Savannaket visa exit and reenter every 90 days question.

[Guitar God]

Hi, with a one year non-O visa based on marriage to a Thai spouse, how does the timing work ? 
I realize you can stay in the country a maximum of 90 days, but say you exit and reenter Thailand every month or every two months. That resets the clock, right? So you never have to worry about traveling on a certain date for the 90 day requirement, right? 
 

You can leave and enter at any border, right? You don’t need to go back to the Savannaket consulate, is that correct? 
 

Evidently the new 90 reporting system isn’t connected to immigration. Ten weeks ago I did 90 day reporting online. Exited and reentered Thailand two weeks ago but recently received a notification to do the 90 day reporting before the 90 days, starting ten weeks ago, again. I can ignore that reminder, right? 
 

I normally don’t bother to report my address again when I reenter Thailand TM30, since I figure since I went through immigration and they know I’m here and I’ve never had a problem. 

[BritTim]

Your understanding on all these points is correct. The only caveat I would make is that a a handful of land crossings are best avoided, most notably Poipet/Aranyaprathet.

[khunPer]

15 hours ago, Guitar God said:

Hi, with a one year non-O visa based on marriage to a Thai spouse, how does the timing work ? 
I realize you can stay in the country a maximum of 90 days, but say you exit and reenter Thailand every month or every two months. That resets the clock, right? So you never have to worry about traveling on a certain date for the 90 day requirement, right? 
 

You can leave and enter at any border, right? You don’t need to go back to the Savannaket consulate, is that correct? 
 

Evidently the new 90 reporting system isn’t connected to immigration. Ten weeks ago I did 90 day reporting online. Exited and reentered Thailand two weeks ago but recently received a notification to do the 90 day reporting before the 90 days, starting ten weeks ago, again. I can ignore that reminder, right? 
 

I normally don’t bother to report my address again when I reenter Thailand TM30, since I figure since I went through immigration and they know I’m here and I’ve never had a problem. 

If you have a non-immigrant O-visa valid for one year – not an extension of stay – you can leave and re-enter as often as you wish. At every re-enter you will permitted 90 days stay. In practice you can obtain 1 year and 90 days stay, leaving every 90 days and re-enter.

 

As you will only be permitted to stay 90-days, you will not need to make a 90-days address report. The address report resets whenever you leaver the country and re-enters, at which time it re-starts counting the 90 days from 1.

 

You always need to register by TM30 in principle. In practical it has been mentioned in other threads here in ASEAN NOW forums that if you don't need contact with an immigration office, it doesn't matter with TM30-registration.

[sandyf]

16 hours ago, Guitar God said:

 

Evidently the new 90 reporting system isn’t connected to immigration.

Bit of an obscure statement as 90 day reporting is carried out at immigration offices.

I  assume what you are trying to say that entry/exit stamps from immigration border crossings are not being applied to your 90 day history.

I doubt if there is anything new in that, it has only come up because they have started to issue reminders based on last report. 

Haven't done it for a long time, do people that report in person or post get a reminder?

[WebGuy]

I also have a one year non-immigrant O marriage visa and a work permit. 

 

Am I also required to leave the country every 90 days or I can just go to immigration in Thailand to report every 90 days?

[BritTim]

2 hours ago, WebGuy said:

I also have a one year non-immigrant O marriage visa and a work permit. 

 

Am I also required to leave the country every 90 days or I can just go to immigration in Thailand to report every 90 days?

 

What is the expiry date of your current permission to stay? If your permission to stay is based on entering with a multiple entry visa, then you will have been given a 90-day permission to stay. You must either leave by the end of that period, or apply for an extension of your permission to stay. If you have received a one-year extension of your permission to stay from your local immigration office, then you do not need to leave Thailand until the expiry of the extended permission to stay, but need to do 90-day address reports.

[WebGuy]

1 hour ago, BritTim said:

 

What is the expiry date of your current permission to stay? If your permission to stay is based on entering with a multiple entry visa, then you will have been given a 90-day permission to stay. You must either leave by the end of that period, or apply for an extension of your permission to stay. If you have received a one-year extension of your permission to stay from your local immigration office, then you do not need to leave Thailand until the expiry of the extended permission to stay, but need to do 90-day address reports.

 Thank you very much for the answer.

 

My current date of permission to stay is until 31st January.

I thought that now when I got a one year non-immigrant O visa and the work permit based on it, I didn't need to leave the country every 90 days but needed to do 90 days report which seems is me not understanding this whole thing correctly.

