What is the best plan for opening a Thai bank account and transitioning to a retirement visa upon my return to Thailand?

You will likely find it difficult to open a bank account on a 60 day exempt visa. It can be done but the bank will try to get you to buy a worthless life insurance policy for 15,000 THB.

As others have advised get a non o visa before you come, then getting a bank account will be straight forward without the need to pay an agent.

More repeats than the BBC 😂

You doing a runner because your losing the cold weather payment 😂 😂 😂 😂

Hi Mike. I have someone who can help with opening a bank account. Please text me and I'll send you her contact. You only pay after you get the account opened

Get a Non Imm O visa in the UK.

Job done 👍

I contacted the embassy several times and options for visa . I will be doing a long stay visa .

These can only be applied through the Royal Thailand embassy in country of residence not Thailand

1 . Retirement visa 50+

2 no working

3 health coverage / insurance

4 finances history

5 criminal record check

Visa type O-A

This is what the Embassy suggested given my specific situation .

If you can meet the criteria for wealthy pensioner on LTR visa, I would advice you to have a look in the BOI/LTR website

Hi, ok i'm in the same situation I will be arriving in October from the UK I have over 800k in a Thai bank a pension of around 20K and have a Thai residence. I have previously done a 90 day multi entry Non O. I have been back in the UK since May, This trip I will be retiring to Thailand full time except for a three day back to the UK in late February for my daughters wedding. What are my best options? TIA

Start off with OA visa, which will do you for two years without having to transfer 800k into Thai bank account. During the two years start transferring 65k into Thai bank account every month (you can access and spend this immediately it registers in your account). By the time the two years is up, you will have sufficient monthly transfers to qualify for the O retirement visa. You will need to exit the country, come back in on visa exempt, and apply for the 90-day O visa. With thirty days remaining on this visa apply for the 12-month extension. Whatever you do, do NOT miss even one monthly transfer from overseas. Keep this regime going indefinitely, and extended every year

First of all, what your income is means nothing. The UK embassy does not provide income verification and that's the only thing immigration will accept, so your only option is 800,000 baht in a Thai bank.

You should get the non-O visa from the Thai embassy using the e-visa system before you leave for Thailand. That's because you must already have the money in a Thai bank to apply to convert to the non-O visa in Thailand, and you won't be able to get a bank account on a visa exempt entry. Unless you already have a Thai bank account, then you can do it either way. If you arrive without the visa and without a bank account, you'll basically be forced to pay an agent to assist you in getting a bank account.

You need 800k in a Thai bank for two months prior to applying for an in country Non-O visa based on retirement. If you do that in the first few weeks after arrival you can transition from visa exempt stamp with extension to the Non-O.