Retirement Visa Renewal for US Expats - Easy

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RCer
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Retirement Visa Renewal for US Expats - Easy

Post by RCer »

Since most of the discussions on Retirement Visas here tends to focus on UK, I thought I'd make a post on how I did mine, today.

1. Go to the US Embassy web site and schedule an appointment for a Notary.
2. Fill in and print the Financial statement from the Embassy web site.
3. Arrive about 30 minutes early for your appointment to clear security and check in.
4. Bring the form and your passport with you to the Embassy for your appointment. No proof of income is required.
5. If this is your first renewal, take the notarized form to the Thai Consul to get it stamped. Their hours are 8:30am - 4:30pm if you want to drop off the form and have it mailed to you. If you want same day service, you must drop it off before 9:30am.

6. All Thai forms are available on the Thai Consul web site (link will be added later).
7. Take the Financial statement and application to Immigration, along with your passport. (I took my lease and my greenbook for my motorbike just in case) You will need 2 new pictures if you're going to get the multiple entry too.

8. Check in and take a number.

It was that simple.

I checked into the broker getting 800,000 certified in the bank for me so I wouldn't have to go to BKK. While it sounds good on the surface and probably works fine 9 times out of 10, I'd hate to be that 10th. The way I see it if you get the certification and someone decides to do an audit and finds that you don't actually have the funds or didn't at the time of certification, the person who certified it may get in a bit of trouble, but you will be the person standing in front of Immigration and then sent packing, if you didn't get an invitation to their "hotel for a long vacation" for your troubles.

For me, the risk is just to great.

Also, you cannot hire a broker to do your US Embassy run because you must sign the form in front of the Notary.
BOZ
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Re: Retirement Visa Renewal for US Expats - Easy

Post by BOZ »

Thanks for the post!!!
Boz

Life is short, live it to the fullest!!!
HHTel
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Re: Retirement Visa Renewal for US Expats - Easy

Post by HHTel »

If your 'broker' is the immigration officer who ultimately processes your application then the risk is very much reduced.
laphanphon
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Re: Retirement Visa Renewal for US Expats - Easy

Post by laphanphon »

Can I extend my retirement visa at the Dan Singkhon Imm Office....??? As my extension is due at end of February, and more convenient location as I'm located at A. Muang PKK.

Thanks in advance.
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Re: Retirement Visa Renewal for US Expats - Easy

Post by brianks »

Oh, sounds so easy BUT you must be talking about Bangkok or Hua Hin Immigration. Down here in Nakhon Si Thammarat we have to have;
1. A picture of myself and wife both inside and outside of our living quarters.
2. Copy of bank passbook with a deposit done the day your presenting it to varrify the funds.
3. Map with GPS coordinates for housing
4. Copy of bluebook for house (or rental agreement)
5. Copy of front and back of Wife's ID card.
6. That stupid internet activity form

I never had any problems when living in Hua Hin with the basic requirements. When I moved south to NST and went to Immigration all the new requirements were thrown in my face. In Surat Thani (next door to us in Khanom) I would have been OK but not NST.

Unfortunately each Immigration department can add its own extra requirements to the process.

Oh, and it can be so much fun when you have to drive 90 km one way to Immigration office only to deal with a pompus jerk who seems to enjoy lording over you and causing you problems.
RCer
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Re: Retirement Visa Renewal for US Expats - Easy

Post by RCer »

Wow, sounds like a marriage visa.
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Re: Retirement Visa Renewal for US Expats - Easy

Post by brianks »

NO not a Marriage Visa. All requirements for renewal of Retirement Visa. The sterling officer in charge once bragged of turning away two farangs for renewal of retirement visa because they didn't have a bank account. They had the verification of income document from the embassy but he told them they had to have a bank account too.

Last time I renewed there was not a stamp from the bank on the page showing the bank transactions along with the verification of the 800,000 THB in the account. Almost got sent away but fortunately the curmudgeon was not there that day and they finally let it pass----even though I had the original bank book to show them with the 3 copies of it that they also required.

Oh, I forgot to mention that they also require 3 copies of every page of your passport. Don't know where they put all the papers they collect but sure must take up some space somewhere.
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Re: Retirement Visa Renewal for US Expats - Easy

Post by hhinner »

^^ The blank sides of your passport copies are probably recycled for forms for other people to use.
handdrummer
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Re: Retirement Visa Renewal for US Expats - Easy

Post by handdrummer »

if I could afford to live in my home country with my thai wife I wouldn't be here. the bureaucracy is staggering.
HHTel
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Re: Retirement Visa Renewal for US Expats - Easy

Post by HHTel »

1. A picture of myself and wife both inside and outside of our living quarters.
Not for a retirement extension surely!
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Re: Retirement Visa Renewal for US Expats - Easy

Post by T.I.G.R. »

My wife (Thai of course) decided to take it upon herself to do all the paperwork a couple of days before we go. All I have to do is drive, give her whatever she wants re: paperwork etc., sit where I can read a book until she's done, and smile at the nice officer when we leave. Time before last they sent her to the Tesebaan to get a copy of her house paper because she forgot her blue book......I would have had a cow I'm sure. She thought nothing of it, no complaining or whining....just told me to sit tight and she'd be right back. I did, she was, and we were out of there in a jiffy.

Most of us farangs bitch and moan about everything under the sun, but God bless the Thais, they have mastered the art of accepting everything that comes at them with a degree of equanimity I could never muster.
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