I'm heading to Pattaya in Feb. on a tourist visa.

I was wondering if it is possible to apply for a retirement visa for Thailand while

being in the country? Any ideas how long the process normally takes?

Thx

I'm heading to Pattaya in Feb. on a tourist visa.

I was wondering if it is possible to apply for a retirement visa for Thailand while

being in the country? Any ideas how long the process normally takes?

Thx

If you are 50 or over and have 800,000 baht to put in a bank account or a monthly income of 65,000 baht, or a combination of income and savings, go off to Immigration and firstly convert your tourist visa to a Non-Immigrant O visa. If you use the 800,000 baht in the bank, those funds need to be held in the account for 3 months so that you can then extend your visa for a year at a time.

The cost will be 2,000 baht to change visa and then 1,900 baht to extend your stay for one year. It is not a retirement visa - it is an extension of stay from a non immigrant visa entry. Change of visa will be immediate - extension of stay they may want you to wait 60 days to be under 30 days remaining on permitted to stay stamp of the non immigrant visa.

Any ideas how long the process normally takes?

Unless it varies significantily from office to office, the process itself only takes an hour or so, if you have all the documentation in order the first time. If you need to keep leaving to get documents (or additional copies) you forgot, that can add to the time.

I did the process at Jomtien Immigrations in the afternoon so had to return the next day after 1000 to retrieve my passport with the retirement extension. I think others who went in the morning were able to return in the afternoon for their passport? I understand that Suan Phlu issues the extension on the spot, on your initial visit.

A wild card is the length of the queue in front of you when you arrive. The wait to see the Immigrations Officers can take hours, or can be immediate if nobody else is waiting. In Jomtien, it is a different officer at a different desk (with a different queue) who "converts" your visa. However, not knowing that, I went directly to the officer handling the extensions and he had me visit the other officer without waiting in a queue and then I returned to the first officer, again without re-waiting in a queue. I'm pretty sure It was less than an hour from my first contact with the first officer until I was out the door.

Obtaining a re-entry permit takes all of about five minutes.

/edited due to wrong use of "visa" and "extension"/

Edited January 8, 200818 yr by wpcoe

On what grounds can you convert a Tourist Visa to Non-Imm O? Is it only for those over 50 or can it be done for anyone?

There must be a valid reason as listed here (click "change visa")

http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/en/ba...hp?page=service