Tod Daniels

You will need to have your landlord or yourself file a TM 30 showing you're registered as staying at that address before you apply for your yearly extension.

And when you do apply you will need lease, you should also have the land lord thai I/D copy, house book copy but might not be asked for them.

You can only use Thai children as a reason for an extension until they are 20 years old. So your child is out as a reason to get an extension.

I would say before you divorce go to the Thai consulate in Savannakhet Lao and get a year-long, multi-entry non-o visa based on marriage.

That Visa is valid for a year from the day they issue it whether you divorce or not.

On that visa you have to bounce in and out every 90 days, but you can do that for a whole year (even if you divorce or won't invalidate the visa).

You can get almost 15 months of stay out of that year long, multi entry Non-O visa.

These are the steps to get OFF an OA extension, on to an O visa and then a year extension based on retirement

• EXIT the country close to your current OA extension expiring,
• Enter the country on a free visa exempt entry for 30 days,
• immediately GO to your immigration office and apply for the 90 day Non-O visa by meeting the proof of funds and supplying the required documentation, you pay the 2000baht
• Wait the 14 to 21 days the under consideration is (depending on the office you use)
• Go back to the office on that date, get a Non-O visa and a new 90 day stamp inked in
• Wait until you have 30 days or less left on that stamp
• Go back to apply for a year extension by meeting the financial requirements, supplying the required documentation and paying 1900baht.

The retirement extension is issued on the spot (unless you're in Jomtien or Phuket which have you leave the passport and pick it up the next day)   

That's how you do it above the table without an agent by meeting the requirements on your own.

I mean face it if you have a yearly OA extension now you already DO meet the requirements ????

The tough part is getting OFF that OA, on to a stamp you can apply for an O visa from and then getting thru the steps

12 hours ago, BritTim said:

It is well known by now that Savannakhet has started being much stricter about granting tourist visas. There have been no reports that suggest a tightening of the guidelines in Vientiane. However,

1. you need an appointment to apply in Vientiane; and
2. over six months consecutively already might be treated as a red flag by the officials.

If you have no previous tourist visa in your current passport that was issued in Vientiane, my guess is that they will give you one. No guarantees.

I totally concur with what Brit Tim says.. You will NOT get a tourist visa in Savannakhet and in fact you won't even get in the gate once they see your entry/stay history. They are turning away DROVES of people every week now

However if you follow the guidelines for the tourist visa in Vientiane <- that means have proof of confirmed lodging for the 60 days you will be in thailand, have proof of a bank account with 20K baht in it for the last 3 months, have proof that you are flying OUT of thailand in 60 days, you should (no guarantees of course) be able to pull a single entry tourist visa from Vientiane for 1000baht. They won't even let you in the gate if you can't get it.

Another consulate that appears NOT to take into consideration entry/stay history (at least not to the degree that HCMC, Hanoi & Savannakhet do) is Penang Malaysia so that might be another option for you ..  

1 hour ago, nvrmorrv said:

I've made an appointment in Vientiane, it's in ten days. So I was wandering if it makes sense to wait if I can go to Savannakhet. But It seems in Vientiane I have little more chances. I'm from Ukraine, there's no special agreement as far as I know 

You're out nothing by slogging down to the Savannakhet Thai Consulate but I can almost guarantee you won't get a tourist visa from them with that entry/stay history. I doubt you will even get in the gate ????
AND
as people pointed out for Vientiane you need to MEET the requirements for the tourist visa, especially the banked money, the confirmed lodging for 60 days AND the proof of flight out in 60 days.

Vientiane is a totally workable consulate IF you meet the requirements and it's a totally BAD consulate to choose if you don't. 

So I take it from your entry history you burned BOTH the visa exempt entries you are allowed by land in a calendar year?

If that's the case and you are unsuccessful at both Vientiane and Savannakhet what ever you do DO NOT fly back in to either Bangkok airport. You are almost sure to be denied entry at DMK or BKK. If you can't get the tourist visa and have to fly in go to Chiang Mai or Phuket.. <- Those two have the least denial of entry of any international airports in thailand.

If you're comin' back visa exempt (as in you don't get a tourist visa) definitely have the 20K baht in CASH, proof of onward travel in 30 days and proof of lodging. If they're gonna deny you entry they'll ask for onward travel before anything else.  

There is no issue at all bouncing out and back at the Mae Sai / Tachileik border, in a matter of minutes if you want to.

500 baht or a pristine 10 dollar US bill gets you a 14 day entry permit and you can stamp in and right back out of you want to.

Okay if you fly in and are denied entry as a rule they give you the option to go back to where you just flew in from
Although you need to keep in mind that if you raise a fuss with them they can (at their discretion) send you back to the country of passport origin) <- so if you're denied entry by air while you're free to try to negotiate getting in do not argue with them to the point they decide you're going "home" ????

