Ok, yes you have 2 choices (1.Thai bank account without embassy letter or 2. embassy letter). To get the letter/affidavit from the US embassy requires no backup or statements. Other embassies appear to have tougher requirements for their letter and those foreigners may need to set up Thai bank accounts.

Steve Greir I am only talking about the yearly extension of stay only. Initial visa you can use statements from home country. Initial visa also does not require a bank account in Thailand for any nationality.

Steve Greir Not sure what you are trying to say “You do need a Thai bank account if you use the 800,000 lump sum for the yearly extention of stay, although you can have the equivilant in a foreign currency account”. This may be required by your embassy but it is not required by the US embassy in Bangkok. I do not think you are American. The US embassy requires no statements for the income statement to get the letter but you have to swear to tell the truth to them as if you are in court in the US. This is an affidavit. Thai Immigration only requires the notarized letter from your embassy about your income. The form/affidavit provided by the US embassy only allows you to write in a monthly income. You can decide what your monthly income is. I just completed this about 3 months ago.

/05/income-verification-affidavit-bkk-0517.pdf. I don’t know any American that have a retirement visa that keep 800,000 Baht or equivalent in foreign currency in a Thai bank. It is my understanding other foreign embassies are different and have different requirements.

Americans do not need a bank account in Thailand for initial visa or extension. See below.

@Kevin ************

I used a monthly statement of my brokerage account for initial visa with Thai embassy in DC.

Tod Daniels you use the US embassy in Bangkok to notarize your income letter for the extension and not the initial visa . You use the Thai embassy in the US to get your initial visa with a bank or brokerage statement. I addressed both initial visa and extension in initial comment in regards to depositing money in a bank in Thailand.

If you do decide to set up a bank account in Thailand for convenience ( not needed for the visa for Americans) the best choice for Americans may be Bank of Bangkok since they have a branch in NYC. Most American banks will not allow you to wire or transfer money from the USA to Thai banks. You can move the money to the Bangkok bank in NYC and they will transfer to Thailand.

You do not need to deposit the money in a bank in Thailand for the initial visa or yearly extension. The US embassy in Bangkok will notarize your annual income statement letter for the extension which is different than other foreign embassy requirements ( like the UK). They will ask you to be truthful in order to notarize. The US embassy in Bangkok will not require proof of your annual income for the extension but you will need to provide a statement to the Thai embassy in the US for your initial visa. One thing to know is that your initial retirement multi re-entry visa can be stretched into almost two years simply by leaving Thailand and returning to Thailand just prior to the initial 1 year expiration date. I am an American and went through this entire process already.