@Ling ****

Assuming you have some sort of income to live on, you could keep the 800k in your account gaining interest and simply use your monthly income as your requirement for your long term visa thus saving your 25k agent fee adding the 40k interest to your bank account. If you don’t have the 65k monthly income (2200 US) then you probably should rethink your visa to Thailand. You can leave for less for sure but retirement on a shoestring really would not be that pleasant.

@Brandon ***********

out of curiosity, can you apply for an extension in a IO in another province if you want or do you need to apply in the province of your home?

@Jeff *********

I never did tie up 800k for my retirement visa although that was years ago and I applied from Canada. I showed my pension income and kept bank statements showing the 65k deposited monthly for my extension. I changed to a marriage visa about 3 years ago and now only have to show an income of 40k per month and I do that through my embassy with an income letter. The immigration office does not even require the bank statements so I don’t even need to show the monthly income but I deposit the amount (more because I need to live) each month. The paperwork is annoying but once you complete it keep a copy of what you did and you can use it as a template for the following years (I haven’t done a good job of this and redo all the paperwork regularly). Depending on your IO the whole system is not that bad and certainly better to do yourself rather than paying thousands (I heard at least 10k to an agent but could be more or less). I am sure you could find another expat wherever you are and buy him a few beers to help you through the process.

Bought a used car for about 379,000 baht in Pattaya 6 years ago when on retirement visa. My then girlfriend co-signed. 3 years ago bought a new Toyota truck about 900,000 baht but married (to the same girlfriend). I don’t think she co-signed but could be wrong. So…there are ways to buy. Go to the dealer or used car shop and they want to sell you a car so will do what they can. If you want to borrow money from mainstream bank for car perhaps more difficult. Oh, I have a retirement income and wife is a teacher but they don’t make much money.

Not to hijack the question, but what would personal tax be if I had my pension income declared here in Thailand. Thanks for any answers.