Foreigners in Thailand eagerly await clarification regarding visa amnesty

[CH1961]

4 minutes ago, Zikomat said:

Because there are chances the amnesty will be prolonged. Nobody officially denied it until now.

Is it really hard to understand? 

Amnesty was given till end of month. 

There is a wipe-out in progress. 

On 1st of August all the visa artists will be a easy target for Immigration Police.

IDC is waiting. 

[jackdd]

25 minutes ago, CH1961 said:

Today you have two weeks to leave. 

Why you want two more? 

Because people would prefer to stay in Thailand.

If they leave now they won't be able to come back for the foreseeable future

With an official announcement like "no special extension after July 31st" people would be leaving now.

They didn't make such an announcement, so there is still a chance for a special extension, thus people wait and don't leave yet.

 

[bkk6060]

25 minutes ago, Burma Bill said:

As I have previously stated, none of this BS in Cambodia!

Sure.  It is usually easier in a 3rd world dump.

Edited July 14, 2020 by bkk6060

[Peter Denis]

6 hours ago, keith101 said:

What about those like myself who need to exit and re enter to do the 90 day report if they haven't opened up the borders ?

 

I already did a 60 day extension before the amnesty .

 

4 minutes ago, Isaan Alan said:

same same

With so little information and a clearly incorrect statement, it's not possible to provide a meaningful response.

The 90-day report requirement is meant for those staying longer than 90 days in-country to notify Immigration that they are still residing at the same place as before.  As that is not relevnt for them, both posters are probably referring to the 90-day permission to stay as stamped in their passport when entering Thailand on a Non Imm O Visa.

In order to provide some info on the options they have, following info is needed:

- Visa type on which they entered Thailand (most probably a ME Non Imm O Visa)

- Valid until date as printed on the sticker of the Visa on which they entered Thailand

- Permission to stay date as stamped in their passport on their last entry

- Any application for an extension of stay done during the Amnesty and resulting permission to stay of such extension

- Age and nationality

- Married to a thai national or thai dependant children

- Recipient of foreign income (e.g. pension or rental income)

- IO to which they report

[CH1961]

1 minute ago, jackdd said:

Because people would prefer to stay in Thailand.

There are proper Visa for this kind of clientel. 

If you are not qualified for retirement extension you can choose Elite-Visa. 

If you are using/abusing Tourist-Visa the deadline is end of month. 

 

 

[Wongkitlo]

10 minutes ago, CH1961 said:

Is it really hard to understand? 

Amnesty was given till end of month. 

There is a wipe-out in progress. 

On 1st of August all the visa artists will be a easy target for Immigration Police.

IDC is waiting. 

Why visa artists. I am married to a  Thai and have a visa based upon this. My intention was to travel back and forth and work in my home country so it is multi entry. Since covid my job is gone and it has become a lot more expensive to leave. Anyway my wife is here. Why do you get so much enjoyment at me losing my job and being separated from my wife?

Edited July 14, 2020 by Wongkitlo
Spellcheck

[CorpusChristie]

7 minutes ago, CH1961 said:

Is it really hard to understand? 

Amnesty was given till end of month. 

There is a wipe-out in progress. 

On 1st of August all the visa artists will be a easy target for Immigration Police.

IDC is waiting. 

I suggest they start to build some more bigger IDC centers and get some building contractors from Wuhan to build them and get then all finished by the end of the month 

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, CNXexpat said:

Really? Nearly every married foreigner has it. You can get it at every embassy and consulate. I forgot the price. Got it 4.5 years ago. A plus is that you only need 400k on your bank account instead 800k. The rest is easy to google.

Ok. I'll stop.

What you have now is an extension of stay issued every year at Imm' in Thailand.

Your original 'visa' has expired, died or whatever. It was not extended, it was converted to a yearly renewable extension.

Visas expire, the date of expiry/use by will be on it. 

The conditions for using a visa or an extension are not the same. eg out/in every 90 days or 90 day reports at your local Imm' office or 60 day extensions etc.

It can cause confusion to others, who are new to the system. when you use the wrong terminology with reference to visas and extensions.

At this time, amnesty, it's very important to use the correct term.

Edited July 14, 2020 by overherebc

[jackdd]

1 minute ago, CH1961 said:

If you are using/abusing Tourist-Visa the deadline is end of month. 

If the cabinet doesn't extend the amnesty

If immigration doesn't offer some kind of special extension

If the embassy won't issue an embassy letter

If the regular 30 day extension was already used

...

then 31st July would be the deadline.

[Okis]

14 minutes ago, CH1961 said:

There are proper Visa for this kind of clientel. 

If you are not qualified for retirement extension you can choose Elite-Visa. 

If you are using/abusing Tourist-Visa the deadline is end of month. 

