Coming Back to Thailand?

[MichaelJohn]

Hello and thanks in advance for your help.

I've lived in Thailand for 10+ years and always had a Non-Imm O-A extension/"Retirement Visa" so hopefully not wet behind the ears.

Im married to a Thai and have my own condo in BKK.

We came to England iin March 20 and have been here ever since - obvious reason! My Thai wife has residency here in the UK.

We're now getting ready to come back to Thailand hopeful that quarantine won't be required soon.

My Extension of stay (and re-entry permit) expired 31/12/20.

I'm now about to apply for a visa from the Thai Embassy in London and was thinking of going down the non-imm O Family route (but an STV is also an option).

I have the B400k in a Thai bank account (but the "statement" will be screenshot); it might even have earned some interest in the last 18 months!

We're likely to be staying over 3 months so the family route cost would be £150 vs a STV which would be B2000 + B2000 for every 90 days.

Am I missing anything? Are there any special exemptions, rules, options I don't know about etc etc.

Many thanks.

 

 

 

[BritTim]

IMHO the Non O family visa will work out best in the long run, especially as you already have funds in a Thai bank for a potential long term extension of stay. It should be easy to get a Non O visa through the eVisa system. You just need to show a modest amount in your UK bank. Another option for you to consider is just entering with a regular tourist visa (or even visa exempt) with the options of applying for a Non O visa in Thailand and/or one-time getting a 60-day extension of stay to visit for Thai wife. The STV visa has restrictions that can become onerous, depending on how matters develop in the future. In your case, it is probably a worse option than a single entry tourist visa.

[oslooskar]

17 hours ago, BritTim said:

with the options of applying for a Non O visa in Thailand

As I understand it, one cannot get such visa here in Thailand.

[DrJack54]

8 minutes ago, oslooskar said:

As I understand it, one cannot get such visa here in Thailand.

You can obtain a non O retirement or marriage inside Thailand if entered on tourist visa or visa exempt.

[sirineou]

We just did the same last May. and like you for the first time I did my extension based on marriage.

First, I would suggest, if it was an option, to wait a  month or so to make sure you don't have to Quarantine. , 

Anyway, from reading posts I thought that doing an extension based on marriage was going to be difficult. It was not, same as you 400k in the bank,

Is your marriage registered in thailand?  If not you would need to have your marriage registered here, We had not and it was a hussle translating and having our US marriage certificate notarized.  Best to do it in the UK where you are,  

Also I had to have my passport and visa certified by the American embassy,  which was also a hassle, because due to covid we could not travel. to BKK

So try to get all that back in England where it might be easier. 

Other than that the actual Extension was a breeze, Went to the Immigration office with all the paperwork, and pictures of us at out house, The Person where you take a number took a look at everything we had, she found something not right from the bank , we went back to the bank and got the right document, came back sat down with an immigration officer, signed a bunch of papers, took less than  an hour.

An appointment was made for a home visit next week, They came, all very pleasant, You would need two witnesses , to sign that they know you, we had two of our neighbors walk over with their ID card, and signed a witness paper, and that was it. 

You would get an under consideration stamp, and about a month later you get your extension stamp. 

So don't sweat it, It was as easy as peeing in the shower LOL

 

 

Edited October 9, 2021 by sirineou

[oslooskar]

3 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

You can obtain a non O retirement or marriage inside Thailand if entered on tourist visa or visa exempt.

I guess my BIG mistake was getting an Non-Imm O-A at the Thai Consulate in Los Angeles before coming here in 2019. My son is a Thai citizen and I have more than 800,000 baht in my Thai bank account so it should have been easy. I just did not know any better at the time.

[NoshowJones]

14 hours ago, sirineou said:

We just did the same last May. and like you for the first time I did my extension based on marriage.

First, I would suggest, if it was an option, to wait a  month or so to make sure you don't have to Quarantine. , 

Anyway, from reading posts I thought that doing an extension based on marriage was going to be difficult. It was not, same as you 400k in the bank,

Is your marriage registered in thailand?  If not you would need to have your marriage registered here, We had not and it was a hussle translating and having our US marriage certificate notarized.  Best to do it in the UK where you are,  

Also I had to have my passport and visa certified by the American embassy,  which was also a hassle, because due to covid we could not travel. to BKK

So try to get all that back in England where it might be easier. 

Other than that the actual Extension was a breeze, Went to the Immigration office with all the paperwork, and pictures of us at out house, The Person where you take a number took a look at everything we had, she found something not right from the bank , we went back to the bank and got the right document, came back sat down with an immigration officer, signed a bunch of papers, took less than  an hour.

An appointment was made for a home visit next week, They came, all very pleasant, You would need two witnesses , to sign that they know you, we had two of our neighbors walk over with their ID card, and signed a witness paper, and that was it. 

You would get an under consideration stamp, and about a month later you get your extension stamp. 

