BritTim

It seems you were entitled to a visa exempt entry by land (i.e. they were not offering to help you circumvent the rules on two visa exempt entries per calendar year by land). Under those circumstances, I am surprised they felt able to extort money from you. Did they tell you you would have to spend the night in Myanmar if you wanted a visa exempt entry, before offering you a special deal for same day re-entry? On going to Laos for a visa, there are some considerations to be aware of. In Vientiane, you need an appointment. In Savannakhet, you will be fine if applying for a Non O visa, but they are very strict now about granting tourist visas.

Obviously, it would have been better if she knew the rules. However, kudos to her for changing her decision (which involved some loss of face). That is quite unusual in a Thai official.

How did your border bounce at Ranong go?

We are all confused here. If you plan to have a tourist visa when you arrive in Thailand, and will extend it, what is the purpose of your trip to Saigon? You can already get 90 days from your first tourist visa and extension. 90 days is greater than the 85 days you plan.

You can apply for the tourist visa at the Thai consulate in Saigon. Note that you need an appointment to apply there. The rules on residence do not apply when applying at some Thai embassies/consulates in the region, including Vietnam. Make sure you carefully meet all the requirements for a tourist visa application in HCMC. It is not a friendly consulate these days.

I imagine it would be almost a requirement, depending on the age of the child.

It will definitely be regarded as work. However, it might be tolerated if all you are doing is sourcing Thai products and selling them online. Risky.

Allow an extra 20 minutes, though it will usually take less.

Officially, the answer is yes.

There is no 90-day reporting when you are outside Thailand. Immigration does not care how much time you spend outside Thailand as long as you attend Immigration in Thailand, when necessary, for the annual extensions of your permission to stay.

Part of the reason is probably because the company often handles all the paperwork, and (if the company is using this service) they probably do not frequent this forum.

You can optionally apply at immigration for an extension of your permission to stay from any of the entries from a multiple entry visa.

Not needed.

Autochannel was for those with Thai citizenship or for those with Permanent Residency. In recent years, it has been suspended for those with PR.

Trying to leave by land with any overstay of more than a few days is inadvisable. Immigration may well refuse to process the overstay, and tell you to leave by air. That is apart from a slight risk at roadblocks near the border. To answer your question directly, the domestic flight itself involves virtually zero risk.

I tend to agree with what you wrote, especially the likely impermanence of the rules for retirement extensions. I disagree with your doubts over whether the Thailand Elite membership benefits would be honoured (at least, as far as the visa privileges are concerned). Continuing to honour the visas costs virtually nothing, and the reputation damage of repudiating the visas would be huge. Many people will take the view that you choose whatever option seems best based on current conditions, and find another solution later if rules change. That tends to be my mindset: short term oriented. Those who are worriers might well decide (i) financial proof for a retirement visa might greatly increase and/or unobtainable health insurance become a requirement; (ii) current Thailand Elite options for new members that could be an alternative might be withdrawn; (iii) agents might no longer be able to help; and (iv) locking in a Thailand Elite membership now (especially 20 years) gives peace of mind for the foreseeable future. That is a pessimistic viewpoint (not one that I have taken) but it is not irrational.

If you are asking about applying for a new visa at Thai immigration just after transferring money between accounts, talk to the immigration office to see what they require. This is an edge case. For extensions, the funds must be seasoned. For a visa application, you need proof the funds came from abroad, but most immigration offices will accept funds seasoning as an alternative. Will they accept proof you have had the money for months, with a chain of custody showing movement of the money? I do not know.

They are extremely busy, and have been forced to become strict with tourist visas to avoid being completely overwhelmed. However, they are basically good guys who do not want to unnecessarily hassle you.

If possible, arrange to come to Thailand for six weeks each year around the time the extension is due. If this is not possible, you will need to start again, either with a similar type of visa and extensions, or an alternative.

When applying for a visa at immigration (as opposed to a retirement extension) the official guidelines say that you need proof that the funds came from abroad. In practice, at almost all immigration offices, they will waive providing this proof if the money has already been in the account continuously for several months.

My own experience is that it is very difficult to find good Thai managers but, with a little training, Thais (especially women) tend to be excellent customer facing employees (better, on average, than Westerners). As with anywhere in the world, the key is staff retention. Be willing to pay a little more than the market average, and find opportunities to publicly reward good work with cash bonuses. Be careful how you do it when it is necessary to correct generally good employees. Thais can be very sensitive to criticism.

The fact that your wife has developed an excellent rapport with the officials no doubt also contributes to your good experience. Personal relationships are gold when it comes to dealing with Thai officialdom.

Unless you are referring to a multiple re-entry permit, this is incorrect. The expiry date of a visa controls only the last day on which you can use it for entry. In the case of a multiple entry tourist visa, each entry gives you a 60-day permission to stay irrespective of the expiry date of the visa.

One very interesting option is Savannakhet. Several people have successfully received multiple entry Non O (retirement) recently. Financial proof is required, of course. 800,000 baht in a Thai bank account is the easiest, but proof of the money in a bank elsewhere should also be acceptable. There do not seem to be any funds seasoning requirements.

Actually, role play, where you enter the business as a customer, and subsequently provide feedback to your wife on the customer experience, seems like something you could legally do without a work permit.