Thai authorities mull visa amnesty rules after July 31

[Marcuss Wings]

This is a little misleading because I went into immigration and this does not apply to Marriage and Retirement visas. Only mainly tourist and entry visas. So go and check if you're unsure. Because when you look at it, it says 90 day reporting and no need to renew and show documents. As for as I know 90 day reporting only applies to Marriage and OA visa. I think. Not 100%.

[flinc2020]

On 6/27/2020 at 1:22 PM, FritsSikkink said:

Why should it, you can renew your extension in the country.

The idea of the amnesty was to stop the big crowds at immigration. Since visa extension holders (Non B, Non O, Non O-A) make up the bulk of the foreigners here wheres the point in exluding them. Yes you can renew in country but that means visiting the immigration office since the online 90 reporting is unreliable at best and doing it by post takes forever.

[CLS]

4 hours ago, Peter Denis said:

Your METV is valid till end September, but the 2-month permission to stay on which you entered Thailand has been extended till 31 July because of the Amnesty.  But this means that normally you would have to leave the country by end of the Amnesty, and even with the landborders open again that might invoke quarantaine-measures or mandatory covid-insurance.

But luckily you are the parent of a dependant child, so you can apply at your local IO for a 60-day extension of stay for reason of visiting your dependant child.  That 60-day extension of stay will start from the day of application, so best to do that just before the Amnesty will end, which will give you time till end of September.  Hopefully by then the border-situation will have normalized, so that you can do a border-run before your METV expires, which will allow you a permission to stay till end of November.  And that one can once again be extended by 30-days at your local IO taking you to end December.  After that you could once again apply for the 60-day extension of stay for reason of visiting your dependant child (you can apply once per entry), which will take you till end of February 2021.

The 60-day extension starts from the day your permission of stay ends. For everyone till 29th September, if the amnesty remains as it is.

[Tonypandy]

On 6/27/2020 at 1:24 PM, MadMac said:

Nope, I just changed from marriage to retirment and was told from immigration that it is not necessary until 31st July. First hand information, no bubbles from Pattaya newspaper.

My wife just renewed her extension this week, she was not told by immigration wait till July 31st. All done and dusted now

[Teee]

On 6/27/2020 at 10:46 AM, MadMac said:

Anyways, people on regular extensions are not affected and I think we all agree it is best to do them in time as usual.

For the visa runners, hopefully they find a way to convert/transfer these into extensions. Remains the money requirement but there could be some flexibility.

The remaining tourists enjoying a free ride, well, enjoy it as long as the game lasts. It may be over pretty soon.

You are a tourist too...even if you have lived in Thailand for 25 years on a visa...your just a tourist.

 

Change your attitude please.

 

Thanks

[Peter Denis]

14 hours ago, CLS said:

The 60-day extension starts from the day your permission of stay ends. For everyone till 29th September, if the amnesty remains as it is.

Not sure if that is correct.  There have been reports of people that used their 60-day extension of stay during the Amnesty (because they needed a 'valid' stamp for some other purpose) and the 60-day permission to stay started from their date of application.

[bbi1]

On 6/27/2020 at 4:42 PM, Yorkshire Tea said:

With no tourists arriving in Thailand, why rush to get those here to leave?

Yeah correct, that would be complete stupidity for Thailand to get rid of any of the small number existing tourists (who don't have COVID-19) in the country when they aren't letting any new ones in and won't be for a long time still. Great way to completely kill off getting any tourist dollars into the economy who are supporting a lot of local small & large Thai businesses.

Edited June 29, 2020 by bbi1

[MadMac]

9 hours ago, Teee said:

You are a tourist too...even if you have lived in Thailand for 25 years on a visa...your just a tourist.

 

Change your attitude please.

 

Thanks

Just because you don't want to go home and enjoyed a free ride so far, does not excuse you from following immigration law and rules. Either get a proper visa or extension or leave for your home country when the amnesty ends.

[katatonic]

1 hour ago, MadMac said:

Just because you don't want to go home and enjoyed a free ride so far, does not excuse you from following immigration law and rules. Either get a proper visa or extension or leave for your home country when the amnesty ends.

I'm quite happy with my visa on arrival stamps thanks. Had a couple of visa based on marriage but mainly just arrival stamps which worked fine for me for the last 11 years. And this is home.

[MadMac]

16 minutes ago, katatonic said:

I'm quite happy with my visa on arrival stamps thanks. Had a couple of visa based on marriage but mainly just arrival stamps which worked fine for me for the last 11 years. And this is home.

You did not get visa on arrival stamps, these are visa exemptions. Because of people abusing this facility over the years we got all these sticter and stricter requirements. 

[katatonic]

1 hour ago, MadMac said:

You did not get visa on arrival stamps, these are visa exemptions. Because of people abusing this facility over the years we got all these sticter and stricter requirements. 

Whatever you may want to call visa on arrival stamps, I have never abused the facility. You have no idea about my or anyone else's circumstances and as far as I can make out, are more likely to exacerbate any problem than I am by harping on about it. Have a nice day.

[Teee]

On 6/28/2020 at 8:51 AM, geordie said:

 

 

4 hours ago, MadMac said:

Just because you don't want to go home and enjoyed a free ride so far, does not excuse you from following immigration law and rules. Either get a proper visa or extension or leave for your home country when the amnesty ends.

 

Madmac...

 

Ha ha.

As i said change your attitude please.

You make comments that just comes into your head without knowing full facts.

 

Just for your info....i have lived on and off in Thailand for 3 and a half years always have a valid visa for my stays.

