khunPer

However, then you can hear it again from me... But I can of course not speak about "somewhere else", where I've never been or might even not know about. As long time resident – 18 years permanently until now – what I find "so special" is that I can live the life-style I want. I'm for example not eating much of Thai dishes – of course it happens – but can cook my preferred mainly Mediterranean-style dinner, just as I did in my Scandinavian home country before I left for Thailand. The difference is that it "all year summer" and "bare feet Xmas" in the part of Thailand where I stay, and I can enjoy around 300 outdoor – or semi-outdoor if I need cover for light rain – candlelight dinners per year. Furthermore I chose a tourist area where I can buy almost all what I need – Lazada and Shopee counts for the remaining wishes – and I can also enjoy partying whenever I want it...😎 Compared to my home country, my buying power is (still) in average about double, so I get more value for my money, which is also an important factor to consider. There might be favourable spots around the huge World, which I don't even considers, because my buying power will be way to limited there for the life-style I prefers. Bear in mind that we are all different, we all have our own special preferences, mine might be different – or special – compared to some other's special preferences...😊

Agree with part of what you states, but retired people arriving as tourists would often like to spend more than 30 days in Thailand during the cold northern Europe winter and from other destinations, so 60 days with a possible 30-days extension of stay makes really good sense. However, the total number of days staying that one can stay in Thailand within a calendar year, without a proper long stay-visa, year should be limited.

When you are so focussed on getting tourists in and for forget they have to be "quality tourists", thing like this happens; just accept it, if you want the mass tourism over "quality"...

👍 They are lucky to get out after only 4 months, in my modest view too lucky...

AOT is the owner of the airport, Bangkok Airways is also a Plc. Both you and I can be shareholder – and thereby part-owner – in both companies. Nothing strange in AOT having a major government owner, many airports has that, also in my European home country.

To my knowledge it has been like that for years. And by the way, it's legal to be shareholder in a Thai company limited and even board member (director) without a work permit. If you are a hotel/business employee, you are also eligible, and also if you are a registered as resident (registered in a house book). "I operate under a 30 year lease in our property in my Thai partners name which is not good enough apparently" – it seems like you need a work permit, as business employees are eligible. Bangkok Airway's rules say: "Employee Certification, Work Permit (minimum of 6 months old from the date of application) or Company Registration Certification (maximum of 20 employees per company) effective from 1 January 2022 onwards." Have you had a Resident Card before, since you state "the tightening of the resident card". It's up to an airline to decide its policy about loyalty bonus points and other discounts, it has nothing to do with monopoly.

You'll however have to wait for my excellent input a few month more, till I reach 75 and can post my advise the following day...

To my knowledge "privacy" is a non existing Thai word... You can read more on page 50-51 in the book: "Thailand Fever".

Thai law states that pre marriage property is separate property, while any any gain or income during the marriage is common property, except inheritance received during the marriage. Common property will be divided 50/50 upon divorce. I've never seen mentioned that a last will, will be invalid upon marriage in Thailand; however, other rules might apply for other countries. In my Scandinavian home country for example, children and wife will always be eligible for 25% compulsory inheritance of an estate – shared between them if there are both child/children and spouse – no matter what a last will says. An estate will be handled by the country of primary residence and follow that rules, but some items, like real estate will follow the rules in the country where the property is located.

Thanks..., sure – even that I believe I got slim fingers, they seems to be fat on the keyboard (8+5), if I'm not double checking my postings...

I remember the story in the news about this very sad incident. Officers – in any kind of position – should not be drinking on duty, nor be intoxicated. Best prevention is more control or tests, especially in traffic, but perhaps also for any kind of government officers on duty.

