thai wife visa expires when abroad

[Charly2008]

I hold since more then 13 years a Thai-wife non-O visa which was extended every year in Thailand, once I applied for a 1 month extension because of traveling issues, have been abroad during the required date to extend.

 

the new situation is as following,  we (the entire family) shall leave Thailand in December 2021 or early January 2022, my non-O Thai-wife visa expires in April 2022, but we will not return to Thailand before July / August.

 

I know through my earlier experience that the immigration would not start the visa extension before 30 days of expiration, even considering coming to Thailand for extend at the correct time it will be almost impossible since we both (me and wife) need to show up for application and then is the 30days period until the "hearing result", which is more then 1 month.

 

We still have time until then, but I would like to check the options we have and hope to get here some reliable information as I did in the past.

 

[fishtank]

Start all over again.

Try and get a Non Imm O Visa before arriving and then extend in Thailand.

Or arrive with a Tourist Visa or Visa Exempt and upgrade to Non Imm Visa in Thailand before extending for 12 months.

[ubonjoe]

Apply for a single entry non-o visa based upon marriage to at at a embassy or consulate and then apply for a new one year extension of stay (it is not a visa). It be easy to get one if you are in your home country or a country where you a legal resident (many embassies have that restriction now).

If you cannot get one you could enter visa exempt if you qualify for one and then apply for a non-o visa at immigration.

[bunnydrops]

I would get the shortest visa since you will have to buy the covid insurance for the length of visa. You will not need it after the extension. If you try for the one year out of country, you will have to buy the insurance for the year.

[ubonjoe]

5 minutes ago, bunnydrops said:

I would get the shortest visa since you will have to buy the covid insurance for the length of visa. You will not need it after the extension. If you try for the one year out of country, you will have to buy the insurance for the year.

The covid 19 insurance only has to be valid for the length of stay you get when entering the country. For a non-o visa that would be 90 days.

The only visas that allows one year stay are a OA, OX, Elite and a smart visa.

[bunnydrops]

Thanks for the correction. Its been many years, I thought the first one I got was for a year. I really don't remember getting an extension at 90 days-----but maybe I was going in and out of the country a lot back then.

[Charly2008]

all options on the table I guess, thanks a lot for the fast feedback, I assumed something like @ubonjoe wrote, it is just good to get a confirmation

Again thanks to all of you, very much appreciated.

wish all a nice and good remaining day