Can I use my American insurance for my OA visa extension in Thailand?

Don Far remember you have to be covered WHEN you apply for the extension not when your current stamp runs out. AND seeing as the thai companies will only sell a year at a time that means the first year you're gonna NOT get a full year extension (they give the extension until your insurance runs out)

So I'd get the insurance to start about a week or so before your stamp is gonna run out and apply then.

Don Far and I still think that I/O is more than slightly "confused" about what can and can't be done.

BUT

good luck with it.

The immigration office logs in to a program that shows your policy like this

Unless you're going to get an extension based on marriage to a thai (which wouldn't require insurance), you'd have to carry a policy by one of these approved companies

Jim Dick. Cannot be changed from an OA to an O (50+) but can be changed to an O (married to Thai).

@Tod ********

Hi Tod, I just spoke with Morris and he confirmed what I thought, definitely from an OA to an O!

I asked him to respond himself so I hope that will assist somebody?

@Jim *****

You cannot change to an O visa from an O-A inside the country (above the table) at an immigration office. It is not possible.

Now it IS possible to change the reason for your extension from one based on retirement to one based on marriage and that would mean you wouldn't need insurance. BUT an O-A visa entry stamp cannot be converted to an O visa in country..

@Morris *******

Am I going crazy or did you or did you not change from an OA to an O visa a few months back and I know you did not leave Phuket?

Perhaps you can help by adding to this post?

@Jim *****

It is possible to convert an "OA" visa into an "O". See this post by

@Tod ********

:

3/permalink/7/

You *HAVE TO* Leave Thailand at least once to get an "O" visa. I *DO NOT* know if it information is still valid or not.

(copied from his post)

“Sorry to burst your balloon or piss on your parade BUT there is NO way to go from either an O-A visa or a yearly extension off an O-A visa to an O visa inside the country without leaving ONCE..

Think of an O-A visa and the first link in a chain and the yearly extensions as other links connected to it. In order to switch to a Non-Immigrant Type O visa <- (the type that does NOT require health insurance) you need to "break the chain" of extensions leading back to the original O-A visa.

You might as well get the two years of stay out of the O-A visa like most people do, THEN you need to exit the country without a re-entry permit during that second year.

Now FIRST you have to check with your immigration office as far as if they will issue in country 90 day Non-Immigrant Type O visas (not every immigration office can do it) AND you need to see how long the application for the Non-O visa goes under consideration (most offices are 14 days but some are 21, meaning you need at least that amount of time on your current entry stamp to pull it off). The cost of an in country 90 day Non-Immigrant visa is 2000baht. They are sold as NO ENTRY <- meaning there isn't a single or multiple entry with it because you're already IN thailand.

Assuming you went to the immigration office and found out they DO in country conversions AND that you do meet the financial and documentation requirements to apply for it;

You can go to a border bounce out and back to get a 30 day visa exempt entry OR you can go to a thai consulate and get a single entry tourist visa OR you can get a 90 day non-O visa <- if you can find a consulate that will sell one to you.

Once you have either a 30 day visa exempt entry stamp OR a 60 day tourist visa entry stamp go immediately back to your immigration office with the required documentation (bank letter, TM30 receipt, lease, copies etc) and apply for the 90 day non-O visa based on being over 50 (retirement). It will go under consideration for how ever many days that office requires then you go back and get the Non-O visa inked in with a USED stamp on it (seeing as you are already here) and you get a new 90 day entry stamp (dated from the date you applied for the Non-O).

Then you just wait until you have the required time left on that new 90 day stamp and apply for a year extension of stay like normal by meeting the requirements.

NOTE: IF you apply for the in country 90 day Non-O visa and need to leave the country you WILL need a re-entry permit to keep your current entry stamp 'alive' AND you would need to be back before the under consideration period runs out.

That is the ONLY ways to go from an O-A visa or extension to first a Non-O visa and then to a yearly extension. “

Jim Dick most unusual.

@James *******

Hi James, my Kiwi friend,

@Morris *******

had an OA visa and converted to an O visa this September in Phuket and did not leave Thailand.

@Don ****

not possible to do the conversion. As land borders remain closed to get a Non O.

Don Far its the Thai

Insurer which uploads to Thai Immigration. Thats why its not possible for the foreign insurance to be used in extension years... Unless your local immigration office uploads the policy info.

That is the form completed..

Good luck...yours is a FIRST if allowed.

Don Far