Thailand Immigration Retirement Visa requirements for the under 50

KTMphil

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This is now the second time I've been told this by independent sources relating to different individuals, which may mean it has some merit & with Thai immigration tightening up on "Non-O" friend visit visa's, education immigration visa's and back to back tourist immigration visa's, this is quite important.


Usually to qualify for a Thai Immigration "Non- O" retirement visa, the two big qualifications are that:

1. You are over 50 years old

2. The applicant must show documented evidence of money transfer or a deposit account in Thailand or an income certificate showing an amount of not less than 800,000 Baht or an income certificate plus a deposit account showing a total amount of not less than 800,000 Baht. A one-year extension of stay shall be granted at the discretion of the immigration officer to the foreigner as long as he or she meets the above requirements. (USA citizens can swear an oath that they have these funds at their Consulate and be issued a certificate to this effect by the USA consulate that will qualify).


All the other requirements to qualify are in the link below:

Retirement (Non Imm O-A) - Thaivisa



A 43 year old Canadian friend has been told by a Thai lawyer, that with 3,000,000 Bht in a Thai Bank or a qualifying proof of funds certificate, that he will qualify for a Thai "Non-O" retirement immigration visa. This is the second independent report I've heard of this situation and will try find out more & confirm.
 
You can have 800k baht in a Thai bank for 3 months prior to application OR a letter from your consulate here that you have a pension of min 65k baht/month coming in...OR a combination of the 2,with 400k baht in the bank and 32,500 baht/month from a pension.

I`ve used a Non Imm O retirement extension visa here for a few years now,it saves on visa runs with only a 90 day report needed. You can get a single or multiple re entry permit with it for an extra 1k or 3800 baht respectively.
 
Retirement is one of the more confusing ones as they have multiple ways of doing it.

A true retirement visa is a non imm O A issued outside of Thailand by the dept of interior, that's embassys and consuls in normal terms.. good for one year and each entry to Thailand also for 12 months from the date of entry.. do careful use can get almost 2 years stay inside Thailand.. while here they must 90 day report if they don't leave the country.

Many consuls outside Thailand will, based on less application docs, like the police checks etc.. issue a standard non imm O, the usual one year validity, 90 day entry and hence no reporting as you can't stay longer than the time to report.

Then from inside Thailand the dept of immigration will if you qualify, money in the bank, age etc.. provide annual extensions at any point during a visas permission to stay.

There is no under 50 retirement visa. That's being confused with the old special investor class visa. That was a visa issued to anyone who brought in 3 mil as long as it was used in certain ways. You could buy gov bonds (not corporate) leave it in a savings account or buy a condo (only farang allocation of course).

This visa class was stopped from my recollection over 5 years ago, and replaced with a 10 mil class but far fewer people thought that was a good deal. When this happened there was a fair bit of upset as people had made the investments based on the commitment. At first it was assured everyone would be grandfathered in, and the first year they did, but over time I remember that more and more people had problems staying backdated under that rule.

Maybe the visa class had been opened up again, or maybe they ate just running on old info bit for sure the 3 mil under 50 will be the old special investor one.
 
Forgive typos.. using a phone
 
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