First year on O-A visa ending soon

[JimGant]

1 hour ago, mrwebb8825 said:

Unless there has been some law written or changed, in times of emergency the immigration department can stamp you out and in w/o ever having to leave the chair in front of his/her desk.

Well, sounds like you got a temporary exception to the law, which evaporated with the end of the emergency situation of that time. But, somewhere floating around this forum is a thread that addresses today's "emergency" situation, whereby a bogus border run could easily be facilitated, thus allowing those with Non Imm ME visas and O-A visas to get their 90 day/365 day new permissions of stay. There's nothing intrinsic about a border bounce, so why would the authorities not revisit what mrwebb says occurred in the past ?  Anyway, don't know what happened to that thread, but obviously bogus border runs aren't on the radar -- and stupid they're not.

[BritTim]

18 minutes ago, JimGant said:

Well, sounds like you got a temporary exception to the law, which evaporated with the end of the emergency situation of that time. But, somewhere floating around this forum is a thread that addresses today's "emergency" situation, whereby a bogus border run could easily be facilitated, thus allowing those with Non Imm ME visas and O-A visas to get their 90 day/365 day new permissions of stay. There's nothing intrinsic about a border bounce, so why would the authorities not revisit what mrwebb says occurred in the past ?  Anyway, don't know what happened to that thread, but obviously bogus border runs aren't on the radar -- and stupid they're not.

I guess, theoretically, an agreement could be made with one of the embassies to create a virtual border post between the outside and inside of the embassy, allowing you to stamp out of Thailand and into, for instance, Germany, subsequently turning around and returning to Thailand. That would be based on the idea that the inside of the embassy is foreign territory. If both a foreign government and the Thai authorities were amenable to facilitating this, it would seem possible without law changes.

 

I cannot see how, without law changes, you could declare that people have left and returned to Thailand while inside an immigration office. It is not even possible at a border crossing without really crossing into the other country.

[JimGant]

3 hours ago, BritTim said:

I cannot see how, without law changes, you could declare that people have left and returned to Thailand while inside an immigration office.

Sounds like it's been done before. And what would be the big deal? Permissions of stay are chained together all the time without leaving the country -- witness those of us here for 20 years who have never left the country, but get a new permission of stay every year within the confines of an Immigration building. In such a scenario, you wouldn't even need to get a bogus exit stamp -- if you're here on a 90 day permission, based on a Non Imm O ME visa, just show up at Immigration before that 90 day expires and extend for another 90 days (the kicker would probably be that your Non Imm visa is still valid). Anyway, doesn't sound too complicated to maybe ameliorate a situation that Immigration shouldn't be too adverse to. Thus, it will never happen.

[BritTim]

4 hours ago, JimGant said:

Sounds like it's been done before. And what would be the big deal? Permissions of stay are chained together all the time without leaving the country -- witness those of us here for 20 years who have never left the country, but get a new permission of stay every year within the confines of an Immigration building. In such a scenario, you wouldn't even need to get a bogus exit stamp -- if you're here on a 90 day permission, based on a Non Imm O ME visa, just show up at Immigration before that 90 day expires and extend for another 90 days (the kicker would probably be that your Non Imm visa is still valid). Anyway, doesn't sound too complicated to maybe ameliorate a situation that Immigration shouldn't be too adverse to. Thus, it will never happen.

I guess my question on why not allowing extensions of stay automatically just based on the possession of a multiple entry visa is why bother to have people turn up at Immigration at all, and why have extensions that duplicate what you can get from the multiple entry visa except for the extra conditions? You seem to want Immigration to provide a choice:

• have a multiple entry Non O with no other conditions; or
• jump through hoops with money in the bank, photos, extension under consideration, house visits etc.

I am unsure why anyone would ever choose the second option. What I do know is that the current Police Order on extensions of stay does not envisage the first option.