thalenoi Posted December 2, 2003 Report Share Posted December 2, 2003 First you need to apply for a non-immigrant "O" at your local country Thai embassy. Then you need to bring 800k baht to a thai bank or 65k month (how do you prove you the latter) to extent your non-immigrant "O" type 90 days visa in Thailand If you need to get back occasionally to farangland you also need to request a multyple entry 1 year visa at additional cost of 5k baht? I know you can also ask for that one year retirement visa in your country of residence, but the request must go to Bangkok and I have only one month in farangland. My idea was to have 800k baht deposited long time in Thai bank, using these funds to repeat the process every year. But, I need (and want) to go farangland every 6 months. Therefore it seems easier, less expensive and less hassle to ask a one year non-imm "O" once a year in home country, providing proof of sufficient funds and to do 2 visa runs to cover the 2 x 6 months periods, at a cost now of 5k baht. It also seems difficule or inpossible to get these 800k baht back out of the country if need would arise. Anyone has some thought about this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lopburi3 Posted December 3, 2003 Report Share Posted December 3, 2003 or 65k month (how do you prove you the latter) With a notarized statement from your Embassy (either your word of copies of vouchers used as proof) if in country; or copies of pay/retirement to Consulate if in home country. Yearly cost will be 1,900 application plus 3,800 multi re entry permit. You need a reason to obtain a multi entry O visa, as not married, so your plan to just use this is dependent on very liberal consulates, which in turn seems to be a big question mark. If you are concerned about keeping too much money in a bank here I would consider using perhaps 200k in a bank and income paperwork to cover the rest. Under normal conditions it would not be a big problem taking money out of your account but in the event of changes only a (relatively) small amount would be at risk. At this time all you need to do is use an atm card overseas to withdraw money from a Thai account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickfarang Posted December 4, 2003 Report Share Posted December 4, 2003 I am curious as to what your baisis for requesting a type O would be. So far, I think doing the tourist visa makes the most sense to me, though I have to admit the drill of making out the application and express mailing it to the consulate three or four times a year is getting a bit old (also fills up those visa pages and my passport is getting heavier and heavier...). Lopburi3's idea of only suffing a couple hundred K in the bank is appealing as I see that putting 800k in as probably being impossible to take out, except a couple hundred dollars at a time via ATM. That bothers me, but everything does. To answer your questions, from my own pont of view, a retirement visa means you don't have to make visa runs quite as often. It would also mean a residence permit if I wanted to rent an apartment in my own name, or have any number of things that require a residence permit: driving license, internet account, landline telephone, automobile, etc. Probably not worth making the 800k committment (though I spend close to that in a year anyway) to a country that can't make a committment to me (that's waht's really bugging me). Sorry for the run-on rant. RickF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zen4dummies Posted December 6, 2003 Report Share Posted December 6, 2003 I converted a 60 day tourist visa to an O visa to a retirement visa. I had to have the 800k baht in the bank for both conversions and proof that it came from out of the country. As far as I know I could transfer the 800k back to my US account through my Thai bank, Kasikorn (AKA Thai Farmers Bank). They only want to see evidence of the money at the time of the conversion. I will renew my retirement visa in Feb and will have to top up the account then. When I converted the tourist visa to an O visa the officer wanted to see 800k in my account. He was not interested in monthly income. BTW, you can go to the bank and withdraw more then the ATM 20k limit if you need to. 'What's the advantage of a retirement visa?' The retirement visa is good for one year so after you are on a retirement visa you only pay for one renewal per year instead of four. You would only pay the multiple entry fee once per year and the visa fee once per year. You do not need to make any visa runs, the conversion is done at the immigration office here in BKK. My experience with the conversions may not be what other people experience. I had no trouble but a retired Kiwi airline pilot kept running into walls when converting to an O and he had 16 megabaht in a Thai bank. zen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickfarang Posted December 7, 2003 Report Share Posted December 7, 2003 Zen, I agree with your points - the hassle factor is a lot lower with the visa. Especially when I realize that I am planning my travel between these two countries based on the hassle factor (Let's see...if I stay over 60 days its a visa run or a trip to the Immigration office...If I take a trip to Malaysia or Cambodia, it should coincide with a visa run so I don't screw up a 60 day visa...) instead of when I really want to be where. It sure would be nice to have the freedom to enter and leave the country at will that you enjoy. RickF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwood13 Posted December 7, 2003 Report Share Posted December 7, 2003 I obtained an O-A retirement visa in Oct. in the US. One reason being the convenience of not having to make visa runs to obtain a new tourist visa every 90 days (60 days + a 30 day extention). However, there is also talk that there MAY be a tightening of rules re 60 day tourist visas, so that only a limited number of these would be issued to an individual within a certain time frame. Also, similar talk that the financial requirements