Showing posts with label Retirement Visa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Retirement Visa. Show all posts

Wednesday 23 January 2019

Thai immigration to show leniency to foreigners applying for retirement & marriage extensions


Thai immigration say that they’re willing to show leniency to foreigners in the prickly subject of proving income when applying for retirement and marriage visas and extensions.

Immigration chief Police Lieutenant General Surachete Hakparn acknowledges that some applicants may have difficulty in providing the now required 12 months worth of bank statements.

Where this is the case Surachete has instructed immigration officers that, up to the end of 2019, they will have discretion to accept evidence of less than 12 monthly transfers from overseas.

Appplicants given leniency in this case are being told that this is a one-off exemption and that their applications for the next renewal will not be accepted without a complete set of documents according to the order.
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The order comes after revelations last year that a number of embassies in Thailand, including the UK, USA and Australia, would stop issuing income letters or affidavits, which had been used by expats to confirm their income when applying for a retirement or marriage extension.

This was forcing some foreigners applying for ‘retirement’ or ‘marriage’ visas to show 12 monthly transfers of either 65,000 baht or 40,000 baht paid into a Thai bank account.

Those affected by the new requirements are questioning if they will still be able to obtain a retirement or marriage extension even though they were not able to provide the 12 months worth of statements now required.

Best to consult your visa agent or go directly to your local Immigration office for an ‘off the record’ chat before you submit your documents.

Source - TheThaiger & Thaivisa
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Saturday 17 October 2015

Farang retirees will need a fortune


Re: "First shot fired in battle against border corruption", Editorial


 Your editorial omits one other feature of national police chief General Somyot Poompanmuang's criticism of the Immigration service that has already had a major impact: the complex issue of one-year retirement visas. Applicants 50 years or older must now have had at least Bt800,000 in a personal bank account for some months, and without a friend topping up the amount on a short-term basis. Quite a number of farang are going to be caught in that honey trap.

Of course there is an alternative. Applicants can apply for the retirement visa wholly or partly on the basis of having income in their home country, provided that the relevant embassy issues a letter "confirming" the amount. The problem here is that some embassies (the UK's is one) insist that applicants provide proof of income, for example bank statements, while others (such as the US and Australian embassies) have no such rule and rely on self-certification. Over the next few months, don't be too surprised if there is a steep rise in the number of one-way tickets being sold on the Bangkok-UK routes to this new generation of elderly and unwilling economic migrants.

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