OJAS

Apart, possibly, from jacking up minimum financial requirements and/or making all those seeking retirement extensions subject to the mandatory health insurance requirement regardless of which category of non-imm visa they originally (or most recently) used to enter Thailand, it strikes me that the scope of any new MFP government's room for manoeuvre would be severely constrained by the 1979 Immigration Act. The question would then arise as to what priority they would attach to "reforming" this Act (by which I mean making life as difficult for us as is humanly possible - notwithstanding the "heroic" assistance which HM Government back in the UK is already cheerfully providing in that regard as far as we Brits are concerned, for instance). In the short term at least I don't see this as being a tip-top priority for any MFP government - in the way that it hasn't been for any government here in LOS over the last 20-30 years.

Unless, of course, you are a retiree who originally entered Thailand on the basis of a non-OA visa prior to October 2019 (assuming, of course, that Phuket hasn't by now fallen into line with each and every other office in LOS by insisting on a suitable 3m THB health insurance policy as a condition of granting annual retirement extensions for such original visa holders).

Maybe this "initiative" could explain why long waits at that particular office are now commonplace as a result of officers being presumably diverted en masse from processing extension of stay applications, 90-day reports, etc to gleefully conducting witchhunts against foreigners.

An appropriate description which IMHO can also be levelled against other parts of HM Government - e.g. HMPO when it comes to passport renewals from Thailand. Makes me seriously wonder whether HM Government as a whole really is actively striving to make life just as difficult for us expat Brit retirees in LOS as is humanly possible - in accomplishing which aim it would, of course, find itself being eagerly aided and abetted by its Thai counterpart.

IMHO your unfortunate experience serves as a general reminder to us all that it would probably be better to rely on reports of a new Life Certificate exercise on here in order to spur us into taking the necessary action, in preference to awaiting the receipt of a specific request from the IPC. For example, @theoldgit first alerted us all to the latest exercise on 31 January in the pinned Pensions thread - and his posting certainly got the alarm bells ringing in my case!

Every couple of years or so.

Would it not be easier for you to go to Chiang Mai instead? As far as agents are concerned, the services of Key Visa are used by many Brits here in LOS at passport renewal time. Google them for further info. But this thread is, of course, primarily about the Australian passport renewal process and, as a Brit, I am green with envy about the ease and grace our Aussie cousins are faced with at passport renewal time, when compared to the bureaucratic hoops we Brits are forced to jump through - which in my case a few months ago necessitated a couple of stressful all-day trips to a rundown office building with an extremely silly name tucked down some obscure side street in Bangkok with what looked like some elevated railway running along it (although there were no obvious signs of any stations where you could actually get on and off trains). ????

This strikes me as more of a rehash of existing changes affecting account holders living outside the UK which have been around for some time, as opposed to new changes which could lead to account closures.

Name me a country that doesn't. Why are you singling out the UK for demonisation?

Definitely no problems when exiting and subsequently re-entering Thailand at the airport. However, come the time you need to submit your first 90-day report after your return to Thailand, there is, in theory, the hopefully remote possibility that some nit-picking officer at your local office will spot the missing report due on 22 May and slap you with a 2,000 THB fine as a result. The 7-day grace period after the due date does not, in fact, exempt you from the requirement to submit a particular 90-day report if you will be exiting Thailand during the 7 days in question.

And yet there are constant complaints on the Thai visas forum about the amount of paperwork required by Immigration here in LOS in support of annual extension of stay applications. Strikes me that this is a fraction of the amount required in support of 6-month UK visit visa applications if this particular case is typical! In this connection I can certainly recall the mountain of paperwork which needed to be generated in support of a 6-month UK visit visa application for my Thai wife back in 2009 (which thankfully proved successful) - when compared to the relatively minimal amount of paperwork I have been required to provide in support of annual retirement extension applications!

In that case it is, I think, all the more important that he has at least 20,000 THB (or equivalent value in other currencies) cash on him when he next seeks to enter Thailand.

Sorry, misread you and @blackshadow. This is the relevant email address:- [email protected] That said, probably better to contact them initially via the secure messaging link quoted by @Moonlover above.

THE PENSION SERVICE 11 MAIL HANDLING SITE A WOLVERHAMPTON WV98 1LW UNITED KINGDOM (Not shouting, that's how it actually appears on the return envelopes DWP send us!)

