Thailand Geezer Visa
 

Seeking information on Thailand "geezer visa" or Malaysia "Silver Hair Program". Understand in Thailand if you have $19k in a Thai bank you can buy a car and a condo. After three years, you can apply for residency. Anybody familiar with these programs?

i believe there is a web site which details the requirements for extended visas in thailand for older people...i have a friend to moved to thailand in january and he has started with one type of visa and will move to a retiree visa later on...he said the situation is quite complicated...

I think you've got your information wrong about the requirements for Thai residency. $19,000 for a condo and a car.. I don't think so unless you want to live in a slum and drive around a a beatup wreck.

they are referring to having substantial money in a bank to allow you to obtain a visa of this sort...i thought it was more like 30-40,000 dollars....in other words substantial funds to care for yourself without thai help....welfare...

Try reading on this web site: thaivisa.com
You might find helpful information here, as well as good hotel rates, and news of the country.

19K if that wher the requirments for some NON IMAgrant visas I've been all set by now.. it's more like $75K for a condo and you have too by it from a developer.

also try one of the legal sites they may help ya..

www.sunbeltasia.com
www.siam-legal.com

I believe KATHIE is cmming down to check some condo's out... I really hope she knows about that loophole.. I've read some post on the thaivisa.com forum where a farang bought a condo thinking he's all set with the "geezer" visa and bamm the recieved no one year "old fart" visa...
WELCOME TO THAILAND

the 3 million baht is not a requiremtn for retirment visa. but for those that want too retire in thailand before 50 years of agt without working or getting maried too a thai person then 75K is the key..

Orgie-I'm the one going to check out condos. I leave in a few days for SE Asia. I'm too young to retire right now, but am checking out things not only for myself, but for a few friends,too. Anyway, I have all the info at home and I remember, off hand, the requirement being around $19,000 in the bank for a year visa that can be renewed yearly. It beats having to do the regular visa runs. This is for folks who are at least 50.There's another visa for folks at least 55. I have lots of brochures from the Thai Tourist board on this topic. For the original poster, go and buy the book entitled,"Bangkok Survivor's Handbook by Robert Hein". He's American and has lived there for 12 years and just wrote the book on this topic in 2003. As for the prices of condos, the average price of a condo where I live is $440,000...which is considered cheap. So, $75,000 is sounding pretty good to us.Now as far as applying for residency after 3 years, I have not personally read anything about this.Maybe that's for the 55+ group of folks. I'll reread my brochures. I have so much stuff at home on this topic until it will take a while to go through it all again...maybe I missed the residency part. I've only understand it(from the start) as being a ONE YEAR renewable visa.As for the car...I don't know about that. Happy Travels!

Oh, I forgot to state that the $19,000 in the bank is the requirement to stay in the country and to get the visa...NOT to buy a condo. New condos start at around $70,000 and go up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's the standard price range that I've seen.You still get more for your money there than here...plus I would still get sunny weather there as I have here in Southern California! Happy Travels!

Orgy, I wish I was ready to buy a condo in Bangkok! Many of us are looking forward to Guenmai's report on condos. I may look a bit myself when I'm in Bangkok in November/December. But my retirement is also years away...

Studio Condos smal around 35-38 sw.m/sw.yds start from about USD 12,000 and upwards, for USD 75,000 ( B 3m ) at Jomtien that would get you a 3 bdrm 2 bath etc etc condo, and once new airport opens about 50 minutes journey. Hua Hin is more expensive but B 2.5-3m ( USD 55-75k ) gets you a nice place.
Money for Condo has to be transferred from overseas and you must get a certain piece of paperwork from the bank when this is done, you can also use Travellers checks, that piece of paper ( not sure of the regulation number ) is vital. Also you must check that condo is available for foreign ownership as there are regulations about % of condos in a building that can be foreign owned. It's actually not that complex and it takes less than a day to buy one from start to finish, if you are well organised. Registration of ownership and deeds take a couple of hours. We have bought recently purely on investment and as we are poor we went for 2 USD 12k places, 2 different blocks, hoping once new airport opens prices will shoot up as will be under 1 hour from new airport to Jomtien.

Never heard that regulationds are different for 55 as opposed to 50 !
You need to have sufficient funds such as a pension to cover your expenses.

