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25 minutes ago, ningnong said:

 

I often see misinformation posted in this Visa forum regarding TM30 reporting requirements by people I assume can't read the original Thai text of the regulation change in 2020.

 

 

So I started a topic over in the language forum a couple of weeks ago titled "If you can read Thai - analyze this portion of Immigration Section 38" inviting other Thai language readers to share their opinions.

 

I recommend visiting that topic especially the people who think Immigration offices requesting a new TM30 are "rogue" offices.

 

There are no rogue offices. Any immigration office or officer has the right to request additional information to extend a visa or issue a visa. They also issue new internal regulations or announcements in different immigration offices in different cities, For example, in Chiangmai, if you want to do an extension of stay based on working for a local Thai Foundation, you must submit a certified copy of the Foundation license done within 7 days of the visa extension and show proof of the position necessity with programming info. These things are not required in Bangkok. Bangkok however does ask for a TM30 at counter N now and Chiangmai still does not. So, again, there are no rogue offices of immigration. They sometimes need to adapt to local issues. Just like in Pattaya to do an extension of stay based on retirement. They ask for a lease contract for 1 year sometimes. I don't need to show that in Bangkok ever. Another example is Pattaya will not issue a 1 year work permit immediately. They will issue it for 1 month first and then do another after for the remainder of the 1 year. Never need to do this in Bangkok.  

20 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

It's not the law.

TM30 law was changed in June 2020. 

TM30 reporting is not required in the example you outlined. 

You are correct that the law was changed in 2020. However, recently immigration has started to ask again in certain situations. One example, I was at Nonthaburi immigration the last week. At the check in desk where you get the number, they posted at notice and an example of a TM30 saying they still wanted to see the TM30 for the first 90 day report at any given address. Another example, which was the reason I was there. I have done my 90 day reports online consistently, even after leaving the country and coming back to the same address without filing a new TM30. However, this time, I renewed my passport before my last extension of stay. Even though I had transferred stamps from the old passport to the new passport before my extension of stay, they rejected my online report and asked to see the original TM30 before doing the report in person. I knew this would be the case, so I brought it with me. The third example, counter N at Immigration division 1 is now asking to see a TM30 for every extension of stay based on being an employee of a non profit organization. This means either a local Thai Foundation or a Foreign Private Organization (NGO). They have also started asking for a TM30 for every extension of stay based on being a student. They are currently not asking for this at any of the other counters. This was changed in the first or second week of May. The point is that immigration often issue internal regulations under circumstances to protect the Kingdom. In this last example, it was issued due to the corruption which has been apparent in the issuing of visas for employees in the non profit sector and students of language schools. 

5 hours ago, bigt3116 said:

(It would seem that you don't know the difference between a visa and an extension of stay).

 

 

 

And for the record, when we talk to clients and give advice, we use vocabulary that is easy for them to understand. It's called common sense that you don't confuse customers. Let me educate you again. 

We use 'visa extension' or 'extend visa' instead of extension of stay. Why? so customers easily understand. So the guy asking the question easily understands. I have no use for a guy that comes on a public forum and debates with people about using "extend visa" instead of 'extension of stay". So, when speaking to customers or answering questions in a forum, I will use "visa extension" and "visa" and I could care less what you think or say about it. Bebye.     

5 hours ago, bigt3116 said:

 

Show me a picture of a cancelled visa then. You do it so often you should have one readily available.

 

(It would seem that you don't know the difference between a visa and an extension of stay).

 

 

To get any Non-immigrant visa inside Thailand requires you to either be on a visa exempt entry or a tourist visa (TM86/87), your "clients" would be on neither, so even with 21 days it would be impossible for them to be issued an in country Non-immigrant visa.

 

 

Sorry to burst your bubble, but 16 years here in Thailand, (have not even stepped foot in the UK in that time)   🙂

Now i am going to educate you with the 
Law. Wait for it. Here are more specifics. 
 

The Royal Thai Police issued Royal Thai Police’s order No.327/2557 dated June 30, 2014, which took effect on  August 29, 2014. Since then, a standing administrative practice has been established. 
 

The immigration officer may allow a cancellation of the visa stamp about 3 weeks before the end of the employment. In that case, the time will be sufficient to apply for a new work permit (for the new employment) and a visa extension before the end of the current employment.

Now I will be very specific for you so you are educated properly. The process will then be as follows:

1.The Immigration Office must be notified and the non-immigrant B visa must be cancelled.

2. Following that, the work permit must be cancelled together with returning  the booklet to the Labour Department.

3. Upon receipt of the notification, the Immigration Office will issue a formal permission for the employee to stay in Thailand in accordance with the letter of previous employer. If the notification is submitted to the Immigration Office not longer than 3 weeks (this is the 21 days I’m talking about), before the end of the employment, the Immigration Office will grant such permission to stay in Thailand until the employment ends.

