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Answereda year ago

What are the challenges and solutions for obtaining a marriage visa renewal in Thailand?

Jack ****************
asked Sep 10, 2025
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This is going to start our like I'm just complaining about the banks, but it builds up to an interesting situation and I'm curious to hear some predictions. Also if you are the kind of wag who bitches about long posts- you should stop reading now. This will exceed your attention span.

Marriage visa. Doing the one year renewal- if I mess up the vocabulary forgive me, but hopefully everyone knows what I mean. Not a 90 day check in. Not a new visa. For this year I want to move from the 400k to the 40k a month. I've been wiring cash into Thailand the first week of the month for three years. I popped into immigration a couple months ago with a bank statement because I'd seen people have trouble here where it doesn't show the transfer as coming from overseas.

For those of you in that situation here is (I think) the problem. When you use a service like Wise they keep accounts in various countries and to save themselves money instead of transferring your dollar from Kansas to Bangkok they take your dollar and transfer one of their dollars already in Bangkok to your final destination. I believe the "reason for transfer" informs exactly how they do. I'm using e trade not wise and the closest option they have is something like "expenses for travel". They have one for "compensation" but the transfer from USA to Thailand in my case isn't compensation, I've already been compensated, I'm just moving the money. This is important later in the story.

So I went in and showed the statement and a couple of bored officers went through it with a fine tooth comb. I had theorized that one of the codes indicated the source- this is either not true or they don't know the codes. They explained I needed a report signed by the bank that verified the origin of the transfers. The lady also wrote a note and her number and stapled it in my passport so I could show the bank and they could call if they needed help. I took a trip in August and the officer who stamped me out of Thailand removed it and threw it away. I gotta say they have more than their share of rude staff in bkk.

Okay fast forward to yesterday when I go to the bank and try to explain what I need. The woman gives me a bank form with 4 different reports listed. The third one (I think? Maybe second?) was "internal remittance". I sit and wait and eventually a guy brings me report 1 "average balance" I explain this is not what I want.

Okay and here we have outrage point number one. Stuff like this just kills me and I know I need to develop my meipenrai, but it is hard sometimes. He basically says "I've never done that report and don't know how to do it so I did this one instead.". Whoever started this habit in the culture here should be strung up. Anyway, so I explain again. He then calls the branch I opened my account in and they basically refuse to do it. The claim first that my choosing "travel expenses" is wrong and somehow that means they can't do it. Then they change the story to "this is only for people buying houses" and then to "the farang can go soak his head, we are busy". The fellow helping me says "maybe we just print 12 months of statements and you could try that? Which is basically him trying to get me to do the same dumb thing he did. But my wife just wants to roll over so I compromise. I'll take the wrong report, but you give me your phone number and when it's wrong you talk to immigration and they can repeat what I said and since they are Thai and you sir are racist maybe you will believe them. He reluctantly agrees, off I go.

So the triage nurse at immigration seems to think it is fine and my wife gets smug because I was negative for nothing. I harbor doubts. I am sent to a desk where I signed my name ONE HUNDRED AND SIX TIMES.

PROTIP: use a separate bank account for immigration than you do for your daily transfer with a household of 7 people.

We are almost done and I ask the officer "I was told very clearly by the lady at the next desk that I had to have a report from the bank that said the transfers came from overseas and the one you are holding is the same report as she inspected a couple of months ago" he was slightly startled and confessed they don't actually check that at this stage in the process. It will get kicked back in 2 weeks and I'll need to fix it then. So I basically wasted a solid 8 hours at the bank and signing documents that are wrong.

The good news is I actually got my stamp and that failing the paperwork doesn't mean you don't get the visa it just means you need to redo some stuff.

So, expert assessments? Will the report sneak through? Will I just need a fresh one later? Does choosing "expenses for travel" fail the "this came from abroad" test?

One more note. After the remote branch was invoked I commented that once this was over I wanted to close my account and open a new one where I live now. The banker freaked out and said it is basically impossible to open a new account now. Take that with a grain of salt after the rest of his performance, but it jives with the rumors I've been seeing here.
Answer summary
The post details the author's experience with renewing a marriage visa in Thailand, including challenges in providing adequate bank documentation to prove the source of funds for the visa application. The author discusses issues with bank staff, miscommunication about required reports, and the frustration of repeated visits to immigration. The community comments provide additional advice on documentation processes, alternatives for handling financial transactions, and general frustrations faced while living as an expat in Thailand.
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Wayne ***********
Wayne ***********
I feel yer pain man
Brandon ************
Brandon ************
Travel expenses is absolutely NOT the reason you use for immigration. There's an option that says something like "for long term stay" which they specifically try to code as an international transfer for you. Any other reason they will do whatever is easiest for them.

