@Ken ******

and I said: "f you speak Thai and already volunteer teach than you are already familiar with how the rules are flexible. "

I have been on a volunteer visa without volunteering.. Most certainly people can volunteer without the visa. Besides, they said they've already been volunteering.

Usually you will find an employer that will take care of this for you.

Marriage visa ara a pain. If you actually live with her (not my case) and the local immigration office is easy going, it's still a pain but not too bad.

When I was shopping for visa agents to handle my marriage visa they were quoting me 60,000, but the retirement visa is only 10,000. Ultimately I decided to do back-to-back tourist visa for the next year until I am retirement age.

Volunteer visa is probably the best suggestion. However, if you don't want to deal with the bureaucracy the tourist visa is right for you. You can do back-to-back or visa runs.

The retirement visa isn't a bad option but it requires more paperwork. Really, its the 14 week part, 90 days + 2 week part, that complicates your situation.

If you speak Thai and already volunteer teach than you are already familiar with how the rules are flexible. To that end, I would just do a visa run. Your travel history to Thailand would suggest your are frequent visitors and not permanent visitors. It's unlikely immigration or the police are going to have an issue with you being decent people.

I would like to point out

@Hristo **********

's experience may be accurate. You will discover each immigration office is different. I would recommend that you determine which immigration office you will be using and asking for up-to-date experiences from that immigration office.

@Jan *****************

Only once have I been asked for this and it was crossing from Penang into Thailand, there they had a goofy requirement it had to be in THB, not any other currency.

@Ling ****

In the neighborhood of 3500. I used the visa service on Soi 6.

As a foreigner you really don't have rights.. You have some privileges, which as you are discovering, can be denied.

Pattaya immigration is my local immigration office. I find it easier to drive 3 hrs to the the Cambodia border than to deal with immigration.

I changed to a marriage visa from some other type of visa, maybe emergency covid, maybe tourist, I don't recall.

I have applied for a marriage visa online, left the country and returned on that marriage visa (I have had a couple).

You might think you are right, and in some other world you maybe right, but you will not convince Thai immigration that you are right. The border is near there is no reason to fight this, bounce and come back. I find this kind of stuff a real pain in the ass but in total, I find living in Thailand worth the occasional pain in the ass.

@Nina ********

Onward travel. Some believe that means air travel but a bus, train, or boat will do.

It's more 'evidence' than 'proof' that you have plans to leave Thailand.

@Nigel *************

I don't know that its accurate or update.. From my experiences, more depends on the embassy and the immigration officers than any website official or Thai Visa Advice.