Hocus Pocus

Any detail on which are the "some immigration offices" and what specifically is the "some information" being asked regarding the owner? I had posted separately sharing an online source about immigration starting to ask about Tax ID info of landlords/owners. My post was summarily dismissed and derided. Would like to know how my post is aging. Thanks.

Nice! Form printed and prepared. Much appreciated for the heads up.

I will be extending Non-O for Retirement in a couple weeks. This is what I have prepared for both Permission to Stay Extension and Re-Entry Permit: (a) TM7 - Application for Extension of Temporary Stay. 4x6 photo attached. (b) STM2 - Acknowledgement of T&C for Permit of Temporary Stay (c) STM9 - Acknowldegement of Penalties for Visa Overstay (d) Copy of Condo Lease Contract (each of us). (e) Hand-drawn map to our Condo (f) Copy of Passport Cover (g) TM47 - 90-day Report Notice (h) TM30 - Notification of Residence, issued by landlord (i) Copy of Bank Book Cover (j) Bank Letter issued same day (k) 1-Year Bank Statement issued same day (with small deposit done on same day) (l) THB1900 in cash for visa fee ===================================== (m) TM8 - Application for Re-Entry Permit. 4x6 photo attached. (n) Copy of Passport Cover, Visa, Stamps, Visa must be copied at Immigration copy shop after you get visa stamp. (o) THB3800 in cash for permit fee NOTE: Put signature in BLUE INK at the bottom right corner of EVERY PAGE of every document above. Hope this is helpful. Good luck.

What a kind reply and acknowledgement of the contribution @DrJack54 .

