Non-immigrant Ao Visa

[Cowman]

OA visa from Japan

For 20 years I have been a Japanese resident and yearly have been coming to Thailand for the past 15 years, 3 times a year for a total of about 5 months. Since 2000 I had been getting 1 year Non-Immigrant O visas from the Thai Embassy in Tokyo with no problems. Last year they refused with no explanation and offered only 60 day tourist visas instead. This year anon-immigrant AO was suggested by the embassy staff as an alternative.

After a month of the ploughing through the most incredible bureaucratic quagmire in Japan I finally managed to get an AO visa in from the Thai Embassy there. Had I been working I would not have had the time required to collect the necessary paperwork.. There HAS to be an easier way. I suspect it is a lot more straightforward in Thailand but I was not prepared to risk it. I will happily list the procedures for anyone else as foolish as I wanting to do the same thing.

When collecting my visa I asked about the 90 day reporting I had read about. The embassy official mumbled something non-committal and when I pushed for a reply he said that all foreigners must tell the police where they live. Nothing about regular reporting. When I asked the same question at immigration at Suvanabhumi on arrival I was told ”You stay Thailand 1 year”. My passport was stamped with the usual immigration entry stamp with VISA CLASS : NON OA and ADMITTED UNTIL: 24 Feb 2009. The “NON OA” and “24 FEB 2009” handwritten. But nothing about reporting.

So I am still really none the wiser. I assume I need to report every 90 days but don’t really know. Could someone more knowledgeable let me know. Is it possible that OA visas issued outside Thailand don’t have this requirement. Wishful thinking I know, but ….?

[Jingthing]

Airport immigration just stamps you in, you report at your nearest immigration office. I believe you must report every 90 days as anyone with an O visa would. It is a very easy process. Just count 90 days from your entry date for the first one.

[jstumbo]

With your OA visa, you are allowed 1 year on each entry. If you work it right, you could stretch this visa to almost 2 years.

If you are in Thailand more than 90 days, you must report your residence every 90 days to immigration. If you leave the country and come back, the clock starts over. So if you do not stay more than 90 days on each visit, you will never need to report it.

Your visa is good for one year. If you enter Thailand just before the visa expires, you will be stamped in for another year. So with your visa, assuming that it expires in Feb 2009, if you came in right before the visa expires (not the entry stamp, but the actual expiration on the visa), they would give you a stamp good until Feb 2010.

You could then apply for a re-entry permit at immigration in Thailand prior to leaving Thailand. That would keep the entry stamp alive and allow you to re-enter Thailand until Feb 2010. It only allows you to re-enter one time though, if you want to come and go multiple times after your visa has expired, then you would want to get a re-entry permit prior to leaving Thailand each time during that period (after the visa expires, but while the permitted to stay stamp is still valid). Or you could get a multiple re-entry permit, but it costs almost 4 times as much as a single re-entry permit and it does not seem like you come that often during one year.

Edited March 15, 2008 by jstumbo

[lopburi3]

Be careful. There are two types of non immigrant OA visas. One is single entry and you would require a re-entry permit for any travel. The other is multi entry (m) and can be used as outlined above - each entry during validity of visa gets a new one year permitted to stay and after that you obtain/use re-entry permits to keep the last stay alive. Check the visa stamp/sticker.

You must start 90 day reports after being here for 90 days - if you travel before that it restarts on next arrival. It is called address reporting and you use the TM.47 form.

The procedure for retirement in country is extension of stay using TM.7, copy of financial (bank account/letter of 800k for three months or 65k income in embassy letter or combination, and passport/arrival card. Simple - but if you don't have non immigrant entry and extra 2,000 baht step involved. That is what you will start doing at the end of your visa stay.

[Cowman]

Thanks for all that detailed information, especially the bit about leaving just before my visa expires. It is as I expected. Nobody on an OA visa is exempt from the 90 day reporting. Without the advice from this forum, though, I wouldn’t have known.

I didn’t get a re-entry permit with my OA visa this time since I had planned to spend a full year here. I have to go back for at least 2009 to work as I was given a one year leave of absence from my job in Japan. If living in Thailand is agreeable I will quit my work in Japan and come here to live permanently in 2010. What is my best option under these circumstances? I plan to return to Japan around 25th February (my one year open ticket expires then) and come back to Thailand in July for 2 months and then again in December. At all costs I want to avoid a Non-immigrant OA renewal in Japan. I am a little inclined to think my safest option is to obtain an OA renewal in Bangkok late February with multiple entry for 2009.

Thanks for all the advice not only on this posting but throughout this forum. It has been invaluable.

[lopburi3]

It is very easy to obtain retirement extension of stay inside Thailand - even if you enter on a visa exempt stamp it is just 2,000 baht step extra. If you enter on a non immigrant visa of any kind it is 1,900 baht total and only passport/arrival card/financial proof is required.