Is There A Multiple Entry Retirement Visa?

[Asiantravel]

Once in bank you can request change of current status to non immigrant O visa entry which gives 90 days stay (and plenty of time to meet the 60 day bank deposit requirement) for the extension of stay application later.

Are these all the documents I would need to take to the Savanakhet consulate ?

1. Application form T.M.

2. Copy of passport

3. One 4 x 6 cm photo. 4/. 500 baht fee.

5. proof of money of 800,000 baht in a Thai bank

6. medical certificate

That would be the requirements at immigration to get an extension or a non immigrant visa entry. An extension costs 1900 baht and non immigrant visa entry would be 2000 baht.

A medical certificate would not be required.

For Savannakhet all you would only need your passport and copy of photo page and pay 2000 baht for the visa.

Any got a multi entry non O visa from Savannakhet for retirement purpose?

I thought I would just pass on my experience from a re-visit to the Savannakhet consulate just this past week.

As everybody here says so frequently i agree they are simply superb regarding processing double entry tourist visas. But I'm not so sure now about multi entry non O visa’s .

As I happened to be in Savannakhet with nothing much else to do I thought I would just double check with them in person at the consulate as to what they would need from me after my 800,000 baht has been in the bank long enough and i was ready to apply.

The lady I spoke to seemed to be a senior official first she looked at my bank book and then she said I would need a letter from my embassy in Bangkok which would say that I wanted to retire in Thailand. The requirement for this letter doesn't seem to have been discussed before in this thread? Then she said the letter would need to say how much I get in pension!

But then I told her I was advised I didn't need that if I had 800,000 in the bank instead ? Then she

counted the number of zeros in my bank book and appeared to realise it was over 1 million and not 100,000.

So then she corrected herself and said the letter from the embassy wouldn't need to say anything about money because obviously I had enough in my bank account but it would still have to say I wanted to retire in Thailand. It would have been very unfortunate if the Savannakhet consulate of all places would have turned me down last week just because i didn't have that letter but it seemed to me they would have .

This really surprised me a lot because they seem so relaxed and lenient regarding the issuance of multiple entry tourist visas.

Edited June 1, 2013 by Asiantravel

[lopburi3]

There is no need for a multi entry visa for retirement from them - you get a single entry and extend your stay for 1,900 baht from immigration during the last 30 days of your stay.

[Asiantravel]

There is no need for a multi entry visa for retirement from them - you get a single entry and extend your stay for 1,900 baht from immigration during the last 30 days of your stay.

So if I had applied for just a single entry “ O “ visa the other day would she have been obliged to accept my application even though i didn't have the letter from the embassy that she kept going on about?

Edited June 1, 2013 by Asiantravel

[lopburi3]

There is never any obligation to accept an application but I would suspect there would have been a very good chance a single entry would have been provided with passport showing you over age 50.

[Asiantravel]

There is never any obligation to accept an application but I would suspect there would have been a very good chance a single entry would have been provided with passport showing you over age 50.

I am going to the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh next week to get a single entry tourist Visa to wait for what's left of the 60 day period to lapse ( about another 40 days ). So while I'm there I'm going to carry out the same exercise as I did in Laos and just as a matter of interest to see what they claim to be their requirements as a comparison.

[lopburi3]

If you plan to extend for retirement why not just go to immigration and convert your current entry (with 15 days or more remaining - they may even do with less). Cost is 2,000 baht you you get a 90 day entry so plenty of time to season money and it does not have to be seasoned for the conversion stage. If not apply for a single entry non immigrant O visa.

[NancyL]

Asiantravel, I think you're making this W-A-Y more complicated than it needs to be. Lopburi3 is giving you good advice -- convert your current entry into a 90 day O visa at your local Thai immigration office and then return during the final 30 days of that 90-day O visa to obtain a 1-year extension of permission to remain due to retirement. You'll just keep doing the same thing every year, extending the permission to remain of a long-dead visa.

You can turn it into a "multi-reentry" by purchasing a multi-reentry permit at your local Immigration office which will be valid for the life of the current permission to remain. When you get a new 12-month permission to remain (after your previous one expires), you'll need to buy a new re-entry permit.

[Asiantravel]

If you plan to extend for retirement why not just go to immigration and convert your current entry (with 15 days or more remaining - they may even do with less). Cost is 2,000 baht you you get a 90 day entry so plenty of time to season money and it does not have to be seasoned for the conversion stage. If not apply for a single entry non immigrant O visa.

Thanks Lopburi but unfortunately that is the crux of the matter. You see I don't have 15 days or more.

And with regards to the conversion you might remember my conversation with you regarding the proposition I received to pay the immigration officer a rather large sum of money for doing this which I wasn't prepared to do ( because my money had only been in the bank at that time for about 10 days ).

It is also a bit more complicated because of the following factors :-

1. Last week on the 28^th my previous tourist Visa expired. I didn't see the point of getting another one because next Wednesday I have to go to Cambodia on another matter. So it would have meant paying for a tourist visa that I would only need for a few days.

