Over 75 unable to get 2nd STA visa insurance

[popabear]

Because of my age ,in my late seventies, I am unable to get the second medical or health insurance required to get the STA long stay visa, as the entry age to get this insurance is under 75 years, as long as you get this insurance before this age ,most will then cover you to age 99. I have looked through every insurance online in Thailand with no luck , either before 75  or before 70 entry , a bit sad , as I am fit and healthy for my age. I may be able to buy in Australia but they won't accept that. Is there any way around this problem ?? Thanks,,,  Regards....Popa

[DrJack54]

This guy might have advice re insurance.

@Peter Denis

[Peter Denis]

Hi Popa,

Indeed, none of the Thai IO-approved insurers will issue that mandatory 400K/40K health-insurance policy to someone over 75 years of age.  So your only chance to get hold of that mandatory insurance is to find a foreign insurer that provides such insurance for someone over 75 years of age and is willing/able to fill in the required Foreign Insurance Certificate. 

The problem is that such insurance is currently not only required when applying for the Non Imm O-A Visa, but that most Thai Embassies/consulates now also require it when applying for a Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement as well as for an STV.

But of course there are still other options to return to Thailand.

The easiest being simply returning Visa Exempt or on a 60-day Tourist Visa (both options do not require that $%^&* health-insurance policy).  When entering Thailand you will then be stamped in with a 45-day (Visa Exempt) or 60-day (Tourist Visa) permission to stay.  After the mandatory 15 days in an ASQ quarantaine Hotel you could then apply at the local Imm Office of the province where you intend to stay long term, for a 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement (I presume that you are not married to a Thai national, but if so that would provide you with additional options).  That 90-day Non Imm O Visa application has to be done when you still have at least 15 days left on your permission to stay (some IOs even require 23 days).  And you would need to show at moment of application that you transferred 800.000 THB to a personal Thai bank-account with foreign origins proven.  In the last 30 days of that 90-day permission to stay from that Non Imm O Visa, you can then apply for a 1-year extension of stay based on that Non Imm O Visa.  For that 1-year extension you simply have to show that you seasoned those +800K for at least two months at moment of application.  Once you got the 1-year permission to stay stamp, you would need to maintain those +800K for at least 3 months, after which you can lower to +400K (but never slip below both the 800K and 400K tresholds), and then top up again to +800K two months before you apply for a renewal of that 1-year permission to stay.

 

Edited January 19, 2021 by Peter Denis

[Bruce Aussie Chiang Mai]

Poppa sounds like time to get a wife. No insurance needed for marriage extension.

 

[ukrules]

You could also buy a 5 year visa, for some reason they don't check what insurance you have.

 

Seems a little overboard if you're just going on holiday for a few months but at the moment it is a loophole for the insurance issue.

 

I would not recommend that you stay without insurance unless you have many millions of spare dollars in the bank, in which case sure, go ahead.

[Swiss1960]

8 hours ago, Bruce Aussie Chiang Mai said:

Poppa sounds like time to get a wife. No insurance needed for marriage extension.

 

Not yet...

[popabear]

10 hours ago, Peter Denis said:

The problem is that such insurance is currently not only required when applying for the Non Imm O-A Visa, but that most Thai Embassies/consulates now also require it when applying for a Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement as well as for an STV.

Thanks Peter for your kind help with this problem , but  I am a little confused when you say above ,that the Thai Embassies also require the 2nd health insurance for the Non imm O Visa for reason of retirement , is there a difference with the 90 day Non Imm  O Visa reason for retirement ,that you have suggested I apply for in Thailand, does this 90 day Non Imm O Vias  reason for retirement need this 2nd health insurance ??  P.S I am not married to a Thai National ...Thanks             Regards ,,,,Popa

Edited January 20, 2021 by popabear

[Peter Denis]

1 hour ago, popabear said:

Thanks Peter for your kind help with this problem , but  I am a little confused when you say above ,that the Thai Embassies also require the 2nd health insurance for the Non imm O Visa for reason of retirement , is there a difference with the 90 day Non Imm  O Visa reason for retirement ,that you have suggested I apply for in Thailand, does this 90 day Non Imm O Vias  reason for retirement need this 2nd health insurance ??  P.S I am not married to a Thai National ...Thanks             Regards ,,,,Popa

Hi Popa,

Sorry for any confusion I created.  When the Thai Embassy in your home-country also issues the Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement, currently (temporarily as part of the CoE requirements) some of these embassies ALSO require that you meet the 400K/40K in/out-patient health-insurance requirement (just like for the Non Imm O-A or O-X Visa).

But the Australian Thai Embassy does NOT issue such Non Imm O Visa, so that's probably where I confused you by mentioning it.

However, if you enter Thailand Visa Exempt or on a 60-day Tourist Visa - both options being avaialble for you - you can then once in Thailand apply for a 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement at the Imm Office of the province where you intend to stay long-term (see my earlier post for details).  And that 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement does NOT require any insurance requirements to be met.

Hope this clarified the issue.

 

[ubonjoe]

1 hour ago, popabear said:

Thanks Peter for your kind help with this problem , but  I am a little confused when you say above ,that the Thai Embassies also require the 2nd health insurance for the Non imm O Visa for reason of retirement , is there a difference with the 90 day Non Imm  O Visa reason for retirement ,that you have suggested I apply for in Thailand, does this 90 day Non Imm O Vias  reason for retirement need this 2nd health insurance ??

You can get a single entry tourist visa to get a 60 day entry or enter visa exempt that will allow a 45 day entry that can be extended for 30 days. No insurance other than the covid 19 insurance is required for them and there is not age limit to get it.

Then you can apply for a 90 day non-o visa entry at immigration that does not require health insurance. You will need 800k baht in a Thai bank on the day you apply with proof it came from abroad or proof of 65k baht income.

The during the last 30 days of the 90 day you can apply for a one year extension of stay based upon retirement. The 800k baht will need to be in the bank for 2 months on the day you apply.

[popabear]

Thank you so much for your kind help,, Ubonjoe and Peter Denis , I do understand now that the 90 day Non Imm-O Visa for reason of retirement , applied for in Thailand does not require any insurance. I agree this is the best way to do it , but it just leaves me now with the problem of getting out of Australia , that's why I was looking at the STV  Visa, because one of the reason Australia Border control will give you permission to leave is that you leave for three Months or more , so were the problem may arise is, the 60 day Tourist Visa only shows 60 days ,which they may want to see ,to prove that you are going for 90 days or more. Yes I know  you can get a 30 day extension on the 60 day Tourist Visa , but you have to apply for that in Thailand , so the air ticket you might have to show Aust Border control  will only show 60 days ,you would have to extend the ticket in Thailand after you applied for 30 day  extension.  Not sure Boarder Control would ask to see the Thai Tourist Visa or air ticket, but I think they would require that.       Regards  ..... Popa .

Edited January 20, 2021 by popabear

[DogNo1]

If you can get out of Australia, you can then do what you want. If you can convince the authorities there that you are exiting for 90 days or more, you can then follow the instruction of UbonJoe.

[Peter Denis]

18 hours ago, popabear said:

Thank you so much for your kind help,, Ubonjoe and Peter Denis , I do understand now that the 90 day Non Imm-O Visa for reason of retirement , applied for in Thailand does not require any insurance. I agree this is the best way to do it , but it just leaves me now with the problem of getting out of Australia , that's why I was looking at the STV  Visa, because one of the reason Australia Border control will give you permission to leave is that you leave for three Months or more , so were the problem may arise is, the 60 day Tourist Visa only shows 60 days ,which they may want to see ,to prove that you are going for 90 days or more. Yes I know  you can get a 30 day extension on the 60 day Tourist Visa , but you have to apply for that in Thailand , so the air ticket you might have to show Aust Border control  will only show 60 days ,you would have to extend the ticket in Thailand after you applied for 30 day  extension.  Not sure Boarder Control would ask to see the Thai Tourist Visa or air ticket, but I think they would require that.       Regards  ..... Popa .

Hi Popa,

You will be confronted with the same 400K/40K health-insurance requirement when applying for the STV, as for the Non Imm O-A Visa application.  But in contrast with the Non Imm O-A Visa the STV only allows Thai insurance, and Thai insurers do not issue IO-approved health-insurance policies for +75 years of age.  Therefore it is impossible for you to meet the STV insurance-requirement.

So it looks that you have only 2 options:

1 - Keep looking for a foreign international insurer that would be willing to accept your application at +80 years of age AND meets the (ridiculously low) 400K/40K in/out-patient coverage AND - the difficult part - is willing/able to provide you with the Foreign Insurance Certificate (many foreign insurers are reluctant/unwilling to do this, as the Form to be used refers to Thai legislation which they are not familiar with).

>> But unfortunately, chances are high that your search will not be successful.

2 - Contact your Thai Embassy/Consulate in Australia, and explain that both the STV and Non Imm O-A Visa option are blocked for you because of the age-restriction issues for the mandatory health-insurance.

And enquire how you can meet the Australian regulation of at least 3-month period of stay, when you would apply for the 60-day Tourist Visa (or the Visa exempt option).  Using those options you would be confronted with the 'outward bound flight-ticket' rule, so you would need to provide a 'throw away' outward-bound ticket (which you will not be using, as you intend to stay long-term in Thailand).

That throw-away ticket would be for a flight within 45 or 60 days from date of arrival > this to meet the Visa Exempt or Tourist Visa requirement for an outward bound flight before permission to stay expiry.  Before travel-restrictions you could buy cheap one-way tickets on-line from Bangkok to HoChiMin City or to Kualu Lumpur for approx 1.000 THB, so not a big expense to meet that requirement.

Also for some flight-carriers the cost of a return-ticket is approx same as for a one-way ticket, so you could also make use of that option.

But the main thing of course is to convince Australian authorities that you have no intent to return within 3 months, but that you need the outward bound flight-ticket to meet the Thai entry-regulations, but that you have no intent of actually using it.

 

 

 

[popabear]

Thanks Peter ,  yes we are really living  in a crazy world at the moment , here in Western Australia we have had no covid-19 person to person transmission for the past approx 9 Months , but who really wants to live like this, with this State Premier opening and shutting this State many times in just one month ,you just never know what page you are on and the Australia Federal Government is no better , with having to get permission to leave, with most people getting rejected .                                                                                                                          I just want to leave as soon as I get the vaccine, which will be soon ,  I just don't want to live in this police State call Australia, were having full control of you seems to be their objective, which they are not giving any time limit on when things might change.                                                                                                                    Yes Peter,  what you are saying  could be another way of doing it and of course as you say I don't have a lot of options ,so I will give your idea  a lot of consideration  thanks mate , I really never thought in all the 40 years of going to Thailand. it would get this hard to return , of course my age does not help in getting health insurance , but I am fit and of good health now , but like most at my age , have had some past problems . Of  course I never thought in all my seventy odd years , that Australia would get like it is at the moment          Regards,,,,,  Popa                           

Edited January 21, 2021 by popabear