Mattd

3 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

I don't think 3 entry stamps is a lot of stamps. It was everything related to his extension of stay based upon working here and his last entry using a re-entry permit from his extension.

 

 

This is normal as most using extensions know, it is not unusual for the first two pages of a new passport to be used for the transfer if on an extension, for a stamp for the change of passport details, transferred extension stamp plus re-entry permit (if have), details of the original visa type including the date, point and mode of original entry on that visa and of course the last entry stamp details.

2 minutes ago, Guderian said:

think he phoned them up and was told by somebody that to get a Non-Imm O he had to be 65 years old and in receipt of the state pension.

In that case, it seems that he has never really had an actual reason to be issued a non O visa and in the past was just lucky in getting them from Hull when they were lapse in the documentation needed to get one. Which is one of the reasons why things have tightened up worldwide.

5 minutes ago, Guderian said:

He was here from November 2016 until April 2017 using that route and also from May 2017 until September 2017 so he seems to know what he's doing.

Using a tourist visa there is really only two ways he could have been doing this, either starting off with a METV, first entry for 60 days and doing a 30 day extension, going out for a border hop and entering for a further 60 days and repeating the 30 day extension, or coming in on a SETV, for 60 days, extending this 30 days, then going to a neighbouring country and getting another SETV and repeating.

I do think he will be issued with a SETV valid for 3 months and a 60 day entry in to Thailand, as stated by other posters, it is extremely unlikely that the Thai Embassy in London has stopped issuing these type of tourist visas, would make no sense at all.

Just now, Brayka said:

When your flight Goes to Ch.Mai from Suvarnabhumi you don’t go through immigration in Suv. We did iT once and even our suitcase went on the flight to Ch. Mai, so we didn’t have to do anything, so it was very easy. 

This is going to depend entirely on whether or not the airline from UK to BKK are able to check everything straight through.

Reading further in to this, then a lot of airlines have had to rewrite their separate ticket policy, due to the introduction of APPS (APIS) in Thailand, so, if the journey is ticketed individually, i.e. UK - BKK on one ticket and the sector BKK - CNX on another ticket, then the OP may well have to clear immigration and collect his baggage in BKK prior to checking in again for the BKK - CNX flight.

This, I'd assume, is because the originating airline can only report the pax info as far as BKK to APPS.

Only way to know is to ask the originating airline.

There would be no point in a British person applying and paying for a 30 day tourist visa, as they could enter in to Thailand with a (free) visa exempt entry and get 30 days, that can be extended for 30 days.

I reckon the embassy will issue a 60 day single entry tourist visa.

On what basis was he applying for Non immigrant O visas for in the past, the Embassy in London can still issue several types of non immigrant visas, if he was going to there anyway, then he could have applied for a non immigrant O visa, so long as he has a valid reason to do so.

As far as I know, the consulates only stopped issuing multiple entry visas and they can still issue single entry visas, both tourist and non O, with the non O requiring approval from London.

3 minutes ago, Guderian said:

I went to the Thai Embassy and filled in the form by requesting my usual 2 X 60 day returns, which with the addition of a 30 day extension at the Jomtien office, is usually plenty for me.

A bit confused on understanding exactly what tourist visa your friend applied for?

A SETV would allow him one 60 day entry with one 30 day extension.

Where does the 2 x 60 day returns come from, was he applying for a METV?

1 minute ago, BritTim said:

To see where the bags have been checked through to, the easiest solution is to examine the baggage tags. These specify the destination.

This is true, if the bags are able to be cleared to CNX, then it is possible that the onward boarding pass to CNX might be able to be issued at the point of origin as well.

Normally the person at the check in desk will be able to see the connecting flight if the two airlines have the appropriate interline agreement and would then ask where do you want the bags etc. checking to.

The OP should be able to check if the two airlines he is flying are able to make this connection.

I've never done a transit in BKK airport, I wonder, is there any inbound immigration in the transit area in the case of those whose baggage is checked through?

1 minute ago, natway09 said:

Just make sure that you have all your ducks in a row when you check in for your flight to Bangkok

or they may not let you board without an onward flight ticket.

Should not be an issue, especially with an O-A visa, if it is, then he needs to demand to see a supervisor.

29 minutes ago, hakancnx said:

Why not book your flight directly to CNX, so your luggage appear in CNX. 

And you do the Immigration there also. 

OP has already booked his flights, so probably not an option now.

However, if the two airlines have an agreement, then it may be possible to do this, suggest the OP does ask at the initial check in, just in case they are able to check him right through.

2 hours ago, scorecard said:

Does the flight to Chiang Mai depart from Suvanabhumi Airport or Don Muang airport? 

21 hours ago, WhiteHatPhil said:

I have booked and paid for a separate flight from Suvarnabhumi to Chiang Mai, about three hours after I land from London.

9 minutes ago, nontabury said:

 I Have also been a required  to give my consent, except on one occasion,when I attended the office with my Thai wife and one of our children. I sat outside in the waiting area,exspecting to be called in to give my consent.Never happened. Passport approved.

