Northpoint

Thanks for the clarification. I arrive on a Sunday and will make my way to the Chonburi Immigration Office the following Monday to file a TM 30. Cheers

On 8/25/2019 at 9:23 PM, Tanoshi said:

The OP and his wife are not legally married ……. ignore your plan.

Back to the other posts suggesting a TV + 30 day extension.

I have changed my travel itinerary now and will be leaving Thailand before my 12 months extension of stay exiperes in November. I guess I can still use my valid re-entry permit and then leave without any problems before the next extension of stay would have to be renewed. One more question, Do I still have to report to Immigration when I arrive early October to fill in a TM 30 and other documents, as I will only be staying for about 3 weeks before leaving Thailand. Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks

14 minutes ago, overherebc said:

Not sure on cost in Oz but a single entry 0 based on being married will give you 90 days.

If things take longer you can extend that for 60 days ( to stay with your wife ) for 1900 baht. No border hops blah blah and relaxed time here knowing you've got 5 months if needed.

They will issue it even if your extension is still valid.

Don't forget the TM30. ????

Thanks, but I still got a valid Non Immi O visa grandfathered back from several years ago, which will be cancelled once my stay of extension expires. I only want to stay in Thailand for 7 weeks. In Australia Non O Immi visas are no longer issued by Thai consulates, unless one is legally married. I live in a de facto relationship with my wife, who has a permanent resident visa in Australia and travels on her Thai passport.

14 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

I was going to suggest that option (but didn't).

 

If you do this, make sure you put the number of the (new) tourist visa on the landing card (TM 6) and not the number of the re-entry permit nor leave it blank. You may still be asked for confirmation that this is what you wish to do when you arrive and also possibly by the embassy/consulate when you apply for it.

I think I will give the tourist visa a try after explaining the situation to the Thai consulate in Brisbane. Thanks

10 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

Any of the vans doing the run to the border in Chantaburi. The cost is fixed at 2500 Baht. Leave at 6 am, back by around 2 pm. Lunch included. The vans go every day.

I used to do border runs in the early days and used to get 90 day extensions on my Non O Immi visa back then, before switching to extensions of stay and 90 day reports. I don't think I could do that now with an expired extension of stay?

13 minutes ago, glegolo said:

Go out and come back and use a TOURIST VISA EXCEMPT, which you can extend at immigration in Thailand if you like for another month. That gives you 60 days...

 

glegolo

I just wonder if it would be easiest to disregard my valid re-entry visa and apply for a tourist visa here in Australia, which would allow me to stay for the duration of my trip.  I would have no problem with that, as long as it does not create any hassles or confusion with Thai Immigration officials on arrival. 

10 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

Yes, as previous poster states, border run and visa exempt entry is easiest. Where in Thailand will you be on the day or one or two days before your extension expires.

We will be staying in our condominium in Jomtien, not far from Chonburi Immigration in Soi 5. Cheers

5 minutes ago, timendres said:

Can you take a vacation in a neighboring country for a couple weeks, then use a visa on arrival to come back and then catch your flight home?

Yes, I thought about doing that, but the purpose of my trip to Thailand is to sell a small condominium and for my wife to visit her family. Thanks for your reply.

I am now living back in Australia with my Thai wife after having lived in Thailand for 16 years.

I still have a valid 12 months extension of stay for Thailand, which expires in November 2019 with a valid multi entry visa to return to Thailand . I have a return trip booked to Thailand from end of October until the middle of December 2019 to tie up some lose ends there. 

I know there will be no problems entering Thailand with my re-entry visa.

I don't want to apply for an other extension of stay after it expires in November, a few weeks about five weeks before returning to Australia.

Which is the best option to address this problem and to avoid getting tangled up with an overstay problem? Any ideas? Thanks for any helpful advice.

On 31/05/2017 at 0:35 AM, Dodgydownunder said:

Just received very good news tonight when i checked my email. My wife's permanent (100) partner visa was granted (30 May). Now I can call her an Aussie. We applied on October 7th, 2016, so the processing time was just short of 8 months.

 

No agent used because we had heaps of evidence gathered over our marriage of 18 years. No interview required. We need to enter Australia by end of November (6 months exactly after the granting of the visa). Just as I thought, after we had submitted our police checks and my wife had her medical about 2 and a half months ago, we were a good chance to get an earlier grant of the full permanent resident partner visa.

 

This is mainly because:

1. We have beeen married and living together for nearly 18 years.

2. No children involved (We are bringing 2 cats, but that's another story!)

3. Financially okay. Can still afford to buy a house somewhere on the outskirts of Melbourne or Geelong, but am considering other options too. Hobart? Albury ? Looks like we need to do some travelling together to decide.

