IMA_FARANG

No, there is no need for you to leave Thailand.

The 400K should be in a bank account in your name and it must be in that account for 60 days (seasoned) before your marriage visa extension is approved.

However, they will also accept it if you can show a verified income of 40K Thai baht monthly.

Ideally that should be from abroad, but I believe if you are legally working in Thailand that will also be okay.

In general, if you have dual nationality......Thai/foreigner.....nationality, then your best choice is to enter on the Thai passport on arrival in Thailand, and exit Thailand on the same passport.

Use your foreign   home country passport to book flights and to enter or exit your foreign  home country  passport in your home country.

As another poster in this topic said, then put your foreign  passport away and d not show it to Thai immigration on entry.

Don't confuse them, you are as Thai as they are.

If you have a Thai bank passbook you would be advised to make sure they have your new and valid passport number in your customer database

Otherwise  if your Thai bank passport is lost or stolen, you may have big problems when you report that lost or stolen passbook to the police.

Take this from someone who lost a Bangkok bank passbook with 550K baht in it.

The bank passbook is identified as yours by your passport number, if that passport number is not valid, you will have big problems getting them to identify that passbook as yours.

Fortunately, when I I got a new U.S. passport I notified Bangkok Bank and they changed my passport number in their database to my new passport number.

Why?

If you have a degree from a British university can you get copies of the degree from them?

If you can, that would probably be better.

But the key phrase is that you must have "legal custody of the child or marriage"

Simply being the foreign father or mother of a Thai child is not enough.

Double  or triple entry visas were stopped  at least a year ago, replaced by the METV which is only normally only given to native residents in their home country.

Don't remember  exactly when they were stopped but it may have been in  November 2015.

I had one of the last double entry Thai tourist visas  from Laos, but that expired at least a year ago.

SETV (Single Entry Tourist Visa) are sill available as far as I know.

A SETV can be extended for 30 days for a 1900 Baht at your local immigration office.

That will give you effectively a  90 day stays on  your original 60 day tourist visa 

If you had a retirement visa/extension for a year when you left Thailand you could have applied for a re-entry permit.

That could have kept your retirement visa/extension valid for the whole year of your extension.

Leaving without a re-entry permit canceled your retirement visa ,extension on exit.

if you had a 1 year retirement visa/extension  a 1000 Baht single entry re-entry permit would have avoided all that hassle, and your retirement visa/extension would not have been canceled on exit fro Thailand.

It has been nearly two years since I got a SETV from them.

1. As I recall then a out-of country ticket was not required
2. I had a Thai Baht bank account passbook which they looked at.
3. I came in and out of Laos by air and got a Laos visa at the airport.
4. And I remember the Diary Queen Chili dogs at the airport. (good)

Online work in Thailand that is done in Thailand is technically considered "work in Thailand" because it is performed here.

So you need a "work Permit" to work on-line from Thailand.

However, as was said previously, the law was never written to consider on-line work and therefore is unclear/uncertain.

But there is no visa that legally applies for that circumstance.

Many people do work on-line but just quietly...... you take your chances that you don't get caught.

As someone else explained no chance of a METV, which will only likely be issued in your home county.

Possibly a multi-entry Non O, but only based on marriage to a Thai

I doubt that you will get a multi entry based on retirement anywhere in South East Asia.

Maybe a 90 day Non O which you will have to convert to an annual retirement extension in Thailand with the funds available in a local bank account in your name for 60 days seasoning

if it is your first extension.

Or possibly if you can show a monthly pension coming in from your home country each month.

The rules have been tightened worldwide.

You are about a year behind as that information on  2 visa exempt was known  from entries last year.

However, as pointed out in this topic, the law did not become effective until it was officially published in the Royal Gazette recently.

I suspect  at least some of the delay in publishing  the law was due to the death last year of the previous king and now it was published with the new king's consent.

For a letter from the embassy in Bangkok you will first need to make an appointment with the embassy.

Then there is a fee for the signature required (notary service).

Be aware they may need proof of residence at CW immigration.

You can get  copies of your needed  passport pages down on the first floor as well as photos  taken at the same place;

1 baht per passport page copy, and 100 Baht for 5 photos (need at least one for your application form at immigration for visa extension.)

But you probably knew all that.

Not quite what you are talking  about, but in my first two years in Thailand I  regularly did "border hop" runs to Cambodia for another 90 day entry on my multi entry visa.

Still possible from Bangkok I believe.

12 hours in a 16 passenger mini bus van with two "toilet stops" in both directions and a 1 hour "lunch and visa" break at the Cambodian border.

But at nearly 71 years now, that kind of thing is a bit to much for me these days.

Depends on your point of view.

if you stay in Thailand on a marriage visa/extension annually, you need to consider what will happen to you if your Thai wife dies or you are divorced.

Such a thing may mean you no longer have a justification  based on marriage to a Thai to stay in country.

But on the other hand it requires more funds to renew a retirement visa/extension each year.

In other words, there is no "best" answer to the question of retirement versus marriage .

You have to decide based on what is best for you and your circumstances.

You would be surprised at  the deceptions otherwise "intelligent" and supposedly rational people will go through to try to deceive immigration about there "marriage" to a Thai just to stay in Thailand.

Ask some of the senior immigration officers, and listen to their stories, if they will talk to you about what they have seen personally in their career working in immigration.

You won't believe the stories.

Yes you legally need a work permit and a job offer from a Thai company.or legal Thai NGO

Be aware there are "missionary" groups who will tell you otherwise, and say you can do "free" voluntary work without a work permit but don't believe that'

As the Bible says the Devil speaks all human toungrs, don't listen to his lies.

If you truly have an O-A visa just be sure they see that.

You should get a one year entry stamp on your first entry to Thailand.

Make sure they  do that and check it. Ask them if you don't see a one year stay date.

That's assuming you really have an O-A visa, and NOT a non O  multi entry visa.

I'll assume you do have what you say you have, and let it go at that.

For my retirement extension I have a 3 month contract rental agreement and pay monthly at the end of each month for the previous month.

I keep invoices for monthly payments  in case I am asked to show them, but so far there has been no questions from immigration

I have a serviced flat(apartment) in Bangkok.

I use this as my residence and list that as my residence on my immigration  retirement extension annual renewal each year.

So far it has worked for me.

A single re-entry permit is for one re-entry and costs 1000 Baht.

There is also a multi re-entry permit which allows multiple re-entries if you  want or need at it costs 3800 Baht.

A 30 day extension  to  a tourist visa is what costs 1900 Baht.

I have done an extension and a single re-entry permit before so I know the costs.

He does not need to report.

If he is staying  in a hotel, the hotel may be required to report he is staying there within 24 hours of his arrival.

If he s staying with Thai friends at their home, his Thai friends may be required to report him as living with them.

As usual the Thais are confused about who reports him.

But the point is that the actual reporting is someone must report him.

Hard to say.

I would guess they will want at least 600K for bank account with 200K to make the 800K Baht annual requirement  for a retirement visa,/extension.

Or 65K monthly income

It is possible to get SETV in Penang, Hong Kong, HO Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and many other Thai consulates around Asia.

Use the internet to do your research, and find out where and how they will give you one.

Pick the one you like.