What is the best visa option for retiring in Thailand with a Thai spouse, and does citizenship make a difference?

I would recommend a marriage visa to you. I have had one for two years now. Lower threshold to qualify, either 400k in a Thai bank or 40k per month income, with no health insurance requirement. The retirement visa threshold was raised earlier last year to 800k in the bank (400k after two months, I believe) or 65k monthly income, plus Thai health insurance. The insurance requirement has made it difficult for many longtime expats, causing many of them to relocate outside of Thailand. It’s good for one year, with reporting every 90 days (which now now can be done online).

@Steve *********

so you plan on retiring here, which is all well and good

BUT

my question would be how much time in country have you actually spent at one time. Living here surrounded by these people <- that would be the thaiz ain't the same as comin' here as a tourist knowing you're gonna leave in xxx days. :O

I'd say get a single entry tourist visa from a thai consulate in your country BEFORE you wing your way here. That will stamp you in for 60 days, and you can extend it based on marriage to a thai for another 60 days AND some offices will even let you extend it for another 30 days on top of that (the normal 30 day extension).

That would give you almost 5 months in country to decide if you can handle it or not.

If after that time you decide you do wanna stay you can easily get a 90 day Non-O visa based on marriage at a nearby thai consulate, then apply for a yearly extension of stay (also based on marriage at your immigration office)

Good Luck in your endeavor. :)

A non O-A visa is only available from your home country. Each differs in requirements so check their websites, but generally you need the equivalent of 800k in local bank account, a police check and medical check. You also need to have medical insurance issued by one of the 12 companies approved in Thailand

Use Canadian one less hassle opening a bank account. Non o married to a Thai. Less money to show. And if you want to can get a wp off it.

Retirement and spouse visa each have their own requirements. Apart from that, you have a choice of Non-O and Non-OA.

I came in Thailand on a tourist visa and changed to Non-O spouse. For a Non-O spouce you need to show more paperwork than Non-O retirement. But for retirement you need to show Baht 800,000 in a Thai bank account, and for spouce only Baht 400,000.

I am not completely sure on requirements for Non OA, so I hope someone will give that info to you. I have an idea of requirements, but do not want to inform you incorrectly.

In my experience from my own marriage based and my fathers retirement based non-O in Chiang Mai, retirement based is considerablly easier to do. Marriage based requires a lot more documents, fresh pictures in front of your house, etc and there seems to be more scrutiny.

That said, after your initial 3 months the marriage based extensions require showing minimum 400k baht for just 2 or 3 months vs retirement needing to show 800k for 5 months (2 before 3 after) and 400k the other 7. Additionally, different immigration offices can produce very different experiences so it may vary a lot depending on where you are going.

Retirement visa or spouse visa, American.