What long-term visa options are available for a 48-year-old expat in Thailand with a pension under 65,000 THB?

The new 5 year DTV visa, 5 year Thai privilege visa (very expensive) ED visa, or if you have already fallen in love, the marriage visa, there are other visas, if you have half Thai kids, or you want to start a business.

Ivan Sara . . you only need to wait for two more years, you can bridge these with a "6-months multi entry Tourist visa" from the Thai Embassy Norway. And after you have turned 50, you could ask the embassy if the are willing to accept your application to a 90-days Non-Imm-O retirement visa, on the base of a "financial proof by the combination method". This method allows you to combine a mix of the income proof with a deposit proof. The sum of both must result in more than 800.000.- THB yearly. In Thailand on Immigration you would then need the income affidavit from the Norwegian Embassy and the Thai Bank "letter of guarantee" that proves your deposit. Why I say you must ask both Embassy and Immigration? Because not every Immigration allows the combination method in the first year. So you need to do your homework and mail your questions, find out about it and maybe chose the service of an agent to help you through the "legal" (!!) process of the "combination method" using your own income and savings

You need to be 50 yrs old to get retirement visa. I think your only option is DTV if you can find something that suits you in that category. Maybe education visa. You could do multiple tourist visa or visa exemption to get yourself about 6 months then decide from there.

Marry a Thai.

Work two more years, your pension will be above 65k, and you're out of trouble.

Besides, 65k is not much to live off. They require it as a minimum, but it doesn't mean that you necessarily want the lifestyle that this amount restricts you to.

Stick it out for 2 more years

Go back to work visa.

Living In poverty here is not a good idea..

If you're under 50 none of the retirement options are available to you. If you can do soft power you might be able to get a DTV but other than that you may want to look at elite

The DTV will probably be your best option, though you'll still have to do some border bounces. The only other real options are going to be Elite visa and education visa.