Annual Extension Of Stay Application

[OJAS]

I have some photos left over from my last annual extension of stay application, which I would like to use for my next application due in a few weeks. Is this likely to be considered acceptable by Immigration, or would it be advisable to obtain new photos?

[lopburi3]

It is not acceptable if they see they are more than six months old (and they sometimes check file to find out). A home made/printed photo is fine - no need to use a photo service to make for most people.

[Pib]

Guess it all depends on whether you look different now compared to when the photo was taken. We all tend to be little vain in thinking we look pretty much like we did years ago; but for someone who don't see you very often, it's easy to see a person looks different/has aged. Personally, I did use a year old photo for my last extension of stay, but I will probably get a new photo for the upcoming extension application but I did ask a family member. Do I still look like this photo?...the answer was yes...so I reused the year old photo. Additionally, since immigration now takes your picture during the application process to be stored in their computer system (or at less at Cheang Wattana/Bangkok Immigration they do), maybe it's easier to get away with an old photo on the paper application. But if immigration pulls out your past paper applications and the photo looks identical to the current application, it makes it easy for them to challenge how new the photo is. But photos are cheap and fast to get...and anyone with at least 800,000 baht in income to meet the application income requirement shouldn't miss around 100 baht to get new photos. I need to take my own advice.

[OJAS]

Thanks for the replies. Think I’ll err on the side of caution and lash out on new photos. Being of the vain sort, however, I would naturally wish to minimise the risk of Immigration accusing me of using last year’s photo. I have therefore concluded that it would probably be best to have this year’s photo taken against a different colour background to last year’s (blue) if at all possible. Would this be reasonably easy to arrange at yer typical local Thai photoshop, and are Immigration as picky about particular background colours as the UKPA are in the case of British passport photos?

[CWMcMurray]

Just make sure you are not wearing the same shirt as last years photo....

A couple of years ago, I accidentally wore the same shirt as the year before (not that I remembered at the time) and then two days later after submitting my extension paperwork, I received a call from Immigration advising me that I needed to come in and submit a new picture.

It was no use trying to explain that it was just random coincidence that I happened to grab the same color dress shirt for this years photo, they just said, "you are wearing the same shirt from last year, so must be the same picture".

So I took another look at the picture made sure I grabbed a different color dress shirt, took another picture and went back down to immigration...

Edited June 5, 2011 by CWMcMurray

[Tatsujin]

New photos, each and every time.

I had my WP renewal declined last year because I had used the same (new) picture in the WP application and some other paperwork and they insisted the WP pictures had to be different from the other pictures.

Bizarre. TiT.

[Pib]

Thanks for the replies. Think I'll err on the side of caution and lash out on new photos. Being of the vain sort, however, I would naturally wish to minimise the risk of Immigration accusing me of using last year's photo. I have therefore concluded that it would probably be best to have this year's photo taken against a different colour background to last year's (blue) if at all possible. Would this be reasonably easy to arrange at yer typical local Thai photoshop, and are Immigration as picky about particular background colours as the UKPA are in the case of British passport photos?

Many photo shops can also cut & paste/overlay an expensive looking shirt, suit coat, & tie (or something more causal) of your choice for just a few baht more....just takes them an extra minute. They have dozens of choices to choose from...many Thai's use this photo approach for ID badges, job applications, school, etc. I just had my photo taken in a cheap tee shirt and then paid a few baht more for some computer graphics magic to make me appear in a business man's shirt, tie and coat. I picked out a dark pin stripped coat; this year I'll pick out the same type of clothing but with a different suit coat & tie color. Or maybe I'll pick an outfit that makes me look like a 3rd world nation 4-star general with war medals going over my shoulder...no, on second thought I won't do that as I would also look like some of the people on Thai election banners.

Heck, I looked almost handsome after the graphics magic. Be sure to buy a few extra photo copies so you can mail them to family & friends to show them how well you are doing and looking...and possibly fool them into thinking you own a suit (or fool them into thinking you can still fit in your old suit). But remember, if mailing out any of the photos to your family & friends and you plan on seeing them in person any time soon, it may shock them to see how much you changed for the worst....just tell them you've been sick.

[Cuchulainn]

Many photo shops can also cut & paste/overlay an expensive looking shirt, suit coat, & tie (or something more causal) of your choice for just a few baht more....just takes them an extra minute.

A jester's outfit or a straight-jacket would be ok?

[OJAS]

Thanks for the tips about the shirt colour, which I'll certainly bear in mind. In addition, I'll see whether my local photoshop can picture me this year against a pink background (assuming they don't already have the real thing). Pink seems to be a particularly popular colour here at the present time - although obviously I wouldn't then want my alpha-type pals back home to feast their eyes on the end result.

Seriously though, on a related point, would I be correct in assuming that any photoshop worth their salt would also be able to crop mug shots as necessary so as to meet the current stringent requirements of the UKPA (and doubtless their counterparts in other countries) for new passport photos?

[keestha]

Having photos taken in a photoshop, I always prohibit them from editing my pic using Adobe Photoshop or whatever....on a photo to be used for official business, I shouldn't look 30 years younger then I really am, Immigration or the Labour Office is not thailovelinks.com

[NancyL]

A friend of mine got herself all glammed up for a professional-quality photo that she took to immigration a few days later for her retirement visa extension.. Of course, on that day she looked her age, having gotten up before dawn and having been knocked down by the hoards that rush the line right when the office opens. Plus, she's not a morning person. They rejected the photo, saying she had to submit a recent one. She argued with them and finally went to the photo shop behind the immigration office and got a very recent photo for them.

She was heartbroken over the quality of that photo, but brightened when I pointed out that it wasn't going to be affixed to her passport, drivers license or some other document that people will actually see.