Are you really locked into using an agency for visa renewals in Thailand?

I’m writing this from experience if you stick 800k in your thai bank it has to be in a single savings account you cannot have a joint account . In case of your unexpected death even tho you have made a thai will to get the bank to release your monies requires getting a lawyer who then has to apply to the courts in order for the court to issue an order for the bank to release the funds this is a very lengthy process and can take many months

The one time that I heard a viable reason why you should not use an agent was when the visa process was done in a province far from where the person lived. once you do a visa you are locked into that location for the rest of your duration here in Thailand.

they already explained it to you it is about the financial requirements ...if you use an agent for a non 0 based on marriage you will need to prove next year you had the money in the bank account for 14 months not 2 months to keep you locked in the system ..even with people like me who have money every year they tried to ask new things that were never asked before to make you annoyed so you use the agent ..the reason are pretty obvious this year they asked me to go back and take a picture of me and my wife in the garage where the cars are...or they ask the house registration of the kids...or anything they want to

To make this clear, If you know all about Thailand, language, culture, their process, or whatever, there is no reason to hire agents at all. You can do it by yourself in easy way. There are some foreigners who do this by themselves. or if you have your Thai wife who also knows well and have skills about all doing by herself, no agents needed, Your thai wife is doing as good agent. no doubt on this. And, if someone has just good luck, all things can be done easy by himself without any assistance. Also, if someone has so many free times to do it by himself, and fine with getting through all nonsense Thai authority things, like bank, immigration or other authorities, he or she can do it alone without agents. By Thai law, Visa agents are totally legal and hiring agents for any of authority issues is also total legal. Like, if you go to lawful issue, you hire lawyer for you. And the lawyer does everything for you. But if you know all about laws, or yourself is a lawyer, you do not need to hire any lawyer. You do it alone by yourself. No agent, no extra cost. That is better for everyone. But in fact, there are foreigners who do not know about Thailand at all, or no skills or knowhow how to do it so,, or sensitive on stress or headache when problems with Thai authorities. and enough money to pay for them, and Time is so valuable for them. They do not want to spend their valuable time for such thai authorities. Or someone who is not in good health, so he better get relaxed and peace while his agent works for him. It is really up to individual options to hire agent or not. There are also people here who are satisfied with their agents and their jobs done, and they want to hire their agents for long time. This can make their life easy in Thailand and they are able to pay for agents . If I have enough money for that, I would hire agents to work for me all the time while I am relaxed or focus on my productive activities. Again, all up to personal choice and circumstance.

One thing to keep in mind is that falsifying bank accounts/statements is actually fraud and carries penalties if investigated.

I have used multiple agents to get my O's retirement visa for five years. I might have used three agents. I have now switched to DTV, which I did myself, and I am free from all Thai bureaucratic nonsense.

You are absolutely not locked in to using the agent. I started my retirement Visa process with a great agent and I can choose to use her or not. Of course I do because anything immigration related automatically goes to her. I have better things to do with my time!

Reading through these comments is making my head spin…..why is it so complicated?

So why can you not take out the 800k then pay in to your Thai bank every month 66k or above to meet the requirements on the next extension

You are not locked into using an agent if you already meet the financial requirements re bank account balance. Don’t believe the misinformation.

Basically it's if you can afford to have those funds tied up,for that amount of time,if you can't,an agent is your only option.

Most people that use an agent do so to avoid the requirement to keep 800,000 baht for their application.

One of the requirements for the ongoing retirement extensions is that your Thai bank account must be at 800,000 for 2 months before your extension application, and then 3 months after. It can never drop below 400,000 baht the remainder of the year, and must be back up to 800,000 for next year's extension.

When you go for the next year's extension, they require a 12 month bank statement to ensure you met those requirements from the previous extension (800k for 3 months after you received it, and 400k the remainder).

If you use an agent for the funds, you will not be able to show this 12 month bank statement and they will deny your extension based on failing to meet last year's requirements. Therefore you'll need to use an agent again (not necessarily the same agent) to get your extension.

There are a few other reasons that can lock you into using agents, but this is the primary one.