4. During this 3-week period, the employee may apply for a new work permit and extend a non-B visa under the new employment respectively.

Please note that the usual processing time for a new work permit at the Labour Department is 5 working days. The processing time of the new visa extension at the Immigration Office may be as short as 1 day. If there is no any interruption to the visa application, the immigration office will stamp the pending visa on the same day. After that, the foreigner needs to follow up to get one-year visa stamp on the appointment date. Therefore, ample time to complete the process is available.

Otherwise, if this process is not followed, the foreign employee who needs to change his job must apply for a 7-day extension to stay after the current employment ends. This meaning the employer cancels the work permit, then on the same day, the employee applies for the 7 days stamp and the previous Non-B visa is terminated.  Then, he must leave the country and apply for an entirely new Non-B visa abroad.

This applies to foreigners who are allowed to stay in the kingdom under 1 year visa extensions. With regards to a 1 year Non-B visa which was issued from a Thai embassy/consulate and if the foreigner has not applied for a visa extension at Immigration Office yet, this does not apply, and the Non-B visa remains valid after the end of the employment until its usual expiration date. Only if the visa previously has been extended by the Immigration Office, the visa will expire immediately in the circumstances mentioned above.

So, this has been this way for 10 years and you didn’t even know about it. Ok thanks for coming out again. 

8 hours ago, bigt3116 said:

 

Slightly incorrect, you cancel the work permit first, then take the letter Labour give you and go to immigration to cancel your extension (visas are not cancelled)

 

 

Incorrect, if you want the extra 7 days you have to apply and pay for an "extension denied" 

No. You are absolutely wrong. Visas can be cancelled before the work permit with a letter from the employer.  He needs to cancel a visa and work permit from a previous employer and then get more than 7 days. We don't want the 7 days. We want up to 21 days so he can apply for a new Non-B visa inside Thailand. As I clearly posted, we can't cancel the work permit first or the visa will be cancelled immediately and we don't want 7 days either, which is what you get if you cancel the work permit on the same day before going to immigration to get the 7 day stamp.  I do this every week with many clients. If you don't know, don't comment.

I am tired of this endless debate on here between members who give visa advice and everyone then debates for hours and hours until admin shuts the thread down.

You know absolutely nothing about cancelling visas and work permits with an employer, and then getting a new visa with a new employer inside Thailand without leaving the country. Thanks for coming out though. Nice try. If you want to be trained on this process and open up your own law firm, let me know. We can do it for a reasonable price for you and if the OP pays my firm, we can do it for him in 20 minutes and post the evidence here for you to be educated on the visa laws. 

Besides the OP is gone now anyways and won't even read ANY of our posts. 

So, one last time. VISAS CAN ABSOLUTELY BE CANCELLED THE DAY BEFORE YOU CANCEL A WORK PERMIT AND YOU CAN ABSOLUTELY REQUEST UP TO 21 DAYS INSTEAD OF 7 DAYS AS LONG AT THAT REQUEST IS ON THE VISA CANCELLATION LETTER FROM THE EMPLOYER AND YOU HAVE MORE THAN THAT LEFT ON YOUR CURRENT VISA'S PERMISSION TO STAY. MY FIRM DOES THIS MULTIPLE TIMES PER WEEK, SO I DON'T NEED SOME GUY SITTING IN THE UK WITH NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAT DEBATE IN AN ONLINE FORUM TELLING US WHAT WE DO EVERY WEEK IS NOT POSSIBLE LOL  BYE BYE NOW. 

On 6/5/2024 at 3:27 PM, Banky Bee said:

Dear All,

This year I need transfer to another company under the same employer. My duties and the nature of job won't change, it's just a technical transfer.

Currently I have Work Permit and 1-Year extension of stay based on the employment. I would prefer to make transfer without having to leave Thailand for various reasons (the employer is asking me to obtain a new tourist visa for further conversion into NON-B within a country; I will have longer unemployed, hence unpaid, period; I have to cover traveling expenses myself).

I tried to search and found quite controversial opinions. Some say that it's pretty intense, but still possible to apply for a new WP and extension within 7 days after cancelling the old ones. Others suggest leaving the country as 7 days is not enough.

Does someone have experiences of changing job successfully without leaving the country? Appreciate any suggestions.

I can help you. if the employer cancels your visa first, they can request immigration to give up to 21 days to leave the country or sort yourself out a new visa. Honoring that request will depend on the discretion of the officer and whether or not you have at least that amount of time left on your current visa. For example, if you have 2 months remaining, it's possible to do this. If you have 5 days remaining, they will just stamp you 7 days. Then they cancel your work permit the day after.

Process is as follows:

1. Cancel visa

2. Cancel work permit

3. Apply new visa

4. New work permit 

5. Extension of stay.

This is just the general process. The reason they should not cancel the work permit first is because if they do, your visa will be voided immediately. Therefore, we do it this way to avoid that. 

