Fore Man

Im an elderly American married for decades to my Thai wife.  We now live in the USA but will be moving back to Thailand late this year. She is also a U.S. citizen. I will likely predecease her and want to locate a reputable financial & tax advisor in Thailand from whom she can receive expert advice on how she must handle various tax, IRA and investment issues that she will eventually have to negotiate once on her own. If anyone can post recommendations or thoughts on this topic, please do so.  Very much appreciated. 

Dear fellow posters,

I have looked into applying for a visa through the Thai Consulate website in Washington, DC.  It looks like a straightforward effort to complete the online application, albeit a stilted experience in mastering the site's peculiarities.  But I could not find any reference to a Type 0 Non-immigrant visa.  The only choice that I could see germane to my situation was the type 0-X visa...pertaining to a non-immigrant married to a Thai spouse.  So I dutifully began the electronic application leading to this type of visa.  Is this the correct visa for my situation?  I am a year away from our anticipated departure from the USA so cannot complete the entire application at this time....have no airline booked yet because we don't really know exactly when we will be ready to fly.  Does anyone know how long the site will retain my information before deleting it from inactivity?

Thanks in advance for all responses.

20 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

You can indeed enter visa exempt ( 30 days ) and apply for an O visa ( 90 days ) which can in turn be extended ( the permission to stay not the visa ) for 1 year based on retirement or marriage.

 

 The 30 days is sufficient to apply for the O visa , but best to apply a few days after entering the country, as said above a 30 days extension of your visa exempt stay is available if required.

Much obliged, Andrew.  When my wife and I met with the Nan IO last July, I am almost sure we didn't mention the idea of first obtaining an O visa and then using that as our basis for extension based on retirement.  We have friends in Nan and will ask them to pay a visit to that same IO to confirm the advice you have given.  And as others on this thread have suggested, obtaining a visa from the Washington, DC consulate isn't the onsite hassle it was in the past.  I will investigate that route first.

17 hours ago, BritTim said:

What you plan is doable. If you run into a complete roadblock in Nan, here are two alternatives:

1. Go to Savannakhet Laos, and apply for the Non O visa there (which is placed in your passport the next day).
2. It is possible to apply for a Non O visa at Chaengwattana in Bangkok from a hotel. They accept the explanation that you are newly arrived and still looking for somewhere permanent to live. However, this will require three visits to Bangkok (application, return after under consideration period, and first extension). Surely, a single visit to Savannakhet will be more convenient unless you have other reasons to come to Bangkok.

Great advice; thanks BritTim

16 minutes ago, transam said:

UbonJoe, has sadly passed away.....????

So sorry to learn this!  What a fine man he was to have assisted thousands of fellow expats all his years of service.  RIP Joe!

On 8/10/2022 at 8:50 PM, ubonjoe said:

She was certainly wrong. See this from the Immigration website.

https://www.immigration.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/6.FOR-PROVIDING-SUPPORT-TO-OR-BEING-A-DEPENDANT-OF-A-THAI-CITIZEN-SPOUSE-VISA-NON-O.pdf

Edit: Same for retirement: https://www.immigration.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/9.FOR-RETIREMENT-PURPOSES-50-YEARS-OLD-NON-O.pdf

 

The embassy in Washington and the 3 official consulates are using the e visa site. It is entirely done online. You upload your passport and etc to do the application and you get the visa by email.

Ubonjoe, sorry, I am just now seeing your response,,,a year after you posted it.  I returned to the USA and missed your reply as well as others due to PC crash and the litany of repair issues in its aftermath.  Thank you for taking your time to advise me!  

1 hour ago, kiwikeith said:

I think you can extend your 30 day visa and then apply for the non O, Ubon Joe is one to ask, 

Thanks; that’s what I thought too…but I seem to recall that an IO in Nan nixed that idea when I asked her last August during a home visit with my wife. I believe but am not sure that what you proposed can be accomplished, but perhaps not all provincial IOs are in agreement. 

