What is the process for obtaining a Non-O retirement visa in Thailand?

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 in your home country before you travel to Thailand.

Prove either that you got the equivalent of 800.000 THB in your home bank account (or in your Thai bank account)

or

that you earn a minimum of equivalent of 65,000 THB per month. For the application to the initial visa in your home country, you can use original income documents.

2. enter Thailand and get stamped in for a 90-days stay permit. The visa itself will expire and become invalid for further use.

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

4. Visit a bank branch with passport and COR and open a bank account. Transfer a minimum of 800.000 THB to your account. If the banks won’t do it, pay an agent around 5000 THB to open an account for you

You could use the “income method” however that means you need an “affidavit of income” legalized by your embassy in Bangkok as proof of income on Immigration

Some country’s embassies do not issue them any more leaving you with the only option of using the 800K deposit method – at least in the first year.

These countries are AFAIK the USA, UK, AUS, Norway and Canada

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 the Stay Permit based on Retirement

You can theoretically do everything by yourself, no agent needed, but it takes certain pressure out of the process if you let an agent handle some parts of the applications