Friend Putting Off Visa Extension..

[Thai Chi]

I have a friend who has live in Thailand for over 3 years and been married to a lovely Thai lady for just on 2 years now. He has a multiple entry non imm o visa. Over a couple (or was it more) beers last weekend he told me that he is worried about ever applying for an extension (married to Thai wife) as he first met her in Patong. I couldnt quite grasp the gist of hes concerns as Iam sure that there are many people that have married Thais from Patong, Pattaya Bangkok etc etc. It appears that some time ago he was told that immigration when proccessing applications, go back and check the little slips that you fill out when staying at guest houses, hotels etc. Now the satang dropped. He honestly beleived (or was led to beleive) that because hes wifes previous employment was a little dubious, he would be rejected out of hand!!!!!! Rejected on what basis I asked him ??? It is you who are applying NOT your wife. Well to cut a long story short, I got up on my seldom ridden high horse, and convinced him that he should apply, and the sooner the better In the cold (sober) light of the morning I realized that I had given advice without actual knowledge (not a normal habit of mine) and maybe there was some truth to information that was given him. But, for the life of me, I just can not see somebody being employed to shift through millions of hotel registration forms to track an applicants movements whilst staying in Thailand. Please tell me I am right as I hate eating humble pie And before anyone takes the piss out of him He is computer illitirate, he is a really honest and caring person, and sometimes IMO way to trusting of some people. And NO I will not tell you what country he comes from (Tilac, is that apple pie your cooking)

[lopburi3]

Believe he has an immigrant visa to his home country, where her previous employment might be of a concern, to his non immigrant extension here where it would have no relevance at all. In either case can not see anyone picking through hotel registrations and they would only list the foreigner in any case.

If he can meet the requirements (400k from overseas if not employed here with a work permit) he should consider the extension of stay (unless he has reasons for frequent travel when the multi O may be a better choice).

[Dragonman]

I have a friend who has live in Thailand for over 3 years and been married to a lovely Thai lady for just on 2 years now. He has a multiple entry non imm o visa. Over a couple (or was it more) beers last weekend he told me that he is worried about ever applying for an extension (married to Thai wife) as he first met her in Patong. I couldnt quite grasp the gist of hes concerns as Iam sure that there are many people that have married Thais from Patong, Pattaya Bangkok etc etc. It appears that some time ago he was told that immigration when proccessing applications, go back and check the little slips that you fill out when staying at guest houses, hotels etc. Now the satang dropped. He honestly beleived (or was led to beleive) that because hes wifes previous employment was a little dubious, he would be rejected out of hand!!!!!! Rejected on what basis I asked him ??? It is you who are applying NOT your wife. Well to cut a long story short, I got up on my seldom ridden high horse, and convinced him that he should apply, and the sooner the better In the cold (sober) light of the morning I realized that I had given advice without actual knowledge (not a normal habit of mine) and maybe there was some truth to information that was given him. But, for the life of me, I just can not see somebody being employed to shift through millions of hotel registration forms to track an applicants movements whilst staying in Thailand. Please tell me I am right as I hate eating humble pie  And before anyone takes the piss out of him    He is computer illitirate, he is a really honest and caring person, and sometimes IMO way to trusting of some people. And NO I will not tell you what country he comes from (Tilac, is that apple pie your cooking)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How would they know his wife's previous employment even if he stayed in Patong?

I frequently stayed in Pattaya and Bangkok with my then girlfriend, now wife, and she wasn't working in a bar. Besides that, they don't check, and even if they did they wouldn't care as long as you fulfilled immigration requirements.

[Thai Chi]

Thanks Lop and Dragonman, Its seems that he would have no problems meeting either criteria for retirement or extension of non imm (have wife) over 50 yo and 800 k + etc etc. As I said before, he is sometimes just to honest. He assumed that when asked where they met that if he said Patong, they would assume bad things about the wife and so deny application The previous information he was told included somethimg like"just tell immigration you met her in Korat whilst on holidays" (this is where she hails from and they both now live) That gem of info. and the previous stated "they will check your hotel registration slips" was enough to put him off. I can see the logic....when asked he tells immigration they met in Korat on such and such a day...that man in immigration slips out to the back office to check the hotel slip and finds out that he was in patong that day.....application denied I think he will be fine now this is cleared up Also, today I spoke to another friend who apllied for an extension to non imm o (thai wife) about 3 weeks ago. He said that he was asked no questions at all, but the wife, who owns a huge furniture shop, was put through the ringer about her employment history ????? Anybody care to post there experiences when applying to immigration. I think it could make for some good reading

[britmaveric]

Check hotel registration forms? Let's has to be the silliest thing I have read - now do you honestly think any embassy will sift through resgistration slips of hotels? Better yet do you think that hotels would give up that sort of info to foreign embassies? That being said - why would he say patong - why not phuket?

Edited August 10, 2005 by britmaveric

[Firefan]

Britmav; we are talking his Thai visa extension.

Anyway; as long as they are legally married and she is a Thai national it does not matter if she has been sending ping pong balls to the sky all her life. (not that I imply that).

Cheers!

[lopburi3]

If he can also meet the retirement criteria perhaps he would prefer that route as then there would not be any reason for wife to even attend immigration extension of stay meetings and it only takes a short visit each year as you obtain the extension at the same time that you apply. Letter of pension income from his Embassy or bank deposit of 800k; bank letter; medical certificate and passport copies is all that required and only takes a few minutes. If they know he is married there might be a request wife attend to sign she knows his extension is based on retirement rather than support but not sure of that (it is required when you change from support type to retirement).

In a support Thai wife extension the wife will end up answering most of the questions for the form that has to be filled out but do not believe it is normally very intrusive (but different people probably do have different experiences).