BritTim

At the airports, there will be no problem. However, his announcement might well pass by officials at a remote office in Nakhon Nowhere. The bigger problem may be Thais who cannot easily prove their Thai nationality when challenged by the officials, especially if they are not fluent in Thai.

It is my understanding that you have everything correct Sheryl. Just in case anyone misunderstands this, you are not extending the Non O-A visa. You are extending the permission to stay, the reason being retirement in Thailand. Except for the insurance requirement, you can forget that you ever had a Non O-A visa.

There are no visa requirements for studying.

You are correct. The chanote is sufficient.

That is (officially at least) true if you return on a re-entry permit. If you return with a new entry from a visa, a fresh TM30 notification is required.

It is quicker, and the required documents less extensive if you get the Non B visa outside Thailand. However, it is possible to convert from a visa exempt entry or tourist entry to a Non B at the immigration office in Thailand. Unlike when applying at a consulate outside Thailand, where it only takes two or three days, the Non B from an immigration office takes weeks.

See https://vientiane.thaiembassy.org/en/page/tourist-visa-2?menu=63bcd875e8b39d00fd0e7513 for the official requirements. On onward travel it states: It is quite unclear what they will accept, but they have historically not been strict. Any plausible itinerary which involves you departing Thailand has generally been accepted. In Vientiane (but not at all other embassies/consulates) they realise that "signed copy of id card" does not apply when you stay in hotel(s), only if staying in a private property.

The reason to do a report after 75 days (15 days early) is to maximise the chance that the report will be processed before the due date, avoiding the need to report in person. If you try to report now, the report will be denied. The reminders are automated, but an official eyeballs the report to see if it is timely.

Be aware that, although the combination method is supposed to be allowed, some immigration offices do not allow it. If allowed, you will need a 12-month bank statement from the account that receives the pension, and can highlight the monthly entries coming from abroad to make things easy for the official. If the bank statement itself does not clearly indicate they are international transfers, you will probably need the credit advice documents that contain the details of each transfer.

In most cases, I do not think an embassy will consider your Thai immigration status when deciding whether to assist you, for instance, after a natural disaster. Depending on your second nationality, just possession of that country's passport will entitle you to consular assistance (which these days is often negligible).

This is commonly misunderstood. A failure to keep the stated bank deposits when on a retirement extension does not invalidate your permission to stay and put you on overstay. Keeping the money in the bank is only required in order to be eligible for the next one-year extension. It is clear that this is the situation. Those who have had their bank deposits drop below the required level have never been found to be on overstay. They have simply been refused a further extension.

As advised above, if you already have 800,000 baht in a Thai bank account, it is relatively easy to enter visa exempt, shortly after arrival, apply for a Non O visa (intention requirement) at the Immigration office, which gives you a fresh 90-day permission to stay, and subsequently apply for one-year extensions as you used to do in the past. To get a Non O-A visa, as a UK national, you must apply using the e-visa system, and be physically present in the UK when you do the application. Given all the requirements for a Non O-A visa, I doubt you want to subject yourself to this.

Correct on all counts. Changing the reason for your extended permission to stay is usually going to be the best solution.

That question was effectively answered (on the basis that the word "visa" is used correctly). Unless the wrong visa type was issued in error by an embassy/consulate, a visa cannot be changed within Thailand. If you entered with a tourist visa on visa exemption, you can apply for a Non Immigrant visa at Immigration under a number of circumstances. Excluding that, you can in a multitude of ways change the reason for your extended permission to stay.

If I understand the announcement correctly, the authorities ignore the fact that you entered with a foreign passport, and you can act exactly as if you had entered with a Thai passport.

I consider it irresponsible, but not as bad as those who have intercourse with many people without using condoms. I disapprove, but it takes a lot to outrage me these days.

All recent disease epidemics are denied by a minority when first reported. I well remember when a vocal minority claimed that HIV was a hoax, and the immune system damage and deaths were caused by the anti HIV treatments. A generation from now, you will have forgotten that you denied the existence of Covid. Anti vaxxers will have moved on to attacking more recent vaccines.

Going to Vientiane you can choose to go by air or by land. On return from Vientiane, there is unlikely to be a problem if you go by air but, to avoid the 0.001% chance of a problem at the airport, you could return by land over the Friendship Bridge. A single entry tourist visa from Vientiane gives you a 60-day permission to stay that can be extended by a further 30 days at the local immigration office in Thailand.

A good question. It is pointless. When in a hurry, I often leave those fields blank.

A re-entry permit indicates that you might have an intention to travel. It indicates nothing about your actual travel dates.

The METV, as advised above, is probably the easiest option. Also safe at the current time (but subject to change without notice) is to apply for single entry tourist visas in Vientiane.

It seems likely that applying from Thailand is possible, given that they have designed a specific form (TM-89) for the purpose. As you write, this visa is a rare bird, and seems inferior to the LTR-WP (Long Term Resident Wealthy Pensioner) visa.

More often than not, you still get the overstay stamp for a one-day overstay. However, sometimes the official will simply stamp you out (when the overstay is only one day) without sending you to the overstay desk. You could go to Immigration today, and request an extension (denied) and be given seven days to leave the country. There are no negative connotations involved in doing this.

This is typical incompetence by those administering Thai websites. They have moved a lot of their pages to the domain thaiprivilege.co.th without ensuring that the certificates work correctly. Assuming the site has not been hacked (and I do not think it has) you can click "Advanced" and "Proceed" to view the site in unsecured mode. When you do this, do not enter any sensitive data.

Thank you. That is excellent explanation.