The officer in charge at Mae Sai has known me for years. When I asked if I could just start again with a new Non O he looked at me in amazement and said that there was no way ever to get that in Thailand. I'd had the 800K in the account for five months by then. So I called in at Chiang Rai, on my way to Laos and the lady there who checks the docs said the same thing. I'd love to know why they didn't just give me a Non O visa? Anyway Laos was great.

@Stuart **********

No, I still had a week or so left before I had to extend for another year.

@Gene ********

maybe, I don’t know. I had been extending my Non O visa about 15 times. Anyway I got a new Non O visa in Laos. On more than one occasion I have had three different answers to the same question from Mae Sai and Chiang Rai immigration. There was no language barrier or misunderstanding.

@Stuart **********

They just looked at me as if I was mad and said Mai Mee! They had never heard of issuing any kind of visa in Thailand. They said go to Savanaket but I went to Vientienne and loved it there.

@Dirk *************

I have never had nor wanted a Non OA visa

@Graham *****

. I’ve been here on a Non O with retirement extensions for 15 years. Original Non O from Brisbane. I had let the balance drop below ฿400K ( not knowing the new rule) but it had been back at ฿800k foo5 months when I went for another year’ retirement extension. This was refused and both immigration offices said you can’t get a new Non O inside Thailand. They had never heard of such a thing. Anyway I had a lovely long weekend in Vientiane and I’ll go back to Laos again for sure.

I was told by two different immigration offices, Mae Sai and Chiang Rai that you can’t get a 90 day Non O visa (with the intention of extending it for retirement) in the country. You have to leave and apply for it outside the country. So I am always puzzled when I read some of the advice given here.

London is very fast for new passports too. I submitted my renewal through VFS in Chiang Mai on 9th October. They told me it would take 11 weeks. On 20th Oct they called me and said I could come and collect my new passport.

I took a guest to IM and filled in a TM30 which was filed. Then she applied for a 30 day extension. They denied it as it wasn’t in the system despite the fact that they had just given it to her and she had it in her hand.

@Clarissa ****

I don’t know about Emirates but you could tell him, if he is asked, to say that he will depart to Laos by bus over the 4th Friendship bridge at Chieng Kong and take the boat to Luang Prabang. Many people do that. Once arriving in Bangkok immigration never ask for an onward ticket. In fact I once asked the head man at the airport (4 rings) and he told me that an onward ticket was not required.