whizzergo

Bumping this one again in the hope that someone has new insight to add with the passage of time.

Could you please share where you saw this reported? For the first category "Rich global citizens", every piece i've read suggests that all of those criteria must be met. Your screenshot suggests that it would be enough to meet the last 2 requirements. That's a big difference.

There seems to be 2 layers of potential difficulty and it's not clear about the realistic complications of either as yet. First is simply entering the country with the volunteer visa in the passport (so, airport IO refusing entry after arrival). Second is getting the elite visa attached with the volunteer visa in the passport (although as has been mentioned previously, if they've already approved the application then this seems quite unlikely). One way around this, if applicable to you, would be to try to get the Elite visa attached in your home country. I'm thinking, that way, if they refuse to attach it when you're still in your home country it should be much faster and easier to get a new passport and then try again. There is perhaps another layer of issue here in that once you've been refused, does it then become an issue to get it attached even once you have a new passport? That seems to open up a whole new can of worms.

In the same situation here I was told that the commission was 5% and I had the same offer of a split of it. So 2.5% discount to me as the customer. Was that the same you had?

I was told this by the elite team themselves. You can ask them, but they'll likely dissuade you and tell you to get a new passport. I suspect that they're just covering their backs in case it does go wrong, but obviously can't be certain on that. In your position I would just give it a go. The worst that's going to happen is that you'll be denied and have to get a new passport before the visa is applied. It would be great if you could update how you get on. Good luck!

As an update here, I've been told that at least one person has successfully applied for and received the Thai Elite visa with said volunteer visa still in their passport.

For what it's worth, I understand that there's agents offering the covid extension on Koh Phangan for 9,000 (to those who've been on a non-o etc)

I have experience with this to the extent that I have been told exactly the same thing (more or less) directly from Thai Elite staff. Well. The Thai Elite staff actually implied that the problem would found when trying to re-enter the country with this volunteer visa in my passport. They suggest that the problem is/will be with immigration, not with Thai Elite. The exact wording from Thai Elite: "Since we have been informed that our applicants who obtained a volunteer visa and came back to Thailand with Tourist visa, they were denied to enter Thailand with Thai Immigration’ s reason. Therefore, we would like to suggest you that you may have to leave Thailand go back to your home country, then change a new passport and come back with a single-entry Tourist Visa, Visa on Arrival and Exempted Tourist Visa." I made a thread several months back to check the validity of their claim: It does seem painfully unnecessary and pathetic to have to get a new passport when that clearly doesn't erase the fact that we were once on the volunteer visa. But this post makes me thing that it might be the only option.

I'm in the same boat OP. I'd love to see a concrete answer one way or the other. What I've been reading of late is that having been on any form of Non-O visa since being in the country, the existing covid extension is based on that Non-O (not on the tourist visa with which we arrived) and therefore we won't get a further extension. Based on that, i'm making plans to leave unless I hear otherwise.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it. I seem to recall this extension was issues on or even the day after the previous one expired. For those wishing to return to Thailand in the future, and dreading heading back to the West to an inevitable covid ravaged winter, waiting it out was simply too risky an option for the sake of saving a few dollars.

Thanks for this. Most helpful. Am I right in thinking that this only applies to those actively using those visas then? In the case that they’ve already expired and I’m entering visa-exempt, this isn’t likely to be an issue?

Just bumping this one up again on the off chance that anyone has first hand experience.

Yeh I've already switched to covid extension. Hopefully somebody in here can enlighten us at some point, having successfully re-entered with the expired volunteer visa in the same passport.

Still in country. But I need to leave and return on some form of tourist visa in order to be able to get an elite visa.

Yeh, I really do tend to think that you're going to be right here. The only issue was that it's not obvious that i'll have chance to get a tourist visa outside of the country and so I was hoping to just pop back in on an exempt.

Can you please clarify if they were denied for attempting to re-enter on the same visa (multiple entry)? Or whether they were denied a visa-exempt entry because of the existence of the old visa in their passport? Thanks

So this question follows on from conversation in prior threads. Basically there's a threat/hypothesis that passport holders who have a 'dodgy' volunteer visa from the Covid period (those issued in Korat, without a given volunteer organisation, for example) would be denied re-entry to Thailand if they tried to come back on the same passport housing that visa. It seems very far fetched, but I'd be keen to know if anyone had first hand experience of being allowed/denied entry in these circumstances? Cheers

I came off a 15 month volunteer visa, the agent organised version from Korat. Managed to get a 60-day covid extension in Samui via an agent for 6,000. It's definitely doable, but it's definitely one where you'll need to find an agent who can make it happen.

Bringing this one up again. Would anyone happen to have experience with moving to a covid extension after the expiration of a 'dubious' volunteer visa? With my volunteer visa due to expire I understood that I still needed to 'cancel' it before I could move to the covid extension. But the cancelling is going to be rather complicated it seems. Could I just let it naturally expire and move to the covid extension without doing anything further?

Yeh. It does seem bizarre that i've been able to continue on that same visa to expiry, and now change over to a covid extension and persist. But then as soon as I leave and try to return to the country, they're going to prevent me entering. If that was to happen on arrival at Suvarnabhumi it'd be a real logistical headache too. Presumably meaning i'd need to book an immediate flight out. It just seems so unlikely, but I suppose there's only one way to find out.

Well, the lines are never quite so black and white here eh. You may remember last year that one of the covid extensions was announced the day of, or maybe even the day after, the expiration of the last. At the same time there was a proliferation of education and volunteer visa's doing the rounds. One might be forgiven for having thought that we were being pushed down that route if we wanted to stay longer, and with no viable option for re-entering the country if we left, it seemed a much better alternative to overstay.

By a member of the Elite staff actually. "we have been informed that our applicants who obtained a volunteer visa and came back to Thailand with Tourist visa, they were denied to enter Thailand with Thai Immigration’ s reason"

Late last year when all the uncertainty about the covid extensions came around I bought a 15 month volunteer visa from a visa agent on the Southern Islands. Needless to say that no volunteering has been done, but i've managed to stay in the country without any questions asked. I'm now warned that I might face difficulties leaving Thailand and re-entering on a visa exemption (UK passport) due to having this volunteer visa in my passport. And that infact I might need to get a new passport before I can consider coming back to Thailand. Would anyone have any corroborating reports on this? It seems really extreme but something that i'm a bit conscious of now, as I had planned to leave and return in order to get on the Elite visa. Thanks

I'm trying to work out which 'type' of visa my covid extension would be under the following cirumstance: 1. Entered Thailand in 2020 on a 30-day arrival stamp (British) 2. After covid extensions, got a 15-month volunteer visa (Non-O) in late 2020. 3. Now looking to cancel the volunteer visa pre-expiration and move to covid extension. Would that make my covid extension based on the original arrival (tourist) or the volunteer visa (Non-O)? The reason I ask is that the Elite visa people have told me that I can't get an Elite visa affixed in Thailand if moving from a Non-O volunteer visa. So I'm trying to work out if the covid extension would still be classed as a Non-O extension, or a tourist extension. I have tried to get to the bottom of it with the Elite team, but communication is not as clear as it could perhaps be. Thanks