Hi,
My sister has been UT for nearly an year with her retirement visa and recently she went to AEK imigration office to do her 90 days report.
And she found out that in order to renew her retirement visa she needs to have this balance in her Thai bank acount for 3 months prior to apply again!
Actually it's our fault that we didn't check properly before .
The immigration officer asked my sister to go to Thai Embassy in Vientiane to get 90 days first and reapply again so we did last week.
And we tranfered the money into her account from overseas already but in this case even her retiremnt visa has been kind of expired and with her tourist visa,can she still qualified to get her 2nd year retirement visa?
Anybody experieced same situation?

She will check aagain but bit worried about unexpected situation.....

Worried sister from overseas

Well it sure does sound like she is back to square one Really, she can not apply for the yearly extension on a tourist visa. When at the Thai Embassy in Vientiane, she should have asked for an NON O visa not a tourist visa. But maybe she did, and they told her she would need to apply in her home country. You did say retirement, and not marriage.

But maybe I don't understand something. Think best to stop by AEK and ask how to solve this problem. Wish her luck with this problem.

My understanding is that she may be able to convert from a 90 day tourist visa to a yearly extension for retirement. There is a lot of good information here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showforum=1

jack

When I got a tourist visa,it was only good for 60 dats,could be extended to 90 days!I did apply for my retirement ''o'' visa while on the tourist visa!

Thank you, everybody!
Actually when we went to Vientiane Emabassy when we asked them whether we could extend her retirement visa instead of having tourist visa but itwe had negative answers.
And at Udon immigration,they told her to go to Laos but didn't ask her that she needs to start all over again from her country.At that moment, she didn't worry that much but for me it sounded like we had to start all over from zero!!!!
And about 90 days I guess it's agreement between Thailand and South Korea.
About other nationalities I'm not so sure how many days of tourist visa you may obtain from Viantiane.
Anyway,we need to wait until we get this 3 months deposit period and will reapply again from Udon.... hope everything goes alright!!!

Thanks again and will inform you about the result.

As immigration seem to make up half the rules as they choose, your very best advice is to speak with them and ask them exactly what is the best way out of this situation and make sure you are 100% clear. They are the ones who will be issuing your retirement visa so they are the ones who know EXACTLY what they will want to see.
As they originally told you to go to Laos and get another 90 day visa - that to me would have sounded like a non -imm visa - which is valid for 90 days, and it seems like you got a 60 day tourist visa. But speak to them and confirm that you can transfer this into a retirement visa (extension). With your 60 days initially, you can extend 30 days to make 90 days and this will satisfy your 3 month bank deposit requirement.
Ask them - clarify it and do exactly as they tell you - don't rely on hearsay off a public forum, theres too much at stake.

flower child wrote:Hi,
My sister has been UT for nearly an year with her retirement visa and recently she went to AEK imigration office to do her 90 days report.
And she found out that in order to renew her retirement visa she needs to have this balance in her Thai bank acount for 3 months prior to apply again!
Actually it's our fault that we didn't check properly before .
The immigration officer asked my sister to go to Thai Embassy in Vientiane to get 90 days first and reapply again so we did last week.
And we tranfered the money into her account from overseas already but in this case even her retiremnt visa has been kind of expired and with her tourist visa,can she still qualified to get her 2nd year retirement visa?
Anybody experieced same situation?

She will check aagain but bit worried about unexpected situation.....

Worried sister from overseas

Immigration in Bangkok can be worth a try, looks like they have more power then the other branches. I heard people converted their tourist visa to a married to Thai visa non-immigrant O. but that is just hearsaying.

Although I live in NK and have a thai''friend'' working at the NK immigration office,I still extend my retirement visa in Bangkok.There is never the inconsistency and individual interpretations that are reported by others using the non-Bangkok offices!

As a a matter of fact,I do the same with my car registration and DL renewals,since I have experienced the ''run around'' individual BS in my attempts of dealing with the locals after my move from Bangkok!

flower child, I disagree about it being your falut -how would you have known to ask about extension requirements more than three months prior to expiration of your extension? They changed the rules on you and didn't seem to go to any particular trouble to reach out to us and inform us.

The immigration people in Bangkok that I have delt with over the years have consistently been as flexible and helpful as they could be. They have also been consistent and dare I say, human. I may continue to renew in Bangkok after the stories I have read on this board.

By the way, when I renewed in Bangkok back in November, I was without the 3 months balance required (Hey...I had 2 1/2 months, not too bad), and they didn't give me any grief about it- they only stamped my extension application and asked me to initial to show that I understood the new deposit requirement.

Hi,After we have read all the advice from members,she decided to go to speak to people at the AEK tomorrow morning.

Will let you know the result and if it's not positive we will try BKK office .

Thank you for your help.

Hi,
About the result,
She went to AEK on Monday morning and they referred her to Nongkai office and she had to prepare medical paper,Bank letter and had to company with one Thai neigbour.
She went to Nongkai office same day and found out it was unnecessary to go to Laos!!!(even we have enjoyed very much one day itrip in Vientiane)
Anyway she submitted all the documents and had an interview and they asked her to come back on 12th to know the result but looks like quite alright....
But stiil we need to see how it is.

Thank you everyone who gave me useful suggestions and without Udonmap members life will be quite difficult