Pr Pending And New Job

[tombkk]

My current extention of stay is valid until 2012, based on work permit. I applied for PR earlier, and every time my extention of stay is extended due to WP, they give me another stamp, saying the same thing. So I have two extentions of stay in my passport valid until the same date, one from the immi department in charge of extending for WP holders, and another from the PR department at immi.

I am planning to change my job, which will require the extention issued based on the WP to be cancelled. However, will the extention stamp issues by the PR deparement still be valid? I think it should be but I thought I'd better ask here. If so, I won't have to pay for the 7-day extention, and won't have worry about the extention of stay at all until 2012 and can concentrate on only getting the new WP.

TIA.

[InterestedObserver]

Extensions of stay based on employment are supposed to be canceled upon loss of the job and extensions of stay are only supposed to be valid a maximum of 1 year. You claim to have special extension of stay stamps from an immigration department valid until 2012. I'd say ask the immigration department that issued the stamps.

Edited November 7, 2010 by InterestedObserver

[tombkk]

Extensions of stay based on employment are supposed to be canceled upon loss of the job and extensions of stay are only supposed to be valid a maximum of 1 year. You claim to have special extension of stay stamps from an immigration department valid until 2012. I'd say ask the immigration department that issued the stamps.

The extention of stay for WP was issued for two years due to BOI promotion. Perfectly legal. Nothing special and indeed irrelevant in this case, as I won't even use one year of it. I know it will be cancelled when I leave that job.

My question is whether anybody knows whether the extention of stay for the PR will be affected. The new company does not have BOI promotion and I cannot go to the One-Stop, so running around between Labour Departemnt and Immigration will be a headache and time-consuming. If I only have to deal with the Labour Department, it would be much easier.

[tombkk]

The lawyer who does the WP for the new company will pick up the docs tomorrow. They said they don't need a letter from the previous company saying that the employment has been terminated, they will just bring a form that I have to sign and they can cancel the old work permit.

Does that sound correct? I thought the previous company would have to at least acknowlege that the employment contract does not exist any more.

[lopburi3]

The letter is used to cancel an extension of stay for employment.

[tombkk]

The letter is used to cancel an extension of stay for employment.

I will still be employed, albeit by another company.

What happens if the lawyer only changes the work permit but never informs immigration?

[lopburi3]

Your extension of stay is for a specific company and any change would require a new extension of stay or your immediate departure.

Will not speculate on what would happen other than provide the normal overstay at 500 baht per day up to 20,000 baht fine and up to two years in jail. If not found out soon it likely would be when another extension of stay was attempted.

[CWMcMurray]

I have been curious about this issue as well....

If you have turned in application for PR, then from my understanding, you will be able to continue going into immigration for extensions while PR application is pending.

So what exactly is your status?

Are you still under the same rules as your last extension or are you now in a "new group" of Pending PR application?

When you go back into Immigration for visa extensions, do they check anything?

Do you still need to provide all of the same info that was required before submitting the PR application?

Or do they just verify that your application is still pending, stamp another extension and send you on your way?

What if your status changes, is your extension of stay immediately revoked ?

What about your PR application? Does that immediately get revoked as well?

If in the OP case above, if he loses his extension of stay, how does that affect his PR application? Does he have to start over again (i.e. wait for 3 more yrs of unbroken visa extensions? )

[tombkk]

Your extension of stay is for a specific company and any change would require a new extension of stay or your immediate departure.

Will not speculate on what would happen other than provide the normal overstay at 500 baht per day up to 20,000 baht fine and up to two years in jail. If not found out soon it likely would be when another extension of stay was attempted.

Thanks, this is pretty clear. I will inform of the outcome.

[tombkk]

Update: The day after they had picked up the docs and original passport, they called and said "by the way, the visa also has to be cancelled. But we don't do that, we only do the work permit. Please cancel your visa".

