What are the best visa options for staying in Thailand for 6 months?

We too will be coming to Thailand end of Oct for 6 mths. We purchased a home and need to open a bank account. We are in the process of getting retirement O-A to achieve this. We are only going this route soon as possible as to get the acct. Last year we just left the country and returned. It worked well.

$325 CDN per person , that's expensive. I paid $130 CDN for the Non o visa

When all is said and done, consider staying no more than 179 days in order to avoid becoming a Thai tax citizen.

I think

@Brandon ***********

is the expert here and would follow his advice.

You've been presented with a few options another is if you're over 50 buy a 90 day non-o based on being over 50, by showing you have 800,000 baht equivalent $35,000cdn each in the bank. Then you can bounce out to another country and enter on the free Visa exempt stamp for the last part of your holiday. That way you're not doing back-to-back Visa exempts, no risk on entry, and you also wouldn't have to show the airlines a return ticket.

We are also from Canada and have been doing the multiple entry visa for over 10 years. Right now it is true you can go without any visa and get 60 days, then go for a 30 day extension. After the 90 days, you have to leave the country, then you come back in and do it again. The only potential problem could be if they stop the 60 day entry on arrival while you are here ...and that could very well happen. If that were to happen you would need to leave the country and apply for a visa before coming back in. We pay the $325 each and sleep good at night knowing it is the best option.

What they described to you is not a non-immigrant visa but a multiple entry tourist visa valid for 6 months from the date of issue

There's no such thing as a non-immigrant multiple entry visa, especially not one that's valid for 6 months. There's a multiple entry TOURIST visa that is valid for 6 months.

The embassies have not sold multiple entry non-immigrant visas for more than a year at most embassies. Non-immigrant visas are only available in single-entry 90 days.

Or you can just go without a visa and enter visa exempt and receive 60 days, apply for a 30 day extension. Then do a border bounce and get another 60 days and extend for 30 days. This is the exact same thing you would have to do with the multiple entry tourist visa, except you don't have to pay $325 per person.