Why was I denied a bank account in Thailand with a 5-year DTV visa?

You need to apply for the 90-days Non-Imm-O Retirement Visa through the E-Visa online system of the Thai embassy in your home country, before you fly to Thailand.

After you entered Thailand, you need to get registered in your accommodation per TM30 within 24 hours of arrival in the premises. If you rent or live in a friend’s accommodation, the landlord or the friend has to register you.

Immigration will only service you if you are properly registered in your accommodation by the TM30.

You need this TM30 so you can ask Immigration for a “certificate of residence”, a document you need if you want to get a Thai bank account opened.

On arrival, you will get stamped in for an admitted stay of 90 days. The visa will become invalid for further use.

Within this 90-days STAY PERMIT period, you have only one, maximum two weeks of time to arrange for the application to the “1-year Extension of Temporary Stay Permit Based on Retirement”.

You will need to get a Thai bank account opened as soon as possible after you entered. On a Non-Imm-O visa class, it is possible to get a Thai bank account opened, if you fulfill the minimal requirements., which are:

*** the “certificate of residence” from Immigration (some banks accept a longterm rental contract)

*** a Thai mobile SIM-card registered in the phone-shop to your name and passport number

*** many banks ask for a secondary identity document alongside your passport – like your national driver’s license

In order to apply for the “90-days single entry Non-Imm-O retirement visa” through the online E-visa system of the Royal Thai Embassy of your home country, you can use proof of income of a monthly minimum of equivalent of 65,000 THB, by showing your original pension statements or other income documentation.

Or you show a deposit of a minimum of 800,000 THB equivalent in your home country currency, on your home bank account, or just on any bank anywhere in the World – as long as the account is in your sole name.

However, for the application inside Thailand for the “1-year extension of the stay-permit based being over 50/on retirement” out of the 90-days Non-Imm-O Retirement Visa, you

EITHER

show a minimum of 800,000 THB in Your Thai bank account, and on the day you apply, the deposit must have seasoned in the account for a minimum of two months, and you need the “bank letter of guarantee” (in Thai: rab roong thanakan”) that confirms it.

OR

If your embassy still issues a legalized affidavit of income, you can use this method for the financial proof, as long as you can show a monthly income or pension of a minimum of 65,000 THB.

If you are a citizen of a country whose embassy in Thailand does not issue the “income affidavit” anymore (which are the embassies of the USA, UK, Australia, Norway, Denmark and Canada - AFAIK), you would need a proof by a “12 months bank statement”.

This statement must show that for the past 12 months, you have been transferring from abroad to your Thai bank account, month for month, not missing one single month, a minimum of 65,000 THB. The transfers must be coded in your bankbook as foreign transfers coming in from abroad.

For above mentioned citizens, in the first year there is no other way around than depositing a minimum of 800,000 THB in your Thai bank account and use this deposit for the financial proof.

***If you don’t have these funds, there still is the option to use an agent who fronts the deposit in your bank account and pays “tea money” to the Immigration to ignore that you have no own funds. I do not recommend it, however you should know it exists and many expats do it by this way.

It is very difficult, however, to escape the “hamster wheel” of an agent, because from the moment on he removes the 800,000 THB from your account, you are technically in an “overstay” because you are violating the terms of the upkeep of the deposit.

Some Immigration offices have started to require that even when you use your embassy’s income affidavit, you at least have a Thai bank account and SOME money gets transferred into it from abroad – and they might also ask you for the SOURCE of the income.

Many people wrongly refer to the 1-year extension as a “1-year retirement visa”, this is totally wrong. Actually, the one-year extension of the stay permit is not a visa, it is what the stamp in your passport says: an extended stay permit.

NOTE: It is income method OR deposit method.

And there is a third method, called the “combination method”:

A mix of income and deposit. Many Immigrations don’t allow the combination method in the first year. And some Immigrations want the deposit part to exceed 400,000 THB. The combination method means that the sum of the deposit AND the monthly income is exceeding 800,000 THB in one year. You would have to ask your Immigration if they allow it. A US citizen cannot ever use the combination method. I have NEVER heard of a US or UK citizen being allowed a combination of 12-months of transfers from abroad plus a deposit in a Thai bank account. People who are allowed to the combination, are using income affidavits from their embassies.

But let’s continue with the “normal method” (the Non-Imm-O Retirement Visa issued in your home country, followed by the application to the 1-year Extension of Stay inside Thailand):

What else do you need to show on Immigration?

*** Immigration might ask you to present your updated bankbook, and a receipt of a small sum withdrawal at an ATM of the same day.

*** a copy (and original) of your passport detail page signed in blue ink

*** a copy (and original) of the .pdf visa document signed in blue ink

*** a copy (and original) of the printed TDAC (if applicable) signed in blue ink

*** 1900 THB in cash application fee

*** the TM7 form you can fill out at the Immigration

*** Immigration will ask you to sign several “exclusion of responsibility” forms (STM2 and STM11)

*** some Immigrations have started to ask applicants for a rental contract (Hua Hin is known to ask)

*** some also ask for a screenshot or printout of your TM30 despite they can see a properly registered TM30 on their computer

*** some Immigrations ask you for a hand drawn map of the roads from your accommodation to the Immigration office.

You should visit your Immigration office ASAP after you have entered Thailand, and ask them for the handout list of requirements. This is important, because some Immigrations use their individual, own rules.

After been issued the “1-year Extension of Stay” the minimum 800,000 THB deposit needs to remain in the account for 3 more months. After these 3 months, the deposit shall never go under 400,000 THB. Before your annual application for the next “1-year Extension of Stay”, a minimum of 800,000 THB must have seasoned in the account for two months, again.

We know reports from people whose Immigration offices require you to NEVER fall below the 800,000 THB for the FULL YEAR of the extension. Last reports indicated this to be the case in Phuket and Ubon Ratchathani. You need to ask your Immigration how the handle this.

When you get issued the “1-year extension of stay”, you should always buy a re-entry permit for it while you are still in the Immigration office.

*** A re-entry permit will keep your 1-year stay permit alive in case you exit Thailand before the expiry of the 1-year stay permit.

A single re-entry permit is 1000 THB on Immigration. A multi re-entry is 3800 THB.

With a multi re-entry permit, you can exit and re-enter as many times as you wish during the whole 1-year stay permit period.

Good Luck and a great time in Thailand

Yeah, but starting the 2nd year.