From Thailand Elite to Marriage Visa without leaving the country

[macademiaacademy]

I am currently staying in Thailand under the Thailand Elite visa, which is expiring next month, and now having been married I would like to change to using a marriage visa.

 

Can I convert, or apply for the marriage visa, without having to leave the country?

 

I asked an agency that I've used in the past, and they claimed that I have to leave the country in order to get a tourist visa, which can then be converted into a marriage visa. But my understanding is that technically Thailand Elite is also a type of tourist visa, so I think there might still be a chance that it's possible to do?

[ubonjoe]

I am sure you will have to leave the country to either get a non-o visa at a embassy or consulate or enter visa exempt to apply for the non-o visa at immigration.

[DrJack54]

25 minutes ago, macademiaacademy said:

Can I convert, or apply for the marriage visa, without having to leave the country?

100% exit Thailand.

When does your permission of stay from elite end? 

Perhaps land border/s open by then.

Do border bounce and reenter visa exempt.

Obtain a non O marriage shortly after reentering.

You will require 400k in Thai bank account on the day you apply for your non O.

 

[macademiaacademy]

Thank you for confirming the case.

 

My TE expires on the 7th of June.

 

15 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Perhaps land border/s open by then.

So this was going to be my next question. I take it then that none of the land border hops are open at the moment?

 

Friend of mine suggested going to Mae Hong Son for a border hop without entering Myanmar to avoid having to spend may days in quarantine, but he did not know if it was open or not.

[DrJack54]

24 minutes ago, macademiaacademy said:

So this was going to be my next question. I take it then that none of the land border hops are open at the moment?

Not really.

Possible at for example Nong Khai however not like your thinking..

Need to be in tour group etc.

Thinking to try and by time.

 

Not sure if extension to visa wife is available to you.

 

My point is that in few months things could be easier and Thai Pass etc history.

You mention quarantine...that's only required if your unvaccinated.

Where are you located. 

Edited May 7, 2022 by DrJack54

[ubonjoe]

29 minutes ago, macademiaacademy said:

My TE expires on the 7th of June.

Is your visa or your current one year stay from your visa that is ending?

You can use your visa to get another one year stay by leaving and re-entering the country before it expires.

[problemfarang]

33 minutes ago, macademiaacademy said:

Thank you for confirming the case.

 

My TE expires on the 7th of June.

 

So this was going to be my next question. I take it then that none of the land border hops are open at the moment?

 

Friend of mine suggested going to Mae Hong Son for a border hop without entering Myanmar to avoid having to spend may days in quarantine, but he did not know if it was open or not.

I read somewhere that malaysia border will open soon. Also nong khai border is open already if im not mistaken

[macademiaacademy]

19 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

Not sure if extension to visa wife is available to you.

Where should I inquire about this to find out? It would be very convenient as you pointed out.

 

19 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

You mention quarantine...that's only required if your unvaccinated.

Where are you located. 

I am unvaccinated. I am located in Chiang Mai.

 

19 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Is your visa or your current one year stay from your visa that is ending?

I believe it is my visa that is expiring. TE granted me another 6 months extension, so the date on my visa now says "Date of expiry: 7 Jun 2022", so that's my understanding of when it expires. Are you saying if I re-enter the country before that date, I will be able to stay for another year?

[DrJack54]

4 minutes ago, macademiaacademy said:

Where should I inquire about this to find out? It would be very convenient as you pointed out

Obviously not a common situation however cannot see why you would not be able to obtain 60 day extension to visit wife.

The whole point of which would be to provide time for changes to TP and borders open etc.

When uj answers your other questions he may clarify this option. 

[sometimewoodworker]

27 minutes ago, macademiaacademy said:

I am unvaccinated. I am located in Chiang Mai.

That choice (frankly an extremely bad one IMNSHO) is going to limit your options. Flying into Vietnam is probably a reasonably option. You will need a couple of PCR tests and run the risks of testing positive and so going into quarantine either in Vietnam or Thailand.

 

However you must have understood the possible downside and have planned for that eventuality.

Edited May 8, 2022 by sometimewoodworker

[sometimewoodworker]

31 minutes ago, macademiaacademy said:

20 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

Not sure if extension to visa wife is available to you.

