@Mayuree *******

Sorry. I don’t know about entering Thailand as a tourist these days. I haven’t done that since 2015-2016.

@Mark *******

I deleted this earlier but I think I should state it again more clearly - If you want to extend your OA visa after only the first year then you cannot leave and re-enter during the first year. Of course you can leave and you don't need a re-entry permit but when you return you will be stamped in for a full year (or end of insurance). You can't extend until the final year end stamp expires.

This is what happened to me. I entered at the end of February 2017 and took a trip to Cambodia in Nov 2017. When I went to extend my OA in Feb 2018 in Bangkok they told me to return in November. After that my OA was always due for an extension in November.

@Mark *******

You don't need a re-entry permit for the end of first year bounce but you do need to return before the end of the first year while you visa is valid. During the second year you will need a re-enty permit for any travel outside Thailand to keep the 2nd year active.

@Robert **********

If you are from the US, UK, or Australia then you must show 12 months of minimum 65,000 baht deposits into your Thai bank account. The deposits must show the the money originated from outside Thailand. They don’t care where you got the money outside Thailand. Typically this means US citizens use the 800,000 method the first year while they make deposits to their Thai account so that they can use the income method for subsequent extensions.

@Mark *******

1 year extentions of OA visas require insurance and typically Thai immigration requires that you have Thai insurance. You need to make sure the insurance you used to purchase the original OA visa in your home country will also qualify for subsequent 1 year extensions. I had Thai insurance so I never had to do that but my recollection is that you needed your non-Thai insurance company to sign a document acknowledging that their insurance coverage meets the Thai requirements. Getting your non-Thai insurance company to sign that document is not always a sure thing.

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.