# Confusion with the Non-O visa



## pete1956.pe (10 mo ago)

I am due to retire to Thailand with my Thai wife of 22 years. I've been looking at the Thai Government Immigration website to see which visa was best for us. I not that the Non - O visa, if you go with your Thai spouse, states that it is a single entry visa. Does this really mean that if we go on holiday to, say Malaysia, for a week, I have to start the whole application process again from Malaysia?


----------



## Mweiga (Sep 24, 2010)

What the "single entry visa" category means for the non-immigrant "O" is that if you *do not *have a *Re-entry Permit* as well as your Type "O" stamped in your passport you will lose your valid "O" visa on re-entering Thailand (and you will be given a 30 day Permission to Stay , to allow you entry). What you need to do therefore is to get a *Re-Entry Permit *stamped in your passport once you have been granted the one-year "O" visa and it is stamped in your passport. You can do this at the Immigration Office on the same day you go to collect your passport with your approved "O" visa - you have a choice of Single Entry or Multiple Entry. I always get the Multiple Entry costing Baht 3,800. Can't remember what the Single Entry costs but it's around Baht 1,500. At my local Immigration Office (Pattaya) the process for submitting your Re-Entry Permit application and getting your passport back with visa stamped takes around 20 minutes depending on how busy they are on the day. The validity period of your Re-Entry Permit follows your "O" visa validity.

This is no problem at all but vital you do get the Re-Entry Permit if you want to travel out of Thailand with a Type "O" visa - failure to have it stamped in your passport gets your "O" visa cancelled on re-entering Thailand and you have to go through the whole process again to obtain a new "O" visa.


----------



## tod-daniels (Dec 1, 2013)

Mweiga is close 
Just so you understand how Non-O VISAS you buy at the thai consulate in your country before you come here work 
A 90 day single entry Non-O is just that. It gets you stamped in for 90 days ONE TIME 
then when that 90 days runs out you meet the proof of funds (400K baht in a thai bank account in your name only for 2 months before) and you apply for a year "extension of stay" based on marriage to a thai for 1900baht at the immigration office. It will go under consideration for 30 days and then you go back to get the year extension inked into your passport. AFTER you get that extension THEN is when you buy a re-entry permit; either a single re-entry for 1000baht <that lets you exit/re-enter ONCE), or a multiple re-entry for 3800baht <that let's you exit/re-enter as many times during that year as you want to. 
OR 
you can buy a year-long, multi-entry Non-O visa (based on marriage to a thai) in your country and when you show up you'll get stamped in for 90 days. When that 90 days runs out you exit/re-enter the country and get another 90 days, and you do that for the whole year the visa itself is good for. Pre-covid many people had this type of visa because travel between countries was easy and you could go to the border, stamp out of thailand, stamp in and out of another country then stamp right back into thailand to get a new 90 day stamp. NOW post covid, it's not so easy bouncing out and back to get another 90 day stamp with entry requirements for most nearby countries AND to get back into thailand


----------

