Retirement Extension for Dummies 2017 – Buriram Immigration

[CO-CO]

Interesting.

?Statements of deposit? are meaningless in terms of evidencing income of 65,000 Baht.

Starman could transfer to your account this month, I could transfer next month (you pay us back by cash withdrawals.....).

Income is normally verified by embassy letter - anything else (and maybe even some embassy letters) is a fudge.

A Bank book is often presented/requested as evidence of economic activity in Thailand.

[DeputyDavid]

I completely understand. I?m just passing on what I was told. I suggested providing bank books and was told no. I?ll see what the bank will provide as far as proof of deposit and come with bank book as well. Don?t know what else to do.

[iammike]

I believe they want a Foreign Exchange Transaction Form (FET) but I believe they only issue that if transferring more then 50.000 USD or equivalent.

But have to ask your Bank if they do that for smaller amount. Here the application form from Bangkok Bank (as an example)

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBankThai/Documents/Site%20Documents/GPSD/FXTransactionForm_15032011.pdf

Ps: I believe they are used normally when buying Property (Condo) in Thailand so that the Land Office can see that the money is remitted into Thailand

[Somnat]

A very strange request from immigration DD.

A quick look at you bank passbook by them would clearly show funds from home country.

It has its own unique code - in the case of Bangkok bank it is BTN -and shows as a CREDIT.

During my last extension in February I overheard an ongoing conversation between a chap trying to do an extension and an IO.

The IO was repeatedly telling him he needed to show that 65K coming into his bank each month !!!

Like you (and me) he was transferring money only 4 times per year.

The end result for him was to pay a "service fee" to complete the extension.

Meanwhile, myself dealing with another IO, had no problems. Not a word about monthly transfers.

DD, out of curiosity, were you dealing with someone on the extreme right of the desks as you look at them?     

[DeputyDavid]

Yes the officer on right. Then he called over the officer in the middle. They called over the officer at the far left. When wife and I went back the female on far left wanted to review my passport.

[Somnat]

Sounds like you got the VIP treatment DD 

Officer on the right (with glasses??) was the one I mentioned before that insisted on monthly transfers.

Also same one that charged me a 300 Baht "service fee" for not submitting a TM28 and 30. Which had already been done at the then KCI office and I had already asked at BI on 3 occasions if I need to resubmit with a negative answer each time 

Cant wait till next extension time 

[Freddy]

God, I'm glad I'm in the position to just leave 800,000 in a fixed deposit and avoid all this proof of income malarkey.
Hope you get it sorted OK DD?

[DeputyDavid]

Yes thanks Freddy. I decided I will do the same for next year but it is too late for this year.

[CO-CO]

God, I'm glad I'm in the position to just leave 800,000 in a fixed deposit and avoid all this proof of income malarkey.
Hope you get it sorted OK DD?

Proof of income is easy.......just supply an embassy letter confirming income.

[urleft]

Actually the reason for posting this is so others don?t make the same mistakes I did. Immigration was actually very cordial and saw I was getting frustrated and did a good job of keeping things on a calm level. I have always been treated well there.  I think they gave me a little leeway this time. Thank goodness for my wife and her meticulous record keeping. She just grabbed the correct folder and off we went back to immigration.

This post:
http://www.buriramexpats.com/forum/index.php/topic,9189.msg63316.html#msg63316

Has a pic showing the number. 

[Smithy]

God, I'm glad I'm in the position to just leave 800,000 in a fixed deposit and avoid all this proof of income malarkey.
Hope you get it sorted OK DD?

Proof of income is easy.......just supply an embassy letter confirming income.

Why some people would want to put 800k in the bank and just leave it there ( unless you have so much money it doesn't matter ) when there's so many other ways to meet the requirements and better ways to make money on a 800k lump sum than to have it sitting in a Thai fixed deposit account  .As Coco has said " Proof of income is easy.......just supply an embassy letter confirming income" and even if your income/pension doesn't meet the 800k requirement you can use the 'combination of income and bank balance method' so that you can keep the minimum  deposited here in Thailand .
The other thing you can do ( as I did on my Marriage extension for many years ) is to make sure you have the required funds in your bank when applying for you extension and then living off that money and then just topping it up once a year to meet the requirements of your next extension.
Like some have found out, I like to keep away from the local Immigration Offices as much as possible as they like/want to ask questions and see proof of things that by requirement's are not needed so they can make up a 'special service fee' to suit their agenda. Like asking for 1K to transfer a stamp to a new passport ( which is in fact a free service ) or like Somnat's report where IO's make things up for the gullible first-timer so they can obtain a bit of Tea money !!
Now because of some of the things above and the exchange rate I now obtain my Multi 'O' from Savannakhet ( no proof of funds needed ) and just do border runs every 90 days. At least you know the Cambodian IO's are going to rip you off on border runs, so you can take that into account before deciding which Visa route you are going to take   

[DeputyDavid]

Can you get Non-o based on retirement there and do 90 day reports at BI?  That sounds like a good option. The money spent to cross border would be recouped with buying a couple bottles of good single malt scotch!

[iammike]

Can you get Non-o based on retirement there and do 90 day reports at BI?  That sounds like a good option. The money spent to cross border would be recouped with buying a couple bottles of good single malt scotch!

You could maybe get a Single Entry Non-O based on Retirement there (Savannahket) what Smithy has is AFAIK a Multiple Entry Non-O based on Marriage to a Thai, and that one you can get in Savannakhet. (I have had a few of those, before going the extension of stay route this year.)

And with a NON-O Multiple Entry, you can't do 90 day reports you have to leave the Country every 90 days and then when entering LOS you will get 90 Days again. If you are married you could get a 60 day extension at immigration so you could (if you have the Non-O multiple Entry) in theory stay 150 days in Thailand.

[DeputyDavid]

With that said, I figure non-o a retirement extension get 800,000 in the bank use it and top off at least 90 days before next extension time, do 90 day reports here. Seems like best way for me.

[Starman]

It has been known for Savannakhet to issue a multi entry O based on being over 50 if you have previously received one from your home country.

However, unlike the Multi Non O based on marriage, for being over 50 you will need documentation to show an income of 65k per month or a bank balance of 800k.

As previously stated, you will need to leave Thailand every 90 days to get a new 90 permission to stay stamp.

If you do have a multi O based on marriage, there is not much advantage of going to Immigration for a 60 days extension on every entry. The visa has an "enter before date" of 1 year and extending in country does not change this. The only true advantage of the 60 day extension is after the visa has expired and your final permission to stay is up. This then means that you can get a total of 17 months from one visa.

Then back to Savannakhet for another one and start the cycle again.