Thai immigration to show leniency

Thai immigration to show leniency to foreigners applying for retirement & marriage extension

Thai immigration to show leniency to foreigners applying for retirement & marriage extensions

Police Lieutenant General Surachet Hakpal//File photo

Thai immigration has confirmed it will show some leniency to foreigners with regards to proving income when applying for retirement and marriage extensions.

In an order dated 22nd December, Immigration chief Police Lieutenant General Surachet Hakpal, acknowledges that some applicants may have difficulty in providing the now required 12 months worth of bank statements.

Where this is the case, the Pol Lt. Gen Hakpal has instructed immigration officers that from 1 Jan to 31 Dec 2019 they have discretion to accept evidence of less than 12 monthly transfers from overseas.

The applicants given leniency in this way are to be told by the officers that this is a one-off exemption and that their applications for the next renewal will not be accepted without a complete set of documents according to the order.

A translated version of the order No. 0029.173/Wor can be found below:

The order comes after it was announced in October 2018 that a number of embassies, including the UK, USA and Australia, would stop issuing income letters or affidavits, which had been used by expats to confirm their income when applying for a retirement or marriage extension.

As a result, some foreigners are now required to show 12 monthly transfers of either 65,000 THB or 40,000 THB paid into a Thai bank account.

Those affected by the new requirements had questioned if they would still be able to obtain a retirement or marriage extension even though they were not able to provide the 12 months worth of statements now required.

But this order now confirms that immigration will show leniency to those applying with less than the required 12 monthly transfers into a Thai bank, at least for the first application following the changes regarding income letters.

*Thanks to Ubon Joe and Arkady for the additional information.