 

Even though we considered our application to be very strong, the waiting period drags on and on and it tends to get you down. The worst thing is you won't hear anything for months. I reckon it is only very recently that they looked at our application.

 

So, anyone else still waiting for their partner's visa, don't worry, it will come through in the end if you have a bona fide and well documented relationship. It can be quite a stressful time so hang in there together. Good luck.

 

 

Congratulations, Dodgydownunder. I think I told you there wouldn't be any hassles getting your 309 + 100. Like you, I did  all of the applications myself. I might have given Immigration more information than was required, but maybe it helped to get the Visa Grant for the missus in 4 months and 12 days after submitting the paper application at VFS at the Trendy building in Bangkok. Nevertheless, I still still found the waiting period a bit stressfull.

We are now happily settled in our unit in Darwin and  life is great. The missus has already started her free 510 hours Adult Migrant English Program at the Charles Darwin Unuversity and is doing great at medium level. We arrived on 21. April 2017 at the start of the dry season in the Top End of the Northern Territory,  so the weather is fantastic with quite a few "Southerners" coming up here for the warmer tropical weather, escaping the Southern winter.

There is just one thing I would like to mention. You have six months to activate your Visa Grant. Your wife will become an Australian Permanent Resident (PR) on the day she enters Australia. After four years being a Permanent Resident, she will be able to apply for Australian Citizenship. If she is still a PR after 5 years in Australia, she will need a re-entry visa every time she travels abroad to re-enter Australia. If she decides to apply for Australian Citizenship as a PR after 4 years, she can only spend time outside of Australia for a period of less than 12 months. Cheers

My de facto wife made six visits to Australia on tourist visas, when we lived together in Thailand. I was never employed when living  in Thailand, but always had sufficient funds to support us in Thailand and to afford the 3-months holidays. My de facto was working in a factory in Bangkok before we met and then stopped work, when I asked her to move in with me.

When she applied for her first tourist visa, she asked her previous employer for a letter about her employment history. Her employer's letter also said that she would get her old job back, if there was a need to do so. Get your wife to get a similar letter from her employer. This will help to prove that she has a reason to return to Thailand.

Like your wife, my de facto had no savings from her job. All her income went to support her family as well. VFS will want a copy of a Thai Savings account from her and from you. 100 K baht in her account will be more than enough. Your account will need to have sufficient funds to show that you are able to pay for all expenses in Australia and when you return. VFS will ask for copies of your and her bank accounts covering the last six month.

I always had my own condominium (unit) in Australia, so I gave VFS a copy of the title. You are only staying a couple of weeks in Australia, versus the 3 months during our visits. A letter from your parents saying you will be staying at their place might be a good idea, but I don't think it will be necessary. If you have a Tabien Baan (house book) showing your wife's name in it, give a copy to VFS and your marriage certificate as well. You don't need translations into English of Thai documents for an Australian tourist visa. I only needed translations when I applied for a partner visa last year. 

I always got  2 or 3 short letters from friends in Thailand when applying for tourist visas, saying that I was living in a happy realationship with my de facto. I always included a photo copy of their Aussie passport or their Thai I.D. card. They were just brief letters and not statutory declarations. A few photos of you and your wife together with friends or family might help as well.

I think you will have no problems getting another tourist visa.  There is no need to buy a return ticket before applying for a tourist visa. You will have three months time to leave for Australia after the Visa Grant, so there will be plenty of time to look for a cheaper ticket with one budget airlines, Jetstar, Air Asia etc.

10 hours ago, Dodgydownunder said:

Is that Sweetheart at the Adelaide river, Northpoint?  Cheers.

That is Brutus, who rules that section of the Adelaide River. Sweatheart had to be culled many years ago on the Daly River, after attacking numerous fishing boats. Sweatheart is now on display in a museum in Darwin. It looks like it's still alive. The taxidermist did a great job.

On 11/04/2017 at 4:09 PM, Dodgydownunder said:

I'm sure you've told her to not take a dip in the local river!

 

Cheers.

The beaches are fairly safe, but don't go swimming in rivers, creeks or billabongs.

14 hours ago, Dodgydownunder said:

Good luck to you both (in Darwin?)

Thanks. Yes, Darwin, NT. I have lived and worked there for most of my life. The climate is the same as here in Pattaya with reverse seasons. I like the warm weather and the missus wouldn't be able to handle a cold winter in the Southern states.

On 19/03/2017 at 10:13 AM, Dodgydownunder said:

That is a very fast decision Northpoint. Congratulations. We lodged ours a month before you and just got the okay to do health and police checks. Sounds like they give you 6 months to enter Australia after the visa is granted.

Thanks Dodgydownunder. We won't wait 6 months before leaving. Our suitcases are packed and we are booked to fly next week. I hope all goes well with your application. I'm sure it will. Cheers mate.

