manonthemon

Well that's a bummer! I was using BX.TH for one purpose only - to change my THB to BTC and then send these BTC to my wallet connected to my GBP account - I found this to be the most efficient way of sending my money abroad, out of Thailand. 

Is there another Thai crypto exchange that allows for direct transfers of THB from a Thai bank account?  

I ended up going to Penang with my old passport. I asked Thai and Malaysian immigration officers to place their stamps in the available empty space on my passport pages already carrying other stamps - they had no problem with that.  The visa agent in Penang complained a bit, claiming that a spread in a passport is considered one, not two pages (the rules state that you need two empty pages for a visa) but in the end he managed to get me a new visa. 

Do I risk a lot if I overstay my current visa by 2 days? I might get a new passport by then. 

22 minutes ago, scorecard said:

So the application for new PP is already lodged.

 

Some countries issue new PPs very quickly, some take longer, did your embassy specifically mention how many days to receive your new PP?

I'm Polish. Yes I already lodged my passport application. My embassy told me there is a chance the the passport will be ready on February 8 but they cannot be sure. I'm trig to figure out what to do in case it's not. 

7 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Not sure but if I recall correctly he is working here so that would not work for him.

I am working , I have a work permit but I have to get a new non b visa every 3 months. 

Hello,

My Visa expires on Feb 11 and I need to go to Penang to apply for a new one. 

My passport has only two free pages left in it and I was told by the agent in Penang that it might be an issue.

I applied for a new passport with my embassy but it won't be ready in time.

What are my options?

Here's an idea for making simple procedures such as 90 days reporting easier and quicker - just stop them completely. 

You're welcome. Now can  I please get a proper long-term visa in exchange for that idea? 

Aren't there any financial conditions to be met? 

We were married here, in Thailand, our marriage certificate has been legalised by the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs but not yet by my embassy.

2 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

I don't think he is married to a Thai.

Yep, wife not Thai. She's Indian. Working at a local school. Has a non b and one-year extension of stay. Any chance I could be her dependant, on what conditions? 

My salary meets the requirements, but the company has no need or funds to hire more people. 

It feels like having a rug pulled from under me. Seven years in Thailand, always by the book, wife, kids, rented house, rented car, whole life here and suddenly this... 

I have no idea what to do now. Even if they were issuing those single Non-B's back to back, it would be totally unsustainable to do those full-scale visa runs every 3 months. 

☹️

12 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Penang will only issue a multiple entry non-b visa if you are a owner, director or significant shareholder of the company you are working for now.

 

3

I'm not any of those  I'm just a regular employee. Is the problem with Penang only or any other Thai embassy in a neighbouring country? 

12 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Your only choice may be getting a single entry non-b visa now. But getting them back to back could be a problem.

 

So it's the one for 3 months only? And even getting that might be a problem? So what is the visa solution for a person in my situation - which I would think is a fairly common one - not owning a business but simply working for one. 

 

12 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Have you done your last 90 day entry from your visa yet. You can get one on or before the date your visa expires.

2

No, my actual visa expired in September. November 13 is the date of my last entry stamp. 

Confused and worried... 

Hello,

I'm here on a one-year multiple entry Non B visa based on a work permit.  I'm told the company I work for is not big enough / doesn't have enough capital / enough Thais to foreigners ratio to apply for a one-year extension of my visa which is why I have to do border bounces every 90 days.

My visa expires in under a month (my work permit has recently been renewed for another year) so I have to go abroad (I always go to Penang) to receive a new Visa. 

However, the agent who supports my employer with visa services tells us that it's now only possible to get a 3 months visa.  Is that so? Am I supposed to go to Penang every 3 months to get a new visa.....?
 

Noone uses those agents and pays the hefty fees because they like to; it's because they have too. Same goes for visa runs - few do it by choice.  I see what a struggle it is for some of my friends to stay here completely legally, especially Indian. The rules are set up in a way that makes it impossible. 

Introduce better, easier, cheaper visa solutions and agents will be out of a job, corruption will diminish, visa run van death traps will vanish from the roads. 

 

Is there a branch of the Ministry of foreign affairs in Phuket where I can get my Affirmation of Freedom to Marry legalized? I've read they they opened a branch here but found no info on services provided. 

Also, do you know which Amphoe office in Phuket doesn't require a legalized copy of passport when getting married. All to spare myself yet another trip to Bangkok. 

20 minutes ago, jimster said:

just one question to the OP mentioned in his original post: what was a doctor doing at immigration? So your wife was 8 months pregnant - if this was the case an OB/GYN from any hospital could have written a note stating she was unable to travel and this should have been acceptable to obtain a 90 day medical extension of stay. You mentioned this was done, but what I don't understand is the presence of a doctor at immigration. Since when do doctors have any business at immigration?

It's an old story from 2012. We went to the immigration office in Bangkok do exactly what you say: obtain a medical extension of stay based on the hospital note you also mention. Once there, we were taken to a doctor (no idea why they had one there, maybe it's for those medical extension cases?) who refused to give her that extension. When presented with the hospital note instructing my girlfriend to refrain from air or in fact any kind of travel, he told her she should catch a train to Cambodia...

In the end, she asked him, a medical professional, for a signed statement, allowing her to travel in the condition she was in. This changed his mind and the extension was granted. 

