How can I apply for a Non-Immigrant O visa in Thailand as a recent tourist visa holder?

Go to immigration and save the fee it cost at the agent then, we are Manny doing it that way.

You would make your life easier by exiting to a nearby country and applying for a 90 day Non-O visa there using funds in your home bank. Once you have the visa return to Thailand, go to immigration and get a residence certificate, then go to a bank and open an account. Transfer in a minimum of 800k baht as soon as you can as it needs to be in place for 2 full calendar months before applying for the 12 months extension of stay. Much better doing it yourself than using an agent that can lead to issues down the line

John Shepherd

*** on a British passport your only option is the 800,000 THB deposit in a Thai bank account in your sole name, at least in the first year of the “1-year extension of stay permit based on retirement”.

And then start right away at sending yourself a minimum of 65,000 THB onto this account, coded as coming from abroad, because if you want to apply for the second year “1-year Extension of the Stay Permit” with the “monthly income” method, you need the bank issue a statement that you have amassed 12 months of consecutive 65,000 THB transfers

*** your problem nowadays is, on a tourist visa or visa-exempt, you can’t easily get a bank account opened any more

***some agents have made a deal with bank staff and Immigration, but most of them will demand up from 60,000 THB for the “full package” service (bank account, 90-days Non-O Visa and 12-months Extension of Stay)

*** you could have avoided this only by arriving on a 90-days Non-Imm-O Retirement Visa which you have obtained outside of Thailand. On this visa, you can get a Thai bank account opened and transfer the required 800,000 THB onto it

In rare cases bank staff is just incapable, leaving you as the only option of paying an agent to do it, their service fee usually is 5000 Thai Baht (at least in Pattaya)

I am a little confused as you asked for advise from this forum 2 months ago about what you need to do before coming to thailand, main thread was to apply for a non O over 50 retirement visa in your home country before you arrived to make it easier to open account etc. etc. ???

For the first year extension, the monthly 65k is an option only with à written confirmation of your revenues from your embassy. Most of them don't do it anymore. 800k will be your only option the first year

We got it last week

Here they help us

@Kataii ********

Depends on your passport nationality. If you also hold a Swiss passport, since you’ve stated that you live there, you can most likely obtain an income certification from the Swiss Embassy in Bangkok for your monthly income and apply based on that option.

Otherwise, if you plan to use income and a bank account outside of Thailand, you’ll need to apply through an embassy or consulate outside Thailand — unless you use a visa agent, which tends to be quite expensive these days.

Jomtien also also has a special rule that requires the 800,000 baht have been in your account for two months before you apply, if you choose to apply based on this option.

You could have got the Non-O before arriving then you could open a bank account. Is there some reason you applied for tourist visa before arriving instead of non-O based on retirement?

For the initial Non O and the first year extension the 65k per month method won’t work. That will only work for the second and subsequent years. You’ll need a lump sum of 800K and I believe Jomtien require it to be shown as coming from overseas rather than a local transfer.

Getting the bank account will be the issue and almost certainly require an agents help to do so.