BrandonJT

I don't have personal knowledge, but I will be doing it exactly this way in the future as I won't be in Thailand long enough to renew my passport before it expires.

In absolutely not case is it ever illegal to stay in an AirBNB. It's only illegal for them to offer a short term rental if they don't have a hotel license.

You should be able to cancel your work permit and work extension 1-2 weeks ahead of time with document from your employer showing the end date of your work. They would cancel your wokr extension and then stamp you in again until the end date on your documents. That should give you plenty of time to go to Bangkok and apply for the new work extension.

The only risk would be if they stamped you in as something different from your LTR when you returned. Otherwise you can do as you said, show both passports when you return and then go to immigration to get the remainder of your 5 year stamped when they transfer things over. The other risk is if something holds you up and you're not able to return before your stamp in your old passports ends, you would have the potential of losing your LTR in that case.

You need to go to your immigration office and ask them if they will allow you to apply for the 60-day "Visiting Thai Family" extension after you cancel your work extension. If they will allow you to apply for that, then you will have plenty of time to season your 400,000 baht. If they will not allow you to apply for it, then you will likely have to leave Thailand and return on a visa exempt status and start fresh from that.

What? A non-O visa DOES require money to get it. To apply for a non-O based on marriage you must show proof of 400,000 baht. That IS the rule. And embassies and consulates don't make any rules about entering Thailand, that's immigration that does that. And wtf does the UN and child rights have anything to do with entering Thailand?

There is a large amount of evidence based on reports that a single 60-day visa exempt entry with a 30 day extension is all it takes now to be interrogated upon return if that return does not have at least a few months between when you left. 90 days + the potential for another 90 days, meaning half of the year, is more than enough to set the officers onto your trail at this point. 6 months is not a tourist in their eyes, and I don't blame them.

You can still get 60+30 even if they change it. Just apply for a tourist visa online through the e-visa system before your trip. Takes all of 5 minutes.

If you are going to stay in Chiang Mai then you' want to use a border bounce agency to drive you to Chiang Khong and get you out and back in, not a safe entry airport service. As far as SETV goes, yes they are still available, but you have to apply online after entering those countries, and wait for the processing. And a tourist visa won't really help you if you're at risk of being denied entry. A tourist visa only signifies how long of a stamp you will receive IF they let you in. Immigration views visa exempt and tourist visa both as tourist entries. You can't stay long-term in Thailand as a tourist, so there isn't really any difference. You need an actual long-term visa, not a tourist visa.

I would apply for the LTR about 60 days before you plan on arriving in Thailand. It's all done online and you don't pay anything to apply. I've seen many recent reports of 3-4 month processing times, so even if they process you in one month, your approval letter will still be valid when you arrive in Thailand. Otherwise if things work out like expected you'll be approved 30-60 days after you arrive and can book the appointment to pickup your visa in Bangkok. There's absolutely no reason to wait until you're in Thailand to apply, as it's all done online. You'd be filling out the same form whether you're in Thailand or not. And if you arrive first and your visa takes 3-4 months to process, you might run out of time on your 90-day entry stamp.

You can and people have already reported doing it already. They make a notation in your passport with the old passport number, allowing you to use the new passport alone with the e-visa with the old passport number.

That's your choice. You can carry both passports for years, or go to immigration and stop having to do that.

I don't need to prove the point. READ THIS THREAD. There are plenty of links. Read the reports from the people that have DONE it. The rule that Thailand has says you must have 6 months to APPLY FOR A VISA. And to enter Thailand you must have at least enough days left on your passport for your entry stamp. AI knows better than the Thai government. Okay.

Yes, we are sure. It's well established that there is no Thai rule. You cannot quote a UK website and claim that it is the definitive Thai rule.

You can also use an agent to facilitate immigration overlooking the slip-up if you're not able to resolve it another way. As long as you have the money in your account during the extension, even with the assistant of an agent, you should be able to resume doing it yourself again the following year since you'll be able to provide the evidence of the 800,000 and 400,000 during the period following the extension.

The meet at the gate is a paid service. Fast track that comes with LTR is you just go to the Fast Track immigration line. It is labeled as Fast Track.

You applied to "convert" to a new visa type. Whenever you are changing visa categories, the time is not added to the end of your existing stamp.

Did you even bother to go to the LTR website and look at the qualifications? It clearly states if you don't meet the 80,000 figure but at least 40,000 you can then make an investment of at least 250k to qualify for "Wealthy Pensioner" category. Regardless, this is not where you should be asking questions. You should be doing your own research and then contacting the BOI with any questions. Because anything anyone tells you doesn't matter. The BOI makes all determinations and all decisions about the LTR. They are responsive to questions and their answers are the only ones that matter.

Not sure why they would tell you that. The e-visa system is standardized across the world now. Every Thai embassy offers the non-O retirement visa.

So, the absolute simplest is going to be to do nothing. There is no overstay fine for children under 15, and no banning for children under 18. So you bring them in visa exempt and let them go on overstay. There are some schools that will only let children attend if they are on a valid visa/extension though. I would say the next best option would be DTV and dependent DTV. Right now there is no paperwork required after the initial application and you will just have to do border bounces for 5 years. The most permanent solution would be the retirement visa and dependent though.

You use both passports to enter Thailand. Then you go to the immigration office with both passports and your e-visa.

If you change your passport outside of Thailand, you use both passports to enter Thailand. The officers at the airport won't care about any forms you have. Changing stamps to a new passport can only be done at an immigration office, so that's where you need to go with the forms.

If you want to use the income method rather than the banked money method to qualify, most embassies would require that income to be retirement income, not salary or regular pay.

Your daughter, or your girlfriend's daughter? I've tried getting through fast track in BKK with a traveling companion on the same itinerary and was told no in the past. If you are not married then Thailand doesn't see your "girlfriend" as anything but an unrelated traveling companion.

It doesn't matter what you saw, or what this person said. They were from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The MFA does not get to decide any policy on who can enter Thailand, how long they have to stay out of Thailand, or how many times they can enter Thailand. That is determined by the Immigration Department, which falls under the Royal Thai Police within the Ministry of the Interior. But you're free to show the immigration officer a Youtube video that says it's unlimited and see how that goes.