Requirements for Mini-Retirements

[ConquerLife]

What are the legal requirements for going on a 2-7 month mini-retirement? I don't think you can treat it as a long vacation, and I don't remember Tim mentioning anything in the book about this...

When I say requirements I mean legal requirements to stay in the country for that long. Obtaining Visas, and other various watered down citizenship statuses.

Anyone have experience doing mini-retirements and know what to do here, or if there is a way around this?

[kamakiri]

That really depends on what country you are going to and what country you are a citizen of.

[ConquerLife]

wanna go to china and thailand. U.S cit.

[TimW]

Call the nearest Chinese and Thai consulates. Ask for the visa/visitor's section.

[frekwentflier]

I've been to Thailand a few times for 1 month mini-retirements. As a US Citizen, you can visit for 30 days with just your passport. Thailand is pretty strict about this, so if you want to stay longer, be certain to get the proper Visa. "Visa Runs" to neighboring countries are popular too.

I've never used them, but a Google search yielded this site which looks pretty informative:

http://www.thaivisa.com/

But you would always want to double-check anything they say with the Thai Consulate.

I have no idea about China, sorry...

[jonparker83]

For Thailand can get a 30 day tourist visa-on-arrival for most countries or a 60-day tourist visa in advance.

Previously, this could then be extended with a visa run every 30 days. This has now changed and although I'm not sure what the exact details are, you can now only do about 3 visa runs before having to leave the country 'properly'.

In Indonesia, where I am now, the 'visa run' is made more difficult/expensive by the need to catch a plane to either Singapore or Malaysia.

Me and my girlfriend get around this by paying our friendly local visa agent to befriend a local on our behalf, who then sponsors our visit, allowing us to extend our vista each month without leaving the country.

With the visa we are now on (social cultural visa I think), you have to leave the country to do a full border run every 6 months.

[altazo]

China has 30-day tourist visas as well. Now that the Olympics is over, they will probably be a lot less strict in issuing them. You can get a longer visa if you get a work one (teach english or something) or you can attend school and get a student visa. The student one sounds cool and is what I want to do someday, as it's like $400 a month to learn Chinese and you can stay as long as you want. Only around 15 hours of class per week too so you can still spend a lot of time doing what you want. And if you tell them you're traveling for a month, that's fine too as long as you come back. =)

Of course you could also just get a tourist visa and go to hong kong to get a new one every 30 days...