I shall be visiting Immigration at AEK friday next week to apply for my Retirement Visa.

I have a letter from the Australian Govt Dept that pays me my pension stating my monthly income ( paid fortnightly) meets the criteria. This is my back up plan of attack.

My first applicaton will be based on 800000 baht in the bank. Will they want to see the money going into my bank from overseas or will the fact that 400000 baht has been in one account since 12/11/2004 and another 400000 odd deposited 21/02/2005 in another account. Both accounts are with Bangkok Bank. I think I have in Udon the transaction slips where I have converted AUD$ both in cash and TC to baht and deposited some of the proceeds. I do have the requisite 800000 in one account if they want that.

Any opinions?

John

Well, first wish you a trouble free day. You should be all set, but..... A friend from NongKhai was doing the same last month, and I got email from him on the 28th saying he was out the door an on his way to Bangkok. Not sure if to get more paperwork or just to get it done there.

hope you have better luck than me. took 3 trips, last one required income statement, bank statement specifically addressed "to immigrations" along with dated deposits and "funds from foreign country", medical form, house registration, all presented to the gent who a month earlier said i only needed income and bank statement.

phone call from my brit friend tuesday, knowing about my three trips to NK, was happy to inform me, simply asking what he needs as his expires shortly and he will be cutting thru bkk, maybe a stop at embassy for income statement. with NO paperwork, he leaves with renewed one year visa.

the only thing consistent here is the inconsistency.

shall be visiting Immigration at AEK friday next week to apply for my Retirement Visa.

I think AEK have no interest in doing retirment visas , they told me to go to Loas to get mine renewed ?? I suppose if all visa requests end up at bangkok then they are on a hiding to nothing if something is wrong with the application as it gets sent back to them . But last friday they as good as said to my g/f , you not getting a renewal here ,do yourself a favour and go to Loas . and mine is not due for renewal untill September .

AJ, I am applying for the initial retirement visa, not a renewal.

John

Guys,

Apples and oranges. Rules for each country of origin vary, plus for each type of visa or extension or renewal or new visa.

If you have a 1 year retirement visa and need a renewal, get a re-entry permit and go to Laos for an hour or two. Upon return, you will be stamped with a new 1 year visa. No re-entry permit, you will get 2 weeks or 1 month depending on your country of origin.

First application may be made at NK or AEK.

If you want or need a 3 month visa, then go to Laos for a couple of days and apply at the Thai embassy in Vientienne.

However, caveat emptor. Each officer will read the requirements differently and may have a different idea on a different day, especially if his boss is or is not nearby.

This is Thailand (T.I.T.) No department starts work until the department head arrives. That means this: if the sign says work starts at 9AM, but the boss or shift super doesn't arrive until 9:30, then nothing gets started until 9:30 (standard 3rd world rules - personal initiative is not allowed). Same goes for lunch.

In ansawer to your question John - I was specifically told that they couldn't care less where the money came from - they just wanted to see the required amount on your bank book - full stop.
In fact, at my renewal last week I showed them my new bank book with only half a dozen entries on it (all withdrawals) and the deposit of the required amount was not even on there - however the total balance was of course and they never said a word (I did have copies of the old book just in case)
It seems to be a gamble and you might get away with that or they might ask to see the money showing as being transferred from abroad - depends which 'gentleman' you get, to deal with you.

Jeeze guys,

The last time I went to Immigration they wanted a bank book with 6 months history of deposits and withdrawls, including a letter from the bank, plus a sworn income statement, copies of pages from the house registration book and my passport (every page signed), plus the originals, a current medical exam, and 2 photos. Still took them an hour to review the packet, before they decided to ask for a copy of all 8 pages of the bank book. Obviously, it took a few trips to complete the process. I have made about 8 trips to immigration. Each trip has had a different set of requirements.
However, the official requirements are as stated in my last post.

Michael Weldon

Thanks for the replies.

I am not interested in renewing an existing visa, going over the bridge to Laos or whatever. I know the criteria for a retirement visa. I am going to AEK or NK purely to apply for a retirement visa for the FIRST TIME.

