Update from Suvarnabhumi today: I went to the airport help desk who rang immigration. I explained the problem over the phone in Thai to the immigration officer, who told me to go up to departures and wait by M24. She came out about ten minutes later, checked the passport and took it away to get the right stamp. About twenty minutes later, she came out again, with the date corrected to 4th September, a dated and signed correction, indicating the correct visa page and the single re-entry permit now cancelled. I asked about the multiple re-entry, which was not stamped "used" but she said that this was automatically cancelled when I got the non-B. Everything should now be OK and the non-B is now valid and correctly stamped. I have to say, great service by Thai immigration - credit where it's due. Thanks

@Tod ********

for the help - I owe you a beer or two.

The re-entry permit tied to the retirement visa was a multiple entry, and the guys at departure would assume of course that I'm going to KL for a few days for a holiday, so no reason to cancel it. I thought it became automatically void as soon as I got the non-B. I'll update you with feedback from Suvarnabhumi tomorrow, and if that doesn't work CW on Monday.

Yes, my bad. I'll try Suvarnabhumi tomorrow to see if they can help. Thanks!

I tried this at several branches. Kasikorn can't see that the transfer is international because it came via Bangkok Bank and they cannot therefore confirm it in a letter. Even the online K-Cyber showed it as a Thai payment from a "dummy branch". In the end, Bangkok Bank could confirm it by giving me a receipt for the transfer. Kasikorn Bank was happy to confirm the sum, but not the provenance. Bangkok bank confirmed the provenance - and fortunately Immigration accepted the two documents together.

@David *********

They had both the Transferwise statement and the Nordea transfer to Transferwise, but needed confirmation of exactly the same information on paper headed with a Thai bank name. It's solved now, but worth remembering for another time.

@Billy ***********

Yes, my thoughts exactly. Funnily enough, at Chaengwattana, the otherwise very helpful manager at Bangkok Bank would only open accounts if you could show a work permit and they didn't want retirees. On the other hand, I bet I'd get a different response from another branch or even on another day.

Very interesting - and a bit of a worry. Glad it got sorted out. At least this time, we know to check the correspondent bank and to get them to confirm it, rather than the actual bank we are using. I'm going to go and check if all previous Transferwise payments came via Bangkok Bank, or whether they have other correspondents as well. If the former, it would probably make things a whole lot easier if I opened an account at BKK Bank instead. Just in case.

If I understand from Tod's posts, if you're converting in Thailand from a tourist visa to permission to stay based on retirement, then you do need to show that the money was sent from a foreign bank. If it's an extension of an existing permission to stay based on retirement, then there is no requirement for the money to come from abroad.

What did I learn from this? 1) It's probably best to use a normal bank transfer rather than Transferwise if the money has to be guaranteed somehow by a bank. You'd be fine if your account was with BKK Bank, but Kasikorn was definitely thrown by this and I'd guess that most others would be as well. 2) If it doesn't work the first time by asking a bank officer, ask another one; and another one, and another one, until you find someone who can in fact press the right buttons, on the right machine (serious respect for the manager of the branch in CW who made the effort) 3) If you get turned down by one Immigration agent, another might be OK with it.

A quick update: I went to Chaengwattana this morning with my documents from Nordea Bank and Transferwise, pulled a number and had time to go down to Kasikorn bank, to get another set of copies made of my passbook and the letter confirming that there was sufficient money in the account. I needed this as the documents must be from the date of application. I had a low number, so had to go straight back up to C1 to apply again and was turned down by a different officer this time as the Immigration won't accept any proof of transfer from Transferwise or a foreign bank. I was asked to go down and get Kasikorn bank to confirm that the money came from abroad...so right back to square one again. I asked if they could get a letter from Bangkok Bank instead, as the correspondent bank for the transfer from Europe and she agreed. I thought I'd have one last try at Bangkok Bank again and ended up being shuffled up to the branch manager, who checked in their system and was surprised that they did indeed have a copy of the payment from Europe. She couldn't write a letter, but could print off the receipt from the bank's own system and I thought I'd just give it one more try at immigration. The information on the form is exactly the same as on the transferwise document and isn't signed and stamped either, but hey, it's got a Bangkok Bank logo in the corner, and was on flimsy 3-ply coloured printer paper. This time, it did get approved, so yay.