Marriage visa application?

[retrodude]

Hi fellas, a quick question regarding the application for my marriage visa.

 

My wife and I have a joint bank account with over 400,000 baht in it, and it will have been in there for just over two months by the time I apply for the extension.

 

Does the bank account have to be solely in my name, or is it ok that it's a joint account? I will be applying for my marriage visa in Sriracha immigration.

[jerry]

To be shore give Darren from Key visa (a boardmember here) a call .

[nata.ann]

Hi fellas, a quick question regarding the application for my marriage visa.

 

My wife and I have a joint bank account with over 400,000 baht in it, and it will have been in there for just over two months by the time I apply for the extension.

 

Does the bank account have to be solely in my name, or is it ok that it's a joint account? I will be applying for my marriage visa in Sriracha immigration.

Marriage visa requrires 400,000 THB. In a single account, joint account not allowed. The money must be in the single account for at lease 90 days.

[retrodude]

Marriage visa requrires 400,000 THB. In a single account, joint account not allowed. The money must be in the single account for at lease 90 days.

Thanks for your reply.

 

We've just come from Sriracha immigration and were told its ok to use a joint account, however it would have to contain no less than 800,000 THB, which is a problem for me as I don't have that much in there at the moment.

I plan to transfer more funds into the account to meet the required figure later this week, the problem I fear now is that I won't be able to meet the two month rule as she said I have to apply for the extension one month before my non imm O visa expires.. I could only apply when there's about two weeks left on my visa to meet that criteria.

 

May I ask where the '90 days' rule you mention comes from? Every site and forum I've looked for information says its two months?

[Scumbag]

If this goes to shit and you are desperate have a look at getting a new visa done in Kuala Lumpur. I have got 2 from there and they only require 100000 Baht in a Thai account. I do not believe that there is any time requirements. Before traveling it would be best to contact them, explain your situation and ask if they will issue you one. I say this as I have been on a work visa in Malaysia but I don't think it makes a difference. They issue them the day after the application is lodged.

[key visa thailand]

A marriage visa is 400,000 Thai baht for the first application the money has to be in the bank 2 months prior to application

 

For concurrent visa applications it has to be in the bank 3 months before you apply, so first application 2 months and after that 3 months.

 

The money can be in a Joint bank account as long as you was married before opening the account and you need a copy of the bank book signed by your wife and a copy of her ID card signed pinned to the back of the bank book.

 

Retrodude are you 50 years old or above, the reason I ask is most Immigration offices will push you to a retirement visa than a marriage visa because it is faster and far less paperwork for them.

 

If you are not they are asking for 800,000 bht just to put hurdles in the way, In Chonburi they accept the money in your wife's name now.

 

You can always give me a call if you need info.

 

Darren

[retrodude]

Many thanks for your reply Darren.

 

We've been married just over three years, but only opened this Thai joint account a couple of weeks back when we first arrived, we then transfered all the funds from my wifes Thai account, which was just over 400,000 that we had transfered from the UK about 9 months ago.

 

We intend to deposit another 400,000 into the joint account this Thursday so we meet the criteria we've been told by the officer.

 

The only concern I have is the time factor in applying for the extension, the officer told us to apply for the extension one month before my current Non Imm O visa expires (my visa is 5 June - 2 Sept).

If I do apply one month before it ends, that would mean the full 800,000 would only have been in the account for around 6 weeks.

If I apply two months after depositing the extra funds, that would only leave me 13 days left on my current visa..

 

Would that be an issue? How long can I leave it before I apply for my extension?

 

I'm 44 so that rules me out for a retirement visa.

[nata.ann]

Many thanks for your reply Darren.

 

We've been married just over three years, but only opened this Thai joint account a couple of weeks back when we first arrived, we then transfered all the funds from my wifes Thai account, which was just over 400,000 that we had transfered from the UK about 9 months ago.

 

We intend to deposit another 400,000 into the joint account this Thursday so we meet the criteria we've been told by the officer.

 

The only concern I have is the time factor in applying for the extension, the officer told us to apply for the extension one month before my current Non Imm O visa expires (my visa is 5 June - 2 Sept).

If I do apply one month before it ends, that would mean the full 800,000 would only have been in the account for around 6 weeks.

