More Multiple Entry non O Woe's

[Bday Prang]

                Ok now don't shoot the messenger,   Went online last night to apply for a ME Non O  (From UK) but the website was down "for maintenance" so I spent the rest of the evening downloading and sorting out all the usual stuff required ready for a quick start in the morning. Logged on this morning and it was all up and running and no problems accessing my account. Happy days I thought but my happiness was somewhat short lived !

                 I fell at the first hurdle,         Reason for Visit ?         Pensioner aged over 50 with state pension ... no problem

                                                                Type of visa?                Non O.....  No problem

                                                                  Number of entries       SINGLE !!!!!!!

 

                  They have removed the "MULTIPLE" option for non o;s based on retirement and for non o's based on staying with Thai family  !!

There is still a note there saying that  those applying for multi entry visas must prove a genuine reason for wanting one, but the option to apply for one has been removed, Multi entry tourist visas are still available 

                   It may just be an error that has occurred as as result of them carrying out the site maintenance / update, this option did disappear a few years ago, I think when the e-visa system started, only to reappear somewhat recently,  I was thinking of e mailing the embassy to check but I have a flight booked soon and don't have the time so it looks like a METV for me           

[Bangkok Barry]

The paper form has never had a place to request a multi. I had to write multi, back when I used that method. As far as the form is concerned, you were unable to apply for a multi. Except, of course, that you could. Just Thainess, making something that should be simple confusing.

[Bday Prang]

1 hour ago, Bangkok Barry said:

The paper form has never had a place to request a multi. I had to write multi, back when I used that method. As far as the form is concerned, you were unable to apply for a multi. Except, of course, that you could. Just Thainess, making something that should be simple confusing.

                         Nah you have miss understood my post.  I have been doing this for nearly thirty years, in the good old days before the e-visa system  there was always an option on the original paper forms one would tick the relevant box for either "tourist" or "non o "  and then select the relevant box for the number of entries  either single or multi.

                        However for some time now   there is no paper form in many countries  anymore, and  all applications must be done online. The availability of multi entry non o's was withdrawn around the time the e visa system came online but was reinstated more recently.

                         If you or anybody else doesn't believe me then feel free to  go look for yourselves on the website, you can explore the visa options available on the first page of the application process,  there is no need to upload any personal information or documents at this stage in the application.      As of this morning multi entry options for non o visas are not currently available 

[mlkik]

10 minutes ago, Bday Prang said:

                         Nah you have miss understood my post.  I have been doing this for nearly thirty years, in the good old days before the e-visa system  there was always an option on the original paper forms one would tick the relevant box for either "tourist" or "non o "  and then select the relevant box for the number of entries  either single or multi.

                        However for some time now   there is no paper form in many countries  anymore, and  all applications must be done online. The availability of multi entry non o's was withdrawn around the time the e visa system came online but was reinstated more recently.

                         If you or anybody else doesn't believe me then feel free to  go look for yourselves on the website, you can explore the visa options available on the first page of the application process,  there is no need to upload any personal information or documents at this stage in the application.      As of this morning multi entry options for non o visas are not currently available 

Just checked my application for multiple entry Non O from London based on retirement on the site and it is still available.

[Bday Prang]

I have now applied for a multi entry tourist visa, It would appear that  the application process has been significantly shortened, !  There was no requirement to show any bank statements, or tax return, or proof of employment,  and no request for a photo of oneself holding ones passport, and no need to download and sign that form which needed to be re uploaded !

To be honest I'm not sure if this is evidence of new tighter  visa restrictions regarding multi entry visas and an easier and less intrusive tourist visa application process , or has the system suffered some sort of a malfunction as a result of last nights "maintenance / upgrade"

               I've finished my application but may wait a few days before submitting it

[Bday Prang]

1 minute ago, mlkik said:

Just checked my application for multiple entry Non O from London based on retirement on the site and it is still available.

Had you already applied?  You may have just beaten the deadline, or as i said there may be an error on the system

 

[mlkik]

4 minutes ago, Bday Prang said:

Had you already applied?  You may have just beaten the deadline, or as i said there may be an error on the system

 

Maybe it is a system error as it displays clearly for my application that as yet have not submitted.

This is the reply I have received from the London Embassy earlier this week.

 

 

Dear Sir/ Madam, 

 

Thank you for your email.

 

 

NON-IMMIGRANT VISA TYPE O Retirement (for single entry / multiple entries)

 

 (For retirement long stay: valid for 90 days)
 

 

Eligible Applicants for O Retirement Visa

- This category of visa is issued to the applicant who is a UK, Ireland and UK Territories national or a permanent resident of such countries currently whose age is 50 years or over and currently residing in the UK Ireland and UK Territories

 

O Retirement Conditions

- Period of stay: The holder of an O Retirement Visa is allowed to stay in Thailand for 90 days (single entry).

