BritTim

It has, indeed, always been better to pay in US$. I think I recall that the price of the Lao visa in US$ is now $40 for most nationalities.

There are certainly those who cannot be vaccinated because of their medical status. In virtually every such case, it would be folly for such persons to travel because of their medical status. To be honest, while I consider those who are unvaccinated by choice to be misguided, there is less reason for them to be discriminated against on entry than during delta and earlier waves. New variants will almost certainly arrive in Thailand through the vaccinated even if unvaccinated are excluded. Vaccination provides only limited protection against infection with recent variants. Sure, the unvaccinated are more likely to become seriously ill, but that is not a major overall public health consideration. Those who smoke tobacco are more likely to suffer strokes and heart attacks, but we do not exclude them from Thailand on that basis.

Unlimited double (sometimes triple) entry tourist visas were at one time easily available just for the asking at most embassies/consulates near Thailand. Indeed, I can remember when a few consulates would give you a one-year multiple entry Non O visa to visit Thai friends, based on nothing but a verbal statement on your part. The idea of an airport immigration official telling you "you have been here too long" and refusing to honour your tourist visa was unthinkable. Now, staying indefinitely on tourist entries might still be possible, but it requires considerable skill and luck to thread the needle. I doubt retirement Non O visas and extensions will be eliminated but, especially if tourism returns to pre Covid levels and the economic benefits of elderly expats becomes less important, it is likely that requirements for retirement visas and extensions will be increased. With luck, those already here will have their current requirements grandfathered, with increased requirements only for new applicants, but anything is possible.

Almost everything goes up if you buy and sell at the right time. There are plenty of people who end up forced into bankruptcy by misjudged real estate decisions.

I cannot see how (at least for nationalities that cannot get income letters from their embassies) any other solution than transferring $80,000 a year to Thailand could provide the necessary evidence. They are not just going to take your word for it.

I wonder if there will be any agents who can inveigle this visa without meeting all the requirements.

On accommodation, requirements vary depending on the immigration office you use. In Bangkok, they will accept the explanation that you are newly arrived, and still looking for a permanent address. In other provinces, you may find a helpful hotel manager who will agree a six month rental agreement with a handy cancellation clause.

Someone on here wrote that you cannot go from a Non Immigrant permission to stay to a Non Immigrant visa in country (specifically from an entry on a Non O-A visa to a 90-day Non O visa at immigration). This is simply not allowed. Converting from a tourist entry (including a visa exempt entry) is allowed in many cases, and intervening Covid extensions does not affect such a right. You can also change the reason for your permission to stay on a Non Immigrant entry. For instance, those on an entry from a Non O-A visa can change the reason for their permission to stay from retirement to staying with Thai spouse (in which case, the insurance problem goes away).

There are a handful of agents who can do it by sending your passport out and back into Thailand without you accompanying it. Possibly there may be agents who get the immigration database doctored to make in seem as though a border bounce has taken place without physical movement of your passport. Either way, it is expensive, and I seriously advise you not to do this. It is quite impossible without at least your passport doing a border bounce (or seeming to do it). No agent can get around that.

Many embassies have required flight bookings into and out of Thailand for a long time. It is not purely an artefact of the eVisa system. Requiring evidence of a flight into Thailand has always seemed particularly nonsensical to me. Who spends money paying for a visa with no intention of travelling there? If some nutcase wants to do so, why should the embassy particularly care?

What is your nationality? If you cannot get an embassy letter confirming your income, it seems very difficult to use the combination method to apply for a Non O visa for retirement at Immigration. The policy at your local office is typical.

The US is not unique. In most first world countries, a visa (in addition to being a requirement for entry) is also your permission to stay. By convention, it is placed in your passport, but is effectively an independent document.

So, what is the courier fee used for? Do the VFS instructions to the Indian manufacturers of UK passports have to be sent to India individually for each applicant? Further, is it really ethical for these Indian manufacturers of UK passports to pretend to be calling from the UK Passport Office when they contact me because of a problem with the application? On the plus side, their English was totally fluent, without a hint of an Indian accent.

I believe the US embassy in Bangkok will know the answer to your question, and would suggest talking with them. There is no harm, of course, in seeing whether anyone else here has been through the process of registering a US marriage.

Who was suggesting trying to get a one-year visa? I thought the visa option being discussed in this thread was for a single entry Non O through the eVisa system. The choice was between a re-entry permit and new visa. After that, the idea is to continue with annual extensions.

If it was "many years ago" as you stated, opening a personal bank account at the major banks was a breeze. I opened several very easily with just the minimum deposit. The only time you were typically refused was by the smaller banks, or if there was a language problem. It is now much more difficult. If they see you are a US citizen, it can be even harder. The banks hate the reporting requirements they must satisfy.

Bear in mind, if you decide to get an extension when you return, that November 12 is a Saturday. If not of a nervous disposition, this can work in your favor. You are allowed to apply for the extension without penalty on the first working day that follows the weekend (in this case, Monday November 14). If, as @ubonjoe suggests, you plan on requesting the 60-day extension, make sure you are entitled to one. If you ever used a 60-day extension since your most recent entry that did not use a re-entry permit, then you cannot get another one. That can then, possibly, tip the balance in favor of a fresh Non O visa rather than a re-entry permit. I would personally go for the 90-days on a fresh visa anyway. That would ensure you have the 60-day extension in your pocket for any possible future need. It can be very useful. One possible disadvantage of the new visa through the eVisa system is (IMHO unlikely in the UK) a chance of the visa application being rejected. As far as I can see, the document requirements are not onerous.

