Thai govt and Immigration confirm second visa amnesty - no need to do 90 day reports or extend visas

[r72a]

I'm assuming this new amnesty will also apply to people with visa exemption stamps that expire after after 26th Feb?

Edited April 23, 2020 by r72a
to clarify a date

[david2923]

In this country, I would still make an attempt to do whatever.

I have found these immigration people not to be so bright and informed 

 

[ubonjoe]

30 minutes ago, cleopatra2 said:

Where in Thai law is the power granted to a minister to disapply section 37(5) of the immigration act

( 90 days report).

Section 17 of the immigration act only allows the disapplication to certain groups in accordance to their permission to stay as a special case.

It also mentions section 5 and other orders and etc.

"Section 5 : The Minister of Interior shall be in charge and have control for the executive of this Act and
shall have power to appoint competent officials , and Issue Minister Regulations ; to fix fees and other
expense not exceeding rates annexed to this Act and to fix other activities for the execution of this Act.
Such Ministerial Regulations shall become effective after having been published in the government
Gazette."

And section 17.

Section 17 : In certain special cases , the Minister , by the Cabinet approval , may permit any alien or any
group of aliens to stay in the Kingdom under certain conditions , or may conditions , or may consider
exemption from being conformity with this Act.

 

Iti certainly a legal order. Do you think an immigration officer would contest its validity?

[DrJack54]

36 minutes ago, r72a said:

I'm assuming this new amnesty will also apply to people with visa exemption stamps that expire after after 26th Feb?

You mean 26 March. Answer yes.

[cleopatra2]

19 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

It also mentions section 5 and other orders and etc.

"Section 5 : The Minister of Interior shall be in charge and have control for the executive of this Act and
shall have power to appoint competent officials , and Issue Minister Regulations ; to fix fees and other
expense not exceeding rates annexed to this Act and to fix other activities for the execution of this Act.
Such Ministerial Regulations shall become effective after having been published in the government
Gazette."

And section 17.

Section 17 : In certain special cases , the Minister , by the Cabinet approval , may permit any alien or any
group of aliens to stay in the Kingdom under certain conditions , or may conditions , or may consider
exemption from being conformity with this Act.

 

Iti certainly a legal order. Do you think an immigration officer would contest its validity?

You are missing the issue.

The order is certainly lawfully.

What I am asking if persons on yearly extensions are not covered in section 2 of the order where is the legal basis for a minister to issue a disapplication of 37(5).

Whilst immigration section 17 allows the diapplication. It is only for persons covered by the special case.

Immigration act Section 5 allows for issuing of ministerial orders. This does not include granting the minister more powers than the law allows.

Edited April 23, 2020 by cleopatra2

[ubonjoe]

37 minutes ago, Old Croc said:

Amphurs are where you register marriages.

Obviously, as stated, I have yet to do this despite being in the relationship for more than a dozen years. Getting documents from my consulate and having them translated took longer than expected and, strangely enough, the virus closedowns weren't anticipated. The Amphurs closed the day before we went there, remain shut and are now inaccessible anyway because of roadblocks.

The fact that there are 4 public holidays at the beginning of May cause additional difficulty in getting advice from Immigration before my extension expires. Of course, I could apply for retirement again, face the chance of rejection, and come under the blanket amnesty of someone without a current permission to stay, but have good reason to avoid this.

Perhaps you now have a better understanding of my interest in accuracy on the issue. 

You wrote "Amphurs closed down before I could register the act." which led to my question. To me that might mean getting a updated Kor Ror 2 or 22. Or registering a foreign marriage. to get a Kor Ror 22.

Basically you only have May 5th (not a holiday) to try and do it or until the 7th.

If you entered on a Non-OA visa and have been extending that entry then you will need insurance unless Phuket immigration does not ask for it.

Perhaps immigration would cut you a little slack and let your application slide for a few days to get time to register your marriage. No overstay fine even if they tried to say you were on an overstay.

[soalbundy]

I went to the IO (one day early) to do my 90 day report (Kap Choen). It is a small office to service the Surin area. It has always been a nice friendly place, very comfortable to be in, today was no exception. They had plastic chairs placed outside the office (nice gardens) and an IO stood nearby to ask what you needed, I told him 90 day report, he took my passport and went into the office while I sat outside and waited, 5 minutes later he came back with the passport with a new date to report (90 days) stamped on the new paper slip, all done and dusted.

[ubonjoe]

4 minutes ago, cleopatra2 said:

You are missing the issue.

I still do not see the issue.

5 minutes ago, cleopatra2 said:

What I am asking if persons on yearly extensions are not covered in section of the order where is the legal basis for a minister to issue a disapplication of 37(5).

