We are US citizens. I have been living in Thailand on a Non-O A for purposes of retirement with seven extensions granted with out any fuss. My wife entered on a Non-O A with me when we moved here. She was offered an executive position and has been working for the past seven years. The company has handled all her visa and work permit applications.

She is retiring at the end of this year. She is employed by a large private Thai company. In the past they have cancelled other executives visa with little or no time to make any change. We will need to get her switched to a retirement as my dependent as our first step. We will then transfer funds to allow her to apply for her own visa,.

Question #1 - can she change to a dependent visa based on my status?

#2 - In the worst case can she leave Thailand and return on a tourist visa giving us time to get her on my retirement visa?

Any help you can offer will be sincerely appreciated.

She can become your dependent, but might be required to apply for a non-O visa in a neighboring country. I am not sure how they will handle a change to become a dependent.

She cannot leave and return on a tourist visa, as no conversion for a dependent is done. So if she leaves and enters on a tourist visa, she would still need to apply for a non-O visa abroad to become your dependent.

It should be possible to change the reason for her extension of stay from working to one as your dependent. You should check with your immigration office's policy is for doing it. If not then she would have to go out for a non-o visa.

A company can't change a visa. The work permit belongs to her, not the company. The company can and probably will contact the labour office to inform them your wife is not working for them now so in reality the WP is invalid. The non B can be extended and it becomes a retirement visa - at least that's how it worked for. I used a company in CM to assist. It was totally painless.