for a retirement visa MAY be raised next year. In the past as I understand it they have "grandfathered" those with existing retirement visas when financial requirements were increased and hopefully for me this will be true for any future increase. -redwood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thalenoi Posted December 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2003 redwood13 said:I obtained an O-A retirement visa in Oct. in the US. -redwood So you got this retirement visa in the US without having money in a Thai bank, just a proof of at least 65k baht/month income or sufficient funds in a US bank? And how long did it take? (needed approval from Bangkok Suan Plu Immigration? The possible increase on funds might be a good reason to get an O-A visa, although you can live decently on less then 65k baht. I have a one year multiple entry O visa which I obtained by providing a letter from the institution paying my monthly retirement allowance. I need to make visa runs every 90 days, but also need to return to my home country every 6 months. This visa will expire Jan 6 and I will hit LOS Jan 7...So I hesitate between renewing a one year multiple entry O or an O-A... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickfarang Posted December 9, 2003 Report Share Posted December 9, 2003 Redwood, Did you get the visa from the Los Angeles consulate???? RickF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwood13 Posted December 9, 2003 Report Share Posted December 9, 2003 thalenoi said: redwood13 said:I obtained an O-A retirement visa in Oct. in the US. -redwood So you got this retirement visa in the US without having money in a Thai bank, just a proof of at least 65k baht/month income or sufficient funds in a US bank? And how long did it take? (needed approval from Bangkok Suan Plu Immigration? The possible increase on funds might be a good reason to get an O-A visa, although you can live decently on less then 65k baht. Yes, I used a combination of retirement income + proof of funds in my US bank account to meet the financial requirements. I submitted an official statement re the monthly income, a letter from my bank stating that of said date I had X number of dollars in my checking & savings accounts and also furnished a copy of my last monthly bank statement. The O-A visa is issued by the Thai Consulate or Embassy. It does not need the approval of Suan Plu. I submitted my application and supporting documents by mail and it took only a few days to get it approved. An email acquaintance said he submitted his application in person and only waited 5 minutes before he walked out with his O-A. Getting the supporting documents together took most of the time. I had to get a new passport as it has to have a validity of 18 months (I think that's correct) and that now takes 6 weeks for routine service in the US. I used the FBI for my criminal record clearance and that took 3 weeks BUT I made out the money order incorrectly and had to resubmit and so it was actually 6 weeks to get that. I later found some folks are just using their local police dept. for this and that could have been done in one day where I was living. The O-A visa is valid for 1 year on arrival in Thailand. I will from time to time wire money from my US bank to my Thai bank account for living expenses. And next Oct. when I go to Thai immigration for my 1 year extension of my O-A visa I'll have to show X number of baht in my account + monthly income. And maybe proof of dollars being brought into the country per bank records. Some folks feel that in the future the authorities may not care how little you can live on but will demand proof of a minimum income/bank account to live here long term. Hope this is helpful in making your decision. Please ask further questions if you need to do so or PM me. -redwood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwood13 Posted December 9, 2003 Report Share Posted December 9, 2003 rickfarang said:Redwood, Did you get the visa from the Los Angeles consulate???? RickF No way! I'm sure you know about how unlikely that would be :: :: (For those of you who don't know, the Los Angeles Consulate is notorious for being VERY unfriendly toward anyone seeking a retirement visa. "luckfarang" is the only person I know of who's gotten one there in the last couple of years. Also, Los Angeles has jurisdiction over the Western USA and if you live in one of those states I believe you're supposed to deal with LA. That is, the Thai consulates in other states _may_ refuse your application.) No, went I went back to California in June to clean out my stuff I'd left in storage there I'd decided to get an O visa and then apply for a retirement visa in Pattaya. (I'd previously been denied a retirement visa at Suan Plua as they would not allow the use of any monthly income to meet the financial requirements - had to be 800K in a Thai bank account.) Then I got in touch with a guy who had just got an O-A from an Honorary Consulate with ease so I decided to go that route. Since I live in California I thought I would use a friend's address in the state where that consulate is located however shortly after that I heard from someone else who lived in California and had gotten an O-A from this same honorary consulate using his California address, so I did it that way, but always keeping in mind that if it didn't work I could still likely get it done in Pattaya. The one advantange in using this consulate was that they did not require any documents to be notarized. It was all very much straightforward once I got all the required paperwork together. I don't think it's a good idea to mention the name of the consulate in any forum but if anyone wants to PM me please do so and I'll give you the particulars. I say this because it's a very small office and if they get inundated with inqueries per phone, FAX & mail they might have to limit applicates to in state only. -redwood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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