What are the steps to obtain a one-year retirement visa in Thailand?

Check expatden.com all info there and YES can be applied from within the country

NongNuch

Thorough and very useful non-Nuclear Kamdee Thank you

You can apply for a single entry 90 days Non-Imm-O retirement visa in your home country before you wing your way here.

You gonna enter Thailand on this visa and will get stamped in for a 90-days stay permit.

You must open a Thai bank account immediately after your entry. If you want to prevent “bank hunting”, use an agent to help you with opening a bank account in your sole name.

Once the account is set up, transfer a minimum of 800.000.- THB onto it.

From up to days before the 90-days stay permit expires, you can apply for the “1-year extension of the stay permit based on retirement”.

Thai Immigration calls this process “visa extension”, however this is just bad English – they are extending a stay permit. A so called “visa” can technically not get extended.

On the day of your application to the 1-year extension, a minimum of 800.000.- THB must have seasoned in your Thai bank account for two months, and you need the “bank letter of guarantee” (in Thai: rab roong thanakan) to prove it.

After being issued the “1-year Extension of Stay based on retirement”, a minimum of 800.000.- THB must remain in your account for at least three months.

After this, you could theoretically take out some of the deposited money, but it cannot go under 400.000 THB in the remainder of the year.

Two months before your next application to a new 1-year Extension of Stay Permit, a minimum of 800.000.- THB must be back in your account

Every year, you will need to apply for the next “1-year Extension of Stay”

NOTE:

When Immigration issues your extension, always buy a single re-entry permit for 1000.- THB on top of it. Bring at least two passport pictures for the application to the re-entry permit.

A re-entry permit keeps your stay permit alive, should you exit and re-enter Thailand during the validity of your stay permit.

Should you plan to exit Thailand more often than three times, buy a multi re-entry permit for 3800.- THB. It allows you unlimited re-entries into Thailand during the stay permit validity.

For the application to the “1-year extension of stay permit”, the following is required:

*** your passport

*** a copy of the passport detail page and a copy of the entry stamp

*** a copy of the previous extension of stay stamp

*** you need to sign all copies in blue ink

*** a few passport-size pictures

*** the “bank letter of guarantee”

*** an ATM receipt of a same-day withdrawal of a small amount of Thai Baht

*** your updated bankbook

*** 1900.- THB fee for the application to the extension

*** you might be asked for a screenshot or printout of your up-to-date TM30 accommodation registration. On many Immigrations, you need nothing such, as they can see your TM30 registration on their computer

*** forms to fill out are available at the Immigration office

This list of required documents might not be complete for your specific Immigration.

It is strongly advised to visit Immigration early, and ask them for the handout list of requirements regarding the “retirement visa extension”

If you leave Thailand before the 90-days expire, your stay permit will become void. You could re-enter on a “visa-exempt entry” that would get you stamped in for 60 days.

Some people avoid applying for the 90-days Non-Imm-O retirement visa in their home country and enter Thailand on a visa-exempt entry (which at the moment gets you stamped in for 60 days) or on a 60-days tourist visa.

They can, as long as a minimum of 15 days is left on their entry stamp, apply for the so called “change of visa type” from a touristic entry to a 90 days Non-Imm-O retirement visa on Immigration, if they fulfill – among other - the financial requirements

And from this 90-days Non-Imm-O visa, they can switch to the “1-year Extension of Stay based on retirement”

Your roadmap should be:

1. Apply for the single entry 90-days Non Immigrant O retirement visa before you travel to Thailand.

2. get stamped in for a 90 days stay permit

3. Visit your local Immigration Office for a Certificate of Residence and the hand out list to apply for the 1 year Extension of Stay.

4. Visit a bank branch with passport and COR and open a bank account. Transfer a minimum of 800.000 THB to your account.

5. Wait 60 days and prepare the documents mentioned on the hand out list.

6. As soon as the 800.000 THB have seasoned for 2 months, get the bank statement, visit Immigration and apply for the 1 year Extension of Stay

You can do everything by yourself, no agent need

Come to Thailand and go straight to agent give them your money and it’s done.

OA visa is 1yr but cannot be applied for in country. O visa is 3 months + 1yr extensions. Best applied for outside country but can be done in country as well. .OA has insurance requirements as well as criminal background check requirements, O does not. But O has financial requirements. Suggest O and apply through evisa from home country

Have a good look at this and also confirm that with the immigration officer your going to

Welcome Anne, I have got info today i can't share here, but if you message me...

Retirement visa" type OA", "apply outside Thailand", first thing for me is getting a "Criminal Record Certificate" !

From inside Thailand or outside? If outside look at the website of the local Thai Embassy for their requirements then use the eVisa website.

Msg me it's an easy process