@Jurgen *******

I had an OA for 6 years. I have a 10 yr pensioner LTR visa now. If you meet the $80,000/yr passive income requirement then you might want to consider an LTR.

If you are German then you probably need to get an income affidavit from your embassy and I don’t know if that involves a Thai bank account.

@Jurgen *******

The 1 year extension of either an O or OA visa will require a Thai bank account.

@Jurgen *******

You can’t change from an OA to an O inside Thailand. After the first year of your OA you have to leave Thailand and then return as a tourist and then apply for the non-O and 90 days later apply for the one year extension. You can always buy a single or multiple re-entry permit at Immigration. The most important thing these days is to get your Thai bank account set up during that first year.

You do not get more than the 2 years on an OA. That 2nd year isn’t your OA visa but a 1 year permission to stay stamp. After the 1st year of your OA you must purchase re-entry permits to keep the permission to stay stamp alive if you choose to travel outside Thailand during that 2nd year. After the 2nd year you can return to your home country to obtain a new OA visa and start the process over again. After the first year you can also just begin applying for 1 year extensions of the OA visa at the Immigration Department inside Thailand. You will have to meet the financial requirements for a 1 year extension and you will continue to need to meet the health insurance requirement.

I had an OA for 6 years. It was a good visa in 2017 but these days I would recommend getting a 90-day non-O visa and just go directly to 1 year extensions. You can still get health insurance but there is no reason to have it connected to your visa.

I got my Kasikorn account at the first branch I tried but that was 7 years ago. Times have changed, I guess. If you ever need a 1 year bank statement then Bangkok Bank will make you wait. Kasikorn can produce one on the spot. The Kbank app is very good. The customer service has been great.

Everyone says don’t buy the accident insurance. I did buy it and a couple of months later I had an accident, made a claim and was paid promptly. I bought more coverage the next year and would still be with them if they hadn’t cut me off at 65.

I went to a lawyer in Bangkok. We discussed what should be in it. It was written in English and Thai and explained to her in Thai. The law firm accompanied us to the Bang Rak amphur for the marriage registration in order to make sure the pre-nup was filed properly.

Regarding the OA visa, it requires health insurance which may or may not be a headache to purchase as well as being a recurring expense.

@Sophia *****

The typical retirement visa is the O visa. It is only a 90 day visa so you quickly get to 1 year extensions.

For an American to apply for a 1 year extension of their O visa you have to show 12 months of deposits of 65,000 baht to a Thai bank. This typically means you have to deposit the 800,000 baht the first year to give you the time to build up the bank records. The advantage of the monthly income method is that you can spend all of it and your money is not tied up. It just will take you a year+ to get there.