BritTim

Just now, lemonjelly said:

The computer says “No”.... so many flights are being cancelled, it’s a lottery trying to book a flight which will prolly get.... you guessed it, cancelled and there you are, waiting for your refund that’s floating around somewhere in cyberspace 

 

https://aot-portal.kdlab.dev/bkk

There are a lot of advertised flights which airlines have no intention of providing. However, flight numbers that left as scheduled in previous days can be expected to leave in following days (based on experience). You just need to be careful which flight you book.

30 minutes ago, lemonjelly said:

How’s everyone supposed to get out when there’s hardly any flights leaving because there’s hardly any international flights arriving?

Depending on where you are going, and how much you are concerned about ticket prices, right now it is pretty easy to get flights. I would not bank on available seats come September though.

Note: has anyone else noticed that September 26th is exactly six months since the beginning of the first amnesty? I guess immigration feels that, for almost everyone not entitled to a long term extension, four to six months is long enough to leave.

44 minutes ago, Eibot said:

LOl, I expect the borders to be open by then and the quarantine rules to be mild. They can hop right back in. 

I think you are wrong, but I suspect there will be very many gambling that this is the case. When it gets to September 20th with no announcement of yet another amnesty, there will be gnashing of teeth and complaints about how unfair it is that there is no amnesty when the option of a simple border bounce is unavailable. I foresee a real mess, with immigration unsympathetic.

12 minutes ago, Damrongsak said:

I don't drink while I'm robbing banks. 

I have no relevant previous experience, but I think I might need a stiff drink before daring to attempt a bank robbery.

It is never technically legal. If your employer is overseas, and all of your students likewise, it is tolerated. Do not worry. If either your employer or any of your students are here in Thailand, you will probably be prosecuted if caught.

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Have any Chinese tour groups ever been seen as 'free spending' by anyone except 7-11?.

All the Chinese tour groups I have ever seen stay in hotels. Many of them go to mid range Chinese restaurants. My observation is that a considerable number of them shop. They do not tend to frequent the gogo bars, but they do engage in other nighttime activities. When they visit Pattaya, they very often hit the ladyboy shows, often as groups.

3 hours ago, jimn said:

It is if you have a property in Thailand where you could quarantine yourself. There has to be a way via a tracking device that this could be an option. This ASQ is a complete rip off.

Yep. Just add tracking devices to everyone else in Thailand so they cannot visit you; arrange safe transport from the airport to your property, wherever it is in Thailand,; verify the property does, indeed, facilitate total social distancing (no one else in the property, no neighbours the other side of a low fence); provide you with 14 days of provisions; and arrange for a medical team to visit to give you a Covid-19 test after a week or so. That would not solve all the potential issues, but might be just about good enough.

17 minutes ago, potless said:

Thailand is desperate for the tourist dollar and as such, I cannot see why the government should be in any hurry to kick out people who are content to remain a while and are solvent. Give them all another 90 days would seem the obvious thing but I am aware TIT.

If Thailand saw chasing the tourist dollar as the overarching priority, they should be talking earnestly with China about a travel bubble that would allow supervised Chinese tour groups to return. The risks on either side would be low, and it would bring a lot of needed stimulus to the tourism sector.

That is not to say there is not merit in keeping existing foreigners in Thailand to stimulate the hospitality industry. There is some value, but most foreigners here now are not free spending tourists, making the most of a holiday away from the daily grind.

South Korea (which for some reason you consider dangerous for Covid-19 infection) is safer than either Bulgaria and Costa Rica, both of whom have seen cases surge in the last couple of weeks.

The reality is that Covid-19 free countries are that way because they have a virus elimination strategy. Those countries can only stay that way with strong border controls.

Your choice is to go to countries that have pretty much given up on eliminating the virus, or accept that crossing borders will be difficult at best.

29 minutes ago, JusticeGB said:

Yet the TAT is insisting that at least 4m tourists will come to Thailand before the end of this year. I can't believe that 4m people will go through the hurdles that you faced.

That would require a travel bubble with China by September. The chances are as close to zero as makes no difference.

13 hours ago, gamb00ler said:

Does anyone know if those flights appear on the airline websites?  I ask because the Embassy website doesn't specify where those flights originate.  Are they all from DC?

More likely, they depart mostly from the West Coast. I would guess Cathay would depart LAX.

