Extension of stay with active/current COVID infection

[claudioc]

I entered on 2-Mar and got my 30-day exemption stamp until 31-March and planned to go to immigration to extend today (flight out on 6-April). 

But I started having symptoms Sunday (27) morning and tested positive for COVID-19. 
I can't imagine the Thai government/immigration department wants me to visit the immigration office while I am still testing positive, and should have my result today from the hospital PCR test I had done yesterday. 
Any ideas how to proceed in this situation? I don't want to take the hit on an overstay as I got one from forgetfulness back in 2016 when I was in the middle of moving elsewhere but still had my apartment here. 
My Thai wife is making inquiries, but no joy yet. 

 

[Ohyesuare]

If you're in isolation like you should be (home, hospital) you can inquire with the hospital if they are able/willing to do the extension on your behalf. Otherwise, you'll probably just be advised to pay the overstay once you no longer test positive. 

[DrJack54]

1 hour ago, claudioc said:

I entered on 2-Mar and got my 30-day exemption stamp until 31-March and planned to go to immigration to extend today (flight out on 6-April

You could talk to agent.

I think ThaiVisaCentre had a pick up and drop off service in Bangkok area. 

Think they would be able to obtain 30 day extension for you. 

[BritTim]

With evidence that you are Covid positive, it should be possible for someone else (probably your girlfriend would be a reasonable choice) to do the extension on your behalf.

[problemfarang]

8 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

You could talk to agent.

I think ThaiVisaCentre had a pick up and drop off service in Bangkok area. 

Think they would be able to obtain 30 day extension for you. 

i dont think it is right thing to do to give agency names before the OP ask for. 

Edited March 29, 2022 by problemfarang

[problemfarang]

46 minutes ago, BritTim said:

With evidence that you are Covid positive, it should be possible for someone else (probably your girlfriend would be a reasonable choice) to do the extension on your behalf.

yes, in these kind of special situations i think immigration helps a lot. i also think he might get some visa extension.

 

Another thing is he can go to hospital and get a covid + paper work and the wife can take it to the immigration.. dont know but maybe it might help

Edited March 29, 2022 by problemfarang

[DrJack54]

14 minutes ago, problemfarang said:

i dont think it is right thing to do to give agency names before the OP ask for. 

Say what. 

The agent was a suggestion only.

BTW agent I mentioned is sponsor of AseanNow. 

Many others provide similar service. 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2022 by DrJack54

[problemfarang]

9 hours ago, claudioc said:

My Thai wife is making inquiries, but no joy yet. 

 

1 minute ago, DrJack54 said:

OP never stated that he had wife of even gf. Stick to the facts. 

no comment. 

[DrJack54]

2 minutes ago, problemfarang said:

 

no comment. 

Yes indeed corrected my post re wife prior to my mistake. 

Bottom line is that won't work re sending wife off to immigration imo he should use agent.

 

Edited March 29, 2022 by DrJack54

[problemfarang]

3 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Say what. 

The agent was a suggestion only.

BTW agent I mentioned is sponsor of AseanNow. 

Many others provide similar service. 

 

The rest of your other post is nonsense.

OP never stated that he had wife of even gf. Stick to the facts. 

i just cannot understand what is the relation to give a sponsor agency name when still OP doesnt ask for one? if you want to make a suggestion you could just mention it and like many other users you could say you can send the name and details to his direct message. 

 

Also OP said he has a wife and she is working on it. As a moderator wanna be and posting all and yes all threads (sometimes just to post) here you need to be more careful please. 

[problemfarang]

4 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Yes indeed corrected my post re wife prior to my mistake. 

Bottom line is that won't work re sending wife off to immigration imo he should use agent.

 

we need to be careful when giving advices in this kind of situations. please

i stop on this topic because i dont want to waste people's time and make this post longer. thank you

Edited March 29, 2022 by problemfarang

[DrJack54]

1 minute ago, problemfarang said:

I just cannot understand what is the relation to give a sponsor agency

The OP has very short timeframe to act.

I suggested agent as an option.

I did miss fact that he is married and that could be option.

