Hi All

blowin wrote:

Hi I am from Ireland and married and my wife and son were both born in Thailand. They both also hold Irish passports and citizenship. Its been my dream to move to Thailand for long time but due to work I have been stuck over here. Now
the company I am working for are laying people off and I am thinking of applying and following our dream. We have a
farm with an small income from that also a small house and a pickup so half way there.But have to admit to lots of fear because of giving up a job of 30 years etc. also I am over 50.

I have inquired about an O visa as married to a Thai. but should I stay on that or apply for a retirement visa when i get there?I will have no problem showing the 400k in bank also I was surprised to see that I can apply for Thai citizenship and get a work visa on your information sticky .Thanks for all the effort that people put in to this forum and I hope some
day I can offer the same help to some one else.

Hi Blowin

Visa wise: A retirement extention to an O visa requires less paperwork than a marriage extension. Howevr it requires 800,000 in the bank(2 months before on first application) or income or a combination of the two. You cannot normally get a work permit on a retirement extention but can on the marriage version.

Best advice: Get a Non O visa based on your marriage to a Thai then etend at Immigration in Thailand. Either marriage or retirement-up to you.

Citizenship: is possible but its a long and very difficult route to follow. To be honest its really not an advantage. The wife and kid(s) will benifit much more from their Irish citizenship much more than you ever could from a Thai one!!
Be aware that your son, if he is in Thailand,  will be required to do military service when he is of an age if he is unlucky in the lottery.

You might find this free e-book on the process informative and more accurate than some sources.

Thanks for the advice and Ebook. There seems lots of valuable advice there. I have applied for an O marriage multi visa and I can decide when I get over as I will have a year to decide what to do. I am still very nervous about the leap into the dark lol. But one of my plans is to do a TEFL course just to help out at the local school not to make money. I feel it will be
important for me to have to some thing to get up to every morning. I feel good about it as I will be giving some thing back and also keep my 5 year old up to speed also. Thanks again.