Visa exempt and extended -- extension until September possible

[rudidep]

Hi, apologies if this has been asked before -- I did do a search and couldn't find a straight answer. I have entered Thailand on visa-exempt early March and extended officially (without embassy letter) with 30 days until early May. I'm now still here under the amnesty. With the new announcement going to September 26th, it's not clear to me if in my case an extension in-country is still possible, or am I forced to leave end of next week? Thank you for your kind responses.

[ubonjoe]

Apparently you will be able to stay until September 26th without doing anything at immigration.

Wait a couple of days and it should be be confirmed after the cabinet meeting tomorrow.

[DrJack54]

Wait for announcement. In the news they are referring to grace period. My GUESS is that since you have already used an extension to your VE. In order to obtain another towards end of suggested grace period you would need serious evidence. Such as booked flights cancelled etc.

Really need to think about flight home.

All guess work on my behalf.

[Peter Denis]

As UJ said > you will be able to stay until September 26th without doing anything at immigration.

Do you intend to stay longer after September 26?

It is possible (but SPECULATION) that Immigration might introduce 'special' extensions for people that can demonstrate they are not able to leave Thailand for their home-country.

If not, there are only two options left, of which the second one is not likely.

a) When you are married to a thai national or have thai dependant children, you could apply for a 60-day extension of stay at the end of the grace period.

b) You cannot apply for a 1-year extension of stay from an original VisaExempt entry.  However, if you are able to find a local IO that is willing to accept your application for a change of Visa to a 90-day Non Imm O Visa, you could apply for that (needs to be done with at least 15 to 23 days left on your permission to stay).  And then in the last month of those 90 days your would be able to apply for the 1-year extension of stay.  You could do this for reason of retirement or for reason of marriage or otherwise.

> Obviously, if the land-borders open again before Sept 26, without too stringent entry requirements at both sides of the border, you could do a border-run or apply for a Visa in the neighboring country, thus regularizing your Visa situation.

 

[IraqRon]

Is visa exempt entry stamp considered a tourist visa???  Can it be converted to a 180 day non o visa or at least apply for same?

 

whoops I meant 90 days

[Peter Denis]

6 minutes ago, IraqRon said:

Is visa exempt entry stamp considered a tourist visa???  Can it be converted to a 90 day non o visa or at least apply for same?

Yes, see my response in post #4-b.

But you would need at least 15 days (some IOs required 23 days) left on your permission to stay when applying for it.

And you could encounter the problem that your IO might not accept your application because you are on the Amnesty extension.  Hence the 60-day extension of stay option (for those married to a thai national or with thai dependant children), as such an application would result in a 'valid' permission to stay, from which the Non Imm O Visa application could be done.

[IraqRon]

11 hours ago, Peter Denis said:

Yes, see my response in post #4-b.

'

And you could encounter the problem that your IO might not accept your application because you are on the Amnesty extension.  Hence the 60-day extension of stay option (for those married to a thai national or with thai dependant children), as such an application would result in a 'valid' permission to stay, from which the Non Imm O Visa application could be done.

Hi Peter, I was writing my first post when you posted yours.  Thanks for the concise info.  I think I am truly out of luck as when my o visa expired in early jan, i planned to travel to get a family visa at a consulate so I crossed at Mae Sai and used a visa exempt for a month and then got 30 day extension.  Well then the borders closed and immigration wouldn't accept my app. for the Thai child 90 day as I was not the legal quardian of my daughter per the divorce docs signed at the amphoe, not in court by the way.  They did give me a 60 day extension of stay of the visa exempt which expired on May 30.  been on amnesty since then. The money in bank not a problem, had it for several months now.

My hope is that I will apply officially again during the next period given us and even if denied will be ok untill Sept 26?  What do you think of that plan?  thanks

[Peter Denis]

40 minutes ago, IraqRon said:

Hi Peter, I was writing my first post when you posted yours.  Thanks for the concise info.  I think I am truly out of luck as when my o visa expired in early jan, i planned to travel to get a family visa at a consulate so I crossed at Mae Sai and used a visa exempt for a month and then got 30 day extension.  Well then the borders closed and immigration wouldn't accept my app. for the Thai child 90 day as I was not the legal quardian of my daughter per the divorce docs signed at the amphoe, not in court by the way.  They did give me a 60 day extension of stay of the visa exempt which expired on May 30.  been on amnesty since then. The money in bank not a problem, had it for several months now.

