ThaiVisaCentre

How long are you wishing to stay in Thailand?

We just received an update that the hotels will have to submit their guests to SHA-BA (Booking Authentication), and this results in a special QR code to use to get the COE.

It's hard to know how fast this will actually be rolled out. We expect the larger OTA's (like Agoda / Booking / Expedia) to be slower in adding this process.

It may be best to deal directly with the hotels until we can confirm the larger OTA's have this process in place. Or smaller OTA's / TA's which can follow this new step without major delays as there are only two weeks left until July 1st ????.

Any hotel listing on ASQ.in.th which has a weekly price listed will put you in direct contact with the hotel.
 

3 hours ago, Polaky said:

This is fake news I believe, It will go ahead on July 1st, The report was translated incorrectly, what the statement actually said was Koh Samui wouldn't open until August 1st, so another misinterpretation of the letter, then again it is not official until the 19th?, so who knows what will happen. 

Very bad reporting all around.

We are pretty confident that it will proceed to be approved officially very soon. Either way we should know in the next week if it will be delayed, or not.

Technically it could be delayed without actually being delayed. We need to see COE's being issued soon with Sandbox Reservations, and if they are not no one will actually be able to arrange things to even arrive on July 1st.

????????

Just now, Jingthing said:

OK good but I didn't get the impression that the OP understands the urgency of his situation and the consequences if he is caught before he can leave. Why was immigration when he made his last 90 day report so easy on him?

It's hard to know without any details. It could be that they just didn't notice, and saw elite status.

While this mistake does happen it is quite rare (due to how costly it can be).

17 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

If you can't help him can you please advise him on how he can most safely exit the country. He mentioned doing something in Bangkok that didn't make any sense. I would think he wants to completely avoid any direct contact with Thai authorities. How much does he need to pay if he makes it to the airport to leave?

If we cant help then as mentioned he can easily leave the country by paying the MAX fine of 20,000 THB, and getting blacklisted for overstaying over 90 days (if less then no blacklist).

On 6/9/2021 at 8:24 PM, candide said:

Great! Thank you! 

As more hotel are added, it would be nice to have a location filter, at least for the most popular areas, I.e. Patong, Kamala,  etc...

We have just pushed this feature live.

Hopefully it suits your needs.

Here is an example of filtering by the Patong, and Kamala districts in Phuket.

1 hour ago, HashBrownHarry said:

I thought a booking was required to obtain CoE?

Yes that will be the process, but it is still not possible to use a Sandbox Hotel booking to obtain a COE yet.

Hopefully this starts to be allowed very soon.

Many hotels understand this, and are offering very flexible refund policies, and/or small deposits.

7 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

 

Think the July 9 was to do with above thread. It's July 1.

I am not sure how accurate this is... As our platform alone has processed over 800 Sandbox booking requests since last week (even with the 14 day change), and looking at our numbers it is more than 20 Americans wishing to come before July 9th.

That being said many travelers are waiting until they can actually obtain a COE to enter the country before they decide to make any bookings.
 

5 hours ago, candide said:

Great! Thank you! 

As more hotel are added, it would be nice to have a location filter, at least for the most popular areas, I.e. Patong, Kamala,  etc...

Thank you for the feedback.

We will look into adding an additional location filter for sandbox search.

We have been updating the list of hotels on our index for the Phuket Sandbox.

So far we have 150 SHA Plus approved properties, and we expect maybe 100 more by the end of the month.

Hopefully it's one of the easiest ways to search through them.

https://asq.in.th/phuket-sandbox-hotels

For reviews from our customers please refer to Google Reviews (680+ Reviews), or Facebook Reviews (500+ Reviews).

 

We have been updating the list of hotels on our index for the Phuket Sandbox.

So far we have 105 SHA Plus approved properties.

https://asq.in.th/phuket-sandbox-hotels
 

51 minutes ago, BKKTRAVELER said:

I know it has been asked but do you have to remain within the hotel facilities for 14 days or can you wander freely around Phuket? Many interested friends asking me.

Yes you can.

There are a few updates that answered our previous questions / concerns.
 

• You can change your hotel after 7 nights of staying at a SHA Plus hotel.
• If you own a condo in Phuket you will still have to stay a total of 14 nights at a SHA Plus hotel before being able to stay at your property.
   

Already 65 hotels have been officially SHA Plus approved, and we are working hard to obtain a package list for as many options as possible.

Also due to the speed of the approvals we expect almost all SHA hotels to be SHA Plus approved by July 1st.
 

12 minutes ago, Andy1961 said:

I just read on the royalvacationdmc.com website "For tourists who are willing to move to other Provinces in Thailand when Coming under the Sandbox Program, They have to stay a minimum of 14 Nights".   What's with the word "willing"?   That implies that if you are asked to visit another province and you accept, you will need to stay 14 nights in Phuket.  If I "want" to visit other provinces, does the 7 night rule still apply?  

