BritTim

I agree with most of this. You would be amazed at the mess some people with plenty of money can get themselves into. I know of an American millionaire who procrastinated his way into a long overstay, assuming he could buy himself out of trouble later. He did not care about the money. As long as you have not been arrested or already blacklisted, there absolutely are fixers who can resolve long overstays without you being banned. Prior to Covid-19, it was not even eye wateringly expensive. It is still possible, but with land borders closed may now be much more costly.

For short overstays, you are correct. When a blacklisting is involved, the process takes longer. More senior officials and some questioning are involved. Also, if officials decide you are a suspicious character, they can decide to investigate to see if you are wanted for offences other than the overstay before letting you go. If you are leaving after a three-year overstay, I would certainly recommend allowing plenty of extra time. It might be needed.

It should not, but it has been known to happen.

You may well be correct that this is a troll thread. Unfortunately, when it is not a troll thread, the OP will often be just as confused as we see here. I do not discount that the enquiry was genuine. Taking the OP at face value, the most likely explanation is that he initially tried to do the extension himself, was rejected owing to lack of proper proof of (continued) marriage, which could be because the marriage was concluded abroad. Confused and unsure what to do, the OP handed the problem over to an agent to resolve, expecting the passport to be returned with a one-year extension of stay within a month or so. A foreigner with a Thai spouse under the age of 50 has few options for long term extensions, and some agents will assist in getting it done. This may be a nonsense thread, but that is not proven.

Perhaps because the passport and other documentation had been mislaid subsequent to completion of the process. Nevertheless, those who believe the OP was trolling could well be correct and, even if not, one quite likely time for the passport to be mislaid could be during the under consideration period, after the initial application was made but before the final extension stamp was affixed. (Actually, in that situation, I am unsure whether the situation would be retrievable without the OP being considered on a long overstay.) Note that the (sub-)agent to whom you hand your passport is not always the agent who actually processes the extension (who often handles passports from several other (sub-)agents). Passports are often mislaid by disorganised agents after being misdirected to the wrong (sub-)agent. Usually, this is annoying but not ultimately a catastrophe, with the passport turning about after a couple of weeks. If the OP is genuine, as I have tried unsuccessfully to make clear, knowing whether he is actually on overstay is an essential precondition when deciding on the correct course of action.

Did you miss the bit where he said he had given the passport to an agent, "presumably" with the intention of getting an extension? Why do you believe it is impossible that the agent did, indeed, apply for an extension on his behalf?

If you want to try to fix this kind of serious issue by bribing the officials, under no circumstances try doing so directly unless the official has initiated the process. That is extremely risky, and should not be attempted either at the airport or at an immigration office. If you do this with the wrong official, you can end up in a world of hurt. Always use an intermediary. Asking officials over the phone whether they will accept a bribe to fix a problem is pointless at best, and foolhardy at worst. It is almost impossible that any official is going to admit over the phone to taking bribes. Even most agents are careful what they will say on the phone.

Correct, depending on their seniority and the nature of the exception. In particular, those who do the sign off on retirement extensions at most immigration offices are sufficiently senior that they are empowered to waive funds seasoning requirements. They are supposed only to do so under exceptional circumstances, but what "exceptional" means is in the eye of the beholder.

Some will find it cheaper to use a regular agent rather then marry someone just to have a live in agent. Agents who do house visits most definitely do exist. Sometimes, they will charge extra, sometimes not.

You either use an agent who, as part of the service, transports you to and from Immigration (especially useful with immigration offices where it is difficult to park); or you have an appointment to meet the agent at the immigration office as a designated time. In either case, a good agent should have arranged VIP queuing (something that will infuriate many here who refuse to "waste money" on agents). EDIT: Although many agents will process an extension without you attending Immigration, in most cases, part of the regulations is that you attend immigration yourself, even when using an agent to assist. Be aware that, if you do not do so, you may end up quite surprised at where the agent actually processed your extension.

I am taking no position on whether it makes sense for those who qualify for an extension should, nevertheless, use an agent. What I will say is that the time you can expect to spend at many offices when not using an agent will be considerably longer than 20 minutes Indeed, you will often be required to return the next business day for your passport. If the journey time is an hour in each direction between your home and Immigration (as it is for many) this can be a real pain. (Not really a factor in normal times) with the risk of Covid infection, if an agent can get you in and out of Immigration within a few minutes, and ensure a single visit, this could, for some, justify the cost.

It is the threat of legal proceedings (and the subsequent publicity) that is important. In all likelihood, you would not go through with the threat, but can the agent take that chance? If the agent does not know when the passport was mislaid, the OP will need to find out his immigration status through other means. There are people who, for a fee, can consult the immigration records. If he is on overstay, the OP will most likely have to apply for an emergency travel document and leave (accepting the one-year ban). However, there is a decent chance that his situation is not quite that dire.

