BritTim

Just a minor detail, not mentioned yet in this thread: your question is academic if your extended permission to stay was not protected by a re-entry permit. It is actually the re-entry permit, and not the extension, that is used to enter Thailand. It is even possible (though inadvisable) to have the re-entry permit in the new passport (having received it at the airport on departure) with the extension stamp in the cancelled passport.

As stated by others, to complete a border bounce, you must enter and leave Laos. Assuming you are ineligible for a Laos visa exemption (most of us) you need a visa to enter Laos. Your choice is a visa-on-arrival (cheapest, but takes up a full page in your passport for the visa sticker, and might take a bit of time if there is a queue) or an evisa (more expensive, takes three days, saves space in your passport, may be much quicker at the border). If applying for the visa-on-arrival, make sure you have clean, undamaged US currency. It will be substantially more expensive if you pay in baht. I can confirm that Immigration at this border crossing rarely hassle arriving travellers.

For the Non O visa application, you do not need a 12-month statement. You also do not need it for the first extension. If you can show that the money has been in your account for several months (and it seems you can) Chaengwattana immigration will waive the requirement of proof that the money came from abroad. EDIT: Bangkok Bank branches can provide statements for up to the last six months on the spot. A 12-month statement takes up to five working days.

I assume the old passport has been cancelled. Unless you are planning to request an extension of your current permission to stay before leaving Thailand, the easiest option is probably to have Immigration transfer what is necessary from the old to the new passport as you leave Thailand. At the airport, this is quick. At some land crossings, it can be time consuming if the right official is not around.. When you are here on a tourist entry, not that much is transferred.

Sad to say, the experiences of other people is not as good an indication of your own prospects as you might think. So much depends on the individual immigration official. Also, your age, apparent level of affluence and other factors can play a part. That said, in your case, there ought not to be a problem just because you have not been in Thailand enough for officials to start profiling you as a long stay tourist.

You are correct that it is not an automatic extension. It is not an extension at all. It is an order to leave the country. The options Immigration has are issue the order to leave (normal if you are not already on overstay) arrest you or verbally tell you to leave by air immediately (with no evidence you ever visited their office). This last option is not just them being kind. Having you arrested involves them in a lot of work. The questions about booked flights will usually be because they want to make completely sure you understand that being ordered out of Thailand (without being arrested and without deportation) is no joke. At that point, you must leave.

The LTR visa (mentioned above) is the solution to satisfy the corporate lawyers. It is a fact that remote work without connections to Thailand is 100% tolerated. However, it is not technically legal, and corporations are paranoid.

To make clear one point: getting the extension of stay as a dependant is no big problem. However, you cannot apply for a Non O visa as a dependant at Immigration. That option is not offered. You would need to go somewhere like Vientiane or Savannakhet for a Non O visa before applying for the one-year extensions. Since the Non O through the e-visa system has a hitch, might flying from home country to Vientiane, getting a Non O visa (as a dependant) there, and flying from Vientiane to Chiang Mai be worth considering?

I suggest you ask again here about the e-visa application in early September. There have been some recent horror stories around e-visa applications from the UK.

For long stay tourists, flying in and asking for a visa exemption is risky. It depends mainly on your prior immigration history and the individual immigration official. Unless in Thailand already for over three months, it is extremely unlikely that you will encounter any problem.

How much total time have you spent in Thailand over the last year (especially as a tourist)? If 30 days on a visa exempt (possibly with the 30-day extension) is the full extent of your previous time in Thailand, stop worrying. Don Muang can be tough, but only on long stay tourists.

For a remote worker employed directly by a large overseas company, the LTR visa is an option. That does not encompass the vast majority of digital nomads who will not be able to get an LTR visa.

Usually, you can only get a re-entry permit at the immigration office that issued your most recent extension, or at the airport on the day of departure. A few immigration offices located close to selected land crossings will issue you re-entry permits on the basis that you are on your way to cross over, leaving Thailand. If planning to leave by land, indicate the crossing you want to use and someone may be able to suggest where you can get a re-entry permit.

I am sure, for a price, you can arrange transport (at least by taxi) from any of the airports. For those not wanting a combined air+minibus ticket, it is probably best to fly to Ubon. I believe there are some minibuses from Ubon airport to Mukdahan, but unsure when they leave. There are certainly plenty of taxis there.