Sharing how I and my spouse SUCCESSFULLY converted at Chaengwattana Immigration this year FROM Non-B (Work) visa extension and Non-O (Dependent) visa extension TO both of us getting Non-O (Retirement) WITHOUT leaving the country. Background: Both my spouse (non-Thai) and I had been in Thailand for 9 years. For me, I was working and on Non-B (Reason: Work) annual extensions. For my spouse, she was on Non-O (Reason: Dependent) annual extensions. I had worked for a BOI-listed company, so we had never experienced the wonders of Chaengwattana Immigration as our annual extensions were done by company visa agent at Chamchuri Square. At the end of 2024, I was happily notified that I would get an exit package at the end of February 2025, so I had ample time to plan. Both of us were over 50yo and I had created separate accounts with THB800,000 under our sole respective names over a year before. YES, I know that my spouse could continue to apply as a dependent and save the THB800k getting locked up, but I wanted my spouse to have her own standalone Retirement Visa in case something ever happens to me. Objective: Again, both of us wanted to convert our current extensions (Non-B Work, Non-O Dependent) to Non-O Retirement WITHOUT leaving the country. Conventional wisdom is that one must physically leave the country and apply for Retirement Visa from a third country (e.g. Laos, Malaysia). Even having consulted our company visa agent Deloitte, they said there was no official Immigration procedure to switch from Non-B to Non-O in country. Deloitte was very clear to advise me that whatever happens is at the discretion of the Immigration Officer, so even if I did apply there was no guarantee of acceptance. However, I was able to figure out a sequence that took into consideration the valid concerns that Immigration has with this particular switch (and what I believe is the key to avoiding rejection). How We Did It: The process we used with company/agent below works back from what was my Final Day of Employment - Friday, 28 February. The company is able to cancel a working visa up to 21 days before your Final Day of Employment, but I used a different timeline sequence as below. You can also build your own sequence working back from FDoE. (1) 19FEB (WED): Agent picks up our passports. (2) 19FEB (WED): I obtained a letter from my company HR Department that I will be "on leave and not working from 24 to 28 February". This is VERY IMPORTANT, as it officially establishes 21 February as my Last Day of Work (the day I intended to apply at Chaengwattana). This IMHO is the key to make this work. Why? Because if you cancel a Non-B work visa on 21FEB, but your Final Day of Employment is 28FEB, then there is a gap when you have a Non-O Retirement Visa (strictly not allowed to work) and when your Final Day of Employment may be. This is an easy reason for the Immigration Officer to reject if they think you might still work. So by having this letter, I could clearly show to the Immigration Officer that I would not be working the final week. YES, I know could cut things closer, but I wanted to have some buffer in case the IO rejected. (3) 20FEB (THU): Morning - Company Immigration Agent cancels visas for both of us. Final date allowed to 28 February (Final Day of Employment). (4) 20FEB (THU): Afternoon - Company Immigration Agent returns passports. When the passport was returned, our Re-entry Permits were VOIDed and there was an extra stamp next to the visa saying that "Permission to Stay in the Kingdom ends on 28 FEB 2025", which aligned with my Final Day of Employment. (5) 21FEB (FRI): Plan A: Both of us apply at CW Immigration. If successful, I will be on leave the following week. (6) 21FEB (FRI): Plan B. If rejected, I have already set up account for our e-visas and have the following week to fly out and apply from abroad. Spoiler alert: I didn't need Plan B. What Happened on 21 February at Chaengwattana Immigration Division 1: 08:30 Went to nearby SCB Bank and obtained (a) Bank Letter (b) Made a THB100 deposit into each account and (c) 1-year Bank Statement for both of us. Cost was approx. THB500 (100+400) for each of us. 09:15 Arrived at CW and got queue numbers for COUNTER L (Non-O). DO NOT go to the counter for Visa Change or any other counter. The lady at the queue wanted to send us to another counter (C?), but I corrected her to give us queue numbers for COUNTER L. There was a long queue, so we went to have coffee downstairs and I made scans of our documents as follows: (a) TM7 - Application for Extension of Temporary Stay. 4x6 photo attached. (each of us) (b) STM2 - Acknowledgement of T&C for Permit of Temporary Stay (each of us) (c) STM9 - Acknowldegement of Penalties for Visa Overstay (each of us) (d) Letter from my Company HR stating that I would be "on leave and not working from 24 to 28 February" (me only) (e) Copy of Condo Lease Contract (each of us). Note that both of our names were on the lease. (f) Hand-drawn map to our Condo (each of us) (g) Copy of Passport Cover (each of us) (h) TM47 - 90-day Report Notice (each of us) (i) TM30 - Notification of Residence, issued by landlord (each of us) (j) Copy of SCB Bank Book Cover (each of us) (k) Bank Letter from SCB (each of us) (l) 1-Year Bank Statement from SCB (each of us) (m) THB1900 each in cash for visa fee (each of us) ===================================== (n) TM8 - Application for Re-Entry Permit. 4x6 photo attached. (each of us) (o) Copy of Passport Cover, Visa, Stamps (each of us), Visa must be copied after you get visa stamp. (p) THB3800 each in cash for permit fee (each of us) NOTE: We put our signature in BLUE INK at the bottom right corner of EVERY PAGE of every document above. 14:00 After returning from lunch, they finally called our queue numbers. My spouse and I were at adjacent counters. I could see that the Immigration Officer took a good look at the letter from my Company HR, but nothing was said during the entire "interview". After about 10 minutes of shufflng and scanning papers, the IO picked up her stamp and started stamping documents. THB1900 paid. 14:30 Each of us got our passports back with fully approved Non-O Visa Extensions with RETIREMENT stamped for reason. 15:00 We then applied for our Multiple Re-Entry Permits and were DONE about 15:30. SUCCESS! A side note about the Work Permit. I only handed my Work Permit to the Company Immigration Agent on 28 February, my Final Day of Employment. About a week later they gave me a letter from the Ministry of Labor acknowledging that my Work Permit had been cancelled. I was told this was important if I were ever to apply for a Non-B work visa in the future to prove that I had followed the process with my previous employer. So take note to get this document if you intend to work in the future. In a few weeks we will be doing our first extention under retirement. This time we have a 10:00 appointment already, so the whole process should be done within the morning. Long post, but wanted to give back to the community as this was a grey area when I went through the process. I would always say have a Plan B like I did. However, if you follow carefully, I think your chances are good if you need to do the same. All the best.

Very easy to source meds online via India Mart. However, as per posts above, there is a very high probability that your shipment will get confiscated at Thai Customs and won't be released to you without any recourse. If it is available OTC in Thailand, get it here as any potential saving from ordering from India will be cancelled by the risk of confiscation. Your best bet is to make friends with an Indian. Earlier this year I wanted to try a particular med that could only be sourced from India, so asked an Indian guy who travels there frequently to source it and bring it back. It was easy for him to obtain the med in India without prescription from his usual pharmacy.That being said, he had some concern about getting queried on his return at Thai customs as Indians are screened more frequently than other arrivals. End of the story is that I got my meds with success. My experience with India-made meds has been good so far. My go-to ED booster for the past 20 years is the Apcalis-SX 20mg Tadalafil made by Ajanta. I source that from SouthEast Pharmacy near Soi15 in BKK. Need to ask for it as it is not in the display case. Good luck.

