Great - thanks for the explanation. And I'll check out the other group as my initial reading made it sound a bit onerous as I live a long way from Bangkok or Chiang Mai.
I have been in Thailand for a long time and still find the complexity of the various visas daunting and at times difficult to understand. Since finding this group, and seeing the array of answers provided, apart from now realizing just how complex it is, but having someone give a straight answer promptly and in detail has been invaluable.
Please keep up the good work and ignore the time wasters who have nothing better to do.
so to clarify, I would do the extension of stay before the expiration of the latest stamp (e.g. after my “second year”), at which point, I must have the usual 800k. So is that also saying the 400k minimum actually does not apply to OA?