BritTim

I strongly recommend that you either: Bite the bullet and go to Savannakhet, intending to apply for the visa on a Tuesday or Wednesday to avoid horrendous crowds; or Make an appointment for the Thai embassy in Vientiane, and go there for a single entry Non O visa. To reach Vientiane, you can fly direct to Vientiane or via Udon Thani, if you want to avoid a long overland journey. From some parts of Southern Thailand (for instance Samui) there are visa run companies that organise trips to Penang for visas. If wanting to risk trying in Penang, I would recommend trying to use one of those companies. They should examine your passport, and tell you whether, based on recent experience, you would be able to get your desired visa there.

If your child can get a Non Ed visa in the UK prior to your departure, I think it is possible for your wife to subsequently get the Non O, hopefully also before departure. Regardless of where the child gets the Non Ed visa, the application for the Non O can be done elsewhere (such as Vientiane, Laos as I suggest above) and will give an initial 90-day stay on arrival (which can be extended one year at a time, at Immigration in Thailand).

The combo option (which is supposed to be available, but which some offices will refuse to allow) is used when you cannot qualify on income or money in the bank individually. For example, someone might only be able to transfer 50k baht per month (600k per year). To qualify for a retirement extension, they could, in addition, show a bank balance of 200k baht. These days, just satisfying income by itself is painful enough. The combo method is certainly not something I would do if I could find a reasonable alternative.

The child could get a Non Ed visa in Thailand, but it might be better to try to do it (with documents from the school) prior to departure from the UK. The application for the parent is separate. If applying as the parent of a foreign child at school in Thailand, the Non O will not be granted until the child has the Non Ed visa/extension. The Non O visa will probably need to be done at an embassy/consulate outside Thailand. If everything cannot be arranged before you leave the UK, rather than returning to the UK, it should be possible to make an appointment and get the visa at the Thai embassy in Vientiane Laos. In addition to the information above which I hope is correct, also ask the school what is involved. If it is an international school, they will deal with this constantly.

My suspicion is that the Royal Thai Embassy London no longer has control of the domain thaiembassyuk.org.uk. I think it is now under the control of the scammers. Usually, there should be email addresses [email protected] and [email protected] that I could contact to discuss this issue. Neither of those email addresses exists. You are receiving the scam emails through an application called Taximail (https://www.taximail.com/th/home) which obviously would never be used to communicate with visa applicants. I believe the scammers are operating in Thailand, though they are using a server from Amazon in Singapore. I am a bit rusty in these kinds of forensic investigations. Anyone who is an expert in this area, if you send me a PM, I will be happy to share the raw emails with you (assuming the OP agrees with me sharing some sensitive data with you).

First, let me say that the link you provide is generally very good, though quite outdated in some respects. Reading through, it appears to have been mostly written at least 10 years ago. It was updated to note important changes from 2015. The section on exceptions to the requirement for a work permit was also updated in 2018. As your source stresses, the main controlling law is the Working of Aliens Act (2008). The best translation of that Act I have found is at https://www.thailandlawonline.com/translations/foreign-employment-working-of-aliens-act. It is noteworthy that this controlling law only states (with regard to visas) That is: the law only specifically excludes those on transit or tourist visas. Other restrictions are as prescribed by the Minister, and are subject to change without needing cabinet approval, but must be published in the Government Gazette. The challenge is tracking down all the Ministerial Regulations, and their changes over the years. Mostly, I think these are only available in Thai. Even at the time the OSOS guidance was originally written, it appears to have been wrong in some respects. For instance, volunteers with a Non O visa have long been eligible to apply for work permits. I cannot afford to spend all my time researching this, but I do intend to continue digging. I wish I was better at reading the Government Gazette which I believe is key to figuring out the current rules.

Based on the information you have sent me, it looks very much as though you are using the scammer's email address to try to communicate with the Royal Thai Embassy in London. That is a very bad idea. As I have informed you earlier, I cannot investigate without seeing the raw message as it was received by Microsoft. A regular forward does not contain all the information about how the message was transmitted from the original sender to Microsoft which is critical to any meaningful investigation.

