What are the best steps to apply for a retirement visa in Thailand if I meet the income requirement without depositing money in a Thai bank account?

The way to avoid putting money in a bank account is to get the Non-OA visa before you travel to Thailand. It will get you stamped in for 12 months but does require insurance and police check. If you you travel back to the UK every year just rinse and repeat

Absolutely get the services of a Visa agent, such as the firm that moderates this forum. Set up a consultation with a plan of action. Then you'll get it all done easily and stress-free. Depositing the 800k baht is way easier; just do it once and forget about it, vs hoping everything goes smoothly 12 times.

As Graeme says...you have to have the money in the Thai account for the 1st extension then you can move to the monthly pension income

@Theo *******

you are a Dutch citizen, so your embassy in Bangkok still issues the income affidavit for you. Apply for the Non-Imm-O visa as many Immigrations want to see that you actually have a Thai bank account into which you transfer some money coming in from abroad, despite your income affidvit being sufficient for the financial proof to apply for the 1-year extension of the stay permit based on retirement

@Varapa ********

and

@Pavichaya ******************

can help

Does your embassy provide affidavit of income? If no u can only use the 800k bankin method for the first year

Congratulations, however, if you are unwilling to place the required 800,000 baht into a Thai bank account, you MUST wait until you have your retirement documents that state that your eligible for the monthly income through the Retirement Visa

Couple of things to consider. If you want a non O over 50 retirement visa and then subsequent yearly extensions its always better to get the visa in your home country before entering thailand as this will make opening a bank account more straight forward. I notice you say you dont want to deposit money in a thai bank account? If you want to do your own visa extensions you will need an account to deposit your 800kbaht for your first extension as you cannot use monthly income until your 2nd extension and then if you want to convert to monthly then you still need that monthly amount paid into a thai bank account. You can use an agent who could help you with the funding of your extension but then you may be tied into that method for a long time to come. You could look at a DTV soft power option to get a 5 year visa with 180 days stamp for each visit, here you dont need a thai bank account only your own in your own country.