Marriage home inspection.. Not home.

[LivinLOS]

Just did a marriage extension from a new visa, and despite many extensions in the past, together and married years, this time, for the first time ever, they want someone to come check on us. 

Problem is day after tomorrow we are going away, a week with the family and then have rented a villa for a month on Samui.. Our return date timed for the exact end date of the + 30 under consideration (in fact I want even a few days longer but we will see). They of course cannot tell me when they want to have someone come visit us. Just some random point in that month. 

I am not going to be there, and I am not changing my plans. So what will likely happen ?? 

 

Given theres an amesty until July 31, whats the worst that could happen ?? Want to be gone around mid august anyway. 

 

[ubonjoe]

They normally will can you to inform you when they plan on doing the home visit. Most of the time it will be done withing a week or so after you apply for the extension.

If they want to do the home visit and you are not available for it they may disapprove your application and then you would get 7 days to leave the country.

[fourpack]

Did you think of explaining the fact your going away to immigration. As you have never had a visit so wasn't expected and you have booked a holiday? 

 

[LivinLOS]

57 minutes ago, fourpack said:

Did you think of explaining the fact your going away to immigration. As you have never had a visit so wasn't expected and you have booked a holiday? 

 

Yes absolutely.. I made it VERY clear we could not be there, she just wouldnt accept that and said we had to be. Not that should could say when we had to be there, just we had to be on call and waiting for them. After 2.5 months lock down, am not doing another one. 

Together 16 or 17 years.. Married a decade.. At least 7 extensions in 2 different offices.. She said because it was an extension from a visa entry, it had to happen. 

 

Edited June 8, 2020 by LivinLOS

[LivinLOS]

1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:

They normally will can you to inform you when they plan on doing the home visit. Most of the time it will be done withing a week or so after you apply for the extension.

If they want to do the home visit and you are not available for it they may disapprove your application and then you would get 7 days to leave the country.

7 days from the under review end date ?? Which will still be within the amnesty period.. 

 

If local borders are open by then that will be fine by me.. If not it presents a greater challenge. 

 

If I just leave the country, does it simply reset everything ?? Eg if any land border opens I can leave, blow the whole thing off, get a fresh 30 days and deal with it later ?? 

Wish I hadnt bothered with any of it now. 

[fourpack]

17 hours ago, LivinLOS said:

Yes absolutely.. I made it VERY clear we could not be there, she just wouldnt accept that and said we had to be. Not that should could say when we had to be there, just we had to be on call and waiting for them. After 2.5 months lock down, am not doing another one. 

Together 16 or 17 years.. Married a decade.. At least 7 extensions in 2 different offices.. She said because it was an extension from a visa entry, it had to happen. 

 

I feel your pain your in a catch 22.

As Joe says they could then refuse your extension. 

Personally I would wait and then go on holiday.

But you must choose and once the decision is made you have to deal with the resulting consequences of your decision.

Good luck

Edited June 9, 2020 by fourpack

[LivinLOS]

Agreed, the decision is done, an island villa booked and paid for a month, I am not living under some kind of house arrest, I find the expectation that you are not free to move around and live your life beyond reasonable, and will live with whatever outcome. 

I will return, on the date that is stamped that I must return, other than that we have no clear idea of timetables, schedules, visits, or anything. Everything left vague and unclear. That doesnt work for me. 

Thailand wants domestic tourism, spenders, fine I will drop 3 or 400k into Samuis economy this month.. If thats not what they want, fine I can drop it into Europe next month, really doesnt alter my life either outcome. 

 

Edited June 9, 2020 by LivinLOS

[OJAS]

2 hours ago, LivinLOS said:

Agreed, the decision is done, an island villa booked and paid for a month, I am not living under some kind of house arrest, I find the expectation that you are not free to move around and live your life beyond reasonable, and will live with whatever outcome. 

I will return, on the date that is stamped that I must return, other than that we have no clear idea of timetables, schedules, visits, or anything. Everything left vague and unclear. That doesnt work for me. 

Thailand wants domestic tourism, spenders, fine I will drop 3 or 400k into Samuis economy this month.. If thats not what they want, fine I can drop it into Europe next month, really doesnt alter my life either outcome. 

 

In the circumstances I think that the only option open to you is to hot-foot it down to your local immigration office ASAP (and I literally mean this very afternoon on Tuesday 9th June 2020 if you're planning to be away from tomorrow) clutching a fresh application for a 60-day extension for the purposes of visiting your wife. This should tie you over for the month you will be away, and you can sort out a fresh 1-year extension upon your return.

[yuyiinthesky]

2 hours ago, LivinLOS said:

Agreed, the decision is done, an island villa booked and paid for a month, I am not living under some kind of house arrest, I find the expectation that you are not free to move around and live your life beyond reasonable, and will live with whatever outcome. 

