I have been living and working in Thailand for 3 years (will be 4 years in Mar 09). I have had a multiple entry business visa and work permit for all this time. My Thai wife and I were married in the USA 3 1/2 years. My salary is more than enough to meet the marriage requirement. Does the marriage visa allow for multiple entries? Does it require renewal each year for as long as you want the visa? If a work permit is issued is it based on marriage do you need to have an employer to qualify you? I like the freedom of the multiple entry business visa but I do not like the work permit restriciton of needing an employer to qualify me and my thinking is I can overcome this with the work permit and visa based on marriage. Anyone have any experience with this?

Thechnically there is no marriage visa. What you can apply for is an extension of stay based on being married to a Thai national. To be able to keep your permission to stay alive if you want to travel abroad is a re-entry permit. A singlke costs 1,000 baht, a multiple 3,800.

The permission to stay has to be renewed each year.

On an extension based on marriage you can get a Work Permit if you qualify. In essence if you have an employer and the job is open to foreigners. A WP only allows you to work for an in the permit specified employer, in the specified function on the specified location. A new employer means a new WP.

There is no marriage visa. You appear to be in Thailand at the moment. In the region, apparently only the Thai consulates in Kuala Lumpur and Penang currently issue the multiple-entry non-O visa to visit family.

I believe a work permit is always tied to an employer, not to marriage.

Yes, a multiple-entry non-O visa will let you enter Thailand as many times as you wish during the validity of the visa. There is no income requirement to apply for the non-O visa, but if you wish to apply for annual extension of stay at an immigration office in Thailand the requirement is a family income of minimum 40k Baht per month.

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Maestro

I have been living and working in Thailand for 3 years (will be 4 years in Mar 09). I have had a multiple entry business visa and work permit for all this time. My Thai wife and I were married in the USA 3 1/2 years. My salary is more than enough to meet the marriage requirement. Does the marriage visa allow for multiple entries? Does it require renewal each year for as long as you want the visa? If a work permit is issued is it based on marriage do you need to have an employer to qualify you? I like the freedom of the multiple entry business visa but I do not like the work permit restriciton of needing an employer to qualify me and my thinking is I can overcome this with the work permit and visa based on marriage. Anyone have any experience with this?

You can get a 1 year extension based upon marriage of your existing B visa. The income requirement is 40,000 baht per

month which can be proven by showing tax reciepts for the previous 3 months when you apply. You can keep your existing work permit with this extension and most likely will mean that it can be issued for a full year. As said when you get the extension you can get a multiple re-entry permit that alows you to leave and re-enter the country as many time as you wish for the time the extension remains valid.

For more information see page 8 clause 7.17 of the following police order.

Link: http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/2notice/rtp606EN.pdf

You will need pictures of you and the wife in and around your residence together and and one that shows the house/room number with you both near or under it these are for proof that the marriage is de facto. Also your wife must go with you when you apply for the interview which is one of the requirements lsited.

Edited November 30, 200817 yr by ubonjoe

thanks you have all been very helpful

Take a look here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Extension-Visa-t211680.html

...and here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Non-immigran...Ma-t211165.html

...and here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Extension-St...at-t202097.html

for some more info. The last link contains a narrative of my two visits to North East Immigration (Korat).

Good luck.