@Graham *****

yes I saw that Graham, the OP will struggle as Brandon explained because he is on a DTV, but Billy said he personally has an account with 800,000 baht and is complaining that the price for an agent to get his second "RV" is 39,000 baht, so I was suggesting he does it himself instead.

@Billy *********

instead of paying 39,000 baht to an agent when you already have a Thai bank account and 800,000 deposited, why not do it yourself as it is easy to do? Have I misunderstood something about your circumstances?

@Susan *******

you can definitely do it on your own. The Thai visa process is easy. The Thai visa site is not intuitive and a bit clunky, but give yourself a bit of time and be patient and you will achieve it. Once in Thailand extending your stay takes me about 45 minutes in immigration and there's 1 A4 main form to complete (about 15 questions like; name, passport number, date of arrival) plus sometimes a couple of other declarations to sign and providing lots of photocopies etc.

Definitely get the non-O visa instead of OX before travelling to Thailand, because of the reasons Brandon gave. Enter Thailand and ensure immigration stamp you in with that visa. Open a Thai bank account and deposit 800,000 baht in your first couple of weeks. Go to immigration and get their list of requirements to extend your stay for 12 months. Once your money has been in the bank for 2 months, take the documents on the list and extend for 12 months. At the same time buy a re-entry permit, so that you can exit and re-enter Thailand and your visa/extension stays valid when you leave/return. You can repeat the extension every year for 1,900 baht. It's really easy, no need for agents, extending your stay takes me about 45 minutes on average at the immigration office. Good luck.

@Bernie ************

depends what you call expensive and how much the lawyer is charging to set it up with the land agency. I think it cost us 15,000 baht.

@Sea ****

yes I think you are correct, he mentioned 30 years, so if anything this is even better.

The best way is to get your lawyer to arrange for you to own the house and your girlfriend owns the land. At the same time they need to set up a 'usufruct' for you to legally be allowed to stay on the land for 30 years, this is entered in to the tabian baan (blue book). People will no doubt say this would not prevent you from being evicted if you ever split up, but it's the best way other than not buying a house. The other alternative is to buy a leasehold house on a housing complex, so you only ever own the house and someone else owns the land.

There are two ways of achieving this; easy/inexpensive and difficult/expensive.

Brandon and Lynette explained the easy route, Bill gave you the difficult option.

It used to be possible to arrive without a visa and either do it yourself or pay an agent, but that has changed now and it seems even agents are having to use workarounds like getting an education visa first, before getting the retirement visa, all of this adds cost. Up to you.

@Navdeep ******

I have also used a different branch in the past for the letter and statement, so it's definitely possible. As always this is Thailand, so it's also possible a bank might refuse, so dress appropriately, be polite and hopefully you will have no problems.

After the first year, if you can show 12 monthly deposits of 65,000 you can change to that method, but you still need to satisfy the requirements for the first year, so I think you need to wait 3 months to withdraw the 800,000. Not done it yet, I plan to do it in a few months, so double check with your immigration when you extend.