From Bangkok, I recommend VIP overnight bus to Mukdahan for the outbound leg, and a fly-ride ticket from Mukdahan to Don Muang for the return. I hate long bus journeys, but it makes sense in this case. It connects really well with the first international bus of the day from Mukdahan across the bridge to Savannakhet. You cannot fly and still arrive in time to apply for the visa the same day. On the other hand, a fly-ride ticket on the return connects well and gets you back in Bangkok the same evening. From elsewhere, check out the Nok Air and Air Asia websites for fly-ride tickets to Mukdahan that work well from your location. I would suggest crossing to Savannakhet immediately (two nights in Savannakhet) if flying rather than a night in Mukdahan. I never enjoy getting up really early.

When you receive money into your UK bank account for remote work that has been carried out while travelling in and out of several countries, how does one decide how much of the taxable income should be apportioned to each of countries visited? Traditional tax systems do not deal well (or really at all) with the gig economy operating across borders. In most cases, they do not even try.

As you have PR status, my comments here are tentative. It is conceivable that special rules exist. Generally, doing remote work without a work permit is not officially legal. That said, if your work has absolutely no connection with Thailand (employer, customers etc.) then doing so is 100% tolerated. The decision was made at a high level that this was good for the Thai economy without competing in any way with Thai business or workers. They will leave you alone even if fully aware of what you are doing. As far as tax goes, the normal rule is as follows. If you (i) spend more than 180 days during the year in Thailand; and (ii) the money earned through remote work is brought into Thailand during the year: then the income is taxable. If the money remains outside Thailand, it is non taxable. Since money is fungible (i.e. you cannot easily tell whether a particular dollar is from recent earnings or savings) doubts can arise as to whether a transfer into Thailand involves taxable income. Theoretically, if you have savings outside Thailand that is kept in a separate account from that that receives income, then you can legally avoid tax by transferring only from your savings into Thailand.

Years ago, the answer was yes. The rules now are less absurd. The hotel will report your temporary stay. You only need to submit a fresh TM30 for your permanent address if you leave Thailand and return on a new permission to stay. Although a few immigration offices will disagree, officially you do not even need to do a new TM30 when returning from abroad with a re-entry permit.

It is unclear whether Immigration would let you. If they did, you would be most unwise to avail yourself of that option. The effect would be that you return to Thailand on the un-extended permission to stay. If you want to travel after received the extension, get a fresh re-entry permit that covers the full period of your extended permission to stay.

Presumably, USCIS want to see evidence that the marriage is de facto as well as de jure. Showing that you have lived together in Thailand for over a decade (including the last year or two) should satisfy them on that score. Actually, just showing the annual Thai extensions of permission to stay based on marriage, and explaining the strict checks carried out by the Thai authorities every year, might well be enough.

"Visa exempt" means you have no visa, but Immigration allows you to enter without one. The term "visa waiver" is sometimes used, and means the same thing.

The passports are the only place on earth with a full record. Immigration's system has a full history of entries and exits from Thailand and extensions of permission to stay, but they do not have information on visa applications. If you want a copy of the history stored in Immigration's system, well connected immigration lawyers can probably get that for you for a price, and provide a useful annotation on what it all means. Personally, I would just extract and collate all the information from the passport stickers and stamps instead.

As explained above, what you receive is not an extension, but an order to leave the country within seven days. It is rarely worth doing this unless you already have a flight booked leaving a couple of days later. Just bite the bullet and do a border bounce.

Land border crossings can vary in terms of scams that exist, and the degree of hassle you might encounter. In that respect, although it varies, the crossings to Myanmar are typically the best, and crossings to Laos next best. However, the Thai immigration rules are the same, regardless of which land crossing you use to enter Thailand. A visa exemption gives you a 30-day permission to stay which can optionally be extended once for a further 30 days at an immigration office within Thailand.

A border run to Laos for a visa exempt entry will give you exactly same options in terms of extensions of your permission to stay as a border run to Cambodia. I suspect you are under the misapprehension that the Friendship Bridge at Nong Khai has some special characteristic that does not exist.