BritTim

I am pretty sure you apply for your extension at the local immigration office, regardless of your place of work.

They can make random visits at other times of the year. If they do, it is not to verify your right to an extension. It is for other reasons. The fact that you are outside the country at that time will not be an issue. They may talk to neighbours to confirm that you still live there, and if they know when you will be back. That is all.

It is important to understand the differences between "visa", "permission to stay" (extended or not) and "re-entry permit". If you enter Thailand with a visa, you can enter right up to the visa's expiry date, and will receive the normal permission to stay allowed from the visa (90 days if entering with a Non B visa, 60 days if a tourist visa, for instance). I think you are making the common assumption that the re-entry permit you get to protect your permission to stay is a visa. It is not. It simply protects your permission to stay to prevent it being cancelled when you make a trip outside Thailand. Obviously, when entering with a re-entry permit, the expiry date of your permission to stay remains the same. The 90-day report is completely independent of any of the above. It is required when you spend 90 days consecutively in Thailand.

I do not recall such a rule. It does say that earnings from abroad brought into Thailand in the year that it is earned are subject to Thai tax if you are tax resident. That is different from saying you must import earnings so they can tax it. Do you have a more specific citation other than just Thai law?

The biggest issue with annual extensions, especially those taken under consideration, is exactly what you mention: the need to fit the extension into your schedule year after year.

It is possible to change the reason for your permission to stay from working to retirement. I do not think the One-Stop office can give you the retirement extension. You might need to cancel your permission to stay at the One-Stop office in the morning, and apply for the new extension of your permission to stay based on retirement at Chaengwattana in the afternoon. If you contact the One-Stop office, they can hopefully advise you.

If officially married, it is a bit complicated, but possible. Without a marriage certificate, a dependant visa/extension is totally impossible. An independent retirement visa (her own bank account with 800k deposit) is the only obvious solution. As ever, an agent might be able to suggest other options.

It appears that you are using visa exemptions under bilateral agreement between Thailand and Brazil. I have no idea of the details of the visa exemption treaty between Thailand and Brazil, except that it allows 90 days on each entry. However, it makes sense to me that, unless the treaty implies otherwise, Immigration would not be happy with someone who already has six months consecutive in Thailand asking for a further 90 days. If time was not so short, I would recommend going to Vientiane for an actual tourist visa. However, you need an appointment to use the embassy there, and would not be able to get the appointment at such short notice. Where are you located? Possibly a well regarded visa run company could advise you on a workable plan of action.

On an extension of stay, the only things you need to consider are: Having a schedule that ensures you are in Thailand around the time when the yearly extension is due; and Obtaining a re-entry permit when you take a trip outside Thailand. When outside Thailand, there is no requirement to submit the 90-day reports. Those are only necessary after 90 consecutive days in Thailand. Subject to the requirement to be in Thailand for the annual extensions, you can spend as little or as much time as you like in Thailand.

Just the visa and passport (and, if paranoid, 20,000 baht cash that you can theoretically be asked to show by immigration when you arrive, though they never ask any more in practice).

Was this at Poipet/Aranyaprathet? There have even been reports there of denied border bounces.

Our discussion is only about SWIFT transfers which seem to work well, with good exchange rates when sending from Sweden with the currency conversion done before the transfer. Obviously, as we are well aware, using WISE is a better idea from most countries. I guess it is not a complete shock that bank charges and exchange rates vary by country.

This was also pretty strange. I assume the Dear Applicant email was coming through Taximail, and the email address is strange, but the request for travel plans does not look suspicious. I am scratching my head trying to figure out why, even if they want to use mass mailing software, they do not set it up so you just reply (through the normal email address) with the Subject header already preset to ensure it gets tied to the correct application. This is all so error prone. If the system was left to a high school student to set up, it could not be this bad.

The Ministry of Labour headquarters is on Mitmaitri Road in Din Daeng, but easiest might be to send them a short email at [email protected], giving your location and asking them which office you should use.

I agree with this. Note that successful visa applications would not change my opinion that messages to [email protected] are being intercepted by bad actors. The e-visa system itself is still operating, and applications are being seen by the UK embassy. It would be in the scammers best interests for visa applications to generally be successful as long as this only happens after they have launched their phishing attacks.

At the current time, I do not know what to suggest. A possible solution would be to make an appointment at the Thai embassy in Vientiane, and fly there before entering Thailand. The current situation is intolerable. All consulates (official and honorary) in the UK have been closed, ensuring there is no independent path to at least communicate with consular staff. It is impossible to communicate with the London embassy by phone. There is no way of knowing whether emails sent to the London embassy are actually being received unfiltered by embassy staff. Finally, we have a situation where there are very strong indications that attempting to use the e-visa site will result in identity theft.

Would an initial visit to the local Labour Office, together with the prospective employee be a good initial step? While there, he could ask the Labour Department whether any of the preparatory steps had already been done, and whether there were local agents who could help streamline the process.

Unfortunately, if you used the 60-day extension in 2017, and have been on one-year extensions ever since, you are not eligible for another 60-day extension. The alternative of going to Savannakhet for a single or multiple entry Non O visa from there is probably your best short term solution.

To open personal PayPal accounts in Thailand you now need a National Digital ID. Those are only available for Thai nationals. I presume it is possible to open PayPal accounts abroad and use them when in Thailand (probably with restrictions) but the PayPal account I opened years ago, tied to a Thai bank account, was terminated.

The emails that are a concern come from mass mailing software. Such software can validly be used when sending automated acknowledgements, but never when asking for extra financial information. Even partially automated requests for further information ought to identify you by name and identify the sender It would request a reply using a correct reply to address, and have a subject line that has a reference code. It will never tell you to send sensitive information to a different email address (which is easily mistyped) and bounce messages if you reply. [Using a generic bounce address as the reply to is helpful, though, for getting scam emails through spam filters.] Over and above that, and assuming horrendous administrative practices, the e-visa system has a specific email address that is supposed to be used. The email address they are asking you to use was legitimate years ago, and can still be used for visa enquiries of a general nature. It is not part of the e-visa system.

I get the feeling that the nearest English translation of the whole phrase is "elderly" or "senior citizen". In Thai it has more respectful connotations than it does in English (except in limited contexts like "elder statesman" or "tribal elder"). I do not think it helps when trying to decide if such a person is allowed a work permit.

That, plus it was asking for the information to go to an email address distinct from that used by the e-visa system. It is bad enough that the message contained no indication that they knew who they were communicating with, or identifying who was sending the message. That is highly unprofessional. Doing the same while asking for the information to a separate email address to that normally used would not make sense.

At most embassies, Sheryl, you are correct. The Paris embassy has historically been very tough on those applying for tourist visas.

I think I would describe your decision to get the Non O-X as pessimistic rather than ridiculous. You are aware that there are better short term options, but have a bleak view on the prospects of those options being available in the future. Settling for the Non O-X is your way of guaranteeing that you have a longer term solution. Many who take the same pessimistic view, and who have plenty of money, might be more inclined to go for the 20-year Thailand Elite membership which provides certainty for a longer period. Right now, many consider that option to be cheap, but prices are going to be greatly increased shortly.

I will need to look back at my records. I have done SWIFT transfers to Kasikorn in the distant past, but not recently. My recollection is that NatWest in the UK could send direct to either Bangkok Bank or Kasikorn. When you send to Kasikorn, is the transfer subject to delays? My recollection is that the transfer through a correspondent bank tended to take about a week as opposed to the normal three days when transfer was direct.