Insurance for NON-O visa: Best/Cheapest option?

[agg211]

For a NON-O "retirement visa" I need to have insurance for 90 days with the following requirements:

1) outpatient benefit not less than 40.000 Baht

2) inpatient benefit not less than 400.000 Baht

3) cover all medical expenditures including COVID-19 for at least USD $100.000.

 

Anyone who can recommend me the best/cheapest option?

[bigt3116]

How on earth could anybody answer your question without knowing, 100% about you and your health and medical history?

[DrJack54]

This thread has some good links.

 

https://aseannow.com/topic/1260551-insurance-for-non-immigrant-o-as-opposed-to-o-a/

[Red Phoenix]

1 hour ago, agg211 said:

Anyone who can recommend me the best/cheapest option?

When you apply for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa (retirement) in your home-country there are Thai Embassies that require you to take such Health-Insurance, as part of the application requirements.

When you are in no need of such insurance, and would only subscribe to it to meet those application requirements, the BEST and CHEAPEST option would be to

> NOT apply for a Visa, but simply enter Thailand Visa Exempt (without a Visa), and then when you still have at least 15 days left on the 30-days Permit to stay you received on entry by border-immigration, to apply for that 90-day Non Imm O Visa (retirement) at the Imm Office of the province where you plan to reside.  When doing so there is NO need for any health-insurance.  

Note 1: Do enquire at your local Imm Office (or on the Forum) whether your local Imm Office requires 15 days left on your Permit to stay, as some Imm Offices require 21 or even 23 days (e.g. the Chiang-Mai Imm office)

Note 2: If you do not have sufficient time to meet all the requirements (especially opening a personal Thai bank-account and transferring the required funds, might take some time), it would be a simple matter of first applying for a 30-day extension of your Permit to stay at your local Imm Office (costs 1.900,- THB and is delivered on the spot), which would give you enough time to prepare for your application.

[agg211]

1 hour ago, Red Phoenix said:

When you apply for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa (retirement) in your home-country there are Thai Embassies that require you to take such Health-Insurance, as part of the application requirements.

When you are in no need of such insurance, and would only subscribe to it to meet those application requirements, the BEST and CHEAPEST option would be to

> NOT apply for a Visa, but simply enter Thailand Visa Exempt (without a Visa), and then when you still have at least 15 days left on the 30-days Permit to stay you received on entry by border-immigration, to apply for that 90-day Non Imm O Visa (retirement) at the Imm Office of the province where you plan to reside.  When doing so there is NO need for any health-insurance.  

Note 1: Do enquire at your local Imm Office (or on the Forum) whether your local Imm Office requires 15 days left on your Permit to stay, as some Imm Offices require 21 or even 23 days (e.g. the Chiang-Mai Imm office)

Note 2: If you do not have sufficient time to meet all the requirements (especially opening a personal Thai bank-account and transferring the required funds, might take some time), it would be a simple matter of first applying for a 30-day extension of your Permit to stay at your local Imm Office (costs 1.900,- THB and is delivered on the spot), which would give you enough time to prepare for your application.

Thanks.

But when I apply for a (multiple entry) NON-O "retirement visa" in my home country I don't need to show 800.000 Baht on my bank account, so that would be a drawback, at least in my case.

Edited May 22, 2023 by agg211

[Red Phoenix]

15 minutes ago, agg211 said:

Thanks.

But when I apply for a (multiple entry) NON-O visa in my home country I don't need to show 800.000 Baht on my bank account, so that would be a drawback, at least in my case.

That's correct, but it depends on how long you plan to stay in Thailand. 

When you are considering long-term stay, you would need to apply for the 1-year extension of stay from that 90-day Non Imm O Visa (retirement), which requires +800K on a personal Thai bank-account with foreign origins proven and seasoned for at least 2 months at moment of application. 

When you only want to stay 3 to 6 months in Thailand, entering VisaExempt (without a Visa) is still the easiest option (that is if you do not have a recent history of many tourist Visa).  

As you can extend that 30-day Visa Exempt Permit to Stay with a 30 days extension at every Imm Office in Thailand (costs 1.900,- THB and is delivered on the spot). 

At the end of those 60 days you can then do a border-bounce to a near-by Country (exit and return to Thailand, can be done same day or combined with a holiday-trip in the country of exit).  That will once again provide you with a 30-day VisaExempt Permit to stay which can once again be extended for another 30 days.  So that's already 120 days. 

And you can even do the above yet another time, which would mean 180 days (after which you would have used up your 2 land-border crossings per calendar year, and might run into difficulties because of having stayed too long [180 days] in Thailand).  

Edited May 22, 2023 by Red Phoenix

[BritTim]

Have you verified that the insurance requirements you cite are still current? At many embassies, the Covid era insurance requirements have now been dropped. You should not rely on the embassy website as an accurate reflection of the current regulations, but check directly with the embassy. Which embassy will you be applying at?

[agg211]

13 minutes ago, BritTim said:

Have you verified that the insurance requirements you cite are still current? At many embassies, the Covid era insurance requirements have now been dropped. You should not rely on the embassy website as an accurate reflection of the current regulations, but check directly with the embassy. Which embassy will you be applying at?

Yes, I'm certainly going to check with the embassy!

[KhunBENQ]

49 minutes ago, BritTim said:

Have you verified that the insurance requirements you cite are still current?

Interestingly some consulates still show the 40k/400k requirement.

Not the tightened 3 mio Baht.

Income/savings requirement also vary wildly between consulates in different countries.