COVID-19: Immigration proposes extending visas for people stranded in Thailand to 30 June 2020

[Deserted]

I have to go to the embassy tomorrow, my visa expires in a week, so should I ask them for a letter to give me an extenSion until June 30th? WIll I have to pay for this?

[jacko45k]

14 hours ago, jacob29 said:

Why do you think returning to your home country, potentially spreading it further back at home, was ever sound advice? I understand those desperate to get back for their own reasons, even if it puts others health at risk, but if you don't need to go back, you should be doing the responsible thing and staying put.

We are discussing mostly tourists here and there are a plethora of reasons they will be better off back in their home country. Dwindling finances is one. Hotels and restaurants being closed another. Medical facilities you are not entitled to another. Becoming a burden on both the place you are and your own country another. 

Your example of one person, I am alright Jack, in The Philippines seems minor compares to the hundreds of thousands who are now crying about being stranded and requiring special flights to extradite them. 

[pookondee]

2 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

We are discussing mostly tourists here and there are a plethora of reasons they will be better off back in their home country. Dwindling finances is one. Hotels and restaurants being closed another. Medical facilities you are not entitled to another. Becoming a burden on both the place you are and your own country another. 

Your example of one person, I am alright Jack, in The Philippines seems minor compares to the hundreds of thousands who are now crying about being stranded and requiring special flights to extradite them. 

Exactly. And its very hard to have any sympathy for them.

You could read many posts here, feb and even all throughout March, guys trying to work around the requirements to get back into Thailand before the lockdown.

 

Quite silly.

Even Stevie Wonder could see the issues.

Many people questioned about how Thailand would handle visas and overstay

 

And for those folks who know Thailand and what was going to happen..

and the dire predictions pretty much came true.

 

[ubonjoe]

8 hours ago, Deserted said:

I have to go to the embassy tomorrow, my visa expires in a week, so should I ask them for a letter to give me an extenSion until June 30th? WIll I have to pay for this?

It depends upon your nationality. Many embassies are doing them by email and there is no fee for it.

[pattayapip]

My Friend just went to Jomtien Immigration this morning, he entered on a visa exempt 30 day
Trapped here from going back to work, exemption runs out in 2 days
Got all the forms he thought he needed for this emergency extension, then was told he needs TM30 ?? Hmmmm
(Told to Go back to your rented house get letter blue book etc etc from owner) Have not read anything about that for this emergency extension anywhere ? Do they just make this S**t up ?
Why do they make everything just so difficult, even in this dangerous time we find ourselves in
Queues forming from before 7am, told to "social Distance" while under the tents erected outside for these increased numbers, but outside the tents where the lines get even longer . .  Nothing, Nose to Nose, Incredible  . . . . . 

[TJR1981]

I hope they do come up with some sort of reasonable solution to this mess. The non-for-profit I worked for decided not to sponsor my extension a couple days ago.

 

One day I have all the paperwork sorted for the extension the next day they say to go to hell pretty much.

 

Under normal circumstances, that wouldn't have been an issue. EXCEPT for the fact, my current visa was to expire on April 12th.

 

Given the fact the borders are shut, this has really put me in a jam.  I won't call out the specific non-for-profit school I was working for, but could they have picked a worse time to do this?

 

I got the visa extension letter from my embassy and went to Trat immigration and was also only given 7 days extension and told to come back with more documents to get the extra 23 days.

 

I doubt any logical change will come into effect before April 20^th, but one can only hope.

 

Stay safe

Edited April 1, 2020 by TJR1981

[dsf9]

28 minutes ago, TJR1981 said:

I hope they do come up with some sort of reasonable solution to this mess.

Coming in 2022

Edited April 1, 2020 by dsf9

[MagnumForce]

From Richard Barrow on Twitter just now: 

"Will this madness ever end? We are in the middle of a global pandemic and the Immigration bureau are still insisting for stranded foreign tourists and expats to jump through hoops to extend their stay. This is the latest list released by Trat Immigration. Look at No. 10"

[lovesthespicy]

So their was meetings proposed about extending visas as thread title says. What they came to was these requirements. I can just imagine the health minister like "dirty farangs smell bad no masks". 

 

When it was China it was just a simple letter and extend. Immigration was full of them having no problem's whatsoever.

