What are the best alternative visa options for long-term stays in Thailand after retiring from a MEOA retirement visa?

September 2020 is still a long way ahead. Things can change in the mean time, but looking at the current situation for months a year, the best option is the Non Immigrant O-A visa, or second the Non Immigrant O visa with later the Extension of Stay and then the Multiple Entry Tourist Visa. a Health insurance should not be the decider of getting a visa or not, health insurance in case off, is always recommended to have, as Thai hospitals are not free for use or cheap if needed.

You can get a 6 month METV visa if you qualify for it...with extensions and Out/In’s you can get 9 months out of the 6 month visa

can you get the 90 day Non-O in thaiiland do you do need to get it from outside .

@Eze *******

could you please elaborate as to why using successive 90-day Non-O's from neighboring countries is not advisable? Thank you.

The alternative would be the single-entry (90 days) Non-Immigrant O visa based on retirement.

You could then extend it for a year at a time. Currently requires that you are over 50 and have 800,000 THB in Thailand in a Thai bank account (or income of 65,000 THB per month being deposited in a Thai bank from abroad).

The other route to this visa is to come in on a tourist visa or visa exempt then convert in-country to the Non-O mentioned above and then finally to extend that.

It's more complicated that way but it may give you as much as six months in-country before your retirement visa begins rather than 3 months.

Trying to use successive 90-day Non-O's from neighbouring countries is possible but not advisable. If you can park the funds then retirement extensions are the best option for you.

Note that you currently need to keep 800,000 in the account for 5 months and 400,000 all year round or you can also use income brought into Thailand from abroad of 65,000 per month or a combination of both.

However, I have heard repeated reports of some immigration offices refusing to allow anything other than the 800,000 method. Talk to you local immigration office if you want to use anything other than the 800,000 deposit method.

Keep an eye on what's happening with the O-A and entries and extensions over the next few months.

It could be that the current implementation is changed to something a little more practical.

If/when you go now out of country with you current visa you will be asked insurance when you return. Thaivisa.com already has such reports on their website.

As for future, limit your thaidays annually to max 180 days and use exempt/touristvisas and extensions to these.

The visa will still be valid until September 2020. I've no idea how you cannot travel on it until that date.