Possible To Get A Retirement O Visa At 45?

[Fred Sanford]

A few years back I went to the Cambo Emb in PP for a tourist 60 day visa. I had been living in BKK for 1.25 years on 30 day stamps and a single 60 day visa. The head guy over there comes out and shows me a printout of every entry I had into Thailand. He was a decent enough guy who told me that I should or needed to get a Non O or Non OA visa. I had no clue what these visas were and knew zero about Thai visas at the time other than the 60 day tourist visa. He suggested to me that I could get one of these visas (not at his embassy) but offered no details. He told me to go to BKK immi and find out details then go to either Penang or Laos and get the visa.

My question is this and I don't know if anyone has tried this or not. What if you are 45 and meet all the requirements. is it possible you could be granted a retirement visa? Perhaps a consulate somewhere or even BKK immi itself might wave the age requirements when all other requirements are met. I never hear anyone talk about this so I thought I'd bring it up. Some people are forced into retirement early with a disabling condition for example and receive more than adequate pension and have assets to back them up as well. I wonder if this can happen

[Maestro]

A few years back I went to the Cambo Emb in PP for a tourist 60 day visa...What if you are 45 and meet all the requirements. is it possible you could be granted a retirement visa?

The rules have changed over the years and the latest version is National Police Order 606/2006, which, if you are a regular reader of this forum, you probably already know about.

At age 45, you do not qualify under paragraph 7.21

The required retirement age of 50 is not new but it complicates things for younger people because now there are no more new applications allowed for extensions based on investment of 3 million Baht. This predicament has already been discussed in several threads.

But now, go down in that Police Order to paragraph 12. Sunbelt pointed it out a few days ago.

12. Any case that is not described in this Order, the officer shall report to the Commander of the

Immigration Bureau or the authorized officer to make consideration case by case.

The situation you describe would seem to fall under this paragraph, and if you can convincingly demonstrate that you will not work illegally in Thailand and have the means to support yourself, perhaps your application will be accepted for consideration under this paragraph. You can but try, and risk nothing more than the application fee of 1,900 Baht.

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Maestro

[Fred Sanford]

Thank you for that Maestro. This is what I was hoping for, a case by case situation whereby a waiver is possible on the age thing

[stuandchris]

Fred

I tried that one from the UK and was was told by three consulates there is no chance before 50 and you have to return to your own country to get the poilce check done, [in UK this takes about 6-8 weeks] if you find any different please let us know. Good luck.

[visarunner]

Give it a try .

Dress nicely , be polite and hope that the Officer might understand your point and grant your request.

Good Luck.

[Maestro]

...the UK ...was told by three consulates...you have to return to your own country to get the poilce check done

If what you say is true, then three consulates in the UK gave you wrong information. No police check is required for an application for extension of permission to stay for retirement.

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Maestro

[visarunner]

...the UK ...was told by three consulates...you have to return to your own country to get the poilce check done

If what you say is true, then three consulates in the UK gave you wrong information. No police check is required for an application for extension of permission to stay for retirement.

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Maestro

Correct , no Police Clearing is required .

That's confirmed with the iImmigration office in BKK.

[doctormann]

Guys

There seems to be some confusion here about the need for a police check. It all depends on the visa that the OP is applying for:

If this is an O-A he will have to apply in the UK at the Royal Thai Embassy in London as the UK consulates are not permitted to issue this type of visa (unless the rules have changed recently). In this case he will need a police check - easily done but does take a few weeks. Getting the O-A is a bit of a hassle but does mean, once you have it, that you have no further visa problems for almost two years (assuming multiple entry O-A, which is certainly what the RTE used to issue). No need to transfer funds to LoS during that period, except for living expenses.

If the OP is extending a non-O visa, or possibly converting a 60-day tourist visa, this can be done from within Thailand and a police check is not necessary. But, he must have some sort of a valid visa to start off the process. Remember that Immigration in Thailand do NOT issue visas. If he currrently has no visa then he will need to be outside of Thailand to obtain one.

There has been some suggestion, on this forum, that 30-day visa waiver entries can also be converted within LoS. Don't know if this is actually true (anyone actually have any hard info. on this?) but, if so, this is another route that the OP could use.

DM

[Casanundra]

Fred

I tried that one from the UK and was was told by three consulates there is no chance before 50 and you have to return to your own country to get the poilce check done, [in UK this takes about 6-8 weeks] if you find any different please let us know. Good luck.

Even if you did need a police checking doing, you still don't need to go back to the UK to get it.

I got one earlier this year by post and it cost me 10 GBP and about 5 weeks of waiting for the post to tell me what I already knew. That I don't have a police record!

[wpcoe]

Remember that Immigration in Thailand do NOT issue visas. If he currrently has no visa then he will need to be outside of Thailand to obtain one.

While that is in general a true statement, it is not always the case. If one enters Thailand on a 30-day visa-waiver stamp they can go to an immigration office in Thailand to receive a non-immigrant O visa. It is often casually referred to as "converting" to a visa, but in fact, a passport holder with no visa ends up being issued a visa in Thailand.

It's interesting that in the UK that consulates are not permitted to issue the O-A retirement visa. In the US the consulates definitely can and do.

[doctormann]

Remember that Immigration in Thailand do NOT issue visas. If he currrently has no visa then he will need to be outside of Thailand to obtain one.

While that is in general a true statement, it is not always the case. If one enters Thailand on a 30-day visa-waiver stamp they can go to an immigration office in Thailand to receive a non-immigrant O visa. It is often casually referred to as "converting" to a visa, but in fact, a passport holder with no visa ends up being issued a visa in Thailand.

It's interesting that in the UK that consulates are not permitted to issue the O-A retirement visa. In the US the consulates definitely can and do.

Just my personal experience from 2004. The rules may have changed by now.

DM