I have been hearing that Thai Immigration will require applicants for Long Term visas to show the Tax ID of thier landlord if they are renting a property. This is creating a stir in Pattaya in videos like the one linked below as this will potentially catch both Thai and Foreign landlords, the former of which may have Tax IDs but not want to provide them and the latter which may not have Tax IDs and not want to obtain them. As I am coming up to annual extension for my retirement permission to stay, I am starting to prepare the documentation as per my usual list. May I ask if there has been any change to process at Chaeng Wattana Immigration to integrate providing a Tax ID for the landlord? If so, does this need to be added into the rental contract or some other document? Many thanks in advance!

Many thanks @Sheryl.

Hello Forum, I am looking for the attached medicine - Apomorphine Sublingual 2mg. I found a year-old treatment article on Phyathai Hospital website, but upon query their call centre replied the medicine is not available now. I have only been able to see it available in India, so will source from there if not available here. @Sheryl, your expertise and insight would be most appreciated. Many thanks!

Indeed @DrJack54, my wife did enter with Non-O originally and has extended since then for reason of dependent. I am of the same thinking that my wife should be allowed, however I am informed that this will all be "at the discretion of the Immigration Officer". So I am really hoping that there will be no problem for my wife to change her extension reason from dependent to retirement, even if they force me to exit the country to "reset" from my original Non-B. If we both leave, I just realized there will be nobody to watch the cat and will have to arrange pet hotel. As for doing a piggyback, even though we will each have reason by retirement extensions, I am not fussed keeping the separate THB800k financial requirements for both of us. And heaven forbid something happens to me, my spouse would be under no pressure to attend to immigration during a stressful time. Will be all prepped with paperwork so will give this a go in a couple weeks. Will report how it goes. Many thanks.

Thanks again @DrJack54. Actually, as per a separate thread, I am trying to go from a extension based on work to extension based on retirement. My spouse is going from extension based on dependent to extension based on retirement. We are trying to do this without being forced to leave the country. We have done 9 extensions using Chamchuri, but it is our first time to experience Chaengwattana. Knocking on wood that we will be accepted with good preparation and good timing. As per your advice, will get the bank letter and bank statement a couple days prior. The deposit on day of application will do at a nearby branch. Will time that prior to a set up appointment. Thanks again!

Thanks @DrJack54... Many thanks for link pointing to the "bank letter" examples. There was one for SCB which I have printed out, so no confusion with the staff. For the bank statement, will 6 months be sufficient? When I got my bank statements for credit card application, SCB had given me 6 months of statement for 100b. I will be processing everything as Chaengwattana Immigration. Bank Letter + Bank Statement + Bank Passbook. Thanks!

Hi @DrJack54... Thanks for the informative reply. I understand well the part about getting the Bank Book copied after making a small deposit on the day of application. Should be a fast process. Also I should have added that both my wife and I are doing the THB800k method, which we have had deposited in Thailand for well over 12 months. To clarify on the "bank letter", exactly what is it? I understand what a "bank statement" is since I have recently applied for credit cards which require a 6-month "bank statement", but what is the difference to the "bank letter"? Is there an example anybody can post of a "bank letter"? Does it have specific information that needs to be on the document to be accepted as a "bank letter"? Do I need both bank letter and bank statement, or just the bank letter? And yes, I will make an appointment for sure. As I am going with my spouse, do I need separate appointments or just make one appointment for both of us? @lordgrinz: Thanks for the pointer to the other branch. Many thanks!

Will be going to CW for the first time for extension in the coming weeks and will need to get my bank statement from SCB Bank. I understand the CW branch has been closed for some time. Searching the threads, some recommend the BigC Branch, but when I search it says the opening time is now 11am. I have tried to scan Google Maps for other branches nearby and the best I could find was this branch (https://maps.app.goo.gl/S4WNgtw6TPjg7AMD9) which opens at 8:30am. I saw a post which mentioned the branch at LakSi IT Square, which seems nearer. Many searches and Google does not give the operating hours (says 24 hours but that is obviously for the ATMs). Does anybody know when the LakSi IT Square branch opens? Many thanks.

Work permit has nothing to do with immigration status. If somebody is employed with a work permit, then they are most likely on an extension for reason of work of what was originally a non-B (business) visa. If your extension date expires say tomorrow, then you have until midnight tomorrow to leave the country otherwise you are on overstay. The company that employs a foreigner is obliged to cancel the visa with immigration up to 21 days before the end of work, but you will be allowed to stay and work up until the final work day. For the work permit, the employer must take the blue book and cancel the work permit with the Department of Labor within 15 days after employment completes. This is what will be happening to me next month. In order to get what you cite in your second post, you would need to physically leave the country (timely as above) and then return. If you are from a visa exempt qualified country, you can get a 60-day visa-exempt permission to stay. Hope this helps.