90 Day Reporting

[BangkokBill09]

Gentlemen out there,

I have a MULTIPLE ENTRY one year O-A Retirement Visa. I believe I still need to report to some immigration office or police station every 90 days.

I live in the Pranburi area, just 30 km south of Hua Hin. Can anyone tell where I would report, and what documents I might need to bring with me.

Thanks,

Bill

[hhfarang]

I think you can report at the Hua Hin immigration office or the Prachuap Khiri Khan office. Hua Hin is probably the closest and easiest. You only need to fill out a form available there (1 page) and you need your passport. The HH office is located in the first soi past Index Mall (headed north) in the north end of town. There is a break there in the divider so that you can make a right turn directly into the soi and there is an immigration office sign at the soi entrance.

[BangkokBill09]

I think you can report at the Hua Hin immigration office or the Prachuap Khiri Khan office. Hua Hin is probably the closest and easiest. You only need to fill out a form available there (1 page) and you need your passport. The HH office is located in the first soi past Index Mall (headed north) in the north end of town. There is a break there in the divider so that you can make a right turn directly into the soi and there is an immigration office sign at the soi entrance.

Many thanks HHFarang....

Bill

[longstayer]

Do you have a RETIERMENT visa. If not u have to cross a boarder for new 90 days.

[hhfarang]

Do you have a RETIERMENT visa. If not u have to cross a boarder for new 90 days.

He said in the op that he had a one year visa so I assumed it was either retirement or marriage. Actually, now that I look back at it, it does say retirement visa.

[PoorSucker]

MULTIPLE ENTRY one year O-A Retirement Visa.

Be aware that on the last day of validity of your visa you can make a border crossing and get one more year stamp.

Then you will have to get a re-entry permit to keep that stamp alive.

[buddy]

This 90 day reporting is reminiscent of World War 2 Nazi occupied Europe!

Somethings I love about Thailand but thier immigration/visa/land/ownership laws are as off putting as hel_l having to jump through the loops, it feels like you can never "settle down"?...perhaps that is want they want, Thailand for the Thais?

Besides the shortsighted quick buck side to it, I for one cant fathom why the Thais have these backward policies?

The obvious answer is they dont want you here, except only as a tourist to take your money.

[BangkokBill09]

MULTIPLE ENTRY one year O-A Retirement Visa.

Be aware that on the last day of validity of your visa you can make a border crossing and get one more year stamp.

Then you will have to get a re-entry permit to keep that stamp alive.

Maybe I'm making an assumption here.... But if I have a one year Multiple Entry Retirement A/O Visa, I believe I will not have to do the re-entry boarder runs because sometime before my one year is up, I will report to an immigration office, show them my 800,000 baht sitting in my bank account (for more than 3 months) and just be able to get another one year Multiple Entry A/O visa. Or... will they not grant me this again. Originally, I got this visa just before I left Hawaii to come to Thailand. I suppose if they will not grant me this again, I can return to the states, send my passport to the Thai embassy in Los Angeles again, with all the proof they need, and get my renewal. Am I going wrong anywhere here....

Thanks.... Bill

[Jingthing]

No with the original multi-entry O-A visa, the smart thing to do is to exit Thailand before the end of the first year and reenter before the end of your annual permission to stay. You will then AUTOMATICALLY get another entire year without any need to make any application at an immigration office. You don't have to do this, you SHOULD do this, it is a GIFT!

If for some reason you don't want to take this gift, yes about a month before the end of your year, apply for an extension based on retirement at your local immigration office, following the requirement rules you are going to use, for example 800K in a Thai bank seasoned for two months for the first extension. Thai immigration will NEVER give you an O-A and you don't need one again, they are only available from your home country. Once you live here and are applying at immigration, you go for EXTENSIONS based on retirement.

Cheers.

Edited August 28, 2010 by Jingthing

[longstayer]

And go to the immigration every 90 days, I think....or what Jingthing........?????????????

[Jingthing]

And go to the immigration every 90 days, I think....or what Jingthing........?????????????

Yes, address reports needed every 90 days. If leaving the country before 90 days, the 90 day counter resets upon reentry.

[hhfarang]

Maybe I'm making an assumption here.... But if I have a one year Multiple Entry Retirement A/O Visa, I believe I will not have to do the re-entry boarder runs because sometime before my one year is up, I will report to an immigration office, show them my 800,000 baht sitting in my bank account (for more than 3 months) and just be able to get another one year Multiple Entry A/O visa. Or... will they not grant me this again. Originally, I got this visa just before I left Hawaii to come to Thailand. I suppose if they will not grant me this again, I can return to the states, send my passport to the Thai embassy in Los Angeles again, with all the proof they need, and get my renewal. Am I going wrong anywhere here....

