BritTim

The cost difference is inconsequential if looking at the total costs you will encounter in returning to Thailand. If not planning to return visa exempt, the Non O accompanying your Thai spouse seems ideal for reasons explained by @ubonjoe. The tourist visa has marginal advantages over visa exempt (when planning to stay longer than 75 days) but none over a Non O. The tourist visa will, ultimately, almost certainly not even save you any money.

Presumably, you mean that your permission to stay was expiring, and you could not, or did not want to, meet the requirements for a regular extension of stay. Thus, you were left with the options of leaving Thailand or requesting a Covid extension, which luckily you were able to get.

At the current time, anyone entering Thailand needs a COE (Certificate of entry). Whether this will still be the case in January and, if so, the conditions that would apply at the time to acquire the COE is a complete unknown. At this point. It is not even totally sure what the requirements will be two weeks from now.

Good luck! Technically, according to the law as written, the responsible official has the discretion to refuse any extension at any time for any reason, and does not need to justify the decision. In your case, the refusal will be abuse of discretion but, if the official's superior does not overrule, there is no standard way of appealing the decision. You might argue that the official is revoking your right to be in Thailand. That is appealable, and a good lawyer should know (1) how the process works; and (2) whether trying to use it in this way has any chance of success. I hope I never end up in a conflict with the wrong Thai as you have done.

I do not recommend initiating a conflict with a Thai. However, if a conflict already exists in which the Thai has already done their utmost to cause the most trouble possible, there is little to lose in fighting back. Foreigners do win defamation cases in Thailand, though you need to be very careful in your choice of lawyer. The only residual danger in retaliation is if the Thai decides to resort to physical violence which, regretfully, is a possibility.

Yes, at the current time, any foreigner entering Thailand requires the Covid insurance in order to get the COE. The time taken to get a COE varies a lot from country to country. In some countries, everything can be sorted out in two or three days. In others, over two weeks has been experienced. Right now, the COE application should be fast if all your paperwork is perfect. The number of people arriving has dropped back in recent weeks.

Actually, there is a decent chance that Cambodia will open within the next month or two. They have done an excellent job on vaccination, and are now keen to reopen as soon as they deem it feasible. I do not think same day border bounces are on the short term radar, but flying to Phnom Penh for a weekend, returning to a Bangkok sandbox may become feasible. Singapore may also become an option, depending on how bad the Covid outbreak here remains. Obviously, to take advantage, you would need to be fully vaccinated.

I believe a Bangkok sandbox option will be available starting October 15th (greater than 90%). Only a catastrophic deterioration of Covid in the capital would prevent that. Thus, if you can, delay your return for a short while. If travelling from a red list country, though, you might not be allowed to use the sandbox, so this may not apply. There is no direct issue with getting a COE on your re-entry permit. I do not think booking an ASQ hotel these days takes more than a day or two unless you are going for the absolute cheapest available option (which I would recommend against anyway). I do not think you will need any other insurance than the US$100,000 Covid insurance for your COE, regardless of whether you enter ASQ, or take advantage of a sandbox. This must, however, include coverage for the whole period until expiry of your re-entry permit (which matches your permission to stay). This can be very annoying if the period is many months.

Alongside everything else, I have an additional piece of advice. I would not recommend this unless your Thai adversary had already exhausted the measures available to try to harm you. It is now time to fight back! It seems this individual is fairly wealthy. You should engage a good lawyer, and launch a defamation case for the false Computer Crime allegation (and any other actions your lawyer thinks should be added). The defamation laws in Thailand are very strong and, unless your adversary is able to bribe the judge, you can expect a large settlement.

Receiving a first Thai passport in Thailand after entering using a foreign passport has sometimes led to complications in the past, though it should not. The immigration record (on entry into Thailand) will show (1) that the passport was issued in Thailand; and (2) that it was not used to leave Thailand. The official will then often want to see the passport used to enter Thailand before, and has been known to declare that the traveller is not really Thai. There have been extreme cases of the official actually tearing up the Thai passport, though this is extreme and very rare. An abundance of caution would lead, if possible, to enter the first time with a Thai passport if you ever want to use a Thai passport in the future.

Is that also true for a further retirement extension? That is, can you stop sending regular payments to your Thai bank account, and simply ensure that you have 800k baht in the account for the three months before the renewal?

