# Retirement visa question



## hutchings1909

can any body tell me please im on retirement visa which should run out on the 14th of june but because of weekends and holidays,on my passport is only up to the 30 may,can i go to immigration on the 30th and get my passport stamped till the 14th of june?


----------



## Cer

hutchings1909 said:


> can any body tell me please im on retirement visa which should run out on the 14th of june but because of weekends and holidays,on my passport is only up to the 30 may,can i go to immigration on the 30th and get my passport stamped till the 14th of june?


You can het your extension 2-3 weeks ahead of the final date,without any problem.


----------



## hutchings1909

well i went to mai sai got 2 weeks extension on my visa so now i have 1 year and 2 weeks on my 90 day reporting.


----------



## Cer

hutchings1909 said:


> well i went to mai sai got 2 weeks extension on my visa so now i have 1 year and 2 weeks on my 90 day reporting.


Don't know what you mean?
Visa extensions are a complete different thing, compared to 90 days reports.
I know people who never do a 90 days report (because they travel a lot and are never more than 90 days in the country) and they do have a year visa.If you not leave the country you will need to make the 90 days visit.


----------



## Digitalwolf2017

If I remember correctly, if I get a retirement visa one of the requirements is that I put 25K into a Thai bank which does not gain interest. My question is, will my wife, who is also an American, also need her own 25K too?


----------



## Cer

Digitalwolf2017 said:


> If I remember correctly, if I get a retirement visa one of the requirements is that I put 25K into a Thai bank which does not gain interest. My question is, will my wife, who is also an American, also need her own 25K too?


You will need 800K or 65K/month or combination of both.
Your wife can obtain a dependent (on you) visa.
Check with the Thai embassy in your home country


----------



## Digitalwolf2017

"You will need 800K or 65K/month or combination of both."

...so

That is $25,086.40 as of today, 26 June 2012, in US dollars, and or $ 2038.27 a month.

Do I understand you correctly, that my wife with a "dependent visa" would not need her own savings and or retirement income (as listed above)?


----------



## Cer

Like I wrote in previous message,get your 100% correct info from Thai embassy.
I retired 8 years ago and my wife was Thais, so I only read about this subject.


----------



## joseph44

Digitalwolf2017 said:


> "You will need 800K or 65K/month or combination of both."
> 
> ...so
> 
> That is $25,086.40 as of today, 26 June 2012, in US dollars, and or $ 2038.27 a month.
> 
> Do I understand you correctly, that my wife with a "dependent visa" would not need her own savings and or retirement income (as listed above)?


Yes, if your wife gets a dependent visa she won't need to comply with the financial requirements. 
A few years ago, the Thai government was about to change this, but due to a lot of protests they skipped this plan.

Asking the nearest Thai Embassy or Consulate about the exact requirements may be a risk, because they only know the requirements for a visa and not 100% for extensions. 
Visa are submitted by Embassies and Consulates and they are Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Extensions are submitted by Immigration and that's Ministry of Interior Affairs (Royal Thai Police)

It may be even possible to work with a foreign bank account or a Thai bank-account in foreign currency.


----------



## Cer

If you go for the Non O-A (only available at your home country (!),you can use your own home country account,but if you are in Thailand you will need a Thai bankaccount.It highly depends on the immigration office that you deal with.Some don't accept fixed deposit accounts but only saving accounts.Low interest in that case.


----------



## Digitalwolf2017

Thanks everyone great info and suggestions.


----------



## Cer

http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/doc/temporarystay/policy777-2551_en.pdf

see point 2.20


----------



## Digitalwolf2017

*Pdf*



Cer said:


> http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/doc/temporarystay/policy777-2551_en.pdf
> 
> see point 2.20



Amazing. Thanks Cer for your time and help!


----------



## Glen10

I dont know about the dependent deal, so if thats the route you want to take you should do what the other guy suggested and check with the embassy. But the way i understand things is that after you get the visa you can take the money out of the account. If that's the case your wife could then deposit it into her account and use it for her visa.


----------



## Cer

Glen10 said:


> I dont know about the dependent deal, so if thats the route you want to take you should do what the other guy suggested and check with the embassy. But the way i understand things is that after you get the visa you can take the money out of the account. If that's the case your wife could then deposit it into her account and use it for her visa.


You can take the money out of the account as long as it is back at least 3 months before going for the next year's extension.
*To the best of my knowledge*,the wife will not need money on a account for that dependent visa/extension.


