Retirement Visa Procedure

[Robert]

Hi
I am soon to retire to Thailand and looking at the best option re visas

Initially I thought the best way was to get a 3 month Non Immigrant visa and then apply for a Retirement visa in Thailand later

Now I see it is possible to get a Retirement visa in London
I would be grateful if anybody could give opinions as to which is the best option, especialy if they have been through the process
Cheers

[Robert]

Hi
I am soon to retire to Thailand and looking at the best option re visas

Initially I thought the best way was to get a 3 month Non Immigrant visa and then apply for a Retirement visa in Thailand later

Now I see it is possible to get a Retirement visa in London
I would be grateful if anybody could give opinions as to which is the best option, especialy if they have been through the process
Cheers

[maokaang]

Now I see it is possible to get a Retirement visa in London

Hi Robert

I'm on long stay visa extensions in Thailand, but not for retirement (not old enough yet). When it comes to non-O type visas I've heard a lot of people mention that the Thai Embassy in London should be avoided for various reasons.

Nearly every retired Brit I know here first got a non-O from a consulate such as Hull. Once here they applied for a retirement extension at a Thai immigration office. I have no personal experience of the retirement process but they can't have all be wrong in the way they went about it.

If you're looking for advice from the horse's mouth, call the Hull Consulate (English speaking) who will guide you through your options.

Regards

[ian allcock]

Paul,

Just a thought how many yearly extensions do you have to have under your belt before applying for PR ?

Can you apply for PR whilst on retirement visa extensions or just on Non 'O' extensions ?

Is it worth it ?

Pros and cons ?

Robert sorry for going off topic it just popped into my head,thought it might be relevent for the future

Ian

[maokaang]

My first year here was on a 12 months non-'O'. I'm currently on my second 1 year extension following that.

You can apply after 3 x 1 year extensions but I've yet to meet a farang with PR. Make of that what you like.

T.I.T.

In 2006, the application fee was 7,600 with a further fee for successful applicants of either 95,700 or 191,400. No more than 100 residence permits were being issued annually to each nationality.

See: http://www.thaiconsul-uk.com/pdfs/Ap...cy%20for%20Foreigners.pdf

Personally, I've no desire to throw away 7,600 baht.

[ian allcock]

Expensive for what you get out of it eh?

[maokaang]

Expensive for what you get out of it eh?

It depends on your outlook.

A realist might view it as a waste of 7,600 baht.

An optimist might see it as very little to gain for 191,400 baht.