I asked them to not do anything and just return the passport, I'll be overseas next week and the employment will now end at the end of this month, so I'll have the letter from the old company, cancel the visa at Jamjuri and hand over the passport to the messenger for the new WP.

Jee, this is starting to become interesting. I actually feel better handling the visa side by myself, as I don't want the re-entry and extension of stay based on PR to be cancelled.

In my past experience, a new work permit is issued for a few weeks or months and you have to go again and again, and the visa will never be valid longer than the work permit. This might have changed in the meantime, does anybody know?

[Mario2008]

The work permit is no longer tied to your permission to stay, they can now even give you a WP for two years. In the boondocks you will find some labour offices that still tie the WP to the permission to stay until date, but Bangkok should know.

[tombkk]

Update:

I went to the One-Stop last month to cancel the visa. This required a letter from the company saying that I had left, and the PND1 to show that the taxes had been paid. They cancelled the extension of stay the One-Stop had issued as well as the re-entry permit, both were valid until 2012. They did not touch the exntension of stay issued by the PR office though.

I also tried to cancel the Work Permit, but they said that's not necessary.

I had arrived at 8:20 and left before 09:00.

The new company does not qualify for the One-Stop, so back to Multi-Stop:

We arrived at the Labour Department before 10:00. Took a number, submitted the documents, received the paper confirming that I had applied for the WP and left around 10:30.

Next stop was Immigration at Chaeng Wat. Applied for an extension of stay based on WP application and got 30 days "under consideration" stamp. I was back in my office by lunch time! (OK, I had a slightly late lunch due to traffic.)

The passport with this stamp had to travel back to the Labour Department the next day (to show that I was not on overstay), but I didn't have to go along.

Eight (8) working days later, I was back at the Labour Department, signing the freshly-issued WP, valid for one year. I was positively surprised, as in the old days (before I was a One-Stop customer), they would issue WP's "under consideration" for two weeks or two months and you would have to be back many times before the one-year WP was issued. Great improvement.

Today, the 30 days' extension of stay was to expire, so I was back at Chaeng Wat in the morning. I got another 30 days, and I was told that they need the PND1 for December (as the WP starts in December), and then I will get the one-year visa. Will report back in January.

Anyway, back to the extension of stay from the PR office. I was thinking it's still valid until 2012, and why do I have to apply for another extension of stay from the business side anyway. Turns out that they (the PR office) had stamped my extension up to 2012 because the One-Stop had granted me that - and since that extension is now cancelled, the PR extension follows the new extension from the department relevant to the working extension. Bummer. And anyway, they said, they cannot issue more than 6 months.

So, this answers my initial question: The extension based on business is the all-important one.

On a side note, I tried to inform the PR office officially that I have changed jobs, and brought the documents they required last time. They didn't accept the letter and the documents and said I don't need to inform them if I change jobs, just if I change residence so that they can contact me. I will post this also on Camerata's thread.

[tombkk]

Here is the final update:

My monthly extension of stay was valid until end of January, but the PND 1 for December was in my hands by 7 January. So I went to immigration a few days after that, armed with a signed and stamped photocopy, and received my one-year extension without further ado. The extension is until the end of November, as that was when I had first applied for it.

The re-entry was no problem, as usual, and is also valid until end of November.

Now I queued up at the PR counter. (Not much of a queue there these days.) They also gave me an extension of stay until end of November, but they said it's not necessary: Since I get extensions of stay based on employment anyway, I don't need to come and see them any more. Since my application has already been approved and is only waiting for the final signature, all I have to do is wait for the letter saying that I should pick up my PR. I need to keep my residential address updated with them for that purpose, that's all.

This is a change from a couple of years ago, when the PR staff (then in room 301) said that I have to update my extension with them too, because otherwise I seem to have gotten lost.

So, I hope this experience report helps someone who has questions about changing their jobs while the PR application is still in process. I also believe it is good to just drop by in such cases and ask, because many staff at the PR office have changed with the new year, and there might be new interpretations of the rules as the year progresses.