BritTim

Worst case, and I actually do not think it will happen, we could go back to the system that existed decades ago where you needed a tax clearance to leave the country after spending more than a certain number of days here during the calendar year. That involved an interrogation at the tax office and was worse than any of the bureaucracy we must endure here now. The tax clearance was abolished during the short technocrat government of Anand Panyarachun about 30 years ago.

Once you enter visa exempt, the previous permission to stay that was protected by the re-entry permit is history, and there is nothing Immigration can do about it. Applying for a new Non O visa at Immigration followed by the initial one-year permission to stay is costly if you ask an agent to do it rather than doing it yourself.

Yes, if you are on a Non O visa (Thai spouse) or an extension of stay based on marriage, you are allowed to work and can get a work permit once you find a job.

In practice, 5,000 word posts are never read properly. I could point you at the partially correct page provided by the Immigration Bureau (https://www.immigration.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/9.FOR-RETIREMENT-PURPOSES-50-YEARS-OLD-NON-O.pdf) with just warnings (i) that it is not 100% correct as to the standard requirements; and (ii) not all offices follow the standard requirements. Knowing that you were applying at CW, and had applied for a visa at Immigration before, we were able to tell you that the documents you used in the past should be used together with proof that the TM30 notification had been done, and the credit advice document associated with the funds transfer. Unlike at most offices, CW does not require a long term rental agreement. I appreciate that some of the replies were unhelpful, but the paragraph above (repeating what I posted earlier) should succinctly provide you with what you need. A 5,000 word post dealing with the requirements for all 75 immigration offices that would soon be out of date would not be more helpful.

Any visa (assuming it was issued at an embassy/consulate outside Thailand) will not be transferred. To use it, it is necessary to travel with both passports until the expiry of the visa.

It is worth noting that exactly what "days" means is unclear. Is a 59-night stay 60 days (as declared by Immigration) or is it 60 days?

Your understanding on funds seasoning is correct (according to the official rules). That applies to Chaengwattana. Ask the bank for a credit advice from your transfer as the officials will want to see incontrovertible evidence that the funds came from abroad. There are no changes to the document requirements compared to the past, except that they are much more likely to want to see evidence of the TM30 notification. You explain that you are staying temporarily in the hotel while seeking a permanent place to stay. [A very few immigration offices can have non standard requirements, such as funds seasoning, or may even refuse to accept an application at all, especially if you live a long way from the immigration office.]

I still fail to understand what you believe to be the "corruption" at the Savannakhet consulate. The requirements, there, for a multiple entry Non O visa are less onerous than at other consulates, and they were previously lenient in the requirements for a single entry tourist visa. I have never heard of any extra charges over and above the visa application fees (that do not go to the officials). Please explain the benefit you believe the consular officials at Savannakhet receive from their "corruption", and how this "corruption" works. Note that lacking of hatred of foreigners is not corruption. EDIT: Actually, there is one corrupt practice that has been observed (not by the consular officials, and nothing to do with the application itself). It has been reported that you can pay to jump the huge queues that occur at the consulate some days. If that was the motivation for the friendlier requirements, they would not have made the decision to deter applications for tourist visas.

Friday October 13 is one of the official holidays that will be observed by the Vientiane embassy and Savannakhet consulate (https://vientiane.thaiembassy.org/en/page/office-hours-and-holiday?menu=63bb90d69da54379d32269a3. Neither will be open Friday and, for applications made October 12 at Savannakhet, passports will be returned with the visas on Monday October 16.

An exchange of insulting comments between two members has been removed. Please avoid content free insults.

He should allow extra time. Some information from the old passport needs to be transferred to the new passport (though the visa is not transferred). There is a designated official that does this who may not always be immediately available. I once needed to wait nearly two hours. If travelling independently, I recommend getting to the border in the morning. If on an organised border run, verify that the van will wait if there is a significant delay in getting the stamp transfers done.

When a Ministerial Police Order is issued, it is the law everywhere. It would not be unknown for individual immigration offices to ignore some of the conditions in an order, but it should be assumed that offices will follow the law until proven otherwise. Also, under unusual circumstances, the Ministry might instruct offices to waive certain requirements for a time. During Covid, some conditions for student extensions were relaxed (not officially announced) but have been back in full force since the start of this year.

It has never (so far as I know) been a problem at the airport. However, it can be a continuing sword of Damocles over your head whenever you have contact with Immigration in the future.

If you received a multiple entry Non O visa in HCMC two months ago, without showing financial proof, please confirm this (preferably, with a scan of the visa you received). There have been many reports over the last six months or so of financials now being one of the requirements.

Accusing Savannakhet of only issuing Non O visas for the visa fees is absolutely ridiculous. That consulate (like Vientiane before the appointment system) is inundated with applications, and so desperate to reduce the number of applicants that, as a deterrent, it had to become one of the hardest consulates to get single entry tourist visas. It is a fact that the officials at Savannakhet (and those in Vientiane) are basically friendly people who do not favour the breaking up of families leaving divorced wives and fatherless children. That is distinct from the anti foreigner attitudes of some other embassies/consulates.

It is potentially a major problem. The concern Immigration can have is that your employment might have ended weeks before you left the country. Having your employment formally terminated by the employer, showing the exact date of the end of your employment eliminates that possibility. If you leave when on an extension of stay based on working, and Immigration wants proof that you were always legally in Thailand, a formal termination letter from your previous employer showing the end date of your employment being on or after the date you left Thailand should be enough to satisfy them. Otherwise, especially if you left your employer under bad terms, it can become a real mess.

I vaguely remember the announcement, but it was over a decade ago. It was already in force at the time of the last major overhaul of the requirements for extensions of temporary permission to stay (Police Order 327/2557) in 2014.

In my experience, Thai laws rarely have "official" English translations. The laws that are important to foreigners usually end up being translated by third parties. You use those translations at your own risk.

I agree that this is the normal situation. Some reading reveals the following argument used by some countries (notably Germany). At the time a treaty is signed, it will override any extant local law. However, democratic principles dictate that a future government should not be prevented by treaty obligations from implementing local laws that conflict. This argument was used to invalidate certain aspects of the DTA between Germany and Turkey in 2015. I am very uncomfortable with this theory which basically holds that future governments can ignore treaties negotiated by their predecessors. Presumably, this means that Germany could, for instance, pass a new local law that immediately cancelled its obligations within NATO.

The way I understood his post (and this conforms with my experience of years ago) a transfer from a US bank to Bangkok Bank New York does not use SWIFT (though it possibly could). Similarly, it is possible to request them to credit your Bangkok Bank account in Thailand without doing a SWIFT transfer. Actually, in the past, I used to transfer to Bangkok Bank's account in Chase Manhattan with instructions for further credit to my account in Thailand.. This took less than 24 hours.

I am not qualified to comment generally on this subject. However, I can make one comment with confidence. Any foreign treaty obligations will override the text of local laws whether the authorities want it or not. If wording in the DTA indicates that certain categories of income do not need to be declared, that will be the controlling law.

Assuming you have not already spent very long periods in Thailand as a tourist, this will be absolutely no problem.

At most immigration offices (it can be earlier at a few) the absolute latest you can apply for the Non O visa at Immigration is Monday November 6th (earlier would be better). The money must be in a Thai bank account in your name only on the day you apply.

Immigration at the airport will be aware of your previous entries with a Non Ed visa, and also see a record of your extensions. The embassy/consulate where you apply for a visa will generally not have access to your Immigration history, only what is visible in your current passport (and your old passport if, as occasionally happens, they demand to look at that).

TE, in this context, is Thailand Elite.