Best current options to extend a 3 month non b

[Promula]

I have:

- an in-country three month non-b that won't be extended for work purposes and expires mid Nov

 

- No work permit and no job

 

- An unused embassy letter dated 21 Sept asking for permission for a new non imm visa for retirement purposes

 

- 800,000 baht overseas but not yet brought into Thailand

 

- A Bangkok Bank account

 

 

Should I:

1 - go to immigration today and use the embassy letter to extend until 30 Nov

 

2 - apply for a 60 day covid extension once they're available and my non b is in its final 30 days

 

3 - use an agent to extend the non b for retirement purposes

 

4 - use an agent to get a non o

 

5 - bring 800k baht into Thailand now or wait (because there's no point bringing it in if I have to leave next month)

 

6 - bring forward wedding plans from December in order to get a 60 day family extension

 

Best options as of now?

 

 

[ubonjoe]

Are you on the original 90 day entry from a non-b visa or did you apply for an extension of it before. If the visa was issued by an embassy or consulate the 90 day entry would of been expired since entries to the country have not been allowed since March. Or did you enter using a certificate of entry issued by a embassy or official consulate.

You cannot apply for a new non immigrant visa since you already have one. They can only be applied for at immigration unless you are on a visa exempt or tourist visa entry.

1. That depends upon your permit to stay you have now. If you are on a 90 day entry from the non-b visa they would not do a 30 day extension now. If on an extension of stay it would have to be canceled before you could apply for a 30 day extension.

2. Not sure if there is going to be a 60 day extension and it depends upon your answer to what I have asked before.

3. Maybe but costly. 

4. That is not possible.

5. Unknown at this time.

6. Best option IMO and then you would only need 400k baht for 2 months to apply for a one year extension based upon marriage near the end of the 60 days.

[Promula]

10 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Are you on the original 90 day entry from a non-b visa or did you apply for an extension of it before.

Thanks for the advice. I'm on an original 3 month non b obtained and paid for by the employer in mid August after being offered a job. The plan was to be in employment now, but I cannot work due to a health problem.

 

Trying to find a way to still be in Thailand for the mid December wedding, but will probably have to bring it forward to this month.  

Edited October 9, 2020 by Promula

[Promula]

14 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

 

1. That depends upon your permit to stay you have now. If you are on a 90 day entry from the non-b visa they would not do a 30 day extension now. If on an extension of stay it would have to be canceled before you could apply for a 30 day extension.

2. Not sure if there is going to be a 60 day extension and it depends upon your answer to what I have asked before.

So you don't think I'll be able to extend my non b for amnesty purposes with my embassy letter? Either until the end of November like is being given to others who used an embassy letter (although they were on amnesty and I'm not) or until the end of December if the new 60 day amnesty form becomes official?

 

I was hoping to soon be able to get this much talked about 60 day extension for amnesty purposes in order to not have to move the wedding from December to this month (and then apply for a 60 day extension for married purposes)

[ubonjoe]

11 minutes ago, Promula said:

So you don't think I'll be able to extend my non b for amnesty purposes with my embassy letter?

You could possibly apply for it but it would not start until the end of your current 90 day entry that is valid until November.

You are not under the amnesty at this time.

Best to wait and see if the 60 day extension is possible.

[Promula]

9 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

You could possibly apply for it but it would not start until the end of your current 90 day entry that is valid until November.

You are not under the amnesty at this time.

Best to wait and see if the 60 day extension is possible.

Thanks. Yes, if I applied to extend now, I'd only get two extra weeks - mid November (end of validity of my non b) until 30 November. However, I don't think I can apply for anything now as my non b isn't in its final 30 days of validity yet. It will be in its final 30 days of validity after the middle of October. 

 

I'll almost certainly wait to see if the 60 day extension method is approved. My only concern there is that my embassy letter is beginning to age (obtained on 21 September), and the IO may not accept it if it's over 30 days old. The embassy isn't issuing new letters since 26 September. 

Edited October 9, 2020 by Promula

[ubonjoe]

19 minutes ago, Promula said:

My only concern there is that my embassy letter is beginning to age (obtained on 21 September), and the IO may not accept it if it's over 30 days old.

You fall into a different category than those that are applying for the 30 day extensions now due to being on a valid permit to stay now.

