I entered Thailand 2 years ago on an O-A visa. Immigration said they cannot extend an O-A visa in Thailand. So they issued me with an Extension of stay based on Retirement stamp. So will I need health insurance on my next extension.I am living here full time with bank account prerequisites etc.which I had to show on renewal.

@Robert ******

How do you know that? I am just quoting the figure supplied by Thai Immigration. That was the total quoted by Thai Immigration, or you know better?

@Robert ******

The O-A retirement visa which you receive in your home country can definitely be automatically extended by another year by simply leaving Thailand, just before the visa expires and re-entering Thailand. They will stamp your passport at the airport for one more year. giving you 2 years on that O-A visa. That I am 100 % certain of. You may be correct that everyone with a retirement visa will need health insurance. BIG money involved there. retirement visa's issued last year in Thailand. If we assume that it costs each person baht per annum for health insurance, we are talking 2.4 billion Thai Baht involved here.

James Miller Personally I think that ALL persons retired in Thailand will have to get health insurance. They seem to be calling the retirement visa an O- A visa irrespective of where or how you got the visa.They say retirement visa's were issued last year. Assuming it costs each person baht per annum for health insurance, we are talking 2.4 billion thai baht That is a lot of money. It is all about the money.

James Miller You cannot extend the O-A visa in Thailand, They don't even have the O-A visa sticker. Here you can only get the Extension of stay based on retirement stamp in your passport. You can extend the O-A visa for another year by leaving Thailand before expiry, and then re-entering Thailand. This can be done once before you need to either apply for a new one in your home country, or apply for the extension of stay based on retirement here in Thailand.

Nonsense. They cannot extend an O-A visa in Thailand. It's a proper external visa only acquired outside of Thailand. It can be extended once by exiting and re-entering Thailand before expiry. Then you need to apply for a new one in your home country, or apply for the extension of stay based on retirement in Thailand by opening Thai Bank account and doing all the required application paperwork. This I was told by Phuket Immigration.

@Robert ******

I guess they refer to the one year extension of the O-A Visa,as it can be valid for a max of 2 years. That is done by leaving Thailand before the O-A visa expires and upon re-entering Thailand they give you another 1 year extension of the O-A visa. If you choose NOT to extend the O-A visa and rather open a Thai bank account, and meet the requirements for the Extension based on retirement, and redo the application at an embassy in Thailand, you will not need health insurance. Question is where will this O-A visa health Insurance be controlled? Probably at the offshore Thai Embassy's and the airports in Thailand when you re-enter for your second year extension of the O-A visa. It cannot be extended at an immigration office in Thailand. Here you only get the Extension of stay based on retirement. I know, as i was at Phuket immigration for an O-A visa extension and they told me to leave the country and re-enter to extend it. They cannot extend it in Thailand. So I decided to open a bank account and submit all the required paperwork to Phuket immigration. They subsequently issued me with the extension of stay based on retirement. the point is that they cannot extend an O-A visa in Thailand other than by you leaving and re-entering Thailand. Then it will automatically extend for a max of 1 more year.