My hope is that I will apply officially again during the next period given us and even if denied will be ok untill Sept 26?  What do you think of that plan?  thanks

 

Hi Ron,
If you do not qualify for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of dependant child, but you are +50 years of age you can apply for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement.

If you have 800K on a personal thai bank account at the moment of application for that Visa, or you did a transfer of +65K (with foreign origins proven) to your thai bank account in the month of application, you would meet the financial requirements for such Visa.

The only obstacle could be that your local IO might not want to accept such an application because you are presently on the Amnesty extension.  And you already used both the 30-day and 60-day extension options which would have provided you with a 'valid' permission to stay.

So you need to enquire at your local IO if they would be willing to accept your application for the 90-day Non Imm O Visa for reason of retirement.  As mentioned already you would need at least 15 days (some IOs required 23 days) left on your permission to stay when applying for it.

So it would not be possible now (the Amnesty ends 31 July), but once the pre-announced Grace Period till 26 september is made official (thai cabinet meeting today during which it will be decided), that would make it possible to apply for that Visa, provided your local IO is willing to accept your application, with your permission to stay based on the Grace Period extension.

If they are willing to do so, it would of course be in your best interest to apply as late as possible, i.e. somewhere beginning of September. 

If they are not willing to do so, you could look for a more accomodating IO in another province, and (temporarily) relocate there.  That would require a rental contract for a place in that other province, so that you can officially 'settle' there and do your TM-30 (or TM-27) at the IO of your new province of stay.  Note that it would not be necessary to physically relocate if you prefer staying in your present location, but it would need to be done for administrative reasons as you can only apply for the Non Imm O Visa in the province where you reside.

 

[Max69xl]

On 7/20/2020 at 7:55 PM, Peter Denis said:

As UJ said > you will be able to stay until September 26th without doing anything at immigration.

Do you intend to stay longer after September 26?

It is possible (but SPECULATION) that Immigration might introduce 'special' extensions for people that can demonstrate they are not able to leave Thailand for their home-country.

If not, there are only two options left, of which the second one is not likely.

a) When you are married to a thai national or have thai dependant children, you could apply for a 60-day extension of stay at the end of the grace period.

b) You cannot apply for a 1-year extension of stay from an original VisaExempt entry.  However, if you are able to find a local IO that is willing to accept your application for a change of Visa to a 90-day Non Imm O Visa, you could apply for that (needs to be done with at least 15 to 23 days left on your permission to stay).  And then in the last month of those 90 days your would be able to apply for the 1-year extension of stay.  You could do this for reason of retirement or for reason of marriage or otherwise.

> Obviously, if the land-borders open again before Sept 26, without too stringent entry requirements at both sides of the border, you could do a border-run or apply for a Visa in the neighboring country, thus regularizing your Visa situation.

 

How many people can't go back to their home countries at the moment? Not many. In late September there won't be any problem at all imo. 

[Peter Denis]

8 hours ago, Max69xl said:

How many people can't go back to their home countries at the moment? Not many. In late September there won't be any problem at all imo. 

He doesn't want to go back to his home-country, but looking for options to stay long-term when on an original VisaExempt entry and his permission to stay obviously already expired

[BritTim]

10 hours ago, Max69xl said:

How many people can't go back to their home countries at the moment? Not many. In late September there won't be any problem at all imo. 

It may still be tricky for some, especially if they do not begin planning their return to home country in good time. Look at it the other way around: Thai nationals returning to Thailand. Certainly, it is possible. However, it will not happen if leaving it until a week or so before a deadline to leave from your current location.

 

It is an open question how immigration will react to people turning up on September 25 saying they cannot get back to their home countries leaving by the next day. They might get a sympathetic hearing at some offices, but I suspect a hard line without an agent's help in most cases.

