My retirement visa will expired Feb next year, knowing that the coming election will probably happen around that time, how early in advance can I extend the visa?

At least 30 days - maybe 45 days.  At Bangkok and some others it is up to 45 days early extension of stay allowed.

9 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

At least 30 days - maybe 45 days.  At Bangkok and some others it is up to 45 days early extension of stay allowed.

Lop, I was at Jomptien Immigration today and was told that 30 days was the max there.  If you, or anyone, knows differently then I would like to know as this fundamentally affects my ability to use an Embassy Letter (UK) for my next extension.

12 hours ago, doctormann said:

Lop, I was at Jomptien Immigration today and was told that 30 days was the max there.  If you, or anyone, knows differently then I would like to know as this fundamentally affects my ability to use an Embassy Letter (UK) for my next extension.

There have been reports of them doing it earlier, but there’s no consistency. It seems they only do it earlier if they aren’t busy or the applicant has a good reason.

18 hours ago, doctormann said:

Lop, I was at Jomptien Immigration today and was told that 30 days was the max there.  If you, or anyone, knows differently then I would like to know as this fundamentally affects my ability to use an Embassy Letter (UK) for my next extension.

others are saying the letters are good for 6 months

36 minutes ago, steve187 said:

others are saying the letters are good for 6 months

Yes, the letters, while they are still being issued, are supposed to be good for six months.  There is, however, a report by another poster saying that he had heard from 'a reliable source' that Jomptien would not be accepting letters after the end of this year.  This sounds wrong but I know the source that is being referred to and I too would consider it to be reliable.

 

In my case, I was enquiring - at Jomptien - about extending early so that I could apply within the validity period of a letter issued in late December.  Seems as though this would not work for me as the dates just don't fall right.  Of course, if Jomptien will not accept letters after the end of this year, there is no point in obtaining one and the issue becomes moot.

 

I shall be emailing the BE - again - to try to confirm that letters will still be accepted - or not.  I have my doubts that they really know what is going on.  Confusion reigns at the moment and, of course, we are going to have the problem of every Immigration Office acting as its own fiefdom and setting its own rules, as usual!