MOEHARD

Okay thank you everyone for your advice.

If I'm not in Bangkok I'll just leave the country without cancelling anything at labor department/immigration.

9 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Normally it is not a problem to leave the country without cancelling your extension of stay.

There were a few rare posts in the past of a couple of border crossings sending people to the nearby immigration office to have it cancelled.

It will not affect applying for a tourist visa since you will not have a valid re-entry permit.

Okay thanks - I'll most likely be flying. Will there be any impact of me not cancelling the work permit? Or is this done from the company?

After many years in Thailand, we are finally moving away. I will finish my job, then leave the country, and come back on a tourist visa to spend a few months on an island. Then we'll move away permanently.

It's a bit of a pain to go to the labor department, then immigration, as I would have to leave a holiday and travel back to Bangkok.

Are there any downsides to just leaving the country and not getting a re-entry permit, auto-cancelling the visa? Will there be any issues when applying for a tourist visa at a neighboring country and coming back for a few months?

Thanks for the help

2 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

I assume you are a extension of stay based upon working not the 90 day entry allowed by a non-b visa.

If you will be cancelling your current extension and the applying for new one supported by a new employer at the same immigration office. Your wife could apply for a new extension for being a member of your family on the same day yours is issued.

You new employer will need to apply for your new work permit and get a application approval letter that you will need to apply for a new extension. Then after getting the new extension your new work permit would be issued after your current one canceled.

You are always so helpful and it's reassuring to hear this because it was hard to find an answer on Google. I'm sure you know this but you are great and so helpful to so many people! 

THANK YOU UBONJOE! 

Hi all, 

I am going to change jobs - I am currently on a non-immigrant b visa with a work permit and my wife is on a non-o visa as my dependent spouse. 

I know I can change to the new visa within thailand but does the same apply to my wife? Or does she have to leave and come back? 

Just a quick update - I think my wife will have to leave the country, apply for a visa outside at a country that doesn't require quarantine (such as UAE), then come back into Thailand on the new visa and quarantine (and get the work permit).

I have another company that wants to hire me right away so hopefully I can skip leaving and coming back / quarantine and just change jobs as soon as this one finishes. If that falls through, I'll have to leave and come back on a tourist visa, then hopefully find a job before I have to switch to my wife's visa as a dependent.

I do agree this is a pain, but it is clearly not a priority for the Thai Gov to make it easier.

17 hours ago, BritTim said:

 

As you wrote, there ought to be a process available to deal with edge cases like yours. There simply is not, and it is unreasonable to expect that immigration officials would ignore the written laws to accommodate you.

I believe this is a situation where you are morally justified in conferring with a good agent to see what they can do to help. When regulations are inadvertently unreasonable, there is nothing wrong with finding ways to circumvent them.

Yeah I didn't realize this was an edge case but from the lack of results when searching you're probably right that it is.

Finding that good agent that can make things "smoother" and work is the hard part. I know there are ways around certain rules because a friend had his visa changed in country when it shouldn't have been possible (different visa types and situation) but still. We'll see what happens I guess with her work HR.

Thanks for your help.

Just now, ubonjoe said:

If she can apply for a work permit she could then apply for a extension of stay based upon working of her original non-o visa entry. Many work permit offices will not accept the application when a person is on a extension based upon being a family member of person that has a extension of stay.

Non immigrant visa categories cannot be changed without leaving the country for a new visa.

The company that offered her a job is trying to sort it out but they aren't hopeful.

I assumed, incorrectly I guess, that Thai immigration would understand there is a worldwide pandemic and international travel is prohibitive, so they would try to make it a bit easier to stay in the country and get a work permit.

There is a good chance I will lose my job due to the company closing so I guess we will just have to leave the country after a combined 23 years (of paying taxes) instead of getting on my wife's visa/work permit from a new job.

It's crazy to me that they think a good solution is for someone to leave the country and do quarantine there, sort out a new visa at a Thai embassy, then come back into Thailand and do quarantine in order to get a job when they are already in Thailand.

Regardless, thank you for your help.

I tried to search on here and using Google but I didn't find anything, so apologies if this has already been asked.

My wife is on a non-immigrant O visa as my dependent (I am on a non-immigrant B visa) and she has a job offer. However, in normal times you cannot change from an O to B visa within Thailand.

