Khanom Beach - the undiscovered gem of Thailand's southern beaches.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I had the authorized itemized printout from Citibank showing the past six months but the immigration officer where we live didn't accept it. He demanded to see a friggin bank book. He did cut us a break and extended my visa for three months in order to open a new account and come back with a bank book. Unfortunately, I think it depends on which immigration center you use. I'm in a small city but I'm not sure that matters. As I said, I'm just sharing my experience.

I can just share my experience, I had a retirement visa that I switched to a marriage visa. The immigrantion officer would not accept an official (stamped) Citibank Thailand bank statement - he demanded to see an actual bank book showing the running balance 3 months before and 3months after application. Citibank doesn't have bank books anymore so I needed to open an account at a local Thai bank that still uses bank books. To avoid problems, I suggest doing the same - open a local account and just keep the money (800K for retirement, 400K for marriage visas) in the account for 3 months prior to and 3 months after application. It's a pain in the ass but we need to play by their rules.

I'm hoping the online 90-day reporting works - I'm going to try it this time as I heard they really don't want farangs coming into the immigration office.

Thanks, Frank, good info and a good way of looking at it. I'm married to a Thai - here now on a retirement visa. Not a huge deal to get it renewed down here in southern Thailand but it would be nice not to worry about it for 5 years.

Thanks, I've checked out the online application - didn't see the fee listed. It's quite high but I think worth it.

What's the requirements?

We got rejected in October because of the bank book issue and had to come back in January to renew my retirement visa. All went smoothly after that. Let us know if you need some help. We live about 5 minutes away from the NST office.

We showed up with everything we thought we needed, as per the previous time but were rejected for not having the bank book. We even called Citibank and had them speak with the guy at NST Immigration. With my wife's charm, he gave us a 3-month extension on my current retirement visa in order to open a new account and show the three months of 800K THB deposit with proof from the bank book. If you're coming to NST immigration, my wife can probably help speak to the guy. She has a way with him.

I've found that you need to have a stamped letter from the bank on their official letterhead along with the bank statement. The banks provide this without any problem. A key thing also was showing a bank book. We got screwed here at the immigration in NST because Citibank doesn't provide them - I had to open up a new account with Kasikorn so you should be ok. The other thing is having to provide a photocopy of each page of your passport that then needs to be signed.