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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawThailand Immigration LawUS Embassy Thailand to No Longer Provide Income Affidavits for Thai Retirement Visas

US Embassy Thailand to No Longer Provide Income Affidavits for Thai Retirement Visas

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai retirement visas, specifically the income Affidavit associated therewith.

In recent days it has come to my attention that the United States Embassy has made an official announcement with respect to the fact that they are going to desist in issuing further income affidavits starting January 1. As noted in a private video on this channel, we were somewhat speculative about this actually occurring. I felt that there was a good chance that this announcement would be made coming on the heels of the UK Embassy in Thailand announcing a similar discontinuation of similar documentation. 

To look at the press release from the US Embassy in Bangkok which is dated Friday October 26th 2018. The number, I think it is a reference number is 023 /18. The title is US Mission in Thailand to Cease Providing Income Affidavit. Quoting directly "Bangkok: October 26, 2018, Effective January 1, 2019, the United States Embassy in Bangkok and the US Consulate General in Chiang Mai will no longer provide an Income Affidavit and will not notarize previous versions of the Income Affidavit. The Royal Thai Government requires applicants to meet a minimum income threshold to obtain a non-immigrant long-stay Visa. While the Thai Government has previously relied on income affidavits to demonstrate this fact, the US Government has no mechanisms to confirm individual incomes and cannot legally claim to do so. Because the US Government has no means of confirming a US citizen's income, a notarized affidavit from the US Embassy has never met the requirement to prove a minimum income level for a non-immigrant O, OA or OX long-term stay Visa. There are other methods for US citizens to demonstrate they are eligible for this Thai Visa category. US citizens residing in Thailand should refer to the Thai Government for information about verifying the income moving forward. For the most current information US citizens should check with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Thai Embassy in Washington DC or their local immigration office."

We speculated on this about a week and a half ago, at least I did in another video. I had some folks that were somewhat questioning as to whether or not this would actually happened. Lo and behold it has come to pass and income affidavits are no longer going to be issued. It remains to be seen exactly what is going to suffice for purposes of retirement Visa extensions here in the Kingdom. It seems like bank account, being able to show funds in a bank account or income coming into a bank account in Thailand are definitely going to be sufficient but that being said, until such time as we have actually had some cases that we have seen processed through the office in 2019, I think it is little premature to go out on a limb and start saying what is going to work for certain. We have also had people contacting us saying, “How long does the money have to be in the account?” It remains to be seen. There are certain regulations that stipulate certain time periods but that being said there is nothing that has been dispositive, at least from my interpretation as to the exact nature and time of a deposit, how long it is has got to be there etc.

We will update you on this channel as things progress on this issue but suffice it to say, the Income Affidavit starting in January 1, 2019 is no longer going to be issued by the US Embassy so moving forward, this is basically coming to an end as an effective tool to go ahead and provide a platform for visa extension on a retirement basis here in the Kingdom of Thailand.