BritTim

6 minutes ago, SteveB67 said:

I have funds in an account until June 8th preparing for a 1 non o year visa application, based on parenthood. Will Chaeng Wattana be open in June? And can I still apply normally at that time?

Chaeng Wattana has remained open throughout, and there is no likelihood that it would close before June 8. It is highly probable that you will be able to submit your application for the extension at that time.

32 minutes ago, new2here said:

... and this timeline somewhat meshes up with what the major carriers are now pre-planning for their  operational resumption — July 1

It costs airlines little to schedule flights and take bookings. They can choose to cancel them later, if desired. I think the (reduced) schedules airlines are hoping to meet are largely wishful thinking. In some cases, they may also be attempts to improve cashflow, with no real expectation of actually running the flights.

4 hours ago, bbi1 said:

How exactly? There are no flights between Sydney and BKK. Qantas and Thai Airways have cancelled all flights since a month ago.

There are no direct flights. However, connecting via places like Tokyo is feasible at a price. Check out SkyScanner to view your options.

1 hour ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Very true.  Any idea of mandatory 14-day quarantine for tourists will effectively kill off the tourist industry completely.  Thais are not that stupid!

There is a high degree of xenophobia right now, in spite of the fact that Thailand's own figures show that most of those infected are Thais.

Although there are powerful interests who will want to save the hotel and tourism industries, I do not think Thailand is going to be willing to trade tens of thousands of its own citizens' lives to satisfy those interests. I consider it wishful thinking to believe quarantine free entry is going to happen until people can show certificates of effective vaccination against Covid-19.

2 minutes ago, murraynz said:

Some of us are lucky_pure fluke..

My retirement extention expires 28 november...im sure things will be settled down by then.

I will do short trip to vietnam or similar,just prior to 31 july,so no need for 90 day report...

That assumes you will be able to meet the requirements set by Vietnam for entering the country at that time, and the requirements Thailand sets for foreigners wishing to enter the country. If you are lucky, that will only be 14 days enforced quarantine at each end.

1 hour ago, Susco said:

I didn't realize there never was a vaccine for HIV, though I believe HIV infection rates have dropped immensely over the past decade.

 

So why is that if there is no vaccine?

The main reason for the drop in HIV infection rates is that there are antiviral treatments for those that are infected that reduce levels of the virus to very low levels within the body in most cases. People who are infected stop being able to pass on their infections to others.

EDIT: In fact, there are still many, many people living with HIV, and lots of people are still newly infected each year. It is now seen as less critical because of effective treatment options. HIV infection is no longer a death sentence.

2 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

There will not be vaccine for minimum 1 year. My guess 18 month +

I believe 18 months is the average expectation. Outliers would be an effective vaccine within nine months from now (5% chance) and no effective vaccine after five years (10%). There is optimism that a vaccine will be possible, but caution is warranted. Remember that there is no effective vaccine today for another virus (HIV) in spite of over 30 years of research and attempts to create one.

11 minutes ago, hiero said:

Wow. I was not expecting this, seems almost too good to be true.

 

Rather than start a new thread can anyone just sanity check my situation:

Uk->thailand Feb 7th

Visa Extension March 6th

Border run March 19th
Visa expired 19th April.

 

..... I can just sit tight until 31st July.

It appears that you entered Thailand visa exempt on March 19th, with your permission to stay valid until after March 26th. You benefit from automatic extensions until July 31st.

If you are just going to report a lost bank book or something, I doubt the police will look at anything other than the data page of your passport.

I would still advise you to be clear on your overstay situation. Jack and I are suspicious that you do not know the difference between a visa and a permission to stay. The visa is completely irrelevant at this stage. It is only the permission to stay that is important. As Jack advised you, if you want to be confident of your status, scan the most recent stamps placed in your passport by immigration (not an embassy/consulate outside Thailand). That will allow us to identify the end date of your permission to stay.

1 minute ago, Tayida said:

Good evening Jackdd:: my visa expires three days before the amnesty. Do you think I can fill out the report?

Do you mean that your permission to stay expired March 23? You need to be clear.

24 minutes ago, watthong said:

Obviously a visa is valid during its validity (good from such to such date) period.  You can go from one (kind of) visa to another. You can finish one and get a new one. However there is no such thing as extension of a visa. A permission of stay on the other hand is what can be extended. So when Immigration says no need to extend visas, they mean no need to extend permissions of stay. Under amnesty extension, permissions of stays that fall behind a demarcation date (such as March 26th) are automatically extended until the designated date (such as April 30th and now July 31st.) Please correct me if I'm wrong.

You are not wrong, but you make the mistake of being logical. In terms of the Ministerial Order in question, there is an underlying logic, but it only has to do with the motivations of the senior immigration officials who drafted it. They have done their best to produce an order that can be interpreted in just about any way they please, depending on the target audience at the time. A simple "anyone with a legal permission to stay as of March 26 has an automatic extension until 31st July" would make clear that nobody with a confirmed permission to stay needs to attend immigration. While that is the message to foreign embassies, TAT, and likely the PM, senior immigration officials are concerned about the hit to their incomes if agents were not in a position to convince their customers that they still needed their agent assisted extensions. Different interpretations for different audiences. Pretty clever, actually.

Pattaya agents are no doubt doing a roaring trade right now. They will want to process your retirement extension at Jomtien. The fact that your permanent residence is in Bangkok will not be an issue, as long as you do not mind being technically resident in Pattaya after the extension has been processed.

48 minutes ago, CLS said:

Gents, can we sum it up like this?

 

Everyone who was legally in the country from 3/26 onwards can stay till 7/31.

 

No matter if permission of stay was granted at the border or via any extension at an immigration office.

 

Extensions include 30 days tourist, 60 days marriage/parental or 12 months marriage/parental/retirement and Covid19.

 

Those with 12 months extension with due date between 3/26 and 7/31 and miss/fail to extend can stay legally here till 7/31.

What happens to their extension afterwards is a different question.

My guess is they have to leave and start over again.

This is my strong suspicion. Essentially, I believe you are correct. Based on people's experience at airports when leaving, everyone legally in Thailand as of March 26th is covered. However, that is not what senior immigration officials want people to think. They especially want agents to continue to process extensions that provide income to those officials. The crazy and ambiguous wording of the ministerial order was intentional, designed both to assure foreign embassies, TAT, and probably the PM that everyone was covered, while being able to persuade those paying them for agent assisted extensions to continue doing so.

The big question is what happens when people assume they are covered, but do not exit but later apply for extensions. What I think should happen is that those extensions should be allowed insofar as they are logical if counted from the original expiry date of the permission to stay. Thus, if your permission to stay expired on April 1st and you applied for a one-year extension of stay on July 30th, this would be allowed, with the extension taking you to April 1st 2021. However, if you apply for a regular tourist extension of 30 days, this would be rejected as 30 days from April 1st means the extension would expire before the end of the automatic extension. What will actually happen, I do not know, but I am not optimistic if you are not using an agent.

55 minutes ago, bangkokboy888 said:

my under consideration date is apr 22 (tomorrow).

 

does this mean that i no longer have to go? 

 

or is there some nasty surprise waiting for me if i do not show up for my 'consideration'?

You may get differing opinions on this. My own view is that an extension of stay under consideration does not confirm that you are legally in Thailand as of the report back date. I believe you ought to go to have the stamp confirming your legal stay placed in your passport. Following this, you will have an automatic extension until July 31st, and not need to attend immigration again until then.

What is the permitted to stay until date on your permission to stay? Your visa is only used to enter the country. The important date is the date on which you are supposed to leave Thailand.

I know the extra visit to Immigration is irritating, but I would play it safe and go. My own analysis is that, when you are under consideration for an extension, you do not have formal permission to stay in the country. Make sure you are legal and get that stamp.

1 hour ago, JimGant said:

So, even if you know you don't qualify for an extension, should you go to Immigration anyway to get proof of "denied" to use in your proof of subsequent amnesty? And what sort of proof might that look like? thanx.

Whatever your interpretation of that virtually indecipherable ministerial order, do not attend immigration and ask for a denied extension. If they are kind, they may tell you to go away. If irritated, they are liable to take your 1,900 baht and give you a stamp giving you seven days to leave the country, at which stage I do not believe you would be covered by any automatic extensions.

7 minutes ago, yankee99 said:

10 years never a visit from Jomtien 

Are your extensions based on marriage to a Thai?

1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:

It is stated the first paragraph of the ministerial order that states the reason for the order.

This is the last 3 lines of it.

 

I understand that the order states that some people will find it hard to leave while others will not. The argument that this depends on whether your permission to stay is based on recent entry into the country or an extended permission to stay is what I dispute. Note that I fully understand that people must comply with rules whether they are logical or not. However, the attempt to justify irrational rules designed purely to protect the income of senior immigration officials really aggravates me.

7 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Of course he is incorrectly calling extensions of stay a visa. That causes confusion. If on an extension of stay the automatic extension does not apply to you since it it does not require you to leave and reenter the country to keep your stay valid.

I still do not understand this justification of saying a permission to stay based on entry with a visa is different from an extended permission to stay. In both cases, you would normally have a choice between leaving the country before the end of your permission to stay or requesting an extension. I understand why some senior officials in Immigration want to force as many people as possible to apply for certain classes of extensions of stay, but the argument that people's ability to leave the country depends on your immigration history lacks logic.

Under normal circumstances,

• It is at Immigration's discretion whether to allow you to clear any overstay (even one day) and apply late for an extension of stay.
• Some offices will not help at all without presents to make the problem go away.
• I am not aware of any offices that will normally allow you to clear an overstay exceeding seven days while still applying late for an extension.
• While not sure, I think there may be a limit to the length of an overstay that can be cleared at an immigration office, possible depending on the rank of the senior official at the office.
• I am pretty sure that normally, when already on a 33-day overstay, Immigration would tell you they cannot help and instruct you to exit immediately via the airport. If you really upset them, they might even arrest you and send to to the Immigration Detention Centre.

These are not normal circumstances. I have no idea what discretion your local immigration office might have to resolve the situation. Frankly, if you have a good agent in your area, I might be tempted to use them.

Having been given seven days to leave the country (it is not an extension) I would be nervous. The intent of the PM and the cabinet was to allow everyone legally in Thailand as of March 26 to remain without penalty, but the convoluted wording of the eventual Order means that many situations are subject to interpretation. Especially if in Region 3, staying past April 27 without future problems may require the services of an agent. Which immigration office must your friend deal with?