if he has all required documents at hand and ready, 400,000 THB in his bank account for at least two months plus the banks "letter of guarantee", or meets the income requirement of 40,000 THB per month, documented by a notarized letter by his embassy, he can apply for the yearly "extension of stay based on marriage to a Thai" at Chaeng Wattana anytime now within the last 30 days of his Non-Imm-O visa based on marriage. No health insurance is required for this

. .so

@James *******

had the perfect solution for you: apply for the Multi Entry Tourist Visa. It gives you 3 times 60 days of stay and if you plan your last exit and re-entry right, you can get 8 months out of it. In case you are short of a few days or a week, you can then still do an exit & re-entry and obtain a 30 day visa exempt so that brings you to a total of 9 months

@John *********

is right: the Berlin embassy hands out O/A visa with the "common" validity of 12 months. And so the health insurance has to cover the 12 months. They do not care about how long you want to stay within the the admitted 12 months. If you only plan an 8 month stay, this is totally up to you, but for the application of the O/A you need proof of an insurance that covers one year. Visa are not subject of a lottery system or like a game of Bingo or on Santa's wish list. They are handed out once the requirements are fulfilled

so Matthew can always get a 365 days stay out of an O/A visa without the need of signing a thai based health insurance from the tgia list

. it is good to know, that there are foreign health insurances who are willing to sign the "tgia-certificate" for a successful application for the O/A visa in one's home country. And that it is valid for the first 365 days, minus the days lost until first entry. Thank you very much,

@Matthew ******

could you please just clarify, that you firstly had to show the health insurance signed certificate for the application of the O/A visa in your home country's Thai embassy/consulate, before you winged your way to Phuket? Because your post reads like anyone can show up at a Thai border and show the health insurance of who-is-who and will be stamped in. You received a Non-Imm-O/A visa in your home country because you had the certificate & proof of a 365 days valid foreign health insurance, and you timed the validity date correctly to match the 365 days needed from the day of entry onward

a 30 day visa exempt can't be prolonged with a re-entry permit. Once you leave Thailand, this "exempt" stamp becomes void. You can only then re-enter and receive a new "30 day visa exempt entry". By land borders this is limited to two per calendar year, by airport entry officially unlimited (but not intended to be overused)

@Julie *****

back to the topic . . . if you spent more than 6 months in Thailand in the previous 365 days, you can be denied a tourist visa in both places, Savannahkhet or Vientiane, and in HCMC

your ACS would only count if you apply for a Non-Imm-O/A visa in your home country, and only being accepted for the first year of an O/A visa (and only IF they sign the certificate). Once you step into the second year of an O/A, upon re-entry you will eventually be asked for proof of a tgia-listed Thai health insurance. You'd best follow Tod Daniels' advice and get out of the O/A and into a Non-Imm-O for which you will not need a Thai health insurance (however of course you may keep your ACS insurance for peace of mind)

something doesn't sound correct here. If he has a 60-day tourist visa, he can extend it on any immigration office inside Thailand for another 30 days for 1900 Baht. If he leaves Thailand on a valid 60-day tourist visa without a single entry permit, his tourist visa will become invalid, however he will be allowed to re-enter by a 30 day visa exempt. If he still has a valid re-entry permit, he will be given 30 days on his current tourist visa. And it leaves him the option to do two 30 day exempt entries by a land border starting from January 1st