You could do the non o visa from your home country, that gives you 3 monts, but be careful with the health insurance requirements. Or you could fly here on 30 days visa excemtion, extend it by another 30 days at the immigration office right away. With that you get your bank account here. Plonk in 800.000 thb, and apply for retirement visa. That give you one year. During your first year you transfer 65.000 thb to your thai bank acvount from overseas. And when the next extension comes, you base it on your income from overseas, as you then have a record of it. And the 800.000 dont need anymore

Its not super hard to do. I did it myself, and just had some help with bank account and guiding me trought the process. Apple from

@Visa *************

is not an agent but prepare the application with you and you hand it in yourself.

@Othman *******

The papers you need for retirement visa are not much. A copy of your passport, a copy of your bank book, tm30 and a certificate of depositing the money. They guided me via line to collect all papers, get bank account and deposit the money, they came and checked my paperwork one day before, and i went to immigration alone with my Visa papers ready. Maybe thats where the name is from. They guide you to get your stuff ready, and you hand it in. I would not expect for that price that they go to immigration for me. And to be honest, the rules say, i have to apply in person, i would not trust an agent running arround with my passport and bring it back with a visa. Not with all the rumors on cracking down on dodgy visa agents.

@Visa *************

they are based in chiang mai, not sure if they have a fancy shop. Chances are for that cheap price, i will be someone closely related to immigratiin here in chiang mai. Apple did all my preparatiin, set up appointment with bangkok bank for me, sorted out my residency certificate and prepared all the paperwork for my Retirement visa. I went super well prepared next day to immigration and handed the application in. It all went well and the bill was a mere 3500. Cant complain about that.

I dont quite understand that. You do your first extension to 12 months with an agent. Cost you 36 to 50k all up. From that day you start sending yourself 65k per month. On your next renewal date 12 months later you do the next extension based on your monthly income. That extension will only cost you the 2000 bath gouvernment fee.

I heard that too, 1.2 million soon, but it wasn't from a official source, so i would no know if its true.

I believe the reason why so many retirees choose that path is, that they just dont have the required 800.000 THB.

That would be awful for some Guys, as the gouvernment is now cracking down on some dodgy visa agents. Just imagine, they cant do this kind of arrangement any more and all the poor guys have to come up with the required 800.000.

I had a friend, doing this kind of thing, where he had to provide a bank account to the agent, but not the 800.000 THB. He were watching the account and the money never arrived or left there. These agents must have another way of convincing the government. But i guess its ok for the first year. You let the agent sort out the first year and start depositing the 65 k each month. Then after one year, you can do the next extension by yourself based on your proof of regular income.

I Did myself a few Days ago. I used

@Visa *************

to help me prepare the paperwork and walked to immigration myself. Piece of cake and already approved.