What are the requirements and best strategies for obtaining a retirement visa in Thailand?

Get Non OA in your country get 2 years without having a Thai bank then renew with agent no fuss and open Bangkok bank account. Get 1 year insurance with big deductable if you healthy around 7000bht.Falcon insurance.

come to Thailand and use an agent!

The only difficult part is opening a bank account. You might need an agent to help. You don't require insurance for the in country non o.

Or just use an agent to sort the entire process for you. Probably somewhere between 20-35k.

Laat het regelen door traveldocs hebben ook een goede ziektekosten verzekering

Go into any visa agencies they charge 32k baht and they do everything it took me just 3 weeks to get my retirement visa but you must have at least 20 days left on your original visa

Non-o no insurance O-A insurance

Opening a bank account here is a bit of a catch 22 situation and definitely the most difficult part of the non o retirement visa process. After trying at several banks and branches of the same bank I managed to open one at Bangkok bank, but you need a letter from immigration to achieve this, if it is still possible. If not this would be worth paying an agent to arrange as I understand they charge about 3,000 baht for this service and you are not tied into anything for future years.

If you get the day tourist visa in advance before you travel, you have plenty of time to organise everything.

I believe a 6 month lease is required to obtain the non o visa, so you can also look around for a rental place in the first 60 days of your stay. Ensure that when you rent a place the contract has a copy of the owners ID card and their "blue book" proof of ownership of the property.

Good luck.

You can apply for the non-o retirement in Thailand from a tourist visa entry or visa exempt entry. It needs renewing annually, no need to leave the country. No mandatory insurance cover. 1900THB per year after the initial 90 day non-o 2000THB.

Opening a bank account is the biggest challenge. It's easier if you arrive on a non-o visa or non-oa however it's not impossible on a tourist visa or visa exempt. It's all down to the branch manager of that branch. Many people employ an agent to complete this step.

Note, if you come with the non-oa 90 day, you can't change that in Thailand to a non-o and you'll need to pay the mandatory insurance for every further extension.

Another option to consider is using a visa agent for the whole thing, although choose your agent wisely. Be aware if you start down that track, you'll probably be stuck with that agent for each extension, 20-30kTHB per year but no money needed in the bank.

I recently documented, on my Travel Blog, the process as it applies in the United Arab Emirates. You may find some useful tips there as the process should be similar around the world. Good Luck 🇹🇭🙏🏻

It depends on your whereabouts, but for me it was easier to get a 1year Non O A Visa from the Thai Embassy. Another advantage is that you can get two years out of this visa (just cross the border and return before the expiry date).

I put my feet on the ground first and have been working my way towards the retirement Visa. You can get days with another 30 day extention. If that isn't enough you can do border runs.

Are you applying for a Non-OA or Non-O and, if the latter, from inside or outside Thailand?

There are four different "retirement" visas in Thailand. Each have different criteria. OA for example doesn't require money to be placed into a Thai bank account. Suggest you research on your country's Thai embassy website the "O" "OA" "OX" and "LTR" so you get a good understanding of what's available