O Visa

[pantarei]

Next month I will marry a Thai woman in the US (she is a Thai citizen). We are considering moving to Thailand in the next 1-2 years. From what I have read on this forum, a “dependent visa O” would my best choice.

What happens if my wife gets a well-paying job (by Thai standards) and doesn’t need my support? If Thai immigration takes the “O” rules literally, I may not be eligible for a “supporter” visa. Hopefully, I am just paranoid and “think too much” but would feel a lot better if the experts on this forum confirmed this. The non-paranoid part of my brain tells me that as long as I prove we are married and deposit 400K baht in one of the Thai banks there should be no problem.

Many thanks.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Next month I will marry a Thai woman in the US (she is a Thai citizen). We are considering moving to Thailand in the next 1-2 years. From what I have read on this forum, a “dependent visa O” would my best choice.

What happens if my wife gets a well-paying job (by Thai standards) and doesn’t need my support? If Thai immigration takes the “O” rules literally, I may not be eligible for a “supporter” visa. Hopefully, I am just paranoid and “think too much” but would feel a lot better if the experts on this forum confirmed this. The non-paranoid part of my brain tells me that as long as I prove we are married and deposit 400K baht in one of the Thai banks there should be no problem.

Many thanks.

You can get an O class visa based on marriage to a Thai, and provided that you can comply with the financial requirements of having 400,000 baht in a bank in Thailand, you can extend your stay for a year at a time. That class of visa does enable you to apply for a work permit.

[Indo-Siam]

Technically, your ability to extend a Class O entry permit is NOT based on being married to a Thai, or having 4000,000 baht in a Thai bank - it is based on the fact that you are "necessary" to support your Thai wife, and you do so by either having a legal, documented job inside Thailand paying at least 40,000 baht per month, or you have some source of funds OUTSIDE Thailand that allows you to remit INTO Thailand at least 400,000 new/fresh baht each year.

Technically, if you wife is supporting you, then you must depart Thailand every 90 days.

Under any situation where you are not either working legally inside Thailand, or remitting in steady money from overseas, Thai Immigration "defaults" to the conclusion that you must be supporting yourself via illegal employment inside Thailand. In many/most cases, that is a pretty accurate conclusion. But it does cause problems for cases such as yours.

As the Dr. indicated, being married to a Thai does make it relatively easier for you to obrtain a job with work permit here.

Good luck!

Steve

Indo-Siam

[RamdomChances]

In my experiance if you are married and have the 400,000 in the bank imagration are'nt interested in what your wife does, they are'nt really that interested where the money has come from either as long as you have a letter from the bank stating how much is in the account.

A friend of mine did his recently and still thought it was 200,000, he was having trouble finding the 400,000. Imagration told him just borrow the money off someone put it in the bank, get the letter, and take the money back out again. As long as they have all the bits of paper they dont seem to be that bothered.

Technically it is possible to get a non "o" and be supported by your wife ie she shows the 400,000 or income of 40,000 a month, but you have to show a good reason for your wife to have to stay in the country.

I was thinking of doing this but the imagration web site says its possible but the office says its not, in the end if you have the financial requirments it's not worth the hassel trying.

Cheers RC

[dr_Pat_Pong]

A farang being supported by his Thai wife will not go over well with the vast majority of Immigration Officers. Culturally they'd see it as a no no and raise insurmountable obstacles to the farang getting an extended visa. As Indo Siam says, it'll probably mean 90 day runs in such a situation.

[RamdomChances]

Yea Dr your right, like I said technically it is possible, but if you have the money not worth the hassel. We inquired about it last time i did mine, they just said "falang have no money go home" then again they dont really like "non standed stuff" to much paper work and hassel

I cut this out of the imagration website

(Husband who is an alien)

Application for further stay for an alien husband to receive support from a wife who is a Thai citizen or who is a permanent resident of the Kingdom of Thailand.

1. Immigration form 7

2. Copy of passport

3. A 4 cm. x 6 cm. photograph

4. A 1,900 bath application fee

5. Marriage Certificate

6. A copy of census registration, a copy of Identification Card (wife)

- document showing a permanent residence of the wife

7. Children's birth Certificate

8. Financial evidence showing the wife's financial status such as bank pass-book, band statement from the bank the applicant has an account or other assets.

9. A record of interviewing the applicant and his wife.

10. Evidence certified by the embassy or consulate of the applicant indicating the applicant's marital status. Except in case of having a child/children with his wife and presenting evidence of this relationship.

11. Evidence of police clearance from National Police Office. (fingerprints inspection)

12. The officials reserve the rights to examine or ask for additional documents if necessary.

- In most cases this kind of request will not be approved, unless there is evidence showing the wife has secure financial status but it is necessary for her not to live together with her husband in his home country.

http://www.imm3.police.go.th/eng/application.html#02

[phormio]

I'm in a similar situation - my wife is likely to earn a very good salary by Thai standards (we're emigrating from the US in a few months). But I was curious about this comment:

In my experiance if you are married and have the 400,000 in the bank imagration are'nt interested in what your wife does, they are'nt really that interested where the money has come from either as long as you have a letter from the bank stating how much is in the account.

