BritTim

Contact the airline. They will know.

They may rely on proof of flight from their jurisdiction to Thailand as sufficient proof that you are physically present in the country. We shall see. Visas like Non O-A, Non O-X and (when reintroduced) multiple entry tourist visas can only be applied for in your home country (or country of residence).

That might happen. The agents would love it, as it would formalise the immigration office shopping they often employ today.

I do not see any reason to make that decision until at least March next year, It is very possible that, by July next year, Covid insurance might no longer be mandatory.

Nothing is certain. However, I believe it is highly likely that, as with Yellow Fever when entering from infected areas, Covid vaccination will become a requirement for entering Thailand sooner rather than later.

The terms and conditions for the STV states clearly that regular extensions of stay are not available. I believe if Covid extensions are ended, the only extension an agent will be able to arrange for those who entered with an STV will be a medical extension.

As I wrote, trying to do a border bounce now makes no sense. However, requirements like quarantine are going to be relaxed in due course, for returning to Bangkok perhaps as early as November.

If you could leave Thailand, and re-enter before November 8th, you would get a fresh one-year permission to stay. Right now, that does not seem viable, but it is conceivable that, by early November, a border bounce via Singapore might be possible. You wold need to be fully vaccinated. Excluding use of the Non O-A visa to enter Thailand before it expires, you will need to apply for an extension of stay before December 8th.

Note that you have the option of entering Thailand visa exempt, and applying for the Non O visa at Immigration inside Thailand. This avoids the need for the 400k/40k general medical insurance, and also means you need the Covid insurance for a shorter period. If you are in a position to deposit 800k baht in a Thai bank account, the above is what I recommend.

As @ubonjoe wrote, we do not know the whole story. Based on the fact that he was able to arrange his deportation within 10 days, it is unlikely that he was convicted of a crime. It appears the authorities (likely with inducements from influential neighbours) just decided that he was an undesirable, and decided to order his deportation. He could have appealed, but this would likely have been futile, and simply meant he spent a lot more time in the IDC. The horrific conditions of the Thai IDCs is well known, and the article adds nothing new for those familiar with Thailand.

If she sees value in learning to speak Thai, go with a Non Ed visa and extensions. For just the permission to stay, a volunteer visa and extension using an agent is cleaner.

If you do not have access to the money, I cannot see how knowing when this is going to be a major problem will help you. I guess you might be hoping to borrow the money when there is no other alternative, but in my experience only close family are likely to advance that kind of money to someone who cannot raise it any other way.

I am aware of exactly one case (up in Chiang Mai in 2006) where a co-working space was raided. This resulted in zero prosecutions, and is widely assumed to have been a mistake. Are there others that have occurred of which I am unaware? My own belief is that the authorities are aware there is no mechanism by which you can get a work permit as a digital nomad working for foreign companies and/or customers; and many people arrive in Thailand for fairly short periods carrying out some remote work while here alongside other activities, such as tourism. There is no desire to deter such individuals from visiting Thailand. For these reasons, Thailand tolerates digital nomads as long as they are not competing with Thais for Thai jobs or customers. It would be awfully difficult to draw the line between incidental work by short term visitors, and remote work done by those here for a longer period. There is no attempt to do so. If you can get a permission to stay, remote work will not get you into trouble.

I tend to agree. However, if such a change was instituted: address verification would need to become really strict (currently, the HMPO is fairly relaxed on this requirement); and the direct application might only be safe from fraud in the case of visa renewals where the applicant is demonstrating possession of a previous UK passport. In the case of lost, seriously damaged or first passports, there would probably need to be a way to validate the applicant (such as application through the embassy that was used before processing switching to Hong Kong, and later via VFS to the UK).

Often, a Thai embassy/consulate will only agree to issue you with a visa if you are a national or resident of the country where you are making the application. If you are temporarily in a country where the embassy has this rule, and are not eligible for a visa exempt entry, then you can be in an awkward spot. Regardless, the CoE must be issued by the Thai embassy in the country you are departing to travel to Thailand. The embassy should be willing to process your CoE regardless of their visa policies.

