Sorry about the screwed up Topic Title. I inadvertently hit "post" before I was done.

Thank you in advance for helping an elderly, English-only speaking woman friend of mine. What I'm hoping for here is your recommendation for what the Topic Title asks.....and I'd add that she needs a way that requires no "winks", "special handshakes", "if she's lucky", "tea money".....or any other less than straight forward steps.

She's elderly....speaks only English....lives in ChiangMai....and wants some suggestions that provide the best balance of easy, safe, quick, and legal for her 90-day Visa Run's.

CHEERS!

D

Edited April 11, 201214 yr by webworldly

Screwed up the subject too, but let's assume you're talking about a border run not a visa run (to activate her next "entry", not to get a new visa)?

In which case a trip to Mae Sai is your best option. Quick and simple to activate her next 90-day (60 days stamp) entry.

Other alternative is fly out of Chiang Mai to some other country and fly straight back in again.

(again assuming border type run and cost isnt relevant)

And be sure she understands the retirement 800k/65k or combination if she can meet that for extended stay.

Hey bobl.....you're quite right, I screwed up more than I got right. :-( Thank you for reading between the lines. She's only on the most basic tourist visa (I'm pretty sure she cannot meet the retirement requirements at this time).

I looked at the "pinned" topic under this forum....and went to the government site that listed the types of visas (the site with orange/brown background, black type)...but I couldn't tell from the information whether she has to leave every 30 days, 60 days, or 90 days? I also did a Google Search and found three sites that specialize in visa runs / border runs....but none said how often someone must complete such a "run".

I'm not one of the most prolific members here on ThaiVisa, but I've also never done anyone wrong, never said a bad thing here, never trolled a post. Any chance just this once I can be forgiven for not doing more than I've already done to find the answers I need on my own? If so, what does someone who showed up as a tourist need to do, and how often do they need to do it in order to stay for the foreseeable future in ChiangMai? And in the context of whatever the answers are, with no regard to expenses, what's the fastest way to do what she needs to do (bus from ChiangMai and back....or flight from ChiangMai and back?)?

I've been up for more than 24-hours working on an unrelated project, and my mind is frazzled. Help me out this one time....or at least make your "screw off" reply funny enough that I can smile before I pass out at the keyboard. :-)

CHEERS!

D

If she is on tourist visa she can extend 30 days at immigration before first 60 days expires and then she would have to do a border run to activate the second 60 day visa. But we need more information to give you the correct info exactly what is here visa.

If she currently has a 60 day tourist visa entry from a consulate she can extend 30 days at immigration before exit is required.

If she does not have a visa for entry she will only receive 15 days at border so not a viable long term plan. Even using tourist visas of 60 days and 30 days extension is not a good plan as travel to Vientiane or further would be required and likely not more than two available for the trip. Unless able to extend for retirement; education visa and extension of stay every 90 days is about the only viable option (study of Thai is normal course). Believe most say about 50k per year for study and extensions using this system.

If she currently has a 60 day tourist visa entry from a consulate she can extend 30 days at immigration before exit is required.

If she does not have a visa for entry she will only receive 15 days at border so not a viable long term plan. Even using tourist visas of 60 days and 30 days extension is not a good plan as travel to Vientiane or further would be required and likely not more than two available for the trip. Unless able to extend for retirement; education visa and extension of stay every 90 days is about the only viable option (study of Thai is normal course). Believe most say about 50k per year for study and extensions usingI this system.

If one is under retirement age and plans on using education visa, how many years can they study in thailand?

There is no limit.

Simply said, a school is cetified till a certain level, or years one can study a certain course. But one can always start another course. You are not limited to Thai language.

Excellent! Thanks for the info. =D

Ditto what Disander said......sincerely!

Excellent! Thanks for the info. =D

CHEERS!

D

As other have said...need more information to say.

1. What is her age? If over 50 a long term stay visa extension based on retirement in Thailand may be possible.

2. What visa did she arrive on? Depending on the type it may be extendable.

3. Does she have relatives in country on a long term stay visa (a non immigrant visa or a retirement visa)? if so, she may be able to "piggyback" on that visa and stay long term in Thailand based on her relatives visa.

4. Regarding visa runs...there are services that do all included runs out of places like Bangkok and Chiang Mai (or other such places) that basically do everything but actually applying for the visa (i.e. transportation and hotel and forms as part of the package). Costs extra, of course, but might be worthwhile just for the convienence.

5. And for a English speaking woman...I would guess Malaysia...Kuala Lumpur...might be the best choice since being a former English territory English is very widely spoken there.

Book an Air Asia flight to KL, pre-book a hotel resevation...and get a taxi from the hotel to the Thai consulate. That would be relatively easy.

She may even find the hotel has a "proper" English tea available for guests.