Red Phoenix

@JohnofPhon - I have PM-ed you two comprehensive Guidelines in response to your query. #1 - Guideline for long-stay in Thailand on a Non Imm O-A Visa or a Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement, which also addresses the process of how to get rid of the Permit to stay from your current Non Imm O-A Visa and after having done so then applying for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement, and subsequent extensions. #2 - Guideline on TM-30, which outlines how to register your address on the IO TM-30 website, allowing you to issue a TM-30 on-line without the need of bothering your landlord with it, or having to go to Immigration to do it in person.

There must be a misunderstanding in what you wrote here. You can only apply in-country for a 90-day Non Imm O Visa when having entered on a Tourist Visa or Visa Exempt, and this must be done when you have at least 15 days left on the Permit to stay you will receive on entering Thailand. The Visa Exempt entry that you are going to do , will provide you with a 30 days Permit to stay (which can be extended for an additional 30 days at your local Imm Office, which will be delivered on the spot and costs 1.900 THB). So you do not have a 'couple of weeks' to apply to apply for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa at CW. But it has to be done during the first 2 weeks (and when you apply for the 30 days extension, you will have 6 weeks to do it). NOTE: And if you are renting, you would have to bring the TM-30 notification that your landlord filed on your return to notify local Immigration that a foreigner is staying at the premises. Alternatively you can also bring a copy of the rental contract and a signed front/back copy of the ID-card of the owner - and if you have it a copy of the house-book - when you do the 90-day Non Imm O Visa application.

Yes, you will have to notify your local Imm Office again that you have returned to your previous 'official address for Immigration purposes'. Even when travelling extensively domestically or internationally, there would be no reason to do so when you stayed on an unbroken chain of Permits to stay. But by exiting Thailand without a Re-Entry Permit in order to 'kill' the Permit to stay of your current Non Imm O-A Visa you are deliberately breaking that chain in order to start afresh with a VisaExempt entry.

And here an additional reason why people and institutions are fleeing from the US $ Almost half of America’s 4,800 banks are already burning through their capital buffers. They may not have to mark all losses to market under US accounting rules but that does not make them solvent. Somebody will take those losses. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/05/02/half-of-americas-banks-are-already-insolvent-credit-crunch/

Well, good luck for you too. Here a couple of facts that do not spell a rosy future for the US $: - The FED printing trillions of dollars with nothing to back it up - The BRICS countries now actively moving to get rid of the $ as international reserve-currency (which for decades did provide an unfair advantage to the US). They are currently in the process of setting up a system that would allow them to do international trade in either a BRICS Unit or their own currencies - Many countries at the moment silently buying gold in enormous quantities because they need a solid foundation for the value of their currency, as they are expecting the collapse of the $ And re gold: - The gold-price has for more than 10 years now been heavily manipulated to keep the price low - But with the demand for gold soaring both by Central banks and individuals wanting to protect the value of their currency c.q. assets, it won't take long anymore before the gold price will explode.

My guess is exactly the opposite...

I use 2TB hard-disks from WD and Seagate, and never any problems. Price vs storage capacity for 2TB hard-disk drives is good (and I don't buy larger storage drives, in case the drive gets corrupted). As others warned, when buying from Lazada opt for vendors that are on LazSell (which have the Lazada guarantee) and preferably buy from the Official WD or Seagate store.

https://aseannow.com/topic/1286952-multiple-entry-non-o-london/?do=findComment&comment=18056923 The post I linked to above, provides the London Thai Embassy eVisa application experience from a user. When confronted with requirements that seemed odd or not applicable to his case, he e-mailed the London Thai Embassy and in the response he received they stated that he could leave open those fields that were not applicable. Most applicants would simply give up when asked to provide such evidence, even when they are aware that it should not be required. But having your application rejected and the application fee not being paid back would make most people hesitant about applying when they cannot meet some (even non-applicable) requirements. However, it's good to hear that this user did get response on his queries from the Thai Embassy and was ultimately successful in his application.

