SnipTheCat

Hi,

   If he's under a non-b visa, assuming it is still valid (not extended through amnesty) and work permit valid as well, he would need to do an extension of stay based on work permit, I wouldn't advise getting another non-b visa as getting out of the country and back in at this time will be difficult and incredibly expensive.

   I would not advise him to try to do it himself, I can understand it is expensive, but the other way may end up more expensive and likely to fail. Now there are some points to consider here, as rules for work permit extension have become more and more strict (based on my own experience, I have my own company with work permit extensions for 8 years)

  1) He needs 4 thai employees 

  2) Company audit of the previous year need to be in order, and personal income tax filing in order. Finances will be examined thoroughly, they are likely to accept a work permit extension only if the company is profitable (in my case they want to see profit above the non-taxable amount and that the company pays some corporate taxes). 

  3) They may give less than 1 year (upon my first work permit extension, they gave me only 6 months, because they wanted to see the company audit which had to be filed end of may in order to give more, so now my visa & work permit renewals are out of sync of 6 months)

  If business is not doing well, and paying a lawyer to do the paperwork is too expensive, another option should maybe be considered (ED visa, or other, but that will not give any right to work)

6 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

You are not given that choice - you clearly don't know how this works. Thai's are given priority for seats and depending on the amount that apply, they are given the economy seats.  The RTE London states that 50 seats will be available to non Thai's but in practice that means 50 business class seats.  At the moment it seems that the only 'foreigners' that have been granted economy seats are a few that are travelling with Thai nationals.

 

As the Embassy controls the seating, the usual 10% overbooking does not take place so the 'upgrading' that airlines sometimes do when there more people turn up for economy than there are seats - is unlikely to take place.

On my flight there were a family with 2 kids + one couple of foreigners going to economy class, they didn't accompany thais, beside that all but 2-3 seats in business were for foreigners, the few thai accompanied foreigners. I was proposed economy class ticket for a flight from Frankfurt 2 days later, but I already had the ASQ booking and it was impossible to find another, get a refund when they announced that economy was full and I had to take Business (6 days before the date of the flight)

7 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

If they told you that recently, they were lying. The MFA passed responsibility for granting COE over to local Embassies a few weeks back. COE decisions are not made by the MFA now.

That's what they told me end of June when I deposited the COE paperwork and again early july. If that responsability changed, it's a step in the right direction because getting approval in thailand was insane...

6 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

I take it that as you mention a ticket price of 800 Euros, you were dealing with a European Embassy?  Note, the OP is refering to the UK - all embassies are dealing with this matter differently.

Yes Thai embassy in Belgium, and the repatriation was managed by thai embassy in the Netherlands. Normally all embassies worldwide should have the same requirement, but they may adjust their requirements to make things harder if they have too much demand, but one they accept the paperwork, the COE approval is done in Thailand on a case by case basis, the Embassy told me multiple times they were "just messengers" and had no authority that all was decided in Bangkok. They also insisted that I need to "sell my case" to have higher chances to be accepted as approval depends on having a valid reason and the urgency of my return.

50 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

Not strictly true. Passenger aircraft are landing but without any passengers being allowed to disembark. Some are taking passengers out of Thailand - others are refuelling etc.  The crazy part about this situation is that if the various Thai Embassies and Consulates around the world would just check eligibility and issue a certificate of entry, leaving the flights and quarantine hotel up to you - you could enter on one of these 'ghost' flights.  The airline is supposed to check your hotel booking and in any case, it will be checked when you arrive. That would mean more space on repat flights for Thai people.

 

Aircrew do leave the planes and do stay in Bangkok overnight if necessary - I don't know who told you they can't leave the plane. They are controlled though.

 

With regard to your reference to the airport's arrivals and departures website - I have found that site to be inaccurate. I've been watching some arrivals and departures closely as my wife will be travelling to the UK in a couple of weeks so I am following flights as I'm wary of cancellations.  Last week a Finnair flight never arrived in Bangkok and never departed either - at least according to the airport's website.

 

When I checked on flightradar24 the flight was in fact, over Kazakhstan having left Bangkok on time at 08.55. 

