A visa for every occasion in Thailand

In checking the websites of the various consulates-general for Thailand in Canada, there’s a treasure of information at the Royal Thai Consulate General of Vancouver and likewise, Toronto.

The main Royal Thai Embassy in Canada, however, is under construction but at least there’s a hint of what’s to come. A Google search this week turned up the beginnings of the site, looking much nicer than the previous one, with background images from “home” and a straightforward, simple layout. However, most of the drop down menus lead to sheets saying “No data”. Nevertheless it seems to be on the way.

  Most of the vital official information for Canadian visitors to Thailand is available at the sites of  the consulates-general, as are the visa forms.

A brief summary of the visas:

 First, Canadians and many other western nationalities don’t need a visa. You can enter the Kingdom of Thailand and travel to your heart’s delight for 30 days. Free. It’s a visa exemption.

There are many visas.  If you want to stay longer, you can go to another nearby country and re-enter and stay for another 15 days. If you want to stay even longer, you can obtain a 60-day tourist visa in a nearby country or your home country. At the moment, the fee is waived for a single entry tourist visa, although there’s a $10 service charge at the Canada-based consulates. That deal will continue until March 2011. You can also obtain double- and triple-entry 60-day tourist visas, which give you four and six month stays. But there’s a charge for those, although the first entry is free.

For long-term stays, there’s the non-immigrant one-year O tourist visa and non-immigrant one-year O-A long-stay visa for the purposes of retirement. The latter is today’s subject. (Note, you can only obtain either visa in your homeland.)

The requirements are quite exacting for the O-A. The not insubstantial bonus is that you don’t have to leave the country for one year. You do have to report your address to the Immigration Office located in the city of your declared address every 90 days though. It doesn’t have to be exactly 90 days, as you have seven days either side of the entry date that is stamped in your passport.

If you leave the country, when you get stamped back in, the 90-day clock starts anew, so it’s as if you reported your address. If you don’t leave, then you have to go to the Immigration Office. In Bangkok, that’s Government Center B, Chaeng Wattana Soi 7, Laksi, Bangkok 10210, Tel 0-2141-9889 -- note, the consulates' websites have the old address  of the Immigration Office at Suan Plu, in Silom business district. I have yet to visit, but others are very complimentary about the premises and the service, although it’s a bit distant from “downtown” Bangkok.

So what do you need to obtain one of these valuable visas? First, you have to be over 50 years of age. If not, then, if you want to become a long-stay tourist, you may apply for either 60-day tourist visas or the Non-Immimgrant O visa. With the 60-day visa, you must leave the country before or at 60 days, and with the Non-Imm O visa,  you must leave the country every 90 days.

Some of the other requirements for the O-A,  include:

1. You can only apply in the country of your nationality or residency
2. A (downloadable) personal information form.
3. A notarized simple police clearance letter (in Toronto, from 40 College St., Toronto Police Service  Headquarters, which costs $28 and takes about 10 days -- mine took 13 business days).
4. A notarized bank statement showing at least 65,000 baht a month income (options include proof of  a substantial deposit equivalent to roughly a year’s worth of living expenses in a Thai bank, or combination of both monthly income and deposit statement) .
5. A notarized  medical clearance for some dire diseases.

Note on notarization: A notarized “true copy” of each document is fine to send; you can keep the originals.

Other notes: you have to have one and a half years left on your passport, three passport photos of international dimensions 45 mm by 35 mm (Canada’s passport sizes of 70 by 50 are out of step with the rest of the world); and the application must be in triplicate -- no copies. Yes, you have to laboriously fill out the same one-page form three times.

Last, you CANNOT work in Thailand. You CANNOT volunteer in Thailand. You need a work permit for either of these. If you’re caught, you will be deported. Am I clear?

The multi-entry O-A visa is $175 Canadian.

The above is a summary of information from the Thai consulate-general sites as well as extensive readings of the Thaivisa.com visa forum (which are staffed by experts in the secret world of visas) and personal experience. As always, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the only true source of info, and the consulates’ sites are really just repeaters of the MoFA site.

One thing to note: The MoFA and Embassy websites say that if you want to leave the country during the period of your O-A multi-entry visa, you are advised to get a re-entry permit at the Immigration Office before you leave, otherwise, the visa is void. That makes no sense as you have a multi-entry visa. Why would you pay twice for the privilege of coming and going, to say nothing of the hassle of going to the Immigration Office to get another form. It appears as though this requirement is incorrect, according to the visa experts at Thaivisa.com. It has probably been superceded by later police orders.

The experts at Thaivisa.com say you don’t need a re-entry permit during the one-year span of the visa.  Here’s how things work:   First, a visa is a permission to enter the country. Anything else you want to do, e.g., leave and come back, requires another process. As you come and go during the visa period, you get a stamp. It is called a "permission to stay" stamp. It should always be for one year from the date of re-entry -- that’s for the one-year visa; shorter visas net you smaller periods of stay. This stamp doesn’t keep the visa alive -- it is a one-year visa, after all -- but it does allow you to re-enter the country after its expiry.  But in order to re-enter the country after the visa expires but before the permission to stay period ends, you do need a re-entry permit. It’s 1000 baht for a single entry, 3800 baht for a multi-entry permit at the Immigration Office. Note, you cannot get a re-entry permit at the Bangkok main international airport, although it’s been done on an emergency basis.

If you like the place and the people so much you want to stay for the foreseeable future, you can get extensions. I should say “you can apply” for extensions. The Immigration Officer has final say on your application and can approve or deny. The O-A holder can apply for an extension based on retirement (proof of income mandatory) or based on marriage to a Thai national (proof of income and marriage mandatory but the financial thresholds are lower, oddly enough).

There are other wrinkles among the various visas, too many to list here and I'd probably forget one or three. For any further info, you can call the Thai Embassy in Ottawa (613-722-4444). I've always managed to get someone on the phone and they've proven to be very helpful.

There  are Immigration Offices all over Thailand and at the land borders. Service is available in English at most of these, although it may be a struggle at times. Of course, you can always learn Thai.

LINKS:

• As an alternative information source for the O-A and other visas, take the Web train to any of the Canadian consulate web sites: Vancouver’s has extensive info and links  and Toronto's has very good info and links. As well, visit the Thailand Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• The incomplete site for the Royal Thai Embassy in Canada is under construction
• Links to many Thai embassies and consulates abroad.
• Also check out Thailand Blogs for good articles on the visa merry-go-round.
• And the visa experts at Thaivisa.com.