Then I'd say that this is a rare exception to the rule that should not have happened, in my experience, the fact that one of the parents is not Thai would (should) not have any bearing, what you experienced may well also happen to a Thai couple renewing a passport for their child, personally, even though it can be a pain, I agree with this rule, which gives some protection against child abduction.

14 minutes ago, nontabury said:

There is an exception to this requirement. When one of the parents are none Thai, it has been know for their presence and/or consent not to be required. 

Rubbish, the law does not differentiate at all, I have always had to be in attendance for both my children's Thai passport applications, as UJ correctly points out, the only exceptions are using a consent letter from either parent, or one parent has legal sole custody of the child if divorced.

1 hour ago, thaitanic said:

Will my next 90-day report be (a) 90 days after my new extension of day is processed, or (b) 90 days after the expiry date of my last extension of stay? I asked before but not 100% clear on the answer. If the answer is (a) then it seems beneficial to leave it late to apply, so that I can do my 90-day reporting later and perhaps even avoid one during the course of the forthcoming year. Right?

Your next 90 day report will be either 90 days after your last 90 day report, or 90 days after your last entry in to Thailand, remembering that the last report or entry day count as day one.

The first extension of stay counts as a 90 day report, subsequent extensions do not.

55 minutes ago, Circles said:

Yes I asked this too and they confirmed definitely that the Thai Police will take me off keep me in detention and sent me off as it's the proper procedures 

OK, many thanks for the update, it is appreciated and has added to the knowledge base.

3 minutes ago, Circles said:

My family boarded and I  of course did not board. 

Sorry to hear that, although it is better to play it safe.

4 minutes ago, Circles said:

Ship agent and back after checks with Thai Port Authorities with image of my current passport and said clearly that I cannot set foot in Thailand, nor transit ( though they explained air and sea transit may work differently)

if I had not known of such consequences, the customs would have come on board to do clearance and the Thai police will be waiting for me at Phuket to take me off, detained me till further paperwork is done and deport me via air. 

Interesting, I still cannot help wondering if they would have actually gone to the extremes of taking you off the vessel and then deport you by air, the vessel is only gong to be in port for 14 hours and it would be far easier just to have left you onboard.

Not sure about everybody else, but TVF is exceptionally slow for me this morning, loads of errors when loading pages and difficult to post replies, just does nothing at all.

42 minutes ago, Circles said:

my biggest worry is this, with the old identity number being embedded in my new passport which bears a new passport number.

@Circles I do not think this is going to be such a problem, as I would imagine that this data is in the biometric chip.

Even though you have a new passport number, Immigration will be linking data based on your name, nationality and DOB, this data may well have already been sent to the Thai authorities for clearances, certainly will be sent at least 24 hours prior to arrival in to Phuket, however, the general consensus is that even if the Thai authorities do see your blacklisted, this is not going to be an issue so long as you do not disembark the ship whilst it is in Phuket, make it clear to the purser that you will not be getting off.

Please do let us know how you go on.

4 minutes ago, 007 RED said:

Although it is possible that immigration might pick up on a ban 12 years ago, I very much doubt that they will board the vessel and ‘drag’ the OP off the ship if he/she has elected not to disembark.  There would be no point.

 

As for security, again according to the Immigration Act B.E.2422  Section 27(1) the owner/person in charge is responsible for ensuring that no one leaves the vessel without permission from a ‘competent official’ (read immigration officer) .  There are very substantial penalties if there is a breach of these regulations.

I agree there would be no point, trouble is, logic doesn't prevail here at times, as we are very aware of!

Agreed it is the vessel operator that is responsible, trouble is ports have more holes in them than a colander, especially if the disembarkation is via ferry boat, it is, I feel, going to somewhat depend on whether the blacklist does come out and if the Thai authorities get some crazy notion that this is a backdoor entry attempt by the OP.

Just now, ubonjoe said:

If people would read his reply to one of my posts on page one he is already in the process of getting his records checked.

I saw this, it is certainly one way of finding out the blacklisted side, what it won't tell is what the authorities will do if she is onboard and stays onboard whilst in port, that part is unknown, I will be amazed if they do not have a regulation in place for these instances, I might even try contacting a mate at a ship agency and ask his advice, can't be the first time this has come up and it has tweeked my interest now!!

20 minutes ago, 007 RED said:

However, I would concur with a number of other poster who have indicated that only passengers who have chosen to disembark the vessel will have their passports examined and stamped prior to disembarkation.  Those who do not disembark do not have their passport stamped – why would they when they have not been granted entry.  This has certainly been my experience on the cruises that my wife and I have taken during the past 10 years.

100% agree, I am not saying her passport will be submitted to disembark, what I am saying is that her blacklisting will come up prior to arrival and like APIS it would say no can get off, the issue is more of one of security, unlike an airport, ships and ports are relatively easy to get off and through and the authorities know this, which may or may not be a problem for the OP.