Where as IF you're denied entry by land they just turn you around and send you back to the country you just stamped out of <- meaning that country cancels your exit stamp and lets you back in
Then you go to an airport to fly in or try to 'negotiate' a way in the following day <- that last one is seen a LOT at the Aranyaprathet / Poipet border where they will deny you entry and as soon as you're stamped back in to Cambodia two guys will approach you and say "we can get you in tomorrow when the border opens for xxx USD" ????
They can indeed get you in AT that border, without any difficulty, but it happens so much, and like clockwork that I think both sides of the border are in on it along with the touts who approach people when they're denied.  

Another good bit of info, IF you're denied by air do NOT (as in under NO circumstances) sign that form in thai that they fill in. Don't sign it, you don't get a denial of entry stamp in your passport, just shipped out. Sign it and you DO get that denial stamp in your passport. That's how it works and I know over a dozen people denied entry by air who refused to sign the form and did not get a denial of entry stamp in their passport. I mean it's still IN the immigration computer system but there's NO half page stamp saying you were denied in your passport  

I read that post and thought it was quite the conundrum as well.

I can only think he bounced on his own without a service to get him out and back. Those services grease the wheels to get people back in the same day and I think they wouldn't have let him ON the bus if they couldn't bounce him out and back 

Also there is a HUGE difference between the Ban Laem/Duang and Ban Pakard/Phsar Prum borders, FEW border bounce companies will use Ban Pakard even though it's closer to some places because of the sketchy way they enforce policy. 

I would imagine there was a good deal of lost in translation, possibly poor border choice & maybe trying to bounce himself in the whole mix.

As people pointed out bouncing out and in by land from an OA visa/extension without a re-entry permit to enter on a visa exempt entry is a common way to get off a visa with punitive insurance requirements so you can get a Non-O inside the country and then the year.

Something threw a spanner in the works on his attempt . . ...  

You cannot change visa types inside the country (except to go from a tourist visa to a Non-Immgrant type one), so going from a Non-B to a Non-O can't be done  
HOWEVER WITH THAT BEING SAID
I'd bet dollars to durian you don't have a Non-B VISA at all ????and instead if you read the stamp in your passport it probably says "extension of stay permitted until" and has a date stamped <- that is NOT a visa, it's exactly what it says, an extension FROM a visa..
AND
You can change the reason for an extension from employment to one based on being over 50 (retirement) by cancelling your work permit, getting the termination paperwork from your employer, getting ALL the required documentation, bank letters, updated bank book, copies etc and going to the immigration office.

You would cancel your current extension based on employment and then immediately apply for a new extension based on being over 50 (retirement). People change the reason for extensions all the time and this is a common "reason change" (employment to retirement) 

Before you're going to do this go to the immigration office where you live and get the hand out listing the requirements for the year extension based on retirement so you can get all the documents, you have just one chance to pull off the cancel current extension/apply for a new one, so get it right       

Short answer.. .. They wouldn't,
and
once you get the eVisa issued there is no obligation to fly in with the flight you uploaded for the visa application.
 

This is ONLY about whether the consulate is walk up or mandatory appt required AND the processing time.
 

Processing time key;
2 working day <- apply one morning, pick your passport up the next business day in the afternoon
3 working day <- apply one morning pick your passport up TWO business days later in the afternoon

Malaysia:
Penang
walk up service,
2 working day processing

Kota Bharu
walk up service,
2 working day processing

Kuala Lumpur
appt required,
2 working day processing

Cambodia:
Phnom Penh
walk up service,
3 working day processing (tourist visa)
5 working day processing (any Non-Imm)

Lao:
Vientiane
appt required
3 working day processing

Savannakhet
walk up service
2 working day processing

Vietnam:
Hanoi
appt required
3 working day processing

Ho Chi Minh City
appt required
3 working day processing

Singapore;
Singapore
apply online first
2 working day processing

10 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

So they don't take it too serious to check the type of insurance.

Good for you.

Actually they DO take checking the type of insurance REALLY seriously and the can log in to the website that shows IF you're insured by one of the 12 approved thai insurers for the required 100K USD coverage.

I think right now the cheapest premium you can get is thru LMG with one million baht deductible (basically it's insurance just to tick the box that you have it as you pay the first 33K USD of any claim ???? )

In addition to the paper you bring from your insurance company showing your coverage and the dates it's in effect, while you are waiting for your passport to be returned Immigrations logs into the TGIA website and checks that it's "registered"
Here's a sample of what data they show when they look you up. This one is from a friend who got his OA extension just before the changes to the insurance where it went from 40k/400k to 100kUSD and the old 40/400 was accepted. 

At this time, the thai consulate in Savannakhet Lao (across the river from Mukdahan Thailand) is the "softest touch" for tourist visas.

I should qualify that, ???? They are the softest touch consulate IF you haven't milked the last 2+ years here on covid extensions, b/s, under the table, back door ED or Volunteer visas.. They are REALLY starting to look at peoples' entry/stay history with a critical eye lately..  

They have the lowest requirements, do not require an appt to get in the gate and have 2 working day processing <- meaning you turn your passport in one morning, and pick it up the next business day afternoon. 

Mondays are TERRIBLE there because of all the visa run companies from Bangkok and Pattaya showing up. BUT Tuez or Thurz aren't bad

https://tinyurl.com/tourist-visa-savannakhet