Many thanks for this link - which has spared me a long and agonising phone call to HMRC to clarify my Thai wife's entitlement to the UK personal allowance, such as @billd766 has recently experienced! Agree 100%. If we have close family members back in the UK who by the normal run of things are expected to outlive us, it might IMHO be best to get them involved in wrapping up our UK affairs generally in due course, particularly where these affect our Thai spouses. To this end I have provided my sister with a note outlining what needs to be done at the UK end after I pop my clogs (including relevant contact details), which I strive to keep up to date.

Equates to around 40,700 THB a month by my reckoning at present exchange rates. Well short of the 65,000 THB monthly minimum requirement for an annual retirement extension, of course!

The Government Gateway did at one time include a useful secure messaging facility - but, unfortunately, HMRC in their infinite wisdom subsequently saw fit to withdraw it without providing any advance warning or explanation. So we are left with the options of having to deal with HMRC on issues of concern to us by making lengthy phone calls or sending letters by snail mail to them. Yep, HMRC really are pioneers at the cutting edge and forefront of advanced technologies in our ability to communicate with them, aren't they????? That said, there is still one way in which you can communicate with them online if you have a Government Gateway account, and that is through submitting a complaint: https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-hmrc If you don't have a Goverment Gateway account you might wish to consider setting one up for the purposes of making a fact-finding "complaint" to HMRC regarding your State Pension issues. To go about doing this, click on "Create sign in details" under the "New users of Government Gateway" heading in the following link: https://www.access.service.gov.uk/login/signin/creds Good luck!

Another possibility if you have the time and means to do it - albeit equally aggravating, though - would be to book yourself into an extended stay at a Bangkok hotel who are prepared to issue a TM30 form in your case. This will then enable you, after you have undertaken a border run to cancel your original non-OA visa, to apply for a non-O conversion at Chaengwattana Immigration who have been reported on here as playing strictly by the rule book when it comes to non-O conversion applications. IMHO any stay at a Bangkok hotel should also cover the period when you need to apply for your first annual extension of stay within the lifetime of your new non-O visa - which it would probably also be prudent to apply for at Chaengwattana. Thereafter you can return to Mae Sai and submit a fresh TM30 at the local office, to enable you to resume conducting immigration business (90-day reports, subsequent annual extensions of stay, etc) there.

When it comes to crass stupidity, nothing - not even Immigration procedures - can IMHO surpass the bureaucratic nonsense we Brits are required to suffer at passport renewal time here in LOS. This entails a considerable paper-generating exercise which I would hardly describe as "a formality" for even routine renewals - on top of which are then the 2 physical trips to an office in Bangkok or Chiang Mai which we are forced to make in person or pay an agent extra to make on our behalf.

One thing which those planning to switch from marriage to retirement (or vice versa) as the reason for their annual extensions of stay need to bear in mind, though, is that the 365 days extension at the time the switch is made will be determined by Immigration from the date when you submit your application rather than when your existing permission to stay expires. The difference could, in theory, amount to up to 30 days - or even 45 days in some instances, depending on what leeway your office allows in submitting extension of stay applications ahead of the expiry date of your current permission to stay.

Unfortunately there have been quite a few on here over the years who have seen absolutely no problem in using inaccurate "visa" terminology to refer to extensions of stay - which IMHO only serves to generate unnecessary confusion as graphically illustrated by this thread, I think.

https://www.immigration.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/9.FOR-RETIREMENT-PURPOSES-50-YEARS-OLD-NON-O.pdf Or to anywhere else in Thailand where a non-O for retirement can be obtained without the need for the 800k to be seasoned for 2 months.

You're the one giving duff advice on here! The OP won't be denied permission to re-enter Thailand when checking in for his return flight on the strength of the re-entry permit stamped in his passport.

The 6-month validity rule does, indeed, apply in the case of tourists planning to stay in Thailand visa-exempt for up to 30 days. However the OP is intending to re-enter Thailand on the basis of a non-immigrant extension of stay for retirement as supported by a re-entry permit, so this requirement would not apply in his case.

No problems with re-entering Thailand with your existing passport at the end of September. However, assuming that you'll be staying in your home country, I would strongly advise you to take the opportunity of renewing your existing passport while you are there since this will probably prove a lot more straightforward than doing it from Thailand. That is most definitely the case IMHO if you're a Brit! Then, upon your return to Thailand, you would need to show both cancelled previous and new passports to the immigration officer at BKK Arrivals, and they should stamp your new passport with a permission to stay date expiring on 29 January 2024. There would also be no need for you to obtain a letter from your home country embassy in Bangkok, as part of the subsequent process of transferring existing stamps from old to new passports at your local immigration office.