I do not see how you can make that assumption. He handed the passport to the agent presumably last June (the agent reportedly was handed it eight months ago). The intention was for the agent to arrange an extension of his permission to stay. The passport was subsequently mislaid, but we have no clue whether that occurred before, or after, a further one-year extension of stay was obtained. It is possible that the OP's permission to stay is now August 2022. We just do not know. In my opinion, the number one priority is to answer that question. I believe pressure must be put on the agent to find out his status as quickly as possible. If he is on overstay, the situation is much more urgent than if he is legally in Thailand, but has a mislaid passport to deal with.

Some reporting I have seen from yesterday's CCSA meeting states that the Jan 15th cut off for pre-approved applications is to be enforced. The IATA regulations (updated January 5th) make no mention of a January 15th cut off date, but there is no update since the CCSA meeting. IMHO, the situation is still very murky.

There have been vague official announcements that casual charity work, that does not deprive a Thai of paid employment, can these days be carried out without a work permit. It remains a little bit of a grey area, but these days I do not think you need to worry.

You may or may not be on overstay. That will depend on whether the passport was mislaid before or after the extension was processed. At this point, send a registered latter to the agent demanding to know: When they lost your passport? Was an extension successfully processed? Can they guarantee return of the passport within the next two weeks? Make clear that you intend to take legal action if you do not get satisfactory written answers to those questions within three days. [As a practical matter, the legal action would not achieve suitable compensation, but no agent who wants to stay in business would want to risk a possible very public court case publicising their incompetence.]

All you state is true. However, it is also true that, in very rare cases (generally in immunocompromised individuals) the virus can remain active in small quantities indefinitely, and actually becomes a potential source of dangerous new variants. That is not an argument to treat all post acute Covid positive tests as evidence of continuing infection. In the vast majority of cases, the positive test just indicates the presence of dead virus fragments. However, the development of a simple and reliable test that could identify the rare silent latent infections is highly desirable.

I once saw a sign in a shop window "Genuine antiques, direct from the factory". An interesting concept, though it implies awfully long delivery times.

He volunteered to give an agent some money to arrange a Non O visa and associated extension. The visa and extension are legal, but the agent almost certainly (with the knowledge of the official who signed off on the application) submitted an application of dubious accuracy. As such, the services that a volunteer would typically have needed to provide were not necessary in his case. As others have stated, the stamps in the OP's passport are all legal, and the fact that they were acquired via some shenanigans between the official and the agent is not going to affect his application for a Covid extension.

How did that help you obtain an extension. The OP friend has current permit expiring. His other issue is even if obtains travel doc/pp pretty sure that cannot obtain extension in that. Maybe, I misinterpreted stiger's post, but it seemed potentially very informative. It seems to suggest that, with the correct documentation from the embassy, immigration at that time would provide a (temporary) extension stamp on something other than a new passport.

We will never know if one factor, as implied by some posters, was that your grooming offended someone,. That is always possible. My advice always is to dress as you would when attending a bank to ask for a loan. Most often, it will not matter, but some officials can regard poor grooming as offensive. As a matter of interest, was it the same official who told you to "come back tomorrow" both times? What time did you turn up at the office. The Jomtien office can get extremely busy (especially after a long holiday) and my suspicion is that they simply already had more people to process than they could comfortably accommodate.

VIP queuing does tend to cost a bit at CW, though some agents seem to be able to negotiate a better price than others.

My question when having a flight reservation indicating your Thai passport is whether US immigration consider this compatible with leaving under a different passport. I am pretty sure it would not be acceptable if the names in the two passports did not match. I am unsure whether the passport numbers (also part of the flight reservation) must be strictly adhered to. When I received a new passport (same nationality) between making a reservation and check in, the airline insisted that the details on the flight reservation had to be amended before checking me in, and the process seemed relatively complicated.

As everyone else has stated, under normal circumstances, the rule of exit on your US passport, arrive on your Thai passport solves all problems. There is just one complication that I believe needs to be at least considered: the Thailand Pass. You need to have a Thailand pass which reflects the passport you will use for exit from the US and entry into Thailand. Whether you use the Thai passport for your flight reservation and Thailand Pass or your US passport, there could be problems. Notably, assuming your Thailand Pass was issued on your US passport, I could imagine Thai immigration refusing to allow you to enter as a Thai. Technically, you would not have a qualifying Thailand Pass.

Most likely, the process of selecting a hospital partner occurred in a reasonable manner. The hotel had an incentive to have their application approved quickly, and a clean application process facilitates this. I am sure you are right, though, about the hospital's likely reaction to the opportunity presented by your incarceration. Overcharging by private hospitals is epidemic in Thailand, and they will certainly hang on to you as long as possible unless they want your bed for a more lucrative patient.