@Carl *******

The thing is, is that it shouldn’t matter to the bank if they understand visas at all.

This is an inconvenient suggestion but I agree that you could try a bank branch in Bangkok. That is where I got my Kasikorn account. When I moved to Sisaket province I went to the Kasikorn branch here to switch to a nearby branch. They changed my mailing address but not my branch. It was too difficult to go through the process of opening a new account for an American. So I live in Sisaket province but my official branch remains in Bangkok.

@Carl *******

The O visa is a 90 day visa that you can extend for a year. The OA visa is a 1-2 year visa that can then be extended for a year. I was on an OA visa for 6 years. The OA also requires health insurance to extend.

@Keith ******

If the bank is saying you can’t use an OA but have to have an O then that tells you the bank doesn’t know anything about visas. That should either be a red flag or a teaching moment.

@Carl *******

An OA visa is a 1 year visa that you can only get in your home country. An O visa is a 90 day visa.

@Greg *********

No criminal background check required for the LTR when applying inside Thailand. I got my pensioner LTR in January. The LTR is not the same as the OA which you can only get inside your home country and the OA does require a criminal background check.

I have a pensioner LTR and it is 50,000 baht for ten years. It is convenient and not that much money for a 10 year duration. It is certainly cheaper than the Elite visa. The additional costs of family members, I don’t know.

It is possible that you are confusing the OA visa with the O visa. Make sure you know what visa you are pursuing and look at the requirements for that visa on the Thai consulate websites.

@Paulo *********

If you enter Thailand on a tourist entry you can then apply for a 90 day O visa. At the end of the 90 days you then apply for a 1 year extension of that O visa. There is no insurance requirement when you apply and extend inside Thailand. Most retirees are here on a non-O and extend yearly.

In my own case, I switched from my OA to a 10 year LTR VISA. Both of these require insurance so the switch was easy for me.

It is possible you need insurance for an O visa if your purchase it from the Thai consulate in your home country. You won’t need insurance to extend it inside Thailand.

The ultimate goal is to get on yearly extensions unless you plan to keep returning to Australia to buy a new OA every 1-2 years.

I had a OA for 6 years. I don’t know what insurance will qualify for your original visa in Australia but eventually you will need to extend the OA annually and I don’t think travel insurance will qualify. So plan for your future insurance needs.

A different option is to pursue a nonimmigrant O visa. The yearly extensions are exactly the same as the OA but with no insurance requirement.