Inquisitorial

42 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

OP, you state you entered Thailand August 2019. How many days in total have you spent in los until now?

Reason I ask is that you really are tourists, however the way Thailand works is that visa exempt exempt entries esp to DMK airport will at some point cause you issue.

Your obtaining visa now but there might be an issue at some airports

Since August we have been in Thailand for about 140 days, we have a holiday home here and use Bangkok as a base for our travel.  Most of our arrivals have been via Suvarnabhumi airport, we have only had one arrival at DMK and this trip to KL will be our second. 

Thank you so much Ubonjoe and BritTrim. great info ????????

at this stage we are thinking of flight to KL and obtain the 60 day visa.  Off to explore flight deals. 

Hi I am hoping some of you would be able to provide us some guidance.  

Some Background:

We first arrived in Bangkok in August 2019 on a 30 day tourist exemption visa.  We have left the country every 30 days to explore Asia and elsewhere in the world.

Since Jan 2020 we have returned to Thailand via air twice.  We were supposed to fly to South Korea at the end of this month but due to the Coronavirus this trip has understandably been cancelled.

Our next trip is booked to depart Thailand on the 2nd June.

We sought one 30 day extension in January which was granted and we are now required to leave the country on or before the 1st April.

My question is:

1.  How many times can you enter Thailand on a tourist exemption visa?  I am confused as I have read two times and six times.  

2. Can you extend a Tourist 30 day exemption more than once in a calendar year.

3.  Any other options open to us? 

Your guidance/advice would be greatly appreciated.

I opened a new account with Tourist visa in March this year but we do own a condo which we had to supply proof of ownership in order to open the account  this was at Bangkok Bank Sukhumvit near Emporium.  

15 hours ago, BritTim said:

Make sure your immigration office understand that you will be traveling, and may not be around when and if they do a house visit. It will be easier to explain this ahead of time rather than when they are upset about a wasted visit.

Does immigration do house visits for retirement visa?

If so how often does this occur?

Is the for everyone or do they just select random?

I have used airbnb many times but only once in Bangkok. It was only for 3 day stay so not a lot at risk.  I did not have  any problems.  My payment was via Airbnb system no extra asked for.  

I also use Trip advisor a fair bit always check out what Airbnb and TripAdvisor have on offer for the location I am looking at.

Oh okay, but I see they can issue the 60 day visa but not the retirement OA visa, which needs to be issued in Canberra.

Thanks for clarification.

thanks Steve,

I have just been on the Thai Embassy site and see they now have Embassy in Perth - last time we applied we had to send our  passports to Canberra -- thought I would mention this as other members from WA may not be aware that we now have a Thai Embassy located in West Perth - not sure how long they have been based in Perth.

Also, I see it is actually cheaper to apply for a 60day visa that seek extension in Bangkok which Ubonjoe mentioned cost 1900baht = roughly $73 yet the 60 day visa here cost $45. not a lot of money but that's two massages each.

I will take the cheaper option and apply here as I don't want to risk boarding issues.

Thanks again for the info.

Thanks ubonjoe. 

Hi TV forum,  hoping you can clarify if we will be able to get an extension on our Tourist 30 visa whilst we are in Bangkok without getting into trouble with immigration.

We are both traveling on Australian passports in August to Bangkok with the automatic 30day entry tourist visa .  unfortunately we miss calculated our flight dates and will now be in Thailand for 38 days before we fly out.  We are trying to work out what our best option is.

We don't want to prejudice our application later in the year for OA visa. (have some question on this process but will leave them for later - already been reading some good info on this site).

We could apply for 90 day visa here is Australia but that involves us sending our passport from WA to Canberra so was wondering if there was an easier way.

If this is possible what is the cost and when should we seek this extension - i.e. do we wait until just prior to expiry or is earlier better?

Many thanks

Why don't you both commit for 12 month visit - either rent you home out or just lock up and leave.

Try living for minimum of 3 months in say Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, phuket and Bangkok or other locations that take your fancy - you can rent an apartment fairly cheaply - dont rush into any long term leases shop around first.

That way you will both get a feel for retirement in Thailand and see if its for you.

If 12 months is not long enough come back for another 12 months.

Like others have said don't come over with no insurance - if shorter term you can rely upon travel insurance if you purchase before you leave home but if permanent then you will need to take out Health insurance.

My personal recommendation is don't sell up lock stock and barrel, keep your connections with your home country - rent your home out rather than sell

Good Luck

Fresh fruit could be a problem.

Is it forbidden to bring fruit into Thailand (like Australia)?

Firstly thank you for all your posts.

Okay, I have decided to bring mixed hamper for the management team to share, I thought I would include assorted Chocolates, Tim Tams (one pack of every flavor) and Fruit (apples & grapes?) all made or grown in Australia.

Any other suggestions to include?

My question now is will I have a problem bringing these items into Thailand especially the fruit?

Certainly a lot of hidden costs that one need to add to the budget when applying for the Visas

Thanks for all the info. Most appreciated.

Thanks guys, looks like it is the OA Visa with extension is the one for us.

Thanks so much for the above, Sorry, some more questions.

If we were to apply for the Investment Visa our Condo is in joint names - would that mean we could only get 50% of purchase price to count towards the $10m its the same with our bank accounts are in joint names?

With the retirement Visa do they take into account if you own a Condo - I have not seen this mentioned anywhere so assume not?

As mentioned above and as we are over 50 we are thinking that we will try to get a non 'O' or non 'O-A' visa and 1 year extensions of stay based on retirement.

Finally as we will be applying in Australia does anyone know how long the process takes to get visa and extension approval?

Thanks again

Thanks for the clarification.

Does it matter which one of us applies for the retirement visa?

Does anyone know with Western Couples - do we have to have 800,000 baht in the bank for each of us to get retirement visa i..e. 1.6m in the bank?

Likewise with the investment visa would we need to invest 20,000,000?

If not how does it work?

Also are there any members who have or know anyone who has the Investment Visa - is it worth doing - appreciate any feed back on the Investment visa experience ?

Thanks

You could get a personal trainer I doubt they would cost much that way you are forced to exercise.

Cut down on the beer maybe just have one or two at the weekend - none during the week.

Eat plenty of fruit and veg. Drink lots of water.

Set a realistic goal for weight loss.

Joint sports club

If you can afford it play golf - normally good social life

You could try getting your mattress steam cleaned - many companies offer this service they have special cleaning formula for bed bugs.

We thought gift would be better but as some of you have suggested money would be more appreciated how much is acceptable obviously we don't want to set expectations too high for future visits.

How much would be acceptable for The Agent

&

Staff at the condominium - how would you split this out - would you give those in the office more than say the security staff and the cleaners?

thanks

We would like to give a gift in show of our appreciation for the team that manage our Apartment block also our Agent who lets our apartment for us when we come back to Thailand.

What would be appreciated by Thais?

The gift for the management team which includes the office workers, maintenance men, security guards, tut tut driver and the cleaner has to be something that they can share.

The gift for our female agent can be more individual.

We would like to bring something from Australia - last time we brought a large box of chocolates to share but we are not sure that Thai's actually like or appreciate chocolates, we are happy to keep giving chocolates but don't want to wast our money if they don't like them and another gift would be more appreciated.

We prefer not to give money.

Any suggestions?

Any must not gives?

Thanks.....

For around A$200 you can get a Lawyer to assist you with opening a bank account, it certainly saved us all the hassles of running around and was done in a few hours, they also assisted us in preparing our Thai Will and when we purchased our condo. Just make sure you use reparable firm - happy to share who we used if you send me a message. We did this in Bangkok.