@Jim ******

she - the threadstarter - cannot get the 12-months extension using her pension, because her embassy (USA) does not issue any more income affidavits. She will need 800,000 THB in her Thai bank account, on the day she applies for the extension the money must have been in the account for 2 months. The only way for her to get a bank account opened, is by arriving in Thailand on a 90-days Non-Imm-O Retirement Visa. On this visa, she definitely can get a bank account opened. The service of an agent for a Thai bank account opening costs 5000 Baht. Using an agent and her own funds for the application to the 12-months extension costs around 12,000 Baht, a single re-entry permit included

@Jim ******

you are wrong. . . .on a 90-days Non-Imm visa type, one can definitely get a bank account opened. TM30 done, Thai Sim-card, certificate of residence or rental contract, is all you need. Some bank staff is too stupid to help you, then you just use an agent to help you with opening a bank account. An agent service for the account opening can be had for 5000 THB.

@Stan *********

it won't work because you need to keep a minimum of 800,000 THB in your Thai bank account for THREE months after being issued the extension. The agent but will have withdrawn the funds right after you got the extension stamped. This is the moment you are violating the rule. So which ever turn you make, even if you put your own funds into your account on the same day, you have already violated the rules at the very moment the agent took the money out. Understand?

@Stan *********

what you wrote is not 100% correct . . . . . Yes, you can start put your own 800,000 THB funds into your account during the first year, but then you still need an agent service plus tea-money ONE MORE TIME. Only then in the year that follows, you will be able to fulfill the requirements of keeping your funds in your account according to the rules . . .

@Sylvia *******

sorry but there is no Green Superrich in the BKK Airport basement any more

@Jair *****

but you will need to apply for the Non-O/A in the USA every two years . . . . if you get the "1-year extension" out of a Non-O/A visa, that's when it becomes really complicated, because then you will need a minimum of 800,000 THB in your Thai bank account, and a Thai tgia-listed private health insurance

@Summer *****

for THAI authorities, you need an official proof that you are your son's mother - which means you need your son's original (foreign) birth certificate leagalized by either a Thai embassy in your home country or by you country's embassy in Bangkok and then co-legalized by the Thai Ministry of Foreign affairs in Bangkok. Only such Thai officially recognized birth certificates can be used for visa-applications on Thai embassies outside of your home country, or on Immigration inside Thailand. . . . . . . . Just a reminder in a vice-versa case: No government or statesside authority inside the USA would recognize an original Thai birth certificate, wouldn't they? . . . that's what "legalizations" are for, like "notary certified" documents, and since there are no notaries in Thailand, it must be certified by an Thai government body

well it depends, if you got all required documents and the financial proof ready to upload into the e-visa online system of the Vientiane Thai embassy, and paid the fee at the embassy personally (they are not connected to a credit card system) . .after this it takes between 2 and 5 working days

@Jim ******

you did not receive a visa stamp when you entered. You just received a small flag-like stamp saying "admitted until" and a date in blue ink. This is a STAY PERMIT, not a visa. The visa you started out with, is mentioned under "visa-class" at the upper right corner, but yet, this stamp is not a visa

@Jim ******

your Non-O visa is not a stamp. Your Non-O visa is a .pdf printout piece of paper document. The stamp you think is your Non-O visa, actually is NOT a visa, it is a stamp telling you that you were issued a 1-year STAY PERMIT. This stamp is an "extended stay permit". . . . and for this one-year stay permit, you can buy a multi re-entry permit on Immigration for 3800 Baht. The 365-days multi entry Non-Imm-O Visa got discontinued on most embassies by October 2023. READ your stamps correctly, this is what your alleged "visa" looks like, which is not a visa at all: