I have searched the forums for info and most is almost two years old and I wanted any update if possible. I went with an American friend and his common law wife, not of retirement age, to imm. in CR yesterday and was told the following:

He would have the income requirement and she would follow him"", officers' words. So income test only on him and not wife. Was talk in the past of changing to requirement to both needing the income/bank account but apparently not implement.

He gets retirement visa and she goes to Laos for a non o visa. Don't know if can say with assurance that she would be given an non o there.

Is this accurate?

However, imm doesn't accept the common law wife status as they have no official document to that effect. I guess they could marry here in Thailand and register at the amphure just as Thais do.

I will post in the Marriage forum for the requirements for foreign nationals to get marriage certified here.

If your friend is over 50 and can meet the financial requirements he will experience no problem in securing an extension of stay based on retirement.

As far as I am aware the Thai immigration act makes no provision for "common law" wives.

Your friends "wife" would have to qualify for her own visa which could be based on retirement if over 50, employment or education. The only other option she would have is tourist visas.

Getting married married would resolve the problem as the lady would then qualify for an extension of stay based on her being a dependent of her husband, assuming he is able to secure a retirement extension.

Edited July 21, 201510 yr by nowretired

There is no financial requirements for dependent extensions of stay. Just a marriage certificate and copies the husbands passport photo page and extension stamp.

If he does not have a non-o visa already he will have to go out for one also or make 2 trips to Bangkok to do a conversion before he can apply for an extension of stay based upon retirement (it is not a visa).

No problem for her to get the single entry non-o visa in Vientiane after they get married.

There is a good info for Americans getting married here on the Chiang Mai consulate website. http://chiangmai.usconsulate.gov/service/marriage.html

The OP in his post clearly says common law. Thailand does not reconize common law marriage

The OP in his post clearly says common law. Thailand does not reconize common law marriage

I assume you are not commenting about my post. I mentioned marriage more than once in it and even posted a link with info on how to register a marriage.