What is the experience of applying for a Non-O Immigrant Visa based on Retirement in Thailand?

Non-O Immigrant Visa based on Retirement experience

Here's our experience with the whole NON-O IMMIGRANT VISA based on RETIREMENT, in case it might be useful info for anybody:

We're 2 middle-aged Aussies (50 & 55yrs old) who've applied for, and obtained, a Non-O Immigrant Visa based on Retirement from Australia. The application process online was simple through the Thai E-Visa official portal:

[members only] ...and we obtained our Visas a couple of months later.

We entered Thailand on the 18th of March and had a printout of our E-Visas to show passport control at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport - probably unnecessary, but we wanted to be 💯 sure they'd stamp our passports with the "90-Day Non-O E-Visa" stamp. They did! 👍

We planned only 9 days in Thailand this time round, as this was a stop-over on our way to Italy. So, to reiterate, we entered Thailand on the 18th of March and will be leaving on the 27th of March. Therefore we will need to get a Thai Re-Entry Permit before we leave Thailand on the 27th of March.

We will then return to Thailand in a couple of months, on the 22nd of May, and look to settle down somewhere between Bangkok and Hua Hin.

So for these 9 days in Bangkok we reserved a HOTEL. We will then be looking for a long-term rental when we return to Thailand at the end of May.

This made it very difficult for us to open a bank account!

Our plan was to open a bank account each during these first 9 days in Thailand, that way we could immediately deposit the required 800,000 THB needed for the 12-month extension to our initial 90-day Non-O Immigrant Visas. Our plan was to deposit the 800k THB now, that way they'd be sitting in our Thai bank accounts for 2 months by the time we returned to Thailand at the end of May!

However BE WARNED: it has been very, very difficult to open a Thai bank account without having at least a 30-day rental agreement to show. 😩 We've been to ALL the banks, and tried different branches of each: KBank, Krungsri, Krungthai, SCB, Bangkok Bank...

We had obtained a T30 Form from our Hotel showing our 9-day stay at the Hotel, but this wasn't sufficient to prove our residence status at the Banks. So we went to the Immigration Bureau to request for an official "Certificate of Residence".

Keep in mind the TIESC at the One Bangkok mall downtown does NOT provide Certificates of Residence to foreigners just holding a Non-O Immigrant Visa - they only provide it to business people with an actual work contract. So we had to go all the way to the Immigration Division 1 Bureau at Chaeng Watthana Rd, near Don Mueang Airport. All this for nothing, as they couldn't release a Certificate of Residence for a stay under 30 days at a Hotel! They explained the only way to get an official Certificate of Residence from the Immigration Bureau would be to show them a rental agreement of at least 30 days for a condo/apartment/villa, as well as all the additional documentation from the leaser/homeowner (their ID, Yellow Book and utility bills). So we couldn't get a Certificate of Residence, and the TM30 form for a short stay at a Hotel wouldn't do.

So please keep this in mind in case you're planning to open a Thai Bank Account on a Non-O Immigrant Visa based on Retirement: you will need to bring them a rental agreement of at least 30-days, as a TM30 form for a short stay at a Hotel won't be accepted.