Edited April 1, 2020 by lovesthespicy

[jimmjam]

5 minutes ago, MagnumForce said:

From Richard Barrow on Twitter just now: 

"Will this madness ever end? We are in the middle of a global pandemic and the Immigration bureau are still insisting for stranded foreign tourists and expats to jump through hoops to extend their stay. This is the latest list released by Trat Immigration. Look at No. 10"

The immigration loves us all. How kind of them to make it so easy to extend our visa's in such a horrible time.????‍♂️

[audaciousnomad]

7 minutes ago, MagnumForce said:

From Richard Barrow on Twitter just now: 

"Will this madness ever end? We are in the middle of a global pandemic and the Immigration bureau are still insisting for stranded foreign tourists and expats to jump through hoops to extend their stay. This is the latest list released by Trat Immigration. Look at No. 10"

Treating people like criminals. What da heck is the purpose of all that residential documentation. We're tourists for Christ's sake !!!!

Edited April 1, 2020 by audaciousnomad

[bangkokboy888]

8 minutes ago, MagnumForce said:

From Richard Barrow on Twitter just now: 

"Will this madness ever end? We are in the middle of a global pandemic and the Immigration bureau are still insisting for stranded foreign tourists and expats to jump through hoops to extend their stay. This is the latest list released by Trat Immigration. Look at No. 10"

unbelievable. the world is spinning out of control into an utter virus mess and immigration wants photos of the kitchen! i am usually one to refrain some pouncing on thailand immigration but this next level absurdity 

[sapson]

1 minute ago, audaciousnomad said:

Treating people like criminals. <deleted> is the purpose of all that residential documentation. We're tourists for Christ's sake !!!!

Yes its madness however you package it, a worldwide crisis people scared worried etc, you would expect all visa requirements to be totally relaxed and not obstructive, however it seems we are of a different mindset to the powers that be.......and must remember stating the obvious common sense solutions out of pure frustration could be deemed unsuitable for the readership if too obviously critical of our hosts....mmmm.

[Zikomat]

‘Please take the home owner together with you”.  

 

I can only imagine the reaction of the Thai owner of my apartment (whom I hardly know for 10 minutes) when I will ask him to go with me at 7 am to the overcrowded with farangs immigration office - FOR INTERROGATION. Most probably he will ask me to leave his apartment asap to avoid any future troubles with Covid and the Thai police.

 

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by Zikomat

[sapson]

24 minutes ago, jimmjam said:

Should be a facebook page HELPFUL IMMIGRATION in times of crisis.  With these reports.

[jimmjam]

5 minutes ago, Zikomat said:

I can only imagine the reaction of the Thai owner of my apartment (whom I hardly know for 10 minutes) when I will ask him to go with me at 7 am to the overcrowded with farangs immigration office - FOR INTERROGATION. Most probably he will ask me to leave his apartment asap to avoid any future troubles with Covid and the Thai police.

And how many people are actually going to be able to get there landlord to go with them. What if the landlord is in another province or is abroad.

Its obvious they dont want us here.

Quite happy to let the chinese come for months and spread covid19 everywhere.

[DrJack54]

11 minutes ago, Zikomat said:

I can only imagine the reaction of the Thai owner of my apartment (whom I hardly know for 10 minutes) when I will ask him to go with me at 7 am to the overcrowded with farangs immigration office - FOR INTERROGATION. Most probably he will ask me to leave his apartment asap to avoid any future troubles with Covid and the Thai police.

 

 

It's all been given no thought or planning. 

If I was your Thai landlord, I would most likely  say that I did the TM30. Provided you with receipt for rent and that's all I'm going to provide.

The requirements are just useless nonsense. Sadly we almost universally expected it. Another thread running where couple having similar grief at Hua Him imm

Edited April 1, 2020 by DrJack54

[audaciousnomad]

4 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

It's all been given no thought or planning. 

If I was your Thai landlord, I would most likely  say that I did the TM30. Provided you with receipt for rent and that's all I'm going to provide.

The requirements are just useless nonsense. Sadly we almost universally expected it. Another thread running where couple having similar grief at Hua Him imm

"requirements are just useless nonsense" ... but quite useful for them if you look at it closely. Lay down requirements that almost no landlord will be willing to help with, and the hapless tourist will undoubtedly have to overstay. What's more lucrative, 1900/30days or 500/1day for the entire time the tourist is stuck in an impossible situation? #AmazingThailand

Edited April 1, 2020 by audaciousnomad

[jimmjam]

I think these pictures should be sent to our embassies. They probably wont do anything as per usual.

[DualSportBiker]

Well, I have been given an additional and insurmountable hoop to jump through. My wife and I were married in Hong Kong in '98. We have never needed to register our marriage here. I have happily applied for and received Non-Imm O visas in Singapore and Savannakhet for the last ten years since we moved back from Singapore.

