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vanalli: In this case, I think TV = ThaiVisa.com, not television ;-)

neilmc: You can return for a holiday in April. Just get a tourist visa in the UK -- others have said the consulate in Hull is very accomodating and efficient. Folks with visas will have no problem entering Thailand.

Sunbelt: Your 5th point in your opening post said: "If you have a visa on arrival more than three times in six months... "

Some countries, like China and India, have a Visa on Arrival, and others, like USA and UK, have a Tourist Visa Exemption (i.e. stamp in their passport in lieu of a visa.) Do *both* of these situations, i.e. VOA and visa-less passport stamps, fall into the no-more-than-three-times-in-six-months category, or is it strictly VOA?

Also, at some point in these discussions (very hard to keep track of what I read where!) it was said that this "crackdown" on "excessive" use of 30-day entries would only be enforced at border crossings, and not at airport immigration points. In your latest discussions with the Immigrations officials which led to your opening post, was it stated that airport immigration points would NOT check for no-more-than-three-times-in-six-months?

Many, many thanks for not only sponsoring this forum, but being active and clarifying so many points.

Am I out in left field in thinking that for "doing business with Thailand", the Immigrations Office at the Thai Embassy in Belgium should reply that a Business Visa is required?

Just to tie this in with a recent development (subsequent to SunBelt's posts above):

"More Bad News From Thai Immigration, Investment Visa is Cancelled.

As of October 1, 2006 the 3 million baht investment visa will no longer be available"

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=82914

As usual, lopburi, thanks for your help!

I am horrible at googling. I never thought of using "tertiary" instead of "third".

Based on that definition, which does not contain persecution complex nor paranoia, I guess I'll pass the test! :-)

Sorry I seem to have played Truth or Dare on this public forum!

Oh, my, this is personal, but heck, we're all friends here, right?

One of the forms for a Retirement Visa application is the medical certificate showing no prohibitive diseases. That prohibited disease list includes: "Third step of Syphilis".

Embarrassing as it is, I must admit that I was, how to say, exposed to and treated for syphilis in my youth. Once that happens, one carries syphilis antibodies for the rest of their life, so will be detected in a blood test.

Does anybody know what "Third step" of syphilis is? I'm hoping it means something like a current infection of syphilis, but not sure. A google of "third step of syphilis" merely gives a list of documents about the medical requirements for the O-A visa.

Thanks in advance for any clarification of the term.

Maui John: Are you aware that there is an Honorary Thai Consulate on O'ahu? See: http://www.thaiembdc.org/directry/direc_e.htm#HI

If your friend is pretty sure she is inclined to go for the retirement visa, she can probably apply for an O-A visa through Mr. Miyabara. An e-mail or phone call might prove helpful.

I'm planning to obtain my retirement visa before the end of the year, and have been asking tons of questions, including here on ThaiVisa, and think I have a good grasp on the options and the procedures. Lopburi3 has been a patient font of information.

One way to get the retirement visa is to do the entire process in the US: It will require a police report in addition to the health check, income/savings verification, photos, etc. A benefit is that you can keep the money in the US for an extra year. You WILL need to bring the money into Thailand once you start getting the annual one-year extensions, but that's not going to be until one year after you enter Thailand. This method of getting the retirement visa in the US before setting foot on Thai soil is referred to as an O-A visa.

The other way to get the retirement visa is to enter Thailand on some other (i.e. NOT an O-A) type of visa, whether a plain old O visa or a tourist visa. Then once you are in Thailand you get the income verification from the American Embassy in BKK, get a health clearance form from a Thai doctor, etc, but you do NOT need a police report. (You will only need a police report when getting the O-A visa before you get to Thailand.) Then you initiate the retirement visa application process at a Thai Immigrations office in Thailand.

It might be easier for you and your friend to deal with the Honorary Thai Counsul in Honolulu and have all her ducks in a row before getting to Thailand than the doing-it-all-in-Thailand option. The worse that could happen is that she arrives with the O-A visa and then decides she does NOT like living in Thailand. Still, overall, the comfort of dealing with the bureaucracy while still on the A'ina might be of significant value. Mailing her passport to another island might be preferrable to physically running errands in Thailand, such as to the American Embassy in BKK.

Lopburi3, and others, please feel free to refine/correct my advice and information to Maui John. I understand only too well his confusion and frustration.!

Maui John: The last time I was at the US Embassy in BKK to add pages to my passport I inquired about the "verification of income" form. They showed me a single sheet of paper for ME to fill out and to specify my pension income. I was told it would be notarized (can't recall, but the THB1200 quoted above sounds about right) by the Embassy, and that no supporting documentation is required. You then present this notarized-at-the-US-Embassy form letter as proof of pension income to the Thai Immigration official processing the retirement visa request.

So to recap: The Thai Immigration official wants proof of pension income, and routinely accepts the notarized form letter from the US Embassy. The US Embassy will notarize the form regardless what amount you put for pension income.

That said, I wouldn't be tempted to exaggerate TOO much on the form and say, for example, that your pension is US$1,000,000 per month. If for any reason the Thai Immigration officer thinks s/he smells a rat and requests further documentation (I've never heard of that happening, but let's face it if could happen) you'd likely be risking having your visa voided and being deported for providing false information to a Thai Immigrations officer. If your friend is honest with the pension amount and can, on request, provide documentation to back up what the form letter says, there should be no problem.

