Renewing 1 year wp/visa

[Will Lawes]

Hi

Can someone give me the exact procedure for renewing my one year WP/visa? Expire 31 this month. WP is from office in Samut Prakarn. Yes, my school 'should' take care of it, and they of course will, however, from my past experience, they will leave everything to the last minute, so i will either pay for a 1 month extension (1900baht), or overstay, or have to start agin etc etc...

So this friday I want to be able to call them and get this all sorted out BEFORE the 31...so is it possible to do this or do I have to go ON the 31st? Where do I go first? WP office, suan plu?

Thanks in advance.

[Pablo H]

Will,

to get the WP renewed you need to get your visa renewed also. All the info you need is on this site, just follow the 10 steps guide.

My visa and WP expires this month, I followed the guide and went to get my extension this month. However I was accompanied by a Thai member of staff who (after three maybe four times of telling him about the documents I needed to produce) forgot to bring along the revelent documents. I suggest you get everything together and do it yourself.  

[Indo-Siam]

WL -

The key thing you need to know is that you must first apply for renewal of your extended entry permit, and then, each time you get extended, you go to Ministry of Labor and get your work permit renewed to match the new entry permit.  Based on how long Immigration takes to approve your renewed entry permit extension (typically 8-10 weeks), you will probably have to get several interim work permit renewals, plus the final one-year work permit once your long-term entry permit is finally approved.

Work permits generally expire on the same date as the entry permit you have at the time you pick up the work permit.  That is why extending/renewing the entry permit must come first.

Good luck!

Steve Indo-Siam

www.indo-siam.com

www.thaistartup.com

[opalhort]

WL -

The key thing you need to know is that you must first apply for renewal of your extended entry permit, and then, each time you get extended, you go to Ministry of Labor and get your work permit renewed to match the new entry permit.  Based on how long Immigration takes to approve your renewed entry permit extension (typically 8-10 weeks), you will probably have to get several interim work permit renewals, plus the final one-year work permit once your long-term entry permit is finally approved.

Work permits generally expire on the same date as the entry permit you have at the time you pick up the work permit.  That is why extending/renewing the entry permit must come first.

Good luck!

Steve Indo-Siam

www.indo-siam.com

www.thaistartup.com

Steve,

I am doing it exactly the other way 'round. WP first then visa.

details:

my WP expires always on 20.April and my Non-O anually renewed marriage visa expires always on 07.May.

around 5.Apr. I apply for Wp renewal. WP is renewed for one year (shown in handwriting under the signature and stamp) but is validated only up to 7.May (as current visa).

then before 7. May I apply for visa renewal at Sun Plu (with copy of WP), get a 45 day 'under consideration' stamp, take this to labour department and get the WP stamped to match the 45 day visa stamp. one or two days before the expiry of the 45 day stamp I get the one year extension at Suan Plu and with that go again to the labour department where they validate my WP up to 20.Apr. next year!

Rainer

opalhort

[Indo-Siam]

Hi Rainer -

I do not understand why you are doing the first step (5 April, in the example).  Just wait until about 18 April, and go do the entry permit renewal (early).  Then you go to Labor Dept and get matching work permit renewal.  This eliminates one trip to Labor Department.

Or - am I missing something?

Steve

Indo-Siam

[opalhort]

Hi Rainer -

I do not understand why you are doing the first step (5 April, in the example).  Just wait until about 18 April, and go do the entry permit renewal (early).  Then you go to Labor Dept and get matching work permit renewal.  This eliminates one trip to Labor Department.

Or - am I missing something?

Steve

Indo-Siam

Hi Steve,

the reason why I do it this way is because my WP expires 17 days before my visa exires. If I apply for a WP renewal early I have a full one year WP on hand for my visa renewal application. of course the WP is only validated/endorsed (?what is the correct word in English?) up to the date of the current visa. It can save a trip (and 750Baht) to the labour department if the visa extension gets approved prior to expiry of the old visa. This happened to me twice, I got the 45 days stamp but phoned Suan Plu after 10 days and was told the extension was approved.

Now I have a question: is it true that visa renewal requests are only approved by the 'higher-ups' at Suan Plu once a week on Fridays? An officer at Suan Plu told me that.

edit:

forgot to mention that Suan Plu requires either a renewed WP or at least a 'receipt' from the labour dept. that an application has been filed. Hence - WP first, visa later.

Regards

Rainer

opalhort