Hello,

I have a few question regarding Thai visas and the application form.

Background:

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I'm a 55 y.o. American citizen, single male, no Thai (or anything else) relationships. I've been traveling extensively for the past 2 years since I retired from IT work. Last year, I used Bangkok as my hub for exploring Asia so my passport has an impressive collection of short time in/out 30-day exemption stamps.

My travel profile changes earlier this year. I strained tendons in my elbow back in December. It didn't becose a problem until March when I aggravated the injury while exploring central Vietnam. I decided to throttle back the travel schedule until the tendonitis healed and have been hanging out in Pattaya since early April to give the arm time to recover.

I've been doing brief two/three day round trip flights to either Singapore or Cambodia each month, and obtaining 30-day exemptions upon arrival at BKK. I'm currently in on a two-week trip to Phnom Penh and planning on applying for a Thai visa this week.

I'm scheduled to fly back to the US, out of BKK, on September 19th (77 days from now) so I'm a bit beyond the window for a straight up 60-day tourist visa.

I've been struggling with which type of visa to apply for. If the Transit Visa type allowed more than 30 days, I'd go for that. In its description on the Thai government website, they say "Those who are scheduled to stay in the Kingdom longer than one month , Non-Immigrant Visa category “O” can be issued to them." But I can't image they meant "if you happened to book a stay longer than 30 days, we'd be happy to issue you..."

To my eye, a Non-Immigrant-O seems to be the best fit for my situation since it covers the time period I need and I'm really in country for health recovery, not tourism.

Questions:

1) Given that my exit flight is scheduled after a 60-day tourist visa would expire... Is this a problem for obtaining a tourist visa? I realize that it can be extended once for 30 days once issued. But do they want to see plans inside the original 60-day window at the time of application?

2) Looking at the application form, it asks for the name and address of both a Local Guarantor (I assume this is someone in the US in my case) and a Guarantor in Thailand. What are they looking for here? Is it fatal to the application to leave these blank?

3) I know they want to see financial solvency and I have no problem sharing bank statements from my US bank. Is this sufficient or do they want a Thai bank account (which I do not have)? I've seen mentioned that they get particular about the type of account. Can anyone clarify what types they accept and what type they have issue with?

Also, I've seen references to specific Thai Baht amounts (20K/30K) of cash in hand required at the time the application is presented. Do they expect to hold this during the 2 or 3 day application process? (I think I'd freak out at that.)

4) Given my profile (feel free to ask for more information if needed), do I have a reasonable shot at Non-Immigrant Type O visa or do you recommend the straight up 60 day Tourist Visa, then extend for 30 days approach? (In hindsight, it was probably a tactical error on my part to not get a formal medical diagnosis from a doctor that I could submit with any visa applications.)

5) Is there any advantage to using one of the many visa agents vs. applying in person at the consulate/embassy? They do seem to offer faster turn-around times at the very least. Does anyone have any specific recommendation for any particular agent here in Phnom Penh?

Finally, there is another alternative I've considered which is to simply grab two more 30-day exemptions, timing the last one of course for August 10th or 11th. Then go spend a week in Singapore for my final week in Asia and do a true pass-thru in-airport transit on Sept 19th.

If all else fails and I can't get a Thai visa for some reason, I won't get too upset about having to hang out somewhere else. I would have to retrieve a suitcase stowed in Pattaya, but I could figure something out. Let's call this my fail safe back-up plan should it be needed.

Sorry for the lengthy post. Thanks for reading this far. I look forward to any answers /thoughts/suggestions you wish to share.

Regards,

-tom

You can get a single entry tourist visa. When you enter you will get 60 days permission to stay. It can be extended for another30 days at immigration for 1900 baht. That should cover your travel plans.

A single entry non-o would be good but not sure what PP requirements are. Some will want to see financial proof of 800k baht in the bank or income.

As said a single entry tourist visa would give a total of 90 days.

You will need to contact an agent to get your visa.unless you don't mind waiting up to 4 days to get and having to deal with an unfriendly embassy. There are several that will help with it and you could ask a about the non-o. One world travel has been mentioned as being helpful.

Just write self in the guarantor space and put any address in Thailand for the address.

Thanks wayned and ubonjoe. Will look for One World and follow up on the non-O requirements with them.

think they only want proof of any financial requirements. never heard of them holding any money..

can't even imagine what problems would come with that...

I spoke with the people at One World Travel and they seemed nice and helpful. If anyone is looking for them, thy are located on 110 (Located on 110, half a block in Sisowath on the lefthand side. Sisowath is the road paralleling the river.) They open at 8 AM, closed on Sundays.

Unfortunately, they can only handle tourist visas so I couldn't use them since I wanted to apply for a 90-day Non-O. I took a motorbike taxi over to the Royal Thai Embassy and got there a few minutes before they opened (at 8:30 AM) I was happy to see only a very modest line made up of mostly Buddhist monks. I assumed they would process the monks before everyone else but they all headed for the work tables to fill out forms. So I actually got to be the first one processed at the second window opened. Quite a surprise considering it is a Monday.

I handed my application, photos, fee, supporting documents and waited as the clerk looked them over. She eventually informed me that I didn't meet the financial requirement. I asked her to double check the bank statement I provided which totaled over 100,000 USD. This merely prompted her to change her mind as to the reason why I couldn't get the 90 day Non-O visa. Now she told me that I didn't have a letter from the US Embassy "certifying my situation". OK, I missed that one on the list of requirements out on the Thai government website (in truth, upon further review I'm still missing it).

She then asked if I wanted to apply for a 60-day tourist visa instead. I pointed out my exit date was beyond the expiration horizon but she didn't see this as a problem. I've dealt with enough immigration officials worldwide to know their interpretation is always the "correct" one so I told her "Sure. let's go with that". She made some corrections on the form, gave me the come-back-in-4-days receipt.

So congrats to wayned, Guess I should have gone with your advice to begin with. But I really thought the 90 day non-O was a more honest request.

Anyway, assuming no one in the back room processing comes up with any reason to reject my application, I'll pick it up on the 10th which will be 71 days out from my scheduled flight back to the US. I'm thinking I'll run over to Vietnam for a couple weeks before flying back to Thailand in order to avoid having to deal with the extension application process. This was enough fun.

Thanks for your help out here,

Regards,

-tom

" I've dealt with enough immigration officials worldwide to know their interpretation is always the "correct" one so I told her "Sure. let's go with that"."

Do you think she works for immigration?