On 4/21/2023 at 1:27 PM, problemfarang said:

With all respect to your life and living style it very makes sense that IO didnt accept your immigrant extension. For the IO it doesnt make sense that an immigrant is/can live in a hotel for the rest of his retirement life instead of can rent a house or condo with more cheaper rent or else. 

Dude you don't get it. 

18 minutes ago, MrJ2U said:

Dude you don't get it. 

What some folk have misunderstood is this OP entered visa exempt and planned to obtain a non O retirement.

 

It is very unreasonable for immigration office to expect that a 12/6 month lease has been organized in first couple of weeks.

 

As a result "common sense" immigration offices should accept a TM30 to apply for a Non O.

This has been sufficient in many immigration offices.

 

 

 

6 hours ago, BumGun said:

Which is always  the Catch 22 for me, the banks wont open an account until I have the "Retirement VIsa", I can't get said visa because I don't have a bank account to put the Baht in... ( i tried this several times when I visited pre covid running around to banks people said would open an account with a 30 Day visa waiver who when in there would not open an account)

 

I am fine with some paperwork and back and forth but after 5 banks I gave up. Of course I can apply in my home country (Australia) and get the visa that way and arrive and open a bank account presumably...but when I get back to Aus that never seems of interest ????

Use an agent to open a bank account and move on with your life. The only downside is that your have to queue up in the bank behind a bunch of technologically challenged farang who don't have a mobile internet data and so can't download the banking app. 

 

Or worse, don't have a local SIM card ????

7 hours ago, RB7829 said:

If I'm not welcome in Thailand... .... Goodbye

if you fall so easily at the first hurdle then perhaps Thailand ain't the place for you. lots of little niggles like that here, adapt or fail.

6 hours ago, Toby1947 said:

Agent required. Job done.

This.

On 4/20/2023 at 11:55 PM, RB7829 said:

Is not extension ... is first time application

It is considered by Thailand Immigration as an extension of your stay in Thailand. You can not apply for nor get a visa in Thailand, you must apply for and get a visa in your home country for an O or O-A (retirement visa). You can get some visas in neighboring countries as well, but none in Thailand! I have known a Thai Immigration Officer for 17 years. When I used to ask him for a new visa, he would reply go back to your home country if you want a visa, I can only give you a visa extension. I got an extension of my O visa a couple of months ago. One requirement is a long term lease and my landlord reporting to Immigration that I am living there with my wife. I used to do O-A Visas and extensions based on retirement. It's easier now that I am married to a Thai and that I know the second in command at the Phuket Immigration Office. Every Immigration Office and even officer is different and they have discretion.

15 hours ago, The Theory said:

We are retired, not prisoners that is what I told the IO when I was asked: "why I keep moving around". 

Would love to have seen the IO's expression when told that...

 

2 hours ago, Jimi007 said:

You can not apply for nor get a visa in Thailand, you must apply for and get a visa in your home country for an O or O-A (retirement visa)

Incorrect.

There are forms for "conversion" from a visa exempt or tourist visa entry to a non O retirement or marriage. Namely TM86 and TM87. 

 

Most of the rest of your post is misleading...

You stated....

 

"I got an extension of my O visa a couple of months ago." 

 

Visas cannot be extended. 

You obtained an extension of your permission of stay. 

 

You also post.....

 

"One requirement is a long term lease and my landlord reporting to Immigration that I am living there with my wife" 

 

Apart from this thread being about applying for a non O retirement..That statement is incorrect regarding lease. 

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Jimi007 said:

It is considered by Thailand Immigration as an extension of your stay in Thailand. You can not apply for nor get a visa in Thailand, you must apply for and get a visa in your home country for an O or O-A (retirement visa). You can get some visas in neighboring countries as well, but none in Thailand! I have known a Thai Immigration Officer for 17 years. When I used to ask him for a new visa, he would reply go back to your home country if you want a visa, I can only give you a visa extension. I got an extension of my O visa a couple of months ago. One requirement is a long term lease and my landlord reporting to Immigration that I am living there with my wife. I used to do O-A Visas and extensions based on retirement. It's easier now that I am married to a Thai and that I know the second in command at the Phuket Immigration Office. Every Immigration Office and even officer is different and they have discretion.

It is absolutely amazing that you state with complete assurance that it is impossible to apply for a Non O visa (90-day initial permission to stay) at Immigration when this whole thread is about the problems the OP had doing just that! Have you ever looked at the TM87 form "Application for visa" and compared it with the TM7 form "Application for Extension of Temporary Stay in the Kingdom". The requirements for the two are completely different.

 

You cannot apply for all types of visa at Immigration. However, if in Thailand on a visa exemption or an entry from a tourist visa, applications for most of the most common types of visa are permitted. There are literally thousands of threads in this forum about that process.

16 hours ago, Menken said:

It all makes perfect sense to YOU but IO thinks otherwise and perhaps rightly so. How long would an immigration officer expect a person to be living in a hotel???

 

Perhaps if you draw up a properly that will work. Short of that I think they're well within their rights to deny you.

Funny, if you use an agent, no TM30 or lease required.

Bizarre that some posters cannot conceive of living in a hotel (even temporarily).

10 hours ago, Jimi007 said:

It is considered by Thailand Immigration as an extension of your stay in Thailand. You can not apply for nor get a visa in Thailand, you must apply for and get a visa in your home country for an O or O-A (retirement visa). You can get some visas in neighboring countries as well, but none in Thailand! I have known a Thai Immigration Officer for 17 years. When I used to ask him for a new visa, he would reply go back to your home country if you want a visa, I can only give you a visa extension. I got an extension of my O visa a couple of months ago. One requirement is a long term lease and my landlord reporting to Immigration that I am living there with my wife. I used to do O-A Visas and extensions based on retirement. It's easier now that I am married to a Thai and that I know the second in command at the Phuket Immigration Office. Every Immigration Office and even officer is different and they have discretion.

So, you know for 17 years an Immigration Officer in Thailand and the second in command at the Phuket Immigration Office... , but you don't know what is the difference between changing Type of Visa and an extension of stay  ?

 

 

 

I live in hotels as long as I can in Thailand, only taking refuge in a condo when the high season drive hotel prices too high. There are major advantages to living in hotels:

 

1) Cleaning. Thailand is a dusty place. Balconies get covered in soot within hours. I was told in Pattaya no cleaning woman is going to come to my condo for less than 600 Baht. That's more expensive than the hourly rate of cleaning in Paris. The cleaning lady in question worked for 50 minutes, didn't bring a vacuum cleaner (the small carpet remained unspeakably dirty), and didn't bother about cleaning the balcony. I ended up buying some tackle to do the cleaning myself. Talk of posh lifestyle.

 

2) Mobility. Switching hotels is a way of moving around and explore new surroundings if you want no parts in the killing fields, ie don't ride a motorbike.

 

3) Breakfast. It's not so much that breakfasts in Thai hotels are delicious, it's that you don't have to go out, buy things for breakfast and do the washing up afterwards.

 

4) Change of bed sheets and towels every day.

 

5) Removal of garbage and change of garbage plastic bag every day.

 

6) Two complementary small bottles of water every day. No lugging of water bottles from the 7/11.

 

7) Aircon or toilet flush malfunctioning? No problem, you're out of the room and into another in no time.

 

8) Three weeks to Ko Chang? Suitcase in storage and off you go, paying only for the place you sleep in.

 

My being able to live mostly in hotels was one main incentive for retiring in Thailand. No longer being able to do so would be a game changer as far as I'm concerned.