Immigration Police to Revise Visa Extension Criteria

[snoop1130]

 

BANGKOK, Dec 8 (TNA) – The Immigration Bureau will revise its criteria for visa extension to prevent foreign criminals from citing their “study or foundations” as an excuse to prolong their stay in the country.

 

Pol Lt Gen Pakpoompipat Sajjapan, commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, said it would have a working group to revise criteria for visa extension and the revision would concern the foreigners who reported their necessity to work for foundations, receive medical treatment or pursue their study.

 

The criteria would be stricter, he said.

 

The Immigration Bureau made the move after former politician Chuwit Kamolvisit said that three former immigration police officers facilitated the longer stay of members of Chinese triads who set up foundations as their fronts in the country.

 

Full Story: https://tna.mcot.net/english-news-1072437

 

-- © Copyright Thai News Agency 2022-12-08

 

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[RandiRona]

Hell Yeah!!! Make them wear Ankle bracelets as well while you are at it!!!

[Sharp]

ED visas will be hard hit or more costly no doubt!

[Onerak]

So, they are targeting Ed-Visa, Volunteer visa, and Medical visa extension? How many criminals did they catch using these visas to extend their stay?

[KhaoNiaw]

11 minutes ago, Onerak said:

So, they are targeting Ed-Visa, Volunteer visa, and Medical visa extension? How many criminals did they catch using these visas to extend their stay?

Apparently 6-7000 'volunteers' came through a Chinese foundation. So they're setting up an investigation into the misuse of volunteer visas up to last year or earlier this year I think they said on the news. Which sounds like up to the period people on here started reporting it was no longer a possibility. 

[Karma80]

With the rise of the remote working capability driven by covid, I imagine the amount of people on fake volunteer and dodgy ED visas has accelerated to the point it's no longer something that can be swept under the brown paper carpet,

Here in Phuket, the number of Russians arriving is quite insane over the last few weeks. Many are looking for long term rentals, so would have a visa to match that intention. I would think a proportion of those are provided through an agent.

Of course, being seen to do something and actually doing something are two different things.

 

 

[ikke1959]

a result of the visas who are offered for the wealthy quality tourists....The whole visa system should be revisted.. Make it easy for immigration, foreigners, and lot of problems wll disappear.. Now there are too many different visa and too many rules and requirements..

And criminals should be stopped at the borders

Edited December 8, 2022 by ikke1959

[Felt 35]

Unfortunately, I can imagine that this mean a general tightning and they who most often end up getting stung then is those who have never had the intention of anything else than living out their lives here on a retirement visas.????

Felt

[Jingthing]

First they came for the ED visa holders ... you know the drill. 

[kinyara]

Absolutely brilliant, it's so funny to observe an obvious loophole becoming too big to ignore given the sudden influx of thousands young Russians, coinciding with the dodgy Chinese operators.

 

Legitimate old codgers of the world can relax, the heat is off, we will survive. ????

[Jingthing]

4 minutes ago, kinyara said:

Absolutely brilliant, it's so funny to observe an obvious loophole becoming too big to ignore given the sudden influx of thousands young Russians, coinciding with the dodgy Chinese operators.

 

Legitimate old codgers of the world can relax, the heat is off, we will survive. ????

Don't get too comfortable. These things are cyclical and attention eventually focuses on retirees as that's how cycles work.

 

You did bring up an interesting point about the Russians. They are now flooding Jomtien and an unknown percentage are here to flee Putin's Russia (not on a holiday). Staying long term here will be very difficult for many of them. 

[kinyara]

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

Don't get too comfortable. These things are cyclical and attention eventually focuses on retirees as that's how cycles work.

 

You did bring up an interesting point about the Russians. They are now flooding Jomtien and an unknown percentage are here to flee Putin's Russia (not on a holiday). Staying long term here will be very difficult for many of them. 

You'd be surprised how few retirees are actually here and how irrelevant the number is in the overall scheme of things. You surely saw that in Jomtien during Covid, you could almost recognise all the expats you saw on a daily basis. I read an interview with the Head of Thai Immigration during Covid and he commented on how the number of retirees had declined in the last few years, I'm sure the figure he quoted was only 60k nationally, it really was surprisingly low.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kinyara]

Jingthing, think about the vaccination process and the numbers that were going through Central, Pattaya being one of the main centres for expat residents in the country. 

[d4dang]

 How many Elite Visa holders are criminals?