IMO ,it would be not best option. 

 

I note @BritTim suggested similar, to send close gf or wife. 

 

On this I'm not so sure but often he is on the money. 

 

[DrJack54]

7 minutes ago, problemfarang said:

we need to be careful when giving advices in this kind of situations

You already have given advice.

Basically supporting idea of having wife "taking care of it"

At a point in time op looking at overstay. 

 

 

[problemfarang]

OP also there is something you need to consider.

im not in medical but i heard that even you are - after + it takes 2 months to get rid of the virus. So actually you still have the virus for 2 months. I dont know it will or not but this might affect your entrance to other countries or thailand. 

you need to get a recovered report form a hospital before leave thailand. i think that would be wise

[problemfarang]

46 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

You already have given advice.

Basically supporting idea of having wife "taking care of it"

At a point in time op looking at overstay. 

 

 

well at least i read the posts.. you dont. you didnt even read that she has a thai wife...  and more, you called me nonsense when i gave a suggestion or tried to help because he has a thai wife.

there are some other threads you did the same.. so... i repeat myself; we need to be careful when giving advice and we must read the posts.

 

like i said i will stop responding you for the sake of this post and the OP. because again you are making a thread longer and add many pages. thank you

Edited March 29, 2022 by problemfarang

[ThaiVisaCentre]

If you are in the Bangkok area we do currently offer 60 day extension courier service for 6,300 THB (includes immigration fees). Our team will stop by, and pickup your documents, and then return your documents with a completed extension.

We have serviced quite a few travelers while they were doing home isolation, and even during their AQ stay through our many hotel partnerships.
 

Edited March 29, 2022 by ThaiVisaCentre

[BritTim]

1 hour ago, problemfarang said:

im not in medical but i heard that even you are - after + it takes 2 months to get rid of the virus. So actually you still have the virus for 2 months.

I am also no medical expert, but I have researched this subject quite carefully. It is complicated.

 

As a general rule, you no longer have active virus in your system 7-10 days after you were infected. However, even in terms of actively circulating virus, there can be outliers.

 

When sensitive PCR tests give positives weeks or months after the end of the acute phase of the infection, this is usually not because of the virus actively circulating in your body. Instead, there are inactivated, dead fragments of the virus that can flake off and give positive results on the tests. When this happens, only very sophisticated and time consuming tests can differentiate between a reinfection (possible, but uncommon) and these clinically insignificant dead virus fragments. However, as you say, those positive tests can cause complications, especially when you want to cross borders.

 

A further complication is that some sufferers of long haul Covid are thought to have small reservoirs of the virus that the immune system has been unable to eliminate. When this happens, especially in immunocompromised individuals, it can lead to new Covid variants emerging in those people that they can pass on to others.

 

There is an urgent need for inexpensive, fast tests that can differentiate between continued presence of an active infection, and simple detection of dead viral fragments. My understanding is that it is not an easy problem.

[flexomike]

8 hours ago, BritTim said:

With evidence that you are Covid positive, it should be possible for someone else (probably your girlfriend would be a reasonable choice) to do the extension on your behalf.

His wife might not be to happy with that

 

[BritTim]

4 minutes ago, flexomike said:

His wife might not be to happy with that

The explanation that his girlfriend is just his agent for immigration purposes could actually be a great excuse for seeing her.

[topt]

7 hours ago, problemfarang said:

As a moderator wanna be

Actually you read as trying to be more like that in this thread..........

 

[claudioc]

17 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

You could talk to agent.

I think ThaiVisaCentre had a pick up and drop off service in Bangkok area. 

Think they would be able to obtain 30 day extension for you. 

Thanks so much @DrJack54. I mean to thank you yesterday, as I had not heard of ThaiVisaCentre, and it's a great suggestion. Imagine my surprise when I get a chance to check the thread again today and I see you unjustly criticized. But communities of all kinds always have a broad spectrum of people, including the disputatious.

[claudioc]

Thanks to all who offered helpful comments and kind words. I contacted ThaiVisaCentre, but they could only offer 7-10 days turnaround, which doesn't suit my situation.