I possibly don't know all or don't have all the info correct as things change all the time???? But on CAAT website they mention allowing cargo flights as long as no crew gets out... I read an article when I was in Belgium, I think it was about Air France, talking how they removed the seats from some A380 for using them as cargo and they mentionned the route to Bangkok. COE was supposed to be given and flight and ASQ up to you, but they changed that early july, now you can only get back through a repatriation flight which is managed by the thai embassy and the airline (In my case it was Thai embassy of belgium through thai embassy in Netherlands with KLM for Amsterdam-Bangkok, the alternative flight was through thai embassy in germany and Lufthansa for Frankfurt-Bangkok)
It's true I did check flightradar24 and I saw some mismatch... 

40 minutes ago, Maestro said:

 

 

I am a bit confused about the timing of the first step in the entire process. What comes first, 

1. filling out a form immediately on the embassy web site or contacting them in writing by other means to let them know that you would like to get a seat on the first available upcoming  repatriation flight with free seats, or
2. waiting for flights with free seats to be announced on the embassy's website or Facebook page and then Inform the embassy on which flight you would like to get a seat?

It depends on the category under which you are repatriated, for Work Permit, the ASQ reservation will be asked after the embassy has a repatriation and willing to give you a seat. I had deposited the COE request about 16 days earlier, and 1 week after they opened a link to a google doc to apply for a repatriation flight (lucky I was checking the embassy site every day, they wouldn't give me the info by themselves). I had been emailing and trying to call them for the last 5 days of those 16 days without any luck when I got a phone call from them saying they had a repatriation flight for me on 24th for ~800€ (10 days later), which was not 100% confirmed, and that I was requested to make an ASQ reservation ASAP. I spent 10 hours and think I got the last ASQ place by begging the last hotel that suddenly turned full (this was the day with the egyptian soldier and somalian diplomat incident, I think they blocked rooms for them). Even though the hotel told me "things have changed" and they couldn't take any booking, I heard the girl talk with her manager and they finally let me make a reservation... Sent it to the embassy, they called back saying "Sorry there is a problem with the repatriation, it's full... there's only seats available in Business class for 1900€ but if you take it it's 100% sure), there was an alternative for 2 days later from Frankfurt... but my ASQ wouldn't be valid, and getting a covid test less than 72 hours before a flight on a sunday evening made that option impossible.

For marriage reason, they request an ASQ reservation when you deposit the documents for the COE... That just doesn't make sense... unless it's a way to say they don't allow that category for the moment without really admiting it, or at least discouraging most of them by making the way incredibly difficult... that's my feeling.

55 minutes ago, tso310 said:

Nearly correct. They have been using their A350-900s. The booking systems for repat flights are 5 business, 255 economy. The A350 is the most efficient and is being used also to Copenhagen. There have been attempts, as posted in the Thai News section in July from The Nation, to increase the number of flights from London but obviously to no avail.

The BKK-LHR flights were bookable

https://www.thaiairways.com/en_TH/book/offers/special_offers/bkk-lhr.page

 

Whats annoying is that back in April the Germans repatriated 30,000 of their citizens from New Zealand over about a 10 day period. I posted about this back then. Loads of pics from NZ aircraft enthusiasts as Lufthansa A380s and B747-8s were first time visitors to NZ.

 

In my case it was a Boeing 787 from Amsterdam to Bangkok, operated by KLM, I did a quick count and there were about 30 seats in business 8 x 4 and there were 2 missing seats on the last row in center.

Only repatriation flights are operating, arrivals and departure indicated on the airport website may indicate commercial lines operating cargo only flights (they are allowed as long as no crew gets out of the plane). 

Number of repatriation flights are limited by the number of quarantine places available (last week there were 3400 places available for ASQ => 6800 persons per month), I have not the number of how many government quarantine places are available for the thais. 

I got out of ASQ on sunday, I can say that there were Thais in my ASQ, I also know that diplomats and some guests of the government are using some of those 3400 places. 

Priority is given to Thai repatriates, then to foreigners contributing to the thai economy and the urgency of the return is taken into account : If you are a director of a thai company, you are more likely to be accepted than if you are an english teacher. Also you need to convince the embassy of the urgency of your return... You will have to call, email, insist, and take leap of faith to show you are willing to do what it takes to get back... 

My father is currently trying to get back as well, but his reason is marriage, he got married in february and had to go back to finalize things before go to live in thailand, and he got stuck  since March, they ask him to get an ASQ reservation before accepting his paperwork, only 3 hotels take flexible ASQ reservations, but... when he gets the flight there is no guarantee there will be availability, I talked with the ASQ I was in, and they said they received instructions from the thai government not to take any reservation unless a repatriation flight issued through a Thai embassy is provided to them, and anyway they are fully booked for August and almost fully booked for September (as well as all others I contacted). 

