PM Prayuth signs order to grant visa amnesty to foreigners in Thailand

[Sambotte]

3 minutes ago, Condog97 said:

 just emphasising how easy it is to visit the country and how laid back the immigration is about it.

 

[...]

 

 The thai government is extremely relaxed on letting people come and go freely to visit their country. 

Well... most of the time. But it's kind of RUINED when they put you in detention, with only option to go back with the same airline. 

You may have missed the numerous reports about that ????

[greggraham]

[connda]

4 hours ago, Lee20 said:

I went to CW office applied 30 days extension on 25Mar(the most crowded day I think).  My original tax exempt stamp expired on 30Mar, I wait for 10 hours and got a stamp that my extension was under consideration and must contact the immigration office again on 22Apr.  Do you guys have any idea I really need to contact the immigration on 22Apr or I can get automated extension for one month from my original expired date of 30Mar?  Thanks a lot! 

Good question.  I wonder how many foreigners will misinterpret the announcement (when made official) and will end up on overstay, fined, and tossed into IDC for deportation -- because they thought they were covered.  

A sane country would simply say, "Immigration closed until further notice.  Blanket amnesty until reopened."  But.........

[scorecard]

10 minutes ago, Sambotte said:

Well... most of the time. But it's kind of RUINED when they put you in detention, with only option to go back with the same airline. 

You may have missed the numerous reports about that ????

If you break the law / regulations in any country you're in trouble. If exchange students studying in Australia miss 1 class expect a visit from an Immigration offer, twice and they're at your door immediately to help you pack your bags and take you to the airport.

 

If you do break the law then you have created the problem and you have RUINED your stay. 

Edited April 8, 2020 by scorecard

[scorecard]

2 minutes ago, connda said:

Good question.  I wonder how many foreigners will misinterpret the announcement (when made official) and will end up on overstay, fined, and tossed into IDC for deportation -- because they thought they were covered.  

A sane country would simply say, "Immigration closed until further notice.  Blanket amnesty until reopened."  But.........

Meaning that they should check the order, an official English translation will probably be on TV on Thursday 9 Apr.

 

Those who don't check it to be sure are making their own problem. 

 

 

[Sambotte]

1 minute ago, scorecard said:

If you break the law / regulations in any country you're in trouble. If exchange students studying in Australia miss 1 class expect a visit from an Immigration offer, twice and they're at your door immediately to help you pack your bags and take you to the airport.

 

If you do break the law then you have created the problem and you have RUINED your stay. 

Agree. But DYOR. The problem is it can be a kind of lotery. Without breaking law. With false reason like "not enough money" when people have and can not even show it ! Many reports about that i will not develop here. DYOR. Immigration has totally changed since a few years.

[smedly]

so 90 day report still required 

 

what a croc

[audaciousnomad]

???? Announcing the latest visa relief measures on 7 April 2020
.
????‍♂️ The person whose visas has expired from 26th of March 2020 will be automatically extended to 30th of April 2020. There is no need to apply for a visa extension at Immigration Office for this period and will not be fined THB 500 per day for this case. 
.
????‍♂️ Aliens who are due for 90 days reports between 26th of March 2020 and 30th of April 2020 are temporarily exempted from reporting in this period until further notice. 
.
????‍♂️Aliens who are holding Border Passes will be allowed to stay in Thailand for now. However, Aliens with Border Passes must depart Thailand within 7 days of the border crossing points opening date. 
.
????‍♂️Aliens are advised to follow announcements regarding Immigration measures closely for updates. (Currently measures announced until 30 April 2020 or further updates)

[ChaiyaTH]

So that means all foreigners will have to leave in like the same day, as most things are not back to normal for sure before April 30th.... 
My best guess is that this will either result in another 30 days OR absolute chaos and additional overstay.
(OR is this only to give us time to still fk off?)

Edited April 8, 2020 by ChaiyaTH

[Zikomat]

9 minutes ago, greggraham said:

My visa has expired on 24 of March. Then  I got one week extension until 31.03 and then the ‘under consideration’ stamp until 20.04. Am I eligible for this automatic extension or not?

[ChaiyaTH]

1 minute ago, Zikomat said:

My visa has expired on 24 of March. Then  I got one week extension until 31.03 and then the ‘under consideration’ stamp until 20.04. Am I eligible for this automatic extension or not?

Yeah obviously as your extension is after 26th. 

[xtof2]

5 minutes ago, audaciousnomad said:

???? Announcing the latest visa relief measures on 7 April 2020
.
????‍♂️ The person whose visas has expired from 26th of March 2020 will be automatically extended to 30th of April 2020. There is no need to apply for a visa extension at Immigration Office for this period and will not be fined THB 500 per day for this case. 
.
????‍♂️ Aliens who are due for 90 days reports between 26th of March 2020 and 30th of April 2020 are temporarily exempted from reporting in this period until further notice. 
.
????‍♂️Aliens who are holding Border Passes will be allowed to stay in Thailand for now. However, Aliens with Border Passes must depart Thailand within 7 days of the border crossing points opening date. 
.
????‍♂️Aliens are advised to follow announcements regarding Immigration measures closely for updates. (Currently measures announced until 30 April 2020 or further updates)

Thanks for that. Is it the official translation from the Royal Gazette ?

