@Ning *****

it seems to me that a marriage visa is only hard for those who make it hard for themselves, by lack of forethought. Most documents required for extensions are the same every year, so making copies of those documents and keeping them for the next year saves time and effort. 'retirement' Visa has double the financial requirement than the marriage visa and that amount of money parked in a Thai bank account with very low interest rates, might be an important factor to some people.

@Peter *********

what you have mentioned is the Visa that Tony Morgan mentioned, which has much higher requirements, including financial. That may be ok if you're financially pretty well off, but if you're just an average person like many that want to retire to Thailand with lower financial requirements, then you probably should be one of the two Non-O Visas that I mentioned.

The Non-O Visa based on Retirement as already mentioned, you can apply for before you leave Australia,or enter Thailand on Visa Exempt entry and apply for in Thailand at the Immigration Office in the Province where you intend to live. Most would probably recommend applying whilst in Australia. The other option that MIGHT be available for you is the Non-O Visa based on Marriage, but I'm not sure how that will go, since you didn't register your marriage. If you have a Marriage Certificate obtained at the marriage ceremony, then I'm wondering if you can still use that to register the marriage at your local Amphur in Thailand, or would need to do a ceremony again to get a new Certificate to get the marriage legally recognised. Something to think about and enquire about further I suppose.

With the 'Retirement' option, there's a greater financial requirement. I stand corrected by others that know better than me in this following information: 800,000 Thai Baht minimum is required in a Thai bank account in your name ONLY. If you you apply for the Visa in Australia, I believe that you only have to show that you have the money in an Australian bank account. That is for the initial 90 day Visa. Once you arrive in Thailand, if you haven't already got a Thai bank account in your name only, you need to get that organised asap, as you will need to have the 800k Baht in an account asap because it needs to be there for two months at least, before applying for your first annual "Extension of Stay", which has to be done before the initial 90 day Visa expires. Same applies to the bank account and money if applying for the initial Visa inside Thailand. Once the Visa is approved, 800k minimum must stay in the account for another 3 months, then up to 800k 2 months before applying for the next extension of Stay. It can never go below 400k Baht in the other few months of the year.

The Non-O Visa based on marriage has a financial requirement of 400k Baht minimum. I believe and others who know better than me can confirm or correct, but I think that amount has to be in the bank for two months before applying for the Visa, but once the visa is approved, there isn't any minimum required in the account until two months before applying for the next annual extension of stay.

With either of the two Visa options, there's often some minor differences in what Immigration Offices in the various Provinces require. Some might vary slightly in their times required for the minimum financial requirement, others vary slightly in their other requirements, such as documents.

If you search the group for these two Visa types, you'll find a lot of info.

@Josh ********

I'm curious and I'm sure others will be after your reply to

@Brandon ***********

... if you're going to Thailand on Visa Exempt and going to get your Scuba diving certification and you don't even know "which location"... for the job, or Certification? Are you organising this "Certification" through an 'Agent', or directly with a 'Scuba Diving' business? There's very few occupations in Thailand that are available to foreigners, so I'm wondering if this is a real job, if you don't know the location by now. If the job is real then the employer should know where they will employ you, I would think.

When you post something like this, it's best to provide a little more information, at least which visa you're applying for, sometimes your passport country otherwise there may not be enough information to provide you an answer.

I'm going to guess that you're applying for the Destination Thailand Visa because you're asking about bank statements. While I can't be 100% sure, as it's not a something I'm looking at right now, from reading other posts, I think your bank accounts need to be no more than 7 days old when applying. I'm only responding because nobody else has responded after 7 hours of you posting your question. Have you tried asking the Consulate? Have you tried searching within this group for the answer? If not, click the 'magnifying glass' and type in something like 'DTV, bank statement'. You should get some posts appear, then read through those posts and hopefully you'll get an answer from someone who's asked the question or provided information on the subject.

@David *******

it's a pretty good group, but as an Australian, the "Australians in Thailand" group is at least10 times worse for the bad behaviour than this group is. If it weren't for getting some info specifically from an Aussie perspective, I would have left the group a month after I joined. The one Admin there doesn't seem to be at all interested in dealing with bad behaviour, even when requested to. On one occasion, myself and another person tried to pursuade someone from bullying, which didn't stop, so he was reported by two of us. Admin's response was he didn't see the need to say anything. This group has really good Moderators that really know what they're talking about and I'm fairly confident that they won't tolerate much in the way of bad behaviour.

@David *******

yes, that's pretty clear and from a guy from the MFA that was very confident in everything he said, unlike another guy from MFA earlier, who it seemed wasn't 100% sure on the Extension fee. Thanks for the link to the video. It's obviously a great Visa for those who can qualify.

@David *******

is that your understanding/opinion, that it's a one time fee (not talking about extensions), or has official confirmation come from a Thai Government department? You're stating that it's 10k Baht, when anyone following posts on DTV fees, knows that Embassies/Consulates across the world have been charging anywhere from 13k-19k Baht. An online search for up to date information reveals nothing. I certainly wouldn't be relying on opinions without official confirmation.

Does anyone know for sure yet about whether the 10K Baht cost of the DTV (I'm aware that Embassies and Consulates are charging considerably above that) is a once off for the 5 year life of the visa, or whether it's 10k upon each re-entry? There was a lot of speculation about what it would be just before and just after July 15th.

There are places. I used one on my first visit to Thailand in late 2022. I can't remember the name of the place I used, but not knowing either the country or city at all, even with the aid of Google Maps I couldn't find it. It was only thanks to a very kind Thai man that spoke no English. He saw me going back and forth, looking a bit lost, suitcase in tow, he realised what I was looking for and directed me to where I needed to be. I was planning to visit The Golden Palace that day and the storage place was only about 5 minutes walk away.

Do an online search and you will find a few organisations that you can book through. To avoid the same experience with finding the location when you're there, I suggest that you book storage at a decent sized Hotel or Shopping Mall or the like which is easy to find. The place I booked, turned out to be in a small side alley and there wasn't any signage to indicate where it was.