I do think that on the balance of probabilities all will be fine and immigration will just insist she stays onboard.

I for one will be very interested to know how this pans out.

2 minutes ago, Evilbaz said:

 

This is my actual experience.

Your passport is not stamped to allow entry into that port unless you apply to do so onboard.

To exit the ship you need a stamped passport and a Ship's exit/entry card.

Both are checked on entry and exit and your passport is surrendered for a Thai exit stamp.

They are meticulous on who is allowed on or off.

 

Befriend the Purser early!

They wont accept tips but love compliments and particularly submitted favourable Good Job forms.

Thanks, this does make some sense, it must differ by cruise line, some good friends arrived in to LCB from Southampton on Arcadia and apart from submitting their passports before arriving, then no other passport checks were made, they were given an exit card at the same time as their passport and that is all they showed at the gangway to get off, mind you in their case, they were terminating here, as this was where they lived at that time.

I picked them up from the port and was quite shocked with the lack of security etc. both from the port and the ship, given the ISPS rulkes that are supposed to be in place.

What doesn't change though is the fact that the details of ALL persons onboard will have been sent to the Port Authority, who will then pass to immigration, so any blacklists etc. etc. will be picked up then.

On a smaller scale, I managed a fleet of diving and ROV support vessels (Thai owned, foreign flagged) coming and going in to ports throughout Thailand, once the guys were stamped in, then the passports were never checked once after that.

4 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

I do not see any value in having cruise company, Captains or anyone asking their Phuket agents for 'advice' from Thai Immigration.

There are pluses and negatives to this, I'm not so sure that immigration would give their advice, so much as they could confirm that the OP comes up on the blacklist and what their official line would be in that case, they could well be OK with the OP staying on board, the problem is how to guarantee that.

Worse case is they might detail the OP and then release her just prior to the vessel departing, I do not think they would deport via air in this instance, particularly as the OP isn't really trying to enter Thailand.

For sure, if she is showing up on a blacklist this will be known well before the vessel arrives.

16 minutes ago, Aditi Sharma said:

 

It can equally be a nightmare on board unless they have a way of ordering all of the passengers in one place. 

The passengers won't even see an immigration officer, it will be done whilst they sleep.

8 minutes ago, Aditi Sharma said:

1. When do you mean?

2. Why would they board the vessel?

 

Thanks!

 

 

1. When getting off the cruise ship in Phuket, so before boarding the bus for a tour, getting in a taxi etc. at the point of entry in to Thailand,

2. They have to get on to a cruise ship before she arrives in to port, to stamp all of the passengers (and crew) passports prior to them getting off, it would be one big logistical nightmare if they didn't!

Think of over 10 A380's landing in to a small airport at exactly the same time and only 3 or 4 immigration desks open and those same A380's take off at exactly the same time in 12 odd hours time, would be just enough time to get stamped in and out again!

16 minutes ago, Evilbaz said:

So this differs to a person in transit at a foreign airport?

How?

The car example has entered Tha-Land.

Accepted the car has entered via a land border, the point being that the ship has entered Thailand by being in port, or more correctly so, by being within the 12 NM zone.

Once that entry is made, then the regulations of Thailand prevail in terms of immigration etc. and a passenger or crew could be arrested if they were wanted by the authorities for whatever reason.

I admit am not very familiar with Phuket and cruise ships, I do believe the bigger ones ferry passengers in via smaller boats?

Laem Chabang (LCB) I am very familiar with and the difference between a transiting plane and ship is plain to see there, a passenger in transit on a plane cannot physically get past the border controls without passing immigration, whereas once a vessel is cleared in to LCB, then passengers are free to go and come, there are zero checks of passports or baggage etc. once the vessel berths, so even if a passenger said they wanted to stay onboard, there is really very little stopping them from getting off if they so wished.

Which is why I asked if anybody physically checked your passport (apart from immigration officers the night before arriving in to port) when you got off the ship and when you got back on again?

The very fact that immigration board the vessel before arriving in to port does tell you that the clearance is already done, as I said before, in the case of a cruise ship, it has to be all done, otherwise it would simply take too long to do upon arrival, these things rarely stay more than 24 hours at the most, imagine 5,000 people trying to clear immigration at once in a relatively small port 

In this case, they may well be satisfied with her staying onboard, no way of knowing unless they try to check beforehand, the agents can do this, of that I am sure.

2 minutes ago, Aditi Sharma said:

I think OP ought to have got the message. It's her call now.  Might consider the below-quoted idea, it's brilliant! Hope all her family members are carrying mobile phones. 

 

It is an option that would avoid any possible repercussions, however, it could be costly and also it would mean missing out on a part of the cruise already paid for.

I would be talking to the purser and perhaps get the Master to contact the shipping agents in Phuket, who could make advance inquiries of the Thai Authorities as to the position they will take, then go from there.

It may well be that they will accept just staying onboard.