You can stay longer than 90 days in the country with a permit to stay from some visas. A Non-OA, Non-LA or a PE visa (Thai Elite) and a few others for example.

[ubonjoe]

4 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

I went to the IO (one day early) to do my 90 day report (Kap Choen).

Why?

It was not required.

[cleopatra2]

41 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

I still do not see the issue.

You can stay longer than 90 days in the country with a permit to stay from some visas. A Non-OA, Non-LA or a PE visa (Thai Elite) and a few others for example.

The general consensus is 90 day residence reports are not required due to the latest ministerial order on 8 April.

I am asking if yearly extensions of stay are not covered by section 2 of that order where in law does the minister have the power to disapply immigration act 37(5) ( 90 day reporting) , for persons not covered by section 2 .

Immigration Act section 5 allows the minister to issue regulations for the execution of the act.

In executing section  17 of the immigration act a ministerial order is issued.

Section 2 of the issued ministerial order , defines the group of aliens allowed to stay as special case. The sub sections , namely 2(1), 2(2) and 2(3) are the conditions attached to the execution of immigration act section 17.

 

Thus where in law does the minister have the power to issue to persons not covered by section 2 of the ministerial order a disapplication of 37(5).

 

Edited April 23, 2020 by cleopatra2

[cnxnicho]

12 minutes ago, cleopatra2 said:

The general consensus is 90 day residence reports are not required due to the latest ministerial order on 8 April.

I am asking if yearly extensions of stay are not covered by section 2 of that order where in law does the minister have the power to disapply immigration act 37(5) ( 90 day reporting) , for persons not covered by section 2 .

Immigration Act section 5 allows the minister to issue regulations for the execution of the act.

In executing section  17 of the immigration act a ministerial order is issued.

Section 2 of the issued ministerial order , defines the group of aliens allowed to stay as special case. The sub sections , namely 2(1), 2(2) and 2(3) are the conditions attached to the execution of immigration act section 17.

 

Thus where in law does the minister have the power to issue to persons not covered by section 2 of the ministerial order a disapplication of 37(5).

 

cleopatra2 your time is up, get a life!

[cleopatra2]

8 minutes ago, cnxnicho said:

cleopatra2 your time is up, get a life!

All you have to do is look at how the order is written to understand that sub section (2)of the order is linked to section 2.

 

At the end of section 2 is a colon symbol.

At the end of section 2(1) is a semicolon.

At the end of section 2(2) is a semicolon.

At the end of section 2(3) is a full stop.

[Sonyboy]

On 4/22/2020 at 10:15 AM, Thailand said:

Not doing the 90 day report is more likely to create problems in the future than not at some offices.

 

Chiang Mai in full swing with drive in etc. We will do ours when due.

Same here,might give the online one another go,it was a bit iffy a year ago,if not,I will do a quick visit, Thai immigration can be a bit 'strange' at times when they are not sure about how to use the rules,or their interpretation the rules on the day,and they have the last word,I will also save future problems and get it stamped.

[watthong]

2 hours ago, soalbundy said:

It is a small office to service the Surin area. It has always been a nice friendly place, very comfortable to be in, today was no exception. They had plastic chairs placed outside the office (nice gardens) and an IO stood nearby to ask what you needed

What's the living cost in Surin? My gosh...sitting on chair placed in nice garden with IO standing by at my beck and call? You have just described my recurrent dream, happens about once every 3 months...

[slugfest]

Amnesty for visas that expired after 26th March, great! But when did my visa expire?

 

-I arrived in Thailand on a standard 60 day Tourist Visa late January, and it expired on the 29th March.

 

-I went into Phetchabun immigration on the 25th March for my normal 30 day extension, and extended my visa until the 28th April.

 

Question: When does/did my tourist visa expire??

 

1- 29th March 

2- 28th April

3- 25th March

 

Show your working...

[jackdd]

8 minutes ago, slugfest said:

Amnesty for visas that expired after 26th March, great! But when did my visa expire?

When they say "visa" they actually mean "permission of stay" and not the visa itself.

 

8 minutes ago, slugfest said:

-I arrived in Thailand on a standard 60 day Tourist Visa late January, and it expired on the 29th March.

Your permission to stay probably expired on 29th March, your visa expired on some other day. (it's written on your visa, but it's not relevant when your actual visa expired)

 

8 minutes ago, slugfest said:

-I went into Phetchabun immigration on the 25th March for my normal 30 day extension, and extended my visa until the 28th April.

You extended your permission of stay, which is commonly called "visa extension".

