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lamyai3

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    O-A extension, why need insurance?

    in Thai Visas, Residency, and Work Permits

    Posted · Edited by lamyai3

    I think there's two reasons the non O-A was singled out for mandatory insurance back in 2019, irrespective of the muddled official reasoning as to why non O-A applications and extensions need insurance while the virtually identical non O extensions (affecting a much larger group of people) don't.

     

    Firstly, the government had been cracking down for some years already on the easiest and sometimes most abused visa options for several years, rendering earlier long stay routes such as repeat tourist and education visas no longer possible. Probably the best choice if over 50 was the excellent non O-A visa, which required money to be shown in an overseas bank only, and if properly used allowed up to 24 months stay, after which you could just rinse and repeat. In comparison with the other visa options available this was no doubt seen as unduly favourable, and increasing the cost of it by adding insurance was one way of taking the shine off this visa class and reducing the number of people choosing to use it. Since the Non O-A allowed someone to stay here long term without depositing a single baht it was an obvious target for compulsory insurance, as it didn't really require much in the way of proof of funds or income. 

     

    Second, the insurance lobbyists in the government and the private sector both would surely like to see these requirements applied to all long stayers, but this wouldn't be so easy to achieve. In this sense non O-A holders serve as a relatively small test group for the new insurance, and whether it gets imposed on non O's at some point in the future is anyone's guess. It brings to mind the scrapping of embassy income letters for four countries, also in 2019. At the time we were told that the new rules would affect all countries but it soon became clear it was a targetted crackdown that was dropped as soon as it achieved the initial goal of stopping these countries using the income letters and have them switch to monthly transfer or bank deposit instead.

     

    In this case the underlying plan might be nothing more than to disincentivize people from applying for non O-A's and instead to switch them across to non O's and extensions. 

    • Like 2

    2 Qs for extension of Non-OA

    in Thai Visas, Residency, and Work Permits

    Posted

    15 hours ago, Lim Yuan Hai said:

    Hi Mr. Joe,

    A bit confused. They may want to see the original, do you mean original of the other supporting documents?
    How about original of the insurance cert?
    (btw, I have not received the original of the insurance certs). 

    Thank you.

    They just need the insurance certificate. Last year I gave the original, this year a copy was fine. 

    • Like 1
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    Non-immigrant OA visa applicants required to have ฿3m health insurance

    in Thai Visas, Residency, and Work Permits

    Posted

    On 10/20/2021 at 1:21 PM, Pib said:

    Reminds me of Oct 2019 when immigration implemented the 400K/40K medical insurance requirement for OA Visa/Extension folks....but some on the ThaiVisa forum felt sure it would not apply to OA "extensions of stay"...there would be grandfathering, only apply to those getting an OA Visa after 31 Oct 2019, etc. 

     

    But we all know how that turned out....there was no gandfathering...it did apply to OA extensions and not just OA visas issued after a certain date.  Now I hope the upcoming 3M baht change does not apply to extension; only the initial OA visa....but hey, we have went thru this once already in 2019 and we know how that turned out.

     

    Below is a post I made in Oct 2019 after talking to some CW immigration officers regarding will the 400K/40K medical insurance requirement also apply to all OA retirement extensions with old underlying/expired OA Visas or will there be grandfathering.  

     

    The senior officer you spoke to in L section sounds maybe the same as the one who dealt with me back then. I was one of the small number of people who got erroneously stamped in for 30 days on my Non O-A right after the insurance requirements were brought in during the first few days of November 2019. This was quite a headache to sort out (eventually got fixed at Suvarnabhumi where it was first misstamped), but in the process of trying to get it corrected to 12 months I was referred to a senior officer at CW - her comments were quite interesting. She was very pleasant with me, but when she looked at my passport she turned up her nose in disdain and said "This visa type not good, I recommend you transfer to Non O." It was as if the visa class had been suddenly rendered unfit for purpose by high decree and was no longer considered a good option. She joked with me that I looked strong and didn't need insurance, and proceeded to walk me through the steps to switch to a Non O, although the only thing on my mind really was getting my stamp changed to 12 months, especially since at that stage it was far from clear that the insurance would be required for extensions on existing Non O-As. I did think I would probably switch at some point down the line, but then 4 months later the country closed so I've had to make the subsequent two extensions on the same visa using the cheapest LMG policy (which to be fair was quite cheap).

     

    My overall impression was that the authorities, after having overhauled quite a few visa types in the preceding years, had now turned their attention to the retirement options available, and in the process felt that the conditions of the Non O-A were much too favourable compared to the alternatives. Until 2019 this visa was very easy to obtain, no money was required to be held in Thailand, and the visa was good for up to two years, after which it was easy to just let it expire and reapply. Already a few months earlier in 2019 the embassies of 4 major countries had been told to stop providing income affidavits, and the new insurance rules came hot on the heels of this. These changes were unusual in that they involved government departments beyond immigration - this was when Big Joke was Immigration Chief, and there were comments in the press at that time that even Prawit was taking a personal interest in the reforms. When the insurance requirements were announced a few months later, several of the official statements came from the Ministry of Public Health rather than Immigration, with the emphasis on unpaid hospital bills and the amount of money that could be raised through mandatory insurance. When I asked the L section officer if the insurance would apply to the Non O in future she said she didn't think so. One reason why this would be a major problem is that it would force too many older expats to leave Thailand (numbers or retirees on Non O extensions significantly outnumber those on Non O-A) so it seemed it was more of an attempt to steer people over to the Non O and extensions thereof. Of course time will tell what direction things unfold in the future, but it would be a massive own goal for a country that wants to attract retirees to expel a significant number of them with unaffordable (and in some cases unobtainable) insurance. 

    • Like 5

    Kasikorn Bank - Chang Wattana Immigration

    in Thai Visas, Residency, and Work Permits

    Posted

    I noticed were signs of activity in K Bank when I went a couple of weeks ago (my bank is next door to it). though I'm guessing they weren't fully reopened at the time. I asked my Thai friend to call the bank and check the situation, she was told that the CW branch reopened properly last Monday. Hopefully someone can verify this with an on the ground report soon but the answer she got on the phone at least was pretty clear. Think it was the manager at the nearby Central branch that she spoke with. 

    • Thanks 1

    Retirement visa renewal date

    in Thai Visas, Residency, and Work Permits

    Posted

    On 9/24/2021 at 3:35 PM, Pawpal said:

    Sorry to ask again but I'm still not clear when the extension would start in my case, i.e., 
    if the reason for extension hasn't changed, the extension will begin on the date the original permit to stay expires on 15 November rather than the application date of 1 October, correct?

     

    Thanks again!
     

    Don't go on 1st October, they will count this as 46 days before your extension date (15th November). Make sure it's clearly <45 days. 

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