And at present not living in the Land of (Smiles)!!!!

Awaiting to come back...whenever that may be.

 

Edited June 29, 2020 by Teee

[FritsSikkink]

On ‎6‎/‎27‎/‎2020 at 3:45 PM, sotsira said:

There are many expats with marriage/retirement visa's that were out of Thailand

and can't get back to renew their extensions before they expire. That's why.

If you are outside of Thailand the amnesty doesn't work for you, you have to reapply.

[utalkin2me]

If you deleted this thread things would be more clear. What a nightmare.

 

Is there a way to get official information, in place of a bunch of tossers?

[Huckenfell]

I previously applied for and received an O-A visa shortly before the borders closed i returned to my country for some medical treatment, however i was only 5 months into my visa but now stranded outside of Thailand. Question is, why dont the Thai govt credit me with the 7 months which i paid for , when the borders open, but cannot at the present time use.

[phetchy]

On 6/27/2020 at 10:44 PM, worgeordie said:

Did you get it in writing,with official stamp and signed ?, different Immigration officers,different Immigration offices,

all have their own way of interpreting the rules.That's why I did my retirement extension in May,and still do my 90 day

reports,does not give them any excuse to find fault and maybe fine me,

Why wait till after 31 July or will it be end September,when all immigration offices are going to be pandemonium,

not busy at all when i did it at Chiang Mai.nothing to worry about till next May.

regards worgeordie

 

 

 

On 6/27/2020 at 11:20 PM, MadMac said:

Yeah, I knew this would come. Fair enough ????

Just about sums it up.  As I understand it, a retirement extension is not included in the amnesty.  However, as with many things immigration, asking an IO a direct question and getting a verbal reply that appears to be more favourable than the enacted regulations is commonplace.  If the IO's opinion is merely word of mouth and is contrary to the written word, then you have to make a judgement.  Turning up at immigration to renew a lapsed extension and being confronted by a different IO who left home for work that morning after having had a blazing row with Mrs IO, may not get the result you were expecting.  Your fate is then in the hands of someone who couldn't give a toss if one of his colleagues told you something else.  He could do everything by the book and you're screwed. 

 

"You've gotta ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya?"?  

[Kalasin Jo]

On 6/28/2020 at 11:57 AM, Peter Denis said:

Yes, in your situation it certainly looks that returning to France with your wife by end of July would be your best option.

Since EU+ countries are reopening and Thailand being on the list of countries with no restrictions to re-enter EU, that should normally not be a problem.

See link to thread >

Note: It is not your nationality that determines whether you are allowed to enter EU+ (apart from the Visa requirements), but the country where you are embarking on the flight and have stayed.

Just checked with the French Embassy. Previously they said she can use her visa although its validity expires soon to enter France and stay 90 days, normally you have to leave before whichever is earlier visa expiry or 90 days. Now they say as things are opening up she must apply for a new visa and their visa service is open again for some types of aplicant. They, like Thailand, have announced no general opening up yet as reported in the NYT article. Very limited classes of people which includes spouses always has, from anywhere, still officially the line. 

 

So we have to do that and I may as well have another crack at the IO here!

[MadMac]

4 hours ago, Huckenfell said:

I previously applied for and received an O-A visa shortly before the borders closed i returned to my country for some medical treatment, however i was only 5 months into my visa but now stranded outside of Thailand. Question is, why dont the Thai govt credit me with the 7 months which i paid for , when the borders open, but cannot at the present time use.

Your stay in Thailand starts when you enter the country. That can be at the last day of validity of your visa. At least that is the case for normal O. Thus you do not need any credit of lost months as you did not lose anything.

[Advocatus Diaboli]

On 6/27/2020 at 5:01 PM, MadMac said:

  On 6/27/2020 at 4:59 PM, newnative said:

Thanks but I was asking not about 90 day extensions but about reporting that I still had 400,000 baht in my bank account. There was a requirement that you have to return in 90 days after your yearly extension to show you still have the money in the account--I use the 800,000 baht method.  I was wondering if this requirement had been suspended with the covid situation.  

Newnative;  I believe they have silently changed this, at-least in CM, to using the year bank statement at your next extension. I may be wrong, but the year statement is now an added requirement. It does save on the extra Imm visits. From this they can workout if you followed the rules. ????

[at15]

i will say at least for the americans, not one week has passed since march where you could not have gone home. really no excuses at this point. 

[utalkin2me]

nMaybe I am stating the obvious but it seems to me they need to announce what they will do. As it stands, how can I know whether I must fly out on July 31st, or be able to get another visa in a country bordering Thailand?

 

Whatever they do, fair or not, right or wrong, they need to do it now. This is the part I don't understand. How can you expect people to make life altering decisions with only a week or two notice? 

 

I just don't see the problem, they have had plenty of time to decide. Just decide. Whatever the decision is, it is fine.... but they need to decide. 

Edited June 30, 2020 by utalkin2me

[Sambotte]

I feel the same.

They just don't care at all about farangs staying in Thailand, nothing new.

Here it's a very easy decision to make it "no problem" for 3 or 6 more months.

Can not make ANY problem. And would look good.

But nop, looks like they are thinking about how farangs are a bad thing, and how they rule them.

So it could take more time, and could even been very disappointing.

[MadMac]

The simple problem is that nobody wants to take any responsibility for anything in this country. Just look at all the back and forth things, one day this, next day that. So for the amnesty, I believe it will only be decided (and perhaps changed again) mid of July earliest.