BritTim

As long as you can meet the requirements for a one-year extension, you absolutely can, and this would normally be the best solution. However, there are financial and document requirements for an extension based on marriage that some are unable or unwilling to satisfy.

Take a look at visas from a Thai consulate in your passport. Do you notice that they have "VISA" written on them. Now look at the stamp you quoted. Do you see where it writes "Extension of stay permitted up to ..."? Although many people call every sticker or stamp in their passport a "visa", most stamps in your passport are not visas. Entry and exit stamps (even if you entered Thailand without a visa) are not visas; Re-entry permits are not visas, 90-day address reports are not visas; and extensions of your permission to stay are not visas.

I'll note again - I had a METV and was NOT visa exempt. Maybe it was just that particular officer giving me a hard time, but the warning was given. The problem (as I explained in the post you truncated) was not the individual officer, but that particular border crossing. Many, many people have had problems entering from Poi Pet. While there have been isolated reports of issues at a couple of other entry points, other land crossings with a visa are virtually always fine.

Classic case of miscommunication. Obviously, the person who spoke to you did not understand that you already had an extension under consideration. Even taking that into account, you were still given an incorrect answer: applying the first business day is allowed if your permission to stay expires when the office is closed.

There is a limit of two visa exempt entries by land in any calendar year. At most land borders, there is no problem entering any number of times as long as you have a visa. (The main exception is entering at the Poi Pet/Aran border from Cambodia, which should be avoided.) Entering visa exempt by air has no explicit limitations. However, immigration is under instructions to prevent you from staying longer in Thailand than is consistent with regular tourism. In most cases, immigration will start to scrutinise you closely if you have spent more than 180 days out of the last year in Thailand as a tourist. Denied entry is possible. At some airports, you might be denied entry even with a tourist visa, though this is less likely than when entering visa exempt (and, in my view, Thai immigration officials are not supposed to deny entry to you if you have a visa except pursuant to specific criteria in Section 12 of the Immigration Act).

It is impossible to get a seven day extension. There is no such thing. On the other hand, the order to leave Thailand within seven days is invariably given if you apply for an extension (handing over 1,900 baht) without meeting the criteria for any extension.

Successfully applying for a visa does not mean you will be able to enter. See Section 12 of the Immigration Act (categories of people not allowed to enter Thailand): Since he has a new passport, the airline may well not get a DNB (do not board) instruction for him at check in. However, Immigration is very likely to identify him and his offence when he arrives. In my opinion, if he is allowed to enter, this will be because of lax checking by Immigration. He will definitely be blacklsted under normal circumstances.

I have been hearing that agents processing extensions in Jomtien are now very picky about the bank account. They want you to have a Bangkok Bank account from a branch in Chonburi province (Pattaya and Jomtien obviously OK). I assume this is because they need their bank contacts to be able to massage the paperwork appropriately. I do not know if all Pattaya agents need this, and it does not seem to apply when agents are processing extensions elsewhere.

For your situation, an SETV for each visit seems entirely appropriate. Once you spend more than six months out of any 12 month period in Thailand as a tourist, some immigration officials can decide you need extra scrutiny. This can happen, not only arriving through Phuket airport, but also both Bangkok airports and possibly Samui. In my opinion, as long as you have a valid visa, the immigration officials have no business (according to the Immigration Act) to be questioning whether consular officials should have issued you the visa. Yes, most Western immigration officials have total discretion, but Thai immigration officials are not supposed to. (Thai immigration does have discretion when it comes to visa exemption, pursuant to orders issued a number of years ago.) When you have a visa, some entry points have historically been completely safe. These include most land border crossings (avoiding Poi Pet/Aranyaprathet though) and both Chiang Mai and U-Tapao airports. At other airports, you are unlikely to be denied entry, but it is not totally impossible.

Travel to somewhere like Cambodia or Laos will probably work (in the same way that someone might well be able to use a stolen UK passport to make the same trip). However, the passport will have been electronically cancelled by the UK authorities. If you tried to use the passport to travel somewhere like the US, you would almost certainly find the authorities there knew about the passport no longer being valid.

In practice, most international travel near Thailand will still be successful before your new passport arrives. However, you are correct that, according to the UK computer records. the old passport is cancelled. Unexpired visas, extensions and re-entry permits remain valid, but you do not have a technically valid passport to travel until the new passport arrives. If you decide to risk travel with only your old passport, keep your fingers crossed. You have been warned that you will be travelling on an invalid passport.

That must have been a lot longer ago than 10 years (I would guess 30 years at least). There is no way immigration stamps in passports with no matching record in the immigration computer could long evade detection. The nearest scam to what you describe was a dodge where an agent would collect passports in Bangkok and take them en masse for stamping into Malaysia and back without the passport owners needing to make the trip. I cannot remember exactly when this occurred (something like 20 years ago, I think). This evaded discovery for a while because all the stamps were essentially good with matching records in the immigration computer. The border runs were invalid only because it could be shown that the passport owners had not actually accompanied their passports outside Thailand. It caused quite a stir at the time. More recent, but expensive and rare, have been isolated reports of immigration officials at borders resolving long overstays by doctoring both passport stamps and immigration records to make it seem as though the overstay never happened and the passport owner just re-entered the country visa exempt. The key to this and similar illegal activity is that officials must be of a seniority and so located that they can make stamps and immigration database match.

