The only "2 year" thing I know of is that it takes about 2 years to get a marriage visa. That's 2 years from the time you apply, until you finally get the visa. It's not something magical that happens at 2 years.

You can try applying for a tourist visa, but the embassy almost never grants those to married Thais because they think you are just trying to do an end-run around the 2-year marriage visa process. They think she will get to the US as a tourist and then you will apply for adjustment of status to get a green card for her.

You just use both passports until your DTV expires. They cannot put anything in your old passport as it's expired, but they need to see the passport number matches your visa.

You can go to immigration and see if they'll put a notation in your new passport that references your old passport number, so you don't have to carry both passports. Some immigration offices will do it while others will not.

@Gábor *********

that's the correct way to use a non-OA. Never have to deal with immigration or worry about money in Thailand.

@Gábor *********

that's not correct at all.

A visa is a VISA. That is used for entering Thailand.

An extension is an extension, it does not have a visa type because it's NOT visa. The stamp in the passport says "extension of stay" because it's not a visa.

You can apply for an extension of a non-OA visa based on being over 50 (retirement). You can apply for an extension of a non-O visa based on being over 50 (retirement). Once you're on an extension you're not on any visa. You're on an extension based on a specific reason.

You're not required to be in Thailand at all.

When you say a year, I assume you are talking about the 1-year extension, not the visa, as you are not clear. But with all extensions, you just need to purchase a re-entry permit before leaving, and be back before the extension expires so you can apply for the next extension. You could spend 1 day in Thailand per year applying for the extension if you wanted.

So do you feel the same way about all the Thais who apply for and pay for visas to other countries, walk into the interview, and are denied without barely a word and no reason given?

Anonymous participant You think a fee paid through the website the MFA runs isn't registered with the government? Okay.

This is the absolute worst time to be considering doing this. You're already in the period (2 months before your extension) where you have to be able to show your account is at 800,000 baht. If you want to change banks, you should do that in the period where your account is only required to be at 400,000 baht. This would be 3 months after your extension, until 2 months before your next extension. That's 7 months where it makes sense.

During that period you can transfer 400,000 and let it settle for a few days, showing you meet the 400k requirement. Then transfer the other 400k. Then you know you'll be covered since you met the 400k retirement with 2 accounts, and you'll be prepared for the next 800k requirement.

Any change of bank will 100% require all documents from both banks. But trying to do it right now is putting your extension at risk.

What documents do you need translated for a retirement visa? That doesn't make any sense. Nothing that's required for a retirement visa/extension would be in a foreign language.

You could, but why would you? Are you planning on leaving 4 times during your 90 days? That's the only way it would make sense, because a single re-entry costs 1000 baht and a multiple re-entry is 3800 baht. A re-entry permit is only valid until the end of the stamp you purchase it on. So if you're on 90 days now, the re-entry permit will only be valid until that ends.

You can purchase a single re-entry permit at the airport on your way out. After you get the annual extension, purchase the multiple re-entry from immigration.