Red Phoenix

When you apply for the 1-year extension for reason of retirement, based on your original Non Imm O-A Visa, you will not receive 12 months but be provided with a Permit to stay capped to the expiry date of your Non Imm O-A compliant Health Insurance policy. As a result of your Imm Office doing that your next 1-year extension of stay application will be already in a couple of months and it will then be synchronized with the annual expiry date of your HI policy. Alternatively you could contact your Thai insurer and request that they prolonge the annual validity date of your current HI policy such that it is aligned with the application dates for your yearly extension, but of course that would mean you having to pay the insurance premium for the extra months.

Interesting question! I suggest you contact your insurer, and ask them for confirmation that your current 3M+ THB meets the criteria for the 1-year extension of your Non Imm O-A Visa AND whether they register that policy on the TGIA website. That last point is of high relevance, because your local Immigration Office will look for your policy on that website, and if your Thai insurer (an international insurer is not allowed) has not registered it there, chances are that your local Imm Office will deny your application for the 1-year extension of that original Non Imm O-A Visa. Of course you could then still apply for reason of marriage as you have done the last 4 years. Also note that when switching the reason for your 1-year extension from marriage to retirement, as you intend to do when your Health-Insurance policy meets the criteria, that Immigration would also want you to provide evidence that you met the financial requirements (+800K/+400K) for the 'retirement' application over the past 12 months.

Thanks for the relevant additional info. Question > Can one still do a same-day border-hop at the Chong Sa Ngam border-crossing with Cambodia? Last time I did a border-hop at that quiet and friendly crossing (when I was still on an METV), it was no problem at all. The friendly Cambodian border official that put the Tourist Visa sticker in my Passport, even asked whether I would go back same day (no charge). But that was 3 years ago, and things can change so would be interested to know whether that's still the case.

When you enter Thailand by air on a 60-day Tourist Visa there is NO need for an onward flight. But when you enter Thailand by air VisaExempt (without a Visa), which will provide you with a 30-day Permit to stay stamped by border-immigration in your passport on arrival, the airline at your departure often wants to see a booking for an onward-flight to an international destination on a date prior to the expiry of that 30-day Permit to stay. On sites like onwardflight.com or onwardticket.com you can buy a fully legit booking-reservation for as little as 12 to 15 US $, and the booking reservation is delivered on the spot. As the companies that offer that service cancel those booking reservations within 2-3 days after issuance, you would need to order such a booking close to your departure date. Note that for both the 60-day Tourist Visa and the 30-day VisaExempt entry, you can buy a 30-day extension of stay at any Thai Imm Office, which costs 1.900,- THB and is provided on the spot. You do not need to wait till final days of your Permit to stay to apply for such 30-day extension as the days are simply added to the expiry date of your Permit to stay. Your 2nd question refers to what is called a 'border hop'. In the final days of your (extended) Permit to stay, you can simply exit Thailand by air or by crossing a land-border. You can decide to spend a couple of days in that country where you exited, or alternatively immediately re-enter Thailand again, where you will be stamped in again for a 30-days Permit to stay, which can once again be extended with an additional 30 days at any Thai Imm office.

I stand to be corrected. If his wife does not need to be with him when applying at the Savannakhet Consulate for the 1-year ME Non Imm O Visa for reason of marriage, that makes that option even better for the OP!

Very good advice. When you do not stay semi-permanently in Thailand, but often travel in-out the country and want to avoid building a 'history' of Tourist Visa/Visa Exempt entries, applying at the Savannakhet, Laos consulate for the 1-year Multiple Entry Non Immigrant O Visa for reason of marriage is most probably your best option. That Visa does not require any financials to be proven, and basically you only need to prove that you are married to your Thai wife that needs to be present during your application.

Is it because your wife does not like travelling to Savannakhet, that you are considering applying there for the 1-year MultipleEntry Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement (for which she does not need to accompany you)?

Thanks Sunmaster for this Perfect response! ????

PMed you the TM-30 Guideline.

I did PM you a comprehensive Guideline on how to register an address on the IO TM 30 website and notify Immigration of any foreigners (including yourself) staying at - or returning to - that address by issuing an on-line TM-30 notification.

Thanks for your report, confirming that you can still get a 1-year MultipleEntry Non Imm O Visa for reason of RETIREMENT when applying for it at the Savannakhet Consulate. The main document for such application being an official PENSION statement for an amount that meets the requirements (+65.000 THB monthly).