[audaciousnomad]

37 minutes ago, BritTim said:

It may still be tricky for some, especially if they do not begin planning their return to home country in good time. Look at it the other way around: Thai nationals returning to Thailand. Certainly, it is possible. However, it will not happen if leaving it until a week or so before a deadline to leave from your current location.

 

It is an open question how immigration will react to people turning up on September 25 saying they cannot get back to their home countries leaving by the next day. They might get a sympathetic hearing at some offices, but I suspect a hard line without an agent's help in most cases.

Or...it may get extended yet again.  Anything is possible right now, given the uncertainty of the virus situation. There was some speculation that part of the impetus for simply extending it once again for 2 months was the concern caused by the Egyptian in Rayong.  Of course, it turned out to be a non-issue...but things like that do influence policy.

[BritTim]

3 hours ago, audaciousnomad said:

Or...it may get extended yet again.  Anything is possible right now, given the uncertainty of the virus situation. There was some speculation that part of the impetus for simply extending it once again for 2 months was the concern caused by the Egyptian in Rayong.  Of course, it turned out to be a non-issue...but things like that do influence policy.

Nothing is certain, but I consider the September 26th date to be significant. This is exactly six months from the date you needed to be legally in Thailand to be protected under the original amnesty. Immigration did not carry the day on all their arguments. However, I think there was some support for the notion that "six months is long enough for almost all foreigners to arrange to leave if they cannot satisfy the requirements for a long term extension". Come September, there will still be some in government who see things differently, but I personally expect this to be the last time Thailand will allow people to easily stay without a standard extension.

[drbeach]

15 hours ago, Max69xl said:

How many people can't go back to their home countries at the moment? Not many. In late September there won't be any problem at all imo. 

You're making assumptions. Many countries are making it difficult to return. There are currently no regularly scheduled flights to any nearby countries except Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. The only way for Laotians, Burmese, Cambodians etc. to return is to engage their embassy so they may be permitted to cross back by land, because a flight option is barely available. Even the land option may take 2 weeks or more of bureaucracy.

 

Even "rich" Australia is now limiting incoming flights to 50 passengers a day. With hardly any flights to Australia and none, other than the odd repatriation flight that runs about once a month from Thailand, it may be very tough for Aussies to return home.

 

By late September things could be a lot easier IF they progress on the current trajectory. This is assuming that with the exception of limited local "second wave" lockdowns such as have been happening in places like Hong Kong, parts of China, Melbourne/Victoria (Australia) and parts of the USA, there is a trend towards more flights and some sort of at least limited border openings by that time.

 

I see it as being a possibility, but not particularly likely. I think by late September Thailand will be allowing most groups of foreigners in with a higher quota and perhaps, some easing off on some requirements, but general travel most likely won't resume until October/November and possibly not before 2021. Difficult to predict at the moment. For every passing month new information allows us to predict things a little better but still not entirely accurately.

[drbeach]

23 minutes ago, BritTim said:

Nothing is certain, but I consider the September 26th date to be significant. This is exactly six months from the date you needed to be legally in Thailand to be protected under the original amnesty. Immigration did not carry the day on all their arguments. However, I think there was some support for the notion that "six months is long enough for almost all foreigners to arrange to leave if they cannot satisfy the requirements for a long term extension". Come September, there will still be some in government who see things differently, but I personally expect this to be the last time Thailand will allow people to easily stay without a standard extension.

As various articles have stated - to stay beyond Sep 26 without a normal extension obtainable from immigration, limited 30 day extensions at a time will be granted for those able to demonstrate an inability to leave by then. I assume if one can't leave during the first 30 day period, an additional extension is likely.

 

This is contingent upon flight availability and whether border crossings are open/open without erroneous requirements to enter at that time.

 

Based on where things stand as of right now, by September there will be more flights than now (including the re-introduction of flights to certain destinations not currently being served) assuming these carriers don't once again delay the restart of these services. If THAI is able to resume flights on Sep 1 as they are planning, then this will open up a lot of options for travelers to return home or to a country that will let them in during that 26 day period.