Thai Elite Visa & overstay

[DrJack54]

1 hour ago, James105 said:

This is really, really harsh.   Forced to leave Thailand, a 20,000 baht fine on exit and not allowed to enter Thailand for a year means that one of the Elite visa years is wasted (100,000 baht) for what is effectively an admin error on the part of the OP.

Agree. It's a very heavy penalty.

In this thread there is a post (not the OP) 

Where a fella with PE was also not aware of this.

I assume that PE has some form of contact details for everyone with elite visa. When borders were closed and clearly not open for long time the PE Company could have contacted all via email to remind members of their obligations.

Notice also that the OP opened his thaivisa account few minutes prior to his OP and hence maybe not across visa matters.

Edited June 13, 2021 by DrJack54

[Chris.B]

On 6/12/2021 at 1:41 PM, Pedrogaz said:

This is one of the many reasons why I would never consider an Elite visa.

 

...and the other reason is.... you don't have the 500,000 baht to buy it! ????????

[BKKTRAVELER]

7 hours ago, Dexxter said:

 

I noticed that one of the conditions for getting an Elite visa is that you did not have any overstays in the past. Does this mean he will no longer be eligible to renew his Elite visa in a couple of years?

One of my friends forgot his extension this year and did it 8 days late with EPL staff. He paid 4k fine for overstay but the Elite staff told him by email that he would not be penalized if he wanted to renew with Elite in the future. But in this case, things might be trickier especially since he will be banned for a year. He'll have to check with Elite later I guess.

[Neeranam]

1 hour ago, James105 said:

This is really, really harsh.   Forced to leave Thailand, a 20,000 baht fine on exit and not allowed to enter Thailand for a year means that one of the Elite visa years is wasted (100,000 baht) for what is effectively an admin error on the part of the OP.    There was no intention to cheat the system here as he has paid a lot for a long term visa, but is treated the same as someone who does try to cheat the system and overstays without paying for any visa at all.  

I agree, he was trying to do things the legal way, unlike thousands who don't meet immigration requirements and pay agencies 20,000 baht a year. 

 

This is basically telling those like the OP to just use agents, 100k for 5 years.

[Neeranam]

9 minutes ago, BKKTRAVELER said:

One of my friends forgot his extension this year and did it 8 days late with EPL staff. He paid 4k fine for overstay but the Elite staff told him by email that he would not be penalized if he wanted to renew with Elite in the future. But in this case, things might be trickier especially since he will be banned for a year. He'll have to check with Elite later I guess.

I highly doubt hell want to use them again after this terrible service, or lack of. 

[ukrules]

6 hours ago, Jingthing said:

You don't need any contact with the Elite company to do that very easy extension! They are creating more work for you  not less. Just collect the copies of the required documents and show up at immigration. No special letter needed!

 

Yes, it used to be nice and easy, just pop along and do an extension, that changed.

 

They made some changes to the extension procedure for TE visa holders last year some time, at least for those who do the extension out in the provinces.

 

The procedure is now a lot more involved and should be planned for in advance. It required both a letter and an appointment to do the extension late last year when I did my extension.

 

I don't know if the new procedure is the same everywhere or decided on a province by province basis, you never know here.

 

They send you a PDF of a letter all in Thai apart from your name and the passport / TE membership numbers to print out and take with you when you go to do the extension.

 

When I did my most recent extension late last year I needed this letter, I only found out that I needed it by chance as I popped into a satellite branch of immigration here in Hua Hin at the Bluport mall about a month before my expiry date and asked if they're still doing extensions of stay at that location.

They said no and told me that they can't do it because they're only 'deputy immigration officers' and this one needs to be authorised by someone more senior who's only available at the main office a few miles out of town in the literal middle of nowhere, they then mentioned the new letter and pre-arranged appointment requirement which is the only reason I knew about it before I turned up.

