Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the notion of “gaming” the Thai Retirement Visa System. What are we talking about here? Well, I see this a lot especially in the context of those who are trying to use pension income, pension evidence to justify Retirement Visa, either conversion or extension.

So what are we talking about here? Well when you are using a pension as evidence of financial ability to support oneself as a retiree in Thailand, you have to show that that money comes in once a month. Now you will see even videos on YouTube talking about this: "Well you just take money out, deposit your own money into the account and then when it comes time to show that money has come in, there you are! You have got an example that X amount of Baht in this case 65,000 or above has been coming in." 

Well let me just walk you through a few ways in which the Thai Immigration Authorities are pretty hip to this kind of stuff. First of all, and a big one and you will see this talked about a lot and it can be a major issue, the transfer codes. When you look at a Thai Bank Book, there are transfer codes, so there are codes next to the transaction that say what it is. If it is a foreign transaction; if it is a foreign bank wire; if it is some other kind of like online bank, there are merchant accounts, that is more of a corporate thing, or if it is just an in-country transfer; or if it is a direct deposit, any of these things they are going to show a different, even a counter deposit in most banks I think has a different code. So again to try and "game" it using just the same money being recycled it is not going to work real well because they are going to probably be able to see the code. Meanwhile, another big one is having exactly 65,000 Baht per month hit a bank account every month is going to look a little suspicious because presumably if you have a pension income from a country abroad, it is going to be denominated in foreign currency therefore it is going to come in at a different amount with respect to the overall exchange rate on a monthly basis. It is not going to come in at 65,000 Baht a month perfectly every month. Again Immigration on top of that they don't want to see just the exact minimum, they prefer to see more. 

So that is another reason to keep in mind that look at the end of the day don't try to "game" this stuff because what you will end up doing and what I have seen happen to folks is you will end up with like a day left of validity on your visa and you have got an angry Immigration Officer who is not going to help you because they view you as kind of having cheated and you end up in a situation where you are stuck between a rock and a hard place; either leave Thailand immediately or fall into overstay.