uberfarang

Just now, RloLigor said:

Probably miscommunication or incorrect information.

Could be but I doubt that me (on the other poster) are the only one who experienced "miscommunication". The office wasn't totally empty, the people before and after me at counter J weren't turned away either, I didn't check their stamps so I can't speak for them, but it seemed to me pretty much business as usual. I am afraid there won't be a lot of other feedbacks to confirm or infirm this because very few people showed up today at the office.

18 minutes ago, RloLigor said:

So you got an extension of stay until April 29. That date is after March 26, so it will be extended automatically to April 30 and later possibly one or several months more.

I got it today. The officer said I have to come back again on April 29, with a new letter from embassy. No free automatic extension for me.

43 minutes ago, ANDREW999 said:

He was planning to get a 2nd extension. He mentioned the embassy letter.

got it. so in his case, he hasn't applied yet for the extension with letter but was about to but eventually received an automatic extension. In my case I've already applied with the letter 10 days ago and was told today it is not automatic and will never be (for my case). Or maybe this is just a miscommunication and different offices are doing different things.. 

5 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

The date of March 26th given in the announcement is also the date they stopped foreigners entering Thailand. Maybe coincidental, but I think not.

You might be right. I always wondered why it was backdated to that specific date.

8 minutes ago, audaciousnomad said:

A lot of people who do not follow ThaiVisa forums are about to screwed by this. If they are here on a previously extended visa, and do not come in thinking they have amnesty, they will be in for a RUDE AWAKENING at 500baht for each day that they failed to come in because they were MISLED by the announcement! #BaitAndSwitch

I am afraid this is already what is happening considering how empty was CW today (only two people before me at 2pm, counter J), many might have already assumed that extension was automatic for their case too and started to lay back, relax and stop reading frantically TV and the news all day long.

@Nismooo Could you confirm if this was the first time you applied for an extension? From my xp at CW office today, they said automatic extension doesn't apply to people who have already applied before.

20 minutes ago, jacob29 said:

She explained what a regular tourist visa situation was, which seems to have covered all the visa statuses I'm aware of, which begs the question - what is an irregular visa situation?

Someone who has been on overstay since March 26 because they couldn't get a letter from their embassy? That does not seem to cover a lot of cases though.

1 minute ago, ANDREW999 said:

I wonder why embassies have stopped issuing letters then. Particularly my embassy (Italian), just let me know I dont need to attend to IMM on April 25, when my 2nd covid extension expires. I wonder...

the first time i asked for a letter from my embassy they said it was "fake news on social media" and there were no such requirement from the immigration... a week letter they were issuing the letters. I guess the embassies like everyone else here are trying to interpret thai immigration laws and announcements to their best but in the end it's still the immigration officer's call to give you the extension or not. I hope this is just a "lag" between what informations the immigration officers and the rest of us got and everyone will soon be on the same page.

3 minutes ago, jacob29 said:

Ugh well now we have two conflicting reports.. since CW was nearly empty I'm leaning towards the majority of people in your position aren't bothering to return to immigration.

 

 

maybe we are in different situations, I don't see a mention of it in his post but it seems that was his first extension, while in my case I already got the "under consideration" stamps and from what I understood by asking the officer today:

first time asking for extension -> automatic

already applied for extension -> not automatic

seems like there was another post earlier from someone who had the same experience as mine:

I am afraid this is true, I also had the same experience as OP today at CW, see my feedback here 

1 minute ago, BritManToo said:

Is there some reason you posted this again?

this is my first post. what other post are you referring to? 

7 hours ago, hotchilli said:

An education visa requires you to study... where are you going to do that with all teaching facilities closed?

Don't think you'll be granted that one any time soon!

my school is doing online classes since the facilities were closed, i can assume other schools are doing the same. but that doesn't change the problem that you cannot apply to a ED visa in Thailand, you need to apply in a thai embassy abroad. I doubt any are receiving applicants for now and even if you did get your visa, foreigners aren't allowed back to thailand at the moment (and seems like they are gonna ban thais too for the next two weeks)

7 hours ago, jackdd said:

If they use the term tourist visa like in this story, there is a 99% chance that this includes visa exempts.

They do seem to consider VOA and visa exempts as tourist visas because the temporary office in Muang Thong Thani is said to be for tourist visas but they actually only deal with VOA and exemptions. 

Just got back from CW to extend my tourist visa (SETV) with letter from the embassy. They started by saying that the letter must be an original and color copy of email was not accepted. Then they asked for a copy of that copy (why?) and also to see a proof I was living at the address I wrote on the form (fortunately I brought my lease and a copy too).

Now guess how many days I got? 30? 14? wrong, I got 11. Where does that number come from? They explained that a superior needed to review it and I have to come back on April 10 and they will let me know if I get the rest of the days... This is the same stamp as everyone else "APPLICATION OF STAY IS UNDER CONSIDERATION, APPLICANT MUST CONTACT AGAIN IN PERSON ON", and everyone seem to be given a completely different and arbitrary number of days. If this was an evaluation of how much they like us, I guess I didn't make such a good impression.

19 minutes ago, stephen tracy said:

Thanks for the clarification, @uber. I wonder it what it will take for them to stop this madness. Will immigration staff need to start dropping dead first?

the guys that turned us away last Friday said they were "volunteers", so i am afraid even people dropping dead won't stop this madness, they'll keep sending other people to the frontline

19 minutes ago, kevinsan said:

Get an ED Visa. Great time to study as school is closed.

can you get an ED Visa without applying in a thai embassy abroad (and then being denied re-entry)? 

3 minutes ago, bbi1 said:

Ok that's great news. Lucky they didn't send SETV/METV holders to that ridiculous place in the middle of nohwere!

If only I understood correctly the first time, I wouldn't have gone *twice* to that hellish place. In comparison to what's happening there, CW feels like a walk in the park. 

1 minute ago, bbi1 said:

30 day tourist visas? There's no such thing. Do you mean only 30 day visa exempt entries were processed at the new location and SETV/METV holders still go to CW?

That's my understanding too but the staff just said that my visa was 60 days and they only do the 30 days, he didn't elaborate on what kind of visas were those "30 days" visas. 

so back at CW they gave me a ticket for counter J. So to clarify, it seems that only visa exempts and VOA have to go to the new location, while tourist visas (SETV, METV) stay at CW. 

Their poster that says "'K: tourist visa extension' must be done in the new location" is incredibly misleading because the only "real" tourist visa they deal with is the VOA (is it even considered a "tourist visa"?) while my SETV isn't despite being classified in my passport as "tourist" and its extension stamps also says TOURIST...