Red Phoenix

Yes, the requirements when having entered Thailand on a Tourist Visa/Visa Exempt entry and applying for a 90-day Non Imm O Visa, state: #8 - Rental Agreement between the Applicant and the Landlord ; A copy of house registration. Location map of the house and a rental receipt Past three months. But in practice, this is often not achievable and unless you are dealing with a dimwit Immigration Officer or with a rogue Imm Office, Immigration will accept alternatives. E.g.: # If you are staying at a Hotel and explain that you are still searching for a place to settle down. Friendly Hotels can even write a long-term rental agreement of you staying there, when you need such to meet Immigration requirements. # If you are not renting but staying at friends or at your girlfriend's house. In that case, the owner of the place where you are staying can register the address on the IO TM-30 website, which will allow him/her to submit a TM-30 of you staying at the premises. You can also do this yourself on behalf of the owner. The only thing needed to do so is a copy of the house-book of the place you are staying, and a signed front/back copy of the Thai ID-card of the owner.

When I applied in Belgium (my home-country) 4-5 years ago for the Non Imm O-A visa, the Police check was just a print-out from my local municipality showing that I had no criminal record, and it was provided on the spot at no cost. For the medical check, I simply asked my brother MD to write a statement that I did not have any prohibitive diseases. Simple as that, and both accepted. Due to the upped Health-Insurance policy coverage requirements (and corresponding higher fees) it was not beneficial anymore for me to apply every 1-2 year for a new Non Imm O-A Visa, and so I switched to a Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement. NOTE: I did PM you a comprehensive document "Guideline for long-stay in Thailand on a Non Imm O-A Visa or a Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement" outlining all the steps (and the available options) to apply for one of those Visas and subsequent extensions, as well as how to switch from a Non Imm O-A Visa to a Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement (or vice versa).

I did PM you a comprehensive Guideline document on how to do exactly that > it outlines the complete process (including all options) of getting rid of your current Non Imm O-A Visa or extension, and then apply for a Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement.

Thanks for reporting your experience! The important thing being that the E-Visa Team accepted your explanation that you 'did not know the itinerary after the first flights as you would be travelling around'. And that's exactly the reason that the METV was created in the first place, for people wanting to explore South-East Asia while using Thailand as 'home-base'. So it is bureaucratic nonsense to require an onward-flight prior to the end of the 60-days your entry on an METV would provide you. But if your sensible explanation would not have been accepted you could have provided them with one of the following 3 options: #1 - Buy an on-line onward-flight booking reservation which can be bought for as little as 12-15 US $, #2 - Book the cheapest possible one-way flight out of Thailand to an international destination (e.g. you can buy a Bangkok - Ho Chi Minh city one-way flight for as little as 1.200 THB) #3 - Book a fully or partially refundable flight-ticket for a nearby international destination from Thailand, and cancel it once the METV has been provided.

De-Dollarization Kicks Into High Gear The US dollar is essential to US global power projection. But in 2022, the dollar share of reserve currencies slid 10 times faster than the average in the past two decades. https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/04/no_author/de-dollarization-kicks-into-high-gear/

When entering Thailand on a Visa, there is no need for an onward ticket. An onward-ticket is only needed when entering Thailand VisaExempt (without a Visa) - as it can be asked for by the airline to let you board, or but less likely even by Thai border-immigration on entry. As you would be applying for a Visa (METV) an onward ticket will not be asked for. And it would be strange if the Embassy where you apply for the METV would require a return-ticket, as you can get almost 9 months out of an METV when you use it to the full.

That's where an onward-flight reservation booking comes in handy, which only costs 12 to 15 US $ and is a fully legit reservation (but it is automatically cancelled by the company providing that service 2-3 days before flight departure).

There are quite a number of UK series on the site. I recently watched the 3 series of Luther (with Idris Elba) on it. But the set-up of the site is a mess (and it also features a lot of pure trash series), so you really have to make specific selections. E.g. you can select UK as COUNTRY to get only (or primarily) UK content. And it's worthwhile to check the imdb rating of each movie or series, if it wasn't recommended to you by someone, as any series/movies with a rating under 6.5 are generally not worth it. Cheers and enjoy browsing.

I did PM you a comprehensive Guideline document on how to do exactly that > getting rid of your current Non Imm O-A Visa or extension, and then apply for a Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement.

Thanks Brittim, Reason for my caution was that after the first 60 days of his METV, he would already be 180 days in Thailand this year on TouristVisa/VisaExempt. So I was not sure whether it would be a smooth ride for him, but your post provides confidence that the METV is indeed a trouble-free way to stay in Thailand even with his history.