To answer your question > During the 'covid pandemic' period, many folks that were staying in Thailand on a 1-year MultipleEntry Non Imm O Visa (the large majority for reason of marriage), were unable - due to the quarantaine and lockdown mandates - to do their border-bounce after they had used up their in-country 30-day extensions and 60-day family-reason extensions. And so they had no choice - if not wanting to leave Thailand - but to apply at an Immigration Office for a 1-year extension based on that original ME Non Imm O Visa. But some of them were then confronted with the inconsistency in how Thai Imm Offices interpret the rules. In some Imm Offices it was no problem to do so when you met the financial requirements for your 1-year Extension of stay application. But there were also several Imm Offices that were not so diligent, forcing those ME Non Imm O Visa holders to temporary relocate to a different province to get their 1-year extension application approved or to make use of a 'fixer' Visa agent that could arrange it for them. So yes, it should be possible but it would be recommended to enquire at your local Imm Office whether they allow it and if so whether they impose any additional requirements when going that route.

Many thanks for this clear report of your experience with applying for that 1-year MultipleEntry Non Imm O eVisa for reason of retirement. > Is it only available through the London Thai Embassy (so for UK residents only)?

Yes, from a high of 25,65 THB on July 28 last year the AUD has now fallen to 22,71 THB. That's almost 13%...

When it turns out that you are not able to apply for the 60-day Tourist Visa or the 90-day Non Imm O Visa due to 'impossible' demands on the eVisa site, you can do as follows to stay 90 (or more) days in Thailand. 1 - Enter Thailand Visa Exempt (without a Visa), which will provide you with a 30-day Permission to Stay stamp in your passport by Thai border-immigration. NOTE: Be aware that when using that option, that your airline in order to let you board your departure flight might want to see an onward-ticket to an international destination on a date prior to that 30-day Permission to stay expiry date. To meet that requirement you can simply buy a fully legit on-line flight reservation for as little as 12-15 US $ on sites like onwardflight.com or onwardticket.com, and the reservation is delivered in seconds after paying for it with your credit-card. That reservation will be automatically cancelled 2-3 days after you receive it, so you need to book it close to your departure date. 2 - During the last 14 days of that 30-day Permission to stay you can visit ANY Thai Immigration Office and apply for a 30-day extension of stay (costs 1.900 THB) and it is delivered on the spot. There is no need to wait till last day to do it, as the 30 days will be simply added to your Permit to stay expiry date. NOTE: Most Immigration offices will require that you bring a copy of the TM-30 notification with you, which your Hotel/Guesthouse is required to make to notify local Immigration that a foreigner is staying at their premises. 3 - During the final days of that extended Permission to stay, you would then need to exit Thailand (unless you are married to a Thai national which would allow you to apply for an additional 60-day extension of stay for reason of visiting your Thai wife or dependant Thai children). And on re-entering VisaExempt - which can be done same day - you will once again receive a 30-day Permission to stay. You could of course instead of returning same day, combine it with a nice holiday in the neighboring country where you exited. 4 - If you exited Thailand on last day of your Permission to stay and returned same day, you would have exactly 90 days. But if your return flight is more than 90 days after you entered Thailand, you could either a) stay some extra days in the neighboring country to which you went in Step-3, to ensure that you would not be on overstay for your return flight, OR b) once again apply for a 30-day extension of stay as outlined in Step-2. Hope this helps to clarify the process.

From what previous posters on this thread wrote it seems to be a somewhat 'Hit or Miss' method to apply for a 1-year MultipleEntry Non Imm O Visa (for reason of marriage or for reason of retirement) using the eVisa site. It would be helpful when other members here that did so, would share their experience irrespective whether they were successful or their application got refused. Also is it only the UK Thai Embassy that provides such 1-year ME Non Imm O Visa, or is this option now also available when you are a non-UK citizen and it is your home-country Thai Embassy that would issue the approved Visa.