Right!  I meant to say that I plan to enter Visa Exempt. Can such a short term visa be converted to a Non-O, then extended for purposes of retirement?

what I’d really like to avoid is going the Thai Consulate route and acquiring my visa in the U.S.  We live 500 miles from the DC consulate and would incur big expenses to drive up there and spend the necessary day or two lodging in that costly area.  
 

I’d heard that a tourist visa can be extended once in country. 

Hello Mates,

A fairy robust septuagenarian, I am relocating back to LOS next year after spending the past 3+ years in the US with my Thai wife.  Whereas we lived in Chiang Mai for 16 straight years before returning to the States, this time we will be resettling in upper Nan Province where we own property.  I try to keep up with the latest in Thai Immigration policies but seem to be stymied by this one:  Can I enter Thailand with a Visa on Arrival next year and then apply for a Non-O in the Nan Immigration Office, followed by an extension of stay based on retirement?  I already have a bank account solely in my name established in a Nan City bank, but will need to deposit enough to cover the THB 800K requirement several months prior to my return.  I'd heard anecdotally that Nan Immigration may not authorize this type of conversion whereas most provinces do, such as in Chiang Mai and BKK.  I am also of the understanding that I must submit my application only to the Nan office as we have no legal domicile in any other location.  

If anyone knows of a good agent up in Nan, please do suggest them to me.  I normally did not use agents when living in Chiang Mai except for my annual retirement extension of stay, and once I've converted to a Non-O visa, I will probably just do the annual paperwork myself.  

Thanks in advance for any advice and cheers...

Can a person apply for an extension of stay based on retirement using a 45-day visa on arrival, or must it only be done with a non-O visa obtained from outside Thailand?

5 hours ago, Pmbkk said:

 

My Thai wife and I returned last week.

 

Come out on British passport.

 

In Thailand enter on Thai passport. ( if you use British you'll need to adhere to visa rules )

 

And visa-versa - exit on Thai, enter on British

 

BTW - you should be able to go through the Thai channel with your wife too if there's a queue - but non last week

Can you please clarify which passport name you used to book flights for each journey?  My wife’s Thai passport uses her maiden Thai surname while her U.S. passport was issued in her married (my) surname.  I’m not sure how book a round trip for her….because the airline will likely not accept the Thai passport at check-in for the return flight to the U.S. if it doesn’t match the name shown in the U.S. passport used to travel to Thailand for the outbound leg. 

I had same problem at our home in Chiang Mai.  We had songbirds chirping up a cacophony every morning at sunup…too early for yours truly to rise and shine.   I solved the problem by buying some 1/4-in plywood and cutting out a long strip matching the dimensions of our balcony, then I drove nails through the wood, creating a spiked surface that the birds decided wasn’t any fun.   They flew over to my neighbors house instead ????. Then we had cats jumping up to vertical airflow slits formed in our concrete carport wall to roost and look for mice below. I used the same plywood/nails design and put an end to that problem…our furry friends venturing in from the street quickly decided to go elsewhere in search of prey. ????

I am interested in this topic as well.  In early August after my Thai wife and I had been vacationing in Thailand visiting her family, I was nearing the end of my 30-day exempt visa which had been extended for an additional 30 days.  This extension was granted by the Nan Immigration office.  During this visit, my wife inquired if I could, in a future visit to Thailand, convert my initial exempt tourist visa to a 90-day Non-O at this office, as has been suggested by many in this forum as an easier, less difficult method to remain in Thailand and then apply for a subsequent annual retirement-based extension of stay. The officer explained that it was not possible to convert an exempt tourist visa that had been granted upon entry into a Non-O at their Nan office. 

This bit of news surprised me but I did not dispute what the young female captain told us, but simply went away confused as we prepared to fly back to the U.S. two weeks later.  
 

