@Amornrat *********

What is written on Immigration websites often is not what Immigration officers will ask of you, you should know this.

Fairly straight forward then, go to immigration with all your documentation and apply to change your visa to a Type O, then apply for the 1 year extension when that is granted.

@Peter ***********

Yep, I just remembered that myself, thanks Peter, I never went that way, as I had the monthly pension. However there was a time about 10-15 years ago when some immigration offices demanded three months.

Yes, you can. But if you go the 800,000 in the bank route It has to be in the bank untouched for three months. Or if you have a retirement income of 65,000 per month, that is acceptable. You would go to Immigration and apply to change your visa type to O, and at the same time extend it for one year based on retirement. You do not mention where you would be doing this BKK or another province, that is important as each area seems to have its own little 'quirks and foibles'.

@Adrien *****

Was it not Thaksin himself who predicted 100,000 members in the first year of its launch ??. lets not forget that Thailand Privilege Card Company Limited suffered cumulative losses of THB800 million forcing it to halt operations. The entire operations, including its debts, were eventually handed over to the Tourism Authority of Thailand to conduct a salvage operation and put it back on a firm footing.

@Robert ***********

I have lived here for 36 years and am intimately aware of the program you describe, i will see if i can find an original advert for the program and you tell me just how much you still get from it now compared with thaksins launch.

@Robert ***********

But not at the same level as was advertised with the original package back when it was first launched. I have no problem with you promoting it, and i am sure you are happy with it, but for anyone else, i would suggest you spend a little time googling the program and its history, and you will see that many people were discouraged simply by the complete lack of transparency and information provided as it went through many stages, and almost was completely closed. There are massive threads on thaivisa and other forums about this.

On top of that there was serious attempts to completely scrap the system in .

@Robert ***********

So the free golf courses, limo pickups, and club memberships were all a figment of my imagination ??, Robert i was living here then and was given detailed descriptions of these things.

I actually looked closely at the Thai elite program when it first appeared, but then Thaksin went, and a lot of the 'perks' went also (actually i think all of the perks). If it had been simply marketed as an easy visa in the first place i believe they would have had more success in enrolees.