O/A extension of stay - health insurance

[lothda]

I'm aware of the statement on the TGIA website and in several posts in this forum that O/A extensions of stay can be under the old 400k/40k scheme until end of August. However my insurance does not want to commit and offers me either that or the new 3.5 Million scheme. I should ask Immigration if I'm not sure (!). My question is: has anybody recently extended their stay (O/A, due before end of August) successfully under the old insurance scheme at Chaengwattana? Thank you.

 

 

Edited July 10, 2022 by lothda
Clarification of immigration office

[DrJack54]

1 hour ago, lothda said:

. My question is: has anybody recently extended their stay (O/A, due before end of August) successfully under the old insurance scheme at Chaengwattana?

Good question.

Bumping your thread as so far no answer.

I have read report where immigration asked for new rule (Sept 1) to be applied for extension applied for now.

Dont follow as I assumed the new requirement would apply to extension application from Sept 1.

Hopefully someone with first hand experience can clarify.

[OJAS]

8 hours ago, lothda said:

However my insurance does not want to commit

Precisely what do you mean by that vague statement? That your insurance company is no longer prepared to provide you with the certificate required by Immigration for a 400k/40k policy and will now only provide you with this certificate for a 3m policy?

 

Also worth bearing in mind that there has, to date, been no official announcement in the form of a Police Order issued by the Immigration Bureau formally confirming an increase in the mandatory health insurance minimum cover to 3m for original non-OA visa holders seeking retirement extensions from 1 September, even though this date is now barely 8 weeks away! So if CW are jumping the gun by enforcing this (still to be confirmed in any event) new requirement now, then they should IMHO be classed as a rogue office par excellence!!

 

Edited July 10, 2022 by OJAS

[lothda]

9 hours ago, OJAS said:

Precisely what do you mean by that vague statement? That your insurance company is no longer prepared to provide you with the certificate required by Immigration for a 400k/40k policy and will now only provide you with this certificate for a 3m policy?

 

 

 

My complete sentence reads: "However my insurance does not want to commit and offers me either that or the new 3.5 Million scheme."

 

The requirement still being the old one can be traced back to the paper "THE GUIDELINE ON THE AMENDMENT TO ADDITIONAL CRITERIA FOR PURCHASING HEALTH INSURANCE OF NON-THAI NATIONALS APPLYING FOR NON-IMMIGRANT “O-A” VISA (1 YEAR)", written by the Ministry of Public Health - Department of Health Service Support. Which is obviously not Immigration. The relevant footnote on page 4 of this document reads: "The [draft] will take effect on 1 October 2022. Currently, non-Thai nationals who intended to extend the visa shall follow the criteria prescribed in 2019. Details are shown in the table." (Note the OCTOBER date, which is one year after the change for INITIAL O/A visa applications.)

 

The requirements for extension of stay listed on the Immigration  Department website are the same they have been for many years, not mentioning health insurance at all.

[Parsve]

The last times I have renewed my 12 month visa. My agent have set a Bangkok
Bank insurance in my passport. When I asked him if I could use it at the hospital he answered no, but immigration will accept it. And that they have done. not asked for insurance a single time. Cost for only insurance about 3000 baht.

[OJAS]

2 hours ago, lothda said:

The requirements for extension of stay listed on the Immigration  Department website are the same they have been for many years, not mentioning health insurance at all.

The existing mandatory health insurance requirement was, in fact, formally announced in Police Order 548/2562 dated 27 September 2019 and effective from 31 October 2019 (downloadable from item 8 of the pinned “Laws, regulations, Police Orders, etc” thread) - see relevant extract below:

 

 

In that case, thanks to typical Immigration Bureau procrastination, we were only provided with 6 weeks formal notice of the introduction of the current requirement. On this basis we can presumably be supremely confident of a further Police Order being issued by way of a formal announcement of the new 3m requirement within the next fortnight. The $64,000 question is what would happen on 1 September if a new Police Order had not been issued by then.

 

Edited July 11, 2022 by OJAS

[Old Croc]

3 hours ago, lothda said:

My complete sentence reads: "However my insurance does not want to commit and offers me either that or the new 3.5 Million scheme."

 

The requirement still being the old one can be traced back to the paper "THE GUIDELINE ON THE AMENDMENT TO ADDITIONAL CRITERIA FOR PURCHASING HEALTH INSURANCE OF NON-THAI NATIONALS APPLYING FOR NON-IMMIGRANT “O-A” VISA (1 YEAR)", written by the Ministry of Public Health - Department of Health Service Support. Which is obviously not Immigration. The relevant footnote on page 4 of this document reads: "The [draft] will take effect on 1 October 2022. Currently, non-Thai nationals who intended to extend the visa shall follow the criteria prescribed in 2019. Details are shown in the table." (Note the OCTOBER date, which is one year after the change for INITIAL O/A visa applications.)

 

The requirements for extension of stay listed on the Immigration  Department website are the same they have been for many years, not mentioning health insurance at all.

The requirement for health insurance was put to cabinet by the Health Department (Anutin) not Immigration. It is their amendment.

[TimF]

I applied for an OA visa in UK last August (2021) and I had to have the 3.5m cover back then. I think it may vary dependent on where you are and/or what province you are in

[Randy99]

Yes, I extended last week for another year under the old rules at Sri Racha.  It was not easy.

[lothda]

1 hour ago, TimF said:

I applied for an OA visa in UK last August (2021) and I had to have the 3.5m cover back then. I think it may vary dependent on where you are and/or what province you are in

My question was about extension of stay, not originally applying for an OA.

[lothda]

23 minutes ago, Randy99 said:

Yes, I extended last week for another year under the old rules at Sri Racha.  It was not easy.