If you are on a regular tourist visa, or a standard visa exempt, your nationality should not matter. You cannot do it if on a visa-on-arrival, transit visa or special tourist visa. You probably cannot do it if on a visa exempt entry based on bilateral agreement.

These days, you get a Non O visa in the UK through the eVisa system. It does not involve travelling to the embassy, or sending anything there by post. Unless there is a problem meeting the requirements for the visa, I would normally suggest just starting again. The main exception is if you are working in Thailand, and want to maintain a continuous record with the hope of applying for Thai citizenship.

It varies from embassy to embassy how strict they are about tourist visas (both single and multiple entry). Getting one every year from the London embassy through the eVisa system should be no problem.

It has not really been a "Covid" extension for over a year now. Powerful figures support long stay tourism under current conditions, and need a label they can put on an "allow tourists to stay as long as they want" extension that will placate other decision makers who would prefer restricting tourism to those who visit for a short while, spend lots of money, and then leave.

I hope the guy got the psychiatric help he obviously needed.

I saw that report also. Free tourist visas from embassies/consulates may also be available for a while. There are powerful players in the Thai establishment that want long stay tourists. However, Thailand as a whole is schizophrenic. The limit of two land based visa exempt entries per calendar year will remain, and some immigration officials will still not want long stay tourists. I still advise avoiding visa exempt entry by air once you have been more than a few months in Thailand. Using the visa exempt entries by land at the end of each calendar year, however, can be part of a good overall strategy. Just do not use them prematurely early in the year, and leave yourself with a potential major problem if your application for a tourist visa is ever unexpectedly denied.

The best I can suggest is based on the situation as it existed in 2019. There is too little data on the current situation to know how attitudes might have changed. My assumption is that you intend to spend almost all your time in Thailand and/or nearby countries for a long period. Leaving aside the eVisa system, these are the main considerations: You have two visa exempt entries by land in any single calendar year. These are safe, and can be used to reliably enter Thailand at almost all entry points. They should be husbanded carefully, generally used only in an emergency. All embassies and consulates in the region now impose limits of some kind on the issuing of tourist visas. The policies vary from one embassy/consulate to another, but the common factor is that they make their decision based on what they can see in your current passport. Common limitations are the number of tourist visas you have been granted in the last year (total), the number of tourist visas in the passport (issued at any time) at that specific embassy/consulate or the number of tourist visas issued ever at any embassy/consulate in the region. In some cases, they may also look at the amount of time they can conclude you have spent recently in Thailand, especially (though not exclusively) as a tourist. Embassies and consulates in the region can be divided into impossible, strict, medium and relaxed. Even with relaxed consulates, there will still be limits. For the most part, you can wipe the history clean as far as the embassies/consulates you use is concerned by replacing your passport. If you have spent significant recent time in Thailand as a tourist or even on some other kind of visa, trying to enter visa exempt by air is extremely risky, and should be avoided except as a last resort. While, by law, you should be safe entering with a tourist visa, immigration officials at some entry points (including Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang) have decided that embassies/consulates are unqualified to issue visas, and will sometimes refuse to honour your tourist visa. Almost all land crossings are safe (the main exception is the Poipet/Aranyaprathey crossing from Cambodia) and refusing to honour a tourist visa has never been reported at Chiang Mai airport. The ease with which you can get many tourist visas through the eVisa system will depend on the embassy in your home country. Some embassies have historically been pretty relaxed. Some are much more strict, possibly refusing to grant you more than one tourist visa per year. To meet the travel requirements as a condition for a tourist visa, a local air ticket within the region should be fine. However, take note of the warning I wrote above about some airports not honouring tourist visas. Your general strategy should be: Starting with a fresh passport (no or very few Thailand stamps) Look to get tourist visas initially at the hard embassies/consulates Plan to enter by land or via safe airports if you have spent long periods recently in Thailand. Steadily move on to the medium and then relaxed embassies/consulates. If unexpectedly denied a tourist visa, use one of your emergency visa exempt entries and carefully evaluate your future plans. When getting further tourist visas in the region becomes too hard, apply for a replacement passport and start again. If your home embassy is generous about granting tourist visas, use the eVisa system to get the visas but still usually enter by land. (even if you use cheap air tickets or rental tickets to apply for the visa). [You can fly out of Thailand, but be careful about flying back. In the past, I have flown to Yangon, one of the easy embassies, but returned by land at the border crossing at Maesot (sometimes flying domestically to Bangkok from there).] Note that some embassies that list an air ticket in/out of Thailand as part of their requirements for a tourist visa will accept an itinerary that shows you entering/leaving Thailand by land instead. This is less common than formerly.

Go to the immigration office where you handed over the documents years ago. Explain the situation, and offer them money to find the file and give you copies. You will need to tell them the date when you gave them the documents.