Can I upgrade my 90-day retirement O visa to a 1-year extension while outside Thailand?

No such thing as a 90 day retirement O visa.

We are now talking about the most common and persisting misunderstandings regarding the applications for the “retirement visa” and the subsequent “one-year extension of stay permit based on retirement”

The best way to reach your goal is to show up in Thailand on a “90-days single entry Non-Imm-O Retirement/over 50 years visa” you have applied for and got issued in your home country in the E-Visa online system of the Thai embassy or consulate. On this visa-class, you will get stamped in for a 90-days stay permit.

*** It’s always better to show up in Thailand on a 90-days Non-Imm-O Visa issued in your home country, because on this visa you are allowed to open a bank account.

It helps in opening a bank account in the first week after arrival, with or without the help of an agent, and then 60 days after your 800,000 THB deposit was transferred into the account, the money will have seasoned the required 2 months and you can directly apply for the 1-year Extension of Stay.

After having entered Thailand, you need to get registered in your accommodation per TM30 within 24 hours of arrival in the premises. If you have booked a hotel stay, the hotel will automatically register you per TM30 in the system. If you rent or live in a friend’s house or apartment, the landlord or the friend has to register you.

Right after you got properly registered, you can get a “certificate of residency” from Immigration especially issued for opening a bank account, and with this and your passport, and a Thai mobile SIM card registered to your name, you can get a Thai bank account opened. I recommend using the Kasikorn Bank.

In case you meet non-cooperative bank staff, use the service of an agent to get a bank account opened, it should be had for around 5000 Baht.

Within this 90-days stay permit period, you have plenty of time to arrange for the application to the “1-year extended stay permit based on retirement” (which people wrongly refer to as a “retirement visa”). This stamp is not a visa. It is an extended stay permit.

*** In order to apply for the “90-days single entry Non-Imm-O retirement visa” through the online E-visa system at the Royal Thai Embassy of your home country (or also in any other country using the e-visa system) you can

Either

use the proof of income of a monthly minimum of equivalent of 65,000 THB, by using your original pension statements or other income documentation.

Or

you use a deposit of a minimum of 800,000 THB or the equivalent in your home country currency, or on your home bank account, or on a Thai bank, or just anywhere in the World – as long as the account is in your sole name

*** However, for the application inside Thailand for the “1-year extension of stay permit” out of the 90-days Non-Imm-O retirement visa, if you are a citizen of a country whose embassy in Thailand does not issue the “income affidavit” any more, you would need a 12-months bank statement, showing that for the past 12 months, you have been transferring from abroad to your Thai bank account a minimum of 65,000 THB, consecutively month for month, not missing a single month.

This affects citizens of the USA, UK, Australia, Norway and Canada.

*** If however your embassy still issues a legalized affidavit of income, you can use this method for the financial proof, as long as you can show a monthly income or pension of a minimum of 65,000 THB

*** For above mentioned citizens, in the first year there is no other option than depositing a minimum of 800,000 THB in your Thai bank account and use this deposit for the financial proof. For the application to the “one year extension of temporary stay permit based on being over 50/retired” you a minimum of 800,000 THB in your Thai bank account, and the funds must have “seasoned” for a minimum of 2 months. You need the “bank letter of guarantee” (in Thai: rab roong thanakan) from your bank that confirms the seasoning.

*** The alternative would be, if you don’t have that kind of money or are not willing to deposit 800,000 THB in your Thai Bank account, paying an agent a hefty sum (mostly in the range of 32-60,000 THB) to “arrange” the requirements

The downside would be, you get stuck with the agent for a while. You will need an agent to fix your 800k issue. You will stay trapped in the agent’s hamster wheel and have to use them, unless you break the chain.

To qualify you will need the 800k fronted by the agent the first year and simultaneously deposit 65k per month for 12 months without fail, to qualify the 2nd year for income method. Yet this is not enough to enable you to escape the hamster wheel.

So if you use an agent, you will not qualify for the 2nd year as you did not have the money in the first year. You will need the agent grease the palms again.

*** NOTE: It is income method OR deposit method.

There is a third method, called the “combination method”:

a combination, a mix of income and deposit. Some Immigrations don not allow the combination method in the first year. Some Immigrations want the deposit part to exceed 400,000 THB. The combination method means that the sum of the deposit AND the monthly income exceeds 800,000 THB in one year.

But let’s continue with the “normal method” (Non-O visa issued in your home country, followed by the application to the Extension of Stay inside Thailand)

*** Immigration will only service you if you got properly registered in your accommodation in the TM30 system.

Every landlord or hotel needs to register you within 24 hours of your arrival in the premises. While hotels do this automatically online, many landlords are not aware of this or haven’t registered their house or rooms in the system.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you get properly TM30 registered, because commonly you are the one who will pay the fine, not the landlord.

*** After been issued the “1-year Extension of Stay”, the 800,000 THB need to remain in the account for 3 more months. After these 3 months, the deposit shall never go under 400,000 THB. Before your application for the next “1-year Extension of Stay”, a minimum of 800,000 THB must have seasoned in the account for two months, again.

*** Now as soon as you have collected 12 months of foreign bank transfers and you are ready to switch from the 800K deposit proof to the 12-months bank statement proof, you can, after the new 1-year extension got stamped into your passport, theoretically take the 800,000 THB out of your account.

*** When you get issued the “1-year extension of stay”, you should always buy a re-entry permit for it.

A re-entry permit will keep your 1-year stay permit alive in case you exit Thailand before the expiry of the 1-year stay permit.

A single re-entry permit is 1000 THB on Immigration. A multi re-entry is 3800 THB.

With a multi re-entry permit, you can exit and re-enter as many times as you wish during the whole 1-year stay permit period.

As an aussie get the OX and thank me later

In country to apply and then after granted you need a re-entry permit if you leave

Do you have thai bank account with the 800k sitting in it to go to immigration in Thailand to request the 12 months extension of stay, its not a 12 month visa.

You wouldn't be upgrading to any visa, you would be applying for a 12 month extension of stay. That means you have to be inside Thailand and must meet the criteria for the extension, so 800k baht in a Thai bank for 2 months before applying etc. A medical certificate is not required