 

@kbb This is aimed at you :

 

So if anyone is preparing to do their first in country extension on a TE visa I suggest they email the Thailand Elite 'customer service' address a couple of weeks before it needs to be done just to make sure everything is in place or you might be in for a shock.....their email is [email protected]

 

Edited June 13, 2021 by ukrules

[richard_smith237]

12 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

I highly doubt hell want to use them again after this terrible service, or lack of. 

 

That kind of begs the question: 

 

In paying 500,000 baht for 5 years should we be expecting Thai Elite to remind us of when we need to fill out a 90 day report or apply for an extension ????

 

Could Thai Elite add this to the service ??? clearly it wouldn’t be a bad idea, how much extra work is it for them to run a data base and send out an e-mail when someones renewal is close?

 

Could it open a can of worms if people don’t receive their e-mail, or it goes to junk mail etc. 

 

 

I’ve been a member of Thai Elite for 14 years. 

I’ve received poor ‘visa advice’ from them twice. I protected myself and never trusted their advice directly which is fortunate as both time I asked and they were incorrect I would have been the one facing difficulties not Thai Elite. 

 

 

--------

 

Issue 1: My first every 90 day report.

My Membership is Life Time (5 year renewable SE Visa) - I have to apply for an extension every 90 days. I didn’t know this.

I’d never stayed Thailand longer than 90 days (work overseas on rotation) - so I’d never done a 90 day report before. 

I contacted Thai Elite for them to do my 90 day Report and dropped off my passport. 

I received call from them 4 days later telling me they could not do my 90 day report, I needed to be present to do an extensions (SE visa). 

The problem was - I was now on overstay by a couple of days !!! 

 

My fault - I got my passport back and went to Immigration the next morning and did my extension myself. 

 

My complaint: I’d asked Thai Elite what I needed to do, they said send in their passport. They did not know I needed to do an extensions with an S.E. Visa, or just assumed I was on the P.E. Visa as I was asking about the 90 day report. The didn’t check their details - I expected better of a so called premium service. 

 

 

Issue 2: 

Returning to Thailand under Emergency Degree (in July 2020)

I wrote to Thai Elite and asked if I can return to Thailand - they replied saying if I am married to a Thai I can. 

I applied for Certificate of Entry with my Thai Elite Visa and Marriage Cert - Thai Embassy allocated me a flight, I paid for the flight, got an ASQ booking and received my CoE. 

 

I then heard from a friend that I cannot return without a Non-Immigrant Visa. I e-mailed Thai Elite who told me I can enter with the Thai Elite Visa as long as I have been issued a CoE (this was wrong). 

 

I didn’t believe Thai Elite. I contacted the Thai Embassy, told them of my doubts and that they may have made a mistake in issuing me with a CoE with an Elite Visa. I travelled to London and the Thai Embassy gave me a Non-Immigrant O visa (all done in 5 mins !!! - a very impressive response), I flew to Thailand that evening. 

 

Ultimately: The Thai Embassy made a mistake which they quickly rectified. But, Thai Elite gave me incorrect advice which had I listened to would have seen me rejected from entry upon arrival in Thailand, I would have had to fly back to the UK. 

 

I wrote to Thai Elite informing them of their mistake. They never responded. 

I wrote to Thai Elite again, informing them of their mistake, I received a response that they will forward the complaint to management. No further response. 

 

No one was going to take responsibility and apologise for the incorrect advise.

 

 

In short: As a Visa Thai Elite is a good system. (Pre-Covid) Thai Elite makes getting to and through the airport quickly very efficient (fast track etc).... BUT do not expect Thai Elite to do anything else beyond this. They are not reliable with regards to any advice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BritTim]

18 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

In paying 500,000 baht for 5 years should we be expecting Thai Elite to remind us of when we need to fill out a 90 day report or apply for an extension ????

 

In order to do this, Thailand Elite would need access to data maintained by Immigration that even other Thai government departments have no access to. In general, Thailand Elite has no idea when members exit and re-enter the country and when they submit 90-day reports.

