@Andi **********

I have been on a yearly stay permit extension based on retirement since I turned 50 years old, 17 years ago. The last time I had something like a Thai "visa", was 17 years ago. I am happy that the Hua Hin Immigration must have joined and read my FB visa advice group and decided to end the wrong wording 😎

@Andi **********

actually, you can live longterm only on an extension of your temporary stay permit 😃😃 Finally, an Immigration which uses the correct phrase

@Andi **********

you don't live in Thailand "longterm on a retirement visa". You will be living on yearly to be repeated extended stay permits. The visa you used will become void and invalid the very moment you get stamped into the country

We are talking about the most common and persisting misunderstandings regarding the rules that come with applying for the “retirement visa” and the subsequent “one-year extension of stay permit based on retirement”

The best way is to show up in Thailand on a 90-days single entry Non-Imm-O Retirement/over 50 visa” as it will give you a 90-days stay permit. Within this period you have plenty of time to arrange for the application to the “1-year extended stay permit”

In order to apply for the “90-days single entry Non-Imm-O retirement visa” through the online E-visa system at the Royal Thai Embassy of your home country,

You can use the proof of income of a monthly minimum of 65.000.- THB, by using your original pension or other income documentation.

Or you use a deposit of a minimum of 800.000.- THB or the equivalent in your home country currency, or on your home bank account, or on a Thai bank, or just anywhere in the World – as long as it is in your sole name

However, for the application inside Thailand, for the “1-year extension of stay permit” out of the 90-days Non-Imm-O retirement visa, if you are a citizen of a country, whose embassy in Thailand does not issue the “income affidavit any more

(these are the embassies of USA, UK and Australia)

you would need proof by a “12 months bank statement”, showing that for the past 12 months, you have been transferring from abroad to your Thai bank account a minimum of 65.000.- THB, consecutively month for month

If your embassy still issues an affidavit of income, you can use this method for the financial proof, which needs a monthly income or pension of a minimum of 65.000.- THB

For British, Australian and U.S. 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 which is required for the application to the “one year extension of stay permit based on being over 50/retired”

The alternative would be, if you don’t have that kind of money or are not willing to deposit in a Thai Bank account is, paying an agent a hefty sum (mostly in the range of 30.000.- THB) to “arrange” the requirements (which means bribing an Immigration officer to look the other way)

The downside is, you will get stuck with the agent for a while. You will have to pay to get an agent to help with bank account.

Then you will need an agent to fix your 800k issue. You will be trapped in the agent’s hamster wheel.

To qualify you will need the 800k fronted by the agent the first year and simultaneously deposit 65k per month for 12 months without fail, to qualify the 2nd year for income method.

If you use an agent you will not qualify for the 2nd year as you did not have the money in the first year . . . . So will use an agent, again and again.

The only way to escape the agent’s wheel is:

As soon as you have accumulated the 12 consecutive months of 65.000.- THB transfers (and this will be some time during the second "agent-year") all you need to do is exit Thailand without a re-entry permit. This will kick the agent from the plate.

By this you will invalidate the current "1-year extended stay permit". And once you re-enter Thailand "visa-exempt", you will get stamped in for 60 days. You can then immediately apply for the "change of visa type" from the "exempt entry" to the "90-days Non-imm-O retirement visa" all by yourself, using the bank statement proof of income of 12 months transfers.

This application costs a 2000.- THB fee and you can theoretically do it all by yourself, or accept the help of an agent for the simplified legal service.

NOTE: It is income OR deposit. And there is a third method, called the “combination method”:

A combination mix of income and deposit. Some immigrations don’t allow the combination method in the first year. And some Immigration want the deposit part to exceed 400.000.- THB. The combination method means that the sum of the deposit AND the monthly income exceeds 800.000.- THB in one year.

But let’s continue with the “normal method” (visa issued in your home country, followed by the application to the Extension inside Thailand):

On the day of application to the 1-year extension, the 800.000.- THB need to have “seasoned” in your account for two months, and this has to be proven with the “bank letter of guarantee” (rab roong thanakan).

After been issued the “Extension”, the 800K need to remain in the account for 3 more months. After these 3 months, the deposit shall never go under 400.000.- THB. And before your 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

On the day you get issued the “1-year extension of stay permit”, you should buy a re-entry permit for it.

A re-entry permit will keep your 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 could exit and re-enter as many times as you wish during the whole stay permit period.