Hi Kan Win. When watching movies/TV-series on fmovies.to I do not download them but stream them to my TV. Occasionally there is some buffering when doing that, but often no problem at all. I would download the movies or episodes to avoid that occasional buffering (often no buffering problem at all) were it not that you do not have access to add sub-titles anymore when having downloaded the movie/TV-series. If anybody knows an easy way of adding sub-titles to downloaded movies/TV-series I would be interested to know how to do that. Note that I tried using GreenFish which is a transparent overlayer in which you can simultaneously run the subtitle SRT file which you need to download separately. Problem being that more often than not the movie and its subtitles are not well-synchronized, making that solution unusable.

You can only apply for an METV in your home country or country of residence (which in your case is UK). You could try applying for an eMETV from a neighbouring country of Thailand and setting your VPN to UK, as that would spare you having to fly to UK to do the application from there. Do let us know if you succeeded in doing that, as it looks like that would be a first. However, looking at your travel history I see that in the last 8 months you have been staying in Thailand for 6 months on TouristVisa/VisaExempt. With something like 3-4 months already this year. So I doubt whether an METV will guarantee you an additional stay of almost 9 months. You would probably be let in on the fresh METV providing you with a 60 days permission to stay, but I think you will encounter trouble when trying to use that METV for additional entries. If that is the case - as I suspect - you might be better off with applying for a 60-day Tourist Visa at an Embasssy/Consulate in a neighbouring country (e.g. at Savannakhet). @Brittim might provide you with more concrete advice on your options.

Yes, but if applying for an eVisa (e.g. METV or Non Imm O-A] can be done when you are not in your home-country or country of permanent residence, that would be very convenient. Anyone on this Forum that has succeeded with doing that?

I use https://fmovies.to/ which has a huge selection of movies and TV-series, and as good as all of them with sub-title options in many different languages.

The fine for not doing your 90-day report on due date is only 2.000,- THB, and it doesn't matter how many days you are late. And besides paying that fine there are NO other consequences of not doing it. In fact there are people that live far away from their Imm Office that deliberately opt to NEVER file their 90-day reports. And when they apply for their 1-year extension of stay they pay that 2.000,- THB fine with a smile. But obviously if you can do it on-line (takes 5 minutes), you might as well do it.

Thanks for clarification. As I do not have credit on my Thai SIM I am not able to use it for calls or Internet-access outside Thailand. But if switching on global roaming will let me receive incoming SMS with the verification code, that would make it possible to do also do transactions on my KK-account abroad.

Yes, if the on-line 90-day reporting system is not down, you can do your 90-day reports from anywhere in Thailand during the 14 days before reporting due date. Be aware that it only works if your 'official address for Immigration purposes' has not been overwritten by a TM-30 issued by a Hotel/Guesthouse where you have stayed (that can happen when they incorrectly mention your Visa as a TouristVisa instead of a Non Imm O). Of course if you have registered your official address on the IO TM-30 website, you would be able to correct such a mistake by issuing a new TM-30 on-line from your official address (and you can do that also from anywhere in Thailand)

#1 - Kasikorn Bank only asks for your Passport to ensure that it is you, when wanting to do a transactin on your account inside one of their branches. It doesn't matter on which Visa you are, and they will surely not close down you account when you switch from a Non Imm O Visa to a Tourist Visa or a VisaExempt entry. #2 - I have a Kasikorn Bank-account, and I do not need my mobile phone to access my account on-line on their Website (I simply need to type in my user-name and Password, and I have access to my account on K-Biz). However, when I am abroad I am not able to do any transactions as the verification code for doing so is send to my mobile-phone with Thai SIM-number (and that SIM does not work outside Thailand). I am not sure whether it is possible to opt for a different 'verification' method instead of your Thai phone-number, but it is worth checking out if you need to do transactions with that bank-account when abroad.

