TOURIST VISA > NON-O Visa > one year extension of permission to stay due to retirement :  Can a "Visa Guru" please comment on the precise rules and procedures I am outlining here?  I know there is a ton of information posted here on ThaiVIsa about this, but it is all spread across numerous threads and posts.  I just think it would be nice to have ALL the requirements, procedures, and suggestions in one place because I have had to go through dozens of posts, and post a lot of questions to arrive at these conclusions, and I'm still not sure if I have it all correct.  What's more, there is a lot of contradictory and/or outdated information.  For instance:

 

From One Poster:

The Immigration office opens at 8:30 am.  She should go to the Info desk in front of the Immigration office and there is a spot for people to queue who have business with the second floor Immigration office.  This is where they book the appointments, along with other business like filing TM30s.  

 

From Another Poster:

The office for making the appointment is the 2nd floor office where the TM30's are submitted but at the rear,there is a sign saying q to make appointment for change of visa 9~10am.  Went in at 8.50am this morning,officers very helpful.The lady walked out at 9.10am with an appointment for Friday next week.

 

From what I have read on here, Immigration Office in Chaing Mai is perhaps the most confusing and convoluted IO in all of Thailand!  

 

From what I've been able to piece together, this is how I understand the procedure:

 

STEP ONE: Apply for conversion of Tourist Visa to Non-O Visa

1) 800,000 baht in a Thai Bank; The bank must furnish two letters:  1) to verify the account, 2) to verify that the funds come from a foreign source.  Also required, original bank book plus photo copies of all pages.  The funds do not need to be in a Thai Bank account for any length of time (whereas when applying for the One-Year Extension, they do need to be in the bank for at least TWO MONTHS, and for renewing an existing Extension, they need to be in the account for THREE MONTHS.

 

2) A copy of a TM-30 for your place of residence. (not sure if you need to have actual copy of TM-30 or the receipt that the landlord gave me??).  Anyone who knows for sure about this, please comment.

 

4) A completed TM-86 Form (for conversion of Tourist Visa to Non-O; or a TM-87 if you do not have a tourist visa)

 

5) Your original passport along with photocopies of all pages, and one (1) 4x6cm photo

 

6) A visit to Promenada Immigration Office (in-person) to make an appointment for submitting the application.  The office for making the appointment is the 2nd floor office where the TM30's are submitted but at the rear, there is a sign saying q to make appointment for change of visa 9~10am.

Went in at 8.50am this morning, officers very helpful.The lady walked out at 9.10am with an appointment for Friday next week.

 

NOTE:  Chiang Mai IO requires that application be filed 21 days before "permission to stay" expires (not 14 days as in most other Thailand IO's).  Furthermore, since Chiang Mai IO only issues a few appoints a day, it can takes several weeks to get an appointment so it's important to get an appointment as early as possible IN ADVANCE OF THE 21 day timeframe.

 

So, to my knowledge those are the only steps required to convert a tourist visa to a Non-O visa in Chiang Mai.  AM I MISSING ANYTHING ???

 

The Non-O Visa is good for 90 days.  45 days before its' expiration, you need to apply for the one year extension of permission to stay due to retirement

 

NON-O Visa > one year extension of permission to stay due to retirement (Form TM-7)

In order to apply for the one year extension of permission to stay due to retirement , the steps are basically the same as above except you submit Form TM-7.  You should keep copies of all submitted stuff like TM-30, passport photocopies used in the Non-O Visa application since they will need to be re-submitted and you will need new photocopies of bank book, and new letters from the bank. 

 

You MUST have 800,000 baht in a Thai bank account for at least 2 MONTHS prior to submitting application (3 months if renewing an existing Extension), and as with the Non-O visa application, those funds must be from a source outside of Thailand.

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So, can anyone tell me if I have this correct?  Have I missed anything?  Any suggestions to make the process more effective?

 

IMO, The immigration Office could really makes this a lot easier than it is by having a website that is user-friendly for Farangs, an online way to book appointments, etc., but as has been said, it seems that the Chiang Mai IO want to discourage do-it-yourselfers, and encourage the use of expensive visa agents.

agents and immigration officers split the profit,

so it is in the economic interest of immigration officers

to deny you extension, and force you to employ agents