@Kev ********

mistake: you need to open the Thai bank account BEFORE you apply for the "change of visa type" to the 90 days Non-Imm-O visa. Because in to be allowed to apply, the money must already sit in the bank account. So for opening a bank account while being on a 60-days visa exempt, you will need the service of an agent, and you need to do that as soon as you have entered visa-exempt, because you need time to get the account opened and the money transferred from your home country bank AND still have a minimun of 15 workdays left on your 60-days stamp

oh my god . . . this thread is a dead train . . should delete everything and ask the question again

@Simon ******

A multi entry Tourist Visa has a validity for use for an unlimited number of entries (“multiple entry”)

The 6 months visa validity starts on the day the visa is issued. Thus, if you enter Thailand 9 days after it has been issued, you lose 9 days of the total of the 6 months visa validity.

Upon each entry, you will get stamped in for a 60-days stay permit

On each and every 60 days stay permit, you can apply for a 30-days touristic extension of the stay permit, for 1900.- THB, on Immigration.

If you take the 30-days extension, you must be aware that before the 90th day expires, you need to exit Thailand.

With the next entry, you will activate another 60-days stay permit

Which you also can extend for 30 more days.

To get the maximum number of days out of this visa, you should therefore enter Thailand as close as you can, to the date of issue

If you exit and re-enter Thailand before the visa validity expires (or any day before this date) you will get stamped in for 60 days for the last time.

You can then still get a 30 days extension of this last 60-days stay permit.

By this method, you can theoretically get almost 9 months of stay in Thailand out of the multi entry tourist visa

@Simon ******

wrong- you can get a total of 8 months out of a multi entry tourist visa, if you use it right

@Tony ********

a new passport doesn't cut any ice, mate. 🙂 All your entry data of many years back is stored in the Immigration's central computer

yes you definitely can, if your passport does not show any excessive visa-exempt stamp history during the recent year. With ONE downside - the extension of a 60 days visa exempt stay permit is for 30 days, not for 40

@Gordon ********

takes an arm and a leg nowadays 😕

@Sean ************

rubbish, blatantl rubbish. You should leave Thailand if you think that every Thai employer is such a bad human being. Your accusations and your opinion is so unbelievable. You surely had no education, and you know NOTHING about Thailand, you sound like somebody who comes here on a 2-week holiday and never shed the rose tinted glasses. Myself I HAVE BEEN working in Thailand, and always was treatened correctly and fair and legal

How to obtain a “90-days Non-Imm-O retirement/over 50 visa” inside Thailand and the subsequent 1-year extension of the stay permit based on retirement

This requires careful planning, because it needs to be timed correctly. It would be best if you already had a Thai bank account with 800,000 THB in it opened during a previous holiday, if you wish to go this route.

You can surely do the “Change of Visa Type” from a 60-days visa-exempt or a 60-days tourist visa, to a “90-days Non-Imm-O retirement Visa” on Immigration, if you got all your ducks in a row

But that means that you need to open a bank account immediately after you entered. And the clock is ticking away!

Right after you entered, you need to open a bank account and transfer from abroad a minimum of 800,000 THB. For the application to the “change”, there is no seasoning needed, yet.

You will however need proof that the 800K came from abroad, so take care it is coded correctly as FET by your Thai bank

EXCEPT in Jomtien/Pattaya, there the 800,000 THB need a 2-months seasoning period for the application to the initial visa! That’s what makes Jomtien a Catch22

On a visa-exempt, you will definitely need to pay an agent service to open a bank account for you, don’t waste any time trying to do it by yourself

You also got the option to use the "income affidavit" from your Embassy in Bangkok, confirming a monthly income of no less than 65,000 THB. as a Dutch citizen, your embassy in Bangkok is still issuing it

The U.S, U.K. and AUS embassies have discontinued issuing income affidavits, so as a citizen of these countries, you would need the 800,000 THB deposit in the first year

Visit your Immigration and apply for the "change" to a "90 days Non-Imm-O Retirement Visa". It will be issued 15 days “under consideration”. That’s why you need a minimum of 15 days left on your stay permit. After these 15 days, visit immigration and pick up the visa stamp.

The application fee is 2000 THB. You will need a rental contract on most Immigrations. You will need to be TM30 registered.

The 90 days visa will start on the day you initially applied for the change.

Beginning from up of 30 days before the 90 days stay permit will expire, as soon as the 800,000 THB deposit has been sitting in your Thai bank account for 2 months, you can apply for the "1-year extension of stay permit based on retirement".

You will need a bank statement for the 2-monthd seasoning, and pay a fee of 1900 THB.

READ the instructions explained in the web-link I provided carefully.

The “retirement” option is number 9. Click onto it, a .pdf document from Immigration will open. Carefully go through it as it lists the requirements.

If you want to play ultra safe, visit Immigration right after you entered, and ask them for the requirements for a “change”, because some Immigrations apply their own rules which might differ slightly from the police order.

you can't buy the tourist visa from your embassy any more. You need to go through the VFS Global agency. You pay twice - the agency AND the embassy fee