Red Phoenix

You will have no problems leaving Thailand when you didn't do your 90-day report. And when you return the 90-day clock starts ticking again from the date of entry. When you do that 90-day report after your return, the Imm Officer might notice the gap in your 90-day reporting history, resulting in a 2.000,- THB fine (with no other consequences). As drJack wrote, you can do you current 90-day report within seconds using the on-line app, and avoid the possible fine later. And if it is not totally inconvenient at the moment, you could do it in person at your Imm Office prior to your departure.

Thanks. Note that @DrJack54 mentioned some additional useful info re the combined Bank accounts. And dr Jack also mentioned the option to apply for a 60-day extension of stay for reason of visiting your wife (1.900,- THB). Normally you should be fine with the evidence of both Bank Accounts, but in case the Imm Officer handling your application would have a bad hair day and makes problems, you could apply for a 60-day extension of stay for reason of visiting your wife (and that would give you sufficient time to season the funds). But that option is only available if you did not already use that 60-day extension option since your last entry into Thailand on your Non Imm O Visa.

Two questions, the answer to which might solve the issue: #1 - Did you move the money to another bank-account that was also on your name? In that case, it would be a matter of having the Bank(s) make a Bank Statement for each of the 2 accounts, which combined would provide evidence that you did not went under the required +400K (except for the few seconds in cyber-space during the Bank transfer). #2 - Do you have Thai dependant children? If so you could instead of applying for reason of marriage to a Thai national, apply for reason of dependant children and in that case the +400K does not require any seasoning but only needs to be available at the time of application.

Clarification for 'confused' Somebody. OP wrote that even if he waits till last day of his current Permission to stay, he will only have his 400K seasoned for 52 days when applying for his 1-year extension of stay. And when he applies for reason of marriage to a Thai national 60 days of seasoning are required of those funds at the day of application, which means such application for reason of marriage will not be accepted as he does not meet the requirements. . However OP also wrote that he has two dependant children (I presume they have Thai nationality), which makes him eligible to apply for a 1-year extension for reason of dependant children. When doing so, the +400K only needs to be available on his personal Thai bank-account at the moment of application with no seasoning required. So doing that will solve the whole issue.

What you describe is the reason that most Imm Offices now require for your 1-year extension for reason of retirement, on top of the Bank Statement and an updated Pass-book, also a Bank Transaction Statement, showing every individual transaction you made over the past 12 months. And that requirement is entirely due to some banks lumping your transactions together when not regularly updating your Passbook. But that additional requirement from Immigration can create once again an administrative nightmare for applicants, as some Bank branches do not keep records longer than 6 months, and thus that required document covering 12 months has to be created by the Bank Headquarters and can take up to 5 days before you can pick it up at your local Bank branche. Which means you have to request it a couple of days before you plan to do your extension application. And on the day you pick it up, you can then make a small transaction and ask the Bank to provide you with an on the spot created Bank Statement (showing that you are the owner of the Account, and the balance of your funds on that day) and also do a Passbook update. And then it is off to the Immigration Office, as many of them require that your Bank Statement and Passbook have been updated on the same day that you go to Immigration for your retirement extension application.

Many posters refer to the 'Bank letter', which can be confusing as there are actually TWO documents required (as well as your updated Bank pass-book) when applying for the 1-year extension of your Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement. These are the TWO statements that you need: #1 - Bank Account Statement > Statement issued by the bank that you are the owner of the Bank-account, as well as the Balance that account shows. That Bank Account Statement can be issued on the spot by your bank and you should have it produced by your Bank - after having done a small transaction - on the day of your application before going to Immigration. #2 - Bank Transaction Statement > A document issued by the bank showing the transactions that were done on that Bank Account, such that Immigration can see that the balance has never been under the 800k and 400K tressholds in the twelve months preceding the issue of that document. The info on that Bank Transaction Statement is same as on your Bank Pass-book NOTE: That your Bangkok Bank branche will as good as certainly have to ask Headquarters to issue that Bank Transaction Statement for you (as records older than 6 months are often not accessible anymore at the local branche), and it can take up to 5 days before you get it. So you need to ask the Bank when that Bank Transaction Statement will arrive (or better still have them contact you), and on that day or day after go to the Bank to pick it up. When you are at the Bank you should then also do a small transaction, and then ask the Bank to print your Bank Account Statement which will then feature the updated balance on that day. And also your Pass-book should be updated with that latest status. Since many Imm Offices want that Bank Account Statement up-to-date on the day of application, it means that you need to go straight to the Imm Office once you have the 2 documents and the updated Pass-book in your possession.

