Visa With 2 Kids And 2 Parents

[DonaldFreeman]

Hi, We live in Phuket now for past 2.5 months.

All 4 of us are from the United States.

Our two kids ages 5 and 9 attend a school , they have Education Visa for one year multiple entry

My wife and I have also one year multiple entry visas Catogory O Non-Immigrant which were received because our kids attend school. We got the one year visa in the US.

the stamp says June 30 in all our passports. so I think this needs updating every 90 days.

we went to the immigration office in phuket town today and the man said for us to get a stamp for another 3 months there we need:

1) a million Baht in a Thai Bank and proof and

2) an official letter from the school they are enrolled.

We have the second but not the million baht! which seems a bit much. He told us then we need to do a visa run to the border every 90days. Is this correct?

is there any way around this? or must we take our kids and all of us go to the border, I am assuming Burma is the nearset to Phuket. But what is the easiest way to get another 90 days stamp?

Any input would be appreciated and helpful.

Thanks in advance for reading and replying.

Don

[lopburi3]

The requirement is 500k in a Thai bank account (for one) so yes 1m would be required for both of you to obtain one year extensions of stay and not have to make 90 day border runs.

The only way to legally get a new 90 day stamp is exit Thailand, enter another country and then on return you get a new 90 day stamp.

Children will not be charged for overstay but as they have the visas and you have to leave anyhow would think it would be a family affair.

[lopburi3]

The requirement is 500k in a Thai bank account (for one) so yes 1m would be required for both of you to obtain one year extensions of stay and not have to make 90 day border runs.

The only way to legally get a new 90 day stamp is exit Thailand, enter another country and then on return you get a new 90 day stamp.

Children will not be charged for overstay but as they have the visas and you have to leave anyhow would think it would be a family affair.

[astral]

The immigration officer is talking about extending your visas in Thailand.

As you have multi-entry visas all you need to do is a border run before the 30th June

and you will get a new 90 day stamp in your passport.

You can repeat this as required until your visa stamp expires in 9 months time.

Even then you can do a final run just before the final date and get a extra 90 days, making almost 15 months.

For the children I am unclear what their visa status is.

Does their entry stamp match yours?

If so you should technically take them on the border run.

However in reality they do not need to go, as Immigration has a very relaxed policy on young children

who overstay their visas.

[keestha]

It might be easier to make a border run than you think. Buy a Phuket Gazette, and in the classifieds section you will see many ads of companies organizing border runs from Phuket to Ranong. It could turn out to be a nice family outing.