BritTim

They eventually let her in because she was a strong character who stood up for herself. Based on my experience of young Asian women, I suspect 80% or so would have buckled to the pressure and departed in tears.

If possible, have the hospital apply for the extension on your behalf. The hospital will typically only do this once you have been admitted. If you turn up to Immigration just with a doctor's letter, you may get a very sceptical reaction. Requests made in person for medical extensions are refused more often than not, even if you can make a good case that you are unfit to travel.

Presumably, that is why Europeans go overseas also.

First, ensure she is entering with a visa. Next, do research to find a well connected legal firm that can help in the event of trouble at Immigration. Make sure your GF has the phone number and name of the correct person to call. In the event of an attempt to deny your GF entry, she should contact the lawyer who can successfully issue the appeal on her behalf, even though immigration would (illegally) almost certainly block any attempt by your GF to appeal directly herself. The few cases of which I am aware where this approach has been used lead to a rapid climb down by immigration as soon as they became aware of the submitted appeal.

That is a little sad. What I used to observe years ago is that young Thai women entering without visas would be given a 30-day permission to stay the first time, but often only seven days subsequently if the previous visit was recent. This occurred with little or no questioning, and I considered the approach quite smart. It made visits for illegal work scarcely feasible.

It is my understanding that all immigration offices can issue you a re-entry permit, and those close to border crossings usually will. Many others will tell you to get the re-entry permit from your home immigration office, probably as they want to avoid doing the work themselves.

More difficult, but not impossible. I have had dates with two "respectable" Filipinas in Thailand, though neither lead to a physical relationship.

They had no evidence of the young lady doing anything wrong. In spite of this, they tried to pressure her into buying a ticket and immediately returning to Manila. You and I disagree if you think that every good looking woman up to a specific age should be pressured into returning to her home country if she dares to try to spend more than some arbitrary amount of time (as determined by the official) in Thailand. Do you think the same rule should be applied to attractive young men?

OP, how long do you envisage staying in Thailand, and how well set are you financially? If you may want to stay for a long time (many months or even years) the advice I would give is completely different than if you just want two or three more months.

While about it, how about asking if his children approve of the relationship, his religion, and what kinds of presents he buys for his GF's children. I find your line of questioning absolutely disgusting.

No agency, as far as I know, can circumvent the limit of two visa exempt entries by land in a calendar year. What they do is facilitate travel to the border, and the mechanics of turning around quickly. This can, for instance, include negotiating the bribe of Cambodian officials to avoid spending one night in Cambodia.

As others have stated, this is a multiple entry Non O visa. I am extremely curious to know what you provided in terms of financial proof to get this visa. Years ago, in the UK, a multiple entry Non O on the basis of retirement was available on providing proof of being in receipt of a state pension. However, since you are only 51 years old, this cannot be the basis under which you were approved for such a visa. Did you by any chance provide a bank statement showing a large balance, say at least 20,000 UK pounds? EDIT: This is potentially huge, providing an attractive alternative to a Non O-A visa, with many advantages, and the only disadvantage being 90 days rather than one year on entry to Thailand.

You may want to post a scan of the visa sticker (after blacking out personally identifiable information), That will facilitate our being sure of what you have been given.

Yes, you can apply for the extension of stay (and re-entry permit) during the last 30 days (possibly a bit longer) before the end of the 90-day permission to stay from the Non O visa. For the first extension, the letter from the bank and bank book updated on the day of the application should be sufficient. However, it is important that the bank book shows every individual transaction since the money was transferred into the account. If there are summary lines in the bank book, you will need to get an actual statement showing the full history of transactions on the account. If you will be in Jomtien, a copy of the wife's condo chanote, together with a brief letter to immigration stating that you are living with her can replace a rental contract. Your wife should do a TM30 for the condo in Jomtien.

One important point not mentioned by anyone else is that you need to make an appointment to apply for a visa at the Thai consulate in Vientiane. See https://thaivisavientiane.com/

That will depend on the embassy/consulate where you apply. In some cases, they may even accept an intended itinerary in place of hotel reservations (reasonable as, for instance, a hilltribe trek staying in hilltribe villages will not come with formal confirmation of room reservations).

The standard 30-day extension of the permission to stay from a tourist visa entry is the closest to a sure thing you will ever find at Thai immigration. There are grounds under which you could be denied on the day (for instance, dressed in a way immigration consider disrespectful or, more likely, not being able to show a TM30 notification was done). However, these are easily rectified, returning another day.

