Furryman

She can't divorce you if you don't marry her in the first place!

Another FWIW: I got the second stamp for the duration of my last 90 days on an ED visa and stopped in at school for them to make a photocopy of the new stamp. They told me one of the guys who was on the ED visa with them just converted his ED to an O at Jomtien and it was no problem. /shrug

The people probably most affected by this will be the mom and pop shops in the school zones who will lose the revenue from sales to the neighborhood. Sucks for them.

Ok, now just to confirm.

In Pattaya , Wat Chai has a school, Walking street is less than 300 meters away, so no more alcohol on Walking street?

On 3 road, there is a hair stylist school and a a numbers of bars and pubs . So no more alcohol at any of those ?

If that's the case , may be best to close all bars and just open schools

That was the first thing I thought of as well, the school essentially across the street from Walking Street. The article says no exeptions but I bet there will be soon.

What about little storefront schools? Sure wont make them popular with the neighborhood shops if they all have to stop selling beer.

I can't wait to read the comments of all the sexpats freaking out about this. I doubt this will end your world pervies !

haters gonna hate

Well you can file this under FWIW, but I was talking to the boss lady at my school about this stuff today and she said not to worry about it, Immigration is loosening up on stuff all the time, and that by October they should be back to just giving out more extensions on the ED visa. She did agree that if her prediction did not come to pass, going to Cambodia and then doing a conversion in Jomtien is the best bet, but her reason for that was sort of odd. She says that as far as she knows you cannot get an O visa in Vientiane for retirement, only for Marriage or to see Thai family.

Then she told me that half the time when she calls immigration with a question they hardly know themselves what today's new rules are.

You could fly to Udon Thani and then take a van to the bridge in Nong Khai. Nok Air offers a fly/ride service via Udon to Vientiane.

Sleeper on a train from Bangkok to Nong Khai is not bad either (much better than a bus IMO).

Yeah as I am crunching out the options, flying up is looking better and better, I had not realized flights were so cheap. Plus I have friends in Udon, that makes things easy, and far more pleasant.

On the other hand, as I read up more, I am becoming more confident in my chances of doing the conversion from exempt entry to O visa on my own.

When you do the conversion, do they put a new visa sticker in your passport, or is it a stamp of some kind?

Glad to hear you are having a great trip. The Thai countryside is a really beautiful place to ride.

All reliable sources are telling me that the overland G7 entry is currently 30 days, so it is simply a matter of getting the papers in while you still have the 15 days left.

On the other hand, the idea of doing the entry on a regular visa, and having the whole thing essentially done and dusted, is an attractive thought. But damn it's a long bus ride.

Think you will find that you can not change from ed extension to a retirement visa in country. You will either have to do a border run and return on a tourist visa exemption or visit a local Thai embassy or consulate to obtain it. Not sure what country you are from but if not a G7 country you will get only a 15 day entry from a land crossing and this will not be enough time, as in order to change from a tourist to another type of visa you require a full 14 days remaining on the exemption stamp.

I am lucky enough to be from the US so I can do the exempt entry, but I have not done an exempt entry run for a long time. I thought they had changed the rules on those and all exempt entries were 30 days now, overland and at airports.

The rules changed to allow people from G7 countries to get 30 days overland, not everyone.

Ah OK. Then it's still a viable plan.

Think you will find that you can not change from ed extension to a retirement visa in country. You will either have to do a border run and return on a tourist visa exemption or visit a local Thai embassy or consulate to obtain it. Not sure what country you are from but if not a G7 country you will get only a 15 day entry from a land crossing and this will not be enough time, as in order to change from a tourist to another type of visa you require a full 14 days remaining on the exemption stamp.

I am lucky enough to be from the US so I can do the exempt entry, but I have not done an exempt entry run for a long time. I thought they had changed the rules on those and all exempt entries were 30 days now, overland and at airports.

They started accepting the application at Jomtien a few months ago. If you went to Bangkok now they would send you back to Jomtien to do it now.

Recent reports are that if you are using the income method they will do the extension of stay when you go back to get your stamps done.

Great news, Thanks!

Vientiane wrecked a good website when they updated it.

What is shown on the website is for Laotians to get a OA visa.

The income affidavit you have will be all you need.for the visa and extension application. As I said only give them a copy and show the original when you apply for the visa.