Thanks for the info and confirmation that you were able to get a 1-year MultipleEntry Non Imm O Visa for reason of marriage. But it is very strange - or should I say very Thai - that neither the UK Thai Embassy site nor the official eVisa site, provide any information or even mention that MulitpleEntry option. From what you and other posters wrote it seems that that option only becomes visible when actually applying for your Visa and filling in the Form after having registered.

Good suggestion. NakhonChai Air is a VIP bus service, with service akin to flying Business Class. Worth checking out, and definitely a better option when taking that night VIP bus than a taxi ride during the night...

It's a 570 km trip, so the taxi fare would take something like 8-9 hours and cost somewhere between 5.000 and 6.000 THB. Flights from Suvarnabhumi to UdonThani cost somewhere between 1.500 and 2.500 THB. But that price will be upped considerably when you need to pay for luggage over-weight. A good solution to avoid this is when arriving in Suvarnabhumi, to go to the Thai Post office at the end of the rows in the Departures Hall. Buy a carton box and put all the stuff that you do not need immediately on arrival in it. The Thai Post service is impeccable and a box with 15 kg will cost approx 450 THB (including the box), and it will arrive within 2-3 days at your doorstep in UdonThani.

Yes, I thought so too, but it seems from this thread that at least 2 applicants succeeded in acquiring a 1-year Multiple-Entry Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement, via the UK Thai Embassy eVisa service. But it seems to be somewhat of a 'hidden' option, as neither the UK Thai Embassy site nor the official eVisa site, provide any information about this option (hence my question whether that option would be mentioned during the actual application process).

Hi, very interesting thread! I visited the website (https://www.thaievisa.go.th/) and I am well acquainted with all Visa options/requirements, but the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs once again succeeded in confusing me now. When going to the page with the info about the Non Imm O Visa options/requirements < https://www.thaievisa.go.th/non-immigrant-o > the option to apply for reason of RETIREMENT is not mentioned. So I presume that option probably becomes available once you register and start filling in the details on the Application form. Question > When doing so will there be an option to specify that it is the Multiple Entry 1-year Non Imm O Visa you want to apply for, instead of the regular Single Entry 90-day one?

Not related to this thread. > I am aware that there is also the 1-year Multiple Entry Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement, but as far as I know you can only apply for this one in some embassies/consulates of Thailand neighboring countries (e.g. Savannakhet Thai Consulate in Laos, but you need proof of income from pension when applying for it there). Are you sure you can apply for it in UK? I looked on the UK Thai Embassy site and it is not mentioned there.

Below a snip of what WISE would provide you when sending 1.000 GBP at this very moment (the Mid-Exchange rate changes every minute, so you can wait for a good rate or set an alarm to send you a mail when the rate of your choice is being reached). When I use WISE and click GO I will know exactly the amount of THB that will be transferred to my Thai Bank-account and it arrives in seconds (as I am banking with Kasikorn, which is a WISE partner-bank). https://wise.com/gb/send-money/?sourceCurrency=GBP&targetCurrency=THB&sourceAmount=1000

Hi drJack54, I have been considering to buy a NetFlix scratch-card in my local 7-11 and check out the content to see if I like it. Like yourself I am streaming movies to my TV (actually via my laptop connected with an HDMI-cable to my TV) by using my mobile phone as Hotspot. As I have a cheap 30 Mbps unlimited download SIM-card, I can watch movies in HiDef without any buffering. Reason that I did not yet check out NetFlix yet, is that I can watch movies/TV-series for free on https://fmovies.to And the available content there is gigantic. You can select from 25 genres and content from +30 Countries, so if you are a fan of scandinavian crimi-series you can browse what they have in that category. To watch the content of your choice you have 4 different servers to choose from (this in case one of them is down, or slow for some reason, so you can simply switch to another server). The large majority of the available movies/TV-series also have sub-title options for +50 languages. And all this for FREE, so I simply do not have the time for NetFlix as my 'Watchlist' with movies and TV-series will keep me busy for many evenings to come. Note that it is worth to register on the site (also for free) as that allows you to 'save' the movies/TV-series you are watching or would like to watch later. One TIP: When browsing the content, each movie/TV-series provides besides a description of the content also the IMDB-rating, which is quite useful because unknown content with a rating lower than 6.5 is in majority of cases not worth looking and a waste of your time. Cheers and happy viewing!

