The 500,000 THB question.

What the rule says

500,000 THB, or the equivalent in your own currency, held liquid, in your own name, across the three months before you submit. That is the whole rule. It is roughly 13,000 EUR, 14,000 USD or 11,000 GBP, depending on the day.

Three things it is not. It is not a deposit: nobody takes the money, and it stays in your bank, in your country. It is not an income test: the consulate is looking at a balance, not at what you earn per month. And it is not a Thai bank account: a statement from the bank you already use is the standard document.

The three months are the test

The number is easy. The window is what catches people. The consulate reads three consecutive monthly statements, and it is reading them for a shape: a balance that was already there, moving the way an ordinary account moves.

An account that sat at 4,000 EUR for two months and jumped to 14,000 EUR eleven days before submission tells the opposite story, even when the money is unambiguously yours. This is the most common way a financially comfortable applicant is refused: not for lacking funds, but for having arranged them too late.

If that is your situation, the fix is dull and it works. Leave the money where it is, wait out the three months, and submit against a window that has run. A file that waits six weeks beats a file that is refused and refiled.

What counts as liquid

Liquid means you could spend it this afternoon. A current account, a savings account you can draw on, an instant-access deposit. Anything you would have to sell, break or wait for is a weaker document, and some of it is not accepted at all.

Crypto is the clearest case. A balance on an exchange is not accepted as the proof on its own, whatever it is worth. Convert enough of it into a regulated bank account in your own name and let it sit across the full window. The consulate reads a bank statement, not a portfolio screenshot.

Property, a pension pot you cannot draw yet, a business account in your company’s name, or a joint account where the other name is not yours are all in the same category: they may be real wealth and still fail the test as written. The account has to be yours, and the statement has to show it.

Source of funds

The balance answers how much. The second question is where from, and the consulate looks at roughly the six months before your statement window rather than at the closing balance alone.

Ordinary answers are ordinary documents: payslips, an employer letter, client invoices, dividend statements, a documented inheritance, or a sponsor letter naming you. The point is not to prove you are wealthy. It is that every large arrival in the statement has a named origin, so nothing on the page needs a story told about it later.

Currency, and the buffer

The figure is set in baht and you are almost certainly banking in something else, so the test is applied at the rate on the day your file is read, not the day you checked. A statement sitting a few hundred euros above the line at today’s rate can sit below it a fortnight later.

Keep a visible margin — ten to fifteen percent above the equivalent, held across the whole window — and the question never arises. It costs nothing: the money is yours and it never leaves your account.

What a clean financial pack looks like

• Three consecutive monthly statements, most recent first, covering the three months before submission.
• Your full name, the account number and the bank's name legible on every page — downloaded PDFs from your bank, not photographs of a screen.
• A balance that stays above the equivalent of 500,000 THB on every page, not only on the last one.
• Documents behind any large arrival: payslips, an invoice, a sale contract, a sponsor letter naming you.
• A certified translation where the statements are not in English, prepared to your consulate's specification.

Common questions

How much money do you need for a Thailand DTV?

500,000 THB, or the equivalent in your own currency, held liquid in an account in your own name across the three months before you submit. It does not have to be held in Thailand, and it is not a deposit: the money stays yours and stays where it is.

Does the 500,000 THB have to be in a Thai bank?

No. A statement from your bank at home is the standard document. What the consulate tests is that the balance exists, is liquid, is yours, and has been there for three months.

Can I use crypto for the DTV financial requirement?

Not on its own. Convert enough into your own bank account and let it sit across the full three-month window. The consulate reads a bank statement, not an exchange screenshot.

What if I deposit the money one month before applying?

Then the window has not run. A balance that appears three weeks before submission is the single most common reason a financially comfortable applicant is refused. Wait out the three months, or expect to explain where the money came from in documents.

The short version

Half a million baht, liquid, yours, for three months, on a statement that says all of that without being asked. The money is the easy half. The calendar is the half that decides when you can file — so if your window has not run yet, the cheapest move is to start it today and submit in three months, with the criminal record certificate ordered in the meantime.