It appears the 60 day extension may be possible without a letter from a embassy if you look at the affidavit posted.

[Promula]

23 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

You fall into a different category than those that are applying for the 30 day extensions now due to being on a valid permit to stay now.

That's true, but then so are people who have activated the 30 day extension of their visa exempt, and yesterday you wrote elsewhere that they can also apply to stay until 30 Nov.

 

So, both they and I were on amnesty and then went off amnesty by activating a valid permit to stay - me for three months on a non b from August, and them for 30 days on a visa exempt extension from September. Theirs will expire in October and mine in November. That's the only difference between me and them that I can see, yet you're saying they can apply to stay until 30 Nov but I can't.

 

Is that because they're on a valid extension of permission to stay and I'm on an original permission to stay?

Edited October 9, 2020 by Promula

[ubonjoe]

3 hours ago, Promula said:

That's true, but then so are people who have activated the 30 day extension of their visa exempt, and yesterday you wrote elsewhere that they can also apply to stay until 30 Nov.

Those on a 30 day extension now do not get a new extension. Immigration will change the date of the existing extension to November 30th. If they did not apply for an extension and applied now would get one until November 30th.

I am not sure how immigration would handle your application if you applied for a 30 day extension now. I think they would start it when the 90 days ends and it would end on the November 30th. They could though make it valid for the full 30 days from when your current permit to stay ends.

[Pib]

2 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Those on a 30 day extension now do not get a new extension. Immigration will change the date of the existing extension to November 30th. If they did not apply for an extension and applied now would get one until November 30th.

I am not sure how immigration would handle your application if you applied for a 30 day extension now. I think they would start it when the 90 days ends and it would end on the November 30th. They could though make it valid for the full 30 days from when your current permit to stay ends.

I think you mean Oct 31st?

[Promula]

Thanks, it's a real mind-bender.

 

I'll probably try to extend next week and I'll let you know what happens.

 

Hopefully the currently unofficial 60 day amnesty extension form will become useable by then so I'll be able to get 60 days from the mid November expiry of my non b until mid January, just like I could if I was doing a 60 day family extension. This would allow me to keep the December wedding date.

 

I've no idea if I could then get another 60 day extension based on marriage in mid January.

 

Cheers Ubon Joe.

Edited October 9, 2020 by Promula

[bjaz]

My wife and I were on 90 day non-Bs, difference being that they expired during the first amnesty period, as did our work permits, expired and returned/cancelled during the amnesty.

Fast forward to August - both our embassies were not issuing letters (and still don't to this day) - looking into what few options were available at the time to extend our stay in the country we finally went the agent route and got 12 month non-O extensions - prices quoted for the service went from 35K to 50K for the 12 month extension "package", process took 5 days. 

Not sure if this is an option in your case since you still have a valid stay permit, but I would look into it, if you don't mind a little grey in these unprecedented times.
 

Edited October 9, 2020 by bjaz

[Promula]

1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:

 

Thanks bjaz. I've looked into that route and it's very confusing. Some agents said they can get me a 12 month retirement extension in my non b, some said they can get me a 3 month non o, and some said they can do nothing. I've given up on that for the time being because I think they'll take my money and then tell me they can't go anything, and I'm hoping to do things directly with the IO. I'll look at the agency route again though towards the end of this month if I've not found a direct IO solution.

Edited October 9, 2020 by Promula

[ubonjoe]

2 hours ago, Pib said:

I think you mean Oct 31st?

I did mean November 30th.

If a 30 day extension was applied for today would it would end on the November 30th.

Those that applied before October 1st when immigration did a announcement only got a extension to the October 31st and they will now be changed to November 30th.

[Promula]

48 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

I did mean November 30th.

If a 30 day extension was applied for today would it would end on the November 30th.

Those that applied before October 1st when immigration did a announcement only got a extension to the October 31st and they will now be changed to November 30th.

And I'm thinking, if the IO can change a reactivated 30+30 visa exempt plus extension that ends for example on 20 October to to a new end date of 30 November, which will effectively make it a 30+70 visa exempt plus extension, perhaps they can change the end date of my non b that ends in mid November to make it 105 days duration, ending on 30 November, instead of 90 days.