ATTN:

There is another road to the “1-year ‘Extension of Stay based on retirement”

You can arrive visa-exempt or on a 60 days single-entry Tourist Visa, you will get stamped in for a 60 days stay permit.

You visit Immigration and show them a bankbook with proof you got 800.000.- THB in sitting in your bank account, and a proof that this money came from abroad.

This must have either been organized during a previous holiday, or a bank account needs to be opened ASAP, and the money transferred from your abroad account onto you Thai bank account ASAP

You apply for the “change of visa type” from the touristic entry to a “90-days Non-Imm-O retirement visa”

To be allowed to apply you need a minimum of 15 days left on your entry stamp. And you need to show a rental contract, at least on most Immigrations

They will issue the visa for 14 days “under consideration”

After this period, you pick up the 90-days Non-Imm-O visa stay permit stamp

From up to 30 days (in some places 45 days) before the 90-days stay permit expires, you can apply to the “1-year extension of stay based on retirement”

The financial requirements for this application are the same as explained above.

You can find the requirements when you google for “change of visa type immigration Thailand” and click on the number 9 in the list

Good Luck and a great time in Thailand

@Andi **********

with regards and thanks to Robert Lagas, who wrote this!

Once more, because people try to give advice based on what they think is a "Retirement Visa"

First of all, you DO not have to be retired to apply for this visa. You however need to be 50 years or older

Second is that all options have DIFFERENT rules, regulations and requirements.

So please read and try not to give incorrect advice by using the requirements for a different type of visa or extension of stay.

What is a retirement visa?

It is a phrase used by foreigners and Immigration and it could be 6 different types of visa or stay permits, with different rules, regulations and requirements

OR

it could even be an 1 year Extension of Stay based on being over 50 years of age and willing to sit out the rest of their life inside Thailand.

It is easy to type “retirement visa”, but very difficult to understand which option the person refers to

Options are:

1. Single Entry Non Immigrant O visa based on being over 50 years of age

2. Multiple Entry Non Immigrant O visa based on being over 50 years of age

3. Non Immigrant O visa based on being over 50 years of age without entry by conversion at local immigration office

4. Non Immigrant O-A visa (Long Stay)

5. Non Immigrant O-X visa

6. Long Term Residency (LTR) visa

7. Extension of Stay based on being over 50 years of age and willing to sit out the rest of their life inside Thailand (stamp from Immigration, which is not a visa)

ONLY for options 3, 5 and 7 the applicant needs a bank account in Thailand or a Certificate of Income from their Embassy.

Option 2 cannot be applied for any more, since all Thai Embassies and Consulates took it out of the E-visa program.

Option 3 is applied for by conversion of your Visa Exempt Entry or Tourist Visa at your local Immigration Office inside Thailand.

Option 6 is applied for with support of BOI Thailand

Option 7 is applied for at your local Immigration Office AFTER you used a Non-Immigrant visa.

Other options are applied for at a Thai Consulate OR for those countries who are legit, on-line.

Thanks for reading this long explanation.

@Assad ******

you must be over 50 years, and start with a 90 days Non-Imm-O Retirement Visa. You will get stamped in for a 90-days stay permit. If you fulfill the requirements, you can apply for the 1-year Extension of this stay permit on Immigration. People and Immigration call the "one-year stay permit based on retirement" a "retirement visa", but this is technically wrong wording because a stay permit is not the same as a visa

@Alex ******

Brandon is 100% correct with his advice. Travellers on visa-exempt entries increasingly get grilled at the airports, since the exempt entry went from 30 to 60 days. I am reading in 14+ Visa Advice groups and such reports are made every day. A "visarun" company will check your stamp history and offers their service based on their knowledge only when they can guarantee a successful border bounce. The OP won't lose anything using an agency, since the costs for a return flight to Malaysia or Cambodia don"t come any cheaper, and the trip with an agency is made on the same day

@Ned ******

very illogical - this makes absolutely no sense.

@David *********

sadly, the embassies of Australia, the United Kingdom and the USA, discontinued issuing "income affidavits" a few years ago. The turning point came when Thai Immigration realized that US Americans never had to show any documents that proved their income. All they had to do on their embassy was put their dirty fingers onto the Bible and swear "my income is 3000 Dollars per months, I swear by God" . . . . Thai immigration from there on refused to accept this bullshit. I fully agree they did the right thing 😉 And I suspect this farce was similar on the AUS and UK embassy

@Ron *****

the New Zealand Embassy in Bangkok is issuing "income affidavits". No need for 65.000 THB in monthly transfers into a Thai bank account