That is logical. Three days ago, I believed 100% that it was impossible to get a work permit on a Non O visa (retirement) or a retirement extension. I am no longer convinced. You cannot just decide what is allowed based on terminology. The letter of the law is a bigger factor.

Try to enter with a Non O visa. It is totally impossible to open a Thai bank account from overseas. You will need to arrange it after your arrival which will be easier with a Non O visa. Unless very persistent, you will likely still need an agent to assist with opening the bank account. If you want to go to the effort of opening the account without the assistance of an agent, there are guidelines that can improve your chances, but it is tough.

When banks use that "correspondent bank" excuse for an indirect transfer, it enrages me. It is almost always totally unnecessary, adds to the cost, creates delay and (as here) makes tracking the transfer much more difficult. When a bank does that, insist on them giving you the MT103 document, a detailed SWIFT document describing how the transfer was done, and giving what you need to satisfy Immigration.

As I am sure you know, you are still charged an extra 0.25% by the Thai bank when transferring in baht. I have never heard a valid justification for this.

Correct. Before going to Immigration for the 60-day extension (with his wife in attendance) he should get an up to date KR2 document from any amphoe office.

I think you need to reread his post. He claimed that he applied for and received the Non O visa at Immigration after entering visa exempt, and was subsequently denied an extension because his permission to stay had less than 15 days remaining on the initial 90 days. Extensions are always, in principle, at the discretion of the Immigration officials, but I absolutely do not understand this one based on the claimed reason.

That is an official rule. However, if the funds have lain undisturbed in your account for at least a few months, most immigration offices will waive the proof that the money originated abroad.

This seems sketchy. A lawyer setting up a business for a foreigner should know how to get a work permit without the foreigner needing to research and acquire the necessary visa (a critical and integral part of the process). The lawyer cannot provide the work permit until you have a qualifying visa and the business meets the other requirements (such as four Thai employees in most cases).

You are expected to use that money. There is no need to keep the money in the bank. They just want to see you regularly bringing the money into Thailand. Their main concern is that you are illegally earning money in Thailand.

That does not make sense. If you enter with a Non O visa, you are given an initial 90-day permission to stay which you can extend for one year at any time during the final 30 days of this initial permission to stay.

I believe that is possible, in principle, though it may depend on the Immigration office. I could imagine some offices claiming that the first extension must be based on retirement, not based on being the husband's dependant.

Leaving aside the fact that you assigned your quote to the wrong poster ... The expiry date of the original Non O visa is irrelevant. What is important is that you apply for an extension before the end of the 90-day permission to stay you receive from the visa. You can apply for an extension of your permission to stay right up to the last day of your existing permission to stay. If applying for a visa at Immigration, you must have at least 15 days (up to 21 days at some offices) left on your current permission to stay on the day you submit the application.

No. The consulate will accept that your children have not renounced their Thai nationality since birth. Be aware that you can only get a single entry visa if applying based on Thai child.

The transfer of stamps from the old passport to the new is supposed to be free, though some offices will insist on an unofficial charge (for which you will not get a receipt). Your permission to stay from the old passport will remain unchanged after transfers to the new passport. You must still request an extension before the expiry of that permission to stay. Just transferring stamps to the new passport does not add any time to your existing permission to stay.

This is a good plan, though there is one major complication you must be aware of. Once you have a one-year extension of stay, your wife is eligible for an extension as your dependant. However, the initial Non O visa for this cannot be acquired in Thailand. It may be best initially for both of you to apply for Non O visas independently, with your wife changing to extensions as your dependant later if desired.

Your wife's passport is not necessary. The id card is fine. You can exit Thailand on the last day of your current permission to stay. You need to show 20,000 baht (or equivalent in a major currency) in a bank account. A Thai bank passbook recently updated is sufficient. In theory, you can be asked by Thai immigration to show 20,000 baht cash at the border. In practice that never happens. It would be best to have a recent KR2 (especially if your wife is not with you) but they will probably not insist on that.

Be warned that while most immigration offices will accept that, some offices will refuse to accept a joint account, regardless of the amount in the account.

That used to be possible, but no longer (even with financial proof)