[audaciousnomad]

3 minutes ago, ChaiyaTH said:

Yeah obviously as your extension is after 26th. 

To be safe, @Zikomat might want to send them a message. Because "Under Consideration" is an appointment date to receive a valid "Permitted To Stay Until" stamp.  I would just call/emai/msg them to be sure. You have until 4/20 anyway...so plenty of time to wait for them to reply. 

[elliss]

4 hours ago, greggraham said:

Title text: "grant visa amnesty to foreigners"

Article text: "special permission for some classes of aliens to stay in the Kingdom."

 

Not quite the same is it. 

 

 Foreigners left stranded in Thailand . That includes us all ..

  Nuff said .

[audaciousnomad]

3 minutes ago, xtof2 said:

Thanks for that. Is it the official translation from the Royal Gazette ?

That is from the Facebook page of the Immigration Bureau of Thailand. I can only assume they crafted these points from the information they received in the decree signed by the PM and submitted to the Royal Gazette.

[greggraham]

Also here: https://immigration.go.th/content/visa_auto_extension 

[LastStraw]

This new info is great news, I'm happy for the many people that won't have to experience what I did the other day. Contrary to the old saying, I would wish that on my worst enemy, but not for the other billions of people currently living on this planet. 

 

I'm always trying to focus on the bright side of things, at least this way i didn't have to put much thought into a username to join this forum

 

[rbkk]

33 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

At least it's not gweilo. Damn white ghosts.

Gweilo can also be translated as 'Foreign white devil.' I first heard it in 1960's HK. I asked my dad what it meant. Its use is less common today. 

[scorecard]

6 minutes ago, xtof2 said:

Thanks for that. Is it the official translation from the Royal Gazette ?

I don't know the answer to your question.

 

But it seems to be incomplete because the actual order says that people with Thai permanent residence who cannot get back to Thailand before their current re-entry stamp expiry date are granted an extra 12 months on their current re-entry stamp .....

[Moonlover]

5 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

90 day reporting will also be suspended.

 

So, they're going to suspend the 90 day report.

 

I can understand that this will be of great benefit to many people.

 

But, after 5 years of struggling, I managed, for the first time to get the on line reporting to work for me just a few weeks ago! I feel deprived now!

[Lacessit]

3 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

So, they're going to suspend the 90 day report.

 

I can understand that this will be of great benefit to many people.

 

But, after 5 years of struggling, I managed, for the first time to get the on line reporting to work for me just a few weeks ago! I feel deprived now!

Yeah, it's a bit like training your GF to do a good massage, then the shops open up again and she cries off.

I'm hoping they get to abolish it entirely, a waste of everyone's time. What does it actually achieve?

Or would you rather it stayed, to give you some satisfaction?

[Just Weird]

4 hours ago, greggraham said:

Title text: "grant visa amnesty to foreigners"

Article text: "special permission for some classes of aliens to stay in the Kingdom."

 

Not quite the same is it. 

That's 100% down to the writer of Thaivisa's article, not the new law.

[Moonlover]

2 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Yeah, it's a bit like training your GF to do a good massage, then the shops open up again and she cries off.

I'm hoping they get to abolish it entirely, a waste of everyone's time. What does it actually achieve?

Or would you rather it stayed, to give you some satisfaction?

I've actually no idea what it ever achieved, so yer, let's dump it for good. Big Joke gets his way at last.

 

 

[anterian]

Every day a few people go to immigration for their 90 day report, but if this is now deferred until the 30th April, or further, it means they will all turn up at the same time, so big crowd. 

[Enoon]

53 minutes ago, greggraham said:

 

So it's not a 30 day extension.

 

All they are saying is that if your visa expired, or is going to expire, on or after the 26th March or during the month of April, you can wait until the 30th April before you have to get it extended.

 

That's the "amnesty".........overstay charges suspended but will be levied from 1st May.

 

 

Edited April 8, 2020 by Enoon

[yang123]

A full text translation of the notice is needed here.  

[ANDREW999]

6 minutes ago, Enoon said:

 

So it's not a 30 day extension.

 

All they are saying is that if your visa expired, or is going to expire, on or after the 26th March or during the month of April, you can wait until the 30th April before you have to get it extended.

 

 

Correct. For me is 5 days extra to my already 2nd "covid" extension. But it's something else for some people. And this might only be a temporary/extended situation. Like the ban to flights. First it was a weekend, then 2 weeks... They seem to like implementing things this way.

Edited April 8, 2020 by ANDREW999

[Sickocock]

Great news for those with a visa, but the ones with only a visa exempt stamp will not be eliglible as far is i can see.

[Mike Teavee]

12 minutes ago, Enoon said:

 

So it's not a 30 day extension.

 

All they are saying is that if your visa expired, or is going to expire, on or after the 26th March or during the month of April, you can wait until the 30th April before you have to get it extended.

 

 

It's currently until 30th April with every expectation it will be extended to 31st May etc... until things get somewhere close to "Normal" again... 

 

[ColtenSloan]

So my visa expired match 28th I'm currently on my 30 day extension until April 27th... What does this mean for me once April 27th Rolla around?? ????????