it can be seen anyway that the money came from abroad, but this alone is not accepted as proof -at least at CW- as far as I know. As far as I am aware it does not have to come from any bank account you own abroad, so anyone can send it.  

[Kiujunn]

?

[Kiujunn]

22 minutes ago, cormanr7 said:

 Note that the seasoning period only starts when it reaches 800,000+). This is how I did it anyway. From the codes in your passbook it can be seen anyway that the money came from abroad, but this alone is not accepted as proof -at least at CW- as far as I know. As far as I am aware it does not have to come from any bank account you own abroad, so anyone can send it.  

Seasoning?

How is seasoning of 2 months possible in the case that someone arrives visa-exempt or on tourist visa and then applies for non-imm 0 at CW?

[Peter Denis]

17 minutes ago, Kiujunn said:

Seasoning?

How is seasoning of 2 months possible in the case that someone arrives visa-exempt or on tourist visa and then applies for non-imm 0 at CW?

When applying for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa at your local IO using the Funds-in-Bank method you only need to provide evidence that the funds are on your personal Thai bank-account at the moment of application, with foreign origins proven.  When applying in the last month of those 90 days at that same local IO for the subsequent 1-year extension of stay, you need to provide evidence that the funds were seasoned for at least 2 months.  For extensions of stay when using the Funds-in-Bank method, there is no need to prove the foreign origins of those funds anymore (as you did that already when applying for the original Non Imm O Visa).

[Kiujunn]

1 hour ago, Peter Denis said:

When applying for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa at your local IO using the Funds-in-Bank method you only need to provide evidence that the funds are on your personal Thai bank-account at the moment of application, with foreign origins proven.  When applying in the last month of those 90 days at that same local IO for the subsequent 1-year extension of stay, you need to provide evidence that the funds were seasoned for at least 2 months.  For extensions of stay when using the Funds-in-Bank method, there is no need to prove the foreign origins of those funds anymore (as you did that already when applying for the original Non Imm O Visa).

Thank you,  this makes sense. 

[cormanr7]

2 hours ago, cormanr7 said:

You can ask your Thai bank to write a letter stating that xxx,xxx Baht arrived in your Thai account on y-y-y dates totalling at least 800 K  (does not have to be 800,000+ in one go, some countries only allow 10,000 US$ or the equivalent to send abroad without a paper hassle. Note that the seasoning period only starts when it reaches 800,000+). This is how I did it anyway. From the codes in your passbook it can be seen anyway that the money came from abroad, but this alone is not accepted as proof -at least at CW- as far as I know. As far as I am aware it does not have to come from any bank account you own abroad, so anyone can send it.  

Oops, forget about the seasoning for the conversion, was going too fast. However, the letter stating funds come from abroad was 'the most important document' according to the IO at the time I did the conversion.