I’ve just received my new passport and now need to transfer my Thailand immigration extension of stay stamps.

 

I have three questions I need TVF help with: 

 

1. Is there a time limit/recommendation on how soon I need to go to immigration to transfer my ‘stamps’?

 

My extension of stay is due at the end of March, should I transfer immediately or do this when I visit for my extension of stay.

 

2. The advice I received from my Embassy was that I can transfer at any immigration office, is this correct?

 

I’m currently at my second home in Thailand, in a different province to my formally registered address and would like to transfer my ‘stamps’ here rather than trek halfway across Thailand just to make the ‘stamp’ transfer.

 

3. Do I need any documentation other than my old and new passports plus the letter from

my Embassy?

 

Many thanks in anticipation of your responses.

3 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

I’ve just received my new passport and now need to transfer my Thailand immigration extension of stay stamps.

 

I have three questions I need TVF help with: 

 

1. Is there a time limit/recommendation on how soon I need to go to immigration to transfer my ‘stamps’?

 

My extension of stay is due at the end of March, should I transfer immediately or do this when I visit for my extension of stay.

 

2. The advice I received from my Embassy was that I can transfer at any immigration office, is this correct?

 

I’m currently at my second home in Thailand, in a different province to my formally registered address and would like to transfer my ‘stamps’ here rather than trek halfway across Thailand just to make the ‘stamp’ transfer.

 

3. Do I need any documentation other than my old and new passports plus the letter from

my Embassy?

 

Many thanks in anticipation of your responses.

I Would just take your old passport with you to your nearest immigration office in March for renewal.

But it might be worth seeing what Ubon Joe or others say ,as i could be wrong.

1. There is no fixed time you can do it. My suggestion is do it a soon as possible so you don't need to have both passport do something. You could wait until your return for your extension.

2. Wrong advice. You have to do it where you applied for your extension.

3. The  letter from the embassy that they should've given to you.

This form Transfer Stamps To A New Passport

Copies of both passport photo pages. Copies of every page in your old passport that has a visa or stamp for Thailand on it.

 

I have been living in Thailand now for 8 years. I have had a retirement visa non OA. Yesterday when I went to renew my visa I found out I have to show proof of health insurance. I told them I am 81 years old and no company will insure my health. They then told me I had to change my visa to a marriage visa. I thought sure why not. I've been happily married to a Thai lady for  15 years. They said take all these 20+ forms I had previously filled out and come back with a different stack of about 30 forms filled out in duplicate. So I went home and filled out the new forms. Then today I sat at the immigration office in Chiang Mai for 6 hours waiting for them to look over my forms. Of course the fact that I had signed all the forms with a black pen meant I had to sign all the forms again with a blue pen. Then they told me and my wife that they had to have someone come out and visit our house and do an interview. Which will be done within a week they promised. Then the stack of forms will have to be sent to Bangkok where they can authorize marriage visas. Little dinky Chiang Mai (the second largest city in Thailand) can't do it. I have no idea what will happen if they don't approve this change of visa but I'm guessing that they will send me back to the USA and I'll have to leave my wife here to take care of our house. Anyone interested in buying a fully furnished house in Mae Taeng on a bit more than 2 rai? I was asking 8 million but I'd accept almost any reasonable offer below that just to get the hell outta here.

On 2/3/2021 at 7:29 PM, ubonjoe said:

1. There is no fixed time you can do it. My suggestion is do it a soon as possible so you don't need to have both passport do something. You could wait until your return for your extension.

2. Wrong advice. You have to do it where you applied for your extension.

3. The  letter from the embassy that they should've given to you.

This form Transfer Stamps To A New Passport

Copies of both passport photo pages. Copies of every page in your old passport that has a visa or stamp for Thailand on it.

 

I did mine at Jomtien. They did not ask for copies of the visa pages. 

16 minutes ago, Wongkitlo said:

I did mine at Jomtien. They did not ask for copies of the visa pages. 

Different office have different requirement. My office required all the visa pages. It's a pain in the ass.

 

@Chomper Higgot

 

1. There is no time limit but it must be done before your next extension or next exit from Thailand because all the bank statements would show different passport number if you don't.

 

I did my transfer one day before the extension.

 

2. Not sure about this.

 

3. You also need to photocopy all your visa pages and photo page of your old passport and photo page of your new passport and sign them.