Does anybody truly know which immigration offices will grant a Non-O based on a visa exempt tourist entry?  Based on our experience at Nan, it appears that not all offices will honor this procedure.

37 minutes ago, Sparktrader said:

Both CR and Phayao are good towns. Never been to Nan.

I was with my (Thai) wife visiting family in upper Nan Province and Mueang for six weeks back in June/July.  I am very familiar with Nan as well, having spent a lot of accumulated time there over the past two decades.  I can tell you that Nan is quite rudimentary when compared to Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai.  Services and goods availability drop off dramatically compared to the larger northern cities.  The only bikers I ever saw were simply using bikes to commute around Mueang Nan.  Big C sells bikes but I can't speak to pricing, size/type or quality.  Nan will also be getting chilly soon...coldest during December/January..so factor the weather in too.  

Yes, you'd assume any sailing yacht of this size would have fitted an auxiliary or an outboard.

1 hour ago, Sparktrader said:

I know Thais married 40 years. Dont know any westerners like that, all dead.

There was an excellent article in an Asian economic affairs magazine 15+ years ago that compared the span of marriages between Western men and Asian women, ranked by nationality of Asian wives.  By far, the most enduring mixed marriages were seen with Thai spouses.  These marriages averaged well over two decades, likely inhibited primarily by the death of the western husband.  As I recall, Filipina wives ranked just behind Thai women.  The gist of the article was that these two groups of women tended to be more loyal, less demanding and easier to live with than women from other Asian countries, particularly Korea and Japan.  There's always outliers of course and we all know of failed marriages between Farangs and Thai women, but as a rule these marriages outlast all other nationalities, even when measured against marriages with Thai men.

1 hour ago, Denim said:

Doing nothing is a lot easier than doing something for people who live in the here and now. Buddhist training manifested into today's world. 

 

I saw this fine example of me me me mai pen rai at local Big C today :

 

1 truck = 3 spaces

 

 

As the Thai themselves say “แน่นอนที่สุด”…”Exactly”

4 minutes ago, swissie said:

Some Farangs have come to like it "when the twain rarely meets". It makes for a laid back lifestyle.

IMO, the only "plan" a Farang has to persue, is to make sure that the monthly pension money arrives on time.    Everything else resembles "the plans of men and mice".

- All in stark contrast to European "Career-Families". Even planning their weekend activities to the minute. (Optimising their life. Young career folks constructing a "life-plan"). Needing to "re-calibrate" their life-plan with the help of some psychiatrists frequently.

Instead I recommend: When all the "life-planning" starts to overwhelm you, spend 3 months in a small Isaan village. Watch live go by in slow motion. Realise, that the water flow or the meanderings of the nearby river can not be "planned".

I always felt quite comfortable among Thais that were not burdened by any "plans". They seemed happier than the "life-optimisers" in the West. May it last, at least in the Thai sticks. 

Yes, there’s the Yin for every Yang theory.  An acceptable middle point is there, not too obsessive and not too lackadaisical either.  My wife’s beloved father died of colon cancer that later metastasized to his liver. She is so sad today that she didn't take action long before to have him undergo a simple colonoscopy when it would have caught and removed the polyp that eventually killed him.  There’s that ugly Asian superstition rearing it’s ugly head again…don’t dwell on ‘it might happen’ possibilities until it smacks you right in the gut. 

This happened to me while sailing off Oahu in Hawaii. It was only a simple 20-ft sailboat but my tiller snapped right in the middle of the channel leading into Pearl Harbor.  Ours was a rental boat from the Hickam Air Force Base marina and not equipped with an anchor nor a spare tiller handle and seamanship/sail management could not prevent us from being pushed inexorably onto the rocks surrounding Honolulu Airpiort’s Reef Runway. It also didn’t help that a Navy submarine surfaced less than 100 meters from us as it was returning into the harbor, forcing me to steer hard to starboard to avoid a collision.  The tiller then snapped and left us at the mercy of the wind and tides. Fortunately I contacted our harbormaster at the marina who sent out a powerboat to tow us in….scant minutes away from impacting the reef.  So yes, under certain conditions even a proficient sailor can be washed ashore.  

