What are the stay duration and extension process for a Thailand O-A visa holder planning to enter in November 2023?

If you have health coverage for 1 year, you will be stamped for 1 yr. I only had health coverage for 6 months so I got stamped in for only 6 months. You will also need to do 90 day report

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To save you having to transfer 800k into a Thai bank account, if you have a pension income which exceeds the equivalent of baht per month, you can use proof of this income instead of the 800k

1. You need the money in the bank 2 moths before you make your application for an extension. 2. For an extension the money does not need to be an International transfer unless your Immigration Office requires it, ask them.3. The money needs to be in an account in your name only and have instant access (usually a savings account), check with your bank. You can use multiple accounts but that means more copies of paperwork and multiple bank letters.

I will give you the way an OA visa works, and then I'll tell you how most people use it and why.

An OA visa is valid for 1 year, and EVERY time you enter Thailand during that year, until the expiration date in September 2024, you will be stamped into Thailand for 1 year (or until they end of your mandatory insurance which you will have to show every time you enter Thailand). So if you enter in March 2024, you will be stamped in until March 2025, but if your insurance policy ends September 2024 you will only be stamped in until September 2024.

The way most people use an OA visa is they enter Thailand and get their 1 year stamp. Then just before the expiration date of the visa that the embassy sent you, you purchase a new 1 year insurance policy, leave Thailand and enter again and get another 1 year stamp, until September 2025. Then around September 2025 you would go back to Spain and apply for a new OA visa, giving you 2 more years in Thailand. This way you never have to transfers 800,000 baht to Thailand and can continue just showing your money in your home country.

The reason most people do it this way is to avoid transferring the money to Thailand, and getting a 1-year extension at the immigration office in Thailand from an OA visa is the worst of both things, you have to have the 800,000 baht in Thailand AND you also have to have the $100,000 of insurance, every year, when you get an extension.

The 3 month thing you read about is for an O visa, not an OA visa. If you enter Thailand as a tourist, or if you get the 90 day non-O visa from Spain before you travel to Thailand, you then transfer the 800,000 baht into your Thai bank account and can apply for non-O visa or the 1-year extension without any insurance requirement.

Yes, with the OA you get 12 months entry stamp for every entry up to the expiry date provided you have insurance cover for the 12 months. If you re-enter in Sep-2024 you'll get 12 months thereby delaying your need for an extension.