 

You had permission to stay until after 26th March (even before getting the extension), thus you are automatically extended until 31st July.

 

Edited April 23, 2020 by jackdd

[watthong]

19 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

I think you're overstating it.  Workplaces like offices are still open although employing social-distancing.  Immigration is no exception.  Shutting down the whole place would lead to chaos when it re-opens.  The current plan is logical as it removes the necessity for all the stranded tourists and border-runners to make the trip to Immigration. Extending their stay until 31 July gives them plenty of time to go home, or, when the borders reopen, do their border run.  Expats who live here are in a different position - Thailand is their home!

Chaos is organizational, not virus-related. You can not control the virus, chaos however certainly can be controlled. People are not going to drop dead by missing a deadline.

 

Before we even get there, immigration is no ordinary office, especially at Bangkok CW. By the nature of the kind of business it conducts, it must be one of the highest-risk kind of place as far as infection goes. People coming from long flights/bus/train rides, overstuffed airports/bus terminals, from god knows what corners of the earth, in particular plenty from Wuhan and the likes. Virus load in the air of these offices must be dense (that's why at some places in province they make you wait outside in "nice gardens.") How many IOs have been infected while dealing with those applicants day in out? Nobody knows and Anutin is not going to whisper in your ear the number. This is the point you keep ignoring: The reason for amnesty extension is to stop the spread of virus, it says so in the government manifest.

 

Much lesser risk places, ie schools, restaurants have been shut down. Besides, an overstay is not going to kill anyone physically. But a virus does, and it's invisible. A thermo check at the door is no more than a mask-under-chin measure.  And just because Thailand is your home or because you're not tourist, the virus will give you a pass. You can be complacent until it hits you. But then it depends how one values one life over a piece of document.

[HandsomeTallFarang]

I don’t understand why people complain about 90 day reports when those of us relying on border runs and 30 days extensions exist lol. At least you don’t need to do border runs and fly to Malaysia or take a van to Cambodia.

[Siameaze]

17 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Standard bank letter. bank letter.pdf  I used the same letter from Bangkok Bank for my extension at immigration.

You will need a bank statement showing all of your transfer. It takes about a week to get the bank statment that will show 12 months.

 

 

Thanks for copy of bank letter, Joe

i was only going to copy and highlight my bank book but now will get an "official"  statement from the bank.

Thanks also for replying to other TV poster that U.S. no longer issues embassy letters.

You provide a good service by your attention to postings and sound, experienced replies.

Very much appreciated

[connda]

12 hours ago, edwardandtubs said:

 

This is untrue. There are plenty of airlines using Bangkok as a stopover. For example you can fly with Eva Air back to London for 20,825 next week. Anyone who really needs to get home can but a lot of tourists have run out of money or are just waiting it out until flight prices decrease.

Let's stop and think like some of the foreigners on the ground. 

At this moment there is a declared pandemic and in many places enforced 'social distancing'.
Virtually all main-stream news outlets say that Covid-19 is deadly and if you get it it's a death sentence.

So, if you are a rational person who believes what they are told by "authoritative sources", then why would anyone want to board a plane and sit for hours re-breathing recycled air in an enclosed tube with people you don't know who may have the deadly Covid-19 virus?

That's why people don't want to get on a plane.  They feel safer sheltering in place on the ground separated from other people.

[KhaoNiaw]

1 minute ago, connda said:

Virtually all main-stream news outlets say that Covid-19 is deadly and if you get it it's a death sentence.

That's completely untrue.

[phuketrichard]

6 minutes ago, KhaoNiaw said:

That's completely untrue.

agree

worldwide

2,637,314 cases of infection

183,559 deaths     .06%

hardly , "Covid-19 is deadly and if you get it it's a death sentence."

 

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

 

[MikeN]

7 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

But why would a person not do their extension? The offices are not crowded now and will not be until after the order ends. 

I would hope that people that need to be prepared to the their extension are not avoiding doing it. For example those using the 800k or 400k baht in the bank for 2 months before the day they apply.

Can you imagine the mess in August it would be if a lot people skipped their extensions and showed up in August to do them.

My retirement extension is due 31 May, and I intend to do it by then, probably early May, unless Ubon Ratchathani immigration specifically say do not do it ....."just in case" !

The whole thing is as clear as mud at the moment regarding extensions vs visas only.

Even if I did not go in until August I would fully expect the extension to be back dated to when it was due in May so it's not going to make any real difference in the end.

[MikeN]

22 minutes ago, phuketrichard said:

agree

worldwide

2,637,314 cases of infection

183,559 deaths     .06%

hardly , "Covid-19 is deadly and if you get it it's a death sentence."

