BritTim

Unless the situation has recently changed, I do not believe Vientiane provides the multiple entry Non O visa to visit your Thai spouse. Savannakhet continues to issue them, but financial proof (as outlined in the good links provided) is necessary.

It is, as is often the case, important to be exact in your use of terms. When discussing visas, it is accurate to talk about Non B, Non O etc. In the case of applying for a Non O visa at a Thai embassy/consulate to visit your Thai child, there are no restrictions in terms of cohabitation or age. (Depending on the embassy/consulate, the birth certificate showing you as the father will usually be sufficient without legalisation.) When talking about extensions of your permission to stay in Thailand, visas are irrelevant (except that you need to be on an entry from a non immigrant visa). You are seeking an extension to stay with your Thai child. In that case, (i) you need to be living in the same household as your child; and (ii) the child must either be under 20 years of age, or be seriously disabled to the point where they are unable to live independently.

The rule for Thai immigration is only that your passport be valid for the duration of your intended stay. However, there are various problems that you can encounter when travelling with a passport with less than six months validity. Easiest is to avoid trying to do this. If you nevertheless feel you need to try, at least run your plans through the IATA travel guidance website (https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/TH-Thailand-passport-visa-health-travel-document-requirements.htm). In most cases, that site will identify issues preventing you from boarding your aircraft to Thailand. However, if planning to enter visa exempt, ensure that your onward flight booking is direct back to your home country. The airline is liable to deny you boarding if your plans involve travel to or from Thailand via a country (most) that will not permit entry with a passport with less than six months validity. They might even be unhappy if you will only be transiting through such a country.

I 100% agree that the LTR visa is almost always better than the alternatives for those who qualify. The LTR program was well conceived and (contrary to my scepticism) has been well implemented with no evidence of corruption.

I have believed for some time that Thailand should open additional consulates in Laos to take the pressure off Vientiane and Savannakhet. Obvious potential locations are Pakse and Luang Prabang.

Firstly, let's ensure we know EXACTLY what we are talking about. You have: 1) a work permit; 2) an extension of your permission to stay based on working; and 3) a multiple re-entry permit allowing you to keep the permission to stay intact when you leave Thailand and return. The correct procedure is to get a termination letter from your employer and take this to Immigration. Your permission to stay will be cancelled with effect from the last date of your employment shown on the termination letter. The re-entry permit will cease to be valid. Even after this, keep the termination letter as you never know when you might need to show it in future. The work permit should be cancelled based on instructions to the labour department by your employer. You can leave the physical book (if you have one) with your employer. After that, you leave on or before the expiry of the truncated permission to stay, and can return visa exempt.

I disagree with you that adult children should be treated as dependants of their parents. Certainly, tax laws in every country I know of do not take that view. Historically, one half of a husband and wife pair has often worked while the other took care of the house and was dependant on the one working. Tax laws typically still reflect that.

The single entry Non O visa based on marriage to a Thai should be OK in either Hanoi or HCMC. However, the embassy in Hanoi is unfriendly. As mentioned above, there is often a wait to get an appointment in HCMC. They may ask to see financial proof.

This is not true. The spouse of someone with a work permit and one-year extension of stay can get a visa and extension of stay to live with their spouse.

Hah, 42 includes everything (including every possible necessary visa). The mice never got around to determining the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything, excluding visas.

As a matter of interest, did you consider the Special Tourist Visa, provided during Covid and allowing a 270-day stay to be a tourist visa? Were people using it tourists? In your view, is someone who stays from August until April of the following year on tourist visas a valid tourist (not resident for tax purposes) but someone who stays from January to July not a valid tourist? When is a regular single or multiple entry tourist visa a "valid" visa, and where can the rules that document this be found? I have always considered that any visa issued by an embassy or consulate is valid, and ought only to be abrogated by Immigration subject to Section 12 of the Immigration Act (a policy followed by almost all land crossings and some airports, but ignored by some Immigration officials elsewhere).

I might go for a Thailand Elite membership A Thai investment visa is a terrible idea. An Education visa is not possible at all if you need to travel, and is not a long term option these days, unless you want to study at university. Marriage? Are you suggesting a marriage of convenience? Personally, I would never consider it to solve my visa issues. Those in same sex relationships are out of luck, even if married (abroad). Most people who are working (digital nomads with overseas clients) do not qualify for any of the visa options you suggest.

A word of warning if planning the KL run. There is no issue with a same day return as far as the Malaysian authorities are concerned, BUT EVEN WITH A MULTIPLE ENTRY TOURIST VISA, immigration at Phuket airport MIGHT deny you entry if you are a long stay tourist doing a same day visa run. It depends on your immigration history and luck.

Apart from tourist or education visas, what other visa options do you suggest for those under age 50? Thailand Elite membership, never a cheap option, is now really expensive.

For many people, the cost of travelling to their home countries and staying for a few days is substantial. That is without considering that people might not want to do that. They might prefer to spend the time in Thailand. Also, bear in mind, that people have been refused serial METVs, and it has even been known for people with tourist visas to be denied entry. EDIT: Yes, you can try to circumvent the rule that you must apply for an METV in your home country by using a VPN (and falsifying the passport copies you submit) but that involves risk.