Where should I inquire about this to find out? It would be very convenient as you pointed out.

Thai immigration.

[sometimewoodworker]

37 minutes ago, macademiaacademy said:

I believe it is my visa that is expiring. TE granted me another 6 months extension, so the date on my visa now says "Date of expiry: 7 Jun 2022", so that's my understanding of when it expires. Are you saying if I re-enter the country before that date, I will be able to stay for another year?

Visas are never extended. You are probably talking about a permission to stay which can be extended.

If however you actually do have a visa that has its expiry date changed a picture of the unicorn would be appreciated. If it is a multi entry visa and the expiration date is correct then you can use it to enter, but if it is a non-B it doesn’t really help.

Edited May 8, 2022 by sometimewoodworker

[ubonjoe]

43 minutes ago, macademiaacademy said:

I believe it is my visa that is expiring. TE granted me another 6 months extension, so the date on my visa now says "Date of expiry: 7 Jun 2022", so that's my understanding of when it expires. Are you saying if I re-enter the country before that date, I will be able to stay for another year?

When does current permit to stay end? Thai Elite only extended the validity of your visa not your permit to stay in the country.

Have you applied for a one year extension at immigration? That may still be an option instead of leaving and re-entering the country.

[macademiaacademy]

4 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Visas are never extended. You are probably talking about a permission to stay which can be extended.

My extension of stay stamp has the same date as the expiry date of my visa.

 

4 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

If however you actually do have a visa that has its expiry date changed a picture of the unicorn would be appreciated.

 

On my visa there is handwritten text by the immigration officer, and my translation:

 

"อนุญาต 5 ปี แต่ไม่เกินสิทธิสมาชิก"

 

"Permit for five years, but not longer than the membership priviledge".

 

I am afraid this means that I am not able to apply for another extension, or to get a further extension by leaving the country and coming back. Perhaps I am wrong?

[sometimewoodworker]

22 minutes ago, macademiaacademy said:

My extension of stay stamp has the same date as the expiry date of my visa.

 

 

On my visa there is handwritten text by the immigration officer, and my translation:

 

"อนุญาต 5 ปี แต่ไม่เกินสิทธิสมาชิก"

 

"Permit for five years, but not longer than the membership priviledge".

 

I am afraid this means that I am not able to apply for another extension, or to get a further extension by leaving the country and coming back. Perhaps I am wrong?

While it is certainly possible that there maybe something strange and unusual going on, the general rule is that visas are completely separate from permissions to stay as the visa gets you into the country and you are then given a permission to stay which in general has no connection to the visa expiration date. An example is the OA visa which is valid for 1 year, however it is possible to stay for all but 2 years if you exit and then enter on the last day of validity.

 

It doesn’t sound as if your visa has been extended (as I said if it were it would be extraordinarily  unusual if it were) that may refer to the maximum  time for extensions of stay, though again it doesn’t sound standard procedure. If the visa has been extended there must be an original expiration date and a new later one. 

 

It is almost certain that an embassy can (and would) cancel your current visa then issue a Non-O but as it seems there is something strange going on a phone call to the embassy you select is advisable 

EDIT further I missed the point that it’s an elite visa. They give a 1 year permission to stay on entry. So a 5 year visa gets you 6 years in Thailand,

Edited May 8, 2022 by sometimewoodworker

[2 is 1]

6 days old news but situation chance all the time. 

 

https://laotiantimes.com/2022/05/02/confusion-ensues-as-thailand-opens-land-borders-but-laos-remains-closed/

[ubonjoe]

32 minutes ago, 2 is 1 said:

6 days old news but situation chance all the time. 

 

https://laotiantimes.com/2022/05/02/confusion-ensues-as-thailand-opens-land-borders-but-laos-remains-closed/

Laos opened yesterday. See: https://laotiantimes.com/2022/05/07/laos-drops-testing-for-vaccinated-tourists-announces-full-reopening/

[DrJoy]

On 5/7/2022 at 1:46 PM, macademiaacademy said:

Thank you for confirming the case.

 

My TE expires on the 7th of June.

 

So this was going to be my next question. I take it then that none of the land border hops are open at the moment?