 

We have translated and certified copies of our marriage cert. They were notarised by the Thai Embassy in HK, a lawyer there, and then the MFA here. To date they have been acceptable to the Thai Embassies in Singapore and Laos. I missed my exit date on March 8 through my own failure. When we both presented ourselves to Nonthaburi immigration they required a kor ror 22 which is issued by the Amphoe office. The amphoe office will not issue one to us because the complete set of documents we have are older than 3 months! They told us to go to HK to get them anew!

 

I have written to my Embassy with the new document list from Trat to plead with them to exert what pressure they can. Here's hoping!

 

FYI: the list from Trat starts by requiring a letter from our embassies. In Thai it says only originals, no copies or printed versions accepted. It conveniently fails to translate that in English!

[GeorgeCross]

4 minutes ago, DualSportBiker said:

FYI: the list from Trat starts by requiring a letter from our embassies. In Thai it says only originals, no copies or printed versions accepted. It conveniently fails to translate that in English!

 

don't worry it will be jabbed at menacingly politely shown to you come application time

 

 

[Zikomat]

28 minutes ago, sapson said:

 They state in the beginning that these are the requirements for people “who were affected by Covid and CANNOT DEPART”.  So what if one who cannot depart at the moment and also cannot fulfill their idiotic requirements - what is this person supposed to do? Isn’t the fact that the person is stuck in this place already enough to provide him with some kind of legal solution? What the photo in the bathroom and the interrogation of the home owner in person has to do with the legal status of the person who has no other options but to stay in Thailand? An absolute absurd.

[samisaurus]

43 minutes ago, sapson said:

Is this also required from people extending a tourist visa ? 

[UdonRoy]

Congratulations to the powers that be. You are making damn sure your devastated tourist industry will not recover in the foreseeable future. 

 

I for one am right on the edge of saying screw these morons I am not going to endanger my family (daughter with asthma) or myself any more. I will accept the consequences when some form of normality has returned but I refuse to let their pea brained policies put my family at risk! 

 

Maybe some eloquent individual could pen an email outlining our concerns and we can flood the office responsible with it. Probably wouldn't do any good but surely at some point we have to say NO. 

[TJR1981]

1 hour ago, MagnumForce said:

From Richard Barrow on Twitter just now: 

"Will this madness ever end? We are in the middle of a global pandemic and the Immigration bureau are still insisting for stranded foreign tourists and expats to jump through hoops to extend their stay. This is the latest list released by Trat Immigration. Look at No. 10"

Yep number 10 is ridiculous. They gave us that form yesterday when we went to the immigration in Laem Ngop.  We live in Maehongson and are just down here on vacation away from the smoke up north. Not quite sure how we are supposed to make number 10 happen. 

 

According to the document a friend sent us in Chiang Mai the attached is the only thing you need to fill out for the extension up in Chiang Mai.

[Zikomat]

3 minutes ago, samisaurus said:

Is this also required from people extending a tourist visa ? 

I think it depends on if this is your first extension or the second one. 
 

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by Zikomat

[TJR1981]

2 minutes ago, Zikomat said:

I think it depends on if this is your first extension or the second one. 
 

 

This was our 1st extension.

[DrJack54]

2 minutes ago, Zikomat said:

I think depends on if this is your first extension or the second one. 

First extension embassy letter etc not required.

Second extension = hell+ kitchen sink

[Zikomat]

8 minutes ago, TJR1981 said:

Yep number 10 is ridiculous. They gave us that form yesterday when we went to the immigration in Laem Ngop.  We live in Maehongson and are just down here on vacation away from the smoke up north. Not quite sure how we are supposed to make number 10 happen. 

 

According to the document a friend sent us in Chiang Mai the attached is the only thing you need to fill out for the extension up in Chiang Mai.

These are specifics of Thailand. The different immigration offices have different requirements for the same type of visa extension. Which leads me to think that most of the troubles we face in places like Jomtien or Trat have a root in not so high level government officers’ voluntary decisions.

 

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by Zikomat

[PMZ]

48 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

First extension embassy letter etc not required.

Second extension = hell+ kitchen sink

Thanks. for this info.

I entered Thailand (UK Passport) on a 30 Day Visa Waiver on 06 March, valid to 04 April.

I will go to CW tomorrow, so I assume this is classed as a 'first extension'?

What form do I need to complete for the 'first extension?

And, do you happen to know if 'first. extensions' will be at CW or at the new Muang Tomg Thani location?

Apologies for so many questions....