[freedomnow]

You mean they are making ammendments to visa rules ?

WHAT ?

 

[Orinoco]

9 hours ago, RandiRona said:

Hell Yeah!!! Make them wear Ankle bracelets as well while you are at it!!!

Not required,   as most people already, willingly carry one in there pocket,   it's called a smartphone. 

 

 

[Andycoops]

8 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

a result of the visas who are offered for the wealthy quality tourists....The whole visa system should be revisted.. Make it easy for immigration, foreigners, and lot of problems wll disappear.. Now there are too many different visa and too many rules and requirements..

And criminals should be stopped at the borders

The immigration act to my knowledge mostly dates back a few decades.

It is clearly not fit for purpose in the 21st Century but then many Thai laws aren't...

[Mike Teavee]

7 hours ago, Jingthing said:

.You did bring up an interesting point about the Russians. They are now flooding Jomtien and an unknown percentage are here to flee Putin's Russia (not on a holiday). Staying long term here will be very difficult for many of them. 

Took a walk down Wongamat beach yesterday & it was busier than I’ve ever seen it, absolutely packed with Farangs who looked/sounded Russian to me

 

It got to the point where the GF commented that she was the only Thai on the beach. 

Edited December 8, 2022 by Mike Teavee

[wombat]

8 hours ago, Jingthing said:

 unknown percentage are here to flee Putin's Russia (not on a holiday). Staying long term here.

Reffo (refugee) visa...a whole new category of visa can be had for a price

Edited December 9, 2022 by wombat

[Hakuna Matata]

11 hours ago, Sharp said:

ED visas will be hard hit or more costly no doubt!

ED visas should be completely stopped for language schools in Pattaya, Phuket and Samui. They have been abused by foreign criminals for years.

[4MyEgo]

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The Immigration Bureau made the move after former politician Chuwit Kamolvisit said that three former immigration police officers facilitated the longer stay of members of Chinese triads who set up foundations as their fronts in the country.

You don't say.......LOL

 

Feed the masses crumbs, keep them happy, what about the rest of those immigration officers on the take, i.e. 99.9999%

[nobodysfriend]

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

revise its criteria for visa extension to prevent foreign criminals from citing their “study or foundations” as an excuse to prolong their stay in the country.

Did they not just issue their new 10 year LTR visa for this clientele ?

[KhonKaenAde]

Shock, horror let’s make life a whole lot more difficult whilst ignoring the root cause, these dodgy visas, no matter what their initial purpose was, volunteer work, ED visas etc, all were facilitated by corrupt & greedy officials, so if Thai Immo are going to make application criteria’s tighter, surely their first step should be to remove & make examples of the corrupt officials discouraging others from profiteering from wealthy foreigners?

[NorthernRyland]

9 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

Now there are too many different visa and too many rules and requirements..

And criminals should be stopped at the borders

That doesn't make any sense because the crime being committed is they are staying too long in Thailand without the proper visa. For young people under 50 who aren't married the only realistic option is the elite visa which is too expensive for most people. Thailand continues to have no good options for young people who want to stay long term (more than 1 year) and work online.

[MaiChai]

Its all about money whether its a brown envelope to smooth the way or showing you have enough money to stay. Thailand needs tourist money even though they hate the foreigners staying. Then you have those running away from dictator regimes. What to do?

[Derek B]

9 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

And criminals should be stopped at the borders

Convicted criminals should show up on Immigration's radar surely.............perhaps no real checks are made. However not all criminals have convictions.

[Olmate]

A newly opened visaagency in Soi 5 across from IO Jomtiem, Russian clientelle, doing a roaring trade.

[Lucky Bones]

Foreigners, nothing but trouble.????????

[Lucky Bones]

9 hours ago, kinyara said:

Absolutely brilliant, it's so funny to observe an obvious loophole becoming too big to ignore given the sudden influx of thousands young Russians, coinciding with the dodgy Chinese operators.

 

Legitimate old codgers of the world can relax, the heat is off, we will survive. ????

"Old Codgers".

Haven't heard that for 100 years.

Well done.????????

[jacko45k]

It is all very well, but not addressing the underlying  and main issue.... their own staff are so often complicit in bypassing requirements for Extensions. It is always the foreigners who are the criminals and the Thai staff go on filling their pockets are innocents...

They are not being manipulated by the foreigners.....they take their grease willingly.