Permanent Residence

[justbob]

So the 50 year old retirement visa Kahuna posted. Has anyone tried that? Seems easier to qualify for.
Justbob

[SamplerDoc]

  Sounds way to difficult.
I think its much easier to stay as a citizen of your home country and just travel to LOS
Go to LOS when you want, as often as you want, and for how long you want, then go home to your country of origin and repeat as often as you like

[justbob]

It's a damn long trip from Arizona. Soon there will be only financial, not emotional ties to the good old USA. Would rather be in the Land Of Smiles and travel back to USA when I have to.
Justbob

[kahuna]

Since the recent rule changes, without a visa you can only stay a max of 90 days (with border runs) and then you can't return to Thai for 180 days...So if you guys are planning on staying longer in LOS you should start looking at the different visas available...If you don't want to make application on your own, there are many visa services out there that will present your application on your bahalf to a Thai Consulate...

Thailand Ministry of Foreign Affairs Visa Requirements:

http://www.mfa.go.th/web/12.php

[stogie bear]

Since the recent rule changes, without a visa you can only stay a max of 90 days (with border runs) and then you can't return to Thai for 180 days...

No No No! Where have you heard this from?

You can stay for 90 days on a tourist visa and then 90 days on border runs and you can do this forever! No one has to leave the country or anything drastic like that.

[stogie bear]

Retirement Visas are easy and can be doe on the same day that you visit the office (assuming your papaerwork is in order) and that's probably what I'll be doing when my time is due in about 4 years.

I know many cases of people on retirement visas and they have all said that the rules are very flexible and that it's pretty easy to come by.

[stogie bear]

This article is too good for The Fishbox!

[SamplerDoc]

(stogie bear @ Nov. 17 2006,06:52)

Since the recent rule changes, without a visa you can only stay a max of 90 days (with border runs) and then you can't return to Thai for 180 days...

 No No No! Where have you heard this from?

You can stay for 90 days on a tourist visa and then 90 days on border runs and you can do this forever! No one has to leave the country or anything drastic like that.

Sb, thats great news but do you have a source we could refer too?  Perhaps a web site or article? I need to get moving on options for a semi-long stay in LOS

[stogie bear]

I posted it on another thread specifically about the Visa changes.

[BAM]

What if I€™m from another Planet?

[Guest]

(stogie bear @ Nov. 17 2006,06:54) Retirement Visas are easy and can be doe on the same day that you visit the office (assuming your papaerwork is in order) and that's probably what I'll be doing when my time is due in about 4 years.

I know many cases of people on retirement visas and they have all said that the rules are very flexible and that it's pretty easy to come by.

All reasonably true, but there are drawbacks.

For instance, someone several posts back referred to it as a 'retirement residence permit,' which it isn't. It's just a one year visa and, at the end of that year, you have to apply all over again for another year. No, you can't extend it as you might rationally assume. You have to apply again for a new one year visa using exactly the same procedure (and filing all the same doucments over again) as you would if you'd never before applied for a retirement visa.

Also, you must now demonstrate a steady source of retirement income to qualify. Until the rules were abruptly changed with no notice a few months ago (and as they surely will be again and again and again....), you could demonstrate the existence of cash in a Thai bank account (I think it was B800,000), but no more. Now you must prove, and have certified by your embassy (try getting the US embassy to certify your retirement income, huh?), that you have steady income of not less than B40,000 per month. You can now have B10million in a Thai bank and that no longer qualifies you. You still have to show you are getting B40,000 each month from an acceptable source overseas.

At least you do until they change the rules again.

Good luck.

[Guest]

(SamplerDoc @ Nov. 17 2006,08:24)

(stogie bear @ Nov. 17 2006,06:52)

Since the recent rule changes, without a visa you can only stay a max of 90 days (with border runs) and then you can't return to Thai for 180 days...

 No No No! Where have you heard this from?

You can stay for 90 days on a tourist visa and then 90 days on border runs and you can do this forever! No one has to leave the country or anything drastic like that.

Sb, thats great news but do you have a source we could refer too?  Perhaps a web site or article? I need to get moving on options for a semi-long stay in LOS

Alas, and as hard as it is for me to say this, Stogie is wrong here. At least he is today. Tomorrow they may change the rules again and he will end up being right.

The current application of the new rule is that you may only enter Thailand three times without a visa in any six month period, regardless of how long you stay each time. Yes, you can enter, stay thirty days, go out and come back for another thirty days, and then do it a third time. But, at least in theory, you can only do that three times in any six month period, so as a practical matter you woulld then not be admitted again for the remining three months of the six month period that begin with your first entry.

The real catch is for those people who are in the habit of coming, say, every month or so for a weekend. They're nailed by the new rule, too. Three entries without a visa in any six months applies even if you only stay two days each time you enter. After those three entries, you either stay away or you got get a tourist visa. That's really the way it is now. Today.

[kahuna]

(stogie bear @ Nov. 17 2006,06:52)

Since the recent rule changes, without a visa you can only stay a max of 90 days (with border runs) and then you can't return to Thai for 180 days...

 No No No! Where have you heard this from?

You can stay for 90 days on a tourist visa and then 90 days on border runs and you can do this forever! No one has to leave the country or anything drastic like that.

The operative words I used are  "...without a visa..."  But I was wrong you can re-enter after 90 days out of country...I think (see below)...It was directed to some of the guys that posted here...sounded as if they were not going to get any type of visa...

I'm just gonna take a quick trip to LaLaLand (closest consulate to me) and get the retirement visa...
 
 
ROYAL THAI CONSULATE, LOS ANGELES


LIST OF COUNTRY ALLOWED A €œ30-DAY STAY IN THAILAND WITHOUT A VISA€ FOR TOURISM (pleasure) ONLY


    Passport holders from the countries below can visit Thailand without a visa for the maximum of 30 days stay per entry with a total peroid of stay not exceeding 90 days within 6 months from the date of first entry into the kingdom. To enter the kingdom using 30-DAY STAY WITHOUT VISA again, this can be done after the first 6 months ( from the first date you enter thailand).



All too confusing to me....  

[stogie bear]

It's not difficult to understand.

You can enter Thailand on a 60 day tourist visa and extend it for 30 days. You can then do border runs for 90 days after which you get another tourist visa and go through the same routine over and over.

I really can't se how this is so hard to grasp.

[rob69in]

(TTChang @ Nov. 16 2006,23:32) rob69in:

The UK has been wrecked, especially by this idiot goverment, infrastructure costs out of control, ( council tax ) Energy costs out of control, taxation out of control, the constant inference & implimentation of absurdities from the EU. Service industries in reverse. Crime out of control, Imigration out of control. Do gooders & political correctness gone mad.

Sorry    ...... that is exactly my view too, Robin.   Although as Stogie implies, it wouldnt be so much like that with a good bit of Thai bureaucracy on the immigration front (oh, & maybe a military coup to reverse our Middle east policy crap?)
Retirement Visa very tempting to this old fart - if I manage to stay in UK long enough to apply!........ next week Brisbane, for you know what!    

Have you completed your application yet, kahuna?

If the present governmental idiots continue wrecking hundreds of years of out heratage, i will be only too pleased to retire to the LOS.