My question relates ONLY to applying for a retirement visa using the 800000 baht in the bank procedure and where the money is coming from.

Should I be unsuccessfull I have a letter from the appropriate Aust Govt department outlining my pension which I will take to the Australian Embassy in BKK and they will do to it whatever they have to do and I will go down that route.

Thanks
John

point taken wokkawombat ,but in the end you will have to renew same as the rest of us. Let me just add this , if you go to Thai embassy in London a visa is not easy to get . you can get one I did, but it takes numerous visits . On the other hand if yo go to Hull in England then its apparently much easier. In comparison I think you might find it easier to go to Bangkok to get visa whether it be new one or a reknew. In the case of a visa from AEK we were told that its not going to be easy by the guy in charge there. and to prove his point he showed us heaps of applications ,all of which have to be forwarded to bangkok for approval and then returned to them. Which to me makes me think Id ratherr deal with the monkey grinder rather than the monkey .

aj wrote: if you go to Thai embassy in London a visa is not easy to get . you can get one I did, but it takes numerous visits . On the other hand if yo go to Hull in England then its apparently much easier.

Absolutely!! I have just got my Non-Imm 'O' visa from Hull...
all done by post, in less than 48 hours.

Why the F**k would a wombat go to Hull to renew a visa. I posted asking for specific information about the 800000 baht option and apart from a few gems all I have got is off topic waffle. If you want to talk about renewing start another thread and let anyone who knows the answers to my question answer it.

RIGHT MY FRIEND . WAFFLE HUH . OK i/LL TRY ONCE MORE . YOU ARE GOING TO GET A NEW RETIRMENT VISA FROM ajK . TRY THINKING ON THIS ONE. vISA S ARE ISSUED NOT BY THE IMIGRATION DEPARTMENT BUT BY AN EMBASSY . rENEWALS CAN BE ISSUED BY IMIGRATION . sO AS YOUR new vISA WILL BE ISSUED BY tHAI EMBASSY NOT BY INMIGRATION AT AJK IT STAND S TO REASON TO M,E At least that ajk if they dont want to do renewals do not want to do first time applications either . If you think about it then it stands to reason that they are on a hiding to nothing because they do the paperwork and then send it to Bangkok . if there is anything wrong it gets sent back to them , they then have to tell you . your not a happy bunny . banngkok not care and poor old udon and ajk getting it in the neck from everyone. Thats why Udon telling anyone who can talk Thai , dont come her for visa or renewal , they then say go to Loes and get visa easier . I have no doubt you will do just what you wish , that is your privilage and right . I have read this forum and many times if I could have understood what was being said could have saved nmyself a lot of time and trouble over visa s ,so object of forum is to help each other by all using common sense and not attaking each other . Now you want a war then ok . cos anyone with any sense just walk away and let you sort and learn for yourself . This of course is just my thought process . Im open to leanring all about yours.

aj, I think Wokka was making three points.

Firstly, that he is Australian, so why would he want to be going to Thai consulates in London or Hull, which are in England, for his visa.

Secondly, he was asking about NEW retirement visas for people with the 800K in a Thai bank a/c. NOT RENEWALS.

Thirdly, he plans to do it in Thailand, at AEK, as new retirement visas can be done in Thailand. I did mine in Phuket 6 months ago.

He was maybe getting a little frustrated that the advice he was receiving was "off-topic".

I note your point that if he goes to AEK that they may give him a difficult time.

John,

My only slight worry would be the length of time the money has been sitting in the accounts. From their point of view how have you been living without working??.. so you may need to prep yourself for that question. This is also really supposed to be annual income, so I could see some problems with the deposit dated 12/11/04. Just playing devil's advocate here, who knows what they might say, but from their point of view it does not really seem to meet the spirit of the requirements I guess

On balance the retirement income one with the supporting documentation would surely be the one that could not possibly be argued about.

I'm not a visa expert, but you asked for opinion; that seems easier to me rather than arguing the t**s when you get there.