New Immigration Rules

The Thai cabinet passed a resolution dated 11th September 2001 which has only become common knowledge in the last seven days. The resolution concerns new improvements to immigration procedures and is aimed at promoting the tourism industry by simplifying the regulations on obtaining non-immigrant visas, category “O-A”, to accommodate long stay tourists.
The Thai cabinet has reduced the age criterion from 55 to 50 and no longer requires foreigners to transfer money to a Thai bank account. The expatriate need only submit his deposit account or other evidence of income to a Royal Thai Embassy or Thai Consulate which should then issue a non-immigrant visa category “O-A” (long stay), without having to obtain the authorisation of the Immigration Department. This includes applications from tourists applying for a visa for the first time.
The following qualifications must be satisfied in order to obtain a non-immigrant visa category “O-A” (long stay).
1. The applicant must be at least 50 years old.
2. The applicant must not have been prohibited from entering Thailand on a previous occasion.
3. The applicant must provide proof of financial resources from one of the following :
– a bank account holding not less than 800,000 Baht
– income from a pension or social welfare of not less than 65,000 Baht per month or
– a bank account and annual income from a pension or social welfare of not less than 800,000 Baht.
A foreigner holding a non-immigrant visa category “O-A” travelling into the Kingdom will have his passport stamped with a “permission to stay” in the Kingdom for a period not exceeding 1 year from the date of arrival.

About Gregers Møller

Editor-in-Chief • ScandAsia Publishing Co., Ltd. • Bangkok, Thailand

View all posts by Gregers Møller

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *