How long do you need to maintain 65,000 baht in a Thai bank account for immigration purposes?

Forever

With a word of thanks to moderator and admin Brandon Thurkettle. This advice is an older one by him, about the same topic. I hope he will allow me to repost it - I have however altered the text a little bit 🙂

“The process and rules are very clear.

At the time you apply for your extension, you must be able to show 12 months of at least 65,000 continuously month per month of international transfers into your bank account, coded as coming in from abroad.

If you miss it by even one day in a month, for example you made the transfer on the 30th but it didn't clear until the 1st of the next month, your extension would be denied because you failed to meet the requirements.

The only thing that varies with immigration offices can be that some will require the 65,000 to be in a single transfer each month, and not a combination of transfers throughout the month.

Some immigration offices have also started asking for proof of the income, such as proof of the pension payments or something along those lines.

You ALSO must have met the requirements for the previous year's extension, when you used the deposit method as proof of finances. Those requirements are that you keep your bank account at 800,000 baht for 3 months after you received the extension stamp, and then never let your bank account drop below 400,000 the rest of the year.

Immigration will check your 12 months of bank statements to make sure those rules were met as well. If you failed to meet those requirements, your extension will be denied.

For those who apply for the 1-year extension of stay permit based on being married to a Thai wife, and show the required 12-months monthly international transfers of a minimum of 40,000 THB:

If you meet all the requirements and get your extension, you can then withdraw the 400,000 if you used the deposit method for the first year extension based on being married to a Thai wife, and use it as you wish and you'll need to continue the monthly transfers of at least 40,000 THB every month."

month for month, every month, for a minimum of 12 months. And prove it with a bank statement over a full year (the document could take 1-2 weeks to get issued). And the money transfers have to show (be coded) in the bankbook as having come from abroad

Every month .

That's every month...

One year

If you want to use 65,000 baht per month international transfers as proof of income for a retirement extension, you can only use it for the 2nd annual extension. Even if you have 10 years of transfers, you would not be allowed to use it for the first 1-year extension.

For the 2nd year, you must be able to show 12 continuous months of the transfers at the time you apply for the extension. And then you must continue the transfers every month forever, as each year you'll need to be able to show 12 months of transfers.

Miss even one month. Have a transfer delayed so it doesn't arrive until the 1st. And you'll lose your extension and have to leave Thailand and return to start over completely with the 800,000 baht in the bank.