----------



## Glen10

good to know. hadn't looked into it in detail since I'm not quite 50. just assumed you did the original process over. make sense you would have to do it at least a few weeks before you renewed.


----------



## dhream

Cer said:


> Don't know what you mean?
> Visa extensions are a complete different thing, compared to 90 days reports.
> I know people who never do a 90 days report (because they travel a lot and are never more than 90 days in the country) and they do have a year visa.If you not leave the country you will need to make the 90 days visit.



I never knew this, I was in China last month, and so I may have 'wasted' a 90 day report because just last week, I reported within 90 days of my last stamp, not 90 days of when I re-entered Thailand, which was 16 September... of course they don't staple a new 90 day report ticket in your passport when you do this, so are you sure? It could get expensive if this info is incorrect!


----------



## joseph44

Cer is right.
If you leave the country within the 90-day-report-period you basically report your stay upon arriving by filling in the arrival/departure card.
However..........take out the 90-day-report slip of your passport if you're about to report a new 90-day-period; the immigration are easily confused 

Maybe good to know..........there is a 15 day before and 7 day after margin. So a 90-day-report can be made in between the 75th and 96th day after your last entry/report.


----------



## tod-daniels

There's a little misunderstanding about the 90 day reporting here...

You ONLY do a 90 day report IF you've been in (or will be in) Thailand for 90 calendar days. 

There is no "If you leave the country within the 90-day-report-period you basically report your stay upon arriving by filling in the arrival/departure card".

They are completely different things. If you aren't here 90 calendar days, you don't have to report! You start counting days from the day you arrive and if you're not gonna leave Thailand within 90 days, you are obligated to report , period.. End of story

About the only thing which was related correctly was there is a 15 day before OR 7 day after window to do your 90 day report. 

DO NOT mis-read that and think if you're leaving thailand a few days after your 90 day report is due that it's okay, because it ain't! Now with every border in this country tied together the Immigration offices can see when you left, when you entered and when you're due OR overdue for your 90 day reporting.. I watched a guy who mis-remembered that 15/7 rule at Chaengwattana the other day. He'd left the country on the 94 day, thinking he didn't have to report. Once he got back he counted 90 days and went to report, they fined him 2000 baht, which is the minimum fine for failure to report on time.

Oh, and DON'T take the 90 day report form out of your passport! Everything on the form is right except the date, which you just cross out. Passport control at the borders don't care about that form because they don't do 90 day reporting...


----------



## joseph44

Tod, without going into a discussion about terminologies; the TM47 form which is used for reporting a stay longer than 90-days says it clearly: "FORM FOR ALIEN TO NOTIFY OF STAYING LONGER THAN 90 DAYS"
So, if you do not stay longer than 90 days or you leave the country before the 90-day period has finished, there is no need to "report"........basically the term "report" is not correct.........you have to "notify" that you will be staying longer than 90 days.

Every time you enter Thailand you have to report your stay by filling in the Arrival/Departure card including an address.


----------



## tod-daniels

Now we're splitting haresm sorry, not rabbits, I mean we're splitting hairs over terminology..

You can call it what you wanna call it;
As long as you understand that your two piece arrival/departure card called a TM.6 doesn't "report" for you or count for anything except at passport control when you cross a border. It especially doesn't mean anything concerning the staff who man and take the 90 day reports, err notifications at Immigrations. Other than as I pointed out Immigrations staff can now see when/where you exited/re-entered the country on their computer screen when they key in your passport number.. 

Leave the country before 90 days you don't report, err turn in a TM.47. Stay in country 90 days and you're obligated to turn in a TM.47, even if you're leaving on the 91st day. When you re-enter, you start counting the days again. The only thing exiting and re-entering the country does is re-start the 90 day clock in the eyez of the thaiz..


----------



## Elmo2905

Good question Digital Wolf 2017! We are exploring the possibilities of Thai retirement and I was wondering the same thing regarding both of us needing the financial requirements. Have you gotten any new updates regarding the requirements for an American married couple? Some of the info varies from site to site it seems.


----------



## joseph44

Elmo2905 said:


> Good question Digital Wolf 2017! We are exploring the possibilities of Thai retirement and I was wondering the same thing regarding both of us needing the financial requirements. Have you gotten any new updates regarding the requirements for an American married couple? Some of the info varies from site to site it seems.


In case of a married couple (both foreigners) who'd like to stay in Thai based on a retirement-visa just ONE of the partners needs to apply for a retirement-visa. 
Subsequently the partner can apply for a so called dependent visa.

