@Nicolas *********************

I found the application process to be very easy one year ago. All of my income was pension income which was easy to see on my tax return. The barrier for most people is the financial requirements of $80,000/yr passive income. If your passive income is more complicated than pension income then the application process will be more complicated.

Once they start working on your application the Board of Investment staff are a pleasure to work with.

Using the fast track lane is one of the benefits of the LTR

Dr. MacBook?

@Dee *****

It has always been the case that you can qualify for an OA visa with money in your home country bank. At some point, 1-2 years later, you will be going to Thai immigration inside Thailand to apply for a one year extension of the OA visa. To get the 1 year extension you must have money in a Thai bank account.

The O visa is a different visa with different requirements. Most people pursue an O visa because it doesn’t have a yearly health insurance requirement. The OA visa does have a yearly health insurance requirement.

I bought into Pacific Cross in 2018 when I was 62 years old. I discovered them from a YouTube video comparing several insurance companies in Thailand. The agent I talked to was very helpful and the overall customer service has been great with regards to yearly renewals and syncing my policy term to my OA visa dates and responding to any immigration questions.

Note that I signed up with PC before the OA visa health insurance requirement implemented in 2019. I bought Thai insurance when I realized that my US policy would not cover me as a full time resident of Thailand. Last January I switched to a 10 year pensioner LTR visa and my existing PC insurance qualified for the LTR visa.

I also liked the option for a relatively large deductible to keep the costs down. The cost of my PC policy was a little less than my US policy. I have a 10 million baht policy with a 40,000 baht deductible. I do have a few exclusions to my policy. I am essentially self insuring for routine care in Thailand which I find to be very affordable and of excellent quality. I have some savings, still in the US, earmarked towards healthcare costs that won’t be covered by insurance.

I have yet to make a health claim so I can’t speak to probably to most important aspect of insurance - will they pay when I need it to pay. On the other hand I am getting a substantial premium discount for not having made any claims.

My circumstances of coming here on an OA visa and not having a US policy that covers me for full time residency in Thailand is of course behind my choices. Others will be considering this question from a completely different perspective.

Whenever I’ve seen people ask for health insurance company recommendations I see responses from people who either love or hate a particular company. In the end you will acquire the names of a few companies and you will have to go out and talk to them yourself. Costs will depend on your age, health status, amount of coverage, and the deductible you are willing to accept so other people’s cost are not of much use.

When I was living in the San Francisco Bay Area there was a company whose sole business was giving vaccines for travel. You might want to do a Google search in your area for something similar. They knew the recommended vaccines for any destination and you could pick & choose what you wanted.

Start early because some vaccines need multiple doses space apart

Ask your phone company how to make international calls. I have AIS. I just have to dial 003 first.

You will not know until you talk to the landlord.

I moved out of my Bangkok, Phra Khanong condo after 6 years. The landlord was great. After 3-4 years I replaced the worn out sofa by buying a new one at Ikea. When I moved out last March I discussed it with the landlord. She didn’t want to keep it so I moved it to my new house and left the condo with no sofa. We met with her, at the condo, on our last day and she returned to me the full 50,000 baht deposit.

I bought the 5,000 baht accident insurance from Kasikorn when I opened my account. A couple of months later I had an accident that sent me to the emergency room for some stitches. Kasikorn paid the 5,000 promptly. I’m glad I had it. The next year I upped it to 50,000 baht. Unfortunately they cut me off at 65 years old.

Regarding the uselessness of the pink ID card - today I bought a used motorbike in Ubon Rachathani. I used my yellow book for residency and they asked for my pink card and entered the pink card number into the motorbike green book.