Change From Retirement Visa To Marriage Visa

[eggomaniac]

Category “O” (other) – this category entitles a person:

a) to an extended stay for tourism purposes

to visit Thai spouse/family

c) to visit non Thai family/friends living in Thailand

d) to participate in unpaid volunteer work in Thailand

e) to seek employment in Thailand

f) to visit as a UK pensioner

http://www.thaiconsul-uk.com/downloads-and-visas.aspx

<<<<

This information from the Hull site does not seem to fit anything I have read on TV.

If one visit Thailand to look for work, how long?

Or, are there any UK pensioners that I can 'visit'? Would love to have tea with you if it allows a one year stay?

What is a] an extended stay for toursim???

Am guessing these are old rules from days gone by!?

[Maestro]

Yes, the Thai consulate in Hull, UK does issue the non-O visa for the indicated travel purposes. It does not let you stay in Thailand without interruption for one year unless after arrival in Thailand you qualify for any the many possible reasons for extension of stay. However, a non-O visa valid for multiple journeys will let you travel to Thailand for an unlimited number of times for one year from the date of issue of the visa and on each arrival you will receive permission to stay for 90 days.

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Maestro

[Sisaketmike]

The problem is getting the work permit first. Most labour offices will not accept a work permit application when the current permit to stay is for retirement.

If you had a job come up you would have to leave and get a another visa in order to get the work permit.

So accepting a new job would require a return trip to base country first? No other implications?

Hi, I know that you can ask 5 different people, and you'll have 7 different answers....

If you're not allowed to work on a retirement visa, you'll have to leave the country to apply for a Non-B, or Non O (Thai wife..). This can be done in Laos, Sawan Nakhet, or better in Vientiane. If it's a teaching position your name has to be on the Teachers' Council of Thailand list. But this procedure can take a few months... if you've got the needed documents they'll issue a 3 month visa for you to extend it after 3 month in Thailand at any Immigration. Even if you've got the visa the Labour Department wont issue a work permit, if your name is not on the list of the Teachers Council of Thailand. ( Just in case if you'd like to teach). I'm wondering which law they'll change next. Greetings from the Buffalo town Sisaket.......Chai jenn, sabai sabai.....

[venturalaw]

I too am on an extension based on retirement--my 5th--and have considered the alternative based on marriage to a Thai national. Not having to keep an additional THB 400,000 locked up in a local bank is a good rationale, but then I have seen what happens to expats whose wife predeceases them...perhaps unexpectedly but then their basis for a visa is null and they must quickly make arrangements to qualify on another basis or leave the Kingdom. The same would hold true as a result of divorce. It seems to me that using the extension based on retirement might be an better alternative, all things considered. I'd be interested in the views of TV experts with experience in this particular issue.

Or, what happens if your Thai wife pre-deceases you and you have a child born as a result of your marriage to her that is a Thai national? What visa would be appropriate?

Edited January 11, 2009 by venturalaw

[astral]

If you have children by the marriage you can apply for a visa to support them.

Later when they are older they can support you.

I know of this in relation to an American lady, who married a Thai.

I trust it works the other way round, but as we know Thai law is not always symmetrical.

It is these sort of possible difficulties that make the retirement option preferable from the start.

As a poster observed in another thread, once you are in the system the amounts required

are usually fixed, "grandfathered".

[Shagz]

i was told in thailand kap chung immigration at the start of last year 2008 that showing the one time amounts of 400k and 800k in a thai bank account no longer applied to me with a spousal visa as the regulations had changed in 2006 and that i was under the age of 50.

[ubonjoe]

i was told in thailand kap chung immigration at the start of last year 2008 that showing the one time amounts of 400k and 800k in a thai bank account no longer applied to me with a spousal visa as the regulations had changed in 2006 and that i was under the age of 50.

The 400K option for an extension based upon marriage did go away in Sept. 2006.

But it is now back since the new police order dated Nov. 25, 2008. See 2.18 of police order.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/post-a70477-New-Immigration-Rules-November-2008.html

[Lite Beer]

i was told in thailand kap chung immigration at the start of last year 2008 that showing the one time amounts of 400k and 800k in a thai bank account no longer applied to me with a spousal visa as the regulations had changed in 2006 and that i was under the age of 50.

As said you need 40,000 Baht a month income OR 400,000 Baht in a Thai bank.

[Maestro]

...If you're not allowed to work on a retirement visa, you'll have to leave the country to apply for a Non-B, or Non O (Thai wife..)...

No visa allows you to work, only a work permit does. The question, therefore, is whether the Employment Department accepts an application for a work permit from somebody who entered Thailand with a non-OA visa or who is on an extension for retirement. In some provinces, they do, in others apparently not.

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Maestro