17 minutes ago, Sarahandra said:

I entered Thailand and got a 30 day tourist visa on arrival

 

Background: I am married to a thai and have kids that live in Thailand

 

Visited immigration today and was told I could convert to a marriage visa for 15k baht 'maybe more' - that was all the info they would give me - it was approaching lunch time (rolls eyes) - so I left to think about it and thought I'd check in here to see what others are saying

If willing to pay to expedite the process, 15K for marriage visa is reasonable considering the need to share much of the money with regional headquarters, Depending on the immigration office (and, the region it is located in) you might be able to do it just for the official 2,000 baht price. However, your experiences of the morning suggest that is not available. You need to act quickly. The marriage visa conversion needs a minimum of 15 days left on your permission to stay.

7 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

VISAs is the MFA's way of making money.

Extensions are immigration offices way of making money.

 

Two companies selling the same product, up to you which you buy from..

Immigration officials make money from certain classes of extensions. MFA officials rarely profit from the visa system. Making people apply for visas is the primary way Thailand controls the entry of people into Thailand. Visa fees, in most cases, are not very profitable. They defray the costs of running consulates and providing visa services.

2 minutes ago, Phillip9 said:

I think the problem is Thai Airways isn’t flying yet.  If they kick everyone out before this state owned airline starts to fly, it will be a national embarrassment.  Everyone’s return tickets would be worthless and  Thailand would just keep their money.

 

Who would ever fly Thai Airways again if the county that owns the airline kicked you out before you could use your ticket, and then just kept your money?  
 

The press would be awful and it may be the end of Thai Airways.

There would be a partial solution to that, something that would definitely have been used if the pandemic had hit  20 years ago. Thai Airways could simply be instructed to endorse over people's tickets to other airlines. There might still be a supplemental charge, but people would not need to foot the cost of a whole new ticket. Alternatively, or in addition, Thai could lay on limited flights to selected destinations. They have the ability to do this at pretty short notice.

41 minutes ago, Guderian said:

The impression I get from various sources is that people who live and work here are getting fed up with the amnesty situation. One agent, who you'd think would be sympathetic to the plight of farangs "trapped" here, told me that there's been no difficulty in flying out of the country for months now, everyone has had their chance and if they haven't taken it then that's their problem. Whether this was really his own view or he was saying something that reflected what he'd heard in the Immigration office I have no idea, but if farangs are getting cheesed off with things you can imagine the Thai government probably isn't over the moon about matters.

I think that view is the prevailing view of senior immigration officials. They have a lot of influence, and I though a couple of weeks ago they might well be able to block any further grace period for people to leave. Now, it is unlikely. If they were going to provide no way for people to stay, this needed to be announced by now. I doubt there will be a free amnesty extension. However, providing short extensions on payment of a fee now seems likely. Perhaps, this will be combined with a signed form that states you understand that no further automatic extensions will be forthcoming.

Good luck. Sounds as though you have been getting plenty of healthy arm exercise trying to reach the embassy on the phone.

2 hours ago, unheard said:

Someone has mentioned the other day that the smallest, in the sticks, offices don't offer the full range of services, e.g. extensions based on marriage.

As far as I know, that is incorrect...

Can you confirm?

As far as I know, all offices can provide extensions based on marriage (with confirmation from the regional headquarters). In the past, certain services were not available at smaller offices. An example was the conversion from tourist entries to Non Immigrant visas allowed for certain reasons. Possibly, that may be true for some obscure reasons today, but I am not aware of any.

5 minutes ago, northsouthdevide said:

I'm no expert, but if your none B is good until December, can't you just get a 90 day stamp at the IO after July 31st? 

The only way to use a multiple entry visa is to leave the country and return for a fresh 90-day entry. Currently, that is very difficult, expensive and time consuming to accomplish.

OP, talk to an agent about whether an extension to work in Thailand might be arranged. It will probably be expensive, but should be feasible, I think.

36 minutes ago, Bkkolly said:

Anyone has experience and knows what is a fair price range (I understand they know we have no option so they can pull the price as much as they want, tough) and most importantly if this volunteer visa is not a scam?

Of course, these agent acquired volunteer visas are a scam, but one involving highly placed immigration officials. Given the rank of those involved, there is little risk of a crackdown on these visas, but you can expect a high ticket price for the protection.