Passport stuck at embassy as checkin nears

[Hal65]

• I have a US passport
• I have a 90 day checkin, then 1 year university ED visa (Payap Uni in Chiang Mai)
• I sent the passport to the US embassy by mail about 3 weeks ago. The problem is they only found it last week and started processing it then. Processing takes 4-6 weeks
• The passport is likely not to be in my possession by the 90 day checkin in 2 weeks

 

Is there anything I should do with Chiang Mai immigration to mitigate the timing issue?

 

If the answer is no and I am overstayed over 10 days, what should I do? My guess is the 1 year university ED visa will be cancelled, forcing me to leave the country.

[HampiK]

you not mean the normal 90 day register. You have to go for a follow-up 90 day check because of your ED visa?

 

I hope you will receive some good information from people who know your immigration and about this exact procedure.

[Hal65]

Yes it appears to be some kind of 90 day + 1 year visa. 

[BritTim]

You need to be clear about whether you mean the 90-day address report, or an extension of your permission to stay.

 

Usually, if you are registered for a university course (as opposed to a course at an informal school) you are given a on-year extension of your permission to stay at the end of the initial 90 days you receive from the Non Ed visa. That is the critical item. Nothing very bad can happen unless you go past the extended permission to stay date.

 

It should be possible to do the 90-day address report (formally, Notification of Staying in the Kingdom) traditionally done using a TM47 form, using the online app without needing your passport, as long as you can remember the relevant details (and, hopefully, you took a photocopy of those before sending off your passport). If you are unable to do your address report, the worst that can happen is a fine.

[scubascuba3]

if you mean 90 day reporting, just do it online, no need to take passport anywhere 

 

https://tm47.immigration.go.th/tm47/#/login

[rwill]

If it's his first 90 day report it may not work online.

  

But his languages is not clear on exactly what the 90 day thing is.  Is it a 90 permission to stay or is he talking about a 90 day report?

 

He should have got a new passport well ahead of time knowing all the stuff coming up.  If his old passport was expiring they wouldn't have given a full year permission to stay anyway.  Last year I renewed my passport about 11 months early knowing that if I didn't my next annual extension would have been less than a year.

 

 

Edited July 19, 2023 by rwill

[kingstonkid]

This May seem harsh but can he not get a temp passport or fly down to bkk and get the new one.

[BritTim]

1 hour ago, kingstonkid said:

This May seem harsh but can he not get a temp passport or fly down to bkk and get the new one.

In this situation, an emergency travel document is unlikely to help him. He wants to stay in Thailand, not fly back to his home country.

 

We still do not know the expiry date of his permission to stay. That is the critical factor. The 90-day report (whether he can do it online or fails to report) does not risk any kind of disaster.

[Presnock]

On 7/18/2023 at 8:06 AM, Hal65 said:

• I have a US passport
• I have a 90 day checkin, then 1 year university ED visa (Payap Uni in Chiang Mai)
• I sent the passport to the US embassy by mail about 3 weeks ago. The problem is they only found it last week and started processing it then. Processing takes 4-6 weeks
• The passport is likely not to be in my possession by the 90 day checkin in 2 weeks

 

Is there anything I should do with Chiang Mai immigration to mitigate the timing issue?

 

If the answer is no and I am overstayed over 10 days, what should I do? My guess is the 1 year university ED visa will be cancelled, forcing me to leave the country.

doing the 90-day report online one doesn't have to have his passport, only the p/p number and dates if even any other than the pp number if I remember!

 

[Maestro]

@Hal65 Is the US embassy holding on to your old passport all the time until your new passport arrives?

[Maestro]

On 7/18/2023 at 3:06 AM, Hal65 said:

...If the answer is no and I am overstayed over 10 days, what should I do? My guess is the 1 year university ED visa will be cancelled, forcing me to leave the country.

With "1 year university ED visa", do mean to say that you have a one-year extension of stay in the passport you sent to the embassy?

[Liverpool Lou]

On 7/18/2023 at 8:06 AM, Hal65 said:

I have a 90 day checkin, then 1 year university ED visa (Payap Uni in Chiang Mai)

A "90-day checkin" is not a term normally used in connection with permissions to stay, until you clarify what that means you won't get accurate answers.   If you do mean the 90-day address report, that has already been answered.