 

 

So in your eyes people need to choose either retirement visa or elite visa?  Thank god that the reality is different and people with wifes, children and businesses are prioritised and being let back in before the people with the old&grumpy folks visa.

 

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by Okis

[CH1961]

3 minutes ago, Wongkitlo said:

Why visa artists. I am married to a  Thai and have a visa based upon this. My intention was to travel back and forth and work in my home country so it is multi entry. Since covid my job is gone and it has become a lot more expensive to leave. Anyway my wife is here. Why do you get so much enjoyment at me losing my job and being separated from my wife?

If you are legal married and have 400k on a Thai account you can apply for one year extension of stay. 

[brain150]

I have no idea why people think that the Thai Government wants foreigners in this country right now.

Especially when the foreigners are not on a proper visa.

 

Did it ever occur to anybody that maybe the Thai Government is using this situation to do something they tried for the last 6 years ?

Meaning: Getting rid of all foreigners they regard as "bad" ... like in: no proper visa !!!

[CH1961]

3 minutes ago, Okis said:

So in your eyes people need to choose either retirement visa or elite visa?  Thank god that the reality is diffrent and people with wifes and children is prioritised before the people with the old grumpy folks visa. 

With wife and children you should know about the 400k rule to obtain extension of stay. 

If you are legal married. 

Do you? 

[DrTuner]

33 minutes ago, Peter Denis said:

Did my on-line 90-day report yesterday using the Immigration 90-day reporting website.  Took me 5 minutes and received approval with next appointment date within 30 minutes.

Attached an on-line 90-day reporting Troubleshooting Guideline, addressing the most common errors you might encounter as well as how to deal with them.

90-day reporting website trouble-shooting.txt 5.67 kB · 2 downloads

Thanks, but I tried just about every combo possible, including tracing the HTTP traffic and POST. Simply doesn't want my application. Wife will pop by at the immigration tomorrow to do it, should be pretty much empty.

[Wongkitlo]

2 hours ago, Okis said:

There's several people on this forum who recently did their 60 day extension so they would be able to season their funds for a 1year extension. 

 

I've already been down to my local office to confirm with them and are about to do mine on friday. 

 

They told me i could come back 31st to buy time but i said that i want this over with as soon as possible and they said i could do it whenever i want as long it's before the amnesty ends.

There are several reports on the visa forum from today about people being told not to do a non O me  extension now and wait till the 31st. One in person with all their papers ready at Chiang Mai and another rang the office. 

[Chaaang]

5 hours ago, Kaopad999 said:

for those people who were on tourist visas and then transferred to the amnesty visa should have already planned their trips back home or out of Thailand.

Yes, sure...

Look at my situation.

EU citizen - Latvia. No Latvian Embassy in Thailand, no Embassy of Thailand in Latvia.

Wife - Thai. Two kids - one have got expired Latvian passport + Thai passport, another has got only Thai passport.

We were planning to leave Bangkok in May. But now only me can leave. And if I leave I will not see my family again.

Wife had UK residence permit, now expired. Son with Latvian passport had emergency travel document through Latvian Consulate - expired. Another son had Schengen visa through Hungarian Embassy - expired.

So now "wonderful" Thai Government will kick me out of the country alone and I will see my family only on Skype.

[Okis]

1 minute ago, CH1961 said:

With wife and children you should know about the 400k rule to obtain extension of stay. 

If you are legal married. 

Do you? 

Yes i do, since i'm married to a thai and live here. 

 

Stop thinking that you are more worthy because of your visa. It's ridiculus, being old & bored isnt a excuse for such embarrassing behavior. 

 

 

[CorpusChristie]

4 minutes ago, brain150 said:

I have no idea why people think that the Thai Government wants foreigners in this country right now.

Especially when the foreigners are not on a proper visa.

 

Did it ever occur to anybody that maybe the Thai Government is using this situation to do something they tried for the last 6 years ?

Meaning: Getting rid of all foreigners they regard as "bad" ... like in: no proper visa !!!

If that was the case, they would nt have given everyone a visa amnesty , also they may realise that we are helping the economy , btw, ALL visas are proper visas 

[Peter Denis]

1 minute ago, DrTuner said:

Thanks, but I tried just about every combo possible, including tracing the HTTP traffic and POST. Simply doesn't want my application. Wife will pop by at the immigration tomorrow to do it, should be pretty much empty.

If you are one of the unlucky ones whose data have been incorrectly inputted in the IO database, the system will not find a 'match' and you will not be able to use the on-line reporting system.

Maybe ask your wife to request IO to check your data in the system mentioning the trouble you are experiencing to do it on-line?   I have heard of some helpful IOs where they do the first one for you on-line, making it easy for you to do subsequent ones.

[Okis]

8 minutes ago, Wongkitlo said:

There are several reports on the visa forum from today about people being told not to do a non O me  extension now and wait till the 31st. One in person with all their papers ready at Chiang Mai and another rang the office. 