The difficulty to get back will be adjusted according to the quota... if there are too many people wanting to come back for the number of ASQ places and repatriation flight, they'll make things more hard / impossible depending on the urgency, it's as simple as that...

Economy seats are given in priority to Thai people, so expect to be asked to take a Business class seat. In my repatriation flight, there were ~300 passengers, I would say 270 Thais and 30 foreigners, all foreigners except for a couple and a family with 2 kids were in Business class.

Hi,

   The requirement to have a Covid-19 test for application of CEO (on married ground) has been waived (information given directly to me by Thai embassy in Belgium), only the covid-19 test before flight is necessary, and the embassy don't ask any more that you present it to them before flying as it was the case before. However on work permit ground, it has always been like that, covid-19 test only required for flying. 

    For flying, the 72 hours requirement is the date & time of the test, no the result, prior to departure (and they do check at the airport).

    When you arrive in Bangkok, if the date/time of your test is more than 72 hours, you may (and will most certainly) be asked to take another covid test at your expense before entering ASQ. In my case, the test was done 71 hour before arrival, I thought they would never take into account the 5 hours time zone difference, but they did, they looked at the date and time and said "ok, you are still in time". 

   (My references: I have been repatriated under work-permit, and I'm currently at day #13 in ASQ tested negative for the second time, going out on sunday), My father is doing the procedure to be repatriated under married ground but is stuck with some extra requests from the embassy at the moment)

5 minutes ago, PatrickC said:

 

The Thai authorities / airline just check that you have a medical certificate showing a covid negative result. The test date does not need to be mentioned on there. They just check the issue date. I've been through the process and am in ASQ now. They made just a fairly cursory check that the medical certificate was issued on an appropriate date, that is it. 

In my case they checked at the airport the date and time of covid test (not result), and they did the same in thailand, the girl couldn't find where the date and time of test was mentionned, so I showed her, and she counted and said it was ok. I wouldn't take any risk.

5 hours ago, bolt said:

I’m flying in This Friday and ALL passengers are getting tested, I’m in UAE

 

I believe ALL passengers must be tested elsewhere, so don’t spread miss information.

ALL passengers get tested !!! Stop feeding the Trolls 

I flew from Amsterdam last friday, and only foreigners all had to present a negative covid certificate, thais only needed a fit to fly certificate without a requirement for covid test. Some did test, some not. This information is available to anyone on all thai embassies websites and on thai government website. A friend here confirmed me his thai girlfriend was rappatriated 2 weeks ago and did not get tested before taking the plane.

14 hours ago, sjoelbak said:

  Which insurance did you buy exactly?  

 

Revolut travel insurance, but you need to have domiciliation in an european country, it'll cover you only 40 days abroad. They do cover covid-19, except if there is a recommendation by your foreign affait minstry or WHO to travel to the destination country. In my case, they also required a letter from my company, certifying it will cover any covid19 related cost that my insurance policy wouldn't cover...

Covid19 treatment was supposed to be free for thais and foreigners paying social security & taxes... seems they changed their mind.

29 minutes ago, somtumwrong said:

Hmm yeah many here try to give suggestions how this whole process could be improved to make more "sense", but This Is Thailand, thus it makes no sense to make sense. Being involved with Thais for long enough, I stopped caring about sense or logic. Just comply and vote with your wallet.

 

I got my COE yesterday (or, the approval for it), but I'm a little reluctant to return now due to the hysteria. Trying to postpone the flight date by one month ???? Haven't been to Thailand since March, but returning feels something I don't want to do. Things closed, restricted, condo pool not fully open, racism ???? So much better in my country where we never had a big issue with Covid. And I prefer to live in my house with clean air (PM 2.5 = 0), everything just works, no stupidity anywhere. Freedom.

Well, I'm not sure the situation will be any better in 1 or even in 3 months. According to what I am told (I'll see for myself when I'm out of quarantine) virtually all is open, excepts many hotels that stay closed (if they open they lose social security benefit for their employees, and they need to have at least 20-25% occupancy to break even). 

About the racism, I won't deny it's there as it's always been, paranoia about the virus is a different story (and paranoia about doing anything that could put any blame on you). Now everybody have been very pleasant and polite at my arrival at the airport (there was over a hundred of airport staff/immigration/security officers), the transport from airport to the hotel as well, the hotel staff, the nurse... everybody have treated me very respectfully and politely. 

