Do I need a police check from my home country for a retirement visa in Thailand?

I got an OA visa before coming to Thailand. Yes, the evisa website requires you to upload a background check. I just went to the state police website (Michigan in my case) and was able to download my criminal history in a matter of minutes for $10. Wasn’t hard at all. Not sure if every state has that option.

Pouvez vous traduire en français

After 4 years of flying in and out on visa exempt I finally got the non OA. The pros are if you are unable to stay all year round but want a long term visa it comes with multiple entry built in. If you repurchase your insurance before it expires then you get a further 12 months as long as your last entry is before it expires. You don’t need 800k baht sitting in a Thai bank. Cons, you need a UK address to apply, you need mandatory basic health insurance and a police check from your home country.

In reality the insurance isn’t a con because the basic requirement costs about £250 per year! TBH if you plan to live in Thailand at O50 years old without any health insurance then you might not be that clever….

UK costs

Can’t remember how much visa fee was but the Thai E Visa site tells you

Police check £66 - this is not the DBS, DBS no longer accepted it’s an ACRO certificate.

Insurance varies but I paid £250 for a year! Was directed to an approved insurer from the Thai visa site

Medical certificate varies but I paid £21 , no examination needed, answered an online questionnaire and got my certificate in the post two days later.

Speak up if your american and submitted a back ground check and was it the fbi check

Never seen a criminal background check enforced for OA or even health check. The old health was to see if you were bringing STDs into the country which in reality it should be for leaving Thailand. There is so much bullshit posted what you need and most of the time it's not even half. I tell you I never done a criminal background check for OA or health

There are a number of different visas that are all referred to as retirement visas. Some require police checks, some don't. Some require insurance, some don't. You need to research which one suits you

No you don't.

It's only the non-OA that requires a police check. It also requires a health check and has mandatory health insurance from a list of Thai companies.

But most people don't want the non-OA retirement visa, they want they non-O retirement visa, which has none of those requirements.