Tourist To Retirement Visa

[sniffdog]

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If you pay an agent 35,000 Baht you must be mad as it is really quite simple.

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Not quite, as there will be people who cannot (or are not willing) to show 800,000 baht.

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An "agent" can not help you meet requirements that you do not meet.

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Yes, they can (see above).

[lopburi3]

And discussion of illegal activity is not allowed per forum rules. If someone wants to risk retirement in the poky they can discuss it elsewhere. Thanks.

[russianrobert]

On the 20th June i plan to go Laos with completed applications forms, 3 passport photos, bank book and letter from the bank to prove the money was imported into Thailand. I will apply for a Non Immigrant visa "O-A" Multiple entry.

I will then re-enter Thailand and then start to figure out how to get the retirement visa.

Am i mad? :-)

I went to see an agent and they quoted me 35,000 bht. to sort it out.

It's begining to feel like a bargain!

You will not get a Multi Entry O-A Visa. In Asia.

You should be able get a single entry Non O Imm Visa. This will give you 90 days.

A few days before it expires get your letter from the bank showing the 800,000 Baht together with your updated bank book.

Take it to Immigration and they will give you a year extension based on Retirement.

If you cannot get the Non O Visa, get a Tourist Visa and you can convert it at Immigration.

If you pay an agent 35,000 Baht you must be mad as it is really quite simple.

Thanks.

Can i get the Non immigrant visa in Laos? Or would it be wiser to go somewhere else? I want the cheapest option obviously.

[lopburi3]

Not sure that any local option is better than another - if you can not obtain you can obtain tourist visa and with an extra 2,000 baht convert to non immigrant visa using proof of bank deposit at Immigration as part of the extension of stay for retirement process. I you can get the non immigrant O visa in Vientiane it will save about 1,000 baht so not a real big ticket item.

[Maestro]

russianrobert, to reduce the risk of your application for a non-O visa being turned down I would in your situation submit together with the visa application a covering letter addressed to the consul. This will ensure, I believe, that no lower level official can reject your application before at least the consul himself has seen it and he is able to make a more informed decision.

On the visa application form, in the field “purpose of visit” write “retirement”. In the covering letter explain that you are applying for a non-O visa rather than a tourist visa because after your arrival in Thailand you will apply for a retirement extension and that you meet the requirement of such extension because of your age and because you have the necessary 800k Baht in a Thai account. Enclose a copy of the bank book.

--

Maestro

[WISteve]

I dredged this string up just to keep some continuity.

I had obtained a tourist visa in the US prior to arrival in Thailand on 7 May 2008.

I went to Suan Plu on Sathorn Rd on 13 May and made application to convert that to a Non immigrant O based on retirement. They took my application with supporting documents along with my 2,000 baht and asked me to return in about 8 days to pick it up. At the time the officer inspected my income letter obtained at the US Consulate Citizen Services Office but gave me back the original, keeping a copy only. When I returned on about the 21st of May I received my Non Immigrant O Visa stamp at the office on third floor to the right as you reach the top of the stairs. That takes up an entire page in my passport and the "Non O retirement" takes up half of another. The retirement part is in thai script and the teelack gets a real bang out of interpreting it as saying I'm old and can't work anymore! The Non O was dated 13 May, the day I applied for it and expires 10 August. I asked the officer at the time if I could get my extension of stay right away, but he insisted I must wait until there is less than 30 days remaining on my visa.

I obtained a re-entry permit at Swampy before leaving Thailand on 5 June.

I returned to Suan Plu yesterday the 14th of July to obtain my 12 month permission to stay stamp, but when I got there just after 1 pm they told me there would not be enough time. Try again tomorrow and come early!! I arrived at 8 am today the 15th of July and entered with the crowd. I went to the information counter to get my little number for the quae and I was number 12 today. 12 month permission to stay stamps are obtained in the dreaded room 101 where there are dozens of chairs for a good reason: there are a lot of people waiting a long time. I was 12th in line for #9 aisle and it took two hours before I was processed. My Non Immigrant O was dated May 13th expiring on August 10th. My 12 month permission to stay stamp says I can stay up to 10 August 2009 and cost me 1,900 baht.

The officer did seem a little perturbed about the couple dozen 30 day permission to stay stamps I have in my passport. It's a good thing she didn't see the other three dozen or so in my old passport, ay??

An interesting twist: I've read other posts of people using the same income letter on subsequent renewals. When I obtained my 12 month permission to stay stamp the officer INSISTED on keeping the original. I tried to convince her to accept a copy after review of the original but she wasn't going to budge. After obtaining the stamp I went to a supervisors desk who again reviewed it before signing the stamp. I again asked if there was some way I could keep the original letter and she politely told me no.

After I was finished there I went back to the information desk and obtained a new wait number for Room 102, to the left as you enter the front door. It took me about one more hour there to obtain my multiple re-entry permit and cost me 3,800 baht. That matches the 12 month permission to stay date: valid until 10 August 2009.

So it worked. And thank you to the many who have helped me along the way.

I tried to include a few details in this post which I could not find in other posts on Thaivisa. I hope it might help others.

~WISteve

[wpcoe]

Is that "standard practice" now (well, as standard as anything is in Thailand...) for a Thai Immigrations office to issue the Non Immigrant O, and then let it run (most of) its 90-day course before issuing the retirement extension?

When I received my retirement extension starting from a visa-waiver stamp at Jomtien in 2006, they did the entire process in one day: visa-waiver stamp to Non-Immigration O visa to retirement extension.

Is this another one of the Jomtien-specific procedures that is at variance with other offices? Has the procedure changed since I did it in 2006? Or, is the process different if one already has a valid visa vs. when one has a visa-waiver stamp?

I just re-read the previous post and noticed: "They took my application with supporting documents along with my 2,000 baht and asked me to return in about 8 days to pick it up." That is VERY different that what I experienced in Jomtien in 2006. Has the process changed that much?

[lopburi3]

It was done quickly as the laws had just been changed and there was a large backlog of applications. Believe it is normally the 30 days or less rule now.

[wpcoe]

It was done quickly as the laws had just been changed and there was a large backlog of applications. Believe it is normally the 30 days or less rule now.

Thanks. That's good to know when I refer other people to go through the process.

As an aside, in my thinking, I would have thought that a large backlog of applications would mean the application couldn't/wouldn't have been processed on the spot, that there would be a waiting period. I would think that if there is no backlog, then a current application would be processed on the spot. Shows how wrong it can be to project one's own expectations on a bureaucratic process!

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

Thanks to all for the very detailed reports. A bit mind-spinning for a first-timer so . . .

My question concerns my plan to apply for (here in Canada) the non-immigrant O-A (long stay) multi-entry visa. Background, I'm over 50, I am on leave for six months starting this autumn (call it a pre-retirement test) and want to stay in Thailand for most of that, occasionally travelling to China, Taiwan and VN. Does the above visa sound like the right instrument for my plans? There's also the (strong) possibility that within 2009 I will receive a TH job offer, but that may be irrelevant to the main question.

[lopburi3]

Sounds good - multi entry will allow travel without re-entry permits and a new one year stay on each entry and currently Labor policy seems to allow work permits again for those here on retirement.