non-immigrant O-A visa

[watgate]

I am a little confused and would appreciate some clarification. I understand the requirements when appyling for a non-immigrant O-A long stay retirement visa in the USA. What I am puzzled about is that I remember someone stating that you could come to Thailand on a different visa and then convert it to an O-A visa without having to go through the hassle of getting a medical certificate and police report back in the USA when applying for an O-A long stay visa there. It sounded much simpler and basically you needed to have 800,000 baht in a bank account and/or proof of 65000 baht income to convert your visa to an O-A non-immigrant visa. What visa would you need initially to go to Thailand in order to be able to convert it to an O-A non-immigrant long stay visa? If you are a U.S. citizen can you just come to Thailand without a visa and then apply for an O-A non-immigrant visa within the first 30 days? Any clarification would be appreciated.

[glegolo]

A Non Immigrant O-A can only be bought in your own home country, not elsewhere. You are probably mixing up VISA with extension of stay.... This will be clarified to you by others more qualified than me...

Glegolo

Edited May 15, 2014 by glegolo

[PoorSucker]

You can apply for a non immigrant O visa in the states, this does not require police and medical clearance.

This will give you a 90 day permission of stay, during the last 30 days you can then apply for 1-year extension of stay based on retirement with 800,000 baht in a bank account and/or proof of 65000 baht income.

If you are using the money in bank method the funds must be seasoned for 2 months before the first application. (3 months consecutive years)

The prerequisite to get the extension is that you have a non immigrant visa.

[ubonjoe]

You do not get a OA visa here. You apply for a one year extension of stay based upon retirement.at immigration.

You should get a single entry non immigrant O visa before arriving at one of the honorary consulates in the US.

Or if not then a single entry tourist visa. The after arriving you would apply for a change of visa status to obtain a 90 day non immigrant visa entry. You would need to have the 800k baht in a Thai bank in your name only or 65k baht income proven by an income affidavit from the US embassy or a combination of the two totaling 800k baht.

If you have the non immigrant O visa or have done the change of visa status you would do the extension of stay based upon retirement.during the last 30 days of your 90 day entry. At that time the 800k baht would have to be in the bank for 60 days. Or the same proof of income or the combination of funds needed for the change.

[watgate]

In checking the Washington dc thai embassy website, the criteria for obtaining a non-immigrant type O visa is the following: A stay with family, Perform duties for the state enterprise or social welfare organizations, Receive medical treatment, To be a sport coach as required by the Thai Government, or To be a contestant or witness for judicial process. So how is one supposed to obtain a single entry non-immigrant O visa before arriving in Thailand? It sounds like very specific reasons for obtaining this type visa and the only really plausible way is to obtain a single-entry tourist visa and, once in country, apply for a change of visa status to obtain a 90 day non-immigrant visa entry. Am I correct or am I reading too much into this?

[glegolo]

In checking the Washington dc thai embassy website, the criteria for obtaining a non-immigrant type O visa is the following: A stay with family, Perform duties for the state enterprise or social welfare organizations, Receive medical treatment, To be a sport coach as required by the Thai Government, or To be a contestant or witness for judicial process. So how is one supposed to obtain a single entry non-immigrant O visa before arriving in Thailand? It sounds like very specific reasons for obtaining this type visa and the only really plausible way is to obtain a single-entry tourist visa and, once in country, apply for a change of visa status to obtain a 90 day non-immigrant visa entry. Am I correct or am I reading too much into this?

OMG, where do you read all this nonsense?? You did clearly NOT read the full sentence, the wording is there:

"This type of visa is issued to applicants who wish to enter the Kingdom for the following purposes":

NOT requirements...

So do as you were recommended by Ubonjoe, just go and by it. The requirements are listed below "purposes" on the very same webpage...

This is not a brainstormer at all really!!

Glegolo

Edited May 15, 2014 by glegolo

[Maestro]

Watgate, when quoting text from a website, as you did from the website of a Thai embassy, it is useful to give a link to the webpage in question. This will help people to visit that webpage, if desired, to get a broader context of your question.