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

Absolutely terrible. Paying this much money, and getting this kind of treatment.

 

Amazing Thailand, truly deserving of the most affluent, biggest spending, highest quality tourists. Everyone do spread this far and wide, so that more of such folks will surely keep queuing up.

[Caldera]

In such a scenario, it's unfortunate that a senior immigration officer can't just waive the overstay ban.

 

Imposing only the maximum fine would be more than enough, considering that someone like the OP would have been entitled to an extension, if only he had shown up. This is very different from a scenario where someone just decides to keep staying in Thailand forever, without purchasing an expensive Elite visa.

[ThaiVisaCentre]

1 hour ago, BritTim said:

 

In order to do this, Thailand Elite would need access to data maintained by Immigration that even other Thai government departments have no access to. In general, Thailand Elite has no idea when members exit and re-enter the country and when they submit 90-day reports.

We have the same issue for our services but we send out reminders to all of our clients anyways.

Majority of the time they are useful, and when they are not our clients are not upset, they simply say they are currently not in the country.

If a simple email, or line message can save even 1 person out of 100 from massive issues it is still worth it.

[ukrules]

47 minutes ago, Caldera said:

In such a scenario, it's unfortunate that a senior immigration officer can't just waive the overstay ban.

 

Imposing only the maximum fine would be more than enough, considering that someone like the OP would have been entitled to an extension, if only he had shown up. This is very different from a scenario where someone just decides to keep staying in Thailand forever, without purchasing an expensive Elite visa.

 

Yes, it's sounding like one of those hastily thought out knee-jerk reaction  laws where they either haven't considered the unintended consequences or simply don't care about them, likely both.

 

[ukrules]

2 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

I contacted Thai Elite for them to do my 90 day Report and dropped off my passport. 

I received call from them 4 days later telling me they could not do my 90 day report, I needed to be present to do an extensions (SE visa). 

The problem was - I was now on overstay by a couple of days !!! 

 

It is an interesting outcome you report here, I note that it was a long time ago but in my earlier post here I suggested that it should not be possible to do a 90 day report while on overstay which is exactly what happened in the OP's situation.

 

How did they allow the 90 day report in his case when we know as you confirm here that it's not possible when you're 'on overstay' and he was already on overstay by some two months when he did his 90 day report.

 

The only reason this situation happened is because they processed a 90 day report when they shouldn't have done.

 

They should have refused to do the 90 day report and told him he's overstayed by 2 months already and to pay his fine and extend his stay immediately yet they chose not to which leads us to this situation where he's about to be booted out.

 

Quite the riddle...

[Neeranam]

47 minutes ago, ukrules said:

They should have refused to do the 90 day report and told him he's overstayed by 2 months already and to pay his fine and extend his stay immediately yet they chose not to which leads us to this situation where he's about to be booted out.

 

Quite the riddle...

This suggests to me that they are open to negotiation, and the fact that the OP is not in jail already. AS I said earlier, they often mean to cause problems, especially to those who they think have money. 

 

[BKKTRAVELER]

6 hours ago, ThaiVisaCentre said:

We have the same issue for our services but we send out reminders to all of our clients anyways.

Majority of the time they are useful, and when they are not our clients are not upset, they simply say they are currently not in the country.

If a simple email, or line message can save even 1 person out of 100 from massive issues it is still worth it.

I always get your reminder on time for my 90 days report and I always follow to proceed ASAP. Thank you honestly for the job you guys do, it makes my life easier.

[BKKTRAVELER]

8 hours ago, Neeranam said:

I highly doubt hell want to use them again after this terrible service, or lack of. 

He surprisingly was fine with it. For me (ex member), I'm not interested to renew since they told me I couldn't get a 6th year pre covid (which I did) and almost threatened to rat me out at immigration while I was doing nothing illegal.