 

So I contacted Siam Legal via the ThaiEmbassy_dot_com website they sponsor, and they responded pretty quickly. They said if you are in hospital, the hospital should be able to do it for you, but if not they could do it.

 

I replied (after business hours) telling them I am in home isolation (along with my wife, who also got the infection the same time) and asking if they could do the same for home isolation. I assume they will reply this morning in the affirmative and I will engage them, otherwise I will have no choice but to mask up and head to the immigration office.

I will update this thread as needed in the hopes it might help others in future.

[DrJack54]

12 minutes ago, claudioc said:

...,otherwise I will have no choice but to mask up and head to the immigration office.

Be aware that at CW prior to entry there is a form to sign, basically stating no symptoms.

Easy for folk to criticize option of attending immigration office yourself. 

Having said that I would attend immigration. 

 

Edited March 30, 2022 by DrJack54

[claudioc]

7 hours ago, BritTim said:

I am also no medical expert, but I have researched this subject quite carefully. It is complicated.

 

As a general rule, you no longer have active virus in your system 7-10 days after you were infected. However, even in terms of actively circulating virus, there can be outliers.

 

When sensitive PCR tests give positives weeks or months after the end of the acute phase of the infection, this is usually not because of the virus actively circulating in your body. Instead, there are inactivated, dead fragments of the virus that can flake off and give positive results on the tests. When this happens, only very sophisticated and time consuming tests can differentiate between a reinfection (possible, but uncommon) and these clinically insignificant dead virus fragments. However, as you say, those positive tests can cause complications, especially when you want to cross borders.

 

A further complication is that some sufferers of long haul Covid are thought to have small reservoirs of the virus that the immune system has been unable to eliminate. When this happens, especially in immunocompromised individuals, it can lead to new Covid variants emerging in those people that they can pass on to others.

 

There is an urgent need for inexpensive, fast tests that can differentiate between continued presence of an active infection, and simple detection of dead viral fragments. My understanding is that it is not an easy problem.

Spot on! This is why many jurisdictions no longer look at pre-departure PCR tests to admit you, especially if you have recovered from an infection recently. I will be returning to Singapore, and they have been requiring less testing of those recently recovered, and currently I just have to show that I was infected 7-90 days before travel.

 

It's also important to always make sure you get a CT count with your PCR test results. This shows the number of amplification cycles (of the DNA material) that the equipment had to go through in order to detect the targets. Most labs report a negative result after CT of > 35 or 40. It's an exponential/logarithmic scale also. So, HUGE difference between a CT of 20 and one of 30.

Here is one article from back in 2020.
https://www.science.org/content/article/one-number-could-help-reveal-how-infectious-covid-19-patient-should-test-results

[claudioc]

10 hours ago, ThaiVisaCentre said:

If you are in the Bangkok area we do currently offer 60 day extension courier service for 6,300 THB (includes immigration fees). Our team will stop by, and pickup your documents, and then return your documents with a completed extension.

We have serviced quite a few travelers while they were doing home isolation, and even during their AQ stay through our many hotel partnerships.
 

Your staffer on line said this would take 7-10 days to process, though. Hardly a solution for my situation. And they specifically mentioned it was working with immigration offices outside of Bangkok. 

[ThaiVisaCentre]

52 minutes ago, claudioc said:

Your staffer on line said this would take 7-10 days to process, though. Hardly a solution for my situation. And they specifically mentioned it was working with immigration offices outside of Bangkok. 

The easiest, and most cost effective solution would be for you to simply pay the 500 THB per day overstay fine when you exit the country.

If you anticipate going over a week then we could extend for you, the processing time is of course not counted as overstay, and the start date is based on when we actually receive your passport. That is maximum processing time, most of our extensions are done within 3-4 days.

[claudioc]

A friend was able to go and get this done for me at the local (province adjacent to Bangkok) immigration office. Had to have originals/copies of everything you would expect (passport, PCR test result/med-cert, TM6, stamped page in passport, TM30 for where I am staying, etc.). No power of attorney required.