No, if you read the top of the form, you'll notice (my bold): "1.1 Form TM.86 for the foreigner, who has Tourist or Transit Visa and want to applies for a change of type of visa (from Tourist Visa or Transit Visa to Non-Immigrant Visa); or 1.2 Form TM.87 for the foreigner, who enters the kingdom of Thailand without visa, but is allowed to stay in the kingdom with a permit of stay for a period of 30 days, 90 days and want to applies for non-immigrant visa." For change of entry to non-immigrant type-O you need money as bank deposit, 800k baht when based on retirement, which is what the document is about.

I had the rules downloaded as PDF somewhere, it's one year and never under 800k baht (clause 7 in below screen shot)...

What is "some time"?

Entering visa exempt and apply for non-O domestically, your deposit funds need to be shown as transferred from abroad.

Excellent, but it's high season...

To my knowledge, your girlfriend needs to apply for Schengen visa in Thailand (Bangkok), if she is not resident in UK.

Centara is one of Thailand's largest hotel groups – and also shopping malls – so a group you can trust; they have three other resorts on Samui. November is low season and monsoon period with possibility of lots of storm and downpour. Hotels will not be heavy booked during that month, but might offer good discounts.

Depending of your life-style – we are all little different – I'm not getting island fever at all; while my Danish ex-girlfriend said that she would, when she was visiting me, if she was going to stay on Koh Samui.

Read the requirements, bank-certificate is valid for 7 days. Machine update of bank book is depending of bank and type of account; in some cases you need a deposit for an update. You can try to see what happens with your bank book if you update in an ATM before. You can for example deposit 100 baht in an ATM with both deposit and bank book update facility.

Cheers, good to know. Might not be correct answer, see Samui Immigration rules in above post. You can find Samui immigration's requirement in the post above. Bank Books might need to be updates same day and photo copies also. The STM2 document will be given to you when asking for TM7 – you shall use the TM7 from Samui Immigration, they don't accept download versions – and note that they asks for 2 signed sets of photocopies. The list is also available in Thai language – that's why it says "2 sets" on top – so a spouse also can read it... I'm on retirement-extension of stay, so I have no direct experience with marriage extension-of-stay, but if you have any questions about maps, feel free to ask. There are also examples in the now quite long pinned thread "An Idiots Guide to the Retirement Extension process at Samui Immigration Office".

Please check with Samui Immigration rules before replying in this thread, for marriage-extension of stay it needs to be "update the bank book to current day". Samui Immigration has slightly different requirements for retirement-extension of stay and marriage-extension of stay. For retirement bankbook – and thereby photo copies – needs to be updated "on the same day" as application (2024 rules)... For marriage-extension of stay the requirements don't mention "same day" but says "update the bank book to current day", which could be understand as the day of application (2024 rules)...

Please see my answer concerning Samui Immigration, they can be little special difficult in some matters and don't always follow general rules.

You need a bank statement confirming that the 400k baht has been in deposit at least two month before you apply for the extension of stay. Most banks branches on Samui gives to my experience and knowledge a three month statement, when issuing the mandatory confirmation letter of fund in your bank account. Samui Immigration wants photocopies of all pages in a bankbook, name page and all pages with transactions, until last and recent update; even that they don't clearly says that in the document.

Relationship is possible without marriage – I'm talking from 20 years experience with same girlfriend and also not much family left in my home country – however, if it going to be longer lasting relationship it might be hard to avoid meeting family, unless you find an orphan (I've tried, it's possible). First thing I will recommend you to do is, to read the book "Thailand Fever", to better understand the Thai culture and especially how your spouse – married or not – thinks. Some retirees marries due to financial issues, as they only needs a bank deposit of 400,000 baht, or a monthly income of 40,000 baht, to annually extend their stay in Thailand. The paperwork is more simple being a retiree, but you needs a bank deposit of 800,000 baht, or a monthly income of 65,000 baht. English a second language is not a problem – my English is also second language – you will most likely be better in speaking English than you coming Thai girlfriend. However, a good investment could be to send her to English language school; a win-win benefit for both, as your communication might improve, and if the relationship don't lasts she will have better qualification for her next relationship with an English-speaking foreigner.