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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawThailand Immigration LawObtaining a Thai Retirement Visa Extension with No Income Affidavit

Obtaining a Thai Retirement Visa Extension with No Income Affidavit

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai retirement visas.  We are specifically discussing them in the context of a recent policy change which has been brought about by both the US and the UK Embassies here in Thailand with respect to Income Affidavits.  

For those who are unaware, there are other videos on this channel discussing the discontinuation of the issuance of Income Affidavits by both the US and the UK embassy here in the Kingdom. In the past, just to be brief, these Income Affidavits were used as a basis for essentially certifying one's finances for purposes of retirement visa extension. The US and the UK have made it abundantly clear that starting January 1, 2019, such documents will no longer be issued by those institutions and therefore individuals are going to have to make their own way if you will, of getting future Thai retirement visa extensions

So where does this leave folks? Well as a practical matter, everybody seems at least my opinion, at least at the time of this video, and if this does change and I suspect we will see some nuance with respect to the practical applications of how Immigration looks at the finances of folks moving forward and sort of the post Income Affidavit but we're not there yet so I can't provide a lot of insight on that. 

I think what we are stuck with at this point though, is that those that are using retirement visas to remain in the Kingdom and those who remaining on extension status, it is probably going to be required moving forward that those individuals either be able to show the 800,000 Baht in a bank account and that bank account probably needs to show that that 800,000 Baht has remained at that level for a fairly prolonged period of time; just how long time remains to be seen. Failing that, individuals need to go ahead and show that 65,000 Baht is coming into their bank account on a regular basis, I would assume from overseas, although I guess I could see certain limited context where it could be coming into their account here in the Kingdom. 

That being said, what we are looking at is a new regime where folks are basically going to have to show their banking documentation so that it can be clearly seen that they either have the lump sum requisite amount to overcome the threshold or they meet the requirement of the monthly income injection into their bank account to meet the requirement moving forward.