If I apply two months after depositing the extra funds, that would only leave me 13 days left on my current visa..

 

Would that be an issue? How long can I leave it before I apply for my extension?

 

I'm 44 so that rules me out for a retirement visa.

I just checked with an Officer Immigration. You must apply for the Marriage Visa at least 1 month before your current Visa expires, because its a very complicated procedure with many followup visits. You can ask Immigration if they will allow you a waiver to extend your current Visa.

[gogo dog]

Many thanks for your reply Darren.

 

We've been married just over three years, but only opened this Thai joint account a couple of weeks back when we first arrived, we then transfered all the funds from my wifes Thai account, which was just over 400,000 that we had transfered from the UK about 9 months ago.

 

We intend to deposit another 400,000 into the joint account this Thursday so we meet the criteria we've been told by the officer.

 

The only concern I have is the time factor in applying for the extension, the officer told us to apply for the extension one month before my current Non Imm O visa expires (my visa is 5 June - 2 Sept).

If I do apply one month before it ends, that would mean the full 800,000 would only have been in the account for around 6 weeks.

If I apply two months after depositing the extra funds, that would only leave me 13 days left on my current visa..

 

Would that be an issue? How long can I leave it before I apply for my extension?

 

I'm 44 so that rules me out for a retirement visa.

 

If your application is accepted you will be given a 30 day "under consideration" extension so I don't think it will be a problem applying 13 days before your visa expires.

 

 

I just checked with an Officer Immigration. You must apply for the Marriage Visa at least 1 month before your current Visa expires, because its a very complicated procedure with many followup visits. You can ask Immigration if they will allow you a waiver to extend your current Visa.

 

I was told by immigration in Jomtien I could not apply until within 30 days of my visa expiring.

[key visa thailand]

If your application is accepted you will be given a 30 day "under consideration" extension so I don't think it will be a problem applying 13 days before your visa expires.

 

 

 

I was told by immigration in Jomtien I could not apply until within 30 days of my visa expiring.

Agreed GOGO, if you have 13 days left you should still be able to apply, as I said before it is ludicrous that they are making you put 800,000 in the bank but all offices have different rules and to them the fee is 1,900 baht and they have alot of extra work to do for the same fee as a standard 7 day extension,

[retrodude]

Thanks for the replies, it seems every office works to their own rules out here..

 

We'll go down a month before it ends, as the officer there said if we increase the funds "it will be ok"..

She said that to my wife in Thai though, not to me in English, so I'm just going on what my wife told me. If they've changed their minds and insist on the two month rule I'll just go back when I hit the two month mark a couple of weeks before my visa expires.

 

Failing that, then am I right in thinking I can do a border crossing and get another 90 days on my current visa, It's a 90 day multi entry non immagration O visa..

[key visa thailand]

Thanks for the replies, it seems every office works to their own rules out here..

 

We'll go down a month before it ends, as the officer there said if we increase the funds "it will be ok"..

She said that to my wife in Thai though, not to me in English, so I'm just going on what my wife told me. If they've changed their minds and insist on the two month rule I'll just go back when I hit the two month mark a couple of weeks before my visa expires.

 

Failing that, then am I right in thinking I can do a border crossing and get another 90 days on my current visa, It's a 90 day multi entry non immagration O visa..

Good idea mate and good luck, any problems just give me a shout

 

Darren

[retrodude]

Good idea mate and good luck, any problems just give me a shout

 

Darren

 

Cheers fella, will do.

[gogo dog]

Details on how to get the marriage extension here.

[Scumbag]

Failing that, then am I right in thinking I can do a border crossing and get another 90 days on my current visa, It's a 90 day multi entry non immagration O visa..

It is good that you have that option as it is not a bad option at all.

[key visa thailand]

Agreed having a multiple Non Immigrant O visa and coming prepared is always better and if you run in to problems you still own the visa and can just cross a border of your choice,

[retrodude]

Just to update this thread, I've decided to sack off the joint account thing and opened an account today in my own name and transferred all the money from the joint account into it.

 

I decided it was maybe better to do this in anticipation of any future hassles when I have to apply the next time 12 months after my initial extension, I wouldn't put it past the immigration to find some way of dicking me about on account of changing it in a few months after I'd secured the extension using the joint account.

