Best Way To Get Non-Immigrant O Visa?

[Joox]

*Disclaimer: Please assume normal circumstances in your responses and don't take Covid-19 travel restrictions into account, thanks.

 

US citizen here. I've previously lived in Thailand for one year and wish to go back to marry with my fiance and apply for a visa extension based on marriage right after to live. My plan is to go to Thailand without a visa on a 30-day entry, marry her and after gathering all of the certificates go to Laos and apply for a multiple entry non-immigrant O (since Laos doesn't require proof of 400k baht in a Thai bank account) visa that lasts for one year. Is this plan going to work out or is there an easier way to accomplish this?

[ChaiyaTH]

Also, once you married, you can first get a 60 day extension for that before obtaining a non-o multi entry visa.
So arrive with 30 days + optionally extend with 30 days. After marriage extend again optionally by 60 days.

You also have 2 land border runs yearly, on those you could extend 30 days and 60 days as well. So there are more ways to Rome.
I still do single entry non-o with extensions and 2 border runs as it gives me an excuse to travel but tired immi so changing soon.

You can get single entry non-o with just smaller amounts in the bank too (30-50k). Vietnam is easy, Malaysia not that hard too. Believe penang and indo to be 180-200k.

[ubonjoe]

A post promoting an agent and replies to it have been removed.

[ubonjoe]

OP your plan is doable.

But I suggest that you apply for a single entry tourist before starting the trip. A single entry tourist visa allows a 60 day entry that can be extended for 30 days.

[DrJack54]

This guy has made up handy guide

@Peter Denis

[Peter Denis]

1 hour ago, DrJack54 said:

This guy has made up handy guide

@Peter Denis

>> I PM-ed you a compilation of a couple of recent posts with concrete and practical info on how to apply for the 1-year MultipleEntry Non Imm O - marriage Visa at the thai consulate in Savannakhet, Laos or the thai consulate in HoChiMinh City, Vietnam. 

It's also possible to apply for that Visa at the thai consulate in Penang, Malaysia (but I do not have any reports on applying there).

> To access your PM-messages just click the letter-icon next to your profile when logged in to the Forum.

[BritTim]

Just be aware that, by specifying that restrictions due to Covid-19 should be ignored, you are asking what would be possible in a different world to the one we now inhabit. Assuming your plans are to take action based on this within the next year or so, you would be wise to consider what is possible in the real world, not a fantasy world.

[JackThompson]

5 hours ago, ChaiyaTH said:

So arrive with 30 days + optionally extend with 30 days. After marriage extend again optionally by 60 days.

Not all offices allow this.  Some do, but others only allow one extension per-entry.

 

5 hours ago, ChaiyaTH said:

You can get single entry non-o with just smaller amounts in the bank too (30-50k). Vietnam is easy, Malaysia not that hard too. Believe penang and indo to be 180-200k.

No financials required for Non-O-Multiple-Entry Visas good for a year of 90-day-stay entries, from Savannahket and HCMC.

 

I believe the same from Penang now requires 400K/bank or 40K proven income.  Proving the financials may be easier for those with overseas income, as you can use foreign bank-accounts rather than domestic ones. 

[KhaoYai]

Based on recent experience (March), if I were you I would go to Ho Chi Minh City - depending on where you will be travelling from.  I was leaving from Bangkok - when I considered Savannakhet, I looked at flights from Bangkok and realised that you have to fly to Nakhon Phanom then get a bus to Mukdahan before crossing into Laos.

 

Vietnam on the other had was very easy - relatively fast flight, hotel 20-30 minutes from the airport and 15 minutes by foot to the Thai consulate. I believe the procedure at both Savannakhet and HCMC is similar with neither requiring financial evidence. Although flights and promotions change all the time, when I travelled, allowing for luggage, my flight to HCMC was cheaper that a flight to Nakhon Phanom and the timings worked better.

 

The only downside I could see is that in Laos you can pay with Thai baht so pay the correct price - 5000 baht. HCMC require payment in US dollars - 200 of them.  At current rates that equates to 6396 baht - a rip off in other words. Still, I didn't want to be mucking about getting buses.

[DrJack54]

3 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

Based on recent experience (March), if I were you I would go to Ho Chi Minh City - depending on where you will be travelling from

This is not meant to go against your post.

I agree that HCMC is better option.

Just another angle. I likewise was Saigon weekend March 15 on weekend when they shut bars etc. Then soon after closed airports etc. Facemasks where 100% compulsory outside. 

Anyway, point is imo Vietnam will be one of more conservative countries in the region to start issue visas etc.

Also visa exempt 15 days may well be thing of the past.

[Wongkitlo]

I was going to get married in Australia but would have had to wait around so came to Thailand to get married. I wish I had stayed in Australia because getting married in Thailand was really difficult. Sending forms back and forth,Amphurs wanting interviews with me and other family members. It took nearly 2 months and was quite expensive. I would recommend getting married before you come to Thailand. You would still need to get your marriage registered in Thailand.

[JackThompson]

1 hour ago, Wongkitlo said:

I was going to get married in Australia but would have had to wait around so came to Thailand to get married. I wish I had stayed in Australia because getting married in Thailand was really difficult. Sending forms back and forth,Amphurs wanting interviews with me and other family members. It took nearly 2 months and was quite expensive. I would recommend getting married before you come to Thailand. You would still need to get your marriage registered in Thailand.

There are "agents" for the amphoes, also.  This is the only type of agent I have ever used - after "amphoe shopping" with my now-wife, and being turned away each time - often just for being a USA citizen. 

Cost a few years ago was 10K, which includes the translator/witness.  Some of the translation-shops around the Nana station (closest to Wireless Rd, where many embassies are located), offer this "service."

[Wongkitlo]

21 hours ago, JackThompson said:

There are "agents" for the amphoes, also.  This is the only type of agent I have ever used - after "amphoe shopping" with my now-wife, and being turned away each time - often just for being a USA citizen. 

Cost a few years ago was 10K, which includes the translator/witness.  Some of the translation-shops around the Nana station (closest to Wireless Rd, where many embassies are located), offer this "service."

I'd done all the translation and certificates myself but the agent still wanted 6000b. Did include pick up in Pattaya and go to BKK.

[unheard]

On 5/18/2020 at 10:47 PM, JackThompson said:

There are "agents" for the amphoes, also.  This is the only type of agent I have ever used - after "amphoe shopping" with my now-wife, and being turned away each time - often just for being a USA citizen.

Could you please elaborate on what was their problem with a US national?

[JackThompson]

3 hours ago, unheard said:

Could you please elaborate on what was their problem with a US national?

Some refused due to needing an embassy-certified copy of my passport page - a "new thing" at the time, which is now more common (because so many US Citizens here use "fake passports" to marry Thais).

 

Others refused to accept my freedom of affirmation to marry - the certified document from the same embassy from which others wanted that certified copy of the passport-page. 

 

I am told those who know how to do envelope-deals have no problem, but I have never been involved in organized-crime, so don't know how to go about such things, nor do I want to risk prison trying to learn.  Evidently, the agents know the ropes.