Obtaining a 30-day visa exemption at Thai-Malaysia land border on heels of expired retirement visa

[Isaanman]

My O-A Visa extension expires the end of this April and I do not have sufficient funds to extend it according to all the new rules. My family and I have decided to forego applying for a 60-day TV to save money by simply leaving the country on that last day for an 8-day holiday to Malaysia and requesting a 30-day visa exempt entry (with onward tickets to US on hand) when we return to the LoS. I have a few questions: 

 

1) IOs are not going to frown on a 30-day visa exempt entry on the heels of an expired O-A visa when we return, are they? 

 

2) Will I have a problem either leaving Thailand or obtaining this visa exempt at a land border coming back in, if I drive my Thai registered vehicle in and out of the country? [We would rather drive, but could leave the car in TL in Satun and take a ferry to Langkawi to accomplish the goal, if it is unwise to drive in and out in my situation].  

 

3) Am I correct in assuming I can simply use my local residence on file at the local IO as my place of accommodation?  

 

4) We should not have a problem getting the FREE 30-day visa exempt at the Pedang Besar land border from everything I read. Can anyone confirm this? 

[ubonjoe]

1. No

2. No problem.

3. Yes you will put that address on the TM6 arrival card.

4. No problem

[Isaanman]

Thanks, Ubon Joe! ????

[elviajero]

If your “family” is Thai you can extend for 60 days to visit your spouse/child without leaving the country.

 

And in case your not aware you could extend by 1 year as a spouse/father using the lower bank/income amounts; it doesn’t have to be based on retirement.

[hakancnx]

If your O-A Visa is valid, ( 1 year ), you will get 1 year permission to stay every time you come back to Thailand. 

 

So if your the Visa is valid you will get 1 year when coming back from Malaysia. 

[Huckenfell]

Where did you get your o-a visa from?

[Huckenfell]

I go back to OZ to get my O-A visa. So that if i leave the country just before it expires and return, i automatically get stamped back in for a further 1 year.  But to do this , i believe that the O-A must be obtained from the country of your Pass Port. In my case Canberra.  I don't know how many times i can do this, but am sure that Ubon Joe can tell you.

 

[Suradit69]

2 hours ago, Huckenfell said:

i believe that the O-A must be obtained from the country of your Pass Port. In my case Canberra. 

My passport is American but I got my O-A in Dubai where I had legal residence. If you were given the O-A then the rules apply. Leave and re-enter before the visa expires and you get a new one year permission to stay. To be given an   O- A you would need to apply in your home country or country of legal residence, which may not be the country that issued your passport. At one point some non-residents got their O-A in Australia, but that's not common.

 

But he did say "O-A extension." Of course there are no O-A extensions so he could mean an extension of stay based on retirement (not a visa) or he could mean the last permission to stay he got from immigrations which he obtained before the actual visa expired (permission to stay is not a visa either).

 

Is Canberra a country?

 

 

 

[Isaanman]

23 hours ago, Huckenfell said:

Where did you get your o-a visa from?

I obtained my O-A visa from the Thai Consulate in Washington, DC back in the Spring of 2016. My family and I took the additional year in 2017, popping across the border the day before it expired, and then we extended it in 2018 until the end of April 2019 with the affidavit obtained at the US Embassy in BKK. We will go through the entire process again back in the US later this fall after a 5-month visit, but will probably request the O-A visa from the consulate in Chicago, as the head lady at the D.C. consulate was anything but friendly! My family members are all US citizens. 

[Isaanman]

21 hours ago, Suradit69 said:

" . . . he did say "O-A extension." Of course there are no O-A extensions so he could mean an extension of stay based on retirement (not a visa) or he could mean the last permission to stay he got from immigrations which he obtained before the actual visa expired (permission to stay is not a visa either).

Yes, an extension to stay based on retirement that I cannot renew because of insufficient funds to extend it again in country by any of the means outlined in the new retirement visa law changes.

[overherebc]

Is a one year multi entry O not an option for you. I know it means out/in every 90 days.

I'm not sure how it would affect family members visas/extensions. More of a question than an answer.

Sorry.

[Isaanman]

On 2/27/2019 at 11:53 AM, overherebc said:

Is a one year multi entry O not an option for you. I know it means out/in every 90 days.

I'm not sure how it would affect family members visas/extensions.

I am not totally sure what other kind of one year, multi-entry O visa you are talking about-- not a tourist visa? I have had the retirement O-A visa and extensions for the last 3 years. I am not sure what other kind I could get besides this that my family could simply ride on the coattails, apart from a work visa. We both stayed for a year on the EDU visa many years ago, but visa law changes doubled the amount of time (and money!) required to obtain and keep that. I don't want to start a business or volunteer. We have a slight opportunity to possibly get a visa with a local NGO; but it (like the volunteer, edu, and many others) requires my wife to be involved many hours a week and she already has her plate full, homeschooling our kids. If you have any other suggestions, I am all ears. 

[overherebc]

1 minute ago, Isaanman said:

I am not totally sure what other kind of one year, multi-entry O visa you are talking about-- not a tourist visa? I have had the retirement O-A visa and extensions for the last 3 years. I am not sure what other kind I could get besides this that my family could simply ride on the coattails, apart from a work visa. We both stayed for a year on the EDU visa many years ago, but visa law changes doubled the amount of time (and money!) required to obtain and keep that. I don't want to start a business or volunteer. We have a slight opportunity to possibly get a visa with a local NGO; but it (like the volunteer, edu, and many others) requires my wife to be involved many hours a week and she already has her plate full, homeschooling our kids. If you have any other suggestions, I am all ears. 

Are you sure you know the diference between an O visa, an O-A visa and an extension

( an extension is not a visa )

[ubonjoe]

9 minutes ago, Isaanman said:

I am not totally sure what other kind of one year, multi-entry O visa you are talking about-- not a tourist visa? I have had the retirement O-A visa and extensions for the last 3 years.

The non-o visa in your case would require the same financial proof as for a OA visa or an extension of stay at immigration.

It is unlikely any nearby embassy or consulate would issue more than a single entry non-o to go along with it.

 

[Isaanman]

29 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

The non-o visa in your case would require the same financial proof as for a OA visa or an extension of stay at immigration.

It is unlikely any nearby embassy or consulate would issue more than a single entry non-o to go along with it.

This is how I understood it. This single entry, non-O is only a 90-day visa, correct? So, as I understands things, this leaves me needing to return to the US to request another multi-entry Non O-A visa that my family can ride on to allow us all to stay in country for another 2 years, with the potential to extend it in country the 3rd year (depending on future law changes, etc).  If there is another type of one year, non-O (multi or single entry) visa that I can get and my family can stay on without me/us returning to the US and/or meeting all the same requirements needed for the O-A visa (or the O-A extension in country), I am simply not familiar with it and would love to know what it is. I certainly understand the difference between the O-A (retirement) visa, the subsequent year you get from one obtained in the US, and the extension in the 3rd year from within the LoS.  

[ubonjoe]

7 minutes ago, Isaanman said:

This single entry, non-O is only a 90-day visa, correct?

Correct 

A multiple entry allows unlimited 90 day entries for a year.

Your only option is to get another OA visa if you cannot meet the current requirements for an extension of stay at immigration.

[Isaanman]

That's what I will do. Hopefully, the smoke will clear in another 1 ½ years or so when it will be time to begin making the necessary ฿65k monthly income deposits from verified foreign sources 12 months prior to requesting an O-A extension from within TL. For now, a return home and obtaining a second O-A visa from a Thai Consulate there is the most expedient and financially doable way from my family and me to go. Thanks, UbonJoe!