rwilem

Excuse me, I needed to read the initial post better. Thanks, understand it now. Guess I got a tad confused by seeing 'Savannaket', as that locale is used by many here to get a visa from the consulate there. But yours was a true border hop, a fast turnaround, in conjunction with activating the new DTV visa on coming back in to Thailand. And exiting on the day before your retirement extension's validity would expire. Played like a champ!

OK, got it. Thanks.

Could you elaborate? Your DTV was approved in Cambodia, but you could 'pick it up' in Laos? Was that planned for? Seems there would have to be some kind of coordination between the Thai embassy in PP and the Thai consulate in Savannakhet. How did that work?

Are you not obligated to report 90 days of continuous stay in-country, i.e. the 90-day report? Is that a selling point of the DTV, that holders are exempt from 90-day reporting?

Well, it has been getting rather jam-packed in the office there in recent times. Hope they can get a system going in place similar to the one at the temporary 90-day reporting off-site office they had at Muang Thong Thani. (During the earlier covid time frame, it moved out there in the interest of 'distancing'.) They pretty much moved 'em in, moved 'em out at a good clip there, even without an appointment.

And this is another good reason for folks to check up on info being shared in this forum. With the abundance--over-abundance, actually--of topics related to passport renewals, exit and entry issues with both old and new passports, and Thai immigration stamp transfers to new passports, all the info one would need to avoid this issue is available right here. That said, a visit to your immigration office (which office?) should get this sorted without too much fuss, I believe. At least it should. This will be a test case. Perhaps immigration could go as far as directing you to have the first passport officially cancelled by the German embassy?

Agree. If there were ever instances of this having happened before, there surely would have been at least one report of it in this forum. As far as I'm aware, there's never been a single report of someone's '90-day report compliance' being checked, and a fine issued for not having fulfilled it, at an airport or border.

Very intriguing situation. Of course, the OP has gone MIA after the initial post. Hit-and-run it appears, wonder if it's just another 'wind-up'.

Nice! That's when a more rural or outlying immigration office does have its benefit. I've done this twice now. The first time, ten years ago, it was rather chill, even at CW, and close to your experience. The most recent one, nine-plus years later and also at CW, wasn't a 'walk in the park' thing. As I said earlier, it's not all that onerous, but the experience was of a borderline 'mini-extension' type, doing the stamp transfer and then the 90-dayer. Even had a holdup at the 90-day desk at CW, issue with the my rental agent's freshly-issued updated TM-30, which took about an hour to resolve.

Right, you really want to stay up on these things, be 'pro-active' if you can. Being outside the country brings an added challenge to navigating all the bank stuff going on.

I edited my post before having seen that you replied. Did that because I realized you are on top of things, so I didn't need to 'ask' if you had done it!

I assume at that time you updated the new passport number with your mobile service provider. If one has a mobile number tied to their bank account(s), best to update the new passport number with their mobile service provider, especially these days when the banks are really tightening things up. Just another item to add to the 'things to do' list after getting a new passport.

If your agent can do it on your behalf, and it will be an IO doing it, that's probably the easy way. If do it yourself, basically you will submit at least both passports, copies of both passports' front/data pages, the relevant most recent extension and entry stamps from the old passport, copy of the re-entry permit (if you have a current one to transfer, and which would likely be handled by the re-entry permit counters, at least that's the case at CW), copy of the original visa or visa information notation from the old passport, AND the completed stamps transfer request form. You can check with your office for possible items that may/may not be required. These would include copies of the most recent 90-day report notice (which has the 'next due date'), a most recent or updated TM-30, and possibly your bankbook and copies of its front page and account activity dating back to the last extension. (CW requires the bankbook and copy of the account activity, not sure about Jomtien.) Sounds like a lot, but you probably already have some copies of most of the things needed. It's not an onerous process, but one in my opinion that's better done separate from extension time. Ideally, best to do it in conjunction with an in-person 90-day report.

OK, if you are not leaving the country (and if you are, using both passports is OK for that), if you are not leaving the country, at some point your 90-day report 'obligation' will be due. Do you do your 90-dayers online? In person? Or by mail? This will affect the decision when to get the extension stamp (and re-entry stamp, should you possess one in the now-expired passport) transferred to the new passport. Doing it online and using the new passport number won't work, you'll be rejected and asked to report in person. (You might try using the expired PP number, you would probably be approved, if the online 90-day reporting system's been working for you. But you also might be discovered later for having submitted a PP number that was not valid; don't know what the repercussions might be, but maybe wouldn't want to find out.) There has been at least one report, maybe a second, of successful first-time-after-a-new-passport 90-day reports done by mail. Imagine that is because physical copies of the stamps and new PP data page are sent to the immigration office. Online, all they are seeing is a number and not the new passport front page. If you do a 90-day report in person, either by choice or being told to do so after a rejection notice from an online submission, you will have to have the stamps transferred to the new passport before being allowed to do the 90-day report. That is probably the ideal time, if not mandatory, to do the stamp(s) transfer, when doing your first 90-day report--if you are obligated to do one--before your next extension. Having done a stamps transfer at CW within the last year, doing the transfers and 90-day report independent of any extension, I'm glad it went that way. If one deals with an office not so busy or active, doing the whole hog in one go might be OK. But there's enough to do for just a stamps transfer. And it worked out good to get all that cleared before extension time.

On the ground and real-time reporting on fast-breaking border closures and their ramifications. Top notch job.