Final 30 day extension of METV

[edwardandtubs]

I used the final entry of my METV back in early March and never extended it due to the amnesty. I'm assuming from the immigration announcement that any attempt to extend it by 30 days in the normal way (i.e. without a medical or embassy letter) would unsuccessful. Is that right?

[ubonjoe]

If you qualify for a 30 day extension they will do it.

[edwardandtubs]

1 minute ago, ubonjoe said:

If you qualify for a 30 day extension they will do it.

That's a pleasant surprise. In the reason for extension I normally just write 'tourism' and no questions are asked. Do you think they might be more rigorous this time? Also will the extension be from the date of application?

[ubonjoe]

11 hours ago, edwardandtubs said:

That's a pleasant surprise. In the reason for extension I normally just write 'tourism' and no questions are asked. Do you think they might be more rigorous this time? Also will the extension be from the date of application?

What immigration put in their announcement was for those that do not qualify for an extension.

You can still put tourism if you want to since that was the reason for your entry to the country.

Your extension would start on on September 27th according to the announcement.

[edwardandtubs]

Anyone recently managed to extend a tourist visa? I'm reading stories on Facebook of this being refused but you obviously have to take them with a pinch of salt.

[edwardandtubs]

Maybe this image answers the question. They could only be referring to extending short-term visas, couldn't they?

[WhateverDude]

16 hours ago, edwardandtubs said:

Maybe this image answers the question. They could only be referring to extending short-term visas, couldn't they?

Whoa, where did you find this? So does this mean that people can make an appointment to apply for a 30-day extension if they haven't yet gotten the first 30-day extension? The way it's written is quite confusing. If this is an available option, it would help a lot of people at least buy themselves some time.

[jackdd]

10 minutes ago, WhateverDude said:

Whoa, where did you find this? So does this mean that people can make an appointment to apply for a 30-day extension if they haven't yet gotten the first 30-day extension? The way it's written is quite confusing. If this is an available option, it would help a lot of people at least buy themselves some time.

This picture is from beginning of July, before the "amnesty" was extended to 26th September.

The announcement from immigration that tourists have to leave until 26th September, unless they get an embassy letter or medical extension, was released after this.

[n00dle]

On 7/27/2020 at 7:53 AM, ubonjoe said:

What immigration put in their announcement was for those that do not qualify for an extension.

You can still put tourism if you want to since that was the reason for your entry to the country.

Your extension would start on on September 27th according to the announcement.

hello joe,

 

I confirmed in person with an immigration officer (prior to second amnesty) that my unused extension would be honoured once amnesty had ended. I backed this up with 2 telephone inquiries to immigration and was assured that this was the case.

is there a written policy confirmation or reference that i can lay hands on confirming this? 

there are other avenues i can pursue, however I would appreciate some clarity before taking any action.

[ubonjoe]

9 minutes ago, n00dle said:

is there a written policy confirmation or reference that i can lay hands on confirming this?

I have not seen anything about it.

[edwardandtubs]

1 hour ago, jackdd said:

This picture is from beginning of July, before the "amnesty" was extended to 26th September.

The announcement from immigration that tourists have to leave until 26th September, unless they get an embassy letter or medical extension, was released after this.

Thanks. I got it from Richard Barrow's Twitter. He tries to be helpful but some of his posts just muddy the waters.

[edwardandtubs]

57 minutes ago, n00dle said:

hello joe,

 

I confirmed in person with an immigration officer (prior to second amnesty) that my unused extension would be honoured once amnesty had ended. I backed this up with 2 telephone inquiries to immigration and was assured that this was the case.

is there a written policy confirmation or reference that i can lay hands on confirming this? 

there are other avenues i can pursue, however I would appreciate some clarity before taking any action.

Good to hear this. I want to go into immigration and give it a try but all the speculation and friend of a friend stories are making me wait until someone else has actually done it.

[n00dle]

21 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

I have not seen anything about it.

Not the answer I had hoped for... thanks.

[n00dle]

21 hours ago, edwardandtubs said:

Good to hear this. I want to go into immigration and give it a try but all the speculation and friend of a friend stories are making me wait until someone else has actually done it.

All rather imcomclusive, I suppose ill need to find out soon, one way or another....

[edwardandtubs]

So I'm going to try this out soon, maybe next week. Do you think I would be more likely to get the extension if I went somewhere like Hua Hin, Pattaya, Kanchanaburi or Samui compared to Chaengwattana?

[Peter Denis]

1 hour ago, edwardandtubs said:

So I'm going to try this out soon, maybe next week. Do you think I would be more likely to get the extension if I went somewhere like Hua Hin, Pattaya, Kanchanaburi or Samui compared to Chaengwattana?

Where you apply for the regular 30-day extension that you are eligible for from your METV-entry, should normally not matter.

However, BEFORE them actually processing it ensure that the start date will be 27 September, as there are some IOs that - contrary to the immigration announcement - will let it start from date of application.

Also it is possible that you would need the 'mystery' Free Stamp to turn your present Amnesty expiry into a 'valid' permission to stay from which they can provide you the extension.

Finally > be aware that when applying in Bangkok, it is NOT at CW but at the new MTT office (far away from CW) where they handle short-term extensions of stay now.