You could do a border hop for a 30 day (G7 country rule) visa exempt entry and apply for the conversion to a non immigrant visa at Jomtien immigration now. You will have to do the conversion within 15 days of entry. They will accept your application and send it to Bangkok immigration. Then you go back in 15 to 20 days to get the visa/entry stamp done in your passport.

I have heard that you cannot turn in the papers for the conversion (Visa Exempt to Non-Imm O Visa) at Jomtien anymore. Supposedly you have to go to the Bangkok office and turn the papers into them directly now. If I could turn those papers in via Jomtien, that would make the whole thing much easier.

A morning border run to Cambo and a few stops at Jomtien Immigration sounds WAY better than another Vientiane trip.

Would it be possible to do a border run to Cambodia to get off of the ED visa, then come back in on an 'on arrival' exempt entry, then go to Bangkok Immigration and get that entry converted to a 'retirement' visa?

A back ground check is not needed. I wrote exactly what you will need to get the single entry non-o visa in my previous post.

Be sure you just attach a copy of your income affidavit to the visa application and show them the original. That way you can use the original when you a apply for the extension.

Awesome. That makes it much easier, I have my income letter from the US Embassy in Thailand. That will work for applying in Laos right? Or will I need to get a new income letter from the Embassy in Laos?

Edit: looking at the website for the Vientiane Consulate via Google translate and my mediocre Thai skills, that they are asking for a medical certificate and a background check for retirement visas.

It's extra fun right now that the Vientiane consulate website is in the midst of a reconstruction and the English language visa info pages are not up.

I have not seen a successful report of a person being able to change the reason for an extension based upon education to retirement in a long time. Immigration has been refusing to do them.

Your best choice will be to go out for a single entry non-o visa in Vientiane. You will just need you passport and a bank book showing 800k baht in the account (60 days not needed) or proof of 65K baht income or a combination of the 2 totaling 800k baht.

OK. While it is not the news I was wanting to hear, It's better to hear it sooner than later. I guess I should get to work on getting some kind of criminal record report from back in the US. Income letter from US Embassy is in hand.

Damn, I thought I had done my last trip to Vientiane already.

Hey folks, I am looking for some reassurance that things with ED to Retirement conversions are still happening as I understand them to have been.

I am currently here in Pattaya on an ED visa, and I am just starting my third and last 90 day extension. Luckily for me, I turn 50 just 10 days before this new extension will expire, ticking off the last box to make me eligible for a retirement extension.

The plan is, on the Monday after my birthday, to head into Jomtien Immigration with the paperwork needed to convert my Non-Imm ED visa to a Non-Imm O visa and then requesting a retirement extension.

There may be a kink in this plan however, due to the one year cap on extensions that was placed on the ED visa a little over a year ago. Currently, an ED visa cannot be extended further than one year after it's use.

As I under things, the extension cap would become moot when the visa is converted to an O visa, and then the extension should be no problem, but TiT, and I have learned to expect the unexpected.

Has anyone done this conversion and extension process during the last year since the cap on ED visa extensions was implemented? How did it go? Any advice?

Secondary question: I have never used a visa agent to help me with stuff like this. Outside of my school preparing their part of my paperwork, I have always done this stuff on my own. I'm thinking that this conversion might be a tricky enough deal to make it worthwhile to get an agent to help me navigate this paperwork adventure. Thoughts?

The ride is on, within the next couple of weeks.

I'll be following this route, (broadly, without going into detail on road numbers). Pattaya - Chachoengsao - Nakhon Nayok - Saraburi - Lopburi - Phitsanulok - Uttradit - Lampang - Chiang Mai.

This comes to approx 900 kms on Google maps, so I'm thinking of an overnight stop at 450 km. This is around

Nakhon Sawan. I will probably use my usual method of finding accommodation, and wing it, but if anybody has any recommendations of where to stay around there, please feel free to share.

The machine is due for a service soon, so I'll have this done before I leave.

Unless you are going balls out with no rest stops or sightseeing I don't see you doing 450 Kilometers a day. 250 or 300 a day you might be able to pull off, but that still leaves little time for rest breaks or any sights.

Luckily there are lots of places to stay all over, so as long as you end your day in about any medium sized town you should be able to easily find a place to stay each night.

