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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawThailand Immigration Law"Seasoning" Bank Accounts for Thai Visa Purposes

"Seasoning" Bank Accounts for Thai Visa Purposes

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the notion of “seasoning” Thai Bank accounts or it could even be bank accounts abroad now with the current requirements associated with Thai Tourist Visas. 

For those who are unaware, and we have made other videos on this channel, so I won't go into great detail here, Thai Visas may now be open depending on your country of nationality. But you have to know, at least as of the time of this video, almost every country we have seen requires a 500,000 Baht balance to have been maintained for 6 months in the relevant bank account and that 500,000 Baht, it is possible to have that in local currency denomination in the country in which you are coming from but it needs to be "seasoned". You will see this on the internet a little bit, you will see it referred to as "seasoning" an account or "seasoned" Thai bank account or a "seasoned" account. What this means is that money has to have been there for certain period of time. In the case of a Thai Tourist Visa, it is not good enough to just be able to show a bank balance equivalent of 500,000 Baht on the day of application, they want to see it going back 6 months prior. We have seen this in prior circumstances associated with "seasoning" of bank accounts associated with extension of Retirement Visa status here in the Kingdom especially in the Big Joke era; that was one of the prior heads of Thai Immigration. That was taken really seriously because they wanted to see that the person had a balance for at least 3 months prior to the application and then in certain circumstances, a balance of that amount, in that case it was 800,000 Baht, had to be maintained out past the actual issuance of the Visa. You had to deal with actually showing up a month later and showing that you had the balance maintained in order to get the 11-month stamp tacked on. 

So this notion of "seasoning" is not new in the Thai Immigration context but basically what it means is keeping that balance on hand for a certain prescribed period of time in order to be able to use it as part of the evidentiary documentation associated with seeking a visa to the Kingdom of Thailand.