How do you renew a retirement visa in Thailand if you're mentally or physically disabled?

All depends on your age. If you’re doing a retirement visa and you’re going in 2027 why not start now and do an OA visa

You both will need 800,000 baht 24,000 in US money in separate accounts in each of your names

Tami Smith Baker . . . . . "Do we need to do all our visa business in Chiang Mai or Bangkok?" . . . . . you need to clear your "visa business" BEFORE you fly to Thailand

Quite a long one but nare with me, I've lived in Thailand for 15 years and arrived on a non-O Visa and have the 12 month extension of stay. I do everything myself and although it does appear difficult at first, once you have done it a couple of times it's actually very easy especially if you don't try to bypass any of the rules. You will each need your own Thai bank account and you can open these once you arrive in Thailand on the non-O visa by visiting the Immigration office in your area and getting a residency certificate for the purpose of opening a bank account, you will need a copy of your lease & TM30. You need a Thai phone number with the SIM/eSIM in your name to be able to use the app as well as your passporrt & the residency certificate then go to a bank in the region you live in, I recommend Kasikorn as they are normally expat friendly. Once you have the account you need to put 800,000 Baht in it within the first month as it has to be there for 2 months before you can get the extension. For the extension just go to the immigration office in your area and ask for a checklist of what you need as it can be different in each area but normally its, your Passport, a copy of your TM30, a letter & statement from your bank, a photocopy of your bankbook, proof of where you are living (lease), the filled in TM7 (extension of stay) and a photo plus the 1900 Baht fee. The process varies depending on the office, in Pattaya you submit the documents and they check them before being passed to the 'boss' who only deals with them in the morning so you will be given a number and told to come back after 2pm the next day but in Khon Kaen they process everything while you are sat at the desk and it's normally done in about 10 minutes. I would make copies of all the documents you submit as a reminder for the next year, I downloaded the original forms from the Immigration website, prefilled them and every year I just print, sign & date them and then go to the bank for the letter & statement on the way to the office and it's all done in time for a coffee on the way home before lunch. You will see a lot of comments about just using an agent and if you have the money then that is an option but most agents appear to be charging between 50,000 & 70,000 Baht for something you can do yourself so long as you meet the requirements.

The 1st thing you need to work out is what visas you are eligible for and which of those you want to use to live in Thailand. Are you going to work, are you retired, how old are you, no point in guessing your purpose so more information is required to give any sort of meaningful advice

Keeping up with 90 day reports and renewals of extension is easy. Simply put it on a calender or program it onto your phone.

First thing to learn is you need to sort out your OCD.. 👍

Instead of this gunshot approach this plus this plus this... Go and read up... AI is wonderful for your sort of question.. Then you will have specfics and come back and ask for more detail or clarification

there are direct flights in/out of Chang Mai, why go to Bangkok first??

You need to do your 'visa business' before you travel to Thailand

I have lost the count of how often I have explained in Facebook how you start the road to a retirement in Thailand.

You first need to decide which type of “retirement visa” suits your particular situation. There are at least 4 different visa-types all referred to as “retirement visas”, that are: Non-Imm-O, Non-Imm-OA, Non-Imm-OX and the LTR Wealthy Pensioner visa.

The LTR Visa unquestionably the best - if you can qualify for it- and the Non-Imm-O Retirement Visa is the most commonly used. My following advice is based on the Non-Imm-O Visa.

For the easiest approach, you should apply for the 90-days Non-Imm-O Retirement Visa through the E-Visa online system of the Thai embassy in your home country, before you fly to Thailand.

After you entered Thailand, you need to get registered in your accommodation per TM30 within 24 hours of arrival in the premises. If you rent or live in a friend’s accommodation, the landlord or the friend has to register you.

Immigration will only service you if you are properly registered in your accommodation by the TM30.

You need this TM30 so you can ask Immigration for a “certificate of residence”, a document you need if you want to get a Thai bank account opened.

On arrival, you will get stamped in for an admitted stay of 90 days. The visa will become invalid for further use.

Within this 90-days STAY PERMIT period, you have a maximum two weeks of time to arrange for the opening of a bank account and a transfer of the required amount of money – a minimum of 800,000 THB.

You will need to get a Thai bank account opened as soon as possible after you entered. On a Non-Imm-O visa class, it is possible if you fulfill the minimal requirements:

*** the “certificate of residence” from Immigration (some banks accept a longterm rental contract)

*** a Thai mobile SIM-card registered to your name and passport number

*** many banks ask for a secondary idendity document alongside your passport– like your driver’s license

In order to apply for the “90-days single entry Non-Imm-O retirement visa” through the online E-visa system of the Royal Thai Embassy, you can use proof of income of a monthly minimum of 65,000 THB, by showing your original pension statements or other income documentation.