 

I'm hoping that with the previous bank balance books dating back to last September when I first deposited the money in my wifes account, then transferring it to the joint account a couple of weeks back, and then moving it to my new personal one today, they'll accept that when I apply for my extension a month before my visa ends.

 

If that doesn't happen, I'll go back and reapply with 13 days left on my visa, if that doesn't work, then I'll just do the border run like I said earlier and apply for it at a later date.

 

Can't be arsed with any future hassles or bullshit information about needing twice the amount to qualify with the joint account.

 

Thanks for all your info guys, it's appreciated.

[key visa thailand]

Good luck mate but it does prove how different the offices work around the Country,

 

Makes us feel very welcome

[retrodude]

Thanks mate, and yeah you're right, there seems to be no hard and fast rule over here.

 

I anticipated some kind of hassle going for this visa after reading many of the horror stories on various expat forums over the past 12 months or more.

 

Also, the hassle we encountered sorting out the affirmation to marry forms and translations etc last year in readiness for our recent move out here were a bit of a nightmare, we got dicked about through sheer incompetency by the UK embassy, and a rather unpleasant woman that works at our local ampur..

In hindsight I wish I'd have just paid somebody to sort it all out for us, would have saved a headache and wasted trips back n forth to Bangkok..

 

But hey ho, as I said, I never expected things to go smoothly, but that's all part and parcel of wanting to live here I guess.

 

These message boards are a valuable source of information, long may they continue.

[key visa thailand]

Sometimes using a company can help, not always, learning the hard way can be expensive but it can help you to learn and experience,

 

When I started 13 years ago there was no forums and mistakes were daily which is why now forums are so valuable.

[retrodude]

Just to update the thread and let you know how it went, I went for the marriage extension yesterday for the first time, the officer at our local immigration was surprised and quite thrilled we had (most of) the paperwork in order and in a neat tidy folder.

 

There were only two things we hadn't done..

 

The first was, we hadn't updated the bank book that day showing proof of the required funds when we got the letter, so had to dash back to the bank to sort that out.

I guess it makes sense as far as immigration are concerned, as after the letter had been printed I could have withdrawn all the money from that account..

That said, I'm a bit disappointed that the bank didn't point that out to me in the first place, you'd think they'd be familiar with this by now with the many farang living here, so it would be standard practice with their customers, but hey ho, lesson learned for next time.

 

The second thing was, we hadn't done the proof of residency thing at immigration when we first arrived in Thailand, to be honest I had no idea what she was talking about and neither did my wife, I simply didn't know I had to do that when I first got here a couple of months ago. I showed her my yellow book hoping that would solve the problem but she said she couldn't accept that.

Apparently we also had to have two witnesses to do this simple bit of paperwork, but the problem was my in laws and any friends we knew were out at work. No problem she said, for a small fee her and one of her colleagues would stand witness, sorted.

 

And that was it, everything else was in order, more smiles and compliments on how lovely our wedding and house pics were, and even some friendly advice on what I should or shouldn't say to any immigration officers in the future if I were to be quizzed etc, then she stamped the 30 days extra in my passport and sent us on our way.

 

All in all it was quite an easy and non stressful experience, the officer who dealt with us was friendly and quite chatty with my wife, making the odd joke with her and worked with a constant smile. I've read some of the horror stories on here in the past so went in there expecting to be completely dicked about, chuffed that didn't happen.

 

Now I just have to wait for a month with my fingers crossed and hope the application is successful.

[gogo dog]

Well done, sounds like they are a much happier bunch at Sriracha than Jomtien. Did you need 800K in your bank account?

[Scumbag]

 I've read some of the horror stories on here in the past so went in there expecting to be completely dicked about, chuffed that didn't happen.

 

I dread going to government departments for this reason but it sounds like you got a good one on a good day..

 

I had some luck today in China. I had to go for some processing for a residency certificate (it's not the same as the Thia one). I was dreading it but I was in and out within 15 minutes. I have no idea what happened though as I just had to sign a few things in Chinese and smile for a webcam photo...lol

[retrodude]

Well done, sounds like they are a much happier bunch at Sriracha than Jomtien. Did you need 800K in your bank account?

I didn't go for the joint account option, decided it best to open a new account in my name only a couple of months back.