Bill, I don't know what all this border crossing discussion is about as it is totally unnecessary. I have a non-imm O-A retirement visa that I got in the U.S. six years ago immediately before moving here and in that time I have only left Thailand once (five years ago). The annual extensions are easy to get (a couple of forms and 30 minutes) at the Hua Hin immigration office and as stated above between them all you have to do is report your address (one form, 5 to 10 minutes) to that same office every 90 days. The only thing you have to be careful of is if you do leave the country, you need a re-entry stamp before you leave or you will lose your visa and have to re-apply. You can get a re-entry stamp before leaving on each trip or get a single or multiple re-entry stamp at the time you get your annual visa depending on your plans and how much you want to pay. Even though I don't usually use it I always get the multiple re-entry stamp when I extend my visa so that I don't have to worry about it and can (if an emergency or the need arises) come and go without worrying about losing my visa.

[Erich]

I think you can report at the Hua Hin immigration office or the Prachuap Khiri Khan office. Hua Hin is probably the closest and easiest. You only need to fill out a form available there (1 page) and you need your passport. The HH office is located in the first soi past Index Mall (headed north) in the north end of town. There is a break there in the divider so that you can make a right turn directly into the soi and there is an immigration office sign at the soi entrance.

I have been told that the Immigration in Hua Hin will move to another place. Does anybody have some info about that ?

Thanks

Erich

[hhfarang]

I have been told that the Immigration in Hua Hin will move to another place. Does anybody have some info about that ?

Thanks

Erich

Yes, they are moving. I verified that last month when I extended my annual visa. They weren't sure when the move would happen but it should be before the end of this year. They are moving to a restaurant (guess it has some free space, maybe a separate building) called "3 Girls". It is on the Canal road that runs parallel to and about a kilometer west of Phetkasem Road (the main road) in the northern part of Hua Hin.

[alina]

Dont be late, 90 days reporting is the same as overstay, fine involved and passport stamped overstay.

[cheshiremusicman]

No with the original multi-entry O-A visa, the smart thing to do is to exit Thailand before the end of the first year and reenter before the end of your annual permission to stay. You will then AUTOMATICALLY get another entire year without any need to make any application at an immigration office. You don't have to do this, you SHOULD do this, it is a GIFT!

If for some reason you don't want to take this gift, yes about a month before the end of your year, apply for an extension based on retirement at your local immigration office, following the requirement rules you are going to use, for example 800K in a Thai bank seasoned for two months for the first extension. Thai immigration will NEVER give you an O-A and you don't need one again, they are only available from your home country. Once you live here and are applying at immigration, you go for EXTENSIONS based on retirement.

Cheers.

I'm sorry if I seem a 'bit thick about this', but you hear so many conflicting appraisals of what you can and cannot do with regard to your 'visa'and I would like to get this straight once and for all and IDEALLY have this proof in writing in Thai along with relevant references as to when this was decreed by the powers that be!

Just to outline my own situation, I am due to 'renew' my '12 month visa - based on the 'retirement' status on the 28th January 2011 and was intending to provide proof of income by doing the mix of 'pensions etc' along with 'money in the bank for more than 3 months'. So far so good, but am I now correct in assuming that if I leave the country ( for even one day) sometime BEFORE my visa expires and return BEFORE it has expired then I can 'AUTOMATICALLY' receive another 12 months visa entitlement 'based on retirement status' WITHOUT having to apply for it? I realise that I MUST report to the local 'Immigration office' within 24 hours upon my return - which is something that I still cannot understand why it is necessary to do this, as I have always travelled out of the country via Bangkok airport and returned the same way and have thus had my passport stamped on arrival. Why, oh why do we have to 'report' to our local 'Immigration office', when the authorities already KNOW that we are back in the country and have our residential address on their files already?

If anybody can elucidate and provide points of reference on the above I will be most obliged.

