Do I need to apply for a one-year retirement visa in the UK and transfer funds to Thailand for the second year?

If you don't want to move money to a Thai Bank.. Then get the O-A visa in your home country. Then every two years go home and get another O-A visa.

Not when he says he doesn't want to use it and wants to keep it in the bank ;) "another question how do some go on as 18k tied up is quite a bit of cash? I know people on retirement that don't have that money?"...........It looks like he is planning to live on a lot less than that perhaps....?? Yes I agree easy to live on 65K......BUT once you factor in rent, transport, entertainment, an emergency fund (everyone should have) and VERY IMPORTANTLY....a good insurance plan (everyone should have).....65k is not really a huge amount.......especially if you will have trouble producing this amount when it comes to visa renewal later ;)

@Ca**

as

@Ja***

pointed out you show the funds in the bank in your country getting the Non-O-A visa.

After the two years you get out of that visa runs down if you want to show banked in a thai bank account to get a yearly extension of stay in thailand you only need to show the funds for 60 days for the first yearly extension and 3 months for every subsequent extension. It doesn't have to be frozen in the account for the year.

As explained above use your U.K. account for the original visa. You won’t have to show any money in Thailand for 2 years if you leave and re-enter just prior to the visa expiring. You don’t have to tie up 18k if you can show an income of thb or a combination of income and money in the bank totalling 800,000thb.

@Michael *******

not a lot?

If you don't have that sort of money then perhaps you are retiring too early or under-prepared. That is only 65K Baht a month, which is not a lot to live on.

@Tod ********

is O-A visa same as retirement visa... if so how do you get 2 years from it? Does this only work if you applied for visa in home country ? Cheers