bilbo52

Very good info and thank you too.

I have a friend who would like to do a border bounce following a 30 visa exemption plus 30 day extension. He doesn't want to stay in Laos, so I was wondering if it is possible to check out of Thailand at the Friendship Bridge (Nong Kai) , then check into Laos once over the bridge, buy a Lao visa and then about turn, check out of Laos, cross the border/bridge and then re-enter Thailand gaining a 30 visa exempt upon entry?

My mate is English, holds an English passport and has not done a border bounce before and has one 30 day visa exempt entry by air in the last year in his passport.

Thanks in advance for any info from people who have recently done this type of border bounce into Laos at the Vientiane Friendship Bridge.

Thanks to Dr Jack and KannikaP, very useful information. I will visit the Immigration office and find out what they have to say.

Thanks again.

Thanks to everyone for their considered responses. I certainly have a clearer idea of the path forward.

For clarification the balcony balustrade is made of soft wood and has considerably rotted on many units.

We do not have a committee or AGM. I guess that the Juristic person is the entity that we pay our maintenace fees to. The human face of this entity is somewhat remote, ie rarely visits the condo block.

We will endeavour to contact this entity to highlight the problem and work towards an agreeable resolution.

Of the approx 75 units about half are owned by the person to whom we pay the maintenace fees and I would estimate that about a third of the other owners do not pay their maintenace fees and have not visited their unit for many years.

Thanks again.

I am keen to hear of any recent experiences from people who have used this method at Hua hin Immigration Office.

I have been bringing over from the UK via Wise approx 40k baht every month for the last year. I have slightly in excess of 800k in a Thai bank. I would like to reduce the burden of keeping 800k in the bank for the 5 months that 800k is required (2 months before and 3 months after the visa extension application) and see if I can extend the visa extension with 400k in the bank and 40k transferred each and every month.  I have previously used the 800k baht method for my previous visa extensions

I am interested to know what is the minimum amount I need to keep in the bank throughout the year and of course what are the rules relating to this method.

I certainly plan to visit my Immigration Office to hear the Chapter and Verse, but would like to be forewarned prior to my visit.

Thanks in advance.

At my condo many of the balcony railings on individual units are rotten and broken. We do not have a committee and I am uncertain who the Juristic person. The building is owned by a rich Thai family who upon building completion 15 years ago sold approximately half of the 75 units to mostly foreign purchasers.

My question is, based on similar experience, who pays for the repair or replacement of the balcony railings in this case? All owners pay a yearly mintenance charge for upkeep of common areas, pool, gym and garden.

Thanks in advance 

Folks,

I want to go to the Saudi backed LIV golf tournament at Stone hill golf club in Pathum Thani near Bkk which is being held from 07-09 October 2022.

I would like to know the best way to travel on public transport or Bolt or Grab taxi from central Bkk.

Also are there any resonably priced hotels near the golf course that anyone can recommend?

TIA

Thanks for your answers. I have a bit of time before returning to Thailand towards the end of July to decide whether I risk it or buy a cheap throwaway ticket out of Thailand for my exit out of UK and entry into Thailand.

Thanks again for your considered replies

I am a British citizen on retirement OA extension. I will be returning to the UK next week for a 6 week period and then will return to Thailand. I want to change my retirement extension from an OA to an non-Imm O visa. 

I propose not to apply for a re-entry certificate so when I leave Thailand my OA extension will be killed off.

When I return to Thailand I plan to enter on a visa exempt visa and then go through the process of applying for an O visa.

My question is will I need an onward flight ticket which I can show the airline (Qatar) when I depart from London and when I arrive in Bangkok?

Thanks in advance

I want to send to a mate who has had to return to Australia and unlikely to return to Thailand some of his possession that he left behind in Hua hin.

He is not bothered about how long the parcel takes to get back to him and I suspect sea passage will be cheaper than by air.

The parcel weighs approx 12Kg and has the following dimensions: 50 x 50 x 20 cm.

Any thoughts on who to use for surface shipping? (BTW I have enquired at the Hua hin Post Office and they are only doing EMS and courier services by air at the moment).

Thanks in advance.

Thanks for your considered replies. I will just have to play a waiting game and hope that things change for the better sooner rather than later.

As for many of us the Corona virus has mucked things up a bit.

I applied for and received an OA visa at the Royal Thai embassy in London with validity 16 Sept 2019 to 15th Sept 2020. (I arrived in Thailand on 09th Oct 2019). I was planning to go out of Thailand in early September of this year for a few days (and with suitable medical insurance for this type of visa) and return before valid until date (15th Sept 2020) to invoke another year of extension.

