What visa options are available for my elderly UK parents who wish to live with me in Thailand?

DTV for 83&84 years old? Training Muay Tai?

Suggest you contact an established, reputable visa agency as rules change frequently................The cost will be justified by your peace of mind!!

Couple of things on the retirement visa option.

1. The 800k thing is only an option, the other option is to show at least 65k baht being transferred into their Thai bank account each month (that is just over £1500 per month).

2. I think that they would both need to have their own visas (and so both need to satisfy the financial requirements) but I am not 100% sure and I would check that out further.

As others have said, the DTV route may work better. You could apply for DTV ‘Thai Soft Powers’ option, where you need to sign up for training in one if a number of types of Thai skills - Thai cooking is one that may suit here. There is an excellent DTV Group on Facebook where you can ask info from others who have gone through the process and can help you with advice on what paperwork each embassy requires and how long it takes etc.

The DTV visa is effectively a 5 year multi-entry tourist visa, so you cannot work in Thailand on it, and each stay in Thailand has to be a maximum of 180days (but as it is multi entry, you can leave Thailand and come back the next day (even the same day if you wish). It costs about 15k baht and for 5 years, that is very good value. Also, maybe key for you, I think the DTV visa does allow for dependents, so you should definitely check that out further.

You should read up on the requirements and compare that to the retirement visa option.

One final note on the retirement visa - many people by-pass the initial 800k deposit requirement by using an agent who can deal with that for you (the agent’s of course charge - the charge varies from agent to agent, but i think setting up a retirement visa is about 20k baht). After the initial visa then you need to think about whether to stay with the agent permanently (for a charge each year - again varies a lot but I think about 10k) or do your own 12 monthly extensions of stay (costing 1,900 baht each time, but you will need to fully comply with the financial requirements of 800k in bank or 65k transfer each month).

Hope that helps, but you really need to lay out your options against their circumstances and double check everything.

What if you did their retirement visas one at a time and just moved their money from one to the other?

I think they will need medical insurance to fly and that would be very expensive I have friends same age that were denied insurance because of age not a 100% sure but maybe someone else can help you out.

Just go into immigration at Krabi and ask? Mr Wissut can be very helpfull...🙂

Living in Thailand for 9 years and your asking Facebook for advice

Normally I'd have suggested one gets a Non-OA visa and the other a Non-O dependant visa but their age will make that a difficult as. With the standard Non-O visa I don't believe the Thai embassy in the UK will issue a dependant visa until the primary person is on a 12 month extension of stay. With one on a dependant visa then only one lot of 800k is required but due to the above it might be easier just to go with 2×800k

Why not look into the DTV visa under the soft power options. My guess is Muay Thai won’t be an option but Thai cooking or medical appointments could work for them.

It’s a 5 year visa and on each entry they’d get 180 days.