4 minutes ago, DUNROAMIN said:

Thanks for the input, hopefully once she has completed the first trip and returned home this will make the next application easy.

Cheers

Just make sure you keep a copy of the application form and other documents you submit.  

On 13/03/2017 at 11:10 AM, Gopro said:

You don't need to live together to be defacto, however it's arguable. If you live in a state where you can register the relationship then the 1 year rule does not apply. I'd say your defacto.

I'm quoting from the Partner Migration booklet, which I got from VFS about 4 years ago. I don't know if there is a later updated version.

The 12-month relationship requirement at the time of application lodgement does not apply if:

1. not applicable for nus01

2. not applicaple for nus01

3. at the time of application for the visa the de facto relationship was registered under the law of a state or territory prescribed in the Acts Interpretation (Registered Relationship) Regulation 2008 as a kind of relationship prescribed in those regulations.

I hope this helps.

1 minute ago, Doiger said:

For a new passport you can not pay in cash, and they do accept debit cards, not sure what you paid 193 k for but it certainly was not a new passport which the op was requesting about.

The THB 193 K was the application fee for a partner visa for my wife to migrate to Australia. I would have saved a fair bit of money if I could have paid in Aussie $ with an Aussie Credit Card.

It must be acceptable then to pay with a Debit Card for a new passport. Cheers.

The VFS Helpline is 02118 7100 or +662 118 7100 if ringing from overseas. It might take a while, but someone will answer the phone.

VFS will only accept Credit Cards or Cash.

They will not accept Debit Cards. I found out the hard way and had to pay THB 193 K in cash, as I only had several Debit Cards.

51 minutes ago, mfd101 said:

You can even get it in 3 or 4 days at RTP HQ in BKK if you pay an additional additional fee ...

We paid the additional fee for faster processing and I was happy with the 15 days wait, as we were still waiting to get the Australian Police check for the wife processed. She had to do an AFP check as she had previously spent more than a total of 12 months in Australia on tourist visas. These 12 months are calculated cumulatively and need not be consecutive. I wonder if her time already spent in Australia will count towards her 309 visa and shorten the waiting time for the 100 visa.

9 hours ago, Dodgydownunder said:

In contrast to Northpoint's very efficient AFP police clearance, my wife and I applied for our Thai Police clearances on 23rd February. Our receipts state that we can collect it on MAY 7th. That is about 6 weeks away!!!! Also, we both had our fingerprints scanned and printed off in our Province upcountry (according to the Thai police requirements for me, but for my wife just in case....) but when we handed them over in BKK we BOTH had to do the printed ink style set of fingeerprints. DON'T bother getting fingerprints taken from the police centre in your province. They won't accept them.

Dodgydownunder, My wife was not required to have fingerprints taken at all. I think it may depend on the officer you get on the day in Bangkok. We just gave them the required documuments, copy Thai passport, Thai I.D card, Tabien Baan, change of name certificate, etc. We were then told we would have to wait 30 days before we could pick up the police check certificate. We then asked if it could be done sooner. We were able to pick up the certificate for an additional fee after 15 days.

I had to get a police clearance certificate for my partner from the Australian Federal Police. I posted a paper application form and the required documents on 6.Feb with EMS and it arrived in Canberra on 9.Feb. I sent an email to AFP about its progress yesterday. I got a reply from AFP this morning that it will be sent  by mail tomorrow 2.March to my nominated address. Kudos to the AFP. They are very efficient.

14 hours ago, simple1 said:

From my experience & knowing a number of Thai females in Oz, they all prefer to live in Oz & visit families in Thailand say once a year.

That wouldn't be any problem. I'll be happy to visit from our home town Darwin, NT as often as we feel like it, The flight from Darwin to Singapore takes 4 hours and SIN to BKK 2 hours. The flight schedules haven't changed for the last couple of years, We leave DWN at 6am and get to BKK at 2.30pm BKK time. We have never paid more than 40K THB for 2 return tickets with Jetstar or only 30K THB with only cabin luggage. The trick is to find the days with the cheapest flights on their website. Having said that, we better wait for the partner visa to get approved before making too many plans for the future.

.

3 hours ago, Dodgydownunder said:

Thanks Northpoint. at this stage all I can do is shrug my shoulders and hope that it comes through in the end. Reallistically we won't be able to make a move until at least October anyway. One things for sure..... I can't wait to get out of this sh....hole!

17 years is a long time. I have been living here for the last 12 years with the missus and going back to Oz with her on 3 months holidays for the last 6 years. She loves Australia and so do I. Time to make a permanent move back home. We can always come back to Thailand on short visits, should we be inclined to do so. I hope all works out well for all of us. I think it will. Cheers mate