When apply for a 1-year extension based on a Non Imm O Visa for reason of dependant children you ONLY need the 400K on your personal Thai Bank-Account at the moment of application. So doing such application would solve the issue for you.

Should be OK with paying the fine, but let us know how it worked out for you this morning at Phuket Immigration.

You are fully correct. The 12-month Bank Transactions Statement was introduced because on Savings Bank Accounts when not updating your Bank Pass-book regularly, some banks do consolidate the transactions you made in between, making it impossible for Immigration to check whether during such consolidation period you did not slip under the required funds tresshold. But obviously when you have a Fixed Deposit Account such a 12-month Bank Transactions Statement is bureaucratic nonsense as the Pass-book from an FD Account will show each and every transaction you made. And when your Immigration Office requires that a transaction was made on your Account at the day of application for your extension, the 12-month Bank Transactions Statement will not even feature that transaction (as the transactions are processed overnight). And so Immigration also wants to see your updated Pass-book (which contains all the information that the Bank Transactions Statement contains + that latest transaction). To summarize > When you have a Fixed Deposit Account, and apply for your 1-year extension, you will need 3 documents: - A Bank Statement, showing that you are the owner of the Account and the balance on that account. At many Imm Offices that Bank Statement needs to be up-to-date at the date of application, so you first need to go to your Bank and do a small transaction on your Bank-Account and then have the Bank Statement created and your Pass-book updated - The Pass-book of that account, updated with a small transaction on the date of application - The Bank Transaction Statement, which as explained higher is total bureaucratic nonsense for an FD account, but a necessary 'tick-the-box' item for Immigration.

You are not well informed. Thai Immigration offices explicitly allow application for a Non Imm O Visa when you entered Thailand VisaExempt or on a Tourist Visa For citizens of some countries, it would be advantageous to apply for a Non Imm O Visa once they entered Thailand VE or on a TR, rather than applying for such Visa at the Thai Embassy/Consulate in their home-country. E.g. in Australia, applying for the Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement requires Thai Health-Insurance coverage. While such insurance is NOT required when applying for that Visa in Thailand. https://sydney.thaiembassy.org/en/publicservice/non-immigrant-visa-type-o-retirement

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Thanks for the write-up detailing your case with this issue as well as your sensible comments. And after reading what you wrote, I now remember the Phuket Imm Office argumentation for not allowing to apply for a marriage extension on your first extension-application for the Non Imm O-A Visa. Their reasoning being that the Non Imm O-A Visa is a different type Visa than the Non Imm O (which is correct). And since the Non Imm O-A Visa is meant for 'retirement' their argument is that you can only use that reason when doing your first extension application. And once you have done so, on your NEXT application you can then switch to a different reason (e.g. marriage or dependant children). That was and probably still is the Phuket Imm Office stance on the issue. So you are fully correct that it would be wise to enquire at your local Imm Office how they would handle an extension for reason of marriage for a Non Imm O-A Visa, when you plan to do this.

If you expect/foresee that you will leave and re-enter Thailand at least 3 times during the 1-year that your 1-year extension of stay will provide you, then it makes sense to buy during your 1-year extension application a Multiple-Entry Re-Entry Permit, which costs 3.900,- THB. If you are not sure whether you will exit Thailand during your 1-year extension of stay (or would normally do it only once), it is recommended to simply buy a Single Use Re-Entry Permit (cost 1.000,- THB) when applying for your 1-year extension of stay. That way it is already taken care of in case you suddenly need to exit the country, or might want to do a land-border crossing.

I used the just recently launched ChatGPT service < https://aseannow.com/thaivisa-chatgpt/ > to answer the question for me whether you can apply for a 1-year extension for reason of marriage based on your original Non Imm O-A Visa. Below the answer I got within 2 seconds... Note that the last sentence provided by the Chatbot is not useful, as a Thai Embassy/Consulate would not be the right place to make the query, but rather it should be the Immigration Office of the province where you would be applying. But nonetheless quite impressive that it came up with the correct answer.