Thank you. Chaengwattana may be even more difficult.

[Howiehotspur]

10 hours ago, Parsve said:

The last times I have renewed my 12 month visa. My agent have set a Bangkok
Bank insurance in my passport. When I asked him if I could use it at the hospital he answered no, but immigration will accept it. And that they have done. not asked for insurance a single time. Cost for only insurance about 3000 baht.

Are you saying ( hopefully ) when you’ve left Thailand and returned with your current extension, and ofcourse a re entry stamp .. nobody asked to see any  insurance ? 

[ubonjoe]

14 hours ago, Howiehotspur said:

Are you saying ( hopefully ) when you’ve left Thailand and returned with your current extension, and ofcourse a re entry stamp .. nobody asked to see any  insurance ? 

For a extension of stay for a entry from a OA visa based upon retirement there is no requirement to prove you have the medical insurance. It is only required when entering the country with a valid OA visa issued by a embassy or consulate.

[supermac]

I extended my OA visa in June at roi -et using current lmg policy no problems.

[JimGant]

18 hours ago, Randy99 said:

Yes, I extended last week for another year under the old rules at Sri Racha.  It was not easy.

How so? Were the IOs unclear about whether or not the old insurance requirement was still in effect? If so, suspect someone higher up had to referee.....

[ClaySmc]

I had to apply for an extension on my O-A in mid-March this year. LMG, my insurance company, gave me the option of the new insurance and renewing my old policy. I opted to go with the old policy as I intend to change to an O visa near when I have to renew again.

 

I went to CW and had no problem getting my extension with the old policy. When I first used this policy, they wanted it to go into effect a day before my appointment, so I followed that guideline this year as well. As I said, had no issue.

 

[JimGant]

28 minutes ago, ClaySmc said:

When I first used this policy, they wanted it to go into effect a day before my appointment, so I followed that guideline this year as well. As I said, had no issue.

 

So, if your appointment is 30 days before your current extension of stay expires, does that mean your new extension also begins the day after your appointment, i.e., the same day your renewed insurance policy begins? If not, and your new extension links to the end of your expiring extension, then you have a 30 day gap between your one year insurance coverage and your renewed extension. Doesn't sound correct....

[Randy99]

5 hours ago, JimGant said:

How so? Were the IOs unclear about whether or not the old insurance requirement was still in effect? If so, suspect someone higher up had to referee.....

Sorry, my post was a bit misleading.  The difficulty I had was with the IOs accepting the insurance certificate itself.  I guess they thought that I just cooked it up at home.  Said it was a photocopy and not the original.  My insurance agent was a bit dumbfounded.  Then they went on about my bankbook or rather the two bankbooks I had.  They claimed that the very last entry in my old bankbook must appear as the first line in the new bank book.  My bank assured me that that is never done.  Took 4 trips to get my extension so that's 8 hours of driving.  I'll never set foot in that office again.  They were very prickly.

[ClaySmc]

9 hours ago, JimGant said:

new extension also begins the day after your appointment

As I recall, I went in a week before, but my insurance was dated to start two days later closer to my "true renewal date" and they did not accept it, so I had to have a change to my policy so it started one day before the rescheduled appointment, which was a week later. The policy began one day before that new appointment, and the extension ended based on the insurance. So, I guess I lost a day or so of extension, as they both were not aligned.

 

I checked and this year's dates were a few days before last years, so this process caused me to lose a few days. I could have timed it better and only lost one day, or asked my insurance company to add an extra day, which I would pay for, but I want to change to an O-visa, so it did not matter.

 

[Parsve]

On 7/11/2022 at 6:42 PM, Howiehotspur said:

Are you saying ( hopefully ) when you’ve left Thailand and returned with your current extension, and ofcourse a re entry stamp .. nobody asked to see any  insurance ? 

Sorry, I did miss that you reentry. I have not live Thailand.

[OJAS]

17 hours ago, Randy99 said:

The difficulty I had was with the IOs accepting the insurance certificate itself.  I guess they thought that I just cooked it up at home.  Said it was a photocopy and not the original. 

I thought that immigration offices were able to check the genuineness of insurance certificates online - and, indeed, were insistent on these certificates being available for such online checking before being prepared to sanction retirement extension applications, no matter how many paper copies of this and that you showered them with.

 

More generally it seems to me that you were probably the victim of blatant roguery on the part of the Sri Racha office, of which I can also recall a couple of recent reports on here. And, given your comment that you never plan to set foot in that particular office again, does this mean that, out of sheer desperation, you are planning to move solely to escape their clutches? If so, then I can definitely recommend a move to somewhere within the catchment area of the neighbouring Rayong office in view of the latest of my generally positive experiences with them regarding retirement extension applications yesterday!????

 

[Randy99]

15 minutes ago, OJAS said:

I thought that immigration offices were able to check the genuineness of insurance certificates online - and, indeed, were insistent on these certificates being available for such online checking before being prepared to sanction retirement extension applications, no matter how many paper copies of this and that you showered them with.

 

More generally it seems to me that you were probably the victim of blatant roguery on the part of the Sri Racha office, of which I can also recall a couple of recent reports on here. And, given your comment that you never plan to set foot in that particular office again, does this mean that, out of sheer desperation, you are planning to move solely to escape their clutches? If so, then I can definitely recommend a move to somewhere within the catchment area of the neighbouring Rayong office in view of the latest of my generally positive experiences with them regarding retirement extension applications yesterday!????

 

Thank you for the reply.  Come to think of it I recall reading somewhere that the database of certificates is searchable by IO.  Yes, I will probably move and it will likely be to a beach near Rayong, Rumphueng or something like that.  A nice place to hang out.  Thanks again!

Cheers, Randall.