I'm sure this has been asked, but I can't find it.
I will qualify on both sides, married to a Thai and can prove the financial requirements for retirement, but which is better?
I've mentioned in the past that I may want to work, more to keep busy than the money, but that will be at least a year or more. If I go on a retirement visa can it be changed at a later date?
Thanks as always
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
As the category would suggest, you can't work on a retirement extension but you can can on marriage - when you get all the rest of the paperwork done.
Retirement extensions are much easier to get both in terms of time and the amount of paperwork necessary. Imm will also push you towards the retirement extension as it's easier for them as well.
Yes, you can change your status after a year.
So to go to the next step would I enter Thailand on a tourist visa, immediately open a checking account to get my time in, then apply for a retirement visa? Or would I apply here in the states?
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
You seem to be getting things mixed up. There is no such thing as a marriage or retirement visa. Over here, we get annual extensions to O visas based on either of the two.
There is an OA visa that is for long stay (you're checked in for a year on arrival) and that's commonly referred to as a retirement visa. You need to show income/savings and produce doctor's and police reports for it. You get it in the States.
Normally, someone would get either a single or multiple entry O visa first. You need either that or the OA visa to extend for a year. You can't annually extend off a tourist visa.
What you need to be careful of is the amount of time your visa will give and the amount of time you need to season your savings. The single entry O gives 90 days on arrival and you should only need to season the savings for 2 months for the first extension. However, HH Imm tow their own line on this and seem to want to see the full 90 days. That being the case, you won't have enough time to season your money unless it's already here.
The multiple entry O is valid for a year. You again get 90 days on arrival but you can exit and re-enter as many times as you like (as long as the visa remains valid) and get another 90 days each time. This type of visa would make it easy for you to season the money (with one border run) but they're becoming increasingly difficult to get and I don't know the situation in the States.
The OA visa easily gives you the time you'll need but there's a bit of hassle involved in getting one - see above.
As a final option (but not necessarily the worst), come on a tourist visa, get your money in the bank asap. Use said visa for almost the full 90 days (60+30 day extension) and upgrade here in HH to a Non Imm O visa. By the time you get that, with its extra 90 days, you're good to go for the extension.
You've got plenty of options. Just remember that you'll eventually be applying for an annual EXTENSION here, not a visa.
one year ago at Hua Hin immigration i got my non-immigrant O visa, also referred to as a "retirement visa".
The only issue I had was I did not have my 800,000 baht in the bank for the required 60 days prior to applying for the visa. Of course my tourist visa was for only 30 days but they were more than happy to make me pay a fine on the spot to over look this catch-22. I was not in the mood to do a border run and wait another month.
have you tested transferring money from the states to Thailand WHILE IN Thailand? many US banks require a One Time Password SMS message to be sent to a cellphone number. that phone number can only be changed while you are physically in the US bank.
so make sure you have someway of receiving the SMS message. it could just be your US cellphone that roams in Thailand and still receives SMS from the states.
i am not married so i can't speak to the rest of your question. I am a American from California. Let me know if you have more questions. Good luck.
I really like this forum because there are no personal attacks. All the members contribute in a positive way to my posts.
A lot of it all is terminology, but the O visa stands for "other". You can qualify for one on the basis of retirement, marriage to a Thai, to take care of Thai child, to look for work, to visit non-Thai family members and so on.
As you got yours on the basis of retirement, James, it was referred to as a retirement visa.
The problem I and others have when these visas are referred to as retirement visas is that, strictly speaking, there's no such thing. But commonly, visas such as your's, the OA visa and annual extensions are all, at various times, referred to as retirement visas. Quite often, the first thing we need to do when helping someone is to find out exactly what they've got or are trying to get.
Chok dii.
I got my OA (for reason of retirement) in the U.S. at a consulate in Miami and it was pretty easy. It took a few weeks wait after I submitted the paperwork but other than that it was easier imo than dealing with immigration in Hua Hin for visas. That gave me a year after arrival to season my extension money and only having to worry about 90 day reporting while getting settled and building a house. You will be very busy resettling over there and anything you can get out of the way before you go is a good idea to lessen the stress of relocation; in my humble opinion.
My brain is like an Internet browser; 12 tabs are open and 5 of them are not responding, there's a GIF playing in an endless loop,... and where is that annoying music coming from?
Yes, but I only had to prove that my retirement income met the 65K per month requirement. I'm sure you can also show that you have more than 800k baht in the bank ready to take or transfer with you. The only other thing that you have to do (or had to, things could have changed in eleven years) there that I don't think you have to do in Thailand was get a criminal background check. All that took was going to the local police station and filling out a form, paying 10 or 15 bucks and waiting a couple of weeks for the result.... I don't think they really even checked because they didn't find out about my criminal past...
My brain is like an Internet browser; 12 tabs are open and 5 of them are not responding, there's a GIF playing in an endless loop,... and where is that annoying music coming from?
