BritTim

Tell that to the guy who had a five-year Thai Elite Easy Access visa who was fined and blacklisted from Thailand for a failure to extend his permission to stay one year after his arrival using the visa. It is possible he was told by the official "you are being fined and blacklisted for exceeding your visa", but the whole problem was that he was not in Thailand on a visa. Similarly, quite a lot of people have assumed that a one-year multiple entry Non O visa allows them to stay in Thailand until the expiry date of the visa. They fail to realise that the visa only facilitates a 90-day permission to stay each time you enter. The visa provides no right to be inside Thailand.

As soon as you enter the country, you receive a "temporary permission to stay". The visa you use at that time determines the length of the permitted stay you are given, but the expiry date of your visa is irrelevant. You can subsequently apply for an "extension of your temporary permission to stay". You are never in Thailand using a visa (the new Long Term Resident visa is a partial exception).

It is easier for them to say "wee-zah" than "permission to stay" and shorter to write. Like many posters on here, officials often think that precise language is totally unnecessary.

Generally, a second tourist visa from Vientiane is not a problem. However, you have done yourself no favours by lying on your last visa application, and then overstaying. I make no predictions. The Vientiane embassy is one of the friendliest in the region now, but you will have no credibility. There is a good chance they will conclude that you are working without a work permit.

A bunch of pointless bickering posts have been removed.

In Cambodia, the only option is the Phnom Penh embassy. The application takes several days, and, historically, tourist visa applications have often been denied, with stamps that make it clear this happened. A few years ago, I would advise people to avoid applying in Phnom Penh unless they were very obviously occasional Thai visitors. It is a bit different now that almost everywhere has become tough. Where flight information is concerned, every embassy/consulate is different. In the past, Vientiane was not insistent on flight bookings. At most, a plausible itinerary seemed to satisfy them. If the cost of getting from Ho Chi Minh City to Vientiane is a serious concern to you, there are buses. That is obviously a very tiring option, taking almost 24 hours. Tell yourself you are still 19 years old, a backpacker seeking adventure.

This thread has ceased, if it ever did, to produce any useful information. CLOSED

The LTR visa (for those who qualify) has significant benefits. That is without considering the very real possibility that the requirements for a Non O based on retirement will change over the next few years.

If your pension is less than US$80,000 per year, you need a US$250,000 investment in Thailand. (An annuity to raise his pension to US$80,000 would be very costly.)

The requirement for booked flights has become the norm. In some cases, embassies/consulates will still accept a convincing itinerary in place of an onward flight. People who feel lucky can try.

From experience, people who have difficulty controlling their spending in home country usually end up spending much more than they expect in Thailand. The good news is that, having exhausted your savings, with a regular $3,500 per month coming in, you can still have a reasonable quality of life if you avoid going into debt. Worst case, if you own your condo, it will most likely be worth a fair bit if you sell at the right time. I am not going to preach about the evils of regular weed use, but observation suggests that not working, and smoking often, you can expect a fairly rapid rate of cognitive decline. That will not help when it comes to impulse control. As far as visas are concerned, it is difficult to say at this point what is going to work best. Unless your condo in Pattaya can cover the investment requirement for the LTR-WP visa, I suspect it is not going to be a viable option, but it will be possible to find something.

For the tourist visa application, Hanoi is even worse than HCMC. For a stress free experience, make an appointment to apply for the visa in Vientiane. Entering at Chiang Mai airport with a tourist visa should be very safe. You can also enter via the Friendship Bridge from Vientiane to Nong Khai, and fly to Chiang Mai from Udon Thani airport.

If you are already on a Non Immigrant entry (which you are as your permission to stay is based on an original Non B visa): You cannot apply for a new visa at Immigration. That is only possible when you are currently on an entry from a tourist visa or visa exemption. There is no need to have a new visa. Instead, when your existing permission to stay ends, you apply for a fresh extension, changing the reason for the extended permission to stay (in your case, presumably retirement or marriage).

I have removed a bunch of posts that involved trading insults. Please keep your posts civil and on topic.

While the airline might not, commonly, the check in staff at your departure airport will want to see an onward flight out of Thailand within 30 days when you have no Thai visa. Sometimes, when this happens, the airline supervisor will allow you to travel if you sign an indemnity form guaranteeing to reimburse the airline for any costs they might suffer should you be denied entry. That possibility cannot be relied upon.

Immigration will almost never ask to see an onward flight reservation.

I understand that. It is not a unique case, and (by entering as a foreigner) has created a complicated situation.

I believe you will be able to upgrade. However, the cost to do so is almost certainly going to drastically increase.

Your airline is likely to insist that you have an onward flight ticket out of Thailand within 30 days. You can meet the requirements with a cheap throwaway ticket (skyscanner.net is good for finding these), a fully refundable ticket, or a rental ticket that gives you a ticket available for a couple of days to meet the requirement.

OP's question satisfactorily answered. Thread CLOSED

Without seeing any new stamps in the foreign and Thai passports, and precisely what the document referred to consists of, we cannot say. Fines are still possible. There is a procedure followed in Thailand for a change to newly acquired Thai citizenship that cleanly terminates the stay on the foreign passport. I do not think that is possible here, but maybe there is something similar.

Experience has shown than you do not need to make a 90-day report if leaving Thailand shortly after the due date. Logical: no; reality: yes. No report is necessary.

If you can create a Thai bank account in her name only with a 800,000 Thai baht deposit, that will be the easiest way of meeting the requirements for the retirement extension of permission to stay. In that case, the issue of where income comes from should, hopefully, not become a factor.

Now reopened Many posts that were off topic, bickering or misinformation were removed. Some posts that were reasonable (but still off topic) responses to the removed posts were also removed [That includes two of mine.] If you have any arguments with my moderation, contact me via PM.

I think your easiest solution (for the moment) is probably a multiple entry Non O visa from Savannakhet. The border bounces might be inconvenient, but you are going to have difficulty (unless you want to go the agent route) getting in country extensions. As you are a US citizen, you cannot get an income letter from your embassy. A retirement extension, based on income at almost all immigration offices, would require a minimum of 12 monthly deposits of 65k+ baht into your Thai bank account. You could switch to a retirement extension after building up 800k baht in your bank account.