You need B 800,000 transferred from overseas on fixed deposit at any of certain specified Thai banks.
You then need an 'O' Visa, you then apply for extensions on that. residency is very rare indeed, requires full proficiency in spoken and written Thai, I belive number who have it is very very small indeed.
With retirement (50+) that visa prohibits you from any form of work at all some people don't realise that.

I'd be w weary about buying a condo in much of thatiland now... I'm in the camp that believes there is a world wide real estate buble

just like in America the news shows greedy delusianal developers/ real estate speculators that say "maybe there is a buble in the real estate market but not in my spacific sector"

well this time I believe it will not be thailadn fault for the upcoming world econoic slowdown.. I'm looking for the real estate mania in USA too take us all down. when it iventually callapses..

anyways that leads to the question "what option too choose to put your 3 million baht.. (too comply for some non imagrent visa_
-bank
-government bods
-condo

If I had the money and means I'd probably choose the bonds. espesially if the logical outcome of the housing mess occurs.

thalandi bonds tend to be high yealsers as it is. but can really offer some chunky yields when Moodies,.Fitch and the gange start downgrading thier debt.. I cant post yields or price. becouse I don't know what bonds they force ya to buy..
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well the brigh side will be bargain prices for real estate in the not too far off futer. I say 3-5 years.

OK...I have the visa information from Hein's book (2003)."There's the One Year Non-Immigrant 0-A visa available to people over 50 and the requirements are listed as follows:1) Proof of age at time of application 2)Background check 3)Health Certificate 4)A passport valid for 18 months 5)Proof of annual income of $19,000 6)A marriage certificate for couples requesting visas." NOW...There's another section on retirement visas...visas that are" granted to foreigners over 55 years of age who fullfill the requirements. The requirements are as follows 1)Application form T.M.7-obtainable from the Thai Consulate website or Immigration Bureau offices 2)One copy of passport data pages 3)A passport valid for 18 months 4)Two passport-size photos 5)A marriage certificate for couples requesting visas 6)Documents showing your current financial status or pension plan income 7)Letter from your embassy stating that you notified them of your wish to retire ion Thailand 8)Certificate of deposit for 800,000 baht in a Thai bank or an income of not less than 65,000 baht per year. Also acceptable is a combination of these cash resources that totals 800,000 baht per annum. For example, 500,000 baht deposited and 25,000 baht a month retirement income. The certificate of deposit must be obtained on the same day that you apply for the visa and must show that the deposit came from another country. 9) A filing fee of 500 baht is required. It usually takes one day to obtain your visa if all of your documents are in order. Currently, many of the provincial, Immigration Bureau offices have the authority to approve retirement visa extentions without referring them to Bangkok." That's it folks. Now, in my brochures from the Thai Tourist Board on retirement in Thailand. There was mention of possibly opening a one-stop service center designed to facilitate procedures for longstays and also to answer whatever visa questions people might have. In Hein's book, he list the address of the one-stop center at 207 Rachadapisek Road.,3rd Floor Tel:02 693-9333. So his information is more updated than some of the Thai Tourist board information that I received.Hope this has helped. Happy Travels!

Thanks for the info, Guenmai!

This is all very fascinating!

JamesA and guenmai:Thanks for posting all this information!

Since I'm an up and coming geezerette, I'd like to get a lot more information than on this forum.

Will there be any chance to meet? guenmai, are you in Southern California? I'm in the Bay Area and come down often.

JamesA: are you in Hua Hin? I'll be passing through Thailand next year.

Please say yes to a meeting! :)

I'm another one who is viewing thailand as a place to spend several months when I retire so this is fascinating. I wonder -- if you only want to spend 3-6 months there would it end up better to rent? or buy as an investment?

I'm in Los Angeles county. Happy Travels!

guenmai,

Coudl you email me at

[email protected]

to set up a meeting?

I'll be in the LA/SD area twice in the the coming month.

Hope we can meet!

Thanks a mil!

easytraveler

my friend who moved to thailand in january has processed the first type of visa above and will work on the 2nd one during his stay this year...he was advised to do it that way...

Gloria,

Condos in Thailand are not a good investment. Prices never go up and you'll be lucky to sell a condo at the purchased price. Most people buy condo at low interest rate for the long run, to live in or rent out. I would check with your investment banker before you do this.