My problem is that, apart from maybe not being able to travel in and out of Thailand in September due to Corona virus induced travel restrictions , my British passport expires on 10th December 2020. Therefore after 09th June it will have less than 6 months on it, so I believe that I will not be able to travel out of Thailand and back in again using this passport.

I have enquired about getting a new passport through the official channels in Bkk, but they are not issuing renewal (or any other) passports at the moment.

I am thinking my only two options are:

1. Hope the Passport office starts issuing passports soon, ie I am hoping no later than end of June or,

2. Travel out of Thailand before I run into the last 6 months of validity on my current passport (go and return before 09th June 2020) to get a stamp until passport expiry  

, but

Where can I travel to cheaply in the next month? I think all land borders are still closed and air travel in and out is nigh on impossible.

Your considered thoughts please.

Thank you Joe, not sure why it has been taken off the London Thai embassy site.

I have been unable to find an online copy of a blank medical certificate that is required for an O-A visa application at the Thai embassy in London. It is the certificate that is filled in by a doctor showing the applicant doe not have Leprosy, Tuberculosis, Elephantiasis, drug addiction, third stage of Syphilis. I seem to remember seeing one on the Thai embassy (London) website a year or two ago, but now it does not appear there.

I am hoping that one of the seasoned members or UbonJoe could attach the most upto date version to this post.

Thanks in advance  

Towards the end of August 2019 I plan to apply for an O-A visa based upon retirement at the London Thai embassy. 

So I am seeking recent personal experiences from people who have completed or are about to complete this task since the online application route became mandatory from 15th June 2019.

I should add that I am in two minds about whether I should post the required documents and my passport or hand deliver to the embassy. I am worried about the docs, etc getting lost in the postal system or the embassy internal system. So any first hand experience or thoughts on that would be useful too.

My questions are as follows:

1. Following submission of the docs online, how long do you have to get the paper copies to the embassy?

2. How long does it take the embassy to process your application follow receipt of the paper copies and your passport?

3. How long thereafter to pick up your passport or have it returned by post?

4. Also, how do you upload your photo to the website? I am a bit thick.

I think these questions relating to the length of time the process takes can only be answered by someone who has gone through this process since 15th June 2019.

Maybe no one has?

Though I suspect that there are others who are in the same boat as me and have been doing as best they can their own research.

As far as I am aware, the medical insurance requirement that has been spoken about has not come in yet. (Actually I think mooted for commencement from 01st July 2019).

Thanks in advance for meaningful replies. I am hoping someone will have gone through this process very recently.      

Thank you both Ubonjoe and DrJack54. I live in Hua hin, so was thinking of just jumping on an AirAsia flight to Kuala Lumpur and staying there for a couple of nights and then returning to get a 30 day visa exempt entry.

Thanks again

I am wondering if I will encounter any problems if I exit Thailand a day or two before my retirement extension expires in August 2019 and then fly back to Thailand after my extension has expired hoping to enter on a visa exempt (30days) stamp.

I have been using the O-A visa and retirement extensions for the last 5 years. My aim is to extend my stay beyond expiry of my retirement extension on 17 August for 30 days before I fly back to the UK.

Hope I have sufficiently explained what I am after, just wondering if Thai Immigration will quiz me or somehow refuse me entry. I have never had an overstay or as far as I am aware any reason to be refused entry.

Thanks in advance for useful responses.

Roy111, Thank you

Thanks folks for your considered responses.

Pilotman - I applied for a non imm O-A visa (it was based on me being over 50 years of age. I am also unmarried).

Andrew Dwyer - thanks for the advice. I will get the medical check-up done here in Thailand and use it as a fall back option. I am trying to keep the whole process as cheap as possible as I have heard of some GPs charging upto £200 to do the med check-up.

BTW has anyone recieved the O-A visa from the Thai Embassy in London without providing certified documents by a Solicitor as reported by Roy111?

Great feedback everyone. A couple of questions if I may in order to boost my confidence in preparation for my O-A visa application at the Thai Embassy in London, UK later this year:

Other than Roy111, has anyone else submitted original documents of police check, medical certificate and bank statement plus photocopies of same without requiring notarisation by a Notary Public or certified by a Solicitor? The Thai Embassy visa website that Roy has thoughtfully linked indicates that if original documents are submitted then the photocopies don't need to be notarised or certified.

Similarly, has anyone other than Andrew Dwyer obtained/completed the medical certificate in Thailand?

