Marriage Visa Termination Upon Divorce

[ThaiNomad999]

have a multiple entry marriage visa from savannakhet. will be getting divorced very soon. when will the marriage visa be officially voided or cancelled (no longer able to re-enter and get another 90 days)? have heard many different answers...

 

- it expires immediately and you can only get a 7 day extension for 1900 before being forced to leave the country;

- it expires when the visa itself expires (after the one year expiration date) no matter if you divorce or not;

- it expires when your last visa stamp expires;

 

which is it?

[elviajero]

Your current permission to stay should be unaffected by your divorce. And you should have no problem using the visa until it expires.

 

Immigration have no way of knowing about your divorce unless someone tells them, and even then I doubt they would cancel the visa/permit to stay.

[BritTim]

Your Non O visa is unaffected by your divorce.

 

The reason you see conflicting answers is that people get mixed up between "visas" and "extensions of permissions to stay". The conditions for a visa only need to be met at the time you apply for it. An extension, usually, ceases to be valid when the conditions under which it was granted no longer pertain. It is similar with Non B visas versus extensions based on working. The visa is valid before during and after your employment. The extensions is only given if you are working, and ceases to be valid on the day your employment ends.

[Faikham]

Others who have stayed on a marriage visa after divorce have been treated as overstayers and subject to deportation plus blacklisting.

 

I am not an expert on immigration by any stretch and would defer to anything UbonJoe has to say. But I do know one very scary story that started out almost exactly like this.

 

In the meantime, I would not listen to anyone who says this is OK and I would not even consider it without talking to a lawyer. And if you do, bring all your belongings with you and make sure you locked your door next time you visit the immigration office.

[ubonjoe]

5 minutes ago, Faikham said:

Others who have stayed on a marriage visa after divorce have been treated as overstayers and subject to deportation plus blacklisting

You are confusing the multiple entry non-o visa issued by an embassy or consulate with an extension of stay based upon marriage issued by immigration.

A non-o visa will remain valid until it expires. An extension of stay ends on the day the divorce is final.

For the extension immigration would not know about the divorce unless he informed them about it. Some people have tried to change to a different category of extension after the divorce was done and got in trouble for it.

 

[ThaiNomad999]

Haven’t heard of those stories. Maybe the marriages were shams and just for the visa, then found out? The max one could overstay would be 90 days which does not carry a penalty under current overstay rules (only a fine). 

[overherebc]

10 minutes ago, ThaiNomad999 said:

Haven’t heard of those stories. Maybe the marriages were shams and just for the visa, then found out? The max one could overstay would be 90 days which does not carry a penalty under current overstay rules (only a fine). 

If it's a 'visa' it stays valid, single entry 90 days or 1 year multi entry requiring out/in of Thailand every 90 days

If it's an 'extension of stay' ie the holder has to do 90 day reports to Imm' then it should be cancelled same day or day after the divorce.

[Gandtee]

Even though it doesn't apply to me, what happens if you are on a marriage visa and your wife passes away? Would you have to uproot and leave your joint possessions behind?

[ubonjoe]

10 minutes ago, Gandtee said:

Even though it doesn't apply to me, what happens if you are on a marriage visa and your wife passes away? Would you have to uproot and leave your joint possessions behind?

If you have an extension of stay based upon marriage to a Thai it will remain valid until it expires. Then you would have to change the reason for your extension.

 

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, Gandtee said:

Even though it doesn't apply to me, what happens if you are on a marriage visa and your wife passes away? Would you have to uproot and leave your joint possessions behind?

In the case of buying property after you got married you should be legally entitled to 50% of the house, I think. I've heard you can get 1 year to sell or if you have kids would it have to be put in their name.

[oobar]

1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:

If you have an extension of stay based upon marriage to a Thai it will remain valid until it expires. Then you would have to change the reason for your extension.

What about if it's a farang couple, one being listed as dependent on the other (a single 800K baht for the pair) and one dies in Thailand?  If the dependent is the survivor, can she/he continue on the current extension of stay?

[ubonjoe]

6 minutes ago, oobar said:

What about if it's a farang couple, one being listed as dependent on the other (a single 800K baht for the pair) and one dies in Thailand?  If the dependent is the survivor, can she/he continue on the current extension of stay?

Their extension in case of the death of the one on an extension of stay would cause them to lose their extension. If they could qualify for an extension on their own they could apply for their own extension.

[kannot]

if  u have the money why  not  apply for a  5  year elite to get you thru the next few  years until your circumstances  change, 500k  baht an easy no  fuss  solution.

[BritManToo]

16 hours ago, ThaiNomad999 said:

have a multiple entry marriage visa from savannakhet. will be getting divorced very soon. when will the marriage visa be officially voided or cancelled (no longer able to re-enter and get another 90 days)? have heard many different answers...

 

- it expires immediately and you can only get a 7 day extension for 1900 before being forced to leave the country;

- it expires when the visa itself expires (after the one year expiration date) no matter if you divorce or not;

- it expires when your last visa stamp expires;

 

which is it?

It expires when the year is up.

Only extensions are voided by changed circumstances.

[overherebc]

On 1/2/2019 at 7:31 PM, BritManToo said:

It expires when the year is up.

Only extensions are voided by changed circumstances.

All we have to do now is stop people calling an extension a visa and a visa an extension.

Could be a long battle.

[Rawairat]

I did it last year, no issues. Next time I applied changed to a retirement visa.