Hello Everyone,

I have just booked my ticket for January 11th. And am off to live with the wife (not before time). Hopefully been successful enough not to have to come back to England to work, to make ends meet.

Over the past 6 months I have been learning to dive. I have been dedicated, and am now not far away from my PADI Divemaster certification.

I plan on staying in Thailand as a divemaster while training to be an instructor. By the time I am an instructor I should be able to get a work visa.

My question is what visa should I go for now?

My wife is a Thai national, I was planning going for a 60 day visa before I go, then doing visa runs.

Is this the best way about it? or can anyone suggest a better way?


Thanks

Jon & Wan

John,

I would have thought that initially you would be better off with a 12 month multi entry Non Immigrant 'O' Visa. With that you can stay 90 days before being required to do a visa run - and up to one month more if you apply for and are granted extensions.

If you have copies of your marriage certificate in both English and Thai you will find that a 12 month multi entry Non Immigrant 'O' Visa is very easy to obtain by post from the Royal Thai Consulate in Hull. It is also very fast:

http://www.thaiconsul-uk.com/

Agree with Flip John.

The Non Imm 'O' is really easy to get... and if you use it correctly i.e. do another visa run a couple of days before the annual date is up, you get another 90 days, therefore you can make it last for almost 15 months.

Of course, on that visa you are not allowed to work, so you would still have to apply for work permits etc once you become qualified.

Thanks

Flip & Thaddeus

Sounds like good advice. I live near Birmingham. There is a Thai Consulate in Birmingham too, do they also provide this service also? Think I will pop in there and go for a Non Immigrant ‘O’ Visa. I have got a marriage certificate along with an English translation.

It was my understanding that you could stay in Thailand indefinitely, along as you kept doing the visa runs?

Saying that, 15 months is a long time and my position should by then changed for the better by then. I also will probably want to come back to England to visit the family for a couple of months. So I don’t think it will be much of a problem.

..... Well I’m in split minds; I don’t really want to leave the wife alone again.

Thank again for you help

Jon & Wan.

quote:

It was my understanding that you could stay in Thailand indefinitely, along as you kept doing the visa runs?

Yes you can do (some of the immigration posts are now begining to frown on those that have been doing it for a few years)

With the Non Imm 'O'.... it can be extended for another year just before the last (extra) 90 days expires. You need to go to an Immigration Office (not a border crossing) complete with your partner, your marriage certificates and evidence from the Thai bank of your choice that you have 400,000 Baht deposited with them (that money should be left in the bank untouched until you are granted the extension and that can take up to 3 months).... or.... when you have completed the 15 Months you fly back to the UK for a small holiday and get a brand new 1 year visa.

So Have I got this right.
You can go to say Hull, and ask for a multi entry marriage visa, at this point you don't need 400,000 in a thai bank,
Then 15 months later, if you wished to re-apply you can re-apply in Thailand but in order to satisfy the current regs, you would have to have 400,000 in a thai account,

or another option

would be to fly back to the UK, visit Hull for another 12 month multi entry, and have no money in any bank anywhere

Is that correct? I don't know and the info would be appreciated
regards
Bryn

Yes Bryn,

You are correct on all assumptions but also an income of 40,000 per month would qualify you. People also say that they have obtained 12 month multi entry 'O' visas in other countries outside Thailand - I don't know about that. I'd guess that a lot of people using this method come back once a year for visits etc. anyway.

Thanx Flip,
And just to follow on,
If I wanted to leave Thailand say in the first 3 months,
I would have to obtain an exit permit from FIRST, from the immigration at the airport, which would allow the marriage visa to continue upon return to Thailand.

And lastly,

Having this type of visa would not require me to leave the country every 90 days, but allow me to report to the police every 90 days,
If this is correct, would I be able to do this in the town in Thailand that I reside in.

regards
Bryn

Bryn
it's immigration that you have to report to not the police, and then the bad news is there is no immigration office in Petchabun county, so it might be a trip to Pattaya to report

Sorry, can't answer that one Bryn but I have heard something about obtaining an exit pass or your visa is cancelled - presumably because its not a multi entry.

Wsan't there something somewhere about being able to report to immigration on line in the near future?

Cheers again for your help

This information will be a valuable source, for the planning of my future. I am excited about starting my new life in Thailand, although I am sad to be leaving friends and family. I hope working it the dive industry will kick start me back into a more healthier lifestyle, where I will be happy with my wife.

Jon & Wan

quote:

Originally posted by Bryn&Mot:
Thanx Flip,
And just to follow on,
If I wanted to leave Thailand say in the first 3 months,
I would have to obtain an exit permit from FIRST, from the immigration at the airport, which would allow the marriage visa to continue upon return to Thailand.

And lastly,

Having this type of visa would not require me to leave the country every 90 days, but allow me to report to the police every 90 days,
If this is correct, would I be able to do this in the town in Thailand that I reside in.

regards
Bryn

Bryn

As far as I am aware, if you return to Thailand before the visa expires, you don't need to do anything.