 

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

 

LOL Irrelevant to this topic, but I think you should recalculate your percentages and move the decimal point a couple of places ! 

183,559/2,637,314=6.9%

Edited April 23, 2020 by MikeN

[ubonjoe]

4 minutes ago, MikeN said:

My retirement extension is due 31 May, and I intend to do it by then, probably early May, unless Ubon Ratchathani immigration specifically say do not do it ....."just in case" !

People have applied for extensions since the 7th of this month and I have seen no reports of anybody being turned away.

 

5 minutes ago, MikeN said:

Even if I did not go in until August I would fully expect the extension to be back dated to when it was due in May so it's not going to make any real difference in the end.

I would not bet on it being back dated or even accepted.

[MikeN]

6 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

People have applied for extensions since the 7th of this month and I have seen no reports of anybody being turned away.

 

I would not bet on it being back dated or even accepted.

Yes, which is why I will be doing it on schedule !

[brewsterbudgen]

2 hours ago, watthong said:

Chaos is organizational, not virus-related. You can not control the virus, chaos however certainly can be controlled. People are not going to drop dead by missing a deadline.

 

Before we even get there, immigration is no ordinary office, especially at Bangkok CW. By the nature of the kind of business it conducts, it must be one of the highest-risk kind of place as far as infection goes. People coming from long flights/bus/train rides, overstuffed airports/bus terminals, from god knows what corners of the earth, in particular plenty from Wuhan and the likes. Virus load in the air of these offices must be dense (that's why at some places in province they make you wait outside in "nice gardens.") How many IOs have been infected while dealing with those applicants day in out? Nobody knows and Anutin is not going to whisper in your ear the number. This is the point you keep ignoring: The reason for amnesty extension is to stop the spread of virus, it says so in the government manifest.

 

Much lesser risk places, ie schools, restaurants have been shut down. Besides, an overstay is not going to kill anyone physically. But a virus does, and it's invisible. A thermo check at the door is no more than a mask-under-chin measure.  And just because Thailand is your home or because you're not tourist, the virus will give you a pass. You can be complacent until it hits you. But then it depends how one values one life over a piece of document.

True, but life goes on, there isn't a complete lockdown here in Bangkok and people need to work.  Some colleagues did their Extensions at Chaengwattana on Tuesday and there was a fairly successful attempt at social-distancing, mask wearing and lots of hand sanitiser.  If you are really concerned about going to Immigration to do your Extension, I doubt much will happen if you wait until 31 July, although you run the risk of being charged for over-staying.  Hopefully they will understand your concerns.  Letting the pandemic dominate your life and isolating yourself completely is certainly an option, but not mine.  I've been going to work every day so far.  Good luck, and let us know what happens when you join the throng at Immigration on 1 August!

[RickBlaine]

7 hours ago, Jorgendk said:

Your 'Extension to stay' is automatically extended until 31 July!

 

My Non-O multi entry Visa (Given on grounds of Married to Thai) expired in February, I came back to Thailand (After a 30 minutes trip to Laos) on 25 February before the Visa expired, and got 90 days 'permition to stay' (Until 25 April). That was automatically extended until  30 April, and is now again automatically extended until 31 July.

When  (If) the border opens before 31 July, I have to go to Lao sometime before 31 July to get a new Visa. Until then I don't have to do anything (Including 90 days reporting )

This has all been confirmed by Mukdahan immigration.

Thanks for that, and good to know it's been confirmed. I'm in a similar situation - marriage visa expired 18 March. I did one last 90 extension, just before the border closed, valid til early June. I did fear we'd 'fallen through a crack' - in that the order talks of a visa amnesty - but our visas have expired, we only have a 'permission to stay', and the Govn PR website states '... whose visas expired on or after 26 March 2020'. Ours of course expired before that.

I'll do the same as you, get a new visa as soon as the border re-opens.

[zhounan]

Good News! 

[DrJack54]

1 hour ago, connda said:

Let's stop and think like some of the foreigners on the ground. 

At this moment there is a declared pandemic and in many places enforced 'social distancing'.
Virtually all main-stream news outlets say that Covid-19 is deadly and if you get it it's a death sentence.

So, if you are a rational person who believes what they are told by "authoritative sources", then why would anyone want to board a plane and sit for hours re-breathing recycled air in an enclosed tube with people you don't know who may have the deadly Covid-19 virus?

That's why people don't want to get on a plane.  They feel safer sheltering in place on the ground separated from other people.

I love the bit...."if you get it it's a death sentence"

Most ridiculous comment 2020 and there has been a few.