G'day,

I am 52, married to Thai wife for 8 years, retired from work in Oz, have just been living here for 11 months on O-visa, done my visa runs in Ranong, have had a Thai bank account for over 12 months, going back to Oz in a couple of weeks time for 3 weeks and I want to return back to Thailand and continue living here with my wife.

I have read about spouse, retirement, long stay etc. visas.....could anyone please suggest what my best option would be as I obviously don't have an income anymore. Cheers.

Return to Thailand with a Non Imm Visa and extend for 12 months if you have the require bank balance.

Retirement needs 800,000 in the bank.

Marriage needs 400,000 in the bank.

The choice is yours providing you meet the above requirements.

If not you would have to carry on as you did before or maybe sign up with a Thai Language School and get Education Visas.

For getting a visa your marriage certificate would suffice.

The question is how much money you have in the bank in thailand. That will decide what options you have to extend your stay in Thailand for 1 year and every year after that.

If you have more than 400,000 baht in a bank account in Thailand for 2 months, an extension based on marriage is possible.

If you Ihave more than 800,000 baht in a bank account in Thailand for 2 months, an extension based on retirement is possible (this one is much simpler than based on marrige.

If you have money in the bank in Australia, with more than 800,000 baht you can go for the (multiple) O-A visa.

And if you do not have the money for extensions of stay a multi entry non immigrant visa from a Consulate such as Brisbane would be an alternative - valid for one year from date of issue for unlimited entry up to 90 days each and only a quick border crossing required to get a new 90 day entry.

Thanks guys, I would prefer to have only 400,000 baht tied up rather than the 800,000 so I guess the extension based on marriage will be my direction. Cheers.

Be aware the money is only tied up for the 2 or 3 months prior to application each year - you are free to use it outside that time period. For the O-A visa from Oz there would not be any need for this money in Thailand/time in account and that can cover up to two years time period before a new visa or extension is required (but will require a medical and police check).