Question about extending the Special Tourist Visa ( STV )

[csaba81]

1. First 90 days due to expire on 17 August. How long in advance of that date can I go to immigration to apply?

 

2. Below are the only instructions I was able to find regarding the extension. It's a copy of an email from some immigration office. No idea if they are complete!

 

 

Division1 Immigration DI

 

Re: Extension of STV visa Dear Sir/Madame

 

Documents Required for STV Visa extension

 

1.  Application for Extension of Temporary Stay in Kingdom (TM.7) with photograph 4x6 cm (Not older than 6 months)

2. Acknowledgement of Terms and Conditions for Permit of Temporary stay in Kingdom

3. A Copy of Passport ( BIO Data page)

4. A Copy of Visa page in passport

5. A Copy of Last Arrival Stamp and Departure Card (TM.6)

6. ASQ certificate from Department of Disease Control and Receipt from hotel (issued by Hotel

7. Document for place of residence (e.g. Hotel, Condo)

8. Letter of health and accident insurance in Thailand (Insurance policy, Insurance schedule and Receipt)

[ubonjoe]

1. You can apply about 2 weeks early for the extension of your permit to stay (a visa is no extended).

2. Division 1 is for Bangkok and that would be the office at Chaeng Wattana.

It appears to be complete.

[Greenwich Boy]

I realise different offices have different rules and requirements.

I extended mine in Chiang Mai 44 days before expiry and got the full 90 days tagged on the end. I am stamped in till end November.

[bbko]

Why not go to your local immigration office and ask?

[csaba81]

2 hours ago, Greenwich Boy said:

I realise different offices have different rules and requirements.

I extended mine in Chiang Mai 44 days before expiry and got the full 90 days tagged on the end. I am stamped in till end November.

I'm in Chiang Mai as well, so that's super.

[sweetserenity]

On 7/30/2021 at 3:07 PM, ubonjoe said:

1. You can apply about 2 weeks early for the extension of your permit to stay (a visa is no extended).

2. Division 1 is for Bangkok and that would be the office at Chaeng Wattana.

It appears to be complete.

You cant do that anymore, i tried to extend my STV yesterday, i was told to come back 3rd august (1 day before my visa expire)

[ubonjoe]

5 hours ago, sweetserenity said:

You cant do that anymore, i tried to extend my STV yesterday, i was told to come back 3rd august (1 day before my visa expire)

What office told you that?

You visas expiration date means nothing after you are in the country. You will be extending the permit to stay you got from your visa when you entered the country or a previous extension you got.

[sweetserenity]

6 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

What office told you that?

You visas expiration date means nothing after you are in the country. You will be extending the permit to stay you got from your visa when you entered the country or a previous extension you got.

The pattaya immigration told me that. I couldnt extend my STV a few days before.. I had to come 3rd august in order to be able to, which is 1 day before my visa expires

[ubonjoe]

9 minutes ago, sweetserenity said:

The pattaya immigration told me that. I couldnt extend my STV a few days before.. I had to come 3rd august in order to be able to, which is 1 day before my visa expires

Maybe they are telling that to people to reduce the number of people at the office. It is certainly not normal for them to say that.

[sweetserenity]

1 minute ago, ubonjoe said:

Maybe they are telling that to people to reduce the number of people at the office. It is certainly not normal for them to say that.

There was around 30 people outside waiting for something i dont know what, inside there wasnt that many.

Indeed. I was surprised and shocked as well

[csaba81]

15 hours ago, sweetserenity said:

You cant do that anymore, i tried to extend my STV yesterday, i was told to come back 3rd august (1 day before my visa expire)

I guess every office is run differently. Going to try and renew Tuesday. Will report back what happens.

[macgt3]

On 7/30/2021 at 3:07 PM, ubonjoe said:

1. You can apply about 2 weeks early for the extension of your permit to stay (a visa is no extended).

2. Division 1 is for Bangkok and that would be the office at Chaeng Wattana.

It appears to be complete.

That is not correct. 
 

My STV visa expires on August 11th. My Thai gf called the Thai immigration office in Bangkok today and she was specifically told that we are allowed to extend no more than 3 days before the expiration of the visa. 
 

If we come before that, they will not extend it. 

Edited August 2, 2021 by macgt3

[ubonjoe]

49 minutes ago, macgt3 said:

That is not correct. 

My STV visa expires on August 11th. My Thai gf called the Thai immigration office in Bangkok today and she was specifically told that we are allowed to extend no more than 3 days before the expiration of the visa. 

It is correct according to the immigration announcement. The 3 days is only for longs stay extensions.