ChatGPT is a kind of SuperGoogle. And just like Google will provide you with links that fit the 'accepted narrative' and renders links that do not fit that bias at the end of the list (or don't show them at all), the same goes for ChatGPT. And it is NOT useful when quering about a controversial subject as you would only get a one-sided response from so-called 'trusted' sources (a bit like consulting Wikipedia, which is also heavily biased on subjects outside the mainstream). But ChatGPT can be quite useful for answering questions on neutral subjects. Especially if a search-engine does not answer your specific query, and it would force you to visit several sites to get the pieces of information that combined provide the answer. An example - if you typed the very specific question in a search-engine Which Thai royalty has burmese roots you would not get a clear-cut answer, but would have to open several of the links to find your answer. ChatGPT does this for you and immediately provides you with the answer: One of the Thai royalty who has Burmese roots is Queen Sirikit, the wife of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand. Her maternal grandfather was a prince of Martaban, a town in southern Burma, which is now known as Myanmar. NOTE: Lazy students that need to write a paper on a specific subject will find ChatGPT very useful as it will compose an almost perfect summary based on the sources it has access to. Needless to say that such paper will not contain any 'original' idea of the student. And colleges/universities are increasingly worried about such recycling. Some very lazy students that handed 'their' paper in without making any changes have been 'catched' already. But if the student would use the ChatGPT composed paper as the back-ground for his own paper, it can help him not to overlook certain aspects and it would be possible to weave his original ideas in the paper co-authored by ChatGPT. These are certainly some interesting developments...

Yes, I was mistaken about the possibility of applying for an extension based on marriage (without the need for Thai Health Insurance) from your original Non Imm O-A Visa. But this is Thailand, so I wouldn't bet my life that every Imm Office in Thailand would allow such application. Hence - as always - it would be wise when considering that option to enquire beforehand at the Imm Office of the province where you are residing.

@Pib - Many thanks for crystal clear explanation about this issue. So that means that you could apply for the 1-year Non Imm O-A Visa in your home-country if you have foreign Health Insurance that meets the Non Imm O-A requirements. And then at the end of the 2-year period that Visa can provide you (without the need to park funds on a Thai bank-account), apply for the 1-year extension for reason of marriage. That's good news for those married to a Thai national (or have Thai dependant children) as it would avoid the need for subscribing to Thai Health Insurance, which is the main deterrent to apply for the Non Imm O-A Visa. Now of course if you are married to a Thai national or have Thai dependant children, you could also apply for the Non Imm O Visa for that reason in your home-country. But if you already have foreign (or Thai) Health Insurance that meets the Non Imm O-A requirements, applying for the Non Imm O-A Visa would be an attractive option to consider.

Yes indeed, that's sound logic. And the OP mentioned Khalasin Imm Office where they seemed to have followed that logic. Thanks!

If that is the case then logically Immigration should, when issuing a new Permit to stay, invalidate the Re-Entry Permit in your Passport which was based on the previous permit even if the expiry date has not passed yet. But thai logic... There is probably not a clear-cut practice on such issue, and will differ according to interpretation by the individual border immigration officer. So it would be best instead of risking your old Re-Entry Permit not being accepted, to simply buy a new one when you apply for your 1-year extension of stay.

I am not sure if I correctly understand what you mean, but I think you are talking about the following case: - Months ago you bought a Re-Entry Permit but did not use the Single One or your Re-Entry Permit is still valid (in case of a Multiple Entry one) for your current Permit to stay - You apply early for your annual extension (you can do it from 30 to 45 days before the current Permit to stay for your Visa/extensions expires) - And you receive a new Permit to stay valid for 1 year. In that case your new Permit to stay will make the older one (which might have still a month validity) obsolete. BUT your old not-used or still valid Re-Entry Permit of course mentions that old Permit to stay date, and it has not expired yet. In such case, it is not clear for me what would happen if you re-entered Thailand with that old Re-Entry Permit before its expiry date. But I presume that it would be honored (after all it has not expired yet) and that border Immigration would stamp you in for the new Permit to stay date. And it is obvious that you cannot expect border Immigration to stamp you in for that new Permit to stay date, when you re-enter with that old Re-Entry Permit if it is already past expiry date.

The Re-Entry Permit stamp in your Passport has a 'Valid until' date. And that 'valid until' date is same as the expiry date of the Permission to stay from the Visa/extension in your Passport at the moment you bought the Re-Entry Permit.

Oops... stupid mistake, must have been sleeping while responding - sorry for any confusion created!

Erroneous response so I deleted

When he stays at his friends farm, it is the FRIEND that is supposed to inform local Immigration that a foreigner is staying at their premises. And by doing so the friend would be able to provide him with a copy of the TM-30, which he needs if he wants to do his 30-day extension at the local Imm Office.

Hi dr Jack, That's interesting as I was totally unaware of that option. So I would be interested if you could provide me with a link to the official requirements where that option is addressed.