[ubonjoe]

You should note that i wrote in my reply that you need to apply for the non-o from an honorary consulate. The embassy and the 3 official consulates will not issue them because they will only do the OA visas. This is why you can not find retirement under the non-o visa on the embasssy website.
Contact info for the honorary consulates is here. http://www.thaiembdc.us/dcdp/Thai_Consulate_Directory2
It does appear here on the MFA website. http://www.mfa.go.th/main/en/services/123/15398-Issuance-of-Visa.html

other activities (Category "O") as follows:
to stay with the family, to perfrom duties for the state enterprise or social welfare organizations, to stay after retirement for the elderly, to receive medical treatment, to be a sport coach as required by Thai Government, to be a contestant or witness for the judicial process.

[Langsuan Man]

Everyone is different.

I find: having to go through the hassle of getting a medical certificate and police report back in the USA when applying for an O-A long stay visa much easier than going through the hassle here in Thailand to either season the money in a Thai Bank account or obtaining an income certificate from the US Embassy in Bangkok or the US Consulate in CM and dealing with Thai Immigration

Especially since you can extend your permission to stay by just doing a border run (still allowed) and get a second year out of it. But you have to judge it by your own individual circumstance and whether you want to put off for two years the inevitable

[KhunBENQ]

I second that.

Although I did it in Germany.

Medical was a no brainer, doctor looked at the list, wrote a letter, no special examination.

Police record was the most annoying, as offices in my town were crazy crowded, poor service.

Financials: showing my deposit statements in original and handing a copy. Done.

I found the O-A worth and mind calming to have two years to settle with the money etc.

Mind calming: when we left, our remaining household belonging were on the ship, rental contract cancelled, signed off at the citizen office, job cancelled, car sold.

Most bridges torn down.

Edited May 16, 2014 by KhunBENQ

[stuurman]

You do not get a OA visa here. You apply for a one year extension of stay based upon retirement.at immigration.

You should get a single entry non immigrant O visa before arriving at one of the honorary consulates in the US.

Or if not then a single entry tourist visa. The after arriving you would apply for a change of visa status to obtain a 90 day non immigrant visa entry. You would need to have the 800k baht in a Thai bank in your name only or 65k baht income proven by an income affidavit from the US embassy or a combination of the two totaling 800k baht.

If you have the non immigrant O visa or have done the change of visa status you would do the extension of stay based upon retirement.during the last 30 days of your 90 day entry. At that time the 800k baht would have to be in the bank for 60 days. Or the same proof of income or the combination of funds needed for the change.

Hi Udonjoe, do I read correct that a non-imm O visa can be changed direct to a 1 year extension of stay based on retirement (provided the 800K are in the country for at least 60 days), opposed to a single entry tourist visa where the process always is in two steps?

[ubonjoe]

You do not get a OA visa here. You apply for a one year extension of stay based upon retirement.at immigration.

You should get a single entry non immigrant O visa before arriving at one of the honorary consulates in the US.

Or if not then a single entry tourist visa. The after arriving you would apply for a change of visa status to obtain a 90 day non immigrant visa entry. You would need to have the 800k baht in a Thai bank in your name only or 65k baht income proven by an income affidavit from the US embassy or a combination of the two totaling 800k baht.

If you have the non immigrant O visa or have done the change of visa status you would do the extension of stay based upon retirement.during the last 30 days of your 90 day entry. At that time the 800k baht would have to be in the bank for 60 days. Or the same proof of income or the combination of funds needed for the change.

Hi Udonjoe, do I read correct that a non-imm O visa can be changed direct to a 1 year extension of stay based on retirement (provided the 800K are in the country for at least 60 days), opposed to a single entry tourist visa where the process always is in two steps?

If you already have a non immigrant visa you can skip the first step because you already have the required visa entry.

During the last 30 days of your entry you can apply for the extension as long a the money has been in the bank for 60 days.