That is a decent (but not the best possible) rate when using a bank transfer. However, it is significantly worse than what you would receive when using Wise. Of course, there may be other considerations, other than just the exchange rate, influencing your decision.

With perseverance, it is usually possible to contact an embassy by other means that visiting in person. If repeated attempts to phone and email the embassy fail, you may need to go ahead with a COE application, and see if the vaccination certificate is accepted.

The only possible issue is that a strict immigration office might insist that you show evidence that you met all of the conditions for the retirement extension throughout the previous year (or at least the first nine months following the extension date).

Ask your local Thai embassy. They are the ones who need to approve your COE, and will know whether specific proofs of vaccination are acceptable. By the way, I would recommend, in any case, ensuring you keep a printout of your record from the website to augment the certificate with the QR code..

@ThaiVisaCentreAre there any rumours around reduction in the number of ASQ hotels? Have any hotels in Bangkok that you are aware of decided to remove themselves from the list of ASQ hotels? If so, when does this take effect?

That is entirely logical. However, Thailand is not Norway. In the same way that I would not advise a North Korean to publicly highlight abuses by the Kim regime, it is unwise to upset wealthy and/or connected people in Thailand. The court system is not your friend when it comes to disputes with the wrong people in Thailand. Corruption is pervasive within Thailand and, in general, the corruption becomes worse the higher up in the system you go. Even at very senior levels, clean officials do exist, but they are in the minority, and know better than to try to confront the misdeeds of their peers.

Ignore the agent. Open a Thai bank account (if this is difficult, you could use an agent to assist just with this step). Transfer 800k Thai baht into the account. Apply for the one-year extension yourself (it is not very difficult) and costs 1,900 baht If you want the multiple re-entry permit, and plan to make your first trip out by air, defer buying the re-entry permit until you fly out. Then choose between a single re-entry permit for 1,000 baht or a multiple re-entry permit for 3,800 baht. If willing to pay for convenience, find an agent that realises you will meet all the official requirements, and just want to use an agent to ensure paperwork is perfect, and arrange VIP queuing to reduce the time spent at Immigration. The cost should be about half of what you were quoted under those conditions. 14,000 baht is normal if using an agent to circumvent the financial requirements for the extension, but you could be surprised at where your extension of stay actually gets processed.

Getting Thai passports as soon as possible is advisable. Delay can sometimes result in complications, such as finding out that you do not have the right documentation to get passports later. The only long term consideration can be with male children. They may not want to claim their Thai nationality because of potential National Service requirements when they reach the age of 20.

If you have a re-entry permit or an existing unexpired Non O visa, most embassies will not insist upon the general medical insurance when requesting the COE. However, if you need to apply for a new Non O, one of the requirements will almost certainly be the 400k/40k medical insurance. This has been true for a while. If you are eligible for a visa exempt entry, it is probably better to enter visa exempt, and apply for the Non O visa at Immigration after arrival.

@TopprofileYour posts about the Hua Hin office are very brave. You may not be aware that you can find yourself in a lot of trouble in Thailand publishing information derogatory of specific officials or offices, even if everything you write is 100% true. I gave your main post a like, but would counsel you to be cautious going forward. Do not be astonished if a moderator decides to remove the post for safety.

Probably, this can only be achieved with the assistance of selected agents. It is not actually illegal. It is just that the rules are written in such a way that bureaucratic obstacles arise as soon as you try to achieve it. As stated, the normal way is to leave the country, and either return with a Non B visa or a tourist entry. The process then is at least standardised and understood.

For a short period, I am quite sure there will be two options for those entering Bangkok. If fully vaccinated, you will be required to stay in a SHA+ hotel for, perhaps, seven days. If unvaccinated, the current ASQ system will remain, partly to accommodate people like mister worldwide, who cannot currently get vaccinated. I do expect the two tier system to end (and vaccination become a requirement) sooner rather than later (though it could stick around if Thailand decides on mandatory quarantine, even for those vaccinated, entering from very high risk countries). In all honesty, all this is educated guesswork.

I appreciate your frustration. If there is no prospect of vaccination where you currently reside, I would suggest planning to come to Bangkok before the end of October. ASQ will not end October 1st, but it could happen anytime from November onward. There is a good chance, with some persistence, that you will be able to get a decent vaccine here in Thailand within a month or so of arrival.

Perhaps, they care about their children who cannot be vaccinated, preferring they not end up in hospital unable to see their parents. That might seem strange to you, but there are people who care about others than just themselves.