What are the requirements and best practices for applying for a Non-Immigrant O visa in Thailand as a US citizen married to a Thai national?

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Why can't you apply for the 90 day Non-O at your local immigration office in Thailand? You need to put money in a Thai bank to do so but you're going to need money for an extension of stay anyway

In my case, the initial 90-day was via the LA Consulate. They accepted a US bank for the funds. I imagine just about anywhere does, since you haven't yet moved to Thailand (if you had, you wouldn't be getting a 90-day). 🙂 But that last statement is just a guess on my part.

A question and some helpful advice: Was your marriage in the US, or were you married in Thailand? The standard of proof for a US marriage certificate is MUCH higher to get your 1-year extension in Thailand than it is the initial 90-day visa. And this isn't explained well, or at all, when applying for the 90-day visa. For the initial 90-day visa, we just needed a pic of our US marriage certificate. To get a 1-year extension, a lot of authentication/legalization needs to happen first with that marriage certificate, and much of it has to be done in the US. Here's what we had to do:

1: Get a certified copy of our marriage certificate from the county. (A pic of this is all we needed for the 90-day application).

2: Get that authenticated by our state Secretary of State.

3: Get that authenticated by the US Department of State in Washington DC.

4: Get that authenticated by the Thai consulate/embassy for our area (in our case, it was the Thai Consulate in LA)

---Come to Thailand---

5: Get it all translated in a "certified translation"

6: Take all that to the Department of Consular Affairs in Bangkok, and have that stack of papers approved/stamped.

Steps 1 through 4 above all had to happen in the US, and it took months.

Then we could take it to a local amphur and register our marriage and get a Kor Ror 22 form. Note: We also had to have a certified true copy of my passport to do this. That had to be done at the US Embassy in Bangkok. If you want info on that too, feel free to ask, and I'll share what I can.

I've seen a lot of people do only step 1, and then get a big shock when they went to a local amphur and tried to register their marriage and get a Kor Ror 22. In their defense, it is not always easy to find the steps, or even the need for those steps, clearly called out and explained.

A non-O Imm visa is a 90-day single-entry only, but you can apply to extend it based on marriage for 12 months by depositing 400k baht in a Thai bank account for two months before applying for the extension. The money does not have to stay in the account once the extension is granted. When the extension is granted, you can buy a single re-entry permit for 1000 baht or a multi-re-entry permit for 3000 baht. This allows you to exit and re-enter without affecting your permission to stay. The other option is a multiple-entry tourist visa (METV). This lasts for 6 months, but you can squeeze nearly 9 months out of it. It gives you a 60-day entry, which you can extend at the nearest immigration office by a further 30 days for 1900 baht. So, if you do this twice and return just before the 6 months are up, they will give you a further 60 days, which you can extend again. If you are wealthy, you may want to look at the 10-year Long Term Visa (LTR)

Since the switch to evisa there is no option for multiple Non O’s