BritTim

The immigration office might give you the 60-day extension to visit your son, based on the birth certificate and both the child and the mother being with you. That is the absolute maximum you can expect.

When the child is only one-year old, the only ways to legalise are by (i) marrying the mother (which I assume you do not want to do); or (ii) by petitioning the court. The latter is not as daunting as it sounds, but does take some time. If you can afford it, use a family lawyer to simplify matters.

The wording of the school's letter, stating that you planned to stop and giving a future date, is exactly what you want. It means the permission to stay is terminated with effect later, giving you time to leave (or, for some people, have time to arrange a new extension).

You will need to wait until nearer December 15 for the appointment slots for that period to be opened up.

The simplest solution, rather than a visa exempt entry, would be to have a Non O visa (applied for through the e-visa system) prior to your arrival. That gives you an initial 90-day permission to stay which can easily be extended for a further 60 days at the Immigration office with minimal bureaucracy. With the visa exemption, you could theoretically apply for a 30-day extension, followed by a 60-day extension to visit your Thai wife, but that only gives you 120 days (119 nights). A border bounce by land or air would still be required. Applying for a visa at Immigration to change from a visa exempt entry to a Non Immigrant entry should be possible, most easily for retirement rather than Thai spouse. However, it is taken under consideration with a report back date later to confirm the fresh 90-day permission to stay it provides. You would still need the 60-day extension later to get over the desired 126 days. One further caution, if you stay some distance from the Chiang Rai immigration office: that office has been known to refuse to accept applications for visas to convert from a visa exempt entry when you live a long way from the immigration office.

I assume you are on a one-year extension of your permission to stay based on retirement (given at the immigration office) after previously receiving a Non O visa. In that case, ensure you get a re-entry permit before leaving, or your permission to stay will be dead. Coming back with a re-entry permit, the expiry date of your permission to stay will be the same as now. If instead you entered Thailand on a Non-OA (long stay) visa, and the visa will not have expired at the time of your return, then you will receive a new one-year permission to stay on entry.

There should be no problem getting a 30-day extension of his permission to stay at the Korat immigration office. Correct

It varies a bit by immigration office, and whether you apply significantly before the end of your current permission to stay. The minimum is usually about 30 days.

An extension at an Immigration office has nothing to do with Poipet. The problem I allude to is trying to cross the border to/from Aranyaprathey and Poipet. Unless you are looking for trouble, do not risk it.

Considering specifically Cambodia, stay away from Poipet/Aranyaprathet. That aside, a border bounce is feasible. A bribe to Cambodian immigration for a same day return can be expected. That is necessary because of a Cambodian law that mandates an overnight stay for most visitors. Using a visa run company (while often uncomfortable) can make the process simpler for the inexperienced. Expect the need to dodge scams if doing it independently. From Pak Chong, the crossing at Chong Chom (Surin) is probably easiest, and should be OK. The above said, in your friend's position, I would consider going to Chong Mek (Ubon Ratchathani) and doing the bounce to Laos, especially if doing it independently without the aid of a visa run service. Make sure you have clean, undamaged US dollars to pay for the visa on arrival for Laos.

Whether you made a mistake depends on your ongoing travel plans. If you travel outside Thailand on a frequent basis, it may be more convenient to come and go on the multiple entry visa, rather than ensure you do not need to travel during the under consideration period for an extension. If you will be mostly in Thailand, with only the occasional overseas trip, then it will likely be better to have the one-year permission to stay with re-entry permit(s).

What is the age of your son? Are you on good terms with the mother? If you can legalise your status as the boy's father, and have 400,000 baht in a Thai bank account in your name only, receiving an extension of your permission to stay based on your Thai son is doable.

Most airline systems do, in fact, correctly reflect Thai Immigration rules, and will not insist on six month passport validity. That does not change my advice. Do not travel with a passport that expires within the next six months. Too many complications are possible.

If you choose a good care home, I regard Thailand as much better than most countries in the West for those suffering from dementia. This assumes he is financially secure. The care home will ensure that medical and immigration issues are dealt with. There is just one exception I would caution you about. Thailand is not good at hospice type care where the objective is to maintain a good quality of life for people dying of conditions like cancer.

The transfer of your existing permission to stay from the old passport to the new one does not change it in any way. The expiry of your permission to stay will be whatever it states now.

Generally getting out of one country requires entering another country. Sneaking out of Thailand across a border will mean illegal entry into another country (a serious offence in that country to add to his legal issues in Thailand). I guess if he is a good swimmer, and can get good faked stamps in his passport, he might be able to turn up somewhere claiming to have been shipwrecked (if looking for a script for a good movie). However, in the real world, the Thai authorities will be contacted, and his lack of a legal departure from Thailand will be discovered. It is not 1970 any more.

At the current time, no. If you have a recent bank statement in English (or with a Thai translation) a foreign bank account is accepted.

The most detailed report of a detention at Phuket airport was for someone detained at the departure gate. If leaving on an international flight, that would presumably mean that he had passed through Immigration, paying the fine for the overstay, and receiving the ban from returning to Thailand. You cannot get airside in the international area without doing this. To subsequently arrest someone at the departure gate after that would seem unreasonable. In this specific case (and probably others) the actual circumstances must be different. Perhaps, they were taking a domestic flight and were caught by some kind of facial recognition system for criminal activity. Maybe, immigration officials were checking the passports of those taking domestic flights. At this stage, I am not ready to conclude that leaving on an international flight will send you to the Immigration Detention Centre.

Leaving with no detention is not difficult. The hard part is being able to come back/

The possession of a work permit has no effect on the end date of your permission to stay. Further, you did not receive the work permit on the strength of your Non O visa. You received it based on your employment. If you do not want to leave by 31st January, you will need to apply for an extension of your permission to stay. Immigration will probably initially want you to do so on the basis of your Thai spouse (assuming that was the reason for which you were granted the Non O visa). They might, instead, allow you to apply for an extension based on working if you can meet the requirements for that.

What is the expiry date of your current permission to stay? If your permission to stay is based on entering with a multiple entry visa, then you will have been given a 90-day permission to stay. You must either leave by the end of that period, or apply for an extension of your permission to stay. If you have received a one-year extension of your permission to stay from your local immigration office, then you do not need to leave Thailand until the expiry of the extended permission to stay, but need to do 90-day address reports.

That is all quite normal. The waiving of the fine for a one-day overstay only applies to Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang.

Certainly not true of the UK:. See, for instance, https://www.britishairways.com/cms/global/pdfs/BASI_5_Environment_Policy_July_2023_v2.0.pdf

For a first one-year extension from a 90-day permission to stay from a visa, the funds only need to be in the bank for two months. To qualify for a one-year extension based on retirement after that, you need to have had 800,000 baht in the bank for three months after your last extension was granted and for two months before the the new application, and 400,000 baht in the bank for the remainder of the previous 12 months. There are alternatives based on income but, again, those need proof of income covering the entire prior 12 months.

That will not work. In the past (and probably still) there were fixers who were able to resolve long overstays without blacklisting. If able to come up with serious amounts of money, an experienced agent will probably be able to give him a referral to one. At the airport, too many eyes can see what is going on. Falsifying his Immigration history or getting a special dispensation from the Minister is simply not going to be possible.