Edited July 19, 2023 by Liverpool Lou

[Hal65]

Okay, update:

 

• It is not a "90 day check in" so apologies for that bad wording
• It is some sort of 90 day period before I must go to Chiang Mai immigration to get a 12 month university ED visa
• My contact at the uni said if I am late I must leave the country. The good news is she is wrong about a lot of stuff. For example when I told her about the AseanNow consensus that a TV stamp transfer (old to new passport) is just a stamp, she said that was wrong. But then she saw that she was wrong
• This is why I'm asking you guys about this. But it seems no one knows what this 90 day period is about. Some ED visas seem to have them though. Maybe it is a "preliminary test period" or something like that.
• The US embassy has been slow to respond via email to my encouragement to prioritize processing due to my time constraint

[Caldera]

37 minutes ago, Hal65 said:

It is some sort of 90 day period before I must go to Chiang Mai immigration to get a 12 month university ED visa

You probably got an initial 90-day permission to stay from a Non-ED visa (obtained at a Thai embassy abroad or at your local immigration office). Once those 90 days are up, you'll get a 1 year extension based on attending university.

 

You'll definitely need your passport for that extension. If you'll get it "a bit" too late, they might still process your extension but fine you for overstay. It's best to check with immigration before, explain your situation and hope for the best.

[Maestro]

48 minutes ago, Hal65 said:

This is why I'm asking you guys about this. But it seems no one knows what this 90 day period is about. Some ED visas seem to have them though. Maybe it is a "preliminary test period" or something like that.

The only way to know for sure "what this 90 day period is about" is for you to post a photo of it here or, alternatively, type the full text of it. Can you do that?

[Maestro]

@Hal65

 

On 18 April you posted, apparently from Pattaya, in the topic Can I fly on a new passport without moving my old visa?

Quote

I need to fly to Chiang Mai from Pattaya (leaving from BKK airport). I want to move my tourist visa from my old passport, to a new one, at Chiang Mai immigration, not Jomtien. Is it possible to take the flight by bringing both passports?...

 

...I will likely just do the transfer at Jomtien immigration...

On 30 April you posted, (from Pattaya or Chiang Mai?) in the topic Central Festival immigration questions

Quote

1. Should I go to this office for a visa stamp transfer to my new passport?

 

2. How do I access the office at 9am when the rest of the building is closed?

 

3. Do you recommend going at 9am or just before 5pm?

 

On 18 July you posted, from Chiang Mai, in the present topic Passport stuck at embassy as checkin nears

 

Quote

 

• I have a US passport
• I have a 90 day checkin, then 1 year university ED visa (Payap Uni in Chiang Mai)
• I sent the passport to the US embassy by mail about 3 weeks ago. The problem is they only found it last week and started processing it then. Processing takes 4-6 weeks
• The passport is likely not to be in my possession by the 90 day checkin in 2 weeks

Is there anything I should do with Chiang Mai immigration to mitigate the timing issue?

 

If the answer is no and I am overstayed over 10 days, what should I do? My guess is the 1 year university ED visa will be cancelled, forcing me to leave the country.

 

 

You have given no dates but some approximations, in chronological order as follows:

 

On or before 27 June, you got what you refer to as "a 90 day checkin" stamped into your passport, presumably at the Chiang Mai immigration office.

 

On  or before 27 June, you sent (mailed) your passport to the US embassy in Bangkok, presumably from Chiang Mai, apparently with an application for a new passport.

 

on 27 July, your current permission to stay will expire.

 

[BritTim]

1 hour ago, Hal65 said:

Okay, update:

 

• It is not a "90 day check in" so apologies for that bad wording
• It is some sort of 90 day period before I must go to Chiang Mai immigration to get a 12 month university ED visa
• My contact at the uni said if I am late I must leave the country. The good news is she is wrong about a lot of stuff. For example when I told her about the AseanNow consensus that a TV stamp transfer (old to new passport) is just a stamp, she said that was wrong. But then she saw that she was wrong
• This is why I'm asking you guys about this. But it seems no one knows what this 90 day period is about. Some ED visas seem to have them though. Maybe it is a "preliminary test period" or something like that.
• The US embassy has been slow to respond via email to my encouragement to prioritize processing due to my time constraint

You have a problem. If the passport will not be available to you before the end of the 90-day permission to stay from the visa, you will need to leave the country, re-enter, and start the process of applying for the Non Ed visa again. (The tuition fee will not need to be paid again, but there will be extra expenses. Talk to the university contact to find out the costs and timescales involved.)  Obviously, you cannot leave the country without a valid passport. You will probably need to liaise with your embassy to get an emergency travel document.

 

What a mess. Good luck!

[BritTim]

21 minutes ago, Maestro said:

@Hal65

 

On 18 April you posted, apparently from Pattaya, in the topic Can I fly on a new passport without moving my old visa?

On 30 April you posted, (from Pattaya or Chiang Mai?) in the topic Central Festival immigration questions

 

On 18 July you posted, from Chiang Mai, in the present topic Passport stuck at embassy as checkin nears

 

You are correct that this sequence of events seems unusual in the extreme. He does seem like the kind of guy who would manage to damage or lose his new passport, so he is not necessarily a troll.

[Hal65]

2 hours ago, Maestro said:

The only way to know for sure "what this 90 day period is about" is for you to post a photo of it here or, alternatively, type the full text of it. Can you do that?