"Most modern airports in Farangland are very well organized and transportation can enter, pick up passengers, and exit swiftly and efficiently."

This is a brand new airport. Shouldn't it have been designed to be "well organized" so that transportation can enter, pickup passengers, and exit swiftly and efficiently???

"I will be very pleased to see the taxis gone and gladly use the express hotel buses in their place, or if I really need it pay for a private car."

How nice that you can afford the luxury of a private car and/or live near somewhere where the express hotel buses can drop you off. I guess the airport designers realized the majority of local deplaning passengers are like you, and the system will serve the needs of that majority quite well. The rest of us who expect convenient access to a proletariat taxi deserve to have to wait for a shuttle, and then endure enjoy a 3km ride before we can enter the queue.

"BKK cannot adopt the same strategy as other modern airports in Farangland because of the huge numbers of taxis that are present in BKK compared to a much smaller number in Farangland."

Hmmm. Now why do you suppose that there might be more taxis at BKK vs at modern airports in Farangland? Could it be that people use them ... by choice? If that is a fact (that BKK has more taxi usage than western airports), shouldn't that have been a significant factor in designing the arrival area and traffic flow?

"What is unacceptable about having the taxi queue outside the arrivals hall in BKK is that is makes the place a madhouse and prevents necessary other means of transportation from effectively using the airport."

Not to sound like a broken record, but proper planning and design could preclude such a madhouse.

"That's my opinion, but of course I could be very wrong, especially if they implement the plan poorly."

Nice disclaimer. ;-)

People keep knocking the shuttle buses saying no other airport in the world does what's being proposed here, requiring a shuttle bus to taxis. But shuttle buses are used in just about all major airports around the world. Shuttle buses to car parks, car rentals, hotels, etc.

Shuttle buses are often required to car parks and car rentals, because the real estate on which those concessions are located is usually not physically close to the arrivals hall. A taxi queue is a horse of another color. (And, of course, non-airport-terminal hotels would require a shuttle bus.)

What is so unacceptable about having a taxi queue outside the arrivals hall? (Other than the quite inconceivable concept that corruption in favor of premium service providers might possibly be a factor?)

with busses etc available to Pattaya and other places .... life will be great for many people with the new set-up

moderator ... please delete. I thought I was editing my post for clarity, and ended up double-posting!

The following letter was in the August 15 Bangkok Post:

No taxis at new airport

According to the Airports of Thailand Plc, there will be no taxis at the new Suvarnabhumi Airport. Passengers upon arrival (with their luggage) must take a shuttle bus some 3km to the public taxi stand next to the public bus station.

What a welcome to Thailand!

Paul Cheesman

It looks like buses to Bangkok and Pattaya are a 3km shuttle bus ride away, too.

They want the facility to be a world class airport, the #1 in Asia, and they intend to inconvenience arriving passengers this way? Oy vey: TiT to the extreme.

lopburi3: Thanks for the quick and very useful reply.

While reading through the message threads here (I'm a newbie) I never picked up on the fact that all of the folks getting the O visa in Penang were married to Thai spouses.

Question: Why would I need to have 3 weeks remaining on a 60-day tourist visa? Wouldn't 1 or 2 weeks be enough?

I've picked up a wealth of info reading the posts here on Thai Visa. Many thanks to all!

I'm 51 yrs old and planning to apply for the Retirement Visa within the next few months. A few weeks ago, one of the Pattaya newspapers (either Pattaya Mail or Pattaya Today) carried a commentary by the editor in response to a letter to the editor. The editor's comments said (implied?) that you could enter Thailand on a plain old "O" visa, and not necessarily on the "O-A" visa and still apply for the Retirement Visa.

Unfortunately, I'm not in Thailand right now to locate that newspaper issue to give you a direct quote, but what I wrote is what stuck in my mind.

So, I have a couple of questions:

Must I return to my home country (USA) to apply for an "OA" visa in order to apply in Thailand for the Retirement Visa, or is it acceptable to apply for a plain old "O" visa, a "One-year Multi-entry Visa that require me to leave the country every 90 days then re-enter again", in a close-by location like Penang?

In connection with applying for an OA visa in one's home country, above lopburi3 says: "It is not in the picture for you unless you return to your home country and apply there with a medical report, police report, and 800k equivalent in a bank account there." That's the first I've read that I can keep the 800k equivalent in my home country ("there" = in my home country, right?) Or, must I subsequently have the 800k equivalent transferred to my Thai bank account and present that documentation when I apply for the Retirement Visa in Thailand?

Perhaps I'm confusing (a) a method of applying for a Retirement Visa when I have a plain old "O" visa, versus ( applying for a Retirement Visa when I have an "OA" visa?

I've been living/working in Japan and have not set foot in my mother country (USA) in over 2.5 years. I'm trying to avoid the long trek back to the motherland just to apply for an O-A visa. Can I somehow manage to get an acceptable type of visa "locally" (e.g. Penang) in order to apply for the Retirement Visa in Thailand?