Exactly When To Show The 400 K?

[KhunLing]

I'll be coming back soon and this will be the first time I'll be using a 'marriage visa' (so to speak).

Exactly when do I have to show any money?

From my understanding:

1. I get the marriage visa here in Australia.

2. I can enter Thailand. After 3 months, I need to 'extend' this visa. Is that correct? Does that mean I have to do a 'visa run'?

3. After 12 months I can extend again, this time by showing 400 000 baht in the bank and all our marriage stuff etc (Been married 6 years, so we have all that)

Is that basically it?

Is there any way I can avoid having to leave the country after 3 months?

Thanks for any advice. Ringing the embassy only confuses me more

Edited November 6, 2005 by KhunLing

[lopburi3]

1. You obtain a non immigrant O visa to visit your wife. This may be single entry for 90 days or multi entry valid for one year (of 90 day entries). You may have to show marriage certificate/provide copy and perhaps id card of wife.

2. After 60 days but before 90 days of the first or any entry you go to immigration (this is when/where you need the 400k) with wife/home register/her id card/photos/bank passbook/letter from bank/passport/arrival card/1.900 baht for Tm.7 and signed copies of everything to apply for an extension of stay based on support Thai wife. Good to also have photos together and at home and if renting probably need rent contract. You then, after paperwork accepted and you both sign and have interview together (wife will probably provide bulk of information), receive an extension under consideration stamp of 30-40 days (and maybe another if not ready when you return). Finally you receive a permitted to stay stamp until one day prior to your last entry (before you applied). If you have to travel at any time during this or later you mush have a valid re entry permit first. You do not exit country in this procedure and will never have to exit again as long as you continue.

3. Every year you do the same process again. Never any need to exit country. Money in account should show overseas input and reasonable activity.

[Seen all,learnt nothing]

You do not need to leave Thailand ever again.

Get single entry non-imm O visa based on marriage in OZ. On arrival get stamped in for 90 days. No earlier than 60 days after you entered go to immigration with all your documentation and request extension to 12months. It is at that time you need to show proof of 400k being transferred from abroad. Sadly not issued whilst you wait and you'll be told when to return. Return to immigration no earlier than 335 days after you first entered the country and repeat. Bob's yer uncle. It really is that easy.

You can initally get a 1 year multi-O and do the same. You can extend on your Ist or 2nd or 3rd etc entry. Up to you. You will just be wasting your time and money.

[KhunLing]

Thanks fellas. Much appreciated.

My wife is here with me, so she'll be coming back at the same time. She still has her ID card + owns her own house etc, so she'll have all that.

The steps sound simple enough.

At least for the first year. After that, I anticipate my savings running out

I am too young to contemplate not working. (Mid 30's). I have teaching qualifications and my wife has her own career.

When I go to extend down the track...say three years time... is the fact we (by that stage) will both be earning money in Thailand taken into account?

[lopburi3]

Your working but not the wife. It is "support Thai wife" after all.

[Sunbelt Asia]

When I go to extend down the track...say three years time... is the fact we (by that stage) will both be earning money in Thailand taken into account?

If you have a income of 40,000 Baht per month, then this is accepted in most cases as well.

www.lawyer.th.com

[KhunLing]

When I go to extend down the track...say three years time... is the fact we (by that stage) will both be earning money in Thailand taken into account?

If you have a income of 40,000 Baht per month, then this is accepted in most cases as well.

www.lawyer.th.com

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Cheers for that Sunbelt. I am not overly confident my salary will be over 40 K though as we won't be in Bangkok. Salaries elsewhere are lower obviously. I hope they factor that in.

There's irony in the "support Thai wife" line...one of the reasons we are coming back is that my wife has excellent qualifications in Thailand and has a number of job opportunities. Her career / salary will likely be better than mine

It seems like the notion of the woman having an education / career and marriages working as two people putting everything together still doesn't exist over there...

Mai pen rai. I'm used to having no rights by now

[Bang Pra]

Get single entry non-imm O visa based on marriage in OZ. On arrival get stamped in for 90 days. No earlier than 60 days after you entered go to immigration with all your documentation and request extension to 12months. It is at that time you need to show proof of 400k being transferred from abroad. Sadly not issued whilst you wait and you'll be told when to return. Return to immigration no earlier than 335 days after you first entered the country and repeat. Bob's yer uncle. It really is that easy.

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Hi again Seen All, you were very helpful with a similar query for me and eventually I understood the principle. However one item is still queried: “No earlier than 60 days after I have entered….”. I will enter Thailand on 14th inst (PG!) with my Non-Immigrant “O” visa (multiple entry) based on retirement.

Can I not apply for the extension to 12 months immediately? In December (i.e. before the 60 days expire) I intend to go to Vietnam for holiday and return in January 2006(Note I have multiple visa). If I do go will my time still run from the 14th November (my arrival date) or when I return to LOS in January 2006?

For legal/taxation reasons I want my “retirement” here to commence within 2005. Thanks again in anticipation of your normally well informed reply.

[Maestro]

I will enter Thailand on 14th inst (PG!) with my Non-Immigrant “O” visa (multiple entry) based on retirement.

Can I not apply for the extension to 12 months immediately? In December (i.e. before the 60 days expire) I intend to go to Vietnam for holiday and return in January 2006(Note I have multiple visa). If I do go will my time still run from the 14th November (my arrival date) or when I return to LOS in January 2006?

For legal/taxation reasons I want my “retirement” here to commence within 2005. Thanks again in anticipation of your normally well informed reply.

I assume that visa is already in your passport and on the line “Category” it says “O”, not “O-A”

Your non-O visa being multiple-entry means that you can enter Thailand an unlimited number of times until the “must be utilized before” date on your visa. Upon each entry, your passport gets stamped with permission to stay for 90 days, e.g. when you enter on 14 Nov. 2005 the stamp will read “Admitted until 11 FEB 2006” or something like that.

This means that when you go to Vietnam in December, let’s for example say on 12 Dec., and you return to Thailand for example on 7 Jan. 2006 you will get stamped in again for 90 days from that arrival, in our example until 6 April 2006.

With a multiple non-O, you can apply for a one-year extension of stay – I understand in your case this application will be for the purpose of “support Thai wife” – during the last 30 days of your permitted stay after any one entry into Thailand. I don’t know why there is this limitation of the last 30 days, nor whether they would accept an application earlier if matters are explained.

If I were in your shoes I would got to Immigration head office in Bangkok (Soi Suan Plu) and discuss it with them. However, as you have a multiple entry non-O it might be difficult for Immigration to understand why you don’t want to do the normal thing, i.e. come back from Vietnam on your multi non-O and then apply for your extension in March 2006. I would try it just the same. As Lopburi and Dr. Pat Pong would say, “dress nicely and smile a lot” for your visit to Immigration.

Hopefully, if anyone on this forum has had that particular experience, he/she will tell you about it.

Let’s assume for a moment that Immigration agrees to accept your application for extension in December, before your departure for Vietnam. You have already been told higher up in this thread that you won’t get immediate approval but that you will be asked to come back later; your passport will be stamped with something like “Application under consideration. Applicant must report in person on <date>”. To make sure that this reporting date will not be before your return from Vietnam, you will have to tell Immigration that date, perhaps show them your itinerary.

Have a nice trip to Bangkok, and good look with your application for extension of stay!

Edited November 7, 2005 by maestro