 

Does this mean that I have to go to my local immigration immigration office and apply for one year extension permission to stay? If this is the case, would it suffice to show them the work permit or I have to show them the proof of 400 000 thb seasoned 2 - 3 months on my bank account?

[BritTim]

5 hours ago, WebGuy said:

 Thank you very much for the answer.

 

My current date of permission to stay is until 31st January.

I thought that now when I got a one year non-immigrant O visa and the work permit based on it, I didn't need to leave the country every 90 days but needed to do 90 days report which seems is me not understanding this whole thing correctly.

 

Does this mean that I have to go to my local immigration immigration office and apply for one year extension permission to stay? If this is the case, would it suffice to show them the work permit or I have to show them the proof of 400 000 thb seasoned 2 - 3 months on my bank account?

 

The possession of a work permit has no effect on the end date of your permission to stay. Further, you did not receive the work permit on the strength of your Non O visa. You received it based on your employment.

 

If you do not want to leave by 31st January, you will need to apply for an extension of your permission to stay. Immigration will probably initially want you to do so on the basis of your Thai spouse (assuming that was the reason for which you were granted the Non O visa). They might, instead, allow you to apply for an extension based on working if you can meet the requirements for that.

[WebGuy]

7 minutes ago, BritTim said:

 

The possession of a work permit has no effect on the end date of your permission to stay. Further, you did not receive the work permit on the strength of your Non O visa. You received it based on your employment.

 

If you do not want to leave by 31st January, you will need to apply for an extension of your permission to stay. Immigration will probably initially want you to do so on the basis of your Thai spouse (assuming that was the reason for which you were granted the Non O visa). They might, instead, allow you to apply for an extension based on working if you can meet the requirements for that.

 

Thank you. I will explore the prerequisite conditions for extension of stay

[Red Phoenix]

13 hours ago, WebGuy said:

...

Does this mean that I have to go to my local immigration immigration office and apply for one year extension permission to stay?

...

~

You wrote that you have a 1-year MultipleEntry Non Imm O Marriage Visa. 

Such Visa allows you to enter/exit Thailand as many times as you want to during the 1-year validity of the Visa. 

On each entry you will receive a 90-days Permission to stay.

The huge advantage of such Me Non Imm O Visa is that you would NEVER have to visit a Thai Imm Office when exiting the country before the 90-days Permission to Stay expires (and then re-entering providing you with a new 90-day Permission to stay).  Also, since you never stay longer than 90 days in the country the 90-day reporting requirement does not apply to you.

> Note that if you do not like the 3-monthly border-hops that you can apply for a 1-year extension of stay at your local Imm Office.  However, that's a lengthy bureaucratic exercise with a truckload of required documents that you need to provide (including proof of funds on a Thai bank-account seasoned for more than 2 months at moment of application for the 1-year extension). On top of that you would then be required to do your 90-day reports. 

All in all, if doing the border-hops every 3 months is not too inconvenient for you it would be far easier to simply use your 1-year ME Non Imm O Visa (which allows you a max of 15 months trouble-free stay in Thailand).  And of course once the Visa expired, you can during your last 90-day Permission to stay do the trip to Savannakhet again and apply for a new 1-year ME Non Imm O Marriage Visa.  But be aware that since a couple of weeks the Savannakhet consulate now requires you to provide evidence of having 400.000 THB on a Thai bank-account for a 1-year MultipleEntry Non Imm O Visa.  

[WebGuy]

Thank you all.

Based on what I understand from your responses is that I can get a one year long extension based on 400 000 thb two months seasoned money on my Thai bank account and then do 90 days reporting in my local immigration office. Once this is done, I can pay for a multiple re-entry which I think costs 3800 thb and then come and go as I wish.

 

Then next year when my extension of stay is to expire, I will apply for another one year extension but this time based on my proof of income that should exceed 40 000 thb monthly. Then, I will again pay for the multiple re-entry and come and go as I wish and report for 90 days in country.

 

If this what I wrote above is correct, then I made a mistake when applied for 1 year non-immigrant O ME visa in Savannakhet because although I was granted a 1 year ME visa, I have to apply for extension in my local immigration and show 400k seasoned. It was better if I applied for 3 months long non-immigrant O ME that costed 2000thb (I paid 5000thb for 1 year) and then do as same as I am planning to do i.e. to season my 400k and then apply for the extension.