The word "willing" is very misleading.  Maybe this is simply a problem with translation or another example of decision makers being clueless about what to do next.

We also hard that if they did not stay 14 nights initially in a SHA Plus hotel they will only be able to stay in SHA Plus hotels after ????.

It's quite confusing, and I'm sure in the next few days these things will be much more clear.

It's also unclear what happens if you own a condo, we have to assume at the moment you must still stay the 14 night term and then you may then go to your condo.

2 minutes ago, Wake Up said:

He always did 90 day reports when he lived in Thailand  for past years on extensions of stay so he thought he needed to do one when he returned to Thailand in March 2021 and would be here for 90 days. 
 

Maybe he was lucky. I can say that today the immigration lady and her boss lady were very friendly, understanding his statements and questions,  and they were very helpful and comforting. The supervisor boss lady would not give him an extension of stay today. But the boss lady talked with us and  she told him not to worry and go to MTT to the K que and he would have no problems and to come back later for his extension of stay. 
 

I talked with him about the advice on this forum to get the Non O and convert it to a one year extension and he is relieved and feels much better. We need the visa experts on this forum because rules change and it can be tricky to understand all the reporting and visa options. I have learned a lot that I did not know and I have done 90 day reporting and extensions of stay before since 2016. 
 

He and I are thankful to all involved in helping him resolve his problems and taking the time to answer the questions in this post. Much appreciated to all. You helped a good man today find the right path to getting another extension of stay and living in Thailand legally. ????

Then it is confirmed, and he is a lucky guy ????.

He can keep taking advantage of the 60 day covid extensions until his funds are ready, and then he can apply for a non-o, and finally a yearly extension.

Glad to hear about the positive outcome.

4 hours ago, jackdd said:

Looks like in this case you were wrong.

I wonder though what the entry in the computer said, his passport obviously has a ผ.45 note which doesn't match 90 days from the stamp.

 

This explanation doesn't make much sense, due to the ผ.45 note in the passport which means visa exempt 45 days.

I guess they understood that the problem was caused by one of them and wanted to give an easy way out, good for your friend.

Seems like he got very lucky.

But as we mentioned there is nothing to lose at the moment to try.

We still don't understand what exactly is the situation as the OP is talking about 90 day reporting on exempt entry.

Is it possible that he entered on an NON-O visa, and the officer stamped an exempt entry stamp. If this was the case then the outcome would make a lot of sense. As he speaks about a yearly extension which would not even be possible on an exempt entry stamp.

So he may have never been under overstay just stamped incorrectly. Which is easily correctable.

1 hour ago, jackdd said:

I would recommend to approach the problem is this way:

Always act stupid, like you don't know that anything is wrong, for the general person it's not obvious, and because the problem is caused by the wrong stamp by IO they might try to solve it without much trouble.

Complete a TM7 form to apply for a standard 30 day extension, take the required copies, photos, etc. and go to apply for this extension, just hand in your documents like everything is alright, don't say anything.

At some point they will notice that the stamp in the passport is wrong, when they mention it do again act stupid and let them find a solution.

Never mention that you were aware of this problem. If you are lucky you might get around the 20k overstay fine.

 

But bring 20k for the fine (and 2*1900THB for two extensions, regular 30 day extension and 60 day covid extension) with you, in case you have to pay it you can sort it out on the spot.

Make sure that there is enough time, it might take them a bit to sort out this mess.

 

 

There is no way past the 20,000 THB fine, as he has overstayed. Ignorance will not change the fact that he is over 40 days of overstay, and a fine is required.

The lucky part would be if they even allowed him an extension as he has already passed max fine which is 40 days.

Sometimes they deny extension, and his only option is to exit the country which would he would be able to do without blacklist as long as it is under 90 days.

It's worth a try though as we have not heard of anyone getting 7 day stamps with an order to leave like they did before March 2020.

4 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

The issue seems to be that he was given incorrect permission of stay. Should have been stamped in for 45 days.

He has the 800k in the bank so normally he would attend imm and obtain his non O which would give him 90 day permission of stay. In the last 30 days of that 90 day POS he would obtain his annual extension. 

He needs to focus on this incorrect stamp. Again we assume he entered visa exempt. 

If you had more time up your sleeve I would suggest the assistance of visa agent. Not for the financials but help to sort out stamp.

You don't have time my suggestion would be to attend CW Monday.

@ThaiVisaCentre any suggestions for this guy?

We would need to see the stamps to determine what exactly is going on.

He can always contact my team via LINE 

LINE: @ThaiVisaCentre

We have not heard anything yet ????, but if we do know anything we will post it here.