Will the Thai Immigration only accept bank statements as proof of funds for visa extensions starting December 2018?

Listening to the Expat news broadcast out of Pattaya ... it seems as in a number of other instances over the last 3-4 years No New Rule came into effect - rather just the degree and expectation an enforcement relative to the veracity of the financial content represented by Embassy Income Letter / Embassy Income Sworn Affidavit. In the case of the American Embassy I have know for a long time that for any document the consular services only vouches for the ID of the person signing a document - not for the content.

From my readings, generally speaking, Embassies do not routinely verify content of documents. The investigative burden is just too high. So in their known style Thai Immigration dusted off existing rules and asked foreign Embassies to assure the verification of the content of financial contained in the Income Affidavit / Letter. So until some other method of verification is officially announced by Thai Immigration the 800,000 baht in the bank is the required financial proof for 'retirement' Extensions. Things like 12 months of bank statements as an alternative have not been officially authorized - I read.

The elephant in the room on this is that in actuality many thousands of Expats cannot meet the proof of 65,000 a month.

If you got the income you’ll have no problem

NO,STOP spreading fake news. ONLY the UK Embassy changed their rules. What other Embassies are going to do is just crystal ball knowledge. There is NO change in rules at Immigration.

The BE stopped because the letter no longer complied with the degree of proof required by the Thai authorities. Reading between the lines, the BE wasn't in a position to check what people were presenting.

Dec 18th is the last issue date by the UK Embassy.

However, these letters are valid for 6 months so can be used for extensions up till June 2019.

No need to panic!

yes it is not true. The Thai Immigration will accept other proofs of income if you have any. As for example, money over 65,000 THB coming in regularily from abroad into your Thai bank account. It is yet unclear on how many months of transfers need to be presented. You should ask your immigration NOW so you can meet the criteria accordingly before your next extension of stay, as the UK Embassy won't issue any more proofs of income starting in January 2019

It is not true. The UK Embassy changed their rules, not Immigration Office.