Hi!  I'm a 55 year old man in Seattle, Washington USA.  I'm coming to Thailand and will begin with a Tourist visa.  Can a tourist visa be renewed?  If so, how and where.

I've decided to start with a tourist visa to make sure I like Thailand as much as I think I do.  After 6 months or so, I should know if I want to retire there permanently.

Thanks for you advice and help.

Don  

Apply for a Multiple entry Non-Immigrant O Visa in the US. Your purpose of visit is to retire. The visa is valid for a year

and enables stays of up to 90 days on each entry. If you

decide to stay, that visa can be extended for year at a time

if you open a bank account in Thailand with 800,000 Baht.

If you use the tourist visa way, you will have to ultimately

get an O visa to be able to be able to apply to stay, and

periods of stay are longer. There is no compulsion for you to stay in THailand using that visa. It seems to me to be a superior class of visa for your purpose.

Thank you for your reply.

For a Multiple entry Non-Immigrant O Visa, do I need to open an account in a Thai bank?  I didn't want to do this until I was certain that I want to stay in Thailand for sure.

Any and all advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

Don

You might have to convince the Consulate that you have sufficient $ to transfer. Unless you seek the long stay visa  there is no need to transfer money.

You can apply in your home country for a double entry tourist vias ($30).  Each entry is good for 60 days and each entry may be extended at Thai Imagrations in Bangkok for an extra 30 days at a cost of 500 baht.  After your first 90 days you can take a bus to the Thai border at Aranyaprathet and go across the border to Poipet Cambodia.  Have the second entry of your visa activated and take the bus back to Bangkok.  This can be done in about 10 or 12 hours, including the bus rides.  The bus fares are under 200 baht each and you can get a Cambodia visa at the border for 1000 baht.  Your second entry may also be extended another 30 days.  This will give you 6 months with only minor inconvience.

Thanks for the info....if is much appreciated.

Don