DTV does not stand for Domestic Tourist Visa.

DTV is Destination Thailand Visa and is a 5 year tourist visa granting you 180 days upon each arrival until the visa expires.

Your spouse and you must apply seperately.

Not sure if they see same sex marriages as eligible for the spouse path.

If not you can apply with your own course/freelance job on the DTV.

Getting a Non-O sorted before you come on your first trip will enable you to get your bank account sorted early so you don't have to rush it at the start of your retirement.

And getting a Non-O on your first visit lets you avoid going to Immigration during this visit. 🙂

Just travel around, find your pace, enjoy your life, no extensions needed.

And then in 6 months come back armed with a Thai bank account seasoned with the required amount of money for the upcoming yearly extensions, without having to stress to arrange it all out on arrival.

@Rich ********

Top one.

@Rich ********

The regular Non-O does not require health insurance regardless of where you get it.

You might be confusing it with the Non-OA, which does require a health insurance, and is only available from your country of residence.

Your best option to avoid the catch-22 situation is to just get the Non-O (retirement) before you leave your home country.

Get a bank account quickly upon arrival and deposit the required funds within your first 30 days of arrival.

Problem solved.

You apply using the Thai eVisa website.

Not a school I would go with. Pretty sure this is not required normally.

@Benz *******************

Ooh, you want a housing agent, not a visa agent. Got it.

No suggestions either way though. Ask local groups for housing agents, I suppose.

Why do you need to use a agent in the first place?

Just happens that I just did this. Took a little over a day.

I came to Laos yesterday morning, delivered my application by 10, paid at the Embassy just before 12.

Got asked to supply more documets at 2pm today.

Delivered this at 4pm, and at 5pm my visa arrived in my e-mail.

The documents they requested were SIGNED and DATED copies ( from my Thai spouse ) of the marriage certificate and his ID.

The originals I sent in did not have his signature or the date.

@Sylvia *******

There is. Permanent Residency is not Citizenship.