Invite them to visit you there. The island villa is doing the TM30, so they see it in their system anyway.

[LivinLOS]

16 minutes ago, yuyiinthesky said:

Invite them to visit you there. The island villa is doing the TM30, so they see it in their system anyway.

Yeah see how that works out ????

 

[Peter Denis]

24 minutes ago, OJAS said:

In the circumstances I think that the only option open to you is to hot-foot it down to your local immigration office ASAP (and I literally mean this very afternoon on Tuesday 9th June 2020 if you're planning to be away from tomorrow) clutching a fresh application for a 60-day extension for the purposes of visiting your wife. This should tie you over for the month you will be away, and you can sort out a fresh 1-year extension upon your return.

He already applied for the 1-year extension of stay of his Non Imm O marriage Visa and is presently in the 'under consideration' period.  But if IO is willing to cancel his present application, and provide him with a 60-day extension of stay for reason of visiting his wife, that would indeed solve the issue.  Worth a try!

[LivinLOS]

26 minutes ago, OJAS said:

In the circumstances I think that the only option open to you is to hot-foot it down to your local immigration office ASAP (and I literally mean this very afternoon on Tuesday 9th June 2020 if you're planning to be away from tomorrow) clutching a fresh application for a 60-day extension for the purposes of visiting your wife. This should tie you over for the month you will be away, and you can sort out a fresh 1-year extension upon your return.

Past the point of letting it ruin my day.. Wasted far too much time and energy on it already. If they give me 7 days to leave in July.. Then I work that out when it happens.. I have homes in other places and am usually back and forth all the time anyway. Theres a limit to how much I can be ordered about and the expectation I drop all my plans and wait, with no date, clarity, or commitment of any kind from them is past my personal obedience threshold, I am not on parole !! Not only me, my wifes had enough of it too, so we will just worry about it later. 

 

I am having a months holiday, going diving, sailing, enjoying the beach and not going to let petty bureaucrats trouble me.. Once thats done I am (almost) ready to get back to Europe so if thats the outcome, and I have to bring my plans forward a bit, no big deal, certainly less than the self respect I would lose being ordered about. 

[Peter Denis]

5 minutes ago, LivinLOS said:

,,,

There's a limit to how much I can be ordered about and the expectation I drop all my plans and wait, with no date, clarity, or commitment of any kind from them is past my personal obedience threshold, I am not on parole !!

...

I am having a months holiday, going diving, sailing, enjoying the beach and not going to let petty bureaucrats trouble me

...

Indeed, there is a limit to being obedient.

But there is actually no need to definitively leave Thailand if you just want to avoid your local IO nastiness.

Once the borders are open again you could apply for the 1-year MultipleEntry Non Imm O marriage Visa at the thai consulate in Savannakhet or HoChiMin City.

A quick and easy process, with no financials required.  Apply in the morning of day 1 and get your passport with the Visa next day.  It allows for 17 months IO-hassle free stay in Thailand and only requires that you either leave the country after 90-days (a quick border-run suffices) or apply for the easy 60-day extension of stay for reason of your visiting your wife.

>> I did PM you a document I compiled with the requirements as well as practical tips on how to apply for that 1-year MultpleEntry Non Imm O - marriage Visa.  Additional advantage: NO need for parking or transferring money to a thai bank-account, NO need for 90-day reports, NO need for re-entry permits and NO need having to deal with your local IO for 1-year extensions of stay.

[LivinLOS]

2 hours ago, Peter Denis said:

Indeed, there is a limit to being obedient.

But there is actually no need to definitively leave Thailand if you just want to avoid your local IO nastiness.

Once the borders are open again you could apply for the 1-year MultipleEntry Non Imm O marriage Visa at the thai consulate in Savannakhet or HoChiMin City.

A quick and easy process, with no financials required.  Apply in the morning of day 1 and get your passport with the Visa next day.  It allows for 17 months IO-hassle free stay in Thailand and only requires that you either leave the country after 90-days (a quick border-run suffices) or apply for the easy 60-day extension of stay for reason of your visiting your wife.

>> I did PM you a document I compiled with the requirements as well as practical tips on how to apply for that 1-year MultpleEntry Non Imm O - marriage Visa.  Additional advantage: NO need for parking or transferring money to a thai bank-account, NO need for 90-day reports, NO need for re-entry permits and NO need having to deal with your local IO for 1-year extensions of stay.

Thanks.. As I replied by PM, I am looking to get back to UK and Europe soon and 1 year non imm Multi Entrys are available from Den Haag in Holland also. I keep an apartment in Holland, so have the residential address in country they require to let you apply. 

Only 3 more years and I will O-X and really forget about it for a decade (well.. first 5 years anyway). 

