Non Imm O-A visa and re-entry permits

[JTXR]

Apologies for posing a question that's no doubt been hashed and rehashed, but I've searched a number of threads and haven't found exactly the answer to my question.  Because folks use all sorts of different terminologies, the variety of responses I've seen aren't clear.

I have a Non-Imm O-A (retirement) visa.  I'm in my first year.  I've twice done the required 90 reporting at the Bangkok immigration office.  My question is:  if I want to leave Thailand for a few weeks and then re-enter (all before the end of my first year on this visa), do I need to get a re-entry permit or not?

 

Thanks.

[ubonjoe]

You don't need a re-entry permit for the first year of your visa since it allows unlimited entries for a year up to the enter before date on the visa.

You will need a re-entry permit after the enter before date to keep your last entry valid if you want to travel.

[BritTim]

To ease your understanding in future, become familiar with the following

• Your visa and your permission to stay are independent of each other, except that the visa is used to qualify for the initial permission to stay at the point of entry into Thailand.
• If you have a valid, unexpired visa, you can use it to enter Thailand and get a new permission to stay (in the case of the Non O-A for a full year).
• If you leave Thailand your permission to stay ends unless you take special measures to protect it. If you want to return later when your visa will have expired, you can purchase a re-entry permit to ensure your exit and re-entry have no effect whatsoever on your existing permission to stay.
• If, in the future, you get an extension of your permission to stay, this is not a visa. After you get an extension, you will always need a re-entry permit if you want to leave and return while keeping your permission to stay intact.

[JTXR]

Got it.  (I think...555).  Thanks for the clarifications, ubonjoe and BritTim.

[JTXR]

Now that I understand  the difference between my visa validity and my permission to stay, can I ask a few follow-up questions?

 

Let's say my Non-Imm 0-A visa expiry date ("enter before date") is 30 July 2018. 

If I understand correctly, I can leave Thailand and return before the visa expiry day, with no re-entry permit, and upon my return will get a new permission to stay for 1 year.  Is that correct?

If so, say I depart Thailand 15 May 2018 and return 15 June 2018, will the new permission to stay be through 15 May 2019 or 15 June 2019?

Also, when will I need to go through the process of renewing the visa itself?  (with new proof of 800,000 baht, TM7 form, etc.)?

Thanks again for the great info.

[BritTim]

13 minutes ago, JTXR said:

If I understand correctly, I can leave Thailand and return before the visa expiry day, with no re-entry permit, and upon my return will get a new permission to stay for 1 year.  Is that correct?

Correct.

 

14 minutes ago, JTXR said:

If so, say I depart Thailand 15 May 2018 and return 15 June 2018, will the new permission to stay be through 15 May 2019 or 15 June 2019?

 

It is one-year from the date of entry, so 15 June 2019.

 

14 minutes ago, JTXR said:

Also, when will I need to go through the process of extending the visa itself?  (with new proof of 800,000 baht, TM7 form, etc.)?

You will need to do the extension during the last 30 days (possibly up to 45 days at some immigration offices) of the last permission to stay you received during the validity period of your visa. If your last entry was 15 June 2018 (thus giving a permission to stay until 15 June 2019) a good time to apply for the extension would be late May of 2019.

[Suradit69]

5 hours ago, JTXR said:

I have a Non-Imm O-A (retirement) visa.  I'm in my first year.

Remember that your "first year" starts from when the visa is issued, not from when you first entered the country. 

 

As others have pointed out, you need to track both your visa expiration and your permission to stay expiration.

 

It's possible to have nearly a year remaining on your permission to stay even when the visa expires.  but once the visa expires, in order to leave the country and return while keeping your permission to stay, you would need a re-entry permit. That would also be true when/if you eventually opt to get an extension of stay based on retirement.

 

Unfortunately some people call the permission to stay or extension of (the permission to) stay a "visa." There are important differences between visas and permissions to stay. 

