What are the best options for obtaining an 'O' Retirement Visa in Thailand after turning 50 while managing currency exchange issues?

@Ste****

. There's a page on the Bangkok Bank website about transferring funds from abroad. You transfer it from your UK bank to the BB in London, from Lloyds there's no charge. BB then transfer it to your BB account in Thailand(baht or sterling, the choice is yours), max fee 500bt. All done online with internet banking.

There is no option to use Transferwise that I am aware of to send in your own currency from the country you have registered in with them.

The banking system in Thailand although safe, is antiquated in its approach. Hence banks are regional and not national.

Opening more accounts here often involves the same process as your first time. If for instance your branch is in Bangkok and you move to pattaya and wish to have an account in Pattaya to save the ATM fees for drawing outside of Bangkok (15bht a time with Kasikorn) you'll likely have to close the Bangkok account and start the process again in Pattaya, unless they agree to you having 2 accounts of the same nature. It's just how it seems to work here.

There's no guarantee though you won't be in for another load of problems finding a Bank to open the new account. Getting another letter from immigration I would say, is an easy option to open the account you want. They could of done a normal and the easy option for them and just said 'Cannot do'. 😊

I use the Halifax in the UK and although I don't use them to transfer here as I transfer directly in Thai baht and there rates are rubbish (I use Transferwise) £9.50 sounds right for an International transfer. Just be sure to tell them you actually want it sent in Sterling. 500bht from BKK sounds about right to accept the transfer from the UK BUT there are are more and higher charges if and when you transfer the sterling from the Foreign currency account to the Baht account.

If you already have an account here then opening a foreign currency account here is easy. There are costs though. It will cost you to transfer from the UK as any transfer would. What charges bkk impose to administer the account, you would need to enquire. I don't know either at which conversation rate immigration use. £20k at today's rate would easily cover 800k even at the worse conversation rate.

That's the answer then. Problem solved 😊

@Ron ******

, foreigner currency accounts are okay for the financials (y)

You can try but I've never heard of anyone getting it on a bank statement.

Another thought is I wonder if you opened a foreign currency account here at a Thai Bank they would accept that as the 800,000 bht? Basically your money comes in as sterling and sits in the account as sterling and you change it up as and when you want too?

Argh...i have this feeling they won't issue an income letter on playing poker 😊

Tod I doubt he could get away with splitting his bank account into 12. They want to see a proven income month on month.

@Stephen *****

you can't apply for a 90 day Non-O based on being over 50 (retirement) until you're 50 and they take a couple weeks to post the letter to you so I'd say right around your 50th b/d would be good

@Stephen *****

if you have a proven income of at least bht a month, it isn't a problem.

@Ste****

, It sure can, and in fact other than banking the money here it's the only other way to hit the financial criteria.

Sorry,

@R**

, :/ I didn't mean they just put down any old number like people from the US and about 10 other countries can at their consulate. :O

I meant if he submitted his UK bank statement showing adequate funds when he posted the form to them and divided the balance by 12 to show "monthly income".

@Stephen *****

yes. You will need to meet there criteria to get the letter. That's the issue.

Yes they can Tod but it needs to be properly verified accounts, bank statements and proven income They won't accept you just writing it up on a piece of paper. People can of course go and try but it needs to be properly verifiable.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that someone using rental income as the source of the funds on that letter and it went thru.

They want to see income from pension statements and companys or other investments.

For self employed they want to see proper verified accounts. It's not as easy as being a US citizen 😊

I'd call and see if you could show the bank account balance divide it by 12 to show a "monthly" amount. I know the immigration office won't give the paper a second glance as long as it is over 65K baht a month in "income".

Tod has put a link to make it very easy for you,just follow that.

download the form which has a space for your card details to pay. then we had to post all documents to the embassy which is on wireless road. Posted by ems. They were returned in the post about a week later.

You can google it. There's a map and all to look at.

It's in Bangkok.

The gbp may be decreasing, but the usd is hovering around 33 ฿ to $1 usd

lol still better than the us dollar

I thought that for an O class you do not need to bring any money in! just apply in the UK show an equivalent of 800,000 baht! But if you want a retirement visa then you have to bring in 800,000!

Living here full time you need money here. You also need a lump for emergency purposes. Having 800,000 baht here to use as your living expenses and set up costs is really nothing. It's probably not even enough for your first year here. Bringing it in as one lump or several isn't going to make a whole lot of difference your going to get on the exchange rate over the next 12 months apart from you looking likely to get less. As I said, the longer you leave it, the more it's looking likely to cost you.

So true