Before you start

A passport with adequate validity and blank pages
For a retirement extension: age 50 or over, plus either a Thai bank balance seasoned for the required periods or a qualifying monthly income
Most long-stay visas must be applied for from outside Thailand — you generally cannot start them on a tourist entry
A confirmed Pattaya address, because your landlord's TM30 filing gates almost every subsequent immigration transaction

Step-by-step

1
Pick the route your circumstances actually fit
Retirement: a Non-O extension for the over-fifties, renewed annually against a Thai bank balance or a qualifying monthly pension, or a combination of the two. The O-A variant applied for abroad additionally requires health insurance meeting a set minimum. DTV: a five-year multiple-entry visa for remote workers with a savings requirement. LTR: a ten-year Board of Investment visa across wealthy, pensioner, work-from-Thailand and highly-skilled categories. Employment with a Thai company: Non-B plus a separate work permit. Working in the EEC's targeted industries may open the corridor's own visa and tax route.
OnlineWho: YouDecide before applying — changing route later usually means leaving the countryVaries by route; see totals
2
Season your funds properly — this is where retirement applications fail
The retirement extension's bank-balance route requires the money to sit in a Thai account in your own name for a defined period before the application and to be maintained afterwards, with a minimum balance held between renewals. A transfer made the week before is rejected. The income route requires evidence of a qualifying monthly amount. Neither crypto nor brokerage balances count. Plan the seasoning calendar backwards from your extension date, a year at a time.
In personWho: YouMonths of seasoning before the application dateThe capital itself; check the current thresholds with Immigration
3
Apply, or extend at Jomtien Immigration
New long-stay visas are lodged from outside Thailand through the e-Visa portal, or through the BOI for the LTR. Annual retirement extensions are filed in person at the Jomtien immigration office that serves Pattaya. Go early, bring photocopies of everything including pages you cannot imagine needing, and expect the office to be busiest immediately after the high season when the retiree population is all in town at once.
In personWho: YouSame day if your file is complete; allow a full morningGovernment extension fee, set nationally
4
Get the TM30 receipt from your landlord on move-in day
Within 24 hours of you occupying an address, the owner or operator must file a TM30 residence notification under s.38 of the Immigration Act. It is their duty, not yours — but a missing TM30 will block your extension, your 90-day report and your certificate of residence. Pattaya's large stock of investor-owned condominium units means many owners have never filed one. Ask for the receipt in writing before you hand over the deposit.
In personWho: Your landlord or the building's juristic office (you chase the receipt)Within 24 hours of moving inFree; late filing carries a fine on the landlord
5
File your own TM47 every 90 days
Once you have stayed 90 continuous days you must report your address on form TM47. That obligation is yours, and it is a different thing from the TM30. File online, by post, through the immigration app, or in person at Jomtien. The window runs from 15 days before to 7 days after the due date, and leaving and re-entering Thailand resets the clock. LTR holders report annually rather than quarterly.
OnlineWho: YouEvery 90 days of continuous stayFree; late reporting attracts a fine

Documents you’ll need

Passport with adequate validity and blank pages
Thai bank book and a bank letter, for the retirement balance route
Evidence of qualifying monthly income, for the income route
Health insurance meeting the minimum required by your route, where one applies
TM30 receipt from your landlord; TM47 for your own 90-day reports
Photocopies of every passport page, signed — Thai immigration offices ask for more than you expect

Things most newcomers don’t know

Chonburi is inside the Eastern Economic Corridor, and that corridor carries a flat 17% personal income tax rate that exists almost nowhere else in Thailand.

Under Royal Decree No. 641, qualifying foreign executives, specialists and researchers coming to work for a targeted-industry business in the EEC may elect a flat 17% rate on their employment income instead of the progressive scale that reaches 35%. The EEC's own visa scheme, introduced in 2024, carries the same rate. This is a genuine, structural reason to look at a job in the Chonburi and Rayong corridor rather than in Bangkok — but it depends on the employer being a qualifying targeted-industry business and on you falling into one of the defined categories. Ask the employer, not a recruiter.

Source: Royal Decree (No. 641) B.E. 2560; EEC visa scheme

Pattaya's visa-agent industry contains both the most experienced practitioners in Thailand and the most dangerous.

With the country's largest retiree population, a whole trade has grown up around annual extensions. Using an agent to queue, translate and assemble a file is entirely legitimate and saves a miserable morning. What some agents also offer — arranging the required bank balance as a short-term loan that appears for the seasoning period and then leaves — is document fraud. It has led to prosecutions and to permanent blacklisting from Thailand. If an agent offers to solve a financial requirement rather than a paperwork one, walk away.

Source: Thai Immigration Bureau enforcement practice; retirement extension financial requirements

The retirement financial condition has to be maintained between renewals, not just satisfied on the day.

People treat the bank balance as an application hurdle and draw it down once the extension is stamped. The rule requires seasoning before the application, maintenance for a period after it, and a minimum balance held through the year, with the full amount restored before the next renewal. Immigration checks the passbook history, not just the current figure. Getting this wrong is the most common reason a long-settled retiree suddenly has an extension refused. Confirm the current periods and amounts with Immigration each year rather than assuming they are unchanged.

Source: Thai Immigration Bureau retirement extension requirements

The TM30 and the TM47 are different obligations owned by different people, and Pattaya's investor-owned stock makes the TM30 fail often.

The TM30 is your landlord's residence notification, due within 24 hours of you moving in. The TM47 is your own 90-day address report. A great deal of Pattaya's condominium stock is owned by absentee investors who have never filed a TM30 and do not know they are obliged to. Because a missing TM30 blocks your extension, your 90-day report and your residence certificate, this becomes your problem regardless of whose duty it is. Make the receipt a condition of taking the flat.

Source: Immigration Act s.38; Thai Immigration Bureau reporting requirements

Common mistakes to avoid

Letting an agent arrange the retirement bank balance for you — that is document fraud and has led to blacklisting
Drawing the retirement balance down after the extension is stamped, when it must be maintained through the year
Transferring funds shortly before the application instead of seasoning them for the required period
Confusing the TM30 with the TM47, or assuming an absentee condominium owner has filed one
Assuming the EEC's 17% rate applies to anyone working in Chonburi, when it depends on the employer being a qualifying targeted-industry business
Leaving Thailand on a single-entry permission without buying a re-entry permit, which cancels your stay

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.