secondtime

Just got my umpteenth CE in Phuket. They glance at the papers to make sure you signed everything, take your money, and tell you to come back tomorrow to pick up your passport. It’s all done outside, so whether you’ve gotten CEs elsewhere doesn’t matter so long as you have a local TM30 printout with your application. (Malika is close to the immigration office, has a pool, and prints the TM30 with a smile.)

Wear the jewellery and an open necked shirt. The more body hair you have, the better.

Did my fifth covid extension in Phuket. It was a breeze - the IO only checked that all the paperwork was signed, then gave me a chit to pick up my passport next week after the holidays (it's a Buddhist one, so remember to buy alcohol on Saturday if you want to drink on Sunday).

That 40k baht your friend ended up spending - was that flying from Bangkok, to Phnom Penh, getting the visa, coming back and doing test and go? Seems rather expensive. Was he not vaxxed and had to quarantine in both countries, or are there some other expenses?

You forget to mention lucky!

Figured I'd bump my old thread instead of creating a new one. Today I successfully got my fourth covid extension at Phuket Town. It was almost the same experience as my previous extensions - crowded, 99% Russian, friendly and helpful IOs, and no real attention paid to what you wrote on the application forms, only that you had all the right forms. My details - arrived via Sandbox as tourist exempt, Canadian passport, after my initial 45 days I skipped the normal 30 extension and went right to the 60 day covid extensions, and all my extensions are through Phuket Town. The difference is this time they required a TM30. I've brought them before but never volunteered it, and this time they asked. I think some people were turned away for not having a printout. I saw a lot of people turned away, mostly for incomplete paperwork, but few outright rejections. I heard the IOs explain to several people that the policy has changed since the last period and they're no longer eligible. I don't know what their situations were, so I can't answer whether Phuket is more relaxed about STVs or applicants who arrived as tourists but switched to non-O's. Oh, and a lot of Russians were still handing over 1900 baht for their extensions. If anyone wants to analyze these numbers - last time I arrived early and by 10:30am the slip they gave to pickup passports for successful applications was over 150. Today I left at noon and the slips they were giving to pickup passports was under 100.

I read somewhere on this site that Russians and Ukrainians are eligible for 30 day humanitarian extensions. This article says Immigration will waive their 1900 baht extension fees and help with emergency housing:

Great clinic, and I wanted to use them but my friend needed to leave urgently and CM couldn't do a same-day test on the weekend. We ended up going to Lanna Hospital. It was 3000 baht for 24 hours and 4500 for 3 hour results. Had to take a number and register a patient profile in the admissions area, where nobody spoke English (at least on the weekend) and they didn't understand or care what we were there for, despite me showing them their own website advertisement. But I realize that was our mistake for assuming it mattered, because once registered in the system you just go to the department you need (in our case, the testing clinic on the 2nd or 3rd floor) and it's a different world - sparkling clean and they all speak English. I suspect if we just went straight there they could have saved time by helping do the registration.

Xi recently watched a program about Thailand and said: "90% of Thais are not wearing masks. This is the reason their country is being infected all around. Many of them dress dirty and don’t shower." There's no way Xi will let dirty Thai tourists into China.

Watch for reports from Phuket. They have been rubber-stamping all the covid extensions. If they start to get tough then I'd bet the extensions really are done for.

I don't know how likely this is to work, but I do wish you the best of luck. If I see a Colombian monk in Chiang Mai I'll put a beer in a Sprite bottle in your begging pot.

Pay for a Moderna shot.

I've been following a Facebook Cambodia visa group and in the last week there are reports of foreigners (and locals) who test positive for omicron being kept in big run-down concentration camps. Seriously - they are converted stadiums with no privacy, no plumbing, inedible food, no extra clothing or electricity, and you are held there potentially for weeks until you get 2 negative PCR tests. By contrast, testing positive for covid besides omicron and you can quarantine at a residence or regular government hospital. https://web.facebook.com/groups/cambodiaquarantineexperience/ Think carefully about entering Cambodia until they sort out this hysteria.

https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/tourism/test-go-registration-back-on-travellers-can-apply-for-entry-starting-february-1

I was about to recommend the same office. Phuket Town immigration seems to be the most easy-going for giving covid extensions.