When you apply for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement, there is no need to have the 800K seasoned for 2 months on your personal Thai bank-account, The funds only need to be there at the MOMENT OF APPLICATION for that 90-day Non Imm O Visa. And from what you wrote you can provide evidence that these funds originated from abroad, so you will fully meet the financial requirement. The 2 months seasoning of those funds are only required, when you apply for your first 1-year extension of stay based on that 90-day Non Imm O Visa. So it is just a matter of keeping the 800K on your personal Thai bank-account from the moment you applied for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement, and then they will automatically be seasoned for at least 2 months when you apply for that 1-year extension in the last month of those 90 days.

If you did not inform the local Imm Office that you relocated to that new address and that that would now be your new permanent residence, your old address would still be your 'official address for Immigration purposes'.

When you did NOT relocate to that place, but simply spend a month there and then returned to your official address for Immigration purposes, there was/is no reason for YOU to inform local Immigration of that place that you are staying there for a month. However, in the case you describe, the landlord should have informed his local Imm Office that a foreigner (you) is staying at the premises. He did not do so, but since you didn't need any service from that local Imm Office, nobody would know you were staying there. So although he was not correct, it saved him the effort of notifying the local Imm Office that you were staying there, but it had the slight risk for HIM (not for YOU) that if Immigration had found out that you were staying there, that he would be fined for not having issued a TM-30 to that effect.

@jumbo > It is correct that a TM-30 can be filed by the owner or the possessor (renter) of the place where the foreigner is staying. Normally this has to be done within 24 hours of the foreigner arriving at the premises. It can be done on-line, but that requires that the owner or the renter first registers the address on the IO TM-30 website, when that has not been done yet. With the address registered, an on-line TM-30 can be issued, and a print-out made of the confirmation of receipt by local Immigration. So to answer OP's question > Yes you can do it as possessor (renter) of the address

It is best that you do it before departing. Because when you return on the Re-Entry Permit of your current 1-year extension of stay, and you go to Immigration for your next 1-year extension, they might notice that you did not do that 90-day report before departing. And that will result in a fine (typically 2.000,- THB). There are no other consequences besides that potential fine of not doing it, so you might consider skipping it when it is currently inconvenient for you to do it.

Then those Hotels/Guesthouses are probably only catering to Thai clientele. And when a foreigner is staying there, they are not complying with Thai law, and can be heavily fined for not doing it. The law stipulates that the Owner/Possessor of the place where a foreigner is staying, needs to notify local Immigration within 24 hours of arrival that a foreigner is staying at the premises. That notification is done by issuing a TM-30, and in case the foreigner is staying at a Hotel/Guesthouse, he can request a copy of that notification (which he needs when applying for an Immigration service like a 30-day extension).

It looks like you arrived in Thailand VisaExempt on May 3rd and now want to apply for a 90-day Non Imm O Visa at the Jomtien Imm Office, as the address where you are residing is in that province. The application needs to be done when you still have at least 15 days left on the Permit to stay your received on entry by Thai border-immigration (expiry date of your Permit to stay should be June 2nd), so you would need to do it ultimately May 18th. The financial requirement to be met for such 90-day Non Imm O Visa application for reason of retirement, is that you can provide evidence of +800.000 THB on a personal Thai bank-account at the moment of application (hence the need for a Bank Statement). However, the (potential) problem you could be confronted with is that you also need to provide evidence of the foreign origins of those 800K being transferred to your personal Thai bank-account. Note that that foreign origins requirement, might be waived when you can prove that the funds have been already long time seasoned on your personal Thai bank-account. But in case you cannot provide evidence of the foreign origins of the funds, or them being already long time seasoned on your bank-account, you would be forced to transfer 800K from your US bank-account to your Thai bank-account to meet that requirement. Alternatively you could also make use of a 'fixer' Visa Agent that can help you circumvent the financial requirement.

A booking for one night at the cheapest Hotel/Guesthouse you can find, for the night prior to go to Immigration for your application would do. Obviously the Hotel/Guesthouse should be able to provide you with a copy of the on-line TM-30 notification they have to make that you are staying there. Since you only need that copy, you are not even required to spend the night there (and might actually bargain a huge discount because it is only that copy of the TM-30 notification you need).

