How many attempts are allowed for a Non-O Retirement visa in Thailand without facing issues?

Fizul Bacchus The DIFFERENCE between the Non-O and Non-O/A visa

Applying for the O/A visa involves more requirements.

You need a police clearance report and a medical certificate issued by a government-authorized physician.

All of that is not required for the Non-Immigrant O Retirement Visa application.

For the application to both the Non-Immigrant O Retirement Visa and the Non-Immigrant O/A Longstay Visa, you must provide proof of finances: either a minimum monthly income equivalent to over 65,000 THB or a bank balance equivalent to over 800,000 THB.

In case you use the fund deposit method, the advantage of a Non-Imm-O/A Visa is that you can leave your funds in your home country account or in affixed deposit account. You can do the deposit proof with funds in your home bank account for the application to the 90-days Non-Imm-O Visa as well, but for the application to the 1-year extension inside Thailand, these funds must be in a Thai bank account.

Exclusively for the Non-O/A Longstay Visa, a health insurance covering a one-year period starting from entry is required

There is NO mandatory insurance requirement for the 90-day single-entry Non-Immigrant O Retirement Visa.

Entering on the 365-days multi-entry Non-Immigrant O/A Longstay Visa, you are given an entry stamp for a full year—365 days.

The O/A visa is a multi-entry visa - this means you can enter the country as often as you like during the one-year visa validity period. Upon each entry, you are granted another 365-day admitted stay — provided your health insurance coverage remains valid for the same duration.

With a single-entry 90-day Non-Immigrant O retirement visa, you are stamped in for an admitted stay of 90 days. Before these 90 days expires you must obtain a 1-year Extension of the Stay Permit.

If you do a "border run" just one day before your Non-Immigrant O/A visa validity expires, you will receive a final admitted stay entry stamp granting a lst 365-day stay permit.

Again, this is limited to the duration covered by your health insurance. If you have secured another year of health insurance, it allows you to secure a stay of nearly two years in total.

After the visa validity period expires, the visa itself becomes invalid. You remain in the country under a stay permit. If you wish to travel abroad during this year, you must purchase a re-entry permit, in order to keep your most recently stamped stay permit valid.

From either visa type—from the Non-Imm-O/A Longstay or the Non-Imm-O Retirement Visa— you can switch to the so-called "1-year extension of stay permit."

The expat community often calls this the "retirement visa" and Immigration—in their bad English—refer to it as a "visa extension". However, none of this is accurate, as the 1-year extended stay permit is not a visa at all. A visa cannot get extended, this is technically not possible.

To obtain the extension, you must provide proof of finances to Immigration. This requirement applies to BOTH visa categories, Non-O and Non-O/A.

EITHER

A proof of income exceeding 65,000 THB, certified by the Embassy of your country (if applicable),

OR

a deposit of a minimum of 800,000 THB in a Thai bank account held solely in your name. On the day of the application, the funds must have been in the account for at least 2 months.

Additionally, for an extension based on a Non-O/A visa, you MUST purchase a Thai private health insurance policy (!!). An international insurance company is no longer accepted by Immigration (these are only accepted for the first two years of the visa).

For a 1-year extension based on a Non-Imm-O visa, there is no mandatory health insurance required.

This actually constitutes a major and significant advantage compared to the extension based on a Non-O visa. Naturally, it is in your own interest to be well insured. Being on the extension based on a Non-Immigrant O visa, you are free to choose your insurer, whereas on the 1-year extension based on a former Non-Immigrant O-A visa, you no longer have that freedom of choice—you must select one of the Thai insurers from the TGIA list of insurances.

In short, these are the main differences between the Non-O "Retirement Visa" and the Non-O/A "Longstay Visa"

Fizul Bacchus you need much

more documentation and proof of a one-year health insurance preferably from a insurance co. accepted by Thai government list

@John *********

Thanks. What th e difference between Non-O and Non-OA

@Fizul ********

it wasn't, now there's only the 90 day Non-O visa and the 12 month extension of stay

Greg Alexander What , if any, was it replaced with?

Gardar Mar Hreindal Svavarsson why get a multi re-entry permit on a 90 day stamp unless you leave and re-enter every 2 to 3 weeks?

Geoff Nolan I only got that once from Savannakhet just to experience the process. It was a big road trip from where I'm based so not something for every year really.

Geoff Nolan just get a multi re-entry permit if you plan go in and out inside of the 90 days

Geoff Nolan the multi entry 1-year Non-Imm-O visa got discontinued by October 2023. And yes, it was a great visa. For "poor" Farang married to a Thai wife, they could travel to the Savannakhet consulate and get the 1-year Non-Imm-O Family Visa without a proof of finances . . over and out . .