I remember all this quite well because up until yesterday this was the most stressful and unpleasant encounter with the Thai immigration we've experienced. 

8 minutes ago, stevenl said:

All the IO knows is that she is living here, has been doing so for 6 years, and is trying to enter with a tourist visa a second consecutive tourist visa. So yes, I understand the questions, and I also understand he does not trust her on her (presumably) brown eyes. So questions asked, and after that she is allowed to enter. Nothing wrong with that.

Just that it wasn't simply questions asked, but a straightforward "I'm not letting you in" with no explanation, followed up by more rudeness and shouting. Believe me, my GF is beyond kind and gentle and I'm sure she didn't wind that guy up, which as we know can happen in Thailand if you come here with a wrong attitude. We've been here long enough to know that it's better to smile and wai then get into arguments. 

I think in the end it's her composure and soft approach that saved the day. She politely asked the office "Not to get angry" and talk with her calmly and explain his reasons. In the end, he reluctantly stamped her in.  All the drama was unnecessary. 

1 hour ago, stevenl said:

Why do you think this is paranoid? I would find it strange if somebody who is living here for 6 years is entering on a tourist visa, and if I were the immigration officer I would ask some questions about that.

Because it doesn't make sense. How is it feasible - for the employer (school) and employee (teacher) to have the latter leave the country every 2 months to apply for a new tourist visa in India which is both costly and takes lots of time? And why would someone who has worked here legally for 6 years suddenly decide to go through all the trouble of playing the system with tourist visas? It just doesn't add up.  

IMO the mess we found ourselves in boils down to a lack of a proper visa solution for people not yet employed in Thailand but in the process of getting a job. They are not tourists but a tourist visa is the only option for them to enter the country. And with the work permit and visa procedures being what they are and changing often, it sometimes takes more than one entry to obtain all the papers. So people who try to go the right thing and get legal, end up being punished. 

Another thing is that after 6 years here some sort of a more permanent residence option would be welcome. 

32 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

They are not married so that would not be possible if he had an extension of stay. It is not possible with only a visa entry.

Right, we're not married yet. We want to but obtaining all the necessary documents from our countries is, well, a challenge. 

And I'm on one of those multiple entry Non B visas. The first time, before it was always a one year extension of stay. Not even sure how this one works. 

Anyhow, we are now happily reunited and looking for a more solid, permanent solution to the visa issue. 

36 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Living here for 6 years and entering on a tourist visa points to illegal employment.

Well, this is complete paranoia. She also asked the officer for other suggestions on what visa to use to on in order to get the additional documents requested by the embassy. No reply but more abuse. 

My girlfriend is being refused entry at Suvarnabhumi airport. She's just arrived from Kolkata, India, with a tourist visa in her passport. 

The officer is very unpleasant, not just to her but to other arriving passengers too. He gives no reason for refusing entry, but we suppose it's because this is her second tourist visa in a row. My girlfriend went to Kolkata to obtain a Non B visa for a teaching position in Thailand, with the papers provided by the school, but at the visa processing centre, she was told the papers were not sufficient and that she'd have to go back to get the missing documents. Hence the tourist visa. 

The officer seems to be a very angry man, shouting, telling my girlfriend that "she only thinks about herself" and "she's the boss, so what should he do?". Other immigration officers are all smiles, letting people in, just this one bossing around. He also refused entry to a Korean girl who has a 3 months ed visa for a  pre-booked Thai course. He told her to call the school...at 2 AM.  
Update: Literally halfway through writing this post I got a message that he...let her in. A sudden change of heart. Don't know about the Korean girl though

Seems like pure harassment just for the sake of it. We've been living here for 6 years now, always legally, with work permits and proper visas. We have two kids here, all our lives here. And frankly, we've never had this kind of problems before. In fact, we've mostly encountered kind and friendly people at the immigration (except one doctor at Bangkok immigration who tried to force my girlfriend for a visa run to Cambodia when she was 8 months pregnant and advised by other doctors not to travel ...long story.) But now that my girlfriend has found herself between jobs, things are getting complicated. She's Indian, her visa options are limited, and she can only get a visa back in her home country. 

I began writing this post to ask for advice, but now I'll leave it here just as a  little horror story. Won't' be easy going back to sleep tonight. 

So now the question is will she be let back in if she flies out to Malaysia and comes back the same day in order to enter on a 15 day on arrival visa exemption stamp? 

We need a little more time in Thailand to get her non b papers in order. 

My girlfriend, Indian, was just refused an extension of her 60 days tourist visa at the immigration office in Phuket.

She was told that hers and 8 other countries can't get a normal 15 to 30 days extension and 7 days is all she can get. 

Is it some new rule? It wasn't mentioned on the immigration website. We also asked a renowned law office and they confirmed she could get 30 days. Even an immigration volunteer at the Phuket office informed us that 30 days it what she'd get. 

Sooo, can I take you out for a beer to learn how to set up my own bitcoin farm on Phuket too? My girlfriend is really bored, some button-pushig would do her good

I was offered a one year stay on an education visa by a school. 15 months in fact. First 3 months Ed visa and then one, 12 months extension of stay.

Does this kind of visa exist? I've never used an Ed visa before but I've heard it has to be extended every 3 months or sth like that.