And nearly forgot unpredictable everything......yes, that is what makes Bangkok the greatest city in the world and my lovely home for ever.

I'm glad you like it, I hate the place. And yeah the smog is terrible, maybe not as bad as Chang Mai during the field burning season, but there is essentially no smog in Pattaya due to the offshore breezes, though there is plenty of other kinds of filth all over.

The rest of your points can be pinned to personal taste/experience. Maybe it's because I grew up in San Francisco that being in a densely populated urban environment holds no appeal for me. Been there done that.

Honestly I cannot imagine choosing to ride on crowded city streets when there is plenty of beautiful countryside to ride through,

This is more like how I would take the journey. Out in the countryside as much as possible, and Kao Yai park is amazing.

I rode from Pattaya to Udon Thani on my airblade last october and it was an awesome experience. I think you would do fine on a PCX.

I would recommend taking your time and staying off the big highways as much as possible.Especially hwy 1. IT's a nightmare on a little bike. So many fast cars and big trucks, huge potholes from the big trucks to dodge,

On the other hand, riding around the countryside on small to medium back roads is an awesome way to see the country. I took 3 days each way to Udon and back, and I think I would have been a bit happier taking 4 each way. I say go for it.

If you have a GPS enabled phone you can download OsmAnd and it has all the maps you need to get all over Thailand, for free. You can plan routes and save them as GPX tracks and then use the tracks for navigation once you get to that saved part of the route,

I am planning my next small bike trip now, Pattaya to the cambo border where the Mekong meets Thailand, then along the river, until it turns north into Lao. Then back via ???

As far as the rain, some rain gear and a little flexibility on your itinerary and you should be fine. Just hide in one of the million roadside noodle shops or at worst a bus stop sala until the rain. lets up.

PS: I looked at that route and I would honestly change about every kilometer of it. Stick to the smaller "4 digit" highways, you can get all over the country on those roads and will see so much more.

PPS don't ride after dark if at all possible,

From the FWIW department, those folks from my school who got the 15 day stamps at Jomtien when they refused to pay the VIP fee have all gotten 75 days stamps after the immigration cops came and checked on them at the school. No extra fees. Funny thing is, all those folks were being on their best behavior and coming to class, but some other unsuspecting folks who were not coming to class came to the attention of immigration and had their visas cancelled.

I always keep my papers for the bike under the seat. Get stopped often as there are random stops in Pattaya almost every day, never had a cop even raise an eyebrow at keeping the papers under the seat.

For ED visa extensions in Jomtien currently the regular 1900 baht only gets you 15 days instead of the usual 90, and it is implied that you and your school will undergo increased scrutiny.

If you are willing to pay 3100 extra for the VIP service you get the normal 90 day extension and are told not to worry about immigration looking too closely at you.

That's how it is for now in Jomtien but most believe someone higher up the food chain will be cracking down on the new boss at the office soon.

"For ED visa extensions in Jomtien currently the regular 1900 baht only gets you 15 days instead of the usual 90, and it is implied that you and your school will undergo increased scrutiny."

I believe you get a 15 day "under consideration" period and when you return you get the additional 75 days, thus 90 days in total. Fee only collected once.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/794188-pattaya-language-schools-now-require-4-daysweek-attendance/?hl=+under%20+consideration

Perhaps you can get the other 75 days later, the policy has not been in place long enough to see what actually happens after 15 days, but it is true that the extra 3100 baht will give you a 90 day stamp on your first visit.

My school is advising that the 1900 baht for 15 days will be every 15 day or until the policy changes again. And it has been changing at Jomtien a lot. Two weeks ago for two days they were skill testing every person who came through, then they gave up on that and a few days later added an 1100 baht vip fee. Two days after that the vip fee went up another 2000 baht.

I haven't been to class yet this week so I don't know what the latest might be.

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I was also told the spike in fees will probably only be for a short time, the bosses of the new boss will not like the complaints they will be getting and will put him back in line eventually.

So will i get my money back?? Will the ones who implemented the new VIP service be prosecuted??

555 very doubtful.

i wonder if one go to extend his visa term in Sriracha immigration office... will he get 90 days stamp?

If one is not a true resident of the city, that city's immigration office will send that one away.

Yep, for ED visas at least you have to do the extension where you and your school are.