MrGone23

9 minutes ago, JackThompson said:

I got a "1-year Multiple-Entry Non-O Visa based on marriage to a Thai" from the Thai Consulate in Savannakhet, Laos.  I use friendly land-borders, so no problems leaving and returning with an additional 90-day permitted-stay.

 

But, in your case - to avoid having to do border-runs and/or multiple 60-day extensions - I would get a Non-O Visa (single entry 2000 Baht, multiple-entry/1-year 5000 Baht), and try once more to get a 1-year extension of stay based on marriage at that office. 

They will likely want a "witness" to do the extension, anyway - so I suggest to chose the most intimidating / high-ranking Thai who can attest your marriage is legit, and also assist your wife with any "negotiations."  Most Thai ladies are not well-suited to this sort of thing (mine isn't - this "non-aggressive" nature is often one reason we love them), so a bad-IO can take advantage of this - we have to to protect them from being bullied.

 

Most Thais will consider her lucky.  It's just a small clique who have "issues" about it.

Good advice! Thank you very much at to everyone else as well, I will update a post in a few months and see what happens.

43 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

Correct.

What method would you use as proof of income, 400K deposited in a Thai bank for 2 months prior to the date of application, or, 40K per month deposited in a Thai bank account, which under the new revised order for income based applications could mean you need to prove these deposit from Jan 2019 up to the date of your application.

I opened a bank account here and put the 400k baht into it....I also think that if he is indeed after money him seeing the bank account, only further hurt my chances. We both knew we would run into issues in trying to be together but this one feels like a very tall wall to climb. I am not too keen on paying this guy at all cause I feel like he would only ask for more money in the future as well.... I am hoping to give them the benefit of the doubt though I will get a type-O from Laos and then try again.

4 minutes ago, JackThompson said:

Not the final-say - but if they reject the application, it will never get to the next step.  That the stage where I got blocked (the 2nd time, after the Non-O-Stamp block was avoided with a single-entry Non-O Visa).

So what did you end up doing?

Thank you guys so much, it's good to talk with some folks who have experience with this as I am kind of by my self over here.

I will relay all of this info to my wife this evening and we will go from there. 

20 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

There are 4 divisions for the 4 regions of the country. Only division 3 for the central region is located in Bangkok.

Division 4 for the Northeast is in Khon Kaen, 5 is for the north is in Chiang Mai, 6 for the South is in Hat Yai.

As I wrote the local office can only refuse to accept the application and that can only be done if a person does not qualify for the extension or is lacking the required supporting documents or financial proof to apply for it.

Thank you so much for all of this info, So just to get my head around all of this though please humor me here. I would go to Loas, get my Type-O and then at 60 days into that Type-O I would get together all of my documents needed for an extension based on marriage and take it to this office, and then they would have to send it to the division headquarters in Bangkok and it would not go through this guy at all? Does the upcoming change on the 15th of February affect this at all? Or are the rules still going to be the same? I just have this strange feeling in my gut that going to Laos and getting the type-O will not be the end of this. Heh

38 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

He can only not accept your application before you pay the fee. The final approval is done at the division headquarters for an extension based upon mariage.

I think the problem you had was because you were applying for a change of visa status to get the 90 day non immigrant visa entry needed to apply for the extension and they did not really want to accept the application for it.

I suspect you would not have a problem if you went back after getting a non-o visa to apply for an extension with all the required documents and financial proof.

This makes some sense, is the division headquarters located in Bangkok? Or if this is the division head quarters of this local? If the extension goes over this guy's head I would be less worried, but from what I gathered and what he told my wife he made it sound like he was the last stop for any extension in this area.

52 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Immigration cannot deny an extension stay based upon where the visa was issued. Apparently the officer does not have a clue about what a embassy can do when they issue a visa. They certainly can not do a criminal background check before issuing one.

If you want to apply for a one year extension of stay I suggest you go to a nearby embassy or consulate and apply for single entry non-o visa and then do the application again. 

You could also get a multiple entry non-o visa based upon marriage in Savannakhet Laos that would allow unlimited 90 day entries for a year from the date of issue.

Thanks for the info, I to was curious what would happen if I just went and got a type-O in Laos, and just put in for the extension as normal. But I am curious he is the head of this division office. Couldn't he deny the extension based on something else completely arbitrary? Just because he can? If the extension is denyed is there an appeal process that goes above this individual?

Hey everyone, First time posting but have read tons here before and figured it could not hurt.

A bit of a read i suppose.

So a little info about my/our situation i guess.

I am 31 white US citizen and have been dating my now Thai Wife for about 11 Months since Feb of 18.

I spent 5 months here last year from Feb-July on a Tourist Visa and have been back here on another one since Nov of 18.

We decided to get married in December and started to gather everything we need to convert my Tourist Visa into a Type-O.

Everything had been pretty smooth up until this week, I should also mention that we are staying about 3 hours North of Bangkok so it is a bit more rural.

On Monday we went to the local Immigration office to meet with the head of the branch, Upon entering i was asked to wait outside and

only my wife was allowed to speak with him, I figured something was going on but was not to worried. After about an hour she comes out looking pretty upset,

Apparently she was told by this officer that not only would he not convert my Visa but that i would need to go back to the US and get a new Type-O Visa from there,

and that if i came back to his office with a Type-O from any other country than the US he would not extend it.

He then told my wife that only the Thai Embassy in the US was capable of checking that i was not a criminal... after a few other comments along those lines

he told her that things would be very easy if i went back the US and got the Type-O.

He then gave my wife his personal phone number and told her she could call him if she needed any help or assistance with this.

Now, my wife and most of her friends and family took this as "Oh he wants some Money." 

I tend to just kind of go with what she says being that i am very new here, so that did not seem to hard to believe.

Now my wife works a lot and is very proud of her work, i won't go into to much detail about what she does, but needless to say

she is very very against the idea of paying this guy to do his job, Upon which i told her, well what if i just go back to the US and get the Type-O?

She then said that he is a very greedy person and will likely find something wrong if we do it the way he told us to.

So i told her i support her and will gladly do whatever she thinks is the best coarse of action, but on my end this feels like kind of an impass to me.

I mean the options seem slim at best right? Considering we live her we have to do everything at this office correct? Bangkok has told us everything must

be done here locally and he is he head of this office...So...Yeah haha.

I guess i am just asking for what someone else in this position would do, I love me wife very much and want to make all of this as easy as possible for her.

She is reaching out to some friends that can maybe help but all in all i am just trying to go with the flow here.

Honestly i have a bunch of other questions that are just more out of curiosity but really if anyone has any thoughts i would love to hear them.

Thanks everyone.