Or you can show a deposit of a minimum of 800,000 THB equivalent in your home country currency, in your bank account, or just in any bank anywhere in the World – as long as the account is in your sole name, and you can upload into the e-visa application three months of account statements.

However, for the application inside Thailand for the “1-year extension of the stay permit based on retirement” out of a 90-days Non-Imm-O Retirement Visa, you

EITHER

show a minimum of 800,000 THB in your Thai bank account. On the day you apply, the deposit must have seasoned in the account for a minimum of 2 months, and you need the “bank letter of guarantee” (in Thai: rab roong thanakan”) that confirms it.

OR

If your embassy still issues a legalized affidavit of income, you can use it for the financial proof, as long as you can show a monthly income/pension of a minimum of 65,000 THB.

If you are a citizen of a country whose embassy in Thailand does not issue the “income affidavit” anymore (which are the embassies of the USA, UK, Australia, Norway, Denmark and Canada), you would need a proof by a “12-months bank statement”.

This statement must show that for the past 12 months, you have been transferring from abroad to your Thai bank account, month for month, not missing a single month, a minimum of 65,000 THB. The transfers must be coded in your bankbook as foreign transfers coming in from abroad.

For above mentioned citizens, in the first year there is no other way around than the deposit of 800,000 THB in their Thai bank account for the financial proof.

*** If you don’t have these funds, there still is the option to use an agent who fronts the deposit in your bank account and pays “tea money” to the Immigration to ignore that you have no own funds. I do not recommend this route, however you should know this option exists and many expats use agents so they don’t have to park any money in a Thai bank.

While they will claim this method is “legal”, I would rather say that the traditional Thai way of making obstacles go away by paying “tea money” to government officials, is part of the culture here.

It is, however, very difficult to escape the “hamster wheel” of an agent regarding future applications, because from the moment on he removes the 800,000 THB from your account, you are technically in an “overstay” because you are violating the terms of the upkeep of the deposit.

*** Some Immigration offices require that even when you use your embassy’s income affidavit, you have a Thai bank account and money gets regularly transferred into it from abroad. They might also ask for the SOURCE of the income.

People wrongly refer to the 1-year extension as a “1-year retirement visa”- this is wrong. The one-year extension of stay permit is not a visa, it is what the stamp in your passport says: an extended stay permit.

NOTE: It is income OR deposit.

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

***A mix of income and deposit. Many Immigrations don’t allow the combination method in the first year. And 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 is exceeding 800,000 THB in one year. You would have to ask your Immigration if they allow it.

I have NEVER heard of a US or UK citizen being allowed a combination method of 12-months of transfers from abroad plus a deposit in a Thai bank account. The only people who are allowed the combination method, are those with income affidavits from their embassies.

Let’s continue with the “normal method”.

What else do you need to show on Immigration?

They might ask you to show an updated bankbook, and a receipt of a small withdrawal at the ATM on the same day.

*** a copy (and original) of your passport detail page signed in blue ink

*** a copy (and original) of the .pdf visa document signed in blue ink

*** a copy (and original) of the printed TDAC (if applicable) signed in blue ink

*** 1900 THB in cash application fee

*** the TM7 form you can fill out at the Immigration

*** Immigration will ask you to sign several “exclusion of responsibility” forms (STM2 and STM11)

*** some Immigrations have started to ask applicants for a rental contract (Hua Hin is known to ask)

*** some also ask for a screenshot or printout of your TM30, regardless the fact that they can see a properly registered TM30 on their computer

*** some Immigrations ask you for a hand drawn map of the road(s) from your accommodation to the Immigration office.

You should visit your Immigration office ASAP after you have entered Thailand, and ask them for the handout list of requirements. This is important, because some Immigrations use their individual rules.

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

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

A re-entry permit will keep your 1-year extended 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, 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.

Good Luck with everything!

I assume there are fees for the visa besides the money I need to show in the bank and for proof of income?

Avoid Bangkok Bank.

Apply for a non oa from your own country leave Thailand before it expires come back and get another 12 month entry

Get an agent to do it all

Expensive but it’s done properly

I got retirement visa and bank acc through same agent

Took 2?weeks

Everything could change 2x by spring 27. Gives you time to read up on what's involved. Can you make another post after you have more information.

It would help if you gave us some examples of what exactly you are worried about? Are you going to apply for the non O over 50 retirement visa for both of you before you arrive? You can fly to chiang mai and open a bank account and then look to get your extension of stay at chiang mai immigration no need to go anywhere near bangkok .

Don't wait on health insurance ...more expensive and more difficult with every year .

Have you done a choking smog March April may season ?

Worst pollution in the world many days .

I have left twice on the same day I arrived .

Why anyone would do that to themselves escapes me

What visa check ins are you needing to do, what costs and fees that need to be on schedule? What sort of visa did you apply for?

There are Immigration offices in every province in Thailand.

You do it wherever you are living.

Are you planning on getting the Non-O visas or something else?