@Ronnie ******

When I was getting 1 year extensions on my OA visa at Bangkok immigration I arrived at 8:30am and was out before noon. It’s once per year and not that difficult to extend DIY

@Mark ********

Congratulations. You are going to outsmart us all by doing border runs. 😂

I never thought of that 🤔

@Mark ********

The original poster asked about retirement visas. You should read the post you are commenting on.

@Mark ********

I get it. You like Vietnam. Vietnam doesn’t have a retirement visa. As for Thailand . . . Pattaya is your reference point? Really? You need to get out more before commenting on Thailand.

@Robert ****

Visa agents will get you an O visa and the first 1 year extension. The O and OA are different visas. You can only get an OA in your home country. An agent in Thailand cannot get an OA for you. The O visa has no insurance or criminal background check requirements.

@Stephen ********

There are several different visa that retirees can use to live in Thailand. They have different financial requirements and different structures and benefits. The O visa, described by Brandon, is the most popular retirement visa and has not changed in many years. Some of the other visas are targeted towards wealthier expats.

You should look at the Elite Visa program and the visas offered through the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI). Either way you will be paying a fairly large sum of money for a long term visa (not permanent)

I’m guessing they will want you to pay with real money.

If you have your money in the bank there is no need or advantage to doing a border bounce.

If you need to synchronize your insurance with your extension dates then talk with your insurance company.

Go 30 days ahead of time. Give yourself time to get whatever you are missing and return later.

@Simon ********

For the monthly method my understanding is that your 1 year Thai bank statement must show that you have deposited at least 65,000฿ each of the previous 12 months into your Thai bank. The deposits have to show that they originated outside Thailand.

I believe you have to use the 800,000฿ deposit method for the first year extension and then you can use that year to establish a record of monthly deposits