Do you have any friends in Thailand, that are willing to declare that you are staying with them at their address? They do not have to go to Immigration or anything, but just need to agree that you use their address as your 'official address in Thailand', nothing else. It only requires that you register their address on the IO TM-30 website (using a copy of their house-book and a signed front/back copy of the Thai ID-card of the owner) and that you issue a TM-30 of you staying there. On top of that you also have to apply for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa at the Imm Office of the province where that address is located. In case you do have friends willing to do that, do PM me and I will provide you with all required details to do so. NOTE: The suggestion by drJack54 in his previous post (telling that you are looking for a place to stay but are currently in a Hotel until you found a fitting place) should normally also work

It is clear that you are referring to a 'fixer' Agent, which - by using his connections in an Imm Office, often an up-country one - can get hold of a 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement and subsequent 1-year extension WITHOUT you having to semi-permanently park +800.000 THB on a personal Thai bank-account to meet the financial requirement for such Visa and extensions. Obviously there is a risk when doing this, as the Visa and subsequent permission to stay have then been acquired in a non-legal way and are actually invalid. When Immigration would ask you to show your Bank Pass-book as proof of having kept the required funds there, you would not be able to do so. But if you have no interactions with Immigration and the Agent takes care of everything, the risk is indeed very small of you getting in trouble. Note: Be aware that if you dread the Thai immigration bureaucracy and pettiness, that there is also the possibility of engaging an Agent for a 'hand-holding' service. The Agent can help you with parts or the full process of application, and can do everything on your behalf, but when you deposit the required funds on your personal Thai bank-account, you would then be fully compliant with Immigration rules. And normally such hand-holding service should be considerably cheaper, as there would be no 'brown envelopes under the table' involved for the local Imm Officer to have him/her overlook that you do not meet the financial requirements.

As DrJack54 confirmed, you will only need a Re-Entry Permit when your original Non Imm O-A Visa has expired, and you want to protect the Permit to Stay that was provided when re-entering last time with that valid Visa. You can buy such a Re-Entry Permit at your local Immigration Office (costs 1.000,- THB) and you can also buy it in the departure halls of the main Thai international airports.

When you exit Thailand and then re-enter with a still valid Non Imm O-A Visa you will get either - a Permit to Stay stamped in your Passport for 12 months OR - a Permit to Stay stamp till the expiry-date of your Non Imm O-A compliant Health-Insurance policy, whichever of the two is shorter. Unless the Note with the Health-Insurance policy expiry-date, that the Thai Embassy put in your Passport when you received the Non Imm O-A Visa was for TWO years, you will almost certainly be stamped in only till the expiry-date of the Health-Insurance policy when you applied for the Non Imm O-A Visa. And if it that one has expired already, you will only receive a Visa-Exempt entry stamp of 30 days. So if you want to make full use of the 2nd year that the Non Imm O-A Visa can provide you, you need to bring evidence with you that your current Non Imm O-A compliant Health-Insurance policy has been renewed and then you will be stamped in till the expiry-date of that policy. The snag is of course, that border-immigration will almost certainly require that your renewed Non Imm O-A compliant Health-Insurance policy has been issued by a Thai insurer. NOTE 1: The above is how Thai border-Immigration will handle your entry when they follow the Non Imm O-A procedure. However, it is possible - but I wouldn't count on it and risk it - that a Thai border official will simply stamp you in for 12 months on your still valid Non Imm O-A Visa without looking at your Health-Insurance policy expiry date. NOTE 2: Do send me a PM if you would like to receive the comprehensive Guideline I wrote on how to apply for the Non Imm O-A Visa in your home-country and navigate the Health-Insurance requirements when doing that.

I know the OP has BKK Bank, and with BKK Bank only some Bank branches are able to provide you with a 12-month Bank Transactions statement on the spot. Majority of BKK bank branches need to request the statement at BKB Headquarters, as they only have the last 6 months of your transactions accessible at the local branche. I have a Fixed Deposit account with Kasikorn Bank, and my local Imm Office (SiSaKet) requires on top of the Bank-Account statement (showing that I am the owner of the account, as well as its current balance) a 12-month Bank Transfers Statement when applying for the 1-year extension of my original Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement. Kasikorn Bank can provide such 12-month Bank Transfers Statement on the spot. BUT if you have a Fixed Deposit account, it will not show the small transaction that one has to make at the date of application for the 1-year extension (this because for an FD-account transaction records are not updated in real time but overnight). However, the above is not a problem as both your Bank-Account statement as well as your updated Bank Pass-book will show that small transaction, providing evidence that you kept the required funds over the full 12 months preceding your application.

A very relevant and thought-provoking quote for our times by visionary mystic Rudolf Steiner:

No need for stress. I did PM you a comprehensive document on how to register your address on the IO TM-30 website, which allows to then issue a TM-30 of any foreigner (including yourself) staying at the premises. Registering will take approx 1/2 hour, and first TM-30 will also take something like that (learning curve), but once it has been set up it takes less than 2 minutes to issue a TM-30.