2. So the other day I got just 15 days and walked across the border from Laos back to Thailand.

3. This actually suited me perfectly because simultaneously I now want to swap over from one passport which is now full and almost expired ( with just 6 months left ) to a second passport ( I have dual nationality ). They wouldn't allow me to change passports while walking across the border.

But they did let me back into Thailand with the full passport , which I was happy with and now I can fly out to Cambodia using my second passport, which has lots of space in it . I already have an e-Visa to Cambodia for the second passport, which I want to use for my “ O “ visa application.

4. I could try to apply for an “ O “ visa at the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh but I'm not very hopeful because I have been reading some very negative remarks in the reports section of this website about the chances of getting an “ O “ visa at the Phnom Penh embassy. But of course I will give it a try.

Edited June 1, 2013 by Asiantravel

[Asiantravel]

Asiantravel, I think you're making this W-A-Y more complicated than it needs to be. Lopburi3 is giving you good advice -- convert your current entry into a 90 day O visa at your local Thai immigration office and then return during the final 30 days of that 90-day O visa to obtain a 1-year extension of permission to remain due to retirement. You'll just keep doing the same thing every year, extending the permission to remain of a long-dead visa.

You can turn it into a "multi-reentry" by purchasing a multi-reentry permit at your local Immigration office which will be valid for the life of the current permission to remain. When you get a new 12-month permission to remain (after your previous one expires), you'll need to buy a new re-entry permit.

hi Nancy

thank you for your response. Don't get me wrong I always really appreciate Lopburi’s really valuable and useful advice because I dont enjoy weaving my way through this maze

If you read my reply to Lopuri maybe you will understand more why it seems I am making it more complicated. The changeover in passports has probably made it more complicated than it otherwise would needed to have been.

The other thing you should be aware of is when I visited my local immigration office to do what you suggested ( i.e. convert over ) when the guy on the desk saw that my 800,000 hasn't been in the bank for 60 days he proposed I pay him a fairly significant sum of money for him to have done it on that day

( and I am talking a five digit sum here !!! ) which, in my book is nothing other than a bribe . He calculated the amount based on the opportunity cost of what I would be spending by leaving the country and going to a consulate or embassy in a neighbouring country and quite frankly I simply wouldn't do that as a matter of principle. I would rather go on a short break to another country than give someone in the Thai immigration office a fat bonus.

Edited June 1, 2013 by Asiantravel

[lopburi3]

All you wanted on your visit to immigration was conversion to non immigrant visa entry and then you would have returned 60 days later to extend - if he refused you could go to Bangkok to have it done so he would not refuse if office normally allowed. But expect you did not know that. I believe you will be able to obtain a single entry non immigrant O visa (don't ask for a multi) on your trip to PP.

[Asiantravel]

All you wanted on your visit to immigration was conversion to non immigrant visa entry and then you would have returned 60 days later to extend - if he refused you could go to Bangkok to have it done so he would not refuse if office normally allowed. But expect you did not know that. I believe you will be able to obtain a single entry non immigrant O visa (don't ask for a multi) on your trip to PP.

Thanks again. I will report here as to what happens in PP for the benefit of other readers. And thanks for your tip about just asking for single entry

Edited June 1, 2013 by Asiantravel

[Toscano]

OJAS

I would consider that the way to maintain BT800,000 safely in a Thai bank account is to place it in a deposit account , with no debit card .

You can use another account for money that you intend to spend monthly , for which you have a debit card .

[Asiantravel]

All you wanted on your visit to immigration was conversion to non immigrant visa entry and then you would have returned 60 days later to extend - if he refused you could go to Bangkok to have it done so he would not refuse if office normally allowed. But expect you did not know that. I believe you will be able to obtain a single entry non immigrant O visa (don't ask for a multi) on your trip to PP.

Thanks again. I will report here as to what happens in PP for the benefit of other readers. And thanks for your tip about just asking for single entry

I said I would post comments about the outcome of my visit to the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh last week. In the section at the top of the visa section webpage is a thread entitled “Latest reports of getting a visa in the region “. In this section a number of posters have described how the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh is very tough to deal with and i would say they are correct. It's lucky I read this before I went because I was well prepared for the frosty reception you receive from the staff there.

One thing I noticed was on both of my visits ( i.e. to submit my application and then collect my passport 6 days later ) there were no more than two other people-so hardly anyone else, which is such a contrast to the Savvanakhet consulate for example, where there are often hundreds of people.

When I tried to submit my application , including my bank book showing over 1 million baht for a single entry non immigrant O visa firstly, I received a somewhat hostile response and she asked “ why do you want an O visa “ ? I told her I wish to retire in Thailand and then she asked me if I had a letter from my embassy to confirm that. Coincidentally, this is the same letter that they had already asked me for at the consulate in Savannakhet.

As I didn't have this letter I then said how about a single entry tourist Visa then ( on the basis that I just thought it was going to be quicker and easier to convert when I came back to Thailand ) and immediatelyher hostility evaporated and she was much more friendly. I still had to supply her with a copy of my bank book just to get a single entry tourist Visa!

So for some reason the embassy in Phnom Penh don't like issuing single entry non immigrant O visa’s even if you think you have all the documentation.

Edited June 15, 2013 by Asiantravel