If immigration accepted your application, they already approved it. I've never heard of anyone being rejected after their application was already accepted.

You're just lucky your immigration office is one that accepts international transfers for marriage extensions. Some immigration offices will only accept your monthly salary from your job in Thailand as proof of income for marriage.
Jack ****************
Jack ****************
OP
Mark **********
Mark **********
@Jack ***************
he meant in wise, which people specifically use for this purpose
Ian **********
Ian **********
@Jack ***************
Wise has a specific reason set up for international transfers into Thailand, but it would appear your service does not
Jack ****************
Jack ****************
OP
@Mark *********
I specifically talk about not using Wise. People use Wise because it is cheaper and it is fast because they use local transfers. Brandon loves a smugly redirect people (although in fairness he is also overall quite helpful) and in true form is providing information that is orthogonal to the actual situation.
Charles ********
Charles ********
I’ve got all the t shirts after being here for 23 years.

My advice, if you’re 50…go the retirement route!
Jack ****************
Jack ****************
OP
@Charles *******
that is a fun line "got all the t shirts" well done
Brook ********
Brook ********
Using a dedicated, interest bearing fixed deposit account is a no brainer. Yes it’s just 2%, but that helps lessen the pain of 7% inflation slightly.

Protip #1: Open the new bank accounts before you close the existing account. Fund the account so the balances overlap by a few business days.

Protip #2: life is too short to fight bureaucrats. Hire a respected agent. In CM, this means one trip to the bank with the agent to flash my passport and bank book, and a second 3-5 minute appointment at immigration to sit for a photograph.

There is no under consideration stamp.
Jack ****************
Jack ****************
OP
@Brook *******
right, but as you said you are in Chiang Mai.
Jack ****************
Jack ****************
OP
@Brook *******
good call on overlapping dates. I won't keep enough money in it to care about the interest. I'll just receive it and then transfer it to my "working account" where I rack up 100+ transactions a month.

I haven't had good luck with agents here sadly. There isn't enough of a customer base for there to be a thriving agent industry. It's just the couple of random people that picked that hustle. The couple times I've used them to was next to useless and... I want to say very expensive, but nothing is EXPENSIVE... Enough to irritate me. Anyway, good input.
Marty *********
Marty *********
@Jack ***************
been using the same agent for 6 years. Never a problem and not expensive. Choose wisely.
Les ********
Les ********
I feel your pain! Today was a total waste of time with K-Bank trying to get the correct documents for my extension. Tomorrow have to go to the Thapae Branch as they appear to be the only place that can issue the proper statement.
Jack ****************
Jack ****************
OP
@Les *******
choc di brother
Cris ******
Cris ******
Ohhh big man. Let me tell you haha. I had 6 trips to immigration, 1.5 hour drive one way. To finally get my under consideration stamp, did my house visit last week. I am going mid October to get my actual stamp and have been informed they will do another house visit, which ive never heard of but ok. My big uh... grip. Was i would go, present paperwork, "no no this wrong" they would sign off on everything else. Come back in a few days after fixing paperwork, then that piece would be fine, but something else that was literally signed off on was wrong, so on and so on and so on.
Jack ****************
Jack ****************
OP
@Cris *****
I remember you posting about it. We might have even traded some comments- adding the burden if being far from the office is a huge pain in the ass I agree

Out of curiosity what county are you from Cris?
Cris ******
Cris ******
@Jack ***************
The US. But im just happy its done with for now. We are moving next month so I hope that doesn't mess anything else up. Haha. Your book looks cool BTW
Cris ******
Cris ******
@Jack ***************
we've been building our business, a retirement community, for about 6 months now and are going to live there for a while. Its only like 15 minutes from where we live now. We even told the home visit immigration people about it and they said its not a big deal. But ya we tried to do the same. But its tough when you are like "temporary living" in a place. They were honestly very nice and friendly.
Jack ****************
Jack ****************
OP
@Cris *****
oh hey thanks, I wrote it here. You just swapping houses or changing areas? We actually moved during the initial application last year, I recall changing paperwork and then it being a hassle because we didn't know the neighbors for the home visit... But everyone was fairly accommodating. I have heard horror stories about people asking for bribes on the visit and living far from the office is bound to complicate everything. We served our guy coffee and tried to make him feel like a guest and not an official and it seemed to work well.
Glenn *****
Glenn *****
There used to be a specific letter from BBL that was signed stating each of the 12 deposits and that they were foreign. People have been saying that BBL will no longer do it.
Peter *******
Peter *******
Actually what you need is a Credit Advice for each International Transfer. Your bank or the Bank receiving the International Funds can provide this. I use Bangkok Bank and this can be set up to be emailed to you when each transfer arrives.

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