A friend of mine was here on a retirement visa, he spent his 800,000. He went to the visa office to find out how he could spend extended time in the kingdom without having sufficient funds to back up the noral visa, he is married to a Thai.

He has told me that they suggested he leave the country ( he says he went to Laos ) and apply for a back to back 2 x 60 day tourist visas.

He tells me all he has to do after the first 60 days is report at the local imigration for a check in. He then has another 60 days before he must leave the country, when he plans to go to laos again and apply for the same i.e. 2 x 60 day back to back visas.

So in other words he only has to leave the country every 120 days, 3 times a year.

Is this possible and would it be correct in what he is telling me. I am just a bit concerned that down the track he may run into problems, but he seems confident in what he is telling me.

No, it is not correct. After 60 days you have to leave the country and come right back the same day. What you don't have to do is go and get a new visa, you just use your second entry.

Note that an entry on a tourist visa can be extended by 30 days for 1,900 baht.

If married to a Thai he needs to show 400,000 baht or an income of 40,000 a month. NOT 800,000.

I believe the requirement is to leave the country on the sixtieth day, and then return on the second visa of sixty days.

From what I understand, a 30 day extension to each of those two visas can be obtained from an immigration office in Thailand for 1,900 baht.

Hopefully Thaiphoon can clarify this advice, but I'm fairly sure it's correct.

He can also get a one off 60 day extension from Immigration for the reason of visiting his Wife. 1,900 Baht.

As I said he spent his 800,000, so there's not any money for the spouse one either. It's all mostly gone.

Based on these replies ( thank you all ) there is something wrong somewhere, I will chat to him again, it's none of my business of course but being a friend I wouldn't like to see him getting into problems over this.

If he has spent all of his money and is broke, how is he going to support himself and his wife? Immigration is the least of his worries. He needs to go home, wherever that is.

That's the gist of the post, he has no money to overcome the red tape. Ergo, it would be prudent to leave.

That was enough! Let's not start with name calling.

I think actually what he said was kind of correct.

As he is married, indeed he will only need to leave every 120 days.

He enters on a tourist visa and gets stamped in for 60 days.

After 60 days he goes to immigration, and gets a 60 day extension based on being married to a Thai national. He needs some extra paperwork (and his wife) to get that.

Then he leaves, comes back on the second entry, 60 days, after that he normally should get another 60 days extension based on visiting wife.

He would only need to make sure the use before date of the double entry tourist visa is 6 months from date of issue. If only 90 days, he would not be able to get his second entry.

As a side note, I do not think there are reports yet of people doing that several times consecutively.

Thanks Monty, I have a better understanding of it now,

For the other posters, he has funds in the UK but as he says hes not prepared to use it. His wife is a school teacher and he has some sort of pension, so day to day living is ok.

Am I missing something? The gentleman adopts Thailand as his home, has a retirement visa, and marries a Thai; but then won't play by the rules when comes time for an extension of stay. He is not prepared to use his funds in the UK to support an application for an extension of stay, either retirement or marriage, but is apparently willing to ask for help becoming a long-stay tourist. No wonder immigration is such a mess. If this post misstates the facts as presented, then I apologize.

Edited February 5, 201016 yr by InterestedObserver