I quite believe you that this is your passport. What I do not believe is that (in spite of various other stamps in the "visa" pages of the passport) you have any Non O visa shown in the photos you posted. Most of the stamps are not visas. It might be helpful to show your passport to someone with a good grasp of Thai immigration stamps and rules so they can explain what each means. This is often helpful in understanding your future options going forward. In summary, the stamps you show are a Non B visa (and associated 90-day permission to stay) issued at immigration in January this year, a one-year extension based on retirement ending April next year, and a 90-day notification receipt from February.

I almost 100% certain you did not get a new visa. What you did was change the reason for your extension of permission to stay, which requires no new visa.

If you take my advice, you will forget about Non B/investment visas as a way to be a long term tourist. However, if you are already a business owner abroad, and can use a clever (shady) legal firm to help, you might be able to get approval for a Thai representative office which would enable you to get a Non B visa as the country manager. A regular, top legal firm will not succeed here. If you try to establish a regular Thai company, this is not horrendously expensive for basic company establishment, but you will only have 49% ownership, and there are other expensive prerequisites before you can use the company to get a long term visa.

Historical videos are not reflective of what has been happening in recent weeks. Home isolation is now the norm, and would be preferred unless you were seriously ill, or unable to avoid contact with others outside your family if you stayed at home. As of Tuesday, there were 191,743 people receiving treatment for Covid-19, of whom less than 50,000 were in hospitals. Many Thais and guest workers are in accommodation where home isolation is not practical, but this is rarely true for Westerners.

There is a lot of alarmism over the consequences of a positive Covid-19 test on arrival in Thailand, but the reality is not as bad as is portrayed. Unless you are seriously ill, you will simply be expected to isolate for seven days, using your regular hotel or apartment if you have already rented one. Look at the statistics. Almost all those who are Covid-19 positive are in home or community isolation. The authorities have decided to reserve hospital beds for those who are seriously ill. The policy a year ago was, of course, completely different, and then the consequences of a positive PCR test could be pretty severe.

That is true, but there should be no need to do so. You simply change the reason for extensions of your permission to stay, and the original category of your Non Immigrant visa is irrelevant.

Requirements have changed a few times, but I think tests were only a requirement for some people who were unvaccinated.

That was only implemented for those getting their extensions through the local 7-11.

I assume you do not want to work. That being the case, forget Non B visas or investment visas. In Thailand, that ship sailed about 30 years ago for those just wanting a visa to stay. Non Ed can be a great option for those who want to study, but I have the impression that this is not your intention. The main option is short term tourist entries with border runs every two or three months. Yes, right now, ThaiPass is a pain, but is unlikely to still be around a few months from now. I suggest Initially arrive with a regular tourist visa (probably single entry). This will give you a 60-day stay, easily extendable for a further 30 days at immigration inside Thailand on payment of 1,900 baht. Generally, for the first six months, look for places in the region you can visit as combined sightseeing trips and visa runs. Good examples can be Singapore, Hanoi and Yangon. Each visa run gives you another 90 days (60+30) with the option of returning visa exempt (30+30) if there is a hitch with the visa application. After six months as a tourist, you need to be careful about visa runs by air. In particular, if you do not score a visa, and try to return visa exempt (especially, but not only, through the Bangkok airports) you risk a denied entry. Twice per calendar year, you can very safely arrive visa exempt by land through most entry points. Keep these as your emergency fullback option until late in your stay or near the end of the calendar year. A good general strategy is to make visa runs to places where you expect to get a visa, but where a land entry will be possible if forced to return visa exempt. There are a couple of land entry points that must be avoided, notably the one from Poi Pet Cambodia to Aranyaprathet in Thailand. With care, 12-18 months is not too hard as a serial tourist but, for longer than that, the Elite visa becomes a tempting option.

October 2023 is after May 2023, so getting a re-entry permit would be pointless. In most cases, you would be well advised to apply for a new passport now (through Trendy in Bangkok or using an agent) so that the extension you get in March 2023 will run until March 2024. Then, the re-entry permit will protect your permission to stay for your return in October 2023.

It depends what you are asking the agent to do. With extensions of permission to stay and with "conversion" visas, you are supposed to attend immigration, but a good agent will ferry you there and back from your home, and arrange VIP queuing which greatly reduces the time you must spend at immigration. Excluding visas and extensions, agents will usually arrange everything without any need for you to attend immigration. One way to grade agents is how long the process takes. Overnight or even same day service is possible with the very best agents at some immigration offices. Most agents provide options to circumvent some of the requirements for visas/extensions (notably the financial proof). This service is shady, but legal if the agent and officials are careful. Whether to avail yourself of these special options would depend mainly on your attitude towards corruption. Many agents arrange cut price extensions at remote provinces where you do not need to make the immigration office appearance. For various reasons, I personally consider these stealth extensions a bit dubious.

If you do want to find it again, it will most likely be saved in archive.org. You can copy the url of the page from your browser history, open the home page for http://archive.org and paste the url in the Wayback Machine search box. Then, just click on a date around the time when you encountered the information that misled you.

Single entry visa only, right?