I am dubious as to whether, going forward, it will be possible to stay long term in Thailand on just tourist visas/visa exempt entries. It had already become pretty challenging in 2019. Here are some considerations if attempting to do so ... If you have not spent much time in Thailand in the last year or so, you can reliably get a couple of visa exempt entries by air before airport immigration start to give you a hard time, and possibly deny you entry. At that time, you must avoid trying to enter visa exempt through any airport, and be selective about airports you use to enter with a tourist visa. Visa exempt entries by land at most crossings are completely safe, whatever your immigration history, but you are only allowed two of these per calendar year. In general (unless right at the end of a year) you should regard these safe visa exempt entries by land as your emergency fall back option when you fail to get a tourist visa. Thus, so far, you can see that when trying to stay long term, the visa exempt entries are restricted to land crossings, and mainly then in an emergency. You become reliant on tourist visas. These days, all embassies/consulates in nearby countries impose some limits on issuing tourist visas. I discuss this a little more below. If possible, see if you can once a year, at least, get a multiple entry tourist visa from home country. With a tourist visa (single or multiple entry) if you have been living in Thailand on tourist entries, be aware that Immigration at some airports (including Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang) may refuse to honour your visa. You need to arrange to enter via airports that follow the law (such as Chiang Mai) or by land. For getting tourist visas in the region, you need to stay abreast of the practices at each of the embassies/consulates, bearing in mind the need to enter by land or via a law abiding airport. At the current time, we are still in the early post Covid era, and have little to go on. Historically, Vientiane and Savannakhet (Laos), Yangon (Myanmar) and Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) have been relatively good places to apply. They look at only visas they have issued themselves in deciding if you are using tourist visas too much. Vientiane/Savannakhet are excellent for entering Thailand by land. From Yangon, a bus trip to the border at Maesot was doable, but Myanmar is basically closed right now. From Vietnam, safe entry with a tourist visa tended to involve flying to Chiang Mai. Getting tourist visas in Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Kota Bharu (Malaysia) has been possible, but with practices subject to change at short notice. Entering by land is possible in all cases, but (from Phnom Penh) the rogue land crossing at Poipet/Aranyaprathet must be avoided, and some will feel nervous using Kota Bharu which means travelling across insecure provinces in the South of Thailand. Visas from Singapore, Seoul, Manila, Jakarta, Bali and a few other places might be possible, but is hard. Hong Kong (once a good choice) is no longer possible, and neither are India or China. At many embassies/consulates, they carefully scrutinise your immigration history as visible in your passport. That being the case, you can improve your chances by periodically replacing your (unexpired and non full) passport, so they are unaware that you are living in Thailand on tourist entries. It is very possible (probably likely) that at some stage all Thai embassies/consulates will move to use of the e-visa system. When that occurs, I believe staying indefinitely as a long stay tourist will become virtually impossible as the system has too much information on you. The use of education visas to supplement tourist visas can be a solution, with agents able to facilitate doing so. This post just scratches the surface of a complex subject, but should be enough to give a flavour of the challenge of being a long stay tourist in Thailand.

Just to make this clear: there are two categories of people that can arrive without a visa and successfully enter Thailand: Those from countries eligible for visa exemption. Those people do not get a visa at all. They are simply given an entry stamp allowing them to stay for 30 days. Those from countries not eligible for visa exemption, but allowed to get a visa on arrival. They queue up and buy a visa for 2,000 baht that then allows them to be stamped into Thailand with a 15-day permission to stay. It is better to keep the clear distinction between visa exemption and visa on arrival as which you have affects your rights in many ways.

Yes, sure. Presumably, you are aware that this is a multiple entry visa that provides a 90-day stay on entry, which you can (if desired) extend by 60 days at Immigration to visit your wife. To stay a year, you need at least two border bounces.

The application form you must complete is the TM7 form. A fillable PDF version of it can be downloaded from https://aseannow.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=436894. These days, the passport photos are not needed. If you are not staying in a hotel, take proof along that a TM30 address notification has been done or, if the notification has not been done, ensure it is before applying for the extension.

There have been no horror stories suggesting long queues or people turned away because of too many applications. If you turn up mid week early afternoon, you would likely be out within an hour or two.

Did you get an under consideration stamp? If not, how many days were you given for your extension?

I do not think that Nation article provides any insight into whether Covid extensions will still be available. I had thought that, to keep tourist numbers up, the government might decide to keep Covid extensions until their replacement by longer permissions to stay on visa exempt entries and visas on arrival. However, with no announcement having been made, I suspect Covid extensions have ended.

Indeed, remembering that Wise quotes the actual amount you will receive with all fees already deducted. The bank rates do not include the fees that banks at either end charge for processing the transaction.