This was the full sentence that I wrote: > Banks that deal almost exclusively with Thai clientele (like GSD) are as good as always very busy and they will have little experience with how to deal with foreigners that are in need of specific Bank documents to meet Immigration requirements. #1 - My reference to GSD was a typo, I meant to refer to GSB - Thai Government Savings Bank (which were I reside, is always very crowded with Thai people doing their bank business there). #2 - I wrote 'as good as always very busy with Thai clientele' meaning 'almost always very busy'. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary > Synonyms for AS GOOD AS are: almost, nearly, practically, about, fairly, more or less, next to, most. But maybe the syntax of the sentence I wrote, was not clear as I am not a native english speaker. Hope this now solves the confusion.

From the context you provided one could deduct your Visa status, and you got correct answer. But it is not pedantry from drJack54 when he writes that there is no such thing as a 'retirement Visa', as it can be a source of confusion resulting in incorrect answers. This because there are 2 types of Visa for reason of retirement: a Non Imm O-A Visa (often even on Embassy websites incorrectly referred to as a 'retirement Visa') and a Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement. On top of that there is a clear difference between a Visa and the extension of stay based on that Visa, and also here even Immigration often incorrectly refers to an extension as a Visa (probably because the word extension is too difficult for Thai speakers). The point being that when asking for info about your 'retirement Visa' when it is not clear from the context, that this can refer to 4 different statuses, and each of these can have different entry requirements.

Do read the FULL sentence that I wrote > Banks that deal almost exclusively with Thai clientele (like GSD) are as good as always very busy and they will have little experience with how to deal with foreigners that are in need of specific Bank documents to meet Immigration requirements. So the both of us are in agreement.

Obviously you want to open a Bank-Account at a Bank-branche in the vicinity of where you are staying (or alternatively close or on the way to the Imm Office of that province). Because when applying for a Non Imm O Visa or extension of such Visa, you always need to visit your Bank first to get hold of the required bank-documents for your application. As mentioned in previous posts a Visa Agent can help you with opening a Bank-Account, and in many cases the fee for such service (approx 4.000-5.000 THB) is well worth it. But what if you are staying in a non-touristy province where there are NO Visa-Agents, and you need to open a Bank-account in order to apply for your Non Imm O Visa? In that case you would need to do a tour of the Banks in your area in the hope to find one that is willing to open a Bank-account for you and not require impossible demands to do so (like a residence certificate or a Work Permit). Such a quest for a Bank-Account can be an extremely frustrating experience, hence some tips, that will considerably augment your chances of being successful at opening the required Bank-Account: - When visiting the Bank to open a Personal Bank-Account, make sure to be polite, never loose your temper and be dressed appropriately (no flip-flops or T-shirts); - Your chances to open a Bank-Account rise significantly when you are accompanied by a Thai friend/relative who has an account at that bank, and who can introduce you there; - IMPORTANT > Don't deal with the Bank desk-officers, but ask immediately on entry to talk with the Bank Manager and tell him/her that you want to open an account at their branche. The desk-officers are quick to say 'Not possible' when they are unsure about how to open an account for a foreigner and often don't want to lose face by having to ask their colleagues or the manager how to do it. But if the Bank Manager told you OK, he will assign you to a desk officer to open your account. - Be aware that EVERY bank-branche is a little fiefdom, and so it is well possible that when applying at branche X of Bank ZZZ that they tell you that it's not possible, while asking at branche Y of that same Bank at the other side of the street, that you might be successful. - Your best chances are with Thai Banks that are familiar with foreign customers, like Kasikorn Bank, Bangkok Bank, KrungSri Bank, KrungThep Bank, Siam Commercial Bank. ... Banks that deal almost exclusively with Thai clientele (like GSD) are as good as always very busy and they will have little experience with how to deal with foreigners that are in need of specific Bank documents to meet Immigration requirements. Cheers and success!