[BritTim]

1 hour ago, edwardandtubs said:

So I'm going to try this out soon, maybe next week. Do you think I would be more likely to get the extension if I went somewhere like Hua Hin, Pattaya, Kanchanaburi or Samui compared to Chaengwattana?

Immigration offices vary widely. My expectation is that, while busier, Chaengwattana would be a better bet than most offices outside Bangkok.

[jackdd]

23 minutes ago, Peter Denis said:

However, BEFORE them actually processing it ensure that the start date will be 27 September, as there are some IOs that - contrary to the immigration announcement - will let it start from date of application.

The announcement which also says that tourists have to leave by 26th September, unless they provide an embassy letter or get a medical extension, implying that a regular 30 day extension is no longer on the table?

Could be difficult to find an immigration office which only applies the positive part (extensions start 27th) of the announcement, and ignores the negative part (no more regular 30 day extensions).

[edwardandtubs]

1 hour ago, Peter Denis said:

Also it is possible that you would need the 'mystery' Free Stamp to turn your present Amnesty expiry into a 'valid' permission to stay from which they can provide you the extension.

 

Thanks for the help but I have absolutely no idea what this means.

[BritTim]

2 hours ago, edwardandtubs said:

3 hours ago, Peter Denis said:

Also it is possible that you would need the 'mystery' Free Stamp to turn your present Amnesty expiry into a 'valid' permission to stay from which they can provide you the extension.

Thanks for the help but I have absolutely no idea what this means

This is a brand new thing for which we have the Yanks to thank.

 

Previously, many immigration offices have been saying that an extension of an expired permission to stay is not possible under amnesty. This being Thailand, no one wants to say that those offices were wrong. Instead there is a new policy (that may, or may not, be rolled out across the country) to the effect that you can now formalise the grace period under the amnesty into a permission to stay until September 26th.

 

This thread explains in detail, and contains some successful and unsuccessful attempts to get this new stamp.

[edwardandtubs]

1 hour ago, BritTim said:

This is a brand new thing for which we have the Yanks to thank.

 

Previously, many immigration offices have been saying that an extension of an expired permission to stay is not possible under amnesty. This being Thailand, no one wants to say that those offices were wrong. Instead there is a new policy (that may, or may not, be rolled out across the country) to the effect that you can now formalise the grace period under the amnesty into a permission to stay until September 26th.

 

This thread explains in detail, and contains some successful and unsuccessful attempts to get this new stamp.

Thanks. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with extending a tourist visa though.

[BritTim]

34 minutes ago, edwardandtubs said:

Thanks. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with extending a tourist visa though.

It has everything to do with formalising your permission to stay until September 26, which then allows you to apply for conversion visas and extensions in the normal way. At some immigration offices, this appears unnecessary but, for immigration offices that refuse to do visas and extensions under expired permission to stay stamps, this will resolve the issue if they are willing to provide these new stamps.

[Peter Denis]

7 hours ago, BritTim said:

This is a brand new thing for which we have the Yanks to thank.

 

Previously, many immigration offices have been saying that an extension of an expired permission to stay is not possible under amnesty. This being Thailand, no one wants to say that those offices were wrong. Instead there is a new policy (that may, or may not, be rolled out across the country) to the effect that you can now formalise the grace period under the amnesty into a permission to stay until September 26th.

 

This thread explains in detail, and contains some successful and unsuccessful attempts to get this new stamp.

 

5 hours ago, BritTim said:

It has everything to do with formalising your permission to stay until September 26, which then allows you to apply for conversion visas and extensions in the normal way. At some immigration offices, this appears unnecessary but, for immigration offices that refuse to do visas and extensions under expired permission to stay stamps, this will resolve the issue if they are willing to provide these new stamps.

Hi BritTim,

Thanks for correctly addressing in your responses above what this 'mystery' Free Stamp is all about.

It LOOKS as if that procedure would indeed resolve the issue created by IOs that were not willing to accept your application for an extension of stay when on the Amnesty extension.

But both you and myself are not 100% sure that this procedure has indeed been rolled out by Immigration, as there has not been ANY official announcement by Immigration about it.  So the possibility remains that it is just a giant misunderstanding by the US Embassy based on the 'verbatim' explanation they received already on Tuesday. 

I guess we just have to wait for reports from those on the Amnesty extension, applying at their local IO for that Free Stamp and the reaction they receive to determine whether that procedure is indeed in place as the US Embassy e-mail indicates < see excerpt below >

 

 

[greggraham]

38 minutes ago, Peter Denis said:

But both you and myself are not 100% sure that this procedure has indeed been rolled out by Immigration, as there has not been ANY official announcement by Immigration about it.  So the possibility remains that it is just a giant misunderstanding by the US Embassy based on the 'verbatim' explanation they received already on Tuesday. 

I guess we just have to wait for reports from those on the Amnesty extension, applying at their local IO for that Free Stamp and the reaction they receive to determine whether that procedure is indeed in place as the US Embassy e-mail indicates < see excerpt below >

As you know from the other thread, according to reports people have already received these stamps from Chaengwattana, Hua Hin, and Chonburi. As much as this seems to pain you, you can drop the line about it being a mystery/giant misunderstanding/not in place. It's not in place everywhere, I agree, but it exists.