There's 1 report.  Dont get your hopes up, you are not doing yourself any favours by grasping at straws of hope. You might end up standing there without choices when it's too late. 

 

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by Okis

[jackdd]

4 minutes ago, brain150 said:

I have no idea why people think that the Thai Government wants foreigners in this country right now.

Especially when the foreigners are not on a proper visa.

 

Did it ever occur to anybody that maybe the Thai Government is using this situation to do something they tried for the last 6 years ?

Meaning: Getting rid of all foreigners they regard as "bad" ... like in: no proper visa !!!

You got this wrong. Immigration did never think "tourist visa -> bad", what they actually think is "tourist visa -> no agent -> bad".

If they had a proper way to extract money from people spending prolonged times on tourist visas they would be happy to let them stay.

[CH1961]

3 minutes ago, Okis said:

i'm married to a thai and live here

So you should have a proper Visa, what are you whining about? 

[Burma Bill]

27 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

Sure.  It is usually easier in a 3rd world dump.

Just like Thailand is becoming!

[brain150]

2 minutes ago, CorpusChristie said:

If that was the case, they would nt have given everyone a visa amnesty , also they may realise that we are helping the economy , btw, ALL visas are proper visas 

they would nt have given everyone a visa amnesty

Well, that's actually not true because there is no "amnesty" !
what they did is extending the entry stamp to 30.July for everybody who entered after 28.March !
They did NOTHING about any VISA !!! .... in terms of Visas these terms are pretty important !

If you were on a TR visa [a visa for making holidays !] then time is up and holidays are over ! No reason to extend the stamp further.

The same for all visa exempt entry stamps which are not visas at all.

 

All extensions of stay have no problem anyway. It is the proper way for people who live in Thailand !

90 day reports are pretty irrelevant in this matter as they are just an internal immigration policy.

 

Multiple entry visas are a problem as border runs are not possible. So maybe here something might happen. [another extension]

But for all people who have expired visas or tourist visas, these people will probably have to leave.

 

 

 

[brain150]

6 minutes ago, jackdd said:

You got this wrong. Immigration did never think "tourist visa -> bad", what they actually think is "tourist visa -> no agent -> bad".

If they had a proper way to extract money from people spending prolonged times on tourist visas they would be happy to let them stay.

You talk about Immigration officers .... but they don't set the rules !

The Thai Government has a very simple way of thinking about this and they are making the rules !!!

[Okis]

29 minutes ago, CH1961 said:

So you should have a proper Visa, what are you whining about? 

I'm not whining, i'm calling out the bizarre behavior of you responding to that person like you did because it makes you feel good about yourself.  Otherwise you wouldnt have the urge to write what you did.  

 

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by Okis

[CNXexpat]

31 minutes ago, overherebc said:

Ok. I'll stop.

What you have now is an extension of stay issued every year at Imm' in Thailand.

Your original 'visa' has expired, died or whatever. It was not extended, it was converted to a yearly renewable extension.

Visas expire, the date of expiry/use by will be on it. 

The conditions for using a visa or an extension are not the same. eg out/in every 90 days or 90 day reports at your local Imm' office or 60 day extensions etc.

It can cause confusion to others, who are new to the system. when you use the wrong terminology with reference to visas and extensions.

At this time, amnesty, it's very important to use the correct term.

I stopped replying because I couldn´t imagine that someone who is a member of ThaiVisa since 2009 is so stupid that he doesn´t know about visa.

Yes, you are right, that are the correct names. You should go to the Chiang Mai Immigration Office and tell them that their names on the signs (retirement visa, spouse visa) are wrong and they also say it wrong when they ask me if I want an extension of my spouse visa. They will really love you. For sure.

[jackdd]

12 minutes ago, brain150 said:

You talk about Immigration officers .... but they don't set the rules !

The Thai Government has a very simple way of thinking about this and they are making the rules !!!

The rules set by the Thai government allow people to enter Thailand as tourists an unlimited number of times, and thus spend an unlimited amount of time in Thailand. I agree with you, it's quite clear that the government (the part above immigration) has no problem with long term tourists, if they had a problem they would change their rules.

Edited July 14, 2020 by jackdd

[CH1961]

7 minutes ago, jackdd said:

allow people to enter Thailand as tourists an unlimited number of times, and thus spend an unlimited amount of time in Thailand.

Just read the date/stamp in your Passport and then think about you wrote before. 

.. unlimited amount of time in Thailand ????

[ThailandRyan]

1 hour ago, Okis said:

So in your eyes people need to choose either retirement visa or elite visa?  Thank god that the reality is different and people with wifes, children and businesses are prioritised and being let back in before the people with the old&grumpy folks visa.

 

 

Deleted

Edited July 14, 2020 by ThailandRyan