I am about to do my first yearly extension of stay and I would like to make sure I am well prepared lest I screw it up.

I see there are related reports but haven't found any recent posts that are specifically about this combo.

So, here are my facts:

Currently on my 5th one year non O visa, based on marriage to a Thai woman. Enter before date is 11 June 2015.

I've been doing 90 and 60 days extensions or border runs so far.

I am getting peacefully divorced this month.

My 5 year old son is currently staying with me and we have a bunch of photos having fun together. He will also spend half of each year with his mother (leaving to stay with her in April).

I have the 400K that I can put in my Thai bank account, but I do not usually keep my money in Thailand. I rather spend it directly from my debit cards (issued overseas). I have a bunch of slips to show I take money from my cards regularly. I suppose these are worthless but mentioning just in case.

We (my son, my gf and I) live in a house that has no blue book (built on a rented land up on a hill, no address).

My main questions are:

1. Do I have to keep the 400K in my bank account for a while and then show a letter from the bank to confirm this? If yes, how long must I keep it before I can apply? If not, will my bookbank updated on the day of application suffice?

2. Will I have any issues for not actually living with my wife any longer and just change the reason from supporting my family to supporting my child?

3. Provided there is no requirement to keep the 400K in the bank for months, will I be able to apply like 5 days before my permit to stay expires (my 60 day stamp)?

4. If I have to wait for two (or whatever) months to keep my money in the bank, will I then be able to apply for extension just before my next 60 day extension expires (even though my visa ("enter before") will still be valid for another 100 days or so)?

4. If I put my son's name into a Thai friend's blue book, will that be OK, and will that person have to go with us to Ko Samui or they can just sign the tabien baan copy and their ID copy?

5. How do I register my address to be the same friend's house where my son's name is?

Thank you kindly. I will really appreciate your help.

1. based upon a child the money in the account does not need to be seasoned.

2. on the day of the divorce you must cancel your current permission to stay and get a new permission to stay to live with your child.

You must apply at the office for where the child is registered. But if you live together elsewhere, you will need proof of actually living there: rental contract with signed copy of ID-card of land owner.

Best is to talk beforehand with the immigration office before you actually apply, to see what proof they require. They will want to see some proof that you have shared custody with the mother and you actually take care of the child.

1. The rules for getting an extension of stay based upon being the parent of a Thai do not mention any time for the money to be in the bank but some offices want it to be there for 2 months.

2. If you are a multiple entry non-o visa you can stay on it until it expires after you get divorced. You can apply for the extension during the last 30 days of any of your entries or 60 day extensions.

When you get divorced you will need to be sure you get custody of your child or you will not be able to get the extension.

3. Answered in 2.

4/4 See 2. You need proof of residence for where you living because immigration may do a home visit as part of the approval process for the extension.

5. You need to work out something to get proof of residence for where you are living. Perhaps a rental agreement would work.

Wow, you are quick, guys. Thank you!

@ubonjoe
The land where my house is I sub-rented from a farang friend. So I don't have a contract with the Thai landlord, I only have with the farang guy. And this farang guy doesn't let me talk with the Thai landlord to solve this issue. I know, I shouldn't be living there and it's a mess. But once your marriage goes downhill many things end up in a mess. That, and don't do business with Swiss people.

So, from what I gather you are not recommending I try to apply for 1 year stay before the divorce? I would be happy if I could do it this week because my stamp runs out on 9th. And we can divorce no earlier than next week. Not being impatient here, just looking at my options.

You wrote this "Currently on my 5th one year non O visa, based on marriage to a Thai woman. Enter before date is 11 June 2015". If that means you have a multiple entry visa you can keep using it until it expires.

You can keep getting the 60 day extensions based upon visiting your child.

I know I can keep getting 60 day extensions. The point is I would prefer to just get my 1 year extension ASAP and forget about 60 day extensions and border runs.

Also, I would prefer to do it now while my son is here with me so I can take him with me to immigration rather than having to explain later (while he is with his mom in Europe) where he is and why should they trust me that I'm really intending to be with him as opposed to hang out at bars in pink district. In other words, I don't see them giving me an extension to support my child when my child is not even here.

As I wrote before you can apply for the extension based upon being the parent of Thai. You will need to time the extension so that your child will always be here when you apply for subsequent extensions.

You will have to do it after you get divorced and custody of your child. Immigration will not do the extension until afterwards.

You should check with Samui immigration to see what they will require to do the extension, Every office will have their own requirements and you can be sure Samui will have some that are totally different from the others.

The big problem you have is proof of residence.

Your issue is very much like my situation at the moment.

I did go to Immigration office (Phuket) for advice and the officer refers me to supervisor (lady).

She says she want to see my wife first and she is also giving me a Thai document for extension. No idea if it will be useful.

I tried to upload it (two pages in jpg format) in this thread but it fails with error. Where did I go wrong?

These days I've been taking photos and videos of our house, garden and me and my son brushing teeth and stuff, showing his toys around. I have also obtained a lease contract for a shop where we spend some of the time when we need electricity (since we don't use it at our house). I will also hopefully put my son's name in the tabien baan of this shop, will see how it goes on Monday. I will try to go and have a chat next week with the immigration officer in Samui, see where we stand.

Thanks everyone for comments. I will report back here once I have news.

Here is an update. Although not all finished yet.

Immigration officer in Samui was (unusually) nice to explain that I will have to keep my 400K in the bank for three months, not two months, and definitely not one day. Perhaps being there with my son who was sleepy and kept bugging me to go home helped get officer's nicer side.

Once I am divorced with my wife I will have to show:

1) my rental contract and landlord ID copy + tabien baan, so they can see my address,

2) letter from the bank to confirm 400K for 3 months, and a
3) divorce document that confirms I have child custody (shared custody is fine he said).

Perhaps he mentioned other documents as well, such as child's birth certificate, but the rest is fairly standard..

It's a bugger that I was only able to get 60 days extension, so I will still have to do one border run in order to meet those 3 months in the bank requirement. Which would be fine if I hadn't almost run out of pages in my passport. Really not looking forward to visiting Europe this time of year. Brrr!

The immigraiton officer is wrong. The official rules say that based on having a Thai child no seasoning is required.