On 7/29/2020 at 6:33 AM, bkk6060 said:

You are correct from my understanding the Thais are not tested prior to the flights.

 

But, are foreigners also on these flights?  Not sure I have seen confirmation of that information.

Well I came back on saturday with a repatriation flight, almost all foreigners (including myself) were pushed to Business class (was told there was only seats available in Business), I saw a family with 2 kids going to economy as well as a couple, that's all for foreigners, there was 1 thai lady in business that accompanied her boyfriend.
 

I did hear some heavy coughing back in economy class... now there's not only covid in life... But this explains how some thai returnees test positive on day #12 of quarantine (second test) : they got infected during the flight.

On 7/27/2020 at 1:16 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

If all your $ numbers above are correct, that's closer to 133,000 b vs 100,000+ b.

 

In my case the cost was :

- ASQ : 40000 THB

- Repatriation flight : 1675€ = ~ 60000THB

- Covid test : 50€ = ~1800 THB

- Fit to fly : 5€ = ~180 THB

- Insurance : 130€ = ~ 4600 THB

- DHL fee (I had to send work permit renewal paperwork by DHL as the lawyer wouldn't be allowed to pick it up at the hotel) : 100€ = 3600 THB

- Gas : 2 trips to thai embassy, trip to amsterdam (round trip for the driver) : 60€ = ~ 2160 THB

- about 30h spent on the phone/email (ASQ reservation took me about 10 hours), call credits used : ~100€ = 3600 THB

Total: ~116000 THB extra cost so far

The alternative was an expired work permit, having to cancel my reentry permit at the thai embassy, getting my lawyer to get a WP3 letter to apply for new business visa and COE (all over again)... I don't expect to have any commercial flights to thailand before 3 to 6 months in the best scenario, so unless I wait for then, I would have to go through the repatriation route anyway and I guess quarantine, and then work permit application, extension of stay... it was worth the cost in my case. 

On 7/28/2020 at 1:50 AM, jacko45k said:

I just read elsewhere that some people test negative when they arrived in Thailand, but several days later tested positive while in quarantine. The numbers of positives in quarantine seem to be higher of late but that may tie in with another report saying the numbers of permitted daily repatriation arrivals was increased.

The rate of people testing positive while in quarantine is of 0.6%, there was an article on Bangkok Post a few days ago where they mentionned they had 50000 returnees since march and 331 (I think) tested positive while in quarantine. It seems infections came in clusters, as some are not tested before taking the plane, some people got infected on the plane or at the airport, that's why they tested positive after day #5 or even day #12

On 7/27/2020 at 9:46 PM, GigsGigs said:

Quoted for truth. And wait until you have to deal with the ones in Paris and Brussels, they are even WORSE.

My experience is that indeed, (Thai Embassy in Brussels) the first contacts are very difficult : rare answer on the phone, no answers to emails, when I finally got an appointment, the lady at the counter was quite unfriendly and asked things I never been asked before (She wanted the letter my registration from the belgian embassy in bangkok which dates 10 years+). After that, I got no answer to emails/phone calls until 16 days later where my COE seems to have been accepted, then my file was handled by a girl from the Consular Section. She have been very nice, very responsive, called me multiple times per day, and made sure everything was good... 
 

On 7/27/2020 at 5:53 AM, Bender Rodriguez said:

previous post up, you said you got divorced... + remarried than ?

No, not remarried (Well, remarried in front of Buddha which has no legal value). I have a company, and been under work permit/business visa for the last 10 years

3 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Thai's are not always required to get a covid 19 test before traveling is the main reason. They are tested as soon as they arrive.

If that's confirmed, that may also be one reason why they push foreigners to business class and thai to economy class... 

2 hours ago, Tounge Thaied said:

Ahh... so this is not a "repatriation" flight if the flight had a second leg of passengers.... I would expect a "repatriation" flight to be dedicated to only traveling one way for the stated purpose only. So people having a hard time getting flights are due to other secondary passengers. Not too mention, being pushed into the business class at an inflated price. I wonder if all flights are being handled this way?

I also had the wrong idea of repatriation flight... it is a commercial flight which can only be sold through embassies/government (so unlisted to the public). It was paid directly to KLM, the price is the regular price for a one way ticket (I checked, it's true). Now about the leg to Indonesia... I discovered it at the airport, maybe they worked with the government of indonesia... I'm not sure. What I know for sure is that the thai embassy in the netherlands managed all directly with KLM, and the thai embasys in belgium worked through the one in the netherlands.