Has this changed during COVID?

Seems insane that you have to fly to a different country (do quarantine)and then fly back (and do quarantine) to get the new visa type. I also heard that some officers will allow it and some won't but I am not sure about this either.

Is leaving the country then coming back the only option ? Any guidance would be appreciated.

I don't like to assume that of anyone though. JK but it wasn't their fault and I want to be proactive in case it doesn't get delivered.

As title states - a letter sent into Thailand (from US) with the building name and "Khlong Toei, Asoke 10110" on the letter, but no street name, was sent to me.

I believe (correct me if I am wrong) that it will be held by a post office for a few weeks. I am not sure which post office it would go to though because there are 5 in Khlong Toei: https://thaiportal.ru/en/thailand-post-offices-in-bangkok/.

I read somewhere that Phra Kanong Post Office is the main one?

Thanks

This post really got sidetracked. She definitely cannot get Thai citizenship.

I'll try to have my employee call them to figure it out, just figured people on here would have a quick answer but I'll update with an answer if I get one.

I tried to give you some info in my post at #12.

"Why do you think the visa in Australia is expensive. A single entry non-o visa for your child will cost $90 AUD. At immigration here it will cost 2000 baht.

If you are on extension of stay you can apply for a non immigrant visa for your child at immigration but the list of required documents are very long compared to what will be required at the embassy."

Thanks for the help - that's correct that a single entry is 90 AUD but we are going to America within 6 months and a multiple entry is something like 200 AUD. Plus the hassle is less as we live in Bangkok but we'll only be in Australia for a week so we'd like to spend that short time not at a consulate. Sorry I completely missed your post at #12 - I was actually waiting for you to respond as I know you are super knowledgeable. I can't find a list of the documents required at Chaeng Wattana - would you be able to point me in the right direction?

This post really got sidetracked. She definitely cannot get Thai citizenship.

I'll try to have my employee call them to figure it out, just figured people on here would have a quick answer but I'll update with an answer if I get one.

Yeah - daughter has American citizenship and will be getting Australian shortly. We know she won't be getting Thai citizenship and don't mind. All we need to know though is whether we can apply for a non immigrant o visa in Bangkok or if we have to do it in another country?

Hi All,

My girlfriend (Australian) and I (American) had a baby girl (has American passport) around 8 weeks ago, in Bangkok. We will leave Thailand for two weeks to go to Australia. We were going to apply for a non immigrant o visa for the baby in Australia but is expensive and a hassle. Both my and my girlfriend have work permits and non immigrant b status

We were hoping that we could just get her a visa exemption on arrival, then go to Chaeng Wattana within a week to get her a non immigrant o visa. Is this possible at Chaeng Wattana? I am uncertain if this needs to be done outside of Thailand or not. My work will "sponsor" her and we have her birth certificate, both Thai, English Translation, and the American one we received from US Embassy. It's hard to find exact information on this as most immigrant o questions are for spouses.

Thanks for your help.

Okay thank you for your help - I will get reception to contact them.

If anyone else knows of a company that assists with the application process I would be grateful.

Are you a cat 15/1 (formal) or cat 15/2 (non-formal) school?

Do you have a school license?

If not, you need to register your school with your local MoE office with the intention to complete the school licensing process.

If yes, you need to apply to have your curriculum inspected for your non-im ED courses. Once it's attached to your license, you will be able to provide the necessary documents to sponsor a non-imm ED visa.

Contact your local MoE office for their requirements.

Thank you for your help.

We are a cat 15/2 non-formal school and have a school license. Our reception staff are handling the ED Visa application process but are taking forever to do anything so I am trying to learn about it myself and possibly get an outside company to do it for us as I'm pretty tired of waiting for the Thai staff to decide to do it.

I am currently trying to apply to the Ministry for my school so that we can give out ED Visas to my long term students, which is even more confusing than I thought it would be. (we are an established school and meet all the requirements).

Does anyone on here have experience with that? Or any links for further help? It is quite a difficult thing to google because all the results are dealing with the student side of it.

It would be best if there was a company that did the application process for usfor a fee. I know there's one in Chiang Mai but I can't seem to find one in Bangkok.

Hope this hasn't been asked before. I'm pretty new to Thai Visa.

Thank you for your help.