 

4 minutes ago, EricTh said:

There is no time limit but it must be done before your next extension or next exit from Thailand because all the bank statements would show different passport number if you don't.

I did my transfer one day before the extension.

I did my transfer of stamps at same time as my annual extension CW.

No issue.

1 hour ago, DrJack54 said:

I did my transfer of stamps at same time as my annual extension CW.

No issue.

 

It really depends on your immigration office.

 

If the immigration office is packed full of foreigners and also full of grumpy officers who can't speak decent English, it's better to do one thing at one time because they are of different departments.

 

I didn't have the luxury of asking people what were the requirements before this.

 

6 minutes ago, EricTh said:

 

It really depends on your immigration office.

 

If the immigration office is packed full of foreigners and also full of grumpy officers who can't speak decent English, it's better to do one thing at one time because they are of different departments.

 

I didn't have the luxury of asking people what were the requirements before this.

 

 "You could wait until your return for your extension"

That's what ubonjoe wrote above.

 

I did my stamp transfer in Si Saket the same time I did a 90 day report. No embassy letter and no photocopies.... I probably signed some papers, but at the office and no papers to take home, read and sign....30 minutes and done.

On 2/3/2021 at 4:04 PM, Chomper Higgot said:

I’m currently at my second home in Thailand, in a different province to my formally registered address and would like to transfer my ‘stamps’ here rather than trek halfway across Thailand just to make the ‘stamp’ transfer.

 

What is your reporting office? Where you made your current extension?

 

For me, it is CW, so I had to go to the same desk area (ext stay/ret + mar) "L" to transfer my stamp(s). I'm am on an ext stay/ret. I had to queue - I don't think you can 'bridge' a ret appt for a stamp transfer - so it did take a while. Once in front of an IO the process was quick.

 

I used the doc list provided by Immigration. I had the new pp letter from the U.S. ACS.

 

They made one stamp in my old passport, and four (4) stamps (documenting my "visa/ext/pp" history in my new passport, taking up all of the first page. 

Transfer_Visa_To_New_Passport.pdf

13 hours ago, Kurtf said:

I have been living in Thailand now for 8 years. I have had a retirement visa non OA. Yesterday when I went to renew my visa I found out I have to show proof of health insurance. I told them I am 81 years old and no company will insure my health. They then told me I had to change my visa to a marriage visa.

Hi Kurt,

You have an extension of your permission of stay, not a Visa.

For extensions from an original O-A entry Health Insurance is now required if extending for reason of retirement, but not for reason of marriage, which is why the IO requested you change the reason to marriage.

The house visit is fairly routine to ensure your marriage is de jure and defacto and is usually only performed once for the very first extension application based on marriage.

If CM have accepted the application, you can be assured it will be approved.

 

No need to sell the house, or put the wife in storage. ????

My new passport was issued in early march last year.

In early May I had the stamp transfer, 90 day report and O-A extension processed together in the Phuket office.

Thanks for the advice and information guys.

 

I visited the immigration office here and having received such excellent service, I’ve decided to move my formally registered address to my second home and dispense with the annual aggravation I was putting up with at the Immigration office local to my other residence.

10 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

The house visit is fairly routine to ensure your marriage is de jure and defacto

Those two terms are contradictory.  de jure  --  legal     defacto -- exists in reality but without the legality.

Not trying to be the grammar police, but, to my knowledge, Immigration doesn't recognise defacto relationships for marriage extensions.  Mores the pity.

49 minutes ago, Old Croc said:

Those two terms are contradictory.  de jure  --  legal     defacto -- exists in reality but without the legality.

Not trying to be the grammar police, but, to my knowledge, Immigration doesn't recognise defacto relationships for marriage extensions.  Mores the pity.

That is what is stated in the immigration order clause 2.18.

"(3) In the case of spouse, the relationship must be de jure and de facto"

1 hour ago, Tanoshi said:

Hi Kurt,

You have an extension of your permission of stay, not a Visa.

For extensions from an original O-A entry Health Insurance is now required if extending for reason of retirement, but not for reason of marriage, which is why the IO requested you change the reason to marriage.

The house visit is fairly routine to ensure your marriage is de jure and defacto and is usually only performed once for the very first extension application based on marriage.

If CM have accepted the application, you can be assured it will be approved.