[KKmike]

I am married to Thai lady 17 years, I tried to obtain a married visa on line in the US, no luck, no matter how the online form was filed out, it would not go through.. Calling the Thailand embassy in Washington DC was a joke, no one ever answered.Tried calling 30 plus times over 2 months.  
So I arrived and got the 30 day VOA. Went to immigration paid 1900 baht and received another 30 days and for 500 Baht 

more they gave me a letter to take to bank to open an account (I have the 400,000 baht). Bangkok bank says effective this year they will not open an account to foreign people with a tourist visa.  
Immigration says they will give me another 60 days, which then will put me 30 days short of leaving 29 February 2024.

Any ideas please.

 

KKmike

[BritTim]

8 hours ago, WebGuy said:

Thank you all.

Based on what I understand from your responses is that I can get a one year long extension based on 400 000 thb two months seasoned money on my Thai bank account and then do 90 days reporting in my local immigration office. Once this is done, I can pay for a multiple re-entry which I think costs 3800 thb and then come and go as I wish.

 

Then next year when my extension of stay is to expire, I will apply for another one year extension but this time based on my proof of income that should exceed 40 000 thb monthly. Then, I will again pay for the multiple re-entry and come and go as I wish and report for 90 days in country.

 

If this what I wrote above is correct, then I made a mistake when applied for 1 year non-immigrant O ME visa in Savannakhet because although I was granted a 1 year ME visa, I have to apply for extension in my local immigration and show 400k seasoned. It was better if I applied for 3 months long non-immigrant O ME that costed 2000thb (I paid 5000thb for 1 year) and then do as same as I am planning to do i.e. to season my 400k and then apply for the extension.

 

Whether you made a mistake depends on your ongoing travel plans. If you travel outside Thailand on a frequent basis, it may be more convenient to come and go on the multiple entry visa, rather than ensure you do not need to travel during the under consideration period for an extension. If you will be mostly in Thailand, with only the occasional overseas trip, then it will likely be better to have the one-year permission to stay with re-entry permit(s).

[steve187]

18 minutes ago, KKmike said:

I am married to Thai lady 17 years, I tried to obtain a married visa on line in the US, no luck, no matter how the online form was filed out, it would not go through.. Calling the Thailand embassy in Washington DC was a joke, no one ever answered.Tried calling 30 plus times over 2 months.  
So I arrived and got the 30 day VOA. Went to immigration paid 1900 baht and received another 30 days and for 500 Baht 

more they gave me a letter to take to bank to open an account (I have the 400,000 baht). Bangkok bank says effective this year they will not open an account to foreign people with a tourist visa.  
Immigration says they will give me another 60 days, which then will put me 30 days short of leaving 29 February 2024.

Any ideas please.

 

KKmike

you can open an account with a tourist visa, try other banks and if they all fail, use an agent to open the account

[KKmike]

3 hours ago, steve187 said:

you can open an account with a tourist visa, try other banks and if they all fail, use an agent to open the account

Thanks, I’ve been to two banks, they both said it is a new law this year??

read a utube article today that says effective January 1 and money sent into Thailand would be taxed at 35% if you stayed more than 180 days???

[WebGuy]

5 hours ago, BritTim said:

 

Whether you made a mistake depends on your ongoing travel plans. If you travel outside Thailand on a frequent basis, it may be more convenient to come and go on the multiple entry visa, rather than ensure you do not need to travel during the under consideration period for an extension. If you will be mostly in Thailand, with only the occasional overseas trip, then it will likely be better to have the one-year permission to stay with re-entry permit(s).

 

I see. Do you maybe know how long the consideration period take?

[BritTim]

1 hour ago, WebGuy said:

I see. Do you maybe know how long the consideration period take?

 

It varies a bit by immigration office, and whether you apply significantly before the end of your current permission to stay. The minimum is usually about 30 days.

[WebGuy]

18 hours ago, BritTim said:

 

It varies a bit by immigration office, and whether you apply significantly before the end of your current permission to stay. The minimum is usually about 30 days.

Thank you for the answer. And can I leave the country under the.extension  consideration period?

[BritTim]

7 hours ago, WebGuy said:

Thank you for the answer. And can I leave the country under the.extension  consideration period?

 

If you have a critical reason for needing to travel, it can be arranged. You need to discuss it with the local immigration office, explaining the trip dates and why it is essential. You will get a re-entry permit and must return by the report back date when the under consideration period is expected to be over.