 

 

[buffallobill]

I have a permission to stay based on retirement,  and a multi re-entry permit,  they both expire in August,   am planning on leaving Thailand in July for 3 months,  is there anyway I can extend them for another year while I am in the UK,, or will I have to start a new when I get back in October? 

[JTXR]

23 minutes ago, Suradit69 said:

It's possible to have nearly a year remaining on your permission to stay even when the visa expires.  but once the visa expires, in order to leave the country and return while keeping your permission to stay, you would need a re-entry permit. That would also be true when/if you eventually opt to get an extension of stay based on retirement.

Ah.  So after the Non-imm O-A visa expires, and after the last permission to stay obtained before the "enter before" date is ending, even the business of showing 800K baht bank balance and submitting TM7 form, etc., results only in an extension of the permission to stay, not a new visa, is that correct?  And any travel out and back to Thailand after that will always require a re-entry permit? 
Thanks for the additional info, Suradit69

[ubonjoe]

5 minutes ago, buffallobill said:

I have a permission to stay based on retirement,  and a multi re-entry permit,  they both expire in August,   am planning on leaving Thailand in July for 3 months,  is there anyway I can extend them for another year while I am in the UK,, or will I have to start a new when I get back in October? 

If you have an extension of stay you could apply before you leave in July and get a new re-entry permit before leaving. You can apply up to 30 days early at most offices and 45 days at others.

It is not possible to do it outside of Thailand.

[Suradit69]

9 minutes ago, JTXR said:

And any travel out and back to Thailand after that will always require a re-entry permit? 

Yes, as long as you have a valid visa (such as the multi-entry O-A during its first year) you're OK to leave and use the visa to re-enter the country.

 

But, after the visa has expired, you would be permitted to remain IN Thailand for the duration of your permission to stay and you could extend that permission to stay, but you would not be given a new or extended visa by immigrations. At that point you need a re-entry permit to act in lieu of a visa. 

 

Of course if you do not plan to leave Thailand and return, you're fine staying here with just the permission or extension of stay.

 

 

[flexomike]

4 hours ago, JTXR said:

Now that I understand  the difference between my visa validity and my permission to stay, can I ask a few follow-up questions?

 

Let's say my Non-Imm 0-A visa expiry date ("enter before date") is 30 July 2018. 

If I understand correctly, I can leave Thailand and return before the visa expiry day, with no re-entry permit, and upon my return will get a new permission to stay for 1 year.  Is that correct?

If so, say I depart Thailand 15 May 2018 and return 15 June 2018, will the new permission to stay be through 15 May 2019 or 15 June 2019?

Also, when will I need to go through the process of renewing the visa itself?  (with new proof of 800,000 baht, TM7 form, etc.)?

Thanks again for the great info.

Correct, but if you want to leave the country again, you will have to get another re-entry permit

 

[OKF]

I have difficulty to understand this discussion....so sorry. I have an A-O as well and I go to T for 2-3 month then leave for Europe for 2-3 month and then come back for 2-3 month...etc....as far as I understand the visa never expires if you travel to T after issue of theat visa within the period shown....and as long as I leave and return with one year after the last leaving all is good. Pls tell me if I am wrong

[ubonjoe]

43 minutes ago, OKF said:

I have difficulty to understand this discussion....so sorry. I have an A-O as well and I go to T for 2-3 month then leave for Europe for 2-3 month and then come back for 2-3 month...etc....as far as I understand the visa never expires if you travel to T after issue of theat visa within the period shown....and as long as I leave and return with one year after the last leaving all is good. Pls tell me if I am wrong

You are wrong.

A OA visa is only valid for one year from the date of issue. For that year you can leave and re-enter the country as many times you want to and you will get a new one year entry. After that year when the visa expires (enter before date on it) you no longer get a new one year entry.

After the visa expires you must get a re-entry permit to keep the last one year permit to stay you got from an entry valid if you want to travel.

[Tanoshi]

7. Please note that the period of visa validity is different from the period of stay.  Visa validity is the period during which a visa can be used to enter Thailand.  In general, the validity of a visa is 3 months, but in some cases, visas may be issued to be valid for 6 months, 1 year or 3 years.  The validity of a visa is granted with discretion by the Royal Thai Embassy or Royal Thai Consulate-General and is displayed on the visa sticker. 

8. On the other hand, the period of stay is granted by an immigration officer upon arrival at the port of entry and in accordance with the type of visa.  For example, the period of stay for a transit visa is not exceeding 30 days, for a tourist visa is not exceeding 60 days and for a non-immigrant visa is not exceeding 90 days from the arrival date.  The period of stay granted by the immigration officer is displayed on the arrival stamp. 

[Tanoshi]

1 hour ago, OKF said:

I have difficulty to understand this discussion....so sorry. I have an A-O as well and I go to T for 2-3 month then leave for Europe for 2-3 month and then come back for 2-3 month...etc....as far as I understand the visa never expires if you travel to T after issue of theat visa within the period shown....and as long as I leave and return with one year after the last leaving all is good. Pls tell me if I am wrong

If you had an O-A Visa issued on say 1st Jan 2018, it would have an enter before date of 31st Dec 2018.

You can exit and re-enter Thailand anytime during this Visa validity period and on each entry you will receive a stamp permitting you to stay for 1 year.

 

Visa issued 1/1/18. (Valid until 31/12/18)

Enter Thailand 15/1/18. 

Receive permitted to stay stamp until 14/1/19.

Return to Europe 15/4/18.

Enter Thailand 15/7/18.

Receive permitted to stay stamp until 14/7/19.

Return to Europe 15/10/18.

 

If you attempted to enter Thailand again on 15/1/19 you would only be given a 30 day Visa exempt stamp.

That is because your Visa expired on 31/12/18, and your now not allowed any entries on an expired Visa.

 

If however you purchased a re-entry stamp just before returning to Europe on 15/10/18, this will keep any previous permitted to stay date valid. In other words your last permitted to stay stamp was dated 14/7/19.

You could re-enter Thailand on 15/1/19 on the re-entry permit (the Visa and 1 year entry facilities have expired) but you will receive a permitted to stay stamp until 14/7/19.

 

If you want to use the O-A Visa to it's maximum value, you should plan your trips so you enter Thailand again just before the expiry date of the Visa. Enter on 28/12/18 and you'll be stamped with permission to stay until 27/12/19.

Purchasing a multi re-entry permit would allow you to exit/enter Thailand as many times as you want whilst keeping your permission to stay date of 27/12/19 valid.

[OKF]

Thank you so much for your explanation. So my AO said enter before 6.2.17 which means I left Thailand 21.1.18 so my visa is void now. Correct? So I did not ask any re-entry permission before I left as I was not aware of it so I assume I have no chance to get such re-entry thingy anymore and have to buy a new visa?

 

[ubonjoe]

11 minutes ago, OKF said:

Thank you so much for your explanation. So my AO said enter before 6.2.17 which means I left Thailand 21.1.18 so my visa is void now. Correct? So I did not ask any re-entry permission before I left as I was not aware of it so I assume I have no chance to get such re-entry thingy anymore and have to buy a new visa?

 

Your visa has already expired which means you will not get a new entry from it.

Since you left without getting a re-entry permit you will only get a 30 day visa exempt entry unless you get a new visa.

You can only get a re-entry permit at a immigration office or on departure from the country at some airports.

[Tanoshi]

1 hour ago, OKF said:

Thank you so much for your explanation. So my AO said enter before 6.2.17 which means I left Thailand 21.1.18 so my visa is void now. Correct?

Unfortunately your correct.

However hopefully for your next O-A Visa you'll be wiser on how to get the maximum stay (up to 2 years) from it.