Which visa is better? Retirement or supporting a Thai child?

[inquisitive]

I was once told that for someone contemplating getting a work permit, a long-stay visa based on being the supporting parent of a Thai child was better than a retirement visa. The idea was that if you lose your job and you have the family visa, your original visa is still good. The retirement visa on the other hand, would have been given up when you got the visa for work, so in that case you would have to start over. Does anyone know if this is true, and whether there are any other considerations to be taken into account?

[ubonjoe]

You can get a work permit and work with an extension of stay or non-o visa based upon being the parent of a Thai. If the job was to end the extension would still be valid.

You cannot work with a visa or extension based upon retirement. You would have to get an extension based upon working which ends when you job ends. Meaning you would have to change back to an extension for retirement.

[norbra]

I would like some help with which type of visa I should apply for.

I previously held an non imm O with stay extension, based on retirement, for 3 years,this expired last March.

I intend to return to Los in December and plan to marry my Thai GF in January 2015.

Should I apply for a non imm OA visa in Australia or is there a better way to achieve permission for long stay?

[OJAS]

I would like some help with which type of visa I should apply for.

I previously held an non imm O with stay extension, based on retirement, for 3 years,this expired last March.

I intend to return to Los in December and plan to marry my Thai GF in January 2015.

Should I apply for a non imm OA visa in Australia or is there a better way to achieve permission for long stay?

Horses for courses, I think. The advantage of an "OA" visa over an "O" one is that you can get almost 2 years out of the former before you need to start applying for extensions of stay, provided you do a border run just before its expiry date, whereupon you will be stamped in for a further 12 months (although you will then need to obtain a re-entry permit if you are contemplating any trips to foreign parts during the second year). On the other hand, you will need to obtain police and medical reports as part of an "OA" visa application, but not for an "O" one.

When you do eventually need to start applying for extensions of stay, retirement would IMHO be preferable to marriage if you can meet the higher financial requirements. This is because retirement extensions are usually granted by immigration offices on the spot. For marriage extensions, however, you are normally given a 30-day "under consideration" stamp initially since your application needs to be referred up the line to the local immigration chief for final approval. You then need to make a second trip to your immigration office for your passport to be stamped for the remaining extension period. Might be a material consideration if you live some distance away.

[ubonjoe]

I would like some help with which type of visa I should apply for.

I previously held an non imm O with stay extension, based on retirement, for 3 years,this expired last March.

I intend to return to Los in December and plan to marry my Thai GF in January 2015.

Should I apply for a non imm OA visa in Australia or is there a better way to achieve permission for long stay?

You could get a single entry non-o form one of the honorary consulates (Brisbane is good) for being 50 or over. Then apply for an extension based upon retirement or marriage after you get married.

The extension based upon marriage takes a bit more paperwork and you have to go back after a under consideration period to get the extension stamp. But the financial requirements are considerably less 400k baht in the bank verses 800k baht. Income of 40k baht verses 65k baht.

The OA visa is another option but you would need a medical certificate and and criminal records check to get it, Info here from embassy website: http://canberra.thaiembassy.org/doc/form/Long%20stay%20Visa%20O-A%20(5)%20updated%20020114.pdf

[aarn]

As UbonJ says, (Brisbane is good) for rapid attention to all visa requests.

As many of my wiser (but not necessarily older) friends have said, nonO extended on the basis of retirement is less of a minefield than marriage visa.

The difference in terms of financial requisites is... the price of a reliable used car in Ozland? AA

[ubonjoe]

As UbonJ says, (Brisbane is good) for rapid attention to all visa requests.

As many of my wiser (but not necessarily older) friends have said, nonO extended on the basis of retirement is less of a minefield than marriage visa.

The difference in terms of financial requisites is... the price of a reliable used car in Ozland? AA

I would guess most of those that say it is less of minefield have never done an extension of stay based upon marriage themselves and are going by what they heard or read somewhere.

I have done 7 extensions based upon marriage and certainly don't consider it that big of a deal to do one.

[Jonmarleesco]

Apart from the fact that the long term child support visa is now more difficult to obtain, why would you expect to have any option? Unless I'm mistaken, issue of an O B visa would nullify any other visa you might have, particularly if you changed from one to another, which you would need to do if going through the process here in Thailand.