Hope this helps.  This is the process for changing from one company to another in regards to the visa and work permit. 

4 minutes ago, MangoKorat said:

I think you misunderstand.  I'm fully aware (from the OP) that people are not being stamped in for 60 days.  You might note that a poster said his company had been in touch with the Thai authorities who have said that the new 60 day exemption is currently going through the system - it is not law yet and they blamed it on press releases.  As others and myself pointed out, the British government amended their website to state that from 1 June 2024, the visa exemption for British citizens would be 60 days.

 

The point I'm making is that I very much doubt the British government's advice is based on press releases, I am sure they will have received official notification. Therefore I don't believe this anomaly is entirely the result of press releases.

That was me who posted that. Look at my post above yours. I believe the UK government just followed the press and that's it. Nobody from MOFA told them June 1st. Look at the info graph. It's dated May 29 and clearly proves my point as its from MOFA.

20 hours ago, lamyai3 said:

It always has been in the past when longer visa exempt entries are brought in for a temporary period. 

From what we are being told, this is not temporary. However, please wait.

On 6/1/2024 at 8:58 AM, george said:

UPDATE:

Our Thai staff just spoke to the press center at the Government Center.

 

They informed ASEAN NOW that "changes can take some time to enforce" and asked us to be patient. "Coming soon".

 

Nobody at MFA or Thai Immigration Bureau did respond or wanted to comment on this issue.

Our office was able to get a response from immigration and MOFA. They said that the press jumped the gun and took the announcement out of context. The official Infograph shared is very clear about the measures not taking effect until the proper legal procedures are complete. After speaking to the Ministry of Councillor Affairs and Immigration, we spoke to Immigration at both airports and also confirmed they are still stamping people in for 30 days and have not implemented the new guidelines yet. The calls were made yesterday and today.The same cluster F**K as 2 visa exempt entries per calendar year is now happening here. The left arm not knowing what the right arm is doing. On that issue, we have also received conflicting info from different Thai government sources. My office has in writing from MOFA and 5 Thai embassies confirming that it was not a typo and that only 2 visa exempt entries per year are allowed by air and another email in writing from immigration still saying its unlimited entires by air at the discretion of immigration officers. So, how can there be all these emotional debates and deleting of posts causing the post authors to get angry when we know the source is not organized enough to implement their own rules accurately? I am hoping we can freely share info here without being ridiculed by others. My firm has a lot of connections with the Thai government, so if I share something, it's not being made up. However, if the source has issues, such as in these two cases, I have no control over it. 

5 minutes ago, Pattaya57 said:

So you're just trying to scare monger and gain business for your legal firm. Lame. I've done 3-4 visa exempt entries a year since 2015 and many people enter far more than me. If you're a legal professional you need to get another job more suited to your limited research skills

 

Hmm where have I pitched legal services here? Give it a rest mate.  NEXT............

3 minutes ago, Pattaya57 said:

Well I have done 8 visa exempt entries in last 2 years so there is that....

Ah 4 per year is not much. I had a guy with 3 this year turned around. Next guy that calls. I will give them your name and number to give to the officer at the airport. You can explain to the officer they let you in 4 times and everything will be ok and you insist they let him in. Please DM me your name and contact details.Thanks.

2 minutes ago, Pattaya57 said:

How many times does this have to be explained as false info on the Embassy websites. This is the 3rd thread in a week claiming this wrong info as fact.

Ah yes. Integrity legal must also be wrong. I see. All the calls my firm gets must be fake. Alas, you must be correct and everyone else must be full of it. 

3 minutes ago, Chivas said:

 

This bit is quite clear on the face of it  ??

The UK Thai embassy is even clearer. but says 2 times period. 

5 minutes ago, Upnotover said:

Very nice.  But your evidence also includes the 15 day thing which is also not true.

 

Don't care. It's not relevant to this topic. Everyone must be wrong and you must be right.  keep debating everything here and on the Thaigher forum. Do you even have time to eat and sleep. lol Next, call both Thai Embassies and give them a piece of your mind. Tell them they are wrong. Sign petitions. Call the office of the Prime-minister. How dare they spread these false regulations. How dare they make a 15 day typo. Go to demonstrate outside the Integrity Legal office and insist he resign as the MD of Integrity Legal and stop working as a lawyer. Alas. 

There is nothing wrong with the system. It never takes more than 24 hours to get an answer either. The only problem is guys try to use it with a browser that is not compatible, such as safari and also they make a mistake on the info they input. 

It amazes me how people put millions of baht on the line to buy a house or a condo and are too cheap to seak legal advice to get the right info. Therefore, relying on a bunch of sofa lawyers sitting back in the UK in a pub or a retired guy in Pattaya.that troll the forums when they are bored. For god sake, call a lawyer. 

