Eze. This was my first entry on that visa. I got it from the Thai Embassy in London in September and arrived at Bangkok Airport on 6th November.

The common theme here seems to be, as James puts it,...a mixed bag. Some IO's are asking for health ins. for O-A holders and some are not. I was. And this was for an O-A visa obtained prior to 31st Oct.

and this was for an O-A visa obtained prior to 31st Oct and the new health ins. requirement.

Roy: yes that is what I was trying to explain to the IO but she was not having any of it, and referred me to a hand written list of approved health ins. providers of which Aetna was not on the hand written list. Of course , Aetna is on the official list as can be seen in the above link, and also I specifically ensured that the health ins. company I used was one from said list, or I would not have used them. As I have the 30 day stamp I now have to do a visa/border run within that timeframe to enable the 0-A to visa to kick in and have a 1 year stay.

yes, that is what happened to me.

Yesterday I arrived at Bangkok Airport with my O-A visa that I received from the Thai Embassy in London and prior to the 31st October and the mandatory health insurance requirement. However, my g/f arranged a suitable policy with an approved health insurance company (Aetna) as a precaution in case it was required. Immediately the IO saw the O-A visa she demanded to see proof of health insurance, and was completely uninterested in the fact that the visa had been obtained prior to 31st October. I tried to show her my policy with Aetna which the company should have sent online but was unable to as Aetna had not sent it at that time. Also my flight from London to Bangkok was delayed, so I had no time to try and resolve the situation as I was already late for my connecting flight to Chiang Mai. Because of the above the IO gave me a 30 day stamp and advised me to see immigration at CM. Today I went with my thai g/f to CM immigration together with the policy document from Aetna (which I now had), only to be told by the IO that Aetna was not on their approved list of providers, but that Axa, Pacific Cross and a couple of others were. Again I tried to demonstrate that Aetna was on their approved list but the IO was uninterested. I was advised to do a visa run and re-enter Thailand with a health policy from PC or Axa etc, but not Aetna, in order to get the 1 year period of stay. So that is MY experience of the rules surrounding the new health insurance requirements doe O-A visa holders and the way the new rule was interpreted by the IO's I encountered. I would just like to state that this is just my experience and I am not making any recommendations or suggestions , I am simply relating my story.

Hi Peter, Print Sticker means your visa has been approved and they are now applying the visa stamp to your passport. You will not get any further updates regarding the visa status now, and you should get it delivered in the next day or two.

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many thx

@Ge***