BritTim

Just a note for long term planning ... If your friend intends staying for many more months in Thailand, border bounces for visa exempt entries (two allowed per calendar year) will be fine (in conjunction with extensions) for 2022. Starting at the beginning of 2023, he needs to carefully plan acquiring tourist visas, and it will not always be easy. Flying out of Thailand is never a problem so, for instance, you can fly to Vientiane, get a tourist visa there, and return by land. Returning by air to either of the Bangkok airports, even with a tourist visa, is fraught with danger, though you will be lucky more often than not. All embassies/consulates in the region impose some limits on issuing you tourist visas these days. The restrictions depend on the individual consulate. If your application for a visa is unexpectedly denied, the visa exempt entry by land becomes your emergency fallback option.

You can fly out, but make sure you return by land if intending a visa exempt entry. With a visa, returning by air would probably be OK, though officials at some airports can give you a hard time, even entering with a tourist visa, if you have been a long stay tourist.

It is a rejection stamp, but carries no negative connotations (as long as you really do leave within the seven days as ordered).

I cannot state the current rules for definite. Back in 2019, when doing a border bounce via the road crossing at Pedang Besar for a fresh visa exempt entry, it was required to stay overnight in Malaysia.

In another thread, a British guy reported that he had contacted the Thai embassy in London to ask if it is possible to apply for an e-visa when not in the UK. Predictably, in my view, he received an official statement that this is not allowed. On the other hand, there was another thread where someone reported successfully applying for an e-visa while still in Thailand, and using it to do a border bounce. The current status appears to be that you should not do this, but the UK embassy (at least) is not carefully checking applications to see where you are currently located. Applications, right now, are likely to succeed. I personally expect a crackdown on out of home country visa applications at some stage.

You can apply any time during the last 15 days before the due date of the address report.

There are two points of confusion that arise here. The first is that many officials in Thai embassies and immigration offices call every sticker and stamp a "visa", possibly because it is easier to say "weezah" than "extension of permission to stay" or "re-entry permit". The second issue is that Thai embassies, in general, really do not understand what happens outside the services they provide themselves (including immigration procedures). Obviously, at some point, staff at the KL embassy have been guided to tell visa applicants that they need to get a correct visa from immigration in Thailand. In some cases, this is kind of accurate. If you are over age 50, you can get a Non O visa (retirement) together with an extended permission to stay and multiple re-entry permit. That does effectively give you something like a multiple entry visa. Of course, the consular official you dealt with in KL does not understand any of this, and there are many people who do not qualify for a Non Immigrant visa and extension from Immigration.

I have not studied all the details of the LTR, but I can assure you that, in Thailand, there is a clear distinction between a visa and a permission to stay. To simplify, the visa controls what happens when you enter the country; the permission to stay indicates when you must either leave the country or have your permission to stay extended. It appears the LTR works like the Elite visa in terms of your permission to stay. You have a five-year multiple entry visa, but each time you enter the country you receive a permission to stay of a year. Since the LTR is handled via the one-stop centre, they arrange that an address report and extension of your permission to stay occur at the same time (should they be necessary because you did not exit and re-enter Thailand over the prior 12 months). There is a bit of clever marketing going on here, but it is somewhat justified. Getting the permission to stay extended when on an LTR will be very straightforward. The jury is still out on how easy getting the visa itself will turn out to be.

If your mother (i) still has over about 20 days left on her permission to stay; (ii) is over age 50; and (iii) has enough quickly available cash ... It is possible to apply for a Non O visa on the basis of retirement at Immigration. This requires 800,000 baht in a Thai bank account (with proof the money came from abroad). She will receive an initial 90-day permission to stay which can fairly easily be extended further if desired. As an alternative, talk to an agent to see what they can offer.

You could go to Immigration around September 16th and would not be on overstay, even without being told on the 14th that the approval has not yet come through. As a practical matter, if immigration has not actually contacted you to inform you (extremely unlikely) that their superiors have refused to approve your extension, you can assume that you will get the stamp. Effectively, it means that your permission to stay has already been extended up to October 14th. It is just that the stamp in your passport confirming that has not been given. Note that, even if Immigration contacted you to stay the extension was denied, starting on that day you would still have seven days to leave the country.

You may or may not get the final stamp going a day or two early. It depends on whether all the paperwork from above endorsing the extension has been returned yet. It is even conceivable that you might be told you need to wait longer if you go on September 14th.

A further note for those applying for the Non O at Immigration. They prefer clear proof that the money has come from abroad. However, if you can show that the money has already been in the account many months, they will often waive the requirement that the money came from abroad. It depends on the immigration office you use, but my impression is that they normally will. The logic around this is simple. They want to prevent people from being able to take out a two-day loan to get the visa, but people will often want to apply for the visa a few days after entering the country. If the money has been in your account continuously for several months already, it is obvious that you are not playing games with a short-term loan.

From Phuket, your best bet for a border bounce by land is to go to Malaysia. I am pretty sure you can get a full size bus from Phuket to Butterworth via Hat Yai.

There is basically no age limit. After age 60, the school should include a "special needs" request for you to receive the work permit, but your age is not a real impediment. Here is a decent webpage that discusses the age question: https://tastythailand.com/is-there-an-age-limit-for-teaching-english-in-thailand/

Indeed! Especially as being in receipt of a pension (or not) is an unreliable indication of whether you are retired. As written, the rules seem to suggest that you can never receive a retirement extension unless you can show 65k per month specifically from a pension transferred into Thailand each month. That would be unfair and illogical, but is not the first time Thai immigration rules can be so described.

Maybe, sign up for a self defence course rather than a Thai language course, if your local immigration officials are attractive young women. Getting to grips with them as they test your proficiency in hand to hand fighting might be a rather pleasant experience.

As usual, Thailand succeeds in being ambiguous in their announced rules. Most people (reasonably) interpret "first year" as meaning the first extension after the initial 90 days from a Non O visa. However, I think immigration offices (rightly or wrongly) have assumed that it only means the first extension after introduction of the new rules in 2019 allowing transfers from abroad into your bank account as income proof, without an embassy letter. Immigration did allow fewer than 12 monthly transfers for the first extension in 2019 after introduction of the new rules. I seem to recall that one or two people indicated that, in 2019, they were also able to use two or three monthly transfers for a first extension from the initial 90 days from the visa, but I cannot quickly find posts that confirm that. As you say, I can recall no reports of success after 2019, but that might have been because almost no one tried during Covid.

Do not do that! Best case, it will make no difference. If you pick a sensitive official, you will make an enemy who will not forget you. If you were not in Thailand during any of the period when there were no qualifying transfers, you could very deferentially and quietly, ask if it was really necessary to transfer money into Thailand before your arrival in the country, or could your boss make an exception (which they are empowered to do, but probably will not).

I am wondering how on earth that can be achieved without huge cost, and I have never heard of that being done. Unless you are willing to leave (without a re-entry permit) and return visa exempt, there is no legal way of getting a new Non O visa. If an agent is making you do that, you are being scammed. It is absolutely routine to do an agent assisted retirement extension without meeting the previous year's financial requirements. The alternative to forcing you to do a border bounce for a visa exempt entry would be faking the exit and return, something that used to be possible cheaply many years ago, but which is now only ever done at great expense by a very few agents as part of the clearing of a long overstay without blacklisting.

I do not think an easily faked lawyers report would add much to the credibility. Knowing more about the woman who felt herself wronged, and what happened during those three days they were together would go a long way into deciding me on the credibility. I would be very surprised if the OP wanted to go into that. EDIT: This kind of tale usually ends up being completely fabricated or embroidered. However, that is not always the case. I am aware of something a little comparable from many years ago. An air hostess (correct term at the time) of Thai Airways International ended up being involved with a Westerner who she met during a flight and a few times subsequently. The guy took her virginity and later dropped her. It turns out the girl was the daughter of a senior Thai general who took steps to ensure that the guy would never again be able to set foot in Thailand. It can happen, but only if rich, powerful families are involved.

Until a few years ago, a retirement extension based on income required an income letter from your embassy. This was true however much you transferred into Thailand and how much you held in your overseas bank account. This was a big advantage for those whose spending in Thailand was less than 65,000 baht per month, but who had expenses they needed to cover in home country.

Since he is coming September 19th, the permission to stay from the visa exempt entry will still only be 30 days. Your advice remains valid.

I think this is most likely fiction, but there is a small chance it could be true. We do not know what happened during that three-day period when they were together. There are Thai women, especially those with high social status, who can get very, very upset if they feel they have been hoodwinked into a sexual encounter under false pretences. The possible explanation for creating a 30-year-old arrest record is that it might be difficult to disprove. Yes, the OP may not have been in Thailand at that time, but I believe Immigration's computer records do not go back that far. The girl may not have known the date of the OP's prior visits to Thailand, and there is too much risk involved in creating a recent record where the signatures on documents are of people who are still alive, and exculpatory evidence too likely to be available. Thus, yes, I doubt it is true. But, it is conceivable.

There is a difference between a visa/extension of stay and a work permit. Even as someone in Thailand on a volunteer visa, you may require a work permit. In practice, those engaging in part time volunteer work and/or a short stint as a volunteer will very rarely be prosecuted for a failure to have a work permit, though this kind of volunteering will usually not come with a salary. EDIT: Note that some kinds of volunteering can, from an immigration point of view, be presented as an internship. This is classed as a student visa, and avoids the need for a work permit. It is always unpaid, and you might actually need to pay to participate. Such programs are often scams. Common areas where they operate are to help in orphanages, and animal welfare.

At this point, we are not dealing with an Immigration question. As with any kind of work, the remuneration will depend on your qualifications, responsibilities and the individual organisation. What is almost always true is that your salary when working for an NGO will be lower than for a job with similar responsibilities in the commercial sector. Someone else might be able to suggest a more suitable forum for suggesting organisations you might approach dependant on your qualifications, where you are willing to work, and the length of the commitment you would be willing to make.