What these tax experts fail to grasp is the tax laws haven't changed they were only amended. Foreigners who reside in Thailand over 180 days a year have always been required to to file tax returns, this is not a new thing.

Retirees have been living in Thailand for many years and bringing their pensions into Thailand and not filing tax returns. Do any of you tax experts know of retirees being chased by the Thai tax department for not filing a tax return? No me neither.

@Rob ********

it actually does mean you won't get taxed twice

Money earned prior to 2024 is exempt from tax. That means you are free to bring it into Thailand and you don't need to declare it on any tax returns. You should be able to prove it by bank statements if the tax department comes asking though.

@Erik ******

there was no new law passed, they just amended the current one.

@Bart *************

He's coming from the angle that other foreigners will have been through this before with their Thai GFs and are seeking their experiences. I wouldn't be too concerned about it.

@Bart *************

well Thais don't need one to live in their own country that's why she will never get one. The question is about getting a passport for his Thai girlfriend, someone in here may be able to help him with advice. My point was more about the way some were commenting.

There are many ways to find out information, and a Facebook forum is one of them. Commonsense tells me that a visa forum is the best place to ask a question about passports as they are directly linked. It makes me wonder why some of you people are in here commenting in the first place if you don't want questions asked about visas and passports.

@Ian ****

FB is full of experts so thats makes it even more interesting. A FB expert is someone who knows someone who's brother drinks at this bar who knew a guy who owned one!

I did what you are wanting to do. As you are a couple you'll need 800,000 each. Use a visa agent. I am in Chiang Mai and used an agent called Napa. I came in on the 30 day visa exempt, went straight to them and applied for the type O visa. They suggested I extend my 30 days to 60 days. You need to open a bank account, they can do that for you and deposit the 800,000 baht, you will need one each I assume. This gave me 150 days (30+30 + 90)in the country before I converted to a retirement visa.

The only thing that changed is when you bring money into Thailand, nothing else. Pensioners have been bringing their pensions into Thailand in the same year as they earned it forever and the tax department hasn't chased them.