For the second part..... nope.... you have to get out of the country every ninety days with the Non Imm 'O', if you are over 50 years old, you can get a 'Retirement Visa', with which you only need to report to the Immigration Office. (you need 800,000 in the bank or equivalent income for that one)

In answer to an earlier one.... there are people who go to Malaysia or Vietnam to obtain a new visa, but not that many as they have Thai staff there and are quite difficult to deal with..... there aren't any Thai staff in Hull well, not when I went.


P.S. ..... I think Merv is over 50 and wadded

quote:

P.S. ..... I think Merv is over 50 and wadded

Over 50 yes but wadded NOT careful YES
re Retirement visa
If married it's 40,000 in the bank or an income of same anually, and irrespective if the visa is valid or not when you come back in if you dont have pemission to leave prior to departure it is cancelled. I dont know what the regulations are but this is from experience of a friend of mine who is on a retirement visa.

quote:

when you come back in if you dont have pemission to leave prior to departure it is cancelled.

From that statement, do you mean you must get an exit permit from BKK airport prior to departure?

Not from Bkk airport but some immigration office, you can not get a permission to leave at the airport

Just checked with Mac my mate that is on a retirement visa and the details he said are
Remembering that there are two types of visa a married visa and a retirement visa, the married visa is the visa that allows a 50% reduction in the amounts required for a retirement visa. The retirement visa whether married or not still requires 800k in a bank in Thai or an income of 80k per month. Both visas require reporting to Immigration Police ("not just a Police station as they dont have the stamps", his words not mine) every three months and renewal each year.

quote:

Both visas require reporting to Immigration Police ("not just a Police station as they dont have the stamps", his words not mine) every three months and renewal each year.

Not wishing to argue Merv, just disagree slightly

You are absolutely right about the retirement visa, totally spot on, but with the Married Visa you do have to leave the country every 90 days and then renew the annual date at an Immigration Office, well three months after the annual date if you have used it correctly.... and why someone who is retired needs twice as much money as a married man I'll never understand

Thanks Thad for that bit because I couldn't see the difference between the two visa's but as you say just on a married one you have to still do the visa runs (damned stupid that bit) So it works out the advantages of a married visa is that you can get it in Thailand I suppose and only need 50% of funds.

Thad,

That depends on which marriage visa you have - no disclosure of savings/income + visa runs or proof of 400,000 bank/40,000 per month. With the latter - no visa runs. Or at least that's what I was told.

Having said that, you could be right Thad. Every source I read gives different requirements - even the official sources. What a country!

Mervyn,

I agree with you on the stupidity bit - but I'm pretty sure that something's got mixed up in the formation of the actual rules as they differ from what the government previously stated.

It similar to the situation with importing cars - a Thai national can bring one car into Thailand providing they have owned it abroad for 18 (I think) months. But they still have to pay hideous import duty on it so where's the concession? I believe that when that regulation was originally formulated it actually stated that they could bring one car in tax free. I can't see the point of it otherwise - who would want to bring a car in and pay up to 200% more than they could probably buy a similar model for in Thailand?

quote:

.... and why someone who is retired needs twice as much money as a married man I'll never understand

It's because they expect your wife to provide all the 'essentials' that you would fritter your money away on in Pattaya

BigRed

quote:

Originally posted by Flip:
Having said that, you could be right Thad. Every source I read gives different requirements - even the official sources. What a country!

And people on here whinge about the British Embassy and the UK rules!

There are also discrepancies in other ares of the immigration rules Tobias.

For example - in the general list of items that would prohibit any traveller from entering Thailand - there is this:

"Having been imprisoned by the judgement of the Thai Court; or by a lawful injunction; or by the judgement of the Court of foreign country, except when the penalty is for petty offense or negligence or is provided for as an exception in the Ministerial Regulations."

Fair enough, the don't want the bad guys - but it seems that if you are over 50 and applying for an OA visa - a criminal record is ok as long as your offences haven't related to security matters. So that's how the paedophiles get in. The mind boggles at the thinking - from the same official website:

"Having no criminal record against the security of Thailand and the country of his/her nationality, or the country of his/her residence."

I have tried to make sense of many aspects of different Thai regulations and frankly - I give up. How their legal system operates with rubbish like this is beyond me. No doubt you would have had an entertaining time had you practiced out there Tobias - oh I forgot, you couldn't have, foreigners are prohibited from practicing law in Thailand. Presumably because they would question the system too much! Or is it because Thai lawyers are obviously far superior?

When it all come down to it - This is Thailand - and everything is negotiable. It just depends upon who you know and not what you know.

quote:

Having said that, you could be right Thad. Every source I read gives different requirements - even the official sources. What a country!

I'm working on the information given to me by both the Consul at the Royal Thai Consulate in Hull and the Thai Immigration Office in Kap Choeng.

Both said exactly the same thing.... Hull when I applied for my visa and the Immigration Office when I got here..... I like to double check stuff