john1201

Here is a much simpler question, thanks in advance for any responses. I have an agent who tells me that for a hefty fee her office can get me on the Elite Retirement Visa path by depositing the necessary funds, getting the visa, then withdrawing those funds. She assures me that the Thai government never checks to see what the bank balance is.... and I find that hard to believe, of course, it is the rule and the rule is there for a reason, obviously. But..... don't they check this at the time of 90 day reporting? A brief answer to this is all I need, TIA for any advice.

Just to clean up my post from yesterday. I have read online that the first step on the ladder of getting a 20 year retirement visa is a 5 year visa (Elite Retirement Visa), and the cost of that is approximately $15,000 (USD) at current exchange rates (I see that the figure is now actually around 600,000 baht, or a bit over $17,000 (USD) at current exchange rates). Then you have several years during which to increase the amount in your bank account to the roughly $30,000 balance required for the 20 year deal. I have various income streams and can assemble the $15,000 within the next 6-9 months without issue. The problem is getting to that point. Once again, last year I spoke to a couple of agents in Bangkok who told me that for a fee (it was around 40,000 baht if I remember correctly) they could get me on this path by 1) depositing the necessary funds in a bank account in my name, 2) getting the Immigration Bureau to issue the 5 year visa, and 3) then removing the funds that had been deposited in that same bank account. The problem with this approach is apparently that the Thai authorities check the bank account balances every 3 months or so to see if the minimum balance of $15,000 has been maintained.... and if it has not, that is the end of the deal, they will revoke the visa obtained by this means. I understand that all of this is in flux these days and a lot has changed in the last 2-3 years, and also that a lot of information from both the Internet and agents is not reliable..... And that is why I am asking here. I do appreciate the replies but do not think I am being "silly" by asking about this, it is based on checking and speaking to two agents here. So once again: I need a medium term solution so that I have 6-9 months to amass the necessary $17,000 for the Elite Retirement Visa. Visa runs appear to be a poor option at this point, though I will have at least one additional one this time around. After that, I can either pay an agent to do what she told me she would do, which frankly sounds risky to me, or I can find some way to borrow the $17,000 (I can do that) and then bank it in Thailand for the 5 Year Elite Retirement Visa, or.... I am not sure, enroll at a university with visa support or perhaps get a teaching job with accompanying work visa. But I need some kind of medium term solution that takes me to the end of the year, when I will have the funds for a longer term retirement visa. Once again, thanks for any and all constructive replies. This is a serious thread... very serious for me, anyway. If you cannot be polite... do not bother responding. It reflects poorly on YOU, not me.

Thanks again. Just to be clear, are you advising me not to bother with getting another 60 day visa in Vientiane and to instead just re-enter Thailand with the usual 30 day visa on arrival under the exemption system, and then to get an agent to help me transition to a non O immigrant visa in the next 30 days or so on that 30-day visa? Last year I spoke to a couple of agents and they offered to get me on the non O immigrant visa path for a fee.... pay them the fee, their companies would deposit the roughly $15,000 needed for that path to a bank account and I would receive that visa, and then the company would retrieve its $15,000. And then I checked the Internet and found that there were a lot of instances where others had been promised a similar wonderful deal, but the problem was that even when the company in question did get keep its initial promise to put a person like me on the path to a longer term deal, the $15,000 was supposed to be a minimum balance left in a Thai bank... it could not be just withdrawn after the visa was obtained, it had to stay there, and if the Thai authorities saw that it had been withdrawn, I would face an unpleasant outcome and the agent who had supposedly helped me would not be interested in doing anything further to help at that point. I am also a neophyte here so I do not understand the mechanics at all. I need a bank account in Thailand. I tried to do that with a letter from my language school last year.... and the bank told me no, go to the US Embassy, get some kind of letter there... and I did not get that done, no. But the bigger picture here is that to pursue this non O immigrant visa route, I first need a Thai bank account IN MY NAME ONLY, and then for a fee the agent will be able to deposit the roughly $15,000 for the 5-year deal into it, and then once I am on that track the agent company withdraws those funds.... and I assume that it is then up to me to supplement the $15,000 within a decent interval or.... well, I can imagine. Sorry about the long meandering message, with the two parts being: 1) Can I really trust an agent to help me for a fee of 30,000 baht or so, without that "deal" just ending when the Immigration authorities see that my bank balance is closer to 0 than it is to $15,000? and 2) Without a Thai bank account in my name (it cannot be a joint account with my Thai girlfriend, for example, and it cannot be a US bank account), it will not be possible to pursue this non O immigrant visa option? Sorry to be long-winded, just trying nail down my options here, I greatly appreciate the help.

Thank you so much for the prompt and helpful replies. To answer the question about age, I am 65 years old. I am trying to amass the funds needed for a longer term deal but still short of the amount needed to transition to another category of visa. I obviously have to avoid getting a red stamp, so I am thinking I should change my plan to go to Vientiane and go to Savannkhet instead. One additional question: If I do get a red stamp indicating too frequent trips to Thailand as a tourist, does this mean I will be unable to transition to any other kind of visa (work visa, retirement visa, etc.) down the road? And does it also mean that I will not be able to get a standard 30 day tourist visa on arrival as well? In other words I will be essentially banned from entry entirely, with zero options? If the latter, how long until I would be able to re-enter Thailand? Would it be next calendar year, or indefinitely? TIA once again for the responses.

Hello all, first post here. American citizen, I studied Thai on an ED visa from February 2022 until January this year, then had to go to Vientiane to get a 90 day tourist visa (the regular one, 60 days plus 30 day renewal). It is expiring shortly and I had planned on just making a second visa run to Vientiane to get another regular 90 day in 10 days.... but today a Chinese acquaintance told me that her understanding was that foreign nationals can only get a single such visa in any given calendar year, no renewal like I was contemplating was posisble.... and I was of course surprised to learn that. Is this true? Or does it only apply to Chinese citizens? She was not really certain about that, but she had been told that by a Chinese visa office here in Bangkok before she got her 90 day tourist visa in Malaysia. TIA for any help with this.