You - or rather your partner - were unlucky. But indeed at some Imm Offices they fine the 'owner/possessor' of the property for not immediately (within 24 hours) notifying Immigration that a foreigner has arrived (or returned on another Visa) to the premises. Such fine can be avoided by registering the property on the IO TM-30 website, which allows you to issue a TM-30 on-line that a foreigner is staying or has returned to the property (and make a print-out of that notification). I did PM you a comprehensive Guideline document on how to do that.

This is Thailand, so different Imm Offices have different rules, so what might be accepted at Office A could be rejected at Office B. That's why it is useful to always mention at which Imm Office you would apply. A 'sure fire' way that is always accepted, is that you first go to your Bank on the day you want to apply for the 1-year extension of your Non Imm O Visa. At the bank you then make a small transaction, and have your Bank Pass-Book updated with that small transaction. And then you ask the Bank for a Bank-Account Statement, which is a Bank generated document that states that you are the owner of that Bank-Account as well as the balance that it shows on the day of issuance of that document, this because some Imm Offices insist that that statement is on the same day that you apply for your 1-year extension. Many Imm Offices only require that you provide that same-day issued Bank-Account statement as well as show your updated Bank Pass-Book. But there are Imm Offices that on top of that Bank Pass-Book want you to also provide a Bank Transactions Statement (which basically shows the same information as in your Bank Pass-Book). All Banks would be able to provide such a Bank Transactions Statement for a period of 6-months or less. But if your Imm Office requires a 12 month Bank Transfer Statement (when applying for the 1-year extension based on your Non Imm O or O-A Visa for reason of retirement) be aware that some Banks would need to order such statement from Headquarters, and it can take 4-5 working days before that Statement would then be available at your local Bank branche.

I understand you entered Thailand VisaExempt and received a 30-day Permission to stay, which you want to extend with an additional 30 days. This can be done at any Imm Office, but the Imm Office would normally want you to provide evidence of the address where you are staying in their province. If the landlord/owner of the apartment where you are staying cannot provide you with a copy of the TM-30 notification which he normally would have to make to inform Immigration that a foreigner (you) is staying at the premises, there are 2 options: #1 - You provide the Imm Office when you apply for the 30-days extension, with a copy of the rental agreement of the place where you are staying. They might also ask for a copy of the house-book and a signed front/back copy of the Thai ID-card of the owner of the apartment. #2 - And probably simpler: You book a cheap Hotel/Guesthouse for the night preceding your application at the Imm Office, and ask them for a copy of the TM-30 notification of you staying there, and which the Hotel/Guesthouse is required to make to meet Thai law. You do not even have spend the night there, and you might even get a discount when you tell them that you only need the copy of the TM-30 notification. With that copy of the TM-30 notification there will be no problem at Immigration to get that 30-day extension of stay. It will be delivered on the spot, costs 1.900,- THB and the 30 days will be added to the expiry date of your current Permit to stay (so no need to wait till last days to do the application, as you won't 'lose' any days by applying earlier).

If he had returned with a Re-Entry Permit (or had exited and returned on a MultipleEntry Visa) he would not have to renew his address using a TM-30. But by returning on a new Visa or Visa Exempt, that previous Permit to stay has been voided and hence the need to notify his local Imm Office that he has returned - on a different Visa - to his address.

@AcuDoc > Some questions to clarify your situation and options: #1 - Are you renting or are you staying in the house of your wife/friends/in-laws? #2 - In which province are you staying? #3 - Do you plan to apply for extension or Non Imm O Visa at your local Imm Office? If no, what other plan you have to stay in Thailand or leave.

You returned VisaExempt and hence your previous Permission to stay has been voided and replaced by the current one till 29th May. As a result of this, according to Thai law the owner/possessor of the place where you are staying is now required to notify local Immigration within 24 hours of you having returned to the premises. The process to do this is by issuing a TM-30 notification. In practice this '24 hour' is as good as never enforced. So - if your landlord has not notified your local Imm Office of your return - you can simply do it on his behalf when you apply for a service at your local Imm Office (e.g. application for an extension of stay, or application for a Non Imm O Visa). When you are renting you would need to bring a copy of the rental agreement, and when possible also a copy of the house-book and a signed front/back copy of the Thai ID-cad owner of the place you are residing. If you don't have a landlord and are staying in the house owned by your wife, she could simply come with you when you do an application at the local Imm Office, and she would need to show her Thai ID-card and a copy of the house-book.