[jaiyenjohn]

In Chiang Mai, They came to check on us for the marriage extension visit. We happened to be there and talked a bit with the immigration officers while they were looking through our house (annoyingly invasive, but what can you do?) and found out the following

 

1. They do not call you ahead of time, and drop in unannounced on purpose.

2. If we were not home they would come back. If we weren't home again they would come back again, etc.

3. They are looking for a messy lived in house that shows that you actually reside there.

4. There were no attempts either overt or otherwise to ask for a tip/ expenses / tea money etc.

 

Who knows, maybe they would give up eventually?

 

Edited June 10, 2020 by jaiyenjohn

[JohnnyBKK]

On 6/8/2020 at 4:24 PM, LivinLOS said:

Yes absolutely.. I made it VERY clear we could not be there, she just wouldnt accept that and said we had to be. Not that should could say when we had to be there, just we had to be on call and waiting for them. After 2.5 months lock down, am not doing another one. 

Together 16 or 17 years.. Married a decade.. At least 7 extensions in 2 different offices.. She said because it was an extension from a visa entry, it had to happen. 

 

Time to move out to another country buddy.

[LivinLOS]

On 6/10/2020 at 2:35 PM, JohnnyBKK said:

Time to move out to another country buddy.

Sounding very much like it. 

 

Officer called the wife, said because of covid they don't do house visits but we have to go to him on the 18th with many pictures of us inside the house. Again she explained we are not in Chiang Mai and can not. 

 

She's in a panic so we just called them back to try to smooth it over, the inspector / officer told my wife that you cannot leave the province when your under review, it's against the law, I am liable for arrest, and if I don't go back on the 18 I will be black listed and never get another visa, I would only be able to enter Thailand on 30 days (makes little sense to me). 

 

I tried to ask if I can stay to the end of July due to the overall amnesty (which I am confident of in reality) but he just said I would be added to a block list and that not doing what he says is against the law. 

 

So this extension application is going well. ????

[Peter Denis]

15 minutes ago, LivinLOS said:

Sounding very much like it. 

 

Officer called the wife, said because of covid they don't do house visits but we have to go to him on the 18th with many pictures of us inside the house. Again she explained we are not in Chiang Mai and can not. 

 

She's in a panic so we just called them back to try to smooth it over, the inspector / officer told my wife that you cannot leave the province when your under review, it's against the law, I am liable for arrest, and if I don't go back on the 18 I will be black listed and never get another visa, I would only be able to enter Thailand on 30 days (makes little sense to me). 

 

I tried to ask if I can stay to the end of July due to the overall amnesty (which I am confident of in reality) but he just said I would be added to a block list and that not doing what he says is against the law. 

 

So this extension application is going well. ????

It seems that CM Officer you are dealing with is playing Hardball.

If they are not coming to visit you because of the Covid-19 situation, and it is just a matter of providing him with the pictures why does it have to be on the 18th in the middle of your holiday?

I distinctly remember reading that it is even possible to exit/re-enter the country when your application is 'under consideration', but that when you are not back on the appointment date that you might have to do the application from scratch again.  As well as reading some posts saying that being a couple of days late for the appointment date to get the approval stamp in your passport, is also accepted.  Probably once again a matter of which Immigration Office you are dealing with.

In your case it might be useful to know whether the threats of that officer of it being illegal to leave the province during the under consideration period is and you being liable for arrest when doing so, are indeed based on thai (immigration) law or whether it is just a PowerPlay of the officer you are dealing with.

@ubonjoe might be able to provide the answer on that one...

[LivinLOS]

Crazy thing is, for this whole app, I have been nothing but polite, quiet, thanking them even when he's saying he will black list me, just totally passive and submissive. I just can't meet his demands.

 

And this is what it gets me, some idiot with a power trip and vendetta. This is what living here entails. This kind of madness each year, and why I haven't extended the last few years. Getting a multi each year is so much less friction.

 

Not sure if I should even go back on the under consideration date now as every interaction seems to just make it worse. Not bothered about leaving by end of July, keen to be gone in fact. 

 

The black list threat concerns me a little. Not the threat he will make sure I can't get extensions, but the claim I won't ever get another external visa issued. I don't it frankly but don't like the threat. 

 

 

 

Edited June 13, 2020 by LivinLOS

[ubonjoe]

34 minutes ago, Peter Denis said:

In your case it might be useful to know whether the threats of that officer of it being illegal to leave the province during the under consideration period is and you being liable for arrest when doing so, are indeed based on thai (immigration) law or whether it is just a PowerPlay of the officer you are dealing with.

Just threats and nonsense. No such rules or punishment exists.

[JohnnyBKK]

1 hour ago, LivinLOS said:

Sounding very much like it. 

 

Officer called the wife, said because of covid they don't do house visits but we have to go to him on the 18th with many pictures of us inside the house. Again she explained we are not in Chiang Mai and can not. 

