Family Visa Extension

[Coota]

My situation.

 

I have been legally married, in Thailand, to my wife since 2010. I have the certificate. We have 3 children all born in Thailand in 2006, 2010 and 2017. We live in our own house in rural Thailand. I moved here permanently in 2014 after retiring and had been on a retirement extension up to November 2019 when we all moved to Australia to live. We returned to live in Thailand again in May 2022 and I am using a Non Imm, O Visa for my return to Thailand which I extended once in a different province than where we live based on Retirement. The reason for the different province was because it was easy to extend my Visa there due to having a "friend" in that office and the financial requirements were similar to what an agent provides in Pattaya, if you get my drift. I no longer have that "friend" and I have now registered my address in my home province at my local Office.

 

My extension renewal is due in a few months and I would like to change my reason for extension to one based on my family situation as I am reluctant to bring a lot of money into the country at the moment. Can I change my extension from retirement to one based on marriage or being the father of 3 Thai children? As I am the supporting parent of 3 Thai children what are the requirements for an extension based on this and what is it called. What number is it on this page as the wording can be quite confusing? https://www.immigration.go.th/en/?p=14714

 

 

[Coota]

Can anyone help me? 

[Red Phoenix]

If you met the financial conditions under which your 1-year extension of stay for reason of retirement was issued, you would be able to apply for your next extension for reason of dependant Thai children (which only requires 400K on a personal Thai bank-account at moment of application, after which you are free to use the funds as you please).

However, as you will not be able to prove that you met the financial condition under which your current 1-year extension for reason of retirement was issued (i.e. providing evidence that you kept +800K on your personal Thai bank-account during the first 3 months of that 1-year permission, then kept at least +400K during the next 7 months and finally topped up to +800K again 2 months before the date of application for your next 1-year extension), you will unfortunately not be able to do so. 

So you have 2 options:

#1 - Engaging a 'fixer' agent, that will help you dodging the financial requirements again for a 1-year extension of stay for reason of retirement, OR

#2 - Exiting Thailand in the final days of your current permission to stay, and re-entering VisaExempt, which will provide you with a 30 days permission to stay, and then when you have at least 15 days left on that Permit to stay, apply for a 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of dependant Thai children, and at the end of those 90-days then apply for the 1-year extension for same reason.

> What you should NOT do is trying to apply for the 1-year extension for reason of dependant Thai children with your current status, as Immigration will check whether you met the financial conditions for your current 1-year extension based on retirement, and you will be in deep trouble when they see that you breached the conditions.

[Tod Daniels]

Reluctant or not, if you want to change the reason for your yearly extension from retirement to a yearly extension based on marriage or raising half Thai children you bank 400,000 baht in a Thai bank account in your name only.

 

For marriage the money must be banked for 2 months before you apply for your extension. There is no required seasoning for extensions based on raising children.

 

If you've registered your address with the tm30 receipt and are filing 90-day reports with the immigration office where you live now, even with an out of province stamp you might be able to pull off the extension.

 

Keep in mind if you used your friend to get that extension for you based on retirement and they banked the money for you, you were require to keep the 800k funds in the bank for 3 months after the extension was granted and then the balance could never go below 400,000. <-that could catch you out, or not

 

You want the clause 2.18 in the current police order which is married to a Thai or raising half thai children.

[Tod Daniels]

I would suggest exiting the country at the mukdahan border, going to the Thai consulate in Savannakhet Lao and getting either a 90 day single entry non o based on marriage, then come back and bank the 400k baht money for 2 months and apply for a year extension based on marriage.

OR

Get the year long, multi entry Non-O visa based on marriage at that consulate (no proof of funds needed) and just bounce in and out at the border every 90 days for the next year. You can get almost 15 months of stay out of that Visa in 90 day increments

[DrJack54]

OP, you will not be able to obtain extension based on marriage or retirement.

 

Having used an agent you cannot show record of following the financial requirements.

 

You would need to exit and reenter Thailand.

 

Your options would be to obtain non O retirement or marriage at nearby consulate eg Vientiane

OR... you could obtain ME Non O marriage from Savannakhet.

 

OR ..you could border bounce and reenter visa exempt and obtain a non O marriage at Thai immigration office.

 

Edited April 26, 2023 by DrJack54

[Red Phoenix]

Hi, let my summarize your options.

You will NOT be able to extend your current 1-year extension based on your Non Imm O Visa, as you did not meet the conditions under which that extension was provided to you.  

A 'fixer' Visa Agent may be able to fix another retirement extension for you, but as you are married to a Thai national and have Thai dependant children you have far better options than doing that.

You wrote that your current permit to stay from your 1-year retirement extension is still valid for a couple of months, so there is no hurry.

But you would need to leave Thailand during the final days of your current permission to stay.  Note that if you have a Re-Entry Permit you would have to wait till last day to do that as that Re-Entry Permit would 'protect' your current permit to stay, and you need to get rid of it.

It now depends on where you are residing in Thailand what would be your best option: 

#1 - If you live close to a landborder-crossing and travel often abroad or don't mind having to make 3-monthly borderruns, you could consider applying for the 1-year MultipleEntry Non Imm O Visa for reason of marriage at the Savannakhet consulate.  Applying for that Visa does not require any financials, but of course the required border-runs might be inconvenient depending on where you live.

#2 - Exiting Thailand at a close-by border-crossing, and returning VisaExempt (without a Visa). This can be done on same day (or you could make it a small holiday), and it will provide you with a 30-day Permission to stay when re-entering Thailand. 

When there are at least 15 days left on that Permission to stay (some Imm Offices require 21 or even 23 days), you can then apply at the local Imm Office of the province where you are staying for a 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of marriage or for reason of dependant Thai children.

To meet the financial requirement you need to show that you have +400K on  personal Thai bank-account at the date of application for that 90-day Non Imm O Visa.  And then in the last month of those 90-days, you can apply for a 1-year extension of that Non Imm O Visa. When you applied for reason of marriage, your 1-year extension needs to be for same reason and requires that you show that you have kept the +400K on your personal Thai bank-account for 2 months prior to date of application for that 1-year extension, and you need to keep it there during the 'under consideration' period till the application has been approved (some Imm Offices do require this). 

When you applied for reason of dependant Thai children, there is no requirement for seasoning the funds for 2 months, but just like for the Visa application you have to show that it is on your personal Thai bank-account at the date of application for the 1-year extension, and have to keep it there during the 'under consideration' period till the application has been approved (if your Imm Office requires that).  

> In your case that option #2 is imo your best option.

Cheers, success and no worries!

[DrJack54]

18 minutes ago, Red Phoenix said:

When there are at least 15 days left on that Permission to stay (some Imm Offices require 21 or even 23 days), you can then apply at the local Imm Office of the province where you are staying for a 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of marriage or for reason of dependant Thai children.

First up very clear post outlining options 

 

I have never been sure regards option to obtain extension based on marriage OR dependant children.

For some reason thinking that if you are married you need to apply for extension based on marriage. 

Some married guys might clarify. 

Edited April 27, 2023 by DrJack54

[Coota]

Thanks for your help and advice everyone.

 

I live about and hour from a border crossing so I should be able to sort it out.