- Extension: If a traveller would like to stay longer, it is possible to extend your stay up to 1 year. An application can be submitted at the immigration office in Thailand.

- Employment of any kind is strictly prohibited.

- If the O Retirement Visa holder breaches the entry conditions (for example, if he/she engages in work-related activities), the stay permit will be revoked and he/she will be prohibited from entering Thailand in the future.

 

 

 

Require Document 

 

1. Biodata page of Passport or Travel Document.                                                       

2. Declaration.

           - Visa declaration must be downloaded and signed. Illegible youth declaration forms can be signed by their parents/ guardians.                                               

 

3. Photograph *taken within the last six months. If the photograph does not reflect your current appearance you may be refused to enter the Kingdom of Thailand.

          - If the photograph is inappropriate, and does not reflect your current appearance your visa may be rejected to enter the Kingdom of Thailand.                                                          

 

4. Proof of permanent residence in the country where the application is submitted.
    
5. Financial evidence e.g. A copy of a pension statement (more than £200/week) if the applicant is a pensioner and a copy of a 3-month bank statement showing your income from pension, or a 3-month bank statement of at least £10,000.
    
6. All travel records for the past 12 months (1 year) since the last international trip.

         - International travel record over the past 12 months from the application date.

 

7. A document that can verify the applicant's current residency (Applicant must apply for e-Visa via a specific Embassy/Consulate conforming with his/her consular jurisdiction and residency.)

        - Applicants are requested to submit their local utility bills eg. electricity bills/ gas / mobile phone / rental agreements, and pension statements.                                        

 

                   

     - No need Health Insurance for O Retirement Visa. You can put your bank statement instead. 

[Bday Prang]

54 minutes ago, mlkik said:

Maybe it is a system error as it displays clearly for my application that as yet have not submitted.

This is the reply I have received from the London Embassy earlier this week.

 

 

Dear Sir/ Madam, 

 

Thank you for your email.

 

 

NON-IMMIGRANT VISA TYPE O Retirement (for single entry / multiple entries)

 

 (For retirement long stay: valid for 90 days)
 

 

Eligible Applicants for O Retirement Visa

- This category of visa is issued to the applicant who is a UK, Ireland and UK Territories national or a permanent resident of such countries currently whose age is 50 years or over and currently residing in the UK Ireland and UK Territories

 

O Retirement Conditions

- Period of stay: The holder of an O Retirement Visa is allowed to stay in Thailand for 90 days (single entry).

- Extension: If a traveller would like to stay longer, it is possible to extend your stay up to 1 year. An application can be submitted at the immigration office in Thailand.

- Employment of any kind is strictly prohibited.

- If the O Retirement Visa holder breaches the entry conditions (for example, if he/she engages in work-related activities), the stay permit will be revoked and he/she will be prohibited from entering Thailand in the future.

 

 

 

Require Document 

 

1. Biodata page of Passport or Travel Document.                                                       

2. Declaration.

           - Visa declaration must be downloaded and signed. Illegible youth declaration forms can be signed by their parents/ guardians.                                               

 

3. Photograph *taken within the last six months. If the photograph does not reflect your current appearance you may be refused to enter the Kingdom of Thailand.

          - If the photograph is inappropriate, and does not reflect your current appearance your visa may be rejected to enter the Kingdom of Thailand.                                                          

 

4. Proof of permanent residence in the country where the application is submitted.
    
5. Financial evidence e.g. A copy of a pension statement (more than £200/week) if the applicant is a pensioner and a copy of a 3-month bank statement showing your income from pension, or a 3-month bank statement of at least £10,000.
    
6. All travel records for the past 12 months (1 year) since the last international trip.

         - International travel record over the past 12 months from the application date.

 

7. A document that can verify the applicant's current residency (Applicant must apply for e-Visa via a specific Embassy/Consulate conforming with his/her consular jurisdiction and residency.)

        - Applicants are requested to submit their local utility bills eg. electricity bills/ gas / mobile phone / rental agreements, and pension statements.                                        

 

                   

     - No need Health Insurance for O Retirement Visa. You can put your bank statement instead. 

I have received similar letters from them in the past, the fact that you received this one quite recently ( before yesterdays site update) makes me think that there just maybe cause for some optimism. But I can't help thinking that my experience today  might indeed  be evidence of a deadline having just  passed, and some sort of overhaul of the vias on offer has taken place.  possibly affecting visas issued after the 1st of November maybe?

