BritTim

At some immigration offices, they might stupidly refuse the application if you do not have a long term rental contract. However, most will accept a verbal explanation that you are staying in a hotel while looking for a permanent place to stay. Worst case, most hotels will be happy to furnish you with a rental agreement for an extended stay (with a verbal agreement that you will be able to break the agreement without penalty). Only ask the hotel to help in this way if the immigration office proves difficult.

For the paranoid, I can understand wanting to do the re-entry permit in advance at the immigration office. However, I have literally never heard of anyone missing a flight because the re-entry permit took too long at Suvarnabhumi or Don Muang. In fact, when the immigration counters are swamped, using the re-entry desk may get you through faster at Suvarnabhumi where they can get you an express exit stamp if they see you are cutting things fine. I have not applied for a re-entry permit at an immigration office for about 10 years unless planning to exit by land.

For others who find themselves without US dollars, but having a little time, it is possible to change baht into US dollars in Mukdahan. It will be difficult if you are trying at 6:00 am, of course.

The order to leave the country within seven days has zero negative connotations. Some officials at airports, however, might take the short overstay into account if there is a close decision on whether to grant you a visa exemption. If you want to return immediately, it might be prudent to use a land crossing.

If planning this well in advance, you can easily get a tourist visa in Vientiane Laos. You need an appointment to apply there, and will not be able to do so if you only decide a week or two in advance that this is your best option.

A re-entry permit is always tied to your permission to stay at the time you acquire the re-entry permit. This is one of the few rules of Thai immigration which is invariant. You seem to be asking what happens if you apply for a re-entry permit and leave Thailand during the "under consideration" period for a new extension. At that point, your permission to stay has been extended until the report back date at the end of the under consideration period. That is usually around 30 days after the expiry of the old permission to stay. As usual, your re-entry permit acquired during the under consideration period will expire on the report back date. (Note: if you intend doing this, discuss it with your immigration office in advance. They often want to do home visits, and will expect to find you there if you have not warned them of your plans.)

Health insurance is not needed for a marriage extension, even if you originally entered Thailand using a Non O-A visa.

You have several options: First, have you applied for an (automatic) 30-day extension of your current tourist entry at the local immigration office. Do a border bounce (probably at a land crossing) to get a 30-day visa exemption. The best way of doing this will depend on your current location. Vientiane and Savannakhet Laos are good places to get tourist visas. Vientiane is easily and quite cheaply reached by air or overland. However, you need an appointment to apply there, so you need to have planned this in advance. At Savannakhet, although the town has a small airport, you really need to enter via land from the Thai town of Mukdahan. This consulate is extremely busy on Mondays and Thursdays. Apply Tuesday or Wednesday. Yangon (Myanmar) is OK, and travelling there and back is not as painful as it was a few months ago. Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Kota Bharu (Malaysia) and Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) are all potential places to get Thai tourist visas, but have drawbacks.

I think the word you were looking for was "median", not "mean". The arithmetic mean is basically the same as average.

While difficult, it is possible to find bank branches that will agree to let you open an account on a tourist entry if you are willing to give them an incentive by buying their accident insurance. (The staff get a small commission for selling insurance.) In the worst case, there are agents who will assist.

I wonder if your decision to fly back on March 31st might have had anything to do with the fact that it was the last day where you would receive 45 days on a visa exempt entry. Irrespective, I would not assume that people returning from Penang on a Friday (prime day to receive Thai tourist visas) that is also the last day of the longer visa exempt entry is strong evidence of an general uptick in tourism.

Interesting. Requirements I have seen specified hours per week rather than hours per year. Of course, if you have been learning for a couple of months when you finally received the Non Ed visa, there could be an issue that the course ends before the 12 months on education visa/extensions has been reached (meaning you do not get the full benefit) but is it really true that Immigration will refuse to honour the Non Ed visa at all if you are not committed for the full 12 months?

I believe you will be OK. As explained above, the Immigration Office will normally want your wife to accompany you if you were previously on a marriage extension (which I have always considered strange).

It is worth noting that, as far as I know, the rules you cite are only applicable when applying for an e-visa. It is long been common to apply for Non B visas at embassies/consulates in countries close to Thailand, and (subject to limitations on issuing multiple entry visas) I believe this is still perfectly acceptable.

Of course, flying out and returning by land is another possibility, and may actually be safer for those returning visa exempt if they are long stay tourists. Long stay tourists run a risk when seeking visa exemptions at airports.

There is just one further caution on the financial proof. You need to show an up to date bankbook. If, over the last two months, some of the transactions are in summary form only (not itemized) it is possible that Immigration may want to see a two-month bank statement. With some banks, this may not be available same day if your account is based in branch in a different province.

That is not correct. There is no issue studying on a tourist entry. The Non B visa and extensions are intended to make it easy to stay in Thailand, not because they are required in order to study.

He has not been let go. He, himself, has informed his employer that he wants to leave, but does not possess a termination letter.

According to other reports, it may be possible to return the same day if you pay a bribe (or, maybe, that is only true at Sadao?) Did you see or hear anything to suggest same day return was possible if a bribe was paid at Padang Besar? Do you know whether different rules are applied when leaving via immigration inside the train station?

Good report. With the Ranong to Grand Andaman crossing now reported to be open, I think I would prefer that instead.

Immigration will not normally cancel your permission to stay without seeing a termination letter from your employer.

Firstly, there is an important distinction between being in Thailand on a permission to stay from entering with a Non B visa versus an extension of stay based on working. If the permission to stay is directly from the Non B visa, you are legal, period, nothing to even talk about. (Of course, you may not legally be allowed to work, but that is a different matter.) If you have an extension of your permission to stay based on working, the situation is more complicated. It is a bit of a grey area. You are correct that your permission to stay ought to be terminated when your employment ceases. However, that does not happen automatically. Your OP talked of a scenario where your work permit was cancelled by the company without telling you. Under those circumstances, the company has acted illegally. Since your employment has not been properly terminated, the Labour Department, on review, is going to treat the work permit as still in effect. Until the company informs you that your employment is over via a proper termination letter, you remain employed, and your permission to stay remains valid. Once you receive a termination letter (which cannot be backdated but can state a future date) you are obliged to share this with Immigration who will cancel your permission to stay. As I indicated in my earlier post, you should discuss this with the Labour Department who (contrary to what people usually assume) have a habit of being very helpful and fair to employees.

If you can convincingly demonstrate that your absence has no impact on your ability to complete your course, leaving and returning is not a problem. A letter from your school/university stating (i) that they are aware that you will be taking a break from your studies between specified dates; and (ii) have agreed with you how you are going to compensate for the absence: there should be no trouble at all with Immigration. What length absence do you contemplate, and what kind of course are you enrolled in?

They certainly could. However, I do not think the matter has any effect on election prospects. For that reason, I will be surprised if they are willing to spend time even discussing it.

Your permission to stay will not automatically be cancelled, even if your work permit (digital or otherwise) is cancelled. However, once your employment ends, you would be in a grey area. Strictly speaking, you should receive a termination letter from your employer, and take it to immigration to have your existing permission to stay cancelled. You should probably also talk with the Labour Office to check if any of your rights have been violated.