There is a requirement that the funds have been remitted from abroad. However, if the money has been in a Thai bank account continuously over a long period, most immigration offices will allow use of these seasoned funds without the proof that the money originated in the dim and distant past from abroad. What the regulations are trying to prevent is someone borrowing the funds from someone for about 48 hours just in order to get the visa.

The point is that amphurs have been obliged to demand that you show an affirmation of freedom to marry from your embassy in Thailand before you can be legally married in Thailand. If you were really able to get an official Thai marriage certificate without showing such an affirmation, I am extremely surprised.

Just to state the obvious, there is no penalty for having money in the bank longer than 60 days at the time you apply for a one-year extension. Why not go ahead and have the money deposited so it is there when needed?

If you get the opportunity to speak with the agent again, ask which immigration office is being used for the extension. By the way, what type of extension of stay is involved? If it is one of the simpler extensions, even an out of province extension should not take more than a week. However, if it is, say, a marriage extension, or if it is a "conversion" visa to switch from a tourist entry to a Non Immigrant entry, then a month or more is not unusual. The agent will want to hold onto the passport until the under consideration period has elapsed, and the final stamp inserted in your passport.

I think you are confusing the application for a one-year extension of your permission to stay in Thailand with the application for a single entry Non O visa from a consulate in the US. The requirements (and what you are requesting) are totally different.

I do not know your location (and the location of the agent). However, I do know one of the more likely reasons for the delay in returning your passport. If your local immigration office is expensive for agents to use, the agent often has an agreement with another agent in another province to process your extension there. When that happens, there are often snafus where your agent loses track of where the passport is. Also, the less professional agents often place little priority in tracking down the customer's passports in such situations if they have already received full payment. If that is what has happened, the good news is that your passport will almost certainly eventually make its way back to you. It may take over a month for this to happen, especially if the agent is not good at minimising the length of the under consideration period. One common indication of an out of province extension is that you were not asked to attend immigration briefly to initiate the application (something that is usually a requirement, but obviously omitted for out of province extensions).

No. When applying for a visa at a Thai consulate overseas, any financial proof they require is most often satisfied by showing the funds in a local bank account. @ubonjoe is telling you that the official US consulate that will be used require showing $700, usually in a US bank account (though this is flexible).

The rules written on the Thai Embassy London website in relation to COE for Non O retirement re-entry have been that way since returning for retirees was allowed last year. It is unclear if the insurance provisions were ever enforced. I can tell you that embassy websites are often inaccurate. I assumed the website was correct on COE requirements initially, but (as @ubonjoe has assured you) there is plenty of evidence that general medical insurance has not been required for the COE for many months, at least. (Obviously, the $100,000 Covid insurance, required for all foreigners, is definitely necessary.)

Be aware that, in spite of what is written on the TM7 form, many offices still insist on your presence for an extension unless you are either in hospital or a care home. It may be best to try to contact your immigration office directly, explain the situation, and see how they react to the idea of sending someone in your place.

The 30-day extension of a regular visa exempt entry is standard, and can be expected to remain available indefinitely. The rules with visa exempt entry based on bilateral agreement are different. The 45 days you currently receive as your initial permission to stay on a visa exempt entry is 15 days more than it was pre-Covid. This is to compensate for the 15 nights you are normally expected to spend in quarantine. This will probably revert to the previous 30 days once quarantine requirements are eliminated. The 60-day Covid extensions currently apply to anyone legally in Thailand who claims they are prevented by the Covid-19 outbreak from returning to their home country. You sign an affidavit and your claim is not questioned. It is certain that these Covid extensions will be eliminated at some point. When they will be cancelled or made more difficult to get is unpredictable. It could happen at any time after September 30th, though likely to continue for at least a month or two longer than that.