Visa / COE, what's needed to re-enter ?

[cocolasticot]

Hey, I am currently on a permit of stay extension (TR), I would like to go back to my home country (Switzerland) to visit my mum who is sick for two weeks and return to Thailand, I heard that I can do the paperwork from Thailand but I have no information, maybe someone here can help ?

[notrub]

For a start go to your immigration office and get a permit to leave and come back, otherwise your existing visa will be cancelled, if it is anything like a retirement visa.  The whole issue of COE and quarantine, insurance etc. changes hourly and nobody seems to know what is happening and/or will be happening.  look on 'coethailand.mfa.go.th' for current instructions.  These will change 01 11 2021.  The Thai produced Astra Zeneca is accepted in France and perhaps all of the EU.  Good Luck, 

[BritTim]

If you are in Thailand on just a short term extension of stay after a tourist entry, then you can best just treat your exit and return as a fresh visit to Thailand. There is no point getting a re-entry permit when this, at best, will give you about a month in Thailand after your re-entry. Best is probably to apply for either a single entry tourist visa (60 days on entry, with various options to extend your stay further) or a Special Tourist Visa (90 days on entry with the possibility for two 90-day extensions). Whatever kind of visa you have, you will also need a Certificate of Entry prior to your return to Thailand. It is difficult to say at this point what the requirements will be for your COE.

[cocolasticot]

Yes I'have entered on a tourist visa, It's just that two weeks will be short to apply for a new visa and do the COE thing, so the question was if I can start the paperwork from here. 

[ubonjoe]

21 minutes ago, notrub said:

For a start go to your immigration office and get a permit to leave and come back, otherwise your existing visa will be cancelled, if it is anything like a retirement visa. 

There no requirement for a permit to leave.

You only need a re-entry permit to keep the remainder of the permit to stay it is issued for valid when your use it to enter the country

[gk10012001]

Requirements?  Sorry. Changing day to day.

[ubonjoe]

3 minutes ago, cocolasticot said:

Yes I'have entered on a tourist visa, It's just that two weeks will be short to apply for a new visa and do the COE thing, so the question was if I can start the paperwork from here. 

You can start the COE application online before leaving the country.

The embassy in Bern does not use the online visa application system so you would have to make a appointment to do the application in person. See: https://www.thaiembassy.ch/Content/Embassy/55.html

Appoing page is here. https://www.thaiembassy.ch/Appointment

 

[notrub]

25 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

There no requirement for a permit to leave.

You only need a re-entry permit to keep the remainder of the permit to stay it is issued for valid when your use it to enter the country

Yes but, if you leave w/o a re entry document they stamp your visa 'used' as in cancelled.  Then have to apply for new one.  Learned the hard way.

[BritTim]

1 minute ago, notrub said:

Yes but, if you leave w/o a re entry document they stamp your visa 'used' as in cancelled.  Then have to apply for new one.  Learned the hard way.

You probably had a long term extension of stay (not a visa which is unaffected by leaving Thailand). It is, indeed, usually worthwhile to get a re-entry permit to protect the permission to stay. The OP just has a short term permission to stay on a tourist entry. Even a visa exempt entry would make more sense than trying to protect the existing permission to stay.

[ubonjoe]

12 minutes ago, notrub said:

Yes but, if you leave w/o a re entry document they stamp your visa 'used' as in cancelled. 

A re-entry permit is not issued for a visa. It is issued for a permit to stay a visa allowed or the extension of it.

[notrub]

5 hours ago, BritTim said:

You probably had a long term extension of stay (not a visa which is unaffected by leaving Thailand). It is, indeed, usually worthwhile to get a re-entry permit to protect the permission to stay. The OP just has a short term permission to stay on a tourist entry. Even a visa exempt entry would make more sense than trying to protect the existing permission to stay.

Yes, it was a retirement visa that I had and it was cancelled.  Bummer.  It turned out to be a very costly mistake.

 

[BritTim]

1 hour ago, notrub said:

Yes, it was a retirement visa that I had and it was cancelled.  Bummer.  It turned out to be a very costly mistake.

Unless using an agent, it should have cost 3,900 baht in immigration fees, plus some minor miscellaneous expenses, plus an indeterminate degree of hassle. In the larger scheme of things, it should have been some way short of "very costly".

 

(Of course, what was cancelled was a permission to stay, not a visa.)

Edited October 15, 2021 by BritTim