On the other hand, you don’t have to get the “2nd year”. You could at the end of the first year apply for a 1 year extension as long as you meet the financial requirements.

@Golden *****

You buy an OA visa in your home country using funds in your home country bank account. At some point many or most OA visa holders have to extend that OA visa at a Thai immigration office in Thailand. At that point to will need to have 800,000 baht in a Thai bank account. That is only strictly true for citizens of the US, Uk, and Australia. Citizens from other countries can try to qualify for the 1 year extension by getting an income affidavit from their home country embassy stating that they have an income of at least 65,000 baht/month.

The requirements to extend an O or OA visa are similar. Only those with an OA visa are required to have health insurance.

@Mayuree *******

Yes. A tourist can apply for a non- immigrant O visa while they are in Thailand on a tourist entry. Luckily he has a Thai bank account already. There is some tricky timing regarding what to do and when. I’m not the expert on that. You want to ask Tod Daniels in this group or the Thai visa advice Facebook group.

It sounds like he is on a 1 year extension of an OA visa. If he also bought a multiple re-entry permit then he must wait until that ends. If he didn’t buy a re-entry permit then he just has to leave the country without a re-entry and that will end his 1 year extension of stay. After he re-enters as a tourist he can apply for a 90 day O visa and at the end of the 90 days he can apply for a 1 year extension as a retiree. It is the same as the 1 year extension for an OA but it doesn’t have the insurance requirement.

I had an OA for 6 years. I now have a 10 year pensioner LTR

I think the problem here is assets owned before and after the marriage. If the assets were owned prior to the marriage and protected in the prenup then it doesn’t matter what country or state they are in. If you open new bank accounts and buy property outside Thailand after the marriage then that could be more complicated.

In my case I have a couple of bank accounts in the US that I have had for decades. I’ve not acquired any new assets in the US. The benefit of the assistance of an American lawyer in Thailand in a Thai law firm is to explain all this and if necessary recommend what to do legally in the US such as a referral to a US based lawyer.

If a Thai is divorced from an American and wants to go after assets in America, acquired during the marriage, then I guess she is welcome to try. As a practical matter I not worried about that myself. Those assets would have to be pretty substantial to make it worth the effort.

@Ruth ******

If you want to declare all your assets acquired prior to the marriage as off limits then I think you would be able to do that with a Thai prenup in Thailand. If you want to direct a portion of your foreign assets as off limits then no, I would not expect a Thai prenup to have any validity to direct distribution of assets in the US.

@Ruth ******

I think we are talking about a Thai marriage in Thailand and they are living in Thailand. If the prenup protects assets acquired prior to the marriage then does it matter where the assets are? If I want to get married to a Thai in Thailand and live in Thailand then I need a prenup in both countries?

@Ruth ******

Are you saying a Thai prenup in Thailand cannot protect assets you acquired prior to the marriage?

@Neil *****

It is a Thai law firm writing a Thai prenup covering a Thai marriage in Thailand. He was an American lawyer able to assist me in the process. He did what you said in your comment to this post. It was a Thai lawyer that accompanied us to the marriage registration.

@Neil *****

I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt that he is practicing legally and ethically in the context of his position in the Thai law firm.