So don't sweat it, It was as easy as peeing in the shower LOL

 

 

"Anyway, from reading posts I thought that doing an extension based on marriage was going to be difficult. It was not, same as you 400k in the bank,". Some IO offices will treat you well and some will not. I know personally of people, one just recently,  who had a dreadful time with the IOs who did his marriage extensions, he even ended up arguing with them.

But on the other hand, I know of one person. though not personally, who has been on marriage extensions for years and has never had a problem with his local IO.

Just letting you to know that things work both ways, though IMO, I believe the bad ones are in a minority.

[DrJack54]

11 hours ago, oslooskar said:

I guess my BIG mistake was getting an Non-Imm O-A at the Thai Consulate in Los Angeles before coming here in 2019. My son is a Thai citizen and I have more than 800,000 baht in my Thai bank account so it should have been easy. I just did not know any better at the time.

I wouldn't call it a BIG mistake. 

Putting fact you have Thai son aside for the moment.....the only added burden of requirements for extension based on retirement for non O vs non O-A is the 40/400 insurance requirement. Just continue with extensions from your non O-A. Hopefully in a year borders will be open and you can kill off your non O-A and either obtain a non O in Thailand after border bounce and visa exempt entry or obtain non O at Thai consulate nearby country. Laos is popular.

 

[sirineou]

1 hour ago, possum1931 said:

"Anyway, from reading posts I thought that doing an extension based on marriage was going to be difficult. It was not, same as you 400k in the bank,". Some IO offices will treat you well and some will not. I know personally of people, one just recently,  who had a dreadful time with the IOs who did his marriage extensions, he even ended up arguing with them.

But on the other hand, I know of one person. though not personally, who has been on marriage extensions for years and has never had a problem with his local IO.

Just letting you to know that things work both ways, though IMO, I believe the bad ones are in a minority.

There is bad and good in every situation, but it also depends on how you manage people.

For instance We went for our extension, very nice girl at the desk  where you get your number checked out document, Noticed that one of the documents from the bank was not ours but someone else's, I seems like they gave us one of the documents of the parson before us, TIT, Anyway we got to taking with the girl and she mentioned that they were so busy she did not even have time to eat, 

We left and went back  to the bank , got the right document and on the way back to immigration. we stop and   we got her some desserts from a street vendor, You should see her face light up when we gave it to her, It only costs us about 200 bht and some kindness, 

They fell over themselves to help us afterwards, you would think we were long lost family members. You go in there all grumpy and demanding and that's what you are going to get back.  

[NoshowJones]

1 minute ago, sirineou said:

There is bad and good in every situation, but it also depends on how you manage people.

For instance We went for our extension, very nice girl at the desk  where you get your number checked out document, Noticed that one of the documents from the bank was not ours but someone else's, I seems like they gave us one of the documents of the parson before us, TIT, Anyway we got to taking with the girl and she mentioned that they were so busy she did not even have time to eat, 

We left and went back  to the bank , got the right document and on the way back to immigration. we stop and   we got her some desserts from a street vendor, You should see her face light up when we gave it to her, It only costs us about 200 bht and some kindness, 

They fell over themselves to help us afterwards, you would think we were long lost family members. You go in there all grumpy and demanding and that's what you are going to get back.  

I agree with most of your post, and you did the right thing giving the IO girl these desserts, but you don't have to be grumpy to be treated unfairly by IOs or any other authority. I know from experience. I'm certainly not grumpy, but I will always stand my ground, IOs or not, as long as I know I am 100% in the right.

[sirineou]

4 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

I agree with most of your post, and you did the right thing giving the IO girl these desserts, but you don't have to be grumpy to be treated unfairly by IOs or any other authority. I know from experience. I'm certainly not grumpy, but I will always stand my ground, IOs or not, as long as I know I am 100% in the right.

You are right , many times people are unreasonable regardless what you did,

But I don't., If I think that standing my ground will get me the desirable result, I will, but for the most part , in these situation a bit of diplomacy is usually the best way forward. 

I am there for only one purpose, to get my business done, Not my responsibility to set any one right, or teach them a lesson. I know my attitude is transactional but I get things done, In these situations you cant let your emotions get the best of you. 

[CartagenaWarlock]

On 10/8/2021 at 11:51 AM, MichaelJohn said:

I have the B400k in a Thai bank account (but the "statement" will be screenshot); it might even have earned some interest in the last 18 months!

Why it will be a screen shots? Why can't it be a pdf file?

[BritTim]

34 minutes ago, CartagenaWarlock said:

Why it will be a screen shots? Why can't it be a pdf file?

It depends on the bank's app whether downloading (or printing) a statement as PDF is supported.

[CartagenaWarlock]

Just now, BritTim said:

It depends on the bank's app whether downloading (or printing) a statement as PDF is supported.

any document can be printed as a pdf. 

[BritTim]

3 minutes ago, CartagenaWarlock said:

any document can be printed as a pdf. 

Technically, any "printable" document can be printed as a PDF. However, not all bank apps support creating a printable statement in any format. You can save screen shots as images, and stitch them together as a PDF file, but that creates a more dubious looking result than just a single screen image that you can demonstrate to the official is genuine by showing your phone.