 

No need to sell the house, or put the wife in storage. ????

I know it is a stupid question but why does a person need health insurance if on a retirement visa and not on a marriage one? Don't married people get sick the same as those retirement visas? Also why does a person need to keep 800,000 baht in the bank i they are here in retirement but only 400,000 if they are married? The logic behind these laws totally escapes me.

11 minutes ago, Kurtf said:

I know it is a stupid question but why does a person need health insurance if on a retirement visa and not on a marriage one? Don't married people get sick the same as those retirement visas? Also why does a person need to keep 800,000 baht in the bank i they are here in retirement but only 400,000 if they are married? The logic behind these laws totally escapes me.

The only visa that requires insurance is a OA visa. And it is required to apply for a extension stay (it is not a visa) based upon retirement for the entry from one.

A non-o visa for retirement does not require insurance and it is the same for a extension of stay.

A non-o visa and extension of stay based upon marriage is done for humanitarian reasons. The 400k baht in the bank or 40k baht in the bank is lower since it is assumed a Thai wife can work and their living expenses may be lower that those on retirement extensions.

17 minutes ago, Kurtf said:

I know it is a stupid question but why does a person need health insurance if on a retirement visa and not on a marriage one? Don't married people get sick the same as those retirement visas? Also why does a person need to keep 800,000 baht in the bank i they are here in retirement but only 400,000 if they are married? The logic behind these laws totally escapes me.

I once asked that very same question at my IO.

The answer was a retired (single) sick foreigner would have to pay for care, whereas with a wife she would be expected to take care of her husband.

As UJ above also explains, the wife could also work to increase the household income.

5 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Thanks for the advice and information guys.

 

I visited the immigration office here and having received such excellent service, I’ve decided to move my formally registered address to my second home and dispense with the annual aggravation I was putting up with at the Immigration office local to my other residence.

 

May I know which immig office 'here' and 'there' mean?

 

 

 

On 2/3/2021 at 4:04 PM, Chomper Higgot said:

I’ve just received my new passport and now need to transfer my Thailand immigration extension of stay stamps.

 

I have three questions I need TVF help with: 

 

1. Is there a time limit/recommendation on how soon I need to go to immigration to transfer my ‘stamps’?

 

My extension of stay is due at the end of March, should I transfer immediately or do this when I visit for my extension of stay.

 

2. The advice I received from my Embassy was that I can transfer at any immigration office, is this correct?

 

I’m currently at my second home in Thailand, in a different province to my formally registered address and would like to transfer my ‘stamps’ here rather than trek halfway across Thailand just to make the ‘stamp’ transfer.

 

3. Do I need any documentation other than my old and new passports plus the letter from

my Embassy?

 

Many thanks in anticipation of your responses.

You need to update your new passport 45 days before your visa is finished.

9 minutes ago, beet man said:

You need to update your new passport 45 days before your visa is finished.

There is no rule or requirement that states that. He has a extension of stay not a visa.

Do not forget to change your passport number at your local bank and DLT.

 

2 hours ago, ripstanley said:

Do not forget to change your passport number at your local bank and DLT.

 

Thanks, I hadn’t thought of that.

2 hours ago, EricTh said:

 

May I know which immig office 'here' and 'there' mean?

 

 

 

Sorry, I am deliberately vague with personal details that might identify or locate me, I trust you’ll understand.

7 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

That is what is stated in the immigration order clause 2.18.

"(3) In the case of spouse, the relationship must be de jure and de facto"

 

De facto

In law and government, de facto describes practices that exist in reality, even though they are not officially recognized by laws. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with de jure, which refers to things that happen according to law.  -  Wikipedia

It it possible what they mean by using both these phrases is that you must be married legally, thus  de jure, and living together, thus  de facto?

19 minutes ago, Old Croc said:

 

De facto

In law and government, de facto describes practices that exist in reality, even though they are not officially recognized by laws. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with de jure, which refers to things that happen according to law.  -  Wikipedia

De facto is probably what is commonly used when translating the immigration order from Thai.

It is what it has been translated to in the past 3 orders going back to 2006 I have seen.

14 minutes ago, lungbing said:

It it possible what they mean by using both these phrases is that you must be married legally, thus  de jure, and living together, thus  de facto?

That is probably what the intent of it is.