A friend of mine did his recently and still thought it was 200,000, he was having trouble finding the 400,000. Imagration told him just borrow the money off someone put it in the bank, get the letter, and take the money back out again. As long as they have all the bits of paper they dont seem to be that bothered.

Technically it is possible to get a non "o" and be supported by your wife ie she shows the 400,000 or income of 40,000 a month, but you have to show a good reason for your wife to have to stay in the country.

...

When I first started participating in the forums here about a month ago , there was a thread or two indicating that immigration is interested in seeing gradual withdrawals of the 400K from the bank account(as indicated in the bank account book) as an indicator that the money was being used to cover living expenses.

Do you folks think that this is generally true? Or is this just one guys' bad experience with immigration.

Its funny as he11 that immigration is telling your friend how to violate the rules.

[lopburi3]

When I first started participating in the forums here about a month ago , there was a thread or two indicating that immigration is interested in seeing gradual withdrawals of the 400K from the bank account(as indicated in the bank account book) as an indicator that the money was being used to cover living expenses.

Do you folks think that this is generally true? Or is this just one guys' bad experience with immigration.

Its funny as he11 that immigration is telling your friend how to violate the rules.

Believe you are thinking in black and white and in this case the grays are being used. Immigration knows the person and the person is having a shortfall this year, probably due to high expense. Officer is helping that person to meet the rules.

I believe you will find the more suspect your conditions are the more interest the officers will show.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

When I first started participating in the forums here about a month ago , there was a thread or two indicating that immigration is interested in seeing gradual withdrawals of the 400K from the bank account(as indicated in the bank account book) as an indicator that the money was being used to cover living expenses.

Do you folks think that this is generally true? Or is this just one guys' bad experience with immigration.

Its funny as he11 that immigration is telling your friend how to violate the rules. <_<

Believe you are thinking in black and white and in this case the grays are being used. Immigration knows the person and the person is having a shortfall this year, probably due to high expense. Officer is helping that person to meet the rules.

I believe you will find the more suspect your conditions are the more interest the officers will show.

I agree with Dr Lopburi.

[RamdomChances]

The story I was telling was true, the guy was actually in imagration in the morning and rather than come all the way back up here, just made a phone call to his wifes uncle who transfered an extra 200,000 into his bank account. He then went to a local branch of his bank in BKK and negotiated for them to do him a letter stating how much was in his bank account.

He was back in imagration in the afternoon, same officer, with 400,000 in his bank account. The only problem he had was not about how much money he had or where it came from , but the fact that the letter head was not of his local branch where the account was based. They did accept it though.

Oh I agree with lopburi as well

[pantarei]

Many thanks to everybody for taking time to reply to my post.

It seems that my message was confusing. My wife will not support me.

Here is what we plan to do:

We will get married and spend 1-2 more years in the US. I will apply for a marriage visa in the US and I will deposit 400,000 baht in a Thai bank immediately upon arrival in LOS.

I will spend my first year studying Thai full time while my wife works (555). My wife will not support me because in addition to spending my 400,000 baht/year, I will transfer money from my US accounts to our Thai account, when necessary.

My potential problem is that my wife will very likely make more than enough money to support herself (while I study Thai), and immigration bureaucrats may conclude that she does not need to be supported by a “student” and revoke my O visa. Does immigration looks at the earning of the "supported" Thai national to ascertain that she needs support? Perhaps my apprehension is silly but I want to minimize unpleasant surprises in the future.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Get the marriage based multiple entry Non-Immigrant O visa in the US before you come to Thailand, and border hop every 90 days if you don't want to get the extension of a year.

[lopburi3]

Many thanks to everybody for taking time to reply to my post.

It seems that my message was confusing.  My wife will not support me.

Here is what we plan to do:

We will get married and spend 1-2 more years in the US.  I will apply for a marriage visa in the US and I will deposit 400,000 baht in a Thai bank immediately upon arrival in LOS. 

I will spend my first year studying Thai full time while my wife works (555).  My wife will not support me because in addition to spending my 400,000 baht/year, I will transfer money from my US accounts to our Thai account, when necessary. 

My potential problem is that my wife will very likely make more than enough money to support herself (while I study Thai), and immigration bureaucrats may conclude that she does not need to be supported by a “student” and revoke my O visa.  Does immigration looks at the earning of the "supported" Thai national to ascertain that she needs support?  Perhaps my apprehension is silly but I want to minimize unpleasant surprises in the future.

The wife making money is not a problem. As long as you meet the 400k tests you should have no problem maintaining a support Thai wife extension. Nobody is looking at details of wife for this and you bringing in money on a regular basis takes care of the employment status for yourself (money will make you be considered employed overseas). You should not have any problem under current rules.