Back in Thailand ;-)

[Tounge Thaied]

On 9/10/2020 at 1:21 PM, noserious said:

The embassy/consulate is in charge of issuing the visa. However the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in charge of the COE. Ideally this would be a simultaneous process.

It did work out to be a a simultaneous process for me. I sent my passport in, I then finalized the online application with the ASQ and Flight confirmation (I used Hanatours). The COE and VISA were then completed simultaneously. 

 

However for me, I went back to Hanatours to pay for my original flight booking of the 30th and discovered they had just added a flight out of Seattle ( I am in Seattle). And there was an earlier flight on the 24th. So I called Hanatours to change my flight confirmation to the earlier Seattle flight, saving a flight over to L.A and a week of waiting around to go. I contacted the L.A. consulate by email, and they have been very responsive btw, and they opened back up my application after it had already been submitted to allow me to change my ASQ and Flight bookings. So I was pretty fortunate. 

To sum up my process, I started my online application in August. After submitting the entire application I promptly got my first email from the consulate on August 25th. It wasn't until September 8th, that I finally got the online application finalized and they submitted. Then, upon my request, to re-book the ASQ and Flight for the earlier date and Seattle location, I updated the application to be re-submitted on September 9th. Even though I already knew my VISA had been approved, because they called me, the VISA and COE were finalized together and I received my COE by email September 10th. They put my passport back into the mail yesterday September 11th. My passport, by USPS tracking, tells me my passport will arrive back September 15th (I only used the 3 day priority mail option). Now I can go schedule my fit to fly test and covid test. 

[EVAN]

applied for COE (online) mid. of July, then did not hear anything until 18 of august, the embassy asked me to book for ASQ as there is flight out of Sydney on 24/08, and send them my passport , it was so hectic and rush, booked the designated repatriation flight from sydney as instructed by the embassy ( exactly 12 hours window to book for the flight), then send them my flight and the ASQ bookings, after that they issued my COE which linked to the flight and date of arrival, even no time to send my passport back but the embassy called me to let me know that some one from the embassy will deliver my passport as the embassy staff will be at the airport to check documents mainly covid test and fit to fly , everything happened in a very short time! however, i can not do it without the embassy help , they are really helpful and did wonderful job

[Noisyaircon2020]

Your father's doctor seems like a very kind man SnipTheCat

[DrPhibes]

On 9/12/2020 at 9:38 PM, unheard said:

you can search for places like this:

https://www.myconciergemd.com/rapid-covid-19-testing/

I used these guys, turnaround was less than 24 hrs and that was getting swabbed on a Fri morning.  Since I was down in LA anyway did the Fit-to-fly test with the same people.  The PCR test appt is done online and then you call the dr's office for the F2F appt.  Make sure the test results date and time is on the PCR lab report.  Mine was missing but the Dr's office got on the phone with the lab and had the corrected report e-mailed in about 90min.  Was not cheap.  The total for the two reports was about $550.

[Marvo]

Question about insurance, if anyone knows the answer?
I will fly from the UK to stay for up to 10 months in Thailand. What length of $100,000 medical insurance coverage would I need, to be acceptable to the authorities.

Do any UK insurance companies understand what they need to provide re COVID cover etc. to be acceptable to the Thai authorities?

Am I required to get 10 months cover, to cover my entire stay, seeing as we'll know if I have COVID within 14 days of arrival? I would like to get an idea of the cost.

[unheard]

7 hours ago, Marvo said:

Question about insurance, if anyone knows the answer?
I will fly from the UK to stay for up to 10 months in Thailand. What length of $100,000 medical insurance coverage would I need, to be acceptable to the authorities.

Do any UK insurance companies understand what they need to provide re COVID cover etc. to be acceptable to the Thai authorities?

Am I required to get 10 months cover, to cover my entire stay, seeing as we'll know if I have COVID within 14 days of arrival? I would like to get an idea of the cost.

they require insurance for the duration of stay.

My understanding is that the insurance should be valid for the amount of time allowed by your visa.

e.g. a 90-day or 1-year.

[Tounge Thaied]

8 hours ago, Marvo said:

Am I required to get 10 months cover, to cover my entire stay, seeing as we'll know if I have COVID within 14 days of arrival? I would like to get an idea of the cost.

I paid just about $300.00 for 4 months of cover with this https://www.insubuy.com/ company. Very fast. And you choose your coverage period. You will have to check if this is only a USA centic company. I don't know. I was approved for my certificate of entry by covering only the 90 day visa I was granted. I do intend to stay longer, but that will be done by extending my 90 day Non-immigrant "Thai Wife" VISA to one year. No insurance is required with that extension. 

[Marvo]

On 9/14/2020 at 11:36 PM, Tounge Thaied said:

I paid just about $300.00 for 4 months of cover with this https://www.insubuy.com/ company. Very fast. And you choose your coverage period. You will have to check if this is only a USA centic company. I don't know. I was approved for my certificate of entry by covering only the 90 day visa I was granted. I do intend to stay longer, but that will be done by extending my 90 day Non-immigrant "Thai Wife" VISA to one year. No insurance is required with that extension. 

Thanks Unheard & Tongue Thaied,
My annual extension of stay is up at the end of April, so I guess I will need to get insurance cover until then. 
Seems a bit odd (TiT) that they allow you to extend your stay but not require the insurance to be extended.