I am US citizen. Age 65. I contemplate retiring end of Sep'08 when age 66.

I have opportunity to marry Thai woman and live with her family. Living expenses. No dowry. At this writing my estimated retirement income will be US$700/month. I have virtually no savings. I will maybe have it built back up to $2500. In this scenario is there any possible strategy I could follow to return for an extended stay (until the rules change)?

I will receive an unknown civil settlement, hopefully in 2008, which would make this all a moot point because I could then qualify for current retirement visa requirements of $2000/mo. income and $24,500 in savings acct.

Either on this Board or in conversation a man told me he determined a business visa the best route to take.

I am very grateful for ThaiVisa. It has been very helpful to me already. Anyone wanting direct contact with me, make it known. I also have a Thai cell phone.

Cheers,

William

I am US citizen. Age 65. I contemplate retiring end of Sep'08 when age 66.

I have opportunity to marry Thai woman and live with her family. Living expenses. No dowry. At this writing my estimated retirement income will be US$700/month. I have virtually no savings. I will maybe have it built back up to $2500. In this scenario is there any possible strategy I could follow to return for an extended stay (until the rules change)?

I will receive an unknown civil settlement, hopefully in 2008, which would make this all a moot point because I could then qualify for current retirement visa requirements of $2000/mo. income and $24,500 in savings acct.

Either on this Board or in conversation a man told me he determined a business visa the best route to take.

I am very grateful for ThaiVisa. It has been very helpful to me already. Anyone wanting direct contact with me, make it known. I also have a Thai cell phone.

Cheers,

William

As no one has answered you I will give it a go.

As you probably know, if you marry the lady you will need 40,000Baht a month income to get a yearly extension.

If you get it on retirement you will need 800,000 in the bank or 65,000 Baht a month income.

If you marry the lady with little savings or income you could probably get a multi entry Non O Visa from your home country and certainlt a single entry from local consultes.

Until all this happens you are likely to only get Tourist Visas , maybe double or triple entry from your home country.

A multi entry non immigrant O visa from Penang seems to be your best option after marriage - at last report they were not strict on the amount of bank money you can show and being over age 50 and married should be a good combination. Once you have the finances for extension of stay you can change from that visa easily.