BritTim

By law, if the senior official approves it, you can apply up to as much as 90 days early. However, with a marriage extension, there are other complications. It depends not only on the senior official at the Chonburi office, but also his superiors at Division headquarters that need to endorse the extension. You are liable to just end up with an extremely long under consideration period.

I am not married, so have not done it myself. It is not recommended, but is allowed. If you do this, make sure you tell the immigration office of your travel plans when you apply for the extension. That will ensure that, if a house visit is deemed necessary, the officials will schedule it around your availability.

An e-visa is US$50. A visa-on-arrival is US$40 for almost all nationalities.

Note that, if this is true which I doubt, it would be a reason for us to be much more concerned about the BA.2.86 variant as over 95% of the population has at least partial immunity based on vaccination or prior infection or both. At this time, those comparing Covid to the flu are not totally wrong. What they are missing is that flu variants can also result in horrendous epidemics. The "Spanish" flu of 1918 to 1920 was worse than Covid, and killed about 50 million people worldwide. Objectivity is important. We should not panic over every mutation, but surveillance and preparedness ought to be better than it was in 2019 when we were hit with Covid.

If the tourist visa exemption scheme is changed to give you 90 days on entry, I strongly suspect this would come with other changes. Likely, you would not be able to extend, and back to back visa exemptions (if you fully used the first) would be denied. In recent years, proposed immigration changes that seem good become disappointing when finally announced with all the small print. (A fairly recent exception is the LTR visa scheme where the implementation has been generally excellent).

You can apply for a one-year extension during the last 30 days of any of the entries from the multiple entry visa. If you dislike travel, there is no need to make full use of the visa.

I would welcome having my understanding on this clarified. There appears to be no problem for Thai nationals from birth who also qualify for a second nationality, right? Those who apply for Thai nationality are told they must renounce their original nationality. Am I correct? What happens (in cases like this) if you promised to renounce your original nationality, but still retained dual nationality? Is it grounds to revoke your Thai nationality?

There are (or were) multiple markets. Most Westerners bought it for the visa (long term certainty and simplicity). For those who bought the 20-year Thailand Elite for 1,000,000 baht, there is peace of mind of knowing that you can stay problem free in Thailand for a couple of decades without worrying about changing rules for visas and extensions. I personally seriously considered it as I do not qualify for the LTR-WP visa.

I agree that it is important to understand whether the visa exemption (aka visa waiver or visa-free entry) is under the tourist visa exemption scheme or bilateral agreement. In the latter case, the specifics of the treaty determine such things as how many days you receive on entry. They all come under the same umbrella term of "visa exemption". For instance, here is the announcement of the visa exemption treaty between Thailand and Russia: https://moscow.thaiembassy.org/en/content/101305-announcement-no-1-2562-visa-exemption-for-holders-of-russian-passports?cate=5d843b6a15e39c1abc00517b.

That is an agent. Official site is https://www.thailandelite.com/ You are, of course, correct. I made a careless typing error. Thank you for pointing it out. I have corrected my original post.

The correct website for Thailand Elite is https://thailandelite.com/. I believe you have a few days to submit the application, but time is very tight.

In the past, they have been well regarded. Recently, following the death of the original owner, reports have been mixed.

The terms "visa waiver" and "visa exempt" are synonyms. Also, sometimes used, is "visa free".

If the wrong visa type was issued (for instance, tourist visa rather than Non O) then they are able to correct this after liaising with the issuing embassy.

That is high risk. Airline staff have computer terminals at their fingertips that can check whether the reservation is real. They will usually not check, but they can.

Policy changes at embassies/consulates without notice are always possible. However, based on recent reports, you should be safe applying for a tourist visa in Vientiane. That said, having backup plans is never a bad idea.

If you are saying that people have the option, rather than getting an extension of stay, of leaving Thailand and returning with a visa, then you are, of course, correct. No one is forcing you to get a fresh extension of stay if you prefer to leave Thailand instead. Indeed, there are some who exclusively use entries from visas, never getting extensions in Thailand.

Once people discovered that you still need to visit the Immigration office, even when using the system, most people lose interest. All it seems to provide is some document checks in advance, which I guess reduces the risk of a wasted visit to the immigration office.

The 30-day permission to stay from a visa exempt entry or entry using a transit visa is 30 days, but includes both the first and last days (so only 29 nights). Whatever you mean by "working days" is incorrect.

Unless you really want to make a special trip outside Thailand for a further visa exemption, a tourist visa is not overkill in comparison. It is one of the rational options to avoid an overseas trip. You are correct that a second denied extension, using the seven days you are given when ordered out of the country is a reasonable alternative.

Historically, it has worked. It is a genuine flight reservation. You want to book the ticket about 24 hours before check in (later is also OK) as the reservation is automatically cancelled after about 48 hours.

What is your nationality? Does your flight to Vientiane leave from Suvarnabhumi within a few hours after you arrive there? If doing an international to international transfer, passing Immigration in Bangkok should usually be unnecessary and you will not require a visa. (That will not be true if your flight to Vientiane leaves from Don Muang. In that case, you would need at least a transit visa or visa-on-arrival if you are not eligible for a visa exemption when entering Thailand.) If still in doubt, you should discuss your full travel itinerary with both your airlines to ensure an airside transfer is possible in your case.

A Non O visa gives you an initial 90-day permission to stay. Subsequently, this stay is extended for a year, and repeated annually thereafter. The extensions are done in Thailand. You can apply for the Non O visa either outside Thailand or inside Thailand. Two important questions: Did you marry your wife in Thailand or overseas? Do you have a Thai bank account in your name only? How easy is it for you to place 400,000 baht in a Thai bank account for several months? I will try to give you more specific advice on how to proceed when you give the answer to those questions.

It has recently been reported that CW at least in most cases now wants a 12 month statement for retirement extensions (other than the first). They might waive that requirement if your bank passbook has no consolidated entries, but they are definitely asking for the 12-month statement as one of the standard documents. It is very annoying if your account is at Bangkok Bank where they require five working days to give you a 12-month statement.

It is extremely unlikely that your application for a multiple Non O based on marriage will be denied once they have checked your application.