27 minutes ago, Lorry said:

Bumrungrad offers it

I must express strongly that just because Bumrungrad has a HoLEP laser, it doesn’t mean that their surgeons are proficient in the technique.  It takes years of operative experience to operate the laser proficiently. Think of the HoLEP as an optically assisted, microsurgical technique in which the surgeon uses a specialized laser tool to blast away (enucleate) all of the pulp, seeds, and connective tissue inside of a lemon while leaving the peel untouched.  The ‘peel’ in this case is the prostatic capsule that needs to be left unharmed.  As the operation progresses, all this enucleated tissue is placed in the bladder.  The surgeon them morcellates (grinds up) this debris using a microscopic grinding tool and then evacuates it out through the catheter.   It’s an extremely delicate procedure that requires hundreds of operations to thoroughly master. Most urologists who practice HoLEP have studied under a highly experienced teaching surgeon and thus gained valuable insights on how to use the equipment, minimize any potential unwanted side effects and how to best prepare the patient for a successful, pain-free post-operative experience. 

I underwent my HoLEP at The Mayo Clinic and everything went perfectly well.  18 hours post-surgery, my catheter was removed and I was able to urinate like a teenager again with only very minor discomfort.  This discomfort was a very temporary effect caused by bruising of my urethra by the Foley catheter used during surgery. For the following two weeks I experienced minor bleeding caused by blood clots that were passed through the urethra during urination. It took my bladder muscles another 4-6 months to retrain and recalibrate due to the sudden lack of any constricting obstruction that I’d lived with for the preceding decade. 

The decision to undergo prostate surgery of any type is not an easy one, but I wholly recommend HoLEP because of its very high success rate and minimal post-operative problems. Good hunting and caveat emptor!
 

My wife and I were in Tha Wang Pha for five weeks ending on 2 Aug.  we saw increasingly heavy afternoon rainfall over that time, but no flooding. These are truly friendly and decent people and it is heart-wrenching to see what befell them.  

2 minutes ago, Stargeezr said:

The F35 is a bit of an Edsel if you ask me. It is way too over priced, only one engine, and 

why does Thailand need a stealth fighter?  It is too bad that the general Thailand population

was not educated in all that can be known about this fighter jet that Thailand does not at all need.

Of course they don’t need the F-35.  If I was to take a stab at why the F-35 buy is so vital to the RTAF, my guess is that you’d need to follow the money.  The official statement of need is generated of course to launch an action leading to a procurement, but nothing gets bought or sold in this country unless someone is enriched by the deal.  From fake airport scanners to submarines, these are pretenses to buy something with government funds where part of those funds can be siphoned off. We’re takin’ the big “C” word here, and if there’s one constant in Thailand it’s that corruption is deeply ingrained and prevalent at every level within this society.  

22 hours ago, kickstart said:

Agreed,I know Lopburi quite well ,and these new ammunition dumps will be built along way  from the monkeys .

A PS,for the past 2 weeks the Thai army have been having exercises near me 60 km from Lopburi ,they have brought the tanks up from Sarburi  for a run round  for a few days ,we have been hearing the big artillery guns going off most days ,sometimes at night time too.

Been going on for a long time this time ,unusual I said to the wife, practising for the next coup.

Towards the end of my military career and my second coming as a defense businessman, I was once very closely connected to the RTA’s field artillery community which is based in Lop Buri. Based on those experiences I believe that all we are seeing now is routine combined arms training taking place.  Thai artillerymen routinely fire their howitzers downrange throughout the area all year long, even after nightfall and carry out combined exercises with their infantry and cavalry counterparts typically during August. There’s probably nothing to be concerned about now.