BritTim

I visualise something a bit different. Suppose you work in Thailand for a multinational company. They might agree to pay part of your earnings through an overseas subsidiary into an overseas bank. That could be beneficial in terms of your tax liability, but I could imagine Thai law forbidding it (albeit, it being hard to enforce).

An off topic post and replies to it have been removed.

As usual Tod is accurate. Once you are on an extension of your permission to stay, in the vast majority of cases (including the one discussed in this thread) the type of visa used to enter Thailand (or applied for at Immigration) is of purely historical interest. The important points are the expiry date of your permission to stay, and the current basis of your extended temporary permission to stay in Thailand.

Yes, during the last 30 days of your 90-day permission to stay from entering with the visa, you should go to Immigration to apply for a one-year extension based on working. Since your visa has expired, you must ensure that you get a re-entry permit if you subsequently want to travel abroad. Note that, when discussing extensions of your permission to stay, it is better to reference the reason for the extension rather than the original visa type. The original visa type does have some impact on the reasons for extension that you qualify for. However, saying (for instance) I am on a Non O extension is meaningless. Similarly, saying you are on a Non B extension is not ambiguous, but saying you are on an extension based on working (preferably qualified by things like "for a BOI company" or "as a teacher") is the most accurate and informative description.

I wonder if there might be a rule somewhere that says money earned in Thailand cannot be paid in an overseas bank. I could imagine that kind of regulation, and it being misinterpreted to imply you must receive all your income in Thailand.

You should be able to apply for the extension any day between 26 August and 25 September. For a retirement extension, you should get the passport returned the same day, or at worst the following day. Retirement extensions are not taken under consideration, with the consequent delay. You could do it this week.

I am pretty sure you apply for your extension at the local immigration office, regardless of your place of work.

They can make random visits at other times of the year. If they do, it is not to verify your right to an extension. It is for other reasons. The fact that you are outside the country at that time will not be an issue. They may talk to neighbours to confirm that you still live there, and if they know when you will be back. That is all.

It is important to understand the differences between "visa", "permission to stay" (extended or not) and "re-entry permit". If you enter Thailand with a visa, you can enter right up to the visa's expiry date, and will receive the normal permission to stay allowed from the visa (90 days if entering with a Non B visa, 60 days if a tourist visa, for instance). I think you are making the common assumption that the re-entry permit you get to protect your permission to stay is a visa. It is not. It simply protects your permission to stay to prevent it being cancelled when you make a trip outside Thailand. Obviously, when entering with a re-entry permit, the expiry date of your permission to stay remains the same. The 90-day report is completely independent of any of the above. It is required when you spend 90 days consecutively in Thailand.

I do not recall such a rule. It does say that earnings from abroad brought into Thailand in the year that it is earned are subject to Thai tax if you are tax resident. That is different from saying you must import earnings so they can tax it. Do you have a more specific citation other than just Thai law?

The biggest issue with annual extensions, especially those taken under consideration, is exactly what you mention: the need to fit the extension into your schedule year after year.

It is possible to change the reason for your permission to stay from working to retirement. I do not think the One-Stop office can give you the retirement extension. You might need to cancel your permission to stay at the One-Stop office in the morning, and apply for the new extension of your permission to stay based on retirement at Chaengwattana in the afternoon. If you contact the One-Stop office, they can hopefully advise you.

If officially married, it is a bit complicated, but possible. Without a marriage certificate, a dependant visa/extension is totally impossible. An independent retirement visa (her own bank account with 800k deposit) is the only obvious solution. As ever, an agent might be able to suggest other options.

It appears that you are using visa exemptions under bilateral agreement between Thailand and Brazil. I have no idea of the details of the visa exemption treaty between Thailand and Brazil, except that it allows 90 days on each entry. However, it makes sense to me that, unless the treaty implies otherwise, Immigration would not be happy with someone who already has six months consecutive in Thailand asking for a further 90 days. If time was not so short, I would recommend going to Vientiane for an actual tourist visa. However, you need an appointment to use the embassy there, and would not be able to get the appointment at such short notice. Where are you located? Possibly a well regarded visa run company could advise you on a workable plan of action.

On an extension of stay, the only things you need to consider are: Having a schedule that ensures you are in Thailand around the time when the yearly extension is due; and Obtaining a re-entry permit when you take a trip outside Thailand. When outside Thailand, there is no requirement to submit the 90-day reports. Those are only necessary after 90 consecutive days in Thailand. Subject to the requirement to be in Thailand for the annual extensions, you can spend as little or as much time as you like in Thailand.

Just the visa and passport (and, if paranoid, 20,000 baht cash that you can theoretically be asked to show by immigration when you arrive, though they never ask any more in practice).

Was this at Poipet/Aranyaprathet? There have even been reports there of denied border bounces.

Our discussion is only about SWIFT transfers which seem to work well, with good exchange rates when sending from Sweden with the currency conversion done before the transfer. Obviously, as we are well aware, using WISE is a better idea from most countries. I guess it is not a complete shock that bank charges and exchange rates vary by country.

This was also pretty strange. I assume the Dear Applicant email was coming through Taximail, and the email address is strange, but the request for travel plans does not look suspicious. I am scratching my head trying to figure out why, even if they want to use mass mailing software, they do not set it up so you just reply (through the normal email address) with the Subject header already preset to ensure it gets tied to the correct application. This is all so error prone. If the system was left to a high school student to set up, it could not be this bad.

The Ministry of Labour headquarters is on Mitmaitri Road in Din Daeng, but easiest might be to send them a short email at [email protected], giving your location and asking them which office you should use.

I agree with this. Note that successful visa applications would not change my opinion that messages to [email protected] are being intercepted by bad actors. The e-visa system itself is still operating, and applications are being seen by the UK embassy. It would be in the scammers best interests for visa applications to generally be successful as long as this only happens after they have launched their phishing attacks.

At the current time, I do not know what to suggest. A possible solution would be to make an appointment at the Thai embassy in Vientiane, and fly there before entering Thailand. The current situation is intolerable. All consulates (official and honorary) in the UK have been closed, ensuring there is no independent path to at least communicate with consular staff. It is impossible to communicate with the London embassy by phone. There is no way of knowing whether emails sent to the London embassy are actually being received unfiltered by embassy staff. Finally, we have a situation where there are very strong indications that attempting to use the e-visa site will result in identity theft.

Would an initial visit to the local Labour Office, together with the prospective employee be a good initial step? While there, he could ask the Labour Department whether any of the preparatory steps had already been done, and whether there were local agents who could help streamline the process.

Unfortunately, if you used the 60-day extension in 2017, and have been on one-year extensions ever since, you are not eligible for another 60-day extension. The alternative of going to Savannakhet for a single or multiple entry Non O visa from there is probably your best short term solution.

To open personal PayPal accounts in Thailand you now need a National Digital ID. Those are only available for Thai nationals. I presume it is possible to open PayPal accounts abroad and use them when in Thailand (probably with restrictions) but the PayPal account I opened years ago, tied to a Thai bank account, was terminated.