[stgrhe]

Just to outline my own situation, I am due to 'renew' my '12 month visa - based on the 'retirement' status on the 28th January 2011 and was intending to provide proof of income by doing the mix of 'pensions etc' along with 'money in the bank for more than 3 months'. So far so good, but am I now correct in assuming that if I leave the country ( for even one day) sometime BEFORE my visa expires and return BEFORE it has expired then I can 'AUTOMATICALLY' receive another 12 months visa entitlement 'based on retirement status' WITHOUT having to apply for it? I realise that I MUST report to the local 'Immigration office' within 24 hours upon my return - which is something that I still cannot understand why it is necessary to do this, as I have always travelled out of the country via Bangkok airport and returned the same way and have thus had my passport stamped on arrival. Why, oh why do we have to 'report' to our local 'Immigration office', when the authorities already KNOW that we are back in the country and have our residential address on their files already?

If anybody can elucidate and provide points of reference on the above I will be most obliged.

It all depends on whether you have a current valid visa with multiple entries or if you are staying on an extended permission of stay. You have to make a clear distinction between these two cases.

A valid visa, probably Non-Immigrant O-A type as you mention 'retirement', is the thing you applied for at an embassy or consulate in your own country and which states that you must enter Thailand before ...., a date specified on the visa itself. The visa should also state M for multiple entries and not S for single entry. If it is a S you have already used your one and only permitted entry to Thailand.

With the visa still valid you should preferably leave and return to Thailand a few days before the expire date as indicated on the visa. Upon return you will be granted 12 months permission of stay, which is stamped in your passport by the immigration office at the entry point. In this case you need not apply for an extension of stay until about a month before the given 12 month period has elapsed. It is, however, advisable, that you go to immigration and purchase a re-entry permit because else if you leave Thailand during this 12 month period you will loose your status and will have to start over in your home country again.

On the other hand, if you already have made one extension of stay application a year ago your visa has expired and you will have to proceed with your application for a new period of extended stay as planned.

Note! You are not getting a new visa, or an extension of the visa, at the immigration here in Thailand despite immigration officers referring to it as a 'visa'. What you get is an extended permission of stay in Thailand.

[cheshiremusicman]

Just to outline my own situation, I am due to 'renew' my '12 month visa - based on the 'retirement' status on the 28th January 2011 and was intending to provide proof of income by doing the mix of 'pensions etc' along with 'money in the bank for more than 3 months'. So far so good, but am I now correct in assuming that if I leave the country ( for even one day) sometime BEFORE my visa expires and return BEFORE it has expired then I can 'AUTOMATICALLY' receive another 12 months visa entitlement 'based on retirement status' WITHOUT having to apply for it? I realise that I MUST report to the local 'Immigration office' within 24 hours upon my return - which is something that I still cannot understand why it is necessary to do this, as I have always travelled out of the country via Bangkok airport and returned the same way and have thus had my passport stamped on arrival. Why, oh why do we have to 'report' to our local 'Immigration office', when the authorities already KNOW that we are back in the country and have our residential address on their files already?

If anybody can elucidate and provide points of reference on the above I will be most obliged.

It all depends on whether you have a current valid visa with multiple entries or if you are staying on an extended permission of stay. You have to make a clear distinction between these two cases.

A valid visa, probably Non-Immigrant O-A type as you mention 'retirement', is the thing you applied for at an embassy or consulate in your own country and which states that you must enter Thailand before ...., a date specified on the visa itself. The visa should also state M for multiple entries and not S for single entry. If it is a S you have already used your one and only permitted entry to Thailand.

With the visa still valid you should preferably leave and return to Thailand a few days before the expire date as indicated on the visa. Upon return you will be granted 12 months permission of stay, which is stamped in your passport by the immigration office at the entry point. In this case you need not apply for an extension of stay until about a month before the given 12 month period has elapsed. It is, however, advisable, that you go to immigration and purchase a re-entry permit because else if you leave Thailand during this 12 month period you will loose your status and will have to start over in your home country again.

On the other hand, if you already have made one extension of stay application a year ago your visa has expired and you will have to proceed with your application for a new period of extended stay as planned.

Note! You are not getting a new visa, or an extension of the visa, at the immigration here in Thailand despite immigration officers referring to it as a 'visa'. What you get is an extended permission of stay in Thailand.

Ok, so what you are really saying is that if you are in the 'KNOW' when the original OA is due to expire you can step outside the country and return and the OA is then valid again for 12 months and you can keep on doing this indefinitely ?

I am due to renew my 'extension of stay application' based on retirement for the fourth time, so that rules me out then. Pity that people don't know these things to start with, but then again the 'rules' seem to change with monotonous regularity.

[DEREK-C]

As I understand you can only do this once. You would then have to apply for an extension. The benefit is that your first visa gets you to stay in Thailand for nearly 2 years. You save the cost extension fees once.

