I am scheduled to return to Thailand with 26 days remaining on my current O-A visa. (I do have a re-entry permit with the soon-to-expire visa.)

My question is: Should I / can I apply for an O-A extension in the US before departing for Thailand? Or do I have enough time to apply and receive an extension in Thailand with just 26 days remaining on my soon-to-expire visa?

Given the choice, I'd prefer to accomplish the application process in the US if I can but am concerned that the Thai Embassy in the US might question why I am requesting an extension of a visa that has not yet expired.

Edited June 29, 201511 yr by Rice_King

For an extension based on retirement (there is no such thing as an O-A extension), you need funds in the Thai bank seasoned for 2 months at the time of the first application, and the three months subsequently. Otherwise if applying based on income, it can be done at any time, but depending on the office you may be given an "under evaluation: stamp and appointment in two weeks, which if you don't make, cause you to loose the application.

Regarding the embassy in the US, first of all they do not have any reason to question anything like that, and second to their eyes your visa has long expired, having been issues almost two years ago.

If you mean that your O-A enter by date is 26 days away, then you don't need a re-entry permit, and when you enter you will get a one year permission to stay from the time you enter.

If you are on a one year extension of permission to stay on an O or O-A visa that you got sometime ago, as I suspect you are, then

1. you do not have an O-A or an O visa (that is permission to enter the country): your visa has expired. This is why you needed to buy a re-entry permit: you only need this if you no longer have a current valid visa, and you want to enter with your entire extended permission to stay intact. (If you turn up at a border with no current valid visa and no re-entry permit you are just given a visa waiver entry with 30 days permission to stay that supersedes and cancels out any previous extension of permission to stay that you have obtained.)

2. You cannot extend an O-A visa in your home country ( you no longer have one) all you can do is apply for a new O-A visa.

3. You can apply for another annual extension of your permission to stay ( this is not a visa, it is asking for another year's permission to stay on top of the one you got last time) within Thailand, at an immigration office. Presumably you fulfill the necessary financial requirements and you are doing this on the grounds of retirement. If so you can apply any time within the last 30 days of your current existing permission to stay, 26 days is more than enough time.

If you mean that your O-A enter by date is 26 days away, then you don't need a re-entry permit, and when you enter you will get a one year permission to stay from the time you enter.

With an O-A visa one needs a re-entry permit after date of expiration and within one year from last entry. That could be as well OP's case.

If you mean that your O-A enter by date is 26 days away, then you don't need a re-entry permit, and when you enter you will get a one year permission to stay from the time you enter.

With an O-A visa one needs a re-entry permit after date of expiration and within one year from last entry. That could be as well OP's case.

I know this: I made it as clear as I could by saying " if your O-A enter by date is 26 days away".

The "enter by date" IS the date of expiration, so I was clearly referring to the situation before, not after, the O-A expires.

Edited June 29, 201511 yr by partington

If you mean that your O-A enter by date is 26 days away, then you don't need a re-entry permit, and when you enter you will get a one year permission to stay from the time you enter.

Yep!

@Rice_King: I also understand that you have a Non O-A that is valid for another 26 days ("ENTER BEFORE" on the visa sticker) when arriving in Thailand.

Additionally you have a re-entry permit which is valid sometime after the visa expiration (1 year from your previous entry).

Could you please write what the date on the re-entry permit is?

So if you return to Thailand before or on the ENTER BEFORE date you can use your Non O-A visa and get another one year admitted until (permisson to stay).

Just make sure that you write the number of the O-A visa on the arrival card and point to the visa at the immigration checkpoint.

After this date you would have to use the re-entry permit (which seems not to be the plan).

When you use the visa, the re-entry permit becomes void and you need a new one if you plan to travel in the following one year period.

Edited June 30, 201511 yr by KhunBENQ

If you mean that your O-A enter by date is 26 days away, then you don't need a re-entry permit, and when you enter you will get a one year permission to stay from the time you enter.

With an O-A visa one needs a re-entry permit after date of expiration and within one year from last entry. That could be as well OP's case.

Yes, that is indeed the case partington. My visa's last date of entry is October, 2014

If you mean that your O-A enter by date is 26 days away, then you don't need a re-entry permit, and when you enter you will get a one year permission to stay from the time you enter.

Could you please write what the date on the re-entry permit is?

October 15, 2014

From the information you all have generously provided, I know that I will have to apply for a new O-A visa in the US.

Sincere thanks to everyone for setting me on the right track.

You do not have to apply for a new O-A visa in the US unless you do not have the possibility to apply for an extension of your current permission to stay within Thailand, or just don't want to...

To do this you would need a bank account in Thailand which has had 800,000B or more in it for two months at the time of your application (as this is your first extension of permission to stay the money needs to be "seasoned" for two months , not three as it would for all subsequent applications), or affadavit proof from your embassy that you have an income-anywhere- of at least 65,000B a month, or a combination of income and bank account that would add up to 800,000B total, annually. You could transfer money now to a Thai account from abroad and so fulfill this requirement.

It would then be possible to return in September, as I think you must be intending, and use the 26 days you have left to make your application for the annual extension.

Of course if you cannot fulfill those financial criteria you can't do this, and will have to provide the financial proof (and a medical and police certificate) in the US, (and pay considerably more therefore).