 

She's in a panic so we just called them back to try to smooth it over, the inspector / officer told my wife that you cannot leave the province when your under review, it's against the law, I am liable for arrest, and if I don't go back on the 18 I will be black listed and never get another visa, I would only be able to enter Thailand on 30 days (makes little sense to me). 

 

I tried to ask if I can stay to the end of July due to the overall amnesty (which I am confident of in reality) but he just said I would be added to a block list and that not doing what he says is against the law. 

 

So this extension application is going well. ????

Why are you staying in a country where you are treated like a criminal ? I've already decided to move out, I'm selling all my stuff and getting the hell out of here.

[LivinLOS]

16 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Just threats and nonsense. No such rules or punishment exists.

Can an immigration officer cause a blacklist for failing to attend ?? 

 

Or what wiggle room can be dream up that can cause longer term issues. 

 

If the Malay border was open I would just do a 30 day hop, closing my current permission of stay and invalidating the application. I have a feeling going back is only going to amplify the problem.

[Mama Noodle]

33 minutes ago, LivinLOS said:

The black list threat concerns me a little. Not the threat he will make sure I can't get extensions, but the claim I won't ever get another external visa issued. I don't it frankly but don't like the threat. 

 

I just went through alot of this at my local immigration over the last couple of months. 

 

Just adjust your plans to be there for the stupid immigration officers and kiss their little bum bums until the borders open back up and options are on the table. Otherwise it'll just cause problems that are not worth it until there are more options. 

Thats what I did after I got threatened by my local immigration with a threat of having to leave in 7 days if he didn't 'approve' my completely legit paperwork in the middle of a pandemic. 

 

That was the moment I decided to move my home country relocation timetable up to the earliest possible moment. 

[Mama Noodle]

Just now, LivinLOS said:

If the Malay border was open I would just do a 30 day hop, closing my current permission of stay and invalidating the application. I have a feeling going back is only going to amplify the problem.

 

Yeah but the borders are not open and it looks very much like they are not going to open for a while. 

 

So its either do what they say, or risk it and your only option then is to depart the country with no idea when youll be able to return. 

 

If he can do it or not isnt the question - the question is if he deliberately screws you around, which he can do if he wants. 

[LivinLOS]

17 minutes ago, JohnnyBKK said:

Why are you staying in a country where you are treated like a criminal ? I've already decided to move out, I'm selling all my stuff and getting the hell out of here.

Wife dogs home etc. 

 

Already have a full time base in the West, but the dogs seem to keep the gravitational pull back here more than not. 

 

This kind of power tripping, and the expectation of hoop jumping and being commanded, really wears thin on me though. I did everything for my app, million plus in the bank, and having someone scare and threaten my wife, simply because I won't obey his demands, is exactly why I avoid it.

[ubonjoe]

2 minutes ago, LivinLOS said:

Can an immigration officer cause a blacklist for failing to attend ??

No

2 minutes ago, LivinLOS said:

Or what wiggle room can be dream up that can cause longer term issues. 

 

Just disapprove you extension application. Normally that would cause the need to leave the country within 7 days which would not apply now since their is a amnesty until July 31st.

[LivinLOS]

4 minutes ago, Mama Noodle said:

 

Yeah but the borders are not open and it looks very much like they are not going to open for a while. 

 

So its either do what they say, or risk it and your only option then is to depart the country with no idea when youll be able to return. 

 

If he can do it or not isnt the question - the question is if he deliberately screws you around, which he can do if he wants. 

But I want to leave in first week August anyway. So it's end July ?? Boo hoo. 

 

The only hesitation, is if that means I have issues obtaining visas in the future.

Edited June 13, 2020 by LivinLOS

[Mama Noodle]

1 minute ago, ubonjoe said:

Just disapprove you extension application. Normally that would cause the need to leave the country within 7 days which would not apply now since their is a amnesty until July 31st.

 

Could he then re-apply for the extension? I dont believe so because it'll be after the 14 day window before the visa expires. 

 

So then its wait and hope by July 31 the borders open (to us foreigners) then he would have to leave.

[Mama Noodle]

1 minute ago, LivinLOS said:

But I want to leave in first week August anyway. So it's end July ?? Boo hoo. 

 

The only hesitation, is if that means I have issues obtaining visas in the future.

 

Just be some overstay fees then, and they know where you live so they could come looking for you if they really wanted to be jerks and arrest you. 

 

 

[Peter Denis]

On 6/9/2020 at 11:20 AM, LivinLOS said:

...
Only 3 more years and I will O-X and really forget about it for a decade (well.. first 5 years anyway). 

Be aware that although the O-X Visa is valid for 5 years and can be extended for 5 years, you would still need to visit your local IO every year.

From the O-X requirements > Foreigners must report, in person, to the immigration officer every 1 year for the examination of the qualifications and supporting documents.