I have recently reached 50 years old, and for the past few months, I have made the Ranong trip every 14 days for a new visa.

Question:

I have an 18 month old baby with my Thai girlfriend, and I recall reading on Thaivisa.com, that as I have a child and I'm over 50 I can receive a 1 year visa WITHOUT needing to prove any type of income....I am sure this is something to do with the grandfathers clause or a dependancy clause!!

Any comments?

For retirement you need 800,000 Baht in a Thai bank. Or 65,000 Baht monthly Income . Or a combination of both.

For having a Thai Child you need 400,000 Baht in a Thai bank Or. 40,000 Baht a month income.

That child provision ended last year. It is now the same as marriage for extensions of stay with financial conditions.

Ragarding the Thai child option you would have to have custody over the child. Did you register the birth of the child yourself at the amphur? If not, under Thai law you are not considered the (legal) father as you didn't legalise the child as yours. When not married that is a requirement. Immigration will not give an extension of stay without you having custody over the child.

Note that based on the birth certicate naming you as the father you can get a (multiple) non-O visa, if you can show some money (more than 20,000 more is better) in a Thai bank. The visa would require you to leave the country every 90 days, but you can come back the same day. As long as the visa is valid (1 year) you can travel to Thailand and get pemission to stay for 90 days. By leaving and r-entering just bfore the visa expires you get a new 90 days of stay and so almost 15 months out of it.

On your current permission to stay you can get a 60 day extension if need be, on show of the birth certificate. Cost is 1,900 baht.