As a bit of background, I applied for an O-A visa from the Thai Embassy in London in 2014 which I supported with original documents as requested (including a medical cert obtained from my UK General Practitioner/Doctor) and notarised photocopies. So what has been reported here suggests that it may be less expensive and onerous than I had experienced before. BTW I am currently residing in Thailand.

Thanks in anticipation of receiving some confidence building replies.

Gents, as always thanks for your learned responses.

"dentonian" has kind of hit the nail on the head. I have funds to make the 800k retirement extension, but that would mean bringing over about half that amount from the UK at about 42bt to the pound. The GBP has taken a bashing since our Brexit vote last year.

So I was thinking as I will have to go back to the UK sometime this year after my current extension expires I would re-start the whole process at the Thai embassy in London and get 2 years out of a new O-A visa and see what happens to the GBP vs baht exchange rate over the next 2 years. Oh and BTW to get a new O-A visa in London I would need to show £16,000 in a UK bank account and not a Thai bank account.

Any further thoughts that anyone may have would be welcomed.

Thanks again. 

I am staying in Thailand on a visa extension based on retirement. My visa extension expires in mid August 2017 at which point I would ordinarily apply for another extension by showing 800k baht in a Thai bank. However, I am expecting to have to go back to England in November 2017 for perhaps 6 weeks. So I was thinking of allowing the visa extension to expire and when I get back to England apply for an OA visa at the Thai embassy in London and then return to Thailand on that.

My problem and hence this post is how do I stay in Thailand for approx 3 months from mid August to mid November 2017.

Can I go to my local Immigration office and get some sort of visa to cover me for these 3 months?

By going out of the country can I get a 2 month tourist visa which then can be extended for a further month at my local Immigration office to give me 3 months stay?

Or is there another way? I don't mind going across the border and back say once.

In anticipation thanks for your assistance in this matter 

Gents,

Thanks very much for confirming the process. I will pass on this info to my friend who can sleep a little easier now.

Great work, thanks again.

I am trying to assist a friend who has received what appears to be spurious advice from his local Immigration office in Chaiyaphum.

Here are the details and my questions to follow:

He is coming up to the end of his first year in Thailand and has a multiple entry OA visa obtained from the Thai embassy in London in Nov 2015. To clarify he is over 50 years of age.

He wishes to invoke the second year of entitlement by going out of Thailand by land crossing to Lao in the next couple of weeks.

I believe it is possible to invoke a second year of entitlement to stay in Thailand without showing money in a Thai bank as this is what I did last year at the end of my first year on an OA visa obtained from the Thai embassy in London. I flew to Malaysia (KL) and returned to Thailand and received the extra year.

So here are my questions:

1. Can you still invoke a second year of entitlement to stay on an OA visa by going out of Thailand? Have the rules changed or are they the same as before?

2. Can my friend go over and come back on the same day to Lao (across the friendship bridge to Vientiane) to intitiate this second year of entitlement to stay or does he need to stay over night and then come back the following day?

3. I believe that he will be stamped out of Thailand when he leaves and when he reaches the other side of the Mekong (ie Laos) he will need to purchase a Lao visa upon entry and then when he come back into Thailand he will receive one more year of entitlement to stay?

The spurious info he got from his local Immigration office was that he was told that he will have to go out and then when he comes back  to Thailand he will need to visit the local Immigration office and then show 800k baht in the bank. Any thoughts? Sounds wrong to me, though I am not a visa expert.

In anticipation many thanks.

All the information received is very much appreciated. I should have added that I am coming up in Aug 2016 to my 2 year usefulness from my original OA visa, so I will be transferring funds from the UK to cover the 800k bt requirement fairly soon (as the baht is strengthening against the GBP). Thanks again for the considered replies, I always find without fail that the posters provide useful advice/suggestions/recommendations.

My OA visa will expire in Aug 2016 and shorly before the expiry date I will apply for my first extension to stay based on savings (800k bt, I am not married). My question is: can I put this money in a thai fixed term deposit account, eg Bangkok bank 12mth deposit account? Will this be acceptable to immigration in Hua Hin as opposed to a regular current/savings account? I understand that for the first extension to stay the money needs to be seasoned in a Thai bank account for 2 months.

As an alternative if I put the equivalent (plus a little bit more to guard against exchange rate fluctuations) of 800k bt in a Bangkok bank foreign currency account would this be acceptable to Immigration when I apply for the extension to stay in Aug 2016?

Any current knowledge or personal experience of the two methods that I have outlined above would be greatly appreciated. Also any suggestions on other bank accounts by bank name and account name would be useful.

In anticipation many thanks.