This is my 1st post to the forum. I will try to limit the length as there are a million questions I would like to ask. Quickly, my wife is a Thai national living in the US for 25 years. Most of her family lives in Surin. Does anybody have experiences of living in Surin and can provide general info especially as it relates to raising a family there? (we have a 4-yr old daughter). Also I have read on the Thai embassy web site that the spouse of a Thai national is eligible for at least a non-immigrant visa, or maybe even permanent residency. Can anyone confirm this through their own experience?

Hi,

Looks like your user name is becoming reality.

I am not the one to give you advice, but I just wanted to say, WELCOME!!!

Thanks for the welcome Kayo.

There many expats and ThaiVisa members living in and around Surin.

Check out the Issan Forum section.

A search of this section of the forum will provide much info on your questions about spouse visas and PR.

You should be able to obtain a non immigrant O visa and once in Thailand with 400k in a bank account here extend that on the basis of supporting a Thai wife and daughter. That would be a yearly extension of stay. Permanent Residence is not that easy and besides requiring three years of these extensions of stay also needs a number of supporting issues to be positive - there is a good pinned outline at the top of this section.

Another option if you are age 50 or more is retirement extensions of stay.