Hi,

 

I'm looking for advise in the following situation:

 

I'm currently in Thailand with an Thai Elite visa (5yr) - the TE visa sticker has already expired end of last year, the stamp in my passport (permission of stay) will expire in a few weeks.

 

Last year, I have arrived in Thailand a few days before my TE visa sticker expired and got a new 1yr stamp in my passport - so now I'm in the 6th year of this visa. 

 

However, I'm worried if there might be any issue with Thailand Elite in case I renew my visa now in the 6th year:

My Thailand Elite membership expired before I have returned to Thailand last year. I was not aware of this fact, but they have informed me by email (when I tried to book their taxi service from Suvarnabhumi Airport). It seems that the membership started on the day of payment but I arrived a few weeks later. So there was a gap between TE membership (started on day of payment) and the visa sticker (started on day of first arrival). As it was too late to change my travel plans I took my flight to Thailand. 1yr stamp was no problem at Immigration (as the TE sticker was still valid for a few days).

 

Questions:

1) Did anyone renew a Thai Elite visa in the 6th year (i.e. taking advantage of a "free" year) ?

2) Was there any issue with TE staff because of the "forbidden" behaviour (e.g. it could be against their Terms & Conditions etc.) or will they just be happy to take the money for the renewal ?

3) Is it possible to renew the TE visa without leaving the country (e.g. in at Immigration Office in Bangkok) ?

 

My plan was to return to my home country (Europe), get a new passport (old one will expire in 1 yr anyway) and renew the visa from there with a fresh, virgin passport.

Unfortunately I maybe need to adjust that plan due the current situation....

 

Thanks a lot in advance !

 

1 Yes

2. No

3. Yes  You have to apply for a new membership, pay the fee after approval and the get the sticker done at immigration in Bangkok or a couple of others.

 

I made use of some of the 6th year on my first 5 year membership, probably about 7 months of it.

 

Back then there was some talk of problems having a new visa issued during the sixth year at Chaeng Wattana so when I renewed it I just flew out of the country for a couple of days and had the new visa inserted on arrival at the airport where there was no problem.

 

I guess that option is not available so your only choice is to renew and go to Chaeng Wattana and hope the <deleted> who used to process these is no longer making problems.

 

I renewed my EV 7 days before 6th year expired. Went to CW Immigration and received new stamp within 20 minutes. That was on June 24th this year.

31 minutes ago, BMW Overlander said:

I renewed my EV 7 days before 6th year expired. Went to CW Immigration and received new stamp within 20 minutes. That was on June 24th this year.

Sounds like things have greatly improved since last year which is when I was doing mine.

I was about 2 months into the 6 th year and i had to fly out and back in before i got a renewal.

Thank you very much for your replies !

 

@BMW Overlander That sounds great. How long did the TE process take (i.e. from contacting them for the renewal until receipt of the confirmation letter) ? Did TE or Immigration ask for the TM30 receipt ?

 

@RachaRob Did you expierence this recently, e.g. in the last 6 months or before ?

 

Thanks again !

3 hours ago, holeinone said:

Thank you very much for your replies !

 

@BMW Overlander That sounds great. How long did the TE process take (i.e. from contacting them for the renewal until receipt of the confirmation letter) ? Did TE or Immigration ask for the TM30 receipt ?

 

@RachaRob Did you expierence this recently, e.g. in the last 6 months or before ?

 

Thanks again !

It took around a month to do, they did say if i had renewed it before expiry then i would have taken a week. No TM30 was asked for.

5 minutes ago, RachaRob said:

It took around a month to do, they did say if i had renewed it before expiry then i would have taken a week. No TM30 was asked for.

Surprising, my renewal approval took about 3 days and I did it maybe 6 months after expiry. This was November 2019

Edited July 31, 20205 yr by ukrules

15 hours ago, holeinone said:

Thank you very much for your replies !

 

@BMW Overlander That sounds great. How long did the TE process take (i.e. from contacting them for the renewal until receipt of the confirmation letter) ? Did TE or Immigration ask for the TM30 receipt ?

 

@RachaRob Did you expierence this recently, e.g. in the last 6 months or before ?

 

Thanks again !

Took 4-5 working days only, and yes, they insisted on TM30 / residence confirmation.