Retirement Visa

In the past that was relatively indefinite, and people lived for years in Thailand as a tourist, coming in and out, doing "visa runs."  Immigration officials have been actively restricting that for years now (5 or so), and rejecting more and more entrants for different reasons.  Living in Thailand part-time as a tourist probably wouldn't work.  It would for awhile and then you would be blacklisted.

It would probably be hard to find a clear reference on how often someone could visit Thailand, under official policy, and actual control limitation (rejection of entry) would probably be inconsistent.  This site is quite rough-edged, as expat discussions often are in general, but paging through related threads there would turn up input:

https://forum.thaivisa.com/

bkk tea blog wrote:

In the past that was relatively indefinite, and people lived for years in Thailand as a tourist, coming in and out, doing "visa runs."  Immigration officials have been actively restricting that for years now (5 or so), and rejecting more and more entrants for different reasons.  Living in Thailand part-time as a tourist probably wouldn't work.  It would for awhile and then you would be blacklisted.

It would probably be hard to find a clear reference on how often someone could visit Thailand, under official policy, and actual control limitation (rejection of entry) would probably be inconsistent.  This site is quite rough-edged, as expat discussions often are in general, but paging through related threads there would turn up input:

https://forum.thaivisa.com/

Thank you.
I am going to read through that forum.

I asked the Thai Embassy in my home country how many times you can enter Thailand with a visa exemption.
They answered me briefly: 3 times a year.

The website of the Thai Embassy in Hamburg says: 3 times in half a year. All this is only valid for the flight path. For the overland route it means: 2 times a year.

In the internet you can also read that 6 times a year are okay, or you can read that it doesn't matter how many times you enter by air.

I think 3 times is surely accepted.
I also wonder if the same applies to my Vietnamese wife.
Unfortunately there are no details on the MFA website.

So I must probably find a suitable visa.
As I have read unfortunately applications for certain visas in my home country must be applied (retirement visa O-A or 6 months multiple entry visa), which is not suitable for me.

So I think there will be only a one-time entry visa or the non-immigration visa O (not O-A) for retiree. But there I have read that with each entry you have to
demand a return travel permit, which may be cumbersome.

And for my Vietnamese wife and our child there are probably different rules. So we have to visit the Thai Embassy in HCMC.

 

The days of being able to live in Thailand using visa exempts and tourist visa's are gone and the best option is a retirement visa if you meet the requirements.

Just because you receive a tourist visa from Thai Embassy doesn't mean immigration will allow you entry.  If they think you are spending to many days in Thailand using visa exempt and tourist visa's they may choose to refuse entry if they don't like answers to their questions.

For your wife check the Asean Charter which I think sets visa requirements for member nations.

Straydog wrote:

The days of being able to live in Thailand using visa exempts and tourist visa's are gone and the best option is a retirement visa if you meet the requirements.

Just because you receive a tourist visa from Thai Embassy doesn't mean immigration will allow you entry.  If they think you are spending to many days in Thailand using visa exempt and tourist visa's they may choose to refuse entry if they don't like answers to their questions.

For your wife check the Asean Charter which I think sets visa requirements for member nations.

Thank you.
I've had a look to the ASEAN Charter, but there is nothing about visas and entries.

bkk tea blog wrote:

https://forum.thaivisa.com/

I have read in the forum that the Thai immigration officials have no problem with a retirement visa of another country in the passport. Furthermore I have a Temporary Residence Card from Vietnam and it is not glued into the passport.

Now I only have to clarify whether there could be a problem with the pasted O-A visa from Thailand with the Vietnamese immigration officials.