Long term stay questions

What do you mean you do not qualify yet, not of age or not married or both??

Then usually there is no option unless you have a job or you go for an Education ED Visa, check the web for the requirements

A condo is pretty safe, it has a centralized ownership, majority Thai at 51%,  and a 'board'/management team nothing should go wrong with that.

The question is if it is a smart thing as flipping here is not a profitable business, but for living with ownership it can be..

A house can be done the same way with leasehold for a longer term...

Banking is being discussed in another thread, have a look....

Goor morning,

The easiest way if an Education Visa. You can learn Thai, other languages or Thai boxing as well. In case you buy a condo over 10 million Thai Baht, you can also get an investor visa. One of my client did it. It's not very popular, he has to do it in Banglok, but it worked. If you are considering Phuket, here is some [link moderated]. I would recommend to consider on Foreign Freehold condo. Leasehold or condos under Thai Company are not easy to re-sale. Once you get a reservation agreement or a sale & purchase agreement and a visa for a condo, it is much easier to open a bank account. Hope it helps !

@martinoo2002,

Thanks. Both applies. Not married nor anywhere close to 50 yet. I plan to make thailand home  in 1 to 2 years so definitely looking to buy and live in.  Poster below mentions an investor visa. Ill look into that.

@eric1220

Appreciate it. Looks like the link isnt showing up. Ill do more research on the investor visa. Sounds like an option I dont mind taking if i find the right condo.

    Hi, I'm planning to move to thailand long term in 1 to 2 years. How do you handle long term stay if you dont qualify for a retirement visa yet? Also, I plan to buy a condo in Thailand. Whats the best/safest way to do so? For banking, is it easy to open a thai bank account and wire money in? Any advice much appreciated.

These are opinions based on my own experience.  Check with a Thai immigration expert before acting.

If you buy property with a value equal or greater than $500,000 USD that's one of the conditions for a Long Term (LT) visa, regardless of age.  Enter "Thailand LT visa requirements" in your search engine and read up on the complete list.

My wife is below the retirement visa age, she has two other options for getting a visa if not applyting for LT.  An student visa, and mother of a student visa.  If we move to Thailand and kid enrolls in the international school in Bangkok or Pattaya she becomes eligible for the second one.

Our visas were handled by an experienced visa agency.  It's the most efficient and cheapest way.  We're still deciding on schools, but I'm already on a non-O retirement visa.  I expect to go LT in early 2025.  Although I already qualify we need to resolve where we want to live for the next 5 years (Thailand or elsewhere).

A good visa/banking/etc. agent will advise you of all the visa options depending on your timing, economics, nationality, and desired visa duration.

Banking:  you need a visa allowing stays of 60 days or more to be able to open an  account.  The process is uneven across different banks, and different branches of the same bank.  Fastest way to get a bank account is to open it in conjunction with getting your visa.  The agency we used for our visas also handled opening the Thai bank accounts; there's an established process.  The agency handled these steps for me:

• Bring passport to open the account as soon as the bank opened.  You'll walk out of there with the account booklet and a Master Card or Visa payment card, and the ability to use all on-line services available for your account type
• Drive to the immigration office with banking, visa application, and passport.  Get photographed at the immigration office, submit passport and documentation
• Wait 21 - 30 days; you can't leave Thailand during this time
• Return to the bank to confirm funds, documents are in order
• Agency submits banking information and more forms to immigration office
• The agency returns your passport and visa to you 3 to 5 days later

Banking and getting the non-O retirement visa processes are linked to confirm that you have the required funds.  You may perform any banking operations you want.  We paid for our utilities and condo association dues using on-line banking and for goods and services (7-Eleven, Big C, Bolt) using the payment card.  As far as funding the account, once the account is created you may wire funds to it from anywhere.  We have financial accounts in two other countries and we sent funds from both as a test.  We had no issues wiring funds in or spending them.

Buying a condo:  best way is to find a reputable real estate agent.  We found ours through our real estate agent in the US.  She referred us to a great agency where the principals are from the US  and Belgium, and are experienced in dealing with expats.  The purchase process consisted of sending a wire transfers to secure the condo, bulk of purchase, and liquidation, over a 6-month period.  I took a 5-year mortgage because I wanted to move into the condo, address any issues (e.g. a toilet had to be replaced, other plumbing issues), and ensure everything was copacetic before liquidation.  I liquidated once the repairs were concluded and verified, a bit under 6 months of the initial wire transfer.  The closing agent released the property title and all related documentation with all the appropriate stamps within 36 hours of liquidation.  I submitted these documents along with my visa application.

I think this covers all your questions.  The most efficient way of addressing them is to hire experienced agents to do all the footwork, forms, etc. on your behalf.  They know the workflows, are friends with the bureaucrats, and save tons of time and energy.  Altogether between my wife and I we spent 10 minutes at the immigration office and 45 (total) at the bank.  Driving to/from those places took longer than the application process itself, picked up and dropped off by a visa agency representative.  Total cost for visas, photos, all paperwork, banking, etc. was under ฿30,000 for both of us.

If you check my posts history in the Pattaya forum you can see some of the things I discussed here in expat_com between April and early July of last year.  In-person networking and asking lots of questions during a 1-month stay in July at our new place set the stage to execute on the visas and banking when we returned in December.  We used that month to learn our way around Pattaya and Bangkok and find a reputable immigration/banking agent.  We returned the first week in December and executed all the banking and immigration procedures within 72 hours of our arrival.

Cheers!