Trying to come into Thailand on a Non-Immigrant O retirement visa for me with my Canadian wife on a Non-Immigrant O trailing spouse.  Thanks to the info in another thread, we definitely prefer O vs OA as we would not need criminal and medical checks and the insurance requirements are lower.  Other advantage of O vs OA is only I would need proof of income with her as a trailing spouse. 

 

We are getting conflicting info from our embassy in Ottawa and consulate in Vancouver.  Embassy says no Non-Immigrant O for us, only Non-Immigrant O-A.  Consulate says we can both apply for Non-Immigrant O via the new thaievisa.go.th website but there is no "trailing spouse" and we should both give "retirement" as the reason.

 

Would love to hear if anyone has gone through something similar and managed to get wife in on an Non-immigrant O trailing spouse visa.  Thanks!

It is plausible that you can only get a Non O-A from the embassy in Ottawa, but able to get a Non O from the consulate (it is not an embassy) in Vancouver. The reason for this is that the consulate is not empowered to issue the long stay Non O-A visa. Thus, they are able to offer the Non O instead.

19 minutes ago, BritTim said:

It is plausible that you can only get a Non O-A from the embassy in Ottawa, but able to get a Non O from the consulate (it is not an embassy) in Vancouver. The reason for this is that the consulate is not empowered to issue the long stay Non O-A visa. Thus, they are able to offer the Non O instead.

That makes sense.  Any thoughts on the consulate person saying there is no "trailing spouse" reason for a Non Immigrant O visa and that we should both just specify the reason as "retirement"?

2 hours ago, RoninTech said:

That makes sense.  Any thoughts on the consulate person saying there is no "trailing spouse" reason for a Non Immigrant O visa and that we should both just specify the reason as "retirement"?

They are correct.

You will both have to enter with a Non O Visa.

You can then apply for the 12 month extension with your wife as your dependent.

Trailing spouse? Does that mean you drag her along behind you by her hair. ????

 

2 hours ago, BritTim said:

The reason for this is that the consulate is not empowered to issue the long stay Non O-A visa. Thus, they are able to offer the Non O instead.

The consulate in Vancouver is a official Thai consulate. They can issue a OA visa. Only honorary consulates cannot issue them.

Official consulates are listed at the bottom of this page. https://www.thaiembassy.org/

2 hours ago, RoninTech said:

That makes sense.  Any thoughts on the consulate person saying there is no "trailing spouse" reason for a Non Immigrant O visa and that we should both just specify the reason as "retirement"?

Vancouver is a official Thai consulate and can do everything the embassy can.

The correct name for the non-o for your wife is one issued based upon her being a member of you family.

Family members of a person entering to retire cannot get a certificate of entry along with others. They only issue them for family members of a person with a work permit or who are the parent of a child attending a formal school or families of diplomats.

She can get the non-o visa for retirement and then apply for a extension as a member of you family after your extension based upon retirement is issued. Both of you will need the 40/400k baht insurance coverage valid for 90 day to have the non-o visa issued.