               I hope not, but it wouldn't be the first time I have been inconvenienced by last minute changes to visa regs, just prior to a current visa application and looming  departure date

Anyway I have now sent an email to the embassy asking them to clarify the situation, I'm just hoping I get a reply reasonably promptly. In the meantime I intend to keep an eye on the visa website to see if anything changes

[Bangkok Barry]

2 hours ago, Bday Prang said:

there was always an option on the original paper forms one would tick the relevant box for either "tourist" or "non o "  and then select the relevant box for the number of entries  either single or multi.

Not on my many years of experience, either at the Melbourne consulate or Savannakhet. Of course, as we know, different offices do things differently. I always had to write multi as there was no 'relevant box'.

[frankstraube]

I agree that the eVisa website requires less informations than a few months ago (post covid effect ?).

But you still have to upload whatever the embassy requires on its website. For example the french embassy require more documents like hotel reservation, bank statement, attestation of retirement..etc. As there is now nowhere to upload these informations on the eVisa application site, you have to merge several unrelated documents into one, hoping they will get it.

[liddelljohn]

I have wasted  alot of time dealing with london embassy ,, website keeps crashing , data lost    cant call anyone ,,  so Im coming to my house  and wife in Thailand  on a 30 day  and extending it to 4 months when there ... Nothing has improved in 30 years  it actually gets worse .

[Bday Prang]

3 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

Not on my many years of experience, either at the Melbourne consulate or Savannakhet. Of course, as we know, different offices do things differently. I always had to write multi as there was no 'relevant box'.

i believe there were always some differences between the requirements of the  UK and Australian Thai consulates 

[mlkik]

1 hour ago, HauptmannUK said:

I am currently in the UK and from what I've seen on the eVisa website the  Non O (Retirement) 'Multiple' disappeared a week or more ago.  In fact a few days ago one AN poster was writing that he intended to get a MENO based on retirement and I did post and ask 'can you really get one based on retirement?'.

Anyway, I now see for myself that the MENO based on Thai family has gone and its 'Single' only.

I should add that I am not new to getting these visas having had four MENO eVisas.  The MENO based on Thai family DID disappear for a time when eVisa was initially introduced and was later reinstated.

 

It seems the eVisa site is hosted centrally in Thailand. I am guessing when users input their nationality it goes to a 'look up table' and pulls off a set of available options and requirements based on each country. Obviously someone has changed that data, either in error or by design.....

False information.

 

Disregard this post as it it fake news.

[Bday Prang]

                    No wish to start a TVF panic  its just that , the more I think about this, the more I begin to  suspect that  this could be something to do  with the (much discussed on here) new tax legislation,   As strangely there is now no requirement to show  any bank balance details (or tax return if in business) for any tourist visa , even multiple entry type.  Yet I noticed there was still this  requirement when applying for the non o's   

I'm thinking  maybe the holders of tourist visas will be deemed to be outside of any new  pending  tax scheme ( if there is one)  but  holders of all non o's might be subject to some  further tax related unpleasantness .  Multi entry non.o's  are a little different and the people who use them are often a little more transient in nature than full blown retirees on 12 month extensions. so they may have suspended the multi entry visas whilst they are trying to work out how to deal with these people. They may of course have stopped them altogether

                Lets now see if tourista are to be limited to 180 days per year

[mlkik]

Me tink you kit too mutt

[Bday Prang]

Not a case of thinking to much, more a case of reporting some changes, which as usual have not been formally announced anywhere. It might actually even be of help to a few people.  Luckily I have just bought a return flight which gives me 59 days in Thailand as I was pretty much decided to limit my stay and would only require a tourist Visa, I was considering increasing my options by getting a ME non o and  thought about getting a 90 day flight. That would have had to be changed to a 60 day flight for a tourist visa and god knows how much that would cost,or if its even an option with my ticket

[Bday Prang]

13 minutes ago, mlkik said:

False information.

 

Disregard this post as it it fake news.

What is fake about it?  Seems right enough to me

[HauptmannUK]

3 hours ago, mlkik said:

False information.

 

Disregard this post as it it fake news.

Can you specify what is 'fake' please?

[MangoKorat]

6 hours ago, HauptmannUK said:

Obviously someone has changed that data, either in error or by design.....

Hopefully its an error.  Not that they'll change it - the RTE London's website has contained several mistakes for years and they refuse to put them right or even acknowledge they are wrong.  During covid it was an absolute nightmare.

[MangoKorat]

7 hours ago, frankstraube said:

I agree that the eVisa website requires less informations than a few months ago (post covid effect ?).

But you still have to upload whatever the embassy requires on its website. For example the french embassy require more documents like hotel reservation, bank statement, attestation of retirement..etc. As there is now nowhere to upload these informations on the eVisa application site, you have to merge several unrelated documents into one, hoping they will get it.

