21-day Extension For Tourism Visa !

[manutoo]

Hello,

my thai gf just phoned to Thai immigration in Bangkok.

The lady there told her I could extend my tourism visa by only 21-day (still for 1900b), not the usual 30-day!!

what happens ??

I have to extend it on next friday (my 2-month tourist VISA will expired on next sunday), and if I do so, I would have to exit Thailand exactly during Songkran festival ! That sucks too much!!

Anyone heard about this before ?

I did a lil search on the forum, and late posts still talking about 30-day extension.

Maybe the woman who answered my gf likes to do kind of stupid jokes ..?

Any idea ?

Thanks

ManuTOO

Edited March 21, 2005 by manutoo

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Hello,

my thai gf just phoned to Thai immigration in Bangkok.

The lady there told her I could extend my tourism visa by only 21-day (still for 1900b), not the usual 30-day!!

what happens ?? 

I have to extend it on next friday (my 2-month tourist VISA will expired on next sunday), and if I do so, I would have to exit Thailand exactly during Songkran festival ! That sucks too much!! 

Anyone heard about this before ?

I did a lil search on the forum, and late posts still talking about 30-day extension.

Maybe the woman who answered my gf likes to do kind of stupd jokes ..?

Any idea ?

Thanks

ManuTOO

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The period of extension ( if any ) is entirely at the discretion of the officer concerned. Go on in and grovel.

[manutoo]

Go on in and grovel.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ok, thanks Doc', grovel should be in my skills ...

I'll give an update on next friday... cross fingers for me!

Hum. Would it be better to go with my thai gf ..?

Her office timetable is almost like the one of Immigration, so she would have to ask her boss to leave her desk for a couple of hours, so I'd prefer to not ask her to do that, except if it could really help me...

[george]

Go alone and try to get 30 days.

[thaiflyer1]

I would just enter 30 days on the application form and hand it in...............if you ask if 30 days is possible you are giving them the opportunity to say no.........if they say anything when you hand the form in, thens the time to grovel.

Edited March 21, 2005 by thaiflyer1

[lopburi3]

As said above DIY (do it yourself). A tourist visa is to tour so better they view you as such.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

My guess is that the TGF bounced her

[Dragonman]

Yeah, never heard of this.You sure your TGF doesn't want you to leave a week early? Always go yourself.

[thaiflyer1]

One other possibility....... if your GF phoned up last Friday and asked they have assumed you were going in then to extend rather than this Sunday (Friday) and have worked out your 30 day extension from last Friday which would mean you would only get a further 21 days from this Sunday (Friday) coming up....i.e the 30 day extension would start from last Friday and not this coming Sunday.

Maybe ive been reading too many spy novels

[manutoo]

@thaiflyer1 :

arf

No, she just phoned today (monday March 21th).

But maybe it's still the same reason, except they're bad in maths, and got 21 from 30 less 7 ..!

(maybe I'm watching too much spy movies )

@ Dragonman:

yup, I'm sure my gf doesn't want me to go away...

I'm just on my 1st entry, so I just have to go to Cambodia to activate my 2nd entry. Humm.... So maybe she just wants to go to Cambodia for Songkran day!

@Everybody :

Ok, I'll go alone. It'll be the 1st time I'll ask for extension, so I didn't know I would have to fill the form asking by myself the number of days I want.

It seems a pretty good way to fill 30 days, and then only beg if they say me it's too much.

[manutoo]

humm... just a lil question

I'd like to plan a bit my timetable for next friday...

If I want to be free before 12:00 (but not too much before), at what time I should arrive at the immigration office ?

Thanks for ur help!

[lopburi3]

I doubt that it will take more than about an hour even if you have to wait a bit for others but one can never be sure.

[EVO]

Immigration department can be a pain in the ass, but it usually wont take more than an hour.

An important thing to remember though... Take a pen!!! They never have one around when you need one!

You'll get the 30 days, dun worry about it. I have many friends here on tourist visas, and have never heard of them netting 21 days.

[manutoo]

khop khun mak mak krap for your answers ! (yup, my thai rocks )

I'll bring 2 photos, too (despite the woman said to my gf that just 1 is needed), and I'll dress neat.

i'll post an update to tell how everything will have been...

[COBBER]

Its definately only a 21 day extension ( a 14 and then a 7) for multi entry non imm

visas. Has been for about 6 months. Much better to do the visa run.

[lopburi3]

Its definately only a 21 day extension ( a 14 and then a 7) for multi entry non imm

visas. Has been for about 6 months. Much better to do the visa run.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OP

(my 2-month tourist VISA will expired on next sunday)

[manutoo]

Hello,

I went to Immigration office this morning. Everything ran fine.

I have no idea at what time the discretion (or the indiscretion) of the Immigration Officer could apply, coz actually, the main things he saw from me in my shirt and my arms. The panel with n°4 on it was hiding my head (I had to bow very down to catch his eyes), and he never had a chance to see my trousers or my shoes... :-p

I imagined I would enter an office with a desk & only 1 or 2 Thai officers. But actually, it was more like a stamp factory : put the forms, passport & money on a side, get the passport stamped on other side. I really doubt that anyone who doesn't look like _VERY_ suspicious doesn't get his stamp...

Just 1 thing: the copy of passport (1st page, and current visa page) is needed. From the post in this topic, I believed it was only a precaution, but actually, pay 1900b is not enough for them to do the photocopy by themselves (it was only 4 bahts for a total of 2 pages on other side of the street, when I was ready to pay 10 bahts per page... It's really not a racket )

And all of that took me about 35 min, including 3 extra minutes, coz the lady called number 715 instead of 75. I jumped when she called 76...

There were a good bunch of people in the office, but not much were waiting for tourist extension, only 7 people before me, and 3 didn't show up.

Oh, and I got the 30 days extension, no problemo, and best of all, from the end of my 60 days, not from the current day.

The whole thing was really not a big deal...!

So see u around April 26th for my 1st border run, to activate my 2nd entry !

Edited March 25, 2005 by manutoo

[thaiflyer1]

Nice to see it all went smoothly.............totally forgot about the passport photocopies....

[frenchFARANGbkk]

1900 is enough to go to Penang/Malaysia and come back by the next flight. And then 2 months.

Also weird all these people going to Cambodia for a visa run when they are living in BKK and the airport is so close... and air asia so cheap!