I have been visiting Thailand for ten years for five months each year using retirement extensions but my passport and therefore my extensions expired this year. I intended to get another 'o'visa with my new passport in August and return to Thailand in October as usual. This seems the simplest and most convenient thing to do since it involves only one day at Immigration and a few minutes to make a 90 day report by post during my annual visit. In the light of this new visa involving greater amounts of money and medical insurance sourced in Thailand, I can foresee the time when Immigration might consider that I am getting something "on the cheap". Therefore there may come a time when I would want to remove Jeang Wattana from my routine but I don't know of any way of doing this, can anyone suggest any? Bearing in mind that this change would make 800,000Baht available to spend over a five year period if it were to be compared with the new visa.

 

 

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If your extension of stay is still valid and you have a re-entry permit then you can still enter on it.  Just arrive with old and new passports and then go to immigration and they will transfer it or make new extension in your new passport.

Since you are starting over from scratch, entering on a Non-O gives you 90-days without hassle. For the remaining 2 months, you could either choose to go retirement, or visit another country (Laos via Friendship Bridge is a friendly checkpoint) and return visa-exempt.  But ...

 

As regards the new "5 Year" Retirement Visa, so far, there is no indication that the existing retirement-system is going to be scrapped when it becomes available.  But, note that when the rules were changed in the past (raising the funds-in-the-bank amount), those on existing/running retirement-visas were "grandfathered in" and those persons still continue to qualify under the old rules *IF* they do not let their extension lapse.  Though there is no guarantee this policy will continue, precedent would indicate that they ever change the rules in the future, keeping a running annual retirement-visa could help you preserve your qualification under current-rules.

 

In the future, when your passport is going to expire, renew your passport while your existing stay is in-effect, then transfer your retirement extension-of-stay to the new passport, and then re-apply for a new extension, so you can keep your extensions contiguous. 

Edited June 17, 20179 yr by JackThompson

I think that I shall have to continue as planned then, non Imm visa and apply for a one year stay for retirement at Jaeng Watana .


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