No because it's not easy to get info from my contact at the school, she does the minimum

[BritTim]

11 hours ago, Hal65 said:

No because it's not easy to get info from my contact at the school, she does the minimum

That does not make sense. You stated that the passport, with whatever 90-day stamp/sticker you are referring to (I think the permission to stay from the original Non Ed visa), is at the embassy. If you sensibly took a photo of the stamp before parting with the passport, you can post a copy of the stamp here. If you have no copies of what was in your passport, then it is possible that the school does, but I doubt your school contact is allowed just to willy-nilly access private records and copy them except as a strict part of her job.

[Caldera]

1 hour ago, BritTim said:

That does not make sense. You stated that the passport, with whatever 90-day stamp/sticker you are referring to (I think the permission to stay from the original Non Ed visa), is at Immigration. If you sensibly took a photo of the stamp before parting with the passport, you can post a copy of the stamp here. If you have no copies of what was in your passport, then it is possible that the school does, but I doubt your school contact is allowed just to willy-nilly access private records and copy them except as a strict part of her job.

I think you've misread this. The passport isn't at immigration, but at his embassy for renewal.

 

So the question is if he'll get his new passport on time, before he needs to apply for his extension.

[Maestro]

In some civilised countries but apparently not in the USA, when you apply for a new passport at a passport office or embassy, you are allowed to hold on to the old passport and it is not invalidated until the new one arrives, which means that you can continue to use the old passport and, where nessary abroad, get extensions of stay stamped in it.

[BritTim]

1 hour ago, Caldera said:

I think you've misread this. The passport isn't at immigration, but at his embassy for renewal.

 

So the question is if he'll get his new passport on time, before he needs to apply for his extension.

I did not misread his post. My fingers simply had a mind of their own during the typing of my post (which I have now corrected). One of the symptoms I suffer from as I get older is a tendency to be absent minded when writing or typing.

[ChicagoExpat]

2 hours ago, Maestro said:

In some civilised countries but apparently not in the USA, when you apply for a new passport at a passport office or embassy, you are allowed to hold on to the old passport and it is not invalidated until the new one arrives, which means that you can continue to use the old passport and, where nessary abroad, get extensions of stay stamped in it.

You can retain your passport if you request it... Maybe not comment when you don't know, despite being so "civilised"

[Maestro]

6 hours ago, ChicagoExpat said:

You can retain your passport if you request it... Maybe not comment when you don't know, despite being so "civilised"

There you have it, @Hal65, you should have flown to Bangkok to submit your application for your new passport personally and request to be allowed to hold on to your old passport until the new one arrives. In some civilised countries, apparently including the USA, using this approach will do the trick.

 

Of course, you could also have included this request with the passport application you mailed to the US embassy, but since "they found it" only two weeks after you mailed it, it might have taken at least another two weeks until you got the old passport back, by which time your current permission to stay might already have expired.

[Maestro]

@Hal65

Do you know where your old passport is right now and in what state it is, ie physically invalidated (holes punched in it or a corner cut off) or not? Can you find out by calling the embassy?

[Hal65]

11 hours ago, Maestro said:

@Hal65

Do you know where your old passport is right now and in what state it is, ie physically invalidated (holes punched in it or a corner cut off) or not? Can you find out by calling the embassy?

Well first I should correct this, the passport at the embassy is my current passport and will not be renewed and replaced. I had to submit it to obtain a US Passport Card.

 

As for why the Passport card? Only one valid ID is a problem as is on display here. Hard to even get my tax refund, which the IRS is holding until I show 2 IDs on ID.me

[Caldera]

3 hours ago, Hal65 said:

Well first I should correct this, the passport at the embassy is my current passport and will not be renewed and replaced. I had to submit it to obtain a US Passport Card.

 

As for why the Passport card? Only one valid ID is a problem as is on display here. Hard to even get my tax refund, which the IRS is holding until I show 2 IDs on ID.me

You're right about that, but it could be said that your timing is questionable.

 

Maybe you could explain the situation to the embassy and ask them if you could pick up your passport instead of having them send it back, to ensure you'll have it on time.

[Maestro]

11 hours ago, Hal65 said:

Well first I should correct this, the passport at the embassy is my current passport and will not be renewed and replaced

Thank you for this clarification. Lesson learnt: "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. — George Bernard Shaw"

 

I had the illusion that you wrote something which — in this topic — you did not write.

 

[bamnutsak]

22 hours ago, Hal65 said:

Well first I should correct this, the passport at the embassy is my current passport and will not be renewed and replaced. I had to submit it to obtain a US Passport Card.

You could have included that in the OP.

 

Maybe there are more facts you've omitted, but based on what you've presented so far, you chose an odd time obtain a Passport Card.