Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking about Retirement Visas, specifically we are talking about banking in connection with that. The question posed is: "how long must a bank balance”, so for those who are unaware there are sort of two main requirements associated with the Retirement Visa, specifically O or O-A Retirement Visas; that is what we are talking about here. So you can either have 800,000 Baht maintained as a balance in a Thai Bank account, 65,000 Baht per month in the form of pension. As we have discussed in the past, there is as stated on Thai Immigration's website, this ability to sort of mix if you will those two things. I have never seen that on a routine basis be applied and I have done videos on this in the past; I have even had to do a correction video myself because I was saying it wasn't possible and then I went and looked it up and yeah it actually is listed on the website. I have never seen it as a practical matter be implemented that way, so leave that one aside. What we are talking about here is the bank balance, the 800,000 Baht in a Thai Bank Account and utilizing that to extend one's Thai Retirement Visa. 

The question posed is 'how long does it have to be on balance?' I have seen a lot of people, I have gotten some questions recently and people are saying, "Thai Immigration in this location is saying that I took money out of it and went under 400,000 and now I can't renew my Retirement Visa." So again you have got to remember, this is not driven by explicit code, it's sort of guidelines if you will and again all Thai Immigration Officers are able to basically utilize their discretion as well so you have got to bear that in mind. 

Long story short, where we saw it at its strictest, this was actually during "Big Joke's" tenure at the helm of Thai Immigration was if I recall correctly you had to have 800,000 in 2 months prior to the renewal of a Retirement Visa and maintain that balance three months after. Then at the same time the balance could never go below 400,000. So that was when we saw these guidelines being enforced at their absolute tightest. Since then we have kind of seen it ease off; different officers are a little more lax, they had a little more leeway. Again an Immigration Officer may be able to exercise their discretion in your favour. Again these are case specific, case dependent or excuse me fact dependent scenarios. It is going to depend on the specific facts in the giving case and then the Immigration Officer is going to make findings of fact and conclusions of law when deciding and adjudicating whether or not to grant an extension of the Retirement Visa. 

That said, if you find the Retirement Visa requirements or the stipulations a bit overwhelming, it may not be a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.