What are the steps to obtain a one-year extension on a Non-O visa in Thailand?

Jo Davies 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.

You need to 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.

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 identity 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 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.

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, however you should know this option exists and many expats do it by this way.

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 should be taken with a pinch of salt.

It is 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 regularily 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 of 12-months of transfers from abroad plus a deposit in a Thai bank account. People who are allowed the combination, 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 despite they can see a properly registered TM30 on their computer

*** some Immigrations ask you for a hand drawn map of the roads 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, own 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 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.

Dave Owen my point is: We never hear of those who have been refused another extension because of fraudulent permit stamps, and were sent back to their countries. These people will never out themselves, as they feel ashamed. On the contrary, you hear only success stories from those who use agents and the deposit the agents front for them, year for year. They are profiting from the Thai "tea money system", which means that any special service can be bought from government officials with money, and most Thais will not see this as committing fraud, they see it as a normal way to get around stricter rules. You are free to use an agent, but you must accept that you cannot easily jump off the agent's service, because during the 1-year extension, you are violating the rules for the upkeep of the deposit. You will need the agent over and over again in the following years. There is one route that

@Brandon ***********

explained, on which you can get free from the agent - and this involves using your own funds. If you want to do it the legit way, do it using your own funds. If you are willing to contribute to the "favour for money" culture, use an agent

I was just mentioning that you forgot that step in your post

Lynnette Munoz If it is the case, I imagine his bank account will be frozen in due course

CoolBunny_7244 even then it's more like than

CoolBunny_7244 Why didn't he say that? He's giving misleading information