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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawThailand Immigration LawBank Books in the Context of Retirement Visas in Thailand

Bank Books in the Context of Retirement Visas in Thailand

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Bank books and the Thai retirement visa.

Why are we discussing this now? Well there have being major changes with respect to the Thai retirement visa and the application for an extension thereof. What major changes? Well there are other videos on this channel that get really deep into that but as a sort of summary if you will, Thai Immigration Officials are now requiring much more stringent measures be taken to prove up a financial ability to support oneself in the Kingdom on retiree status via a lump-sum amount of money in a bank account with respect to retirement visa; it is 800,000 baht in that account. Proof of that has to be maintained for a prolonged period of time namely five whole months and the balance of the account can never go lower than the threshold of 400,000 baht.

But the reason I made this video is because there are going to become increasingly important. In the past it was possible to use an income affidavit from the American, British or Australian Embassies, and that affidavit could then be notarized if you will, legalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and that was sufficient to go ahead and renew  a Thai retirement visa for purposes of the financial component.  That's no longer the case and it's been made abundantly clear through regulations recently issued by Thai Immigration that moving forward they are going to want to see these; either in the context of the 800,000 baht lump-sum or in the context of income and they are going to want to see that a regular income stream is coming into a bank account and the best evidence of that stream of income is coming into one of these bank books; basically you know showing this or a copy of this to an Immigration Officer who is then going to scrutinize the balances i to go ahead and make a determination as to whether or not a visas going to be issued. 

So the thing to take away from this video is these are going to become more important over time and as a result of that it's a good idea to know how they operate.  There's another video on this channel regarding what happens if one loses  a book and how to replace it and that can be really problematic and depending on the time in one's retirement a marriage visa application, that could be a real problem. 

But that being said, something to keep in mind is that these are going to be extremely necessary moving forward. I would say it's going to be nearly impossible for a foreigner to maintain retirement visa in Thailand without a bank account and therefore one of these bank books.