What retirement visa options are available for UK Citizens planning to live in Thailand?

Talk to an agent. You don’t have to use them. But you’d be smart to.

Debbie, I’ve just been all through this 8-9 months ago and all I’ll advise you is do it yourselves it’s fairly straightforward and will cost you 1900 baht each. You will be required to open a bank account and Bangkok bank appears to be the most helpful with this for non Thais. Choose the area you want to stay in as that’s the immigration office you will be using. All the offices seem to require different things or at least are stricter on certain things. I’m in Phuket and it was very difficult there. I ended up with 4 visits. The most difficult being to prove your place of residence. I ended up taking my landlord to immigration with their house title deeds as that was the requirement there. Not many will do this for you.

An agent will charge you both a large chunk of money and deposit the 800,000baht for you and remove it next day. It’s a dodgy process to me and if the shit hit the fan in anyway I wonder what protection you’d have. It’s a back door almost corrupt way in. The deposit needs to be in 2 months before application and 3 full months after and then you can draw on the money down to a minimum of 400,000 do not let it fall below else the whole process starts again. The deposit then needs to be topped back up to 800,000 baht 2 months before your next 12 month renewal and so on. Every 90 days you will be required to check into immigration to tell them where you are. If you go to another part of Thailand, on your return , you must report in and let them know you are back. It’s a 500 baht per day fine if you don’t do this. If you leave Thailand you must get a re entry visa before you leave. It’s 1900 for a single or 3,800 for a multiple. Phuket was very strict others may have other advice for their areas. Hope you find this helpful and any questions I’ll try and help from my experiences

If 55 Cambodia is easy. Just get ordinary visa on arrival and pay an agent $300 every year. No other requirements. I think you can do yourself too for less money. Around $200 I think. Very cheap very easy in Cambodia. Immigration in Phnom Penh super nice and helpful

Do not waste money on a agent.

Hi send me a inbox if aroud Pattaya ?

If you have 800 000bht each maybe get an agent to open your bank accounts as that the hardest part about 5000bht bkb or Yellow bank you can sent larger amounts and they show as international i use Wise then do the rest yourselves 1900 non o 90day then 1900non o retirement permit 1 year + 500bht for photos photocopying & bank statement

So you already have a bank account here ?

I can help process it. and have direct experience in tourist visas

It strikes me that people jump in with their advice without actually bothering to read (or digest) what the OA has written.. this leads to misguided information which can waste people's time.. or could even cause despondency when an OA believes their dream of emigrating to Thailand might be shattered.. thankfully we have the likes of Brandon and Stewart to moderate the airwaves and filter out the junk.. thanks guys 👍

I did what you are wanting to do. As you are a couple you'll need 800,000 each. Use a visa agent. I am in Chiang Mai and used an agent called Napa. I came in on the 30 day visa exempt, went straight to them and applied for the type O visa. They suggested I extend my 30 days to 60 days. You need to open a bank account, they can do that for you and deposit the 800,000 baht, you will need one each I assume. This gave me 150 days (30+30 + 90)in the country before I converted to a retirement visa.

So you don’t have 0 baht each? No pension? Hmm 🧐. Well, agent you best bet. Come on the stamp and see an agent asap. Pay the extra cost which averages around baht depending on location. Can be less can be more. So, probably baht for first year for both then to baht to renew every year. You work online? No savings no pension must have income

Good news 30 days exemption has been changed to 60 days.

Unless you are applying in your home country then it’s the Non O visa based on being over 50

You would be applying to convert the a non-O visa based on retirement (being over 50)