So, only the "retiree" needs to show the funds (income and/or bankaccount).
To enable the partner to apply for a dependent visa, a marriage-certificate is basically enough. 

The reason that you read different "rules" on different sites is mainly that the rules change from time to time and not every webmaster can keep up.

Beware: If you're going to apply for a non-immigrant-visa, check the website of the Embassy of Consulate you're going to apply. 
It happens that (especially) Consulates have slightly different requirements regarding documents.


----------



## tod-daniels

"joseph44" is correct for the most part... Ever since Thai Immigrations went to "Zone Immigrations" about 4 years ago, people are required to use the office located in the zone where they live or stay for their immigrations needs.

While there is indeed a "dependent extension of stay" where by the spouse of someone who get's a year extension of stay can also "piggy back" and get a year as well, SOME immigrations offices are demanding BOTH people meet the financial requirements for the extension.

It is NOT everywhere, and I know for a fact it's NOT in Bangkok at all. Of all the Immigrations offices scattered hither and yon around this country, Bangkok runs closest to how the rules are really written.

My advice to"Elmo2905", email the Thai Honorary Consulates in the US, ask specifically for a "90 day, single entry, Non-Immigrant Type-O visa" because you're going to extend it inside thailand. Get one for you and your spouse as that will cut two steps out of the process. Like I said, use the exact term I just typed because what you don't want is a year long multi-entry Non-Immigrant Type-OA visa!

When you arrive here you'll be stamped in for 90 days. Once that's down to 45 days or less in Bangkok (some places require 30 days or less), go to Immigrations and apply for a yearly extension of stay based on retirement by meeting the financial requirements. 

Once you get the year extension stamped into your passport, make a copy of it and use it to apply for the "piggy-back", dependent extension for your spouse.

It'll fly thru in Bangkok for sure, other places have varying degrees of success with it. 

Good Luck,
Tod Daniels


----------



## mickymac

We are currently in our 9th month living here. In another 3 months it will be time to apply again for a one year O/A retirement visa. It is a little confusing for us here because we are pensioners who get paid in canadian funds into a canadian bank account. We meet the financial requirements but am wondering what documents are needed and any tips on helping us through the process here in Thailand is appreciated.


----------



## tod-daniels

mickymac said:


> We are currently in our 9th month living here. In another 3 months it will be time to apply again for a one year O/A retirement visa. It is a little confusing for us here because we are pensioners who get paid in canadian funds into a canadian bank account. We meet the financial requirements but am wondering what documents are needed and any tips on helping us through the process here in Thailand is appreciated.


Okay, first off what you're NOT doing is applying for a Non-Immigrant Type-OA visa. Let's get that right out of the way. An OA is applied for in the country you come from BEFORE you come here.

What you're going to do is apply for a "yearly extension of stay" based on being over 50 (called 'retirement'), meeting the financial requirements and being inside thailand whilst doin' so.

Interestingly enough I just spoke to the Canadian Embassy about this exact thing yesterday and was there today. 

You can get a hold of them about a month before you need to apply for your yearly extension (so if I read your post correct, that's in about another two months). 

You download the last 4 or 5 months of your bank statements from your bank in Canada. Personally, I'd only download the deposits as it makes it easier to understand, but you can download every transaction and just highlight the monthly deposits. OR you can take the paper you get every year from who ever pays your pension as well that shows what you get a month. Either will work.. 

You take the above documentation and your passport to the Canadian Embassy. They will give you a form to fill out stating you get XXX dollars Canadian every month. They will notarize it and you will use that as proof of meeting the financial requirements for getting a yearly extension of stay.

Now depending on where you are in the country different immigrations offices do things differently and my experience is ONLY dealing with Bangkok Immigrations out at the government complex in Chaengwattana.

I know the verification of income from abroad letter works because i've used them from various embassies all the time. This will be the first Canadian embassy letter and I'll know for sure tomorrow when I accompany a Cannuck out to Chaengwattana tomorrow for their yearly extension of stay. 

I'll definitely report back. I honestly don't think there will be any problem.. But like I said, I'll report back..

At the Canadian Embassy, the area you want to go to is called Consular Affairs. They're ONLY open from 9-12 Mon-Fri. You don't need an appointment. Here's the link to their website in Bangkok;
Canadian Embassy Bangkok

Good Luck, hope it helped. If you have questions, send me a P/M
Tod Daniels


----------