 

Friend of mine suggested going to Mae Hong Son for a border hop without entering Myanmar to avoid having to spend may days in quarantine, but he did not know if it was open or not.

You have to leave Thailand 100%

 

As others pointed out, you may re enter visa exempt and then request for visa conversion.

 

I am assuming you are from a Western country, if not then border run may not be feasible.

[macademiaacademy]

22 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

It doesn’t sound as if your visa has been extended (as I said if it were it would be extraordinarily  unusual if it were) that may refer to the maximum  time for extensions of stay, though again it doesn’t sound standard procedure. If the visa has been extended there must be an original expiration date and a new later one. 

Thailand Elite announced the visa extension program two years ago. See the following thread on the topic.

 

I emailed Thailand Elite directly to ask about the matter, and their reply stated:

 

Quote

For the elite Visa ,You will be granted the stay permission for 1 year or according to your visa validity at each time, in this case if you leave the country and enter with elite visa before 7 June 2022 your stay permission will be allowed not over 7 June 2022, after that you will need to leave the country. 

If you wish to stay in Thailand after June 7th , you will need to enter the country with other visa since your elite visa is going to expire.

This is curious because the OP of the thread linked says TE at the time said:

 

Quote

- If your membership expires on 30th June 2022 so your membership will be extended to 31st December 2022.

- If your visa expires on 30th June 2022 and you travel on 1st July 2022, you will over stay for 1 day then we would like to recommend you to fly out before 30th June 2020 and when you come back you can get the new Elite visa sticker for another 6 months. (You are required to advise us 5 working days in advance to get the new Elite visa sticker on your arrival at the airport).

Now either the person at TE replying to my email is mistaken about the matter or my situation is somehow different from the poster of the linked thread, as might be suggested by the hand written note on my visa. A possible explanation for the reason might be, is that when I transferred my visa from my expired passport to my current one, I used a visa agency to have to avoid going to Bangkok in person, and I thought that they had also done an extension of stay for me at the same time, but which wasn't done, so I had an overstay of 49 days which was then later fixed by me paying the full 20k fine, but I got the extension nevertheless, but only until the expiry date of my visa.

 

I will try to call them and find out for sure, though right now I am not very confident that I would be granted an extension beyond the expiry date of my visa if I were to enter the country before the expiry of my visa.

 

23 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

It is almost certain that an embassy can (and would) cancel your current visa then issue a Non-O but as it seems there is something strange going on a phone call to the embassy you select is advisable 

Yes I will be sure to call them ahead of time if I go this route instead of applying for the "visiting wife" extension as suggested by DrJack54.

 

Thank you for all the replies so far.

[macademiaacademy]

I called Thailand Elite, and they insisted that the visa is only valid until the expiry of the membership, as is apparently stated in their terms and conditions.

 

Apparently it has nothing to do with the visa extension program.

 

He went as far as saying that there was a case in the past, where a TE member was given an extension of stay beyond the membership expiration date, and then later had to pay overstay fees when the mistake was discovered.

[sometimewoodworker]

2 hours ago, macademiaacademy said:

I called Thailand Elite, and they insisted that the visa is only valid until the expiry of the membership, as is apparently stated in their terms and conditions.

 

Apparently it has nothing to do with the visa extension program.

 

He went as far as saying that there was a case in the past, where a TE member was given an extension of stay beyond the membership expiration date, and then later had to pay overstay fees when the mistake was discovered.

You are confusing extensions of stay with the valid visa time and permissions to stay given when entering the country. They are all different.

 

the Elite visa is primarily focused on those making reasonably frequent trips outside Thailand, it is classified as a tourist visa, it is not a non immigrant visa, despite the period. On entry to Thailand during the validity of the visa you are given a 1 year permission to stay, this is why if you enter on the last day it’s valid for a year not 1 day, so with a 5 year visa you can stay for almost 1 year past the validity of the visa, this is exactly the same conditions as all other visas.

 

Extensions of stay while in Thailand have different conditions and periods and the time is purely at the desecration of (or negotiation between) the immigration officers and TE authority 

 

Until the COVID-19 pandemic the majority of TE holders were making trips outside Thailand few were extending their stay in country.

Edited May 9, 2022 by sometimewoodworker