Oh my god. I have never seen anything like this before in my life. This is what I read here. A few say get a lawyer. Most say don’t because it’s too expensive or they won’t help you because they’re lazy. One guy sending the OP to consumer protection with no Thai language support saying they have free lawyers. Then one bloke writes a book about how he knows an immigration officer who saved  his ass on a business deal. One thing we do know is that if anyone living in a foreign country has issues, they should not be doing these types of things alone. However, in the end, the ops situation has somehow miraculously solved itself!!! Good job to all the sofa lawyers. Here’s to a job well done. No lawyer will make one Baht and the world is still safe.????????????

On 8/31/2023 at 12:35 PM, PattayaKevin said:

I rented a pool villa recently under a 1 year contract through an agency.  Landlord is violating breaching every section of the contract. Contract says mediation is required for breaches. Agency and landlord says no need and are refusing mediation.  Landlord is liable for maintenance and repairs except for small things. He did the repairs but charged me for them. Repairs were done bad and had to be done again by the same guy. I got charged again.  I paid my second month rent, then he says he wants more.  I refused he threatens me with eviction. From my knowledge eviction needs to be done legally through the courts here in Thailand.  If I'm paying the rent as required and have receipts he would have no grounds to evict me. I contacted a lawyer who wants 130,000 baht to initiate a lawsuit against the agency and landlord.

 

Can I go after legal criminal charges against them like fraud by inducement since I signed the contract because it had clauses that were meant to prevent this situation? I live in a development with a housing association and security who do their jobs. I have heard if the landlord forces his way onto the property I can have him arrested for criminal trespassing. Security and association knows of all my problems and the landlord says he doesn't care about them. Association has been fining him and he hasn't been paying for different violations. I found out before I moved in he was renting it out daily as an airbnb against the association rules.

 

What else can I do about this. My family will be here without me for the next 6 weeks because I need to fly out of country half way around the world. 

I have sent you a DM but you seem intent on dealing with what you think is a serious issue without proper legal advice. Relying on a forum full of sofa lawyers will not get you any further ahead. 

1 hour ago, Straight8 said:

When it comes to defending the "farang", unless you have the right contacts, they are "mostly" as bad as it each other. I have a friend going through some legal stuff, and he has already changed lawyers 3 times due to them collecting the fees & doing sweet FA.

 

Good luck finding one that will actually do what he/she is paid to do.

I know a company that will review the lease, send a legal notice to the landlord and call on behalf of the client for a monthly membership fee of 795 Thai baht with no obligation to keep the membership. Of course there are also other benefits and many do keep it after their original issue is resolved.  So, your assumption may be partially correct, but not 100%. Do some research and you will find good lawyers and companies to deal with things like this for reasonable fees. 

On 8/31/2023 at 12:35 PM, PattayaKevin said:

I rented a pool villa recently under a 1 year contract through an agency.  Landlord is violating breaching every section of the contract. Contract says mediation is required for breaches. Agency and landlord says no need and are refusing mediation.  Landlord is liable for maintenance and repairs except for small things. He did the repairs but charged me for them. Repairs were done bad and had to be done again by the same guy. I got charged again.  I paid my second month rent, then he says he wants more.  I refused he threatens me with eviction. From my knowledge eviction needs to be done legally through the courts here in Thailand.  If I'm paying the rent as required and have receipts he would have no grounds to evict me. I contacted a lawyer who wants 130,000 baht to initiate a lawsuit against the agency and landlord.

 

Can I go after legal criminal charges against them like fraud by inducement since I signed the contract because it had clauses that were meant to prevent this situation? I live in a development with a housing association and security who do their jobs. I have heard if the landlord forces his way onto the property I can have him arrested for criminal trespassing. Security and association knows of all my problems and the landlord says he doesn't care about them. Association has been fining him and he hasn't been paying for different violations. I found out before I moved in he was renting it out daily as an airbnb against the association rules.

 

What else can I do about this. My family will be here without me for the next 6 weeks because I need to fly out of country half way around the world. 

I’ve sent you a DM these types of disputes are often handled by consumer protection. Check your DM. 

21 hours ago, Skipalongcassidy said:

You are assuming that the landlord in this situation falls under this particular situation as regards this aspect of the law... my guess is that they do not as the lessee stated that his contract says nothing.

 

However if is so stated in his contract,  as you are completely guessing that it is, then pay your rent and give the proper 30 days notice and move out by all means... if not than negotiate an acceptable move out package... or be held accountable.

 

So be sure to know what you are talking about before calling someone else ignorant... 

I’m not assuming anything, as my message to the OP outlined the alternatives as well. However you assumed that you can’t terminate a lease before the end in Thailand under any circumstances without losing your deposit and you were wrong. So give your head a shake mate.