You could go on the 6th that would be 3 working days early.

[csaba81]

Last week I was able to extend my STV in Chiang Mai with over 2 weeks to expiry. So every office is different. It was comparatively quiet which is not surprising.

[underthesky]

I need to get my first STV extension soon, in Bangkok. Is Covid-19 insurance a requirement for the extension? My insurance seems meet the standard inpatient and outpatient requirements but is weak on the Covid-19 front, with the virus covered up to 440,000THB ($13k).

 

Also, while my accommodation was originally on Airbnb, it is now changing to a cash deal for the same apartment. Is this an issue? TM30 is done.

[underthesky]

On 4/4/2022 at 9:51 AM, underthesky said:

I need to get my first STV extension soon, in Bangkok. Is Covid-19 insurance a requirement for the extension? My insurance seems meet the standard inpatient and outpatient requirements but is weak on the Covid-19 front, with the virus covered up to 440,000THB ($13k).

 

Also, while my accommodation was originally on Airbnb, it is now changing to a cash deal for the same apartment. Is this an issue? TM30 is done.

To answer my own question, Covid insurance of $100k+ was required to extend my STV at Building B, Changwattana, Bangkok. Cost me over 7000 baht for 90 days.

 

The rental contract with my once Airbnb host met the requirements. My host had given me a copy of her ID and a copy of what appeared to be a housing ownership document (in Thai), to go along with the contract.

 

They were very particular about seeing the receipt for my Sandbox booking. The receipt had to be got by logging in to my Agoda account and requesting it to be sent to my email. Then off to print it. Note that the booking confirmation email (incl. the attachment) sent at the time of the booking was not what immigration was looking for since that is 'not a receipt'.

 

A tiring morning but at least the staff were polite and helpful.
 

[ubonjoe]

16 minutes ago, underthesky said:

To answer my own question, Covid insurance of $100k+ was required to extend my STV at Building B, Changwattana, Bangkok. Cost me over 7000 baht for 90 days.

It should of only required the equivalent of $20,000  covid 19 insurance since it has not been $100k for a long time now.

I suspect though they were wanting full medical insurance instead of only covid 19 insurance.

[underthesky]

1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:

It should of only required the equivalent of $20,000  covid 19 insurance since it has not been $100k for a long time now.

I suspect though they were wanting full medical insurance instead of only covid 19 insurance.

They were happy with my other medical insurance, except that the Covid coverage was too low.

 

While initially struggling to find a $100k policy to buy, I went back inside the counter and asked if 2 million baht coverage would suffice but got told no.

[Patrick Barranis]

On 7/31/2021 at 6:40 AM, bbko said:

Why not go to your local immigration office and ask?

This is staggeringly unhelpful.  From where we are in Sathorn, Bangkok, the Chaeng Wattana office is about a 105 minute trip up the MRT and dark red SRT line, each way.  (Sadly we're less than 1km from the old, closed IO).  From where we'll stay later in Koh Tao, the Koh Samui IO is an all-day odyssey by fast ferry.  As I understand it, STV visas can only be extended at the main IO in your district, not any of the smaller offices.  That means there are only 6 in the entire country, so it's going to be quite a trip for many if not most.

[Patrick Barranis]

We went to the Bangkok IO to extend our STV, and found out there is, in fact, a list of required documents that does not seem to be available online.  I have attached it here.

Note that the 4th bullet on the right says "Proof of Thai health and accident insurance..."  When we got our STV we opted not to go with the suggested Thai insurance companies since their premiums were quite high for the minimal coverage.  We used another carrier who was already setup to provide the special Thai insurance certificate with 3 signatures (they had even automated it, so it was produced automatically with the rest of all the official paperwork).  The Embassy in the US that issued the visa was happy to accept it.

However, the officer at the IO said we had to have insurance from a company in Thailand.  We politely pushed back and said surely this was a mistake - we bought a $1M USD policy with exceptionally good coverage (and we spent less than we would have paid a Thai company for far worse insurance).  I suspect the officer was misunderstanding the use of "Proof of Thai ... insurance" to mean that it must be from a Thai company, but, alas, there's nothing we could do.

Has anyone else had this experience?

Also, near the bottom there's a bit that's cut off that seems to say the last day to extend an STV is September 30th.  I've read this elsewhere and believe it's likely true.  Just FYI for anyone this affects.

[underthesky]

Does anyone know if Covid insurance is still required by CW immigration Bangkok for the Special Tourist Visa extension? As I posted above, they were very clear that I needed $100k Covid cover 3 months ago for my previous extension. This time, my insurance provider no longer offers such cover.