The only way I believe you could repeat his procedure is to return to your home country and get a fresh visa and repeat the process. In that way you are never applying for an extension in Thailand.

[cheshiremusicman]

As I understand you can only do this once. You would then have to apply for an extension. The benefit is that your first visa gets you to stay in Thailand for nearly 2 years. You save the cost extension fees once.

The only way I believe you could repeat his procedure is to return to your home country and get a fresh visa and repeat the process. In that way you are never applying for an extension in Thailand.

Thanks Derek, that was the way that I thought that it would work. I could not see the Thai Authorities loosing out on the cash cow. So it's back to getting a letter from the Embassy again and making sure that all the pennies add up so the 'nice lady' at the Immigration office can fill another couple of pages of my passport up. Last time I went they put all the stamps for the 'retirement status extension' and the 'multiple entry' in both my own and my wife's passports and THEN proceeded to tell us that they would have to cancel them, as the letter from the Embassy stating income also included my wife's name and promptly refused to accept the letter and told us that we would have to get a new one and then gave us a 7 day extension. Only problem was that they didn't tell us that they were going to charge us 500B per day each for this privilege. Because of all this we ended up paying an extra 7,000B by the time that we had obtained the new letter. Have to say the the British Embassy were extremely helpful and issued a new letter ASAP and sent it to us via EMS WITHOUT charging us another penny.

So just make sure that you DO NOT have your wife/partners name on anything to do with a letter of 'confirmation of income'.

I wouldn't have minded so much; but the 'nice lady' would not even look at the confirmatory letters etc that I had used, which clearly stated that ALL the monies that the Embassy had confirmed were only in my name - no sign of my wife's name anywhere on the documents. So all in all another lesson learned the hard way.

[hhfarang]

Did you go on the last day of your visa or extension validity? If not I don't see how they could fine you 500 baht per day as you would still be legal on your previous extension or visa. I always go to extend mine one to two weeks in advance so that if here is anything wrong with my paperwork I still have time to correct it before my due date. If the paperwork is ok, they still date the extension as one year from the upcoming expiration date so you lose nothing by going early.

[Erich]

Sorry to ask again, but does somebody know if the Immigration in Hua Hin already moved to the new place ?

Thanks & regards

Erich

[cheshiremusicman]

Did you go on the last day of your visa or extension validity? If not I don't see how they could fine you 500 baht per day as you would still be legal on your previous extension or visa. I always go to extend mine one to two weeks in advance so that if here is anything wrong with my paperwork I still have time to correct it before my due date. If the paperwork is ok, they still date the extension as one year from the upcoming expiration date so you lose nothing by going early.

Yes, unfortunately we did. We now realise that we can go earlier and as you so correctly say 'give yourself a breathing space' if anything is amiss. Lesson learned.

[hhfarang]

Sorry to ask again, but does somebody know if the Immigration in Hua Hin already moved to the new place ?

Thanks & regards

Erich

Erich, they have not moved yet, and told me the move would be around the end of this year...

[scott60]

Sorry to ask again, but does somebody know if the Immigration in Hua Hin already moved to the new place ?

Thanks & regards

Erich

Erich, they have not moved yet, and told me the move would be around the end of this year...

I went to Hua Hin immigration this morning not knowing they had already moved and it was a problem in transport. If you have a car it is fine but I went by bus then a long walk to Hua Hin Hospital to get a motorbike. I arrived at 9am and was number l7. It did not matter though as no one called the numbers nor queued. The staff were very busy but I was able to renew my retirement visa. Most people were complaining about the location.

[ESB7]

Sorry to ask again, but does somebody know if the Immigration in Hua Hin already moved to the new place ?

Thanks & regards

Erich

Erich, they have not moved yet, and told me the move would be around the end of this year...

I went to Hua Hin immigration this morning not knowing they had already moved and it was a problem in transport. If you have a car it is fine but I went by bus then a long walk to Hua Hin Hospital to get a motorbike. I arrived at 9am and was number l7. It did not matter though as no one called the numbers nor queued. The staff were very busy but I was able to renew my retirement visa. Most people were complaining about the location.

Although not as good a location as the previous one near Index, it s far better than where it was befor that, so count your blessings.

[hhfarang]

Although not as good a location as the previous one near Index, it s far better than where it was befor that, so count your blessings.

That all depends on where you live. The second location (Soi 102) was the best for me as it was 5 minutes or so away, the new one is between 20 and 30 minutes...