Wokka, the web address I gave you should all be in English (are you putting the "au" at the end?) and there is a line across the top indicating each section. One of them is marked "Consular Section" and you just click on that and it will come up with everything pertaining to entry to Thailand, including visa information. requirements and fees, passport requirements etc etc which headings you click on.

Sorry I know nuzzing much about the topic but just follow the Thai embassy info and the sage advice of the contributors to this forum which enables us to pool our collective ignorance to solve the problems (lol). Trevor

Here is what happened today.

I decided against AEK and went to Nong Khai.

I had a current passport

I had a current non O visa

I had filled out the application forms (T7????????)

I had a bankbook with 800000 + baht credit with plenty of action in it over the last 12 months.

I had a letter/certificate from Bangkok bank certifing credit of 800000+ baht.

I had a medical certificate from Wattana Hospital.

I had copies of exchange documents converting AUD$ both in cash and TC to Baht.

My non Imm O expires 29 march 2006. As I have only just come into the Kingdom I can stay untill 7 June 2006.

Immigration looked at my paperwork/bankbook, passport and TM6.
They then informed me everything was in order and there would be no problems with the 12 month extension.

They then told me to return 10 days before I have to leave the country and I would be granted my extension. I raised the subject with him about my non O expiring 29 March and he said the date stamped in my passport by Immigration at Don Maung was what they go by.

TIT and they may have a change of heart between now and then but this report is FACTUAL, first hand and based on personal experience. It happened today.

I did not go to Laos, Hull or have anything to do with apples or oranges and did not have a highly placed Govt official with me.

I do have to get new certificates from the bank and the doctor but it is only 250 baht down the drain.

Read into this what you will but it happened today.

Miruku,
The link you supplied worked today but not yesterday. Mai pen rai, it is a Thai link.

Dakota,
I have lived in and visited Thailand enough to be able to visit Thai immigration without causing any problems either to them or to myself. Maybe the American going off his brain at Nong Khai Immigration today may have been better placed had he bothered to do a little homework as I tried to do.

I walked out of there today as calm as I walked in. I have been advised I have no problems and it is only a timing thing.

Stevo,
Thanks for the info mate.

Aj,
Nothing more to be said...

Im deleighted your visa has been approved and that you can collect it in June , That I think is the point here . you have applied for it in March sand will be able to collect it in June or ten days before you have to leave the country . I would poiint out you have not got an extension to your original tourist visa but have put in an application for a retierment visa ,which now has plenty of time to be sent to Bangkok etc. I think the comment imigration made when you queried your leaving date is all important maybe here ,Its all a question of timing. Maybe the thing to be leanrned is that you have applied for the visa in plenty of time due to fact that you have only just entered the kingdom , If you had stayed her for 2 months and then applied with only four wqeeks to go then you might have well have got te suggestion to go somewhere else . Ie Loas or Bangkok as it would take to long via NK. As far as Im concerned this is not a competion of who is right or wrong but a qhestion of assimilating what we all learn and are told so as to make sense of it all and leave some decent information for those following .

Aj,
We are not on the same boat mate. My Non Imm O visa is current and will be untill the 29th of March 2006. It does not have to be renewed. I have not had a tourist visa for the last 3 years. They have all been Non O.

I have to lodge the 365 day extension application 2 weeks before my 90 days is up on 7 June.

It will not go to Bangkok, It will be approved in Nong Khai unless there is a change of heart on the Thai Immigration officials part.

It is reasonable to assume that as they are not interested in seeing me until 2 weeks before my departure date they would not have wanted to see me a month before departure date.

I can only conclude by this exercise that provided you meet the criteria you are welcome to apply 2 weeks before you are due to depart. I am basing this on a application lodged in Nong Khai, although at AEK today 17/03/2006, when I confirmed the information given in Nong Khai the Immigration officer told me again to lodge 2 weeks before my departure date.

Yes, because they will give you a short "pending approval" (or called something like that) extension, again and again until your application is accepted, or not.

On an "O" you need to apply within the last 30 days of your 90 anyway, the reason or logic behind this completely eludes me.......

Yes your about right mate where not on the same boat. In the beggining . you said , I quote. AJ, I am applying for the initial retirement visa, not a renewal. Now youj are saying Again I quote. have to lodge the 365 day extension application 2 weeks before my 90 days is up on 7 June. So what you are applying for in an extension to your current non o visa ? MUST ADMIT YOU ARE LOSING ME COMPLETLEY . AS far as I know retimrment visa is an O>a visas , whjich is what I have got , have to admit I know nothing about O visa . As I have said , again as far as I know , retirment visas are approved by the thai embassy ,extensions to visas can be given by imigration . As you now say you are applying for an extension to your visa I would pint out that is a different kettle of fish than applying for your initial retiment visa ,which was what your first posting said .

Yesterday I submitted my application forms and was granted a 12 month extension to my Non Imm O visa. It was approved on the spot at Nong Khai Immigration and the requisite stamps put in my passport. I showed a bank letter and bank books showing 1.1 million credit and with a lot of activity both in and out.

They did not worry about where the money had come from and did not ask for the documents showing exchanges from Australian Dollars and Travellers Cheques.

All in all it was quite smooth and painless.

Being nabbed helmetless in Nong Khai was the only downside but that was uncharacteristic of me.

John

wokkawombat wrote:Yesterday I submitted my application forms and was granted a 12 month extension to my Non Imm O visa. It was approved on the spot at Nong Khai Immigration and the requisite stamps put in my passport. I showed a bank letter and bank books showing 1.1 million credit and with a lot of activity both in and out.

They did not worry about where the money had come from and did not ask for the documents showing exchanges from Australian Dollars and Travellers Cheques.

All in all it was quite smooth and painless.

Being nabbed helmetless in Nong Khai was the only downside but that was uncharacteristic of me.

John

John, well done.

If I understand this thread correctly you got a retirement visa based on 800,000 baht in the bank. If so, I am not surprised that you had no probs. In fact, NK immigration guarantee a 1 year visa if you are over 50 years of age and have 800,000 in the bank, to be processed within one hour. Unless things have changed.

Heh, in the future wear a helmet or take a high ranking gov. official to obscure you in the event of being spotted, or paint your face to resemble a Thai, or as many have suggested in this thread, go to Hull or Laos. Now you know you could have saved all this writing by so many experts if you just went to Hull!

Welcome and good luck wokka!

He he he - I know whats coming next!

Ok let me try to add a bit of clarification as to the trip out of the country. If you come without a Non O or B. In my case orginally a toursit visa you will be required to leave and get a Non immigrant O or B visa. These visas are not issued in Thialand and that is why you have to go out of the country. This is the first step in obtaining an annual visa.

Your one step ahead of the game if your intention is stay to get a Non O or B in your home country.

For the original poster when you do your renewal next, do exactly what you did for the original and you should have no problems at all.

Congradulations