Can my mother apply for a retirement visa in Thailand while on a tourist visa and what are the requirements for her and my brother?

I see a lot of agents advertising on Facebook and there’s a very informative British guy who is often on buzzin Pattaya you tube blog as a guest giving visa and other advice . He and his Thai wife or partner have run a visa / travel business in Pattaya for a good number of years and prior to this he ran a similar agency in London. His advice on the visa requirements and pitfalls on the blog always seemed to be very clear,informative and measured. I haven’t used his agency but I would definitely consider him when I make the move to Thailand. I agree with some of the posts that agents can be expensive but let’s face it I would rather pay a professional like Him to do it and give me peace of mind and freedom to enjoy myself without having to tackle the complex immigration system with the language and other barriers. Massive respect to the people who do it themselves but I’m lazy and a bit unsure so while I have money and for peace of mind I’ll pay for my visa to be done by an agency. If in the future this practice is questioned I guess there will be another way that this can be sorted out. I love the debate and the poster is correct it could technically be classed illegal but if it’s not broken don’t fix it , let’s worry about what’s happening now and enjoy our retirement.

My suggestion would be to speak with a good agent preferably word of mouth. There's a lot of shysters in Thailand.

Get a good visa agent. The amount of misinformation on Facebook is tremendous.

So many agents offering Visa services.They aren't hiding or concealing this service.

The Police obviously know about the service they're offering.

Why don't the Police or authorities close them down?

Or contact an agent and for 1000 and a few hundred all sorted hassle free

Book her into a cooking course and get the DTV. Keep her money at home

You appear to be American so assuming your mother also is she would need to use the 800k baht method for the initial 90 day non-o visa and the first years extension of stay. She would need to transfer it from overseas, generally theres no seasoning requirements for the initial non-o but a couple of places do require seasoning so would need to check with her local immigratiin office. Subsequent years she could use the 65k method assuming she has 12 full calendar months of transfers at the point she applied for the extension. As to your brother he could in theory get a dependent visa up until he turns 20 but again she needs to ask her local immigration, he may need to go elsewhere for it once she is on an extension of stay

There's no insurance requirement for a non-O visa.

If your mother can use monthly income depends on what country you are from. The ONLY way to use monthly income for the initial visa and first 1-year extension is if you have income certificate from your embassy in Thailand. Many country's embassies no longer do this, and if that's the case then the ONLY way for her to get the visa and apply for extension is by showing 800,000 baht in a Thai bank account in her name.