Hardly surprising that a state of confusion almost always exists when different 'offices' are allowed to require different information - crazy, you are entering the same country!

 

On the subject of having to merge documents - I remember the same thing applied for applications to visit/quarantine during covid - only one document could be uploaded.  My travel insurance was 15 pages long - thankfully someone showed me a free website where all 15 pages could be merged into one jpeg.

[BritTim]

7 hours ago, hayden76 said:

Does anyone know this a definite requirement or just hearsay at the mo?  

 

There have been multiple credible reports. I believe it.

[kelboy]

I did mine ok (but the wrong spelling, got that sorted) 2 months ago. If you put the wrong information in to start with it won't give you all the options ie multi only single .married to a thai national or children. 

[sandyf]

21 hours ago, Bday Prang said:

 It may just be an error that has occurred as as result of them carrying out the site maintenance / update, this option did disappear a few years ago, I think when the e-visa system started, only to reappear somewhat recently,

When the e-visa was rolled out in the UK, 2017?, the ME option was greyed out. The UK was the first country following China and the ME option was never available for China.

Sometime after the rollout started in the UK the ME option did become available, it was still available when I did a SE on marriage 21st Sept.

It is possible that this is a country specific option and if the update was across the whole E-visa platform it could be that the option has defaulted to off and will need to be reinstated for the specified countries, which may well take some time.

[mlkik]

11 hours ago, HauptmannUK said:

Can you specify what is 'fake' please?

Multiple entry is still available.

[MangoKorat]

7 hours ago, SunsetT said:

Since Covid the UK Embassy's efficiency has greatly improved and all it takes to end all this speculation is a short polite email to: [email protected] enquire if the MENO is still available.

I have no idea if they have improved or not - their website is still a mess and clicking on many of the buttons simply takes you to a page that has nothing to do with visas etc.  I'm pretty sure they know about that but they do nothing.  I've pointed out mistakes on their website previously - politely.  All I got was an attitude of 'how dare you, a stupid farang, tell us that there are mistakes on our website? Our website is not there to provide you with information - we will do what we want with it'. 

 

During Covid, their information was often at odds with that coming from other Embassies and Bangkok and they seemed to think the best place to provide information was on Facebook rather than on their website!

 

I've also had several phone conversations with staff at the RTE London over the years and found their attitude to be very rude and condescending. My then wife (Thai) also spoke to them during Covid and also said they were rude.

 

If they've changed their attitude now, that would be very helpful but given that there website still doesn't work correctly, I find it hard to believe they've changed.  Contrast that with the staff at Ho Chi Minh - who I've always found very pleasant and helpful.

[MangoKorat]

I would also state that I used to deal with the Royal Thai Consulate in Hull in the main - formerly run by the Consul Mr. Alan Taylor.  Alan was very aware of just how rude the staff at London could be and hinted to me several times that he himself sometimes had problems with them.

[megapix]

I can confirm that Multi Non-O visa option is not available in Prague embassy as well now.

I was thinking to apply there but its gone. I remember back in September when I did visa for my parents it was still there.

 

 

[it is what it is]

22 hours ago, liddelljohn said:

I have wasted  alot of time dealing with london embassy ,, website keeps crashing , data lost    cant call anyone ,,  so Im coming to my house  and wife in Thailand  on a 30 day  and extending it to 4 months when there ... Nothing has improved in 30 years  it actually gets worse .

 

sorry to hear that, i've dealt with the london consulate for years both in person, by post and more recently by evisa application. while not the cheeriest bunch, they have always been helpful and prompt. last two applications approved in 4 days each time.

[Maestro]

London is a desired location for Thai diplomatic staff and I consider it likely that many do not get posted there because of there qualifications for the job and there manners.

[BusyB]

30 minutes ago, megapix said:

I can confirm that Multi Non-O visa option is not available in Prague embassy as well now.

I was thinking to apply there but its gone. I remember back in September when I did visa for my parents it was still there.

 

 

 

The Berlin site no longer offers multis for retirement or visiting Thai family any more. Only single entry, valid for 3 months. Non-O retirement is a lot tighter (as in user friendlier) than previously with only 4 requirements including proof of income. O-A is as before.

 

Non-O single entry €70.

Oddly it does have visa fees for multi entry on the fees page. TIT.

 

Tourist multi is 5x more expensive than the single entry at €175.

 

N.B. I also found a passage regarding visa exemptions which states German citizens' stays on visa exemption must not total more than 90 days in a six month period, measured from the date of first entry.

 

I wonder how long it'll take for that last to filter through to border checkpoints and if they'll actually enforce it.

 

That info all from an updated (28.10.23) set of requirements, so hot off the press.

Edited October 30, 2023 by BusyB