Transfer Of Re-Entry Stamp To New Passport Or Not?

[KhunBENQ]

A mate of mine got a new passport.

He is on retirement extension and has a valid multiple re-entry stamp in his old passport.

He went to the immi and they transfered his stamps and did stamp some refererence from old to new passport and vice versa.

However they did not transfer his re-entry stamp to the new passport.

When asking about it, he was told that it is not necessary to transfer re-entry and it is good enough to present both passports when entering.

Other posts I have found say that the re-entry stamp was transferred to the new passport.

Any conclusion/experience about that?

[lopburi3]

There has been a change in procedures since late last year where visas and visa entry are taken care of at border rather than having to transfer stamps at immigration - only extension of stay situations now get the immigration requirement for transfer. As re-entry stamp acts as a visa for entry perhaps they use the same logic as for a multi entry visa now - it is valid in expired passport and not transferred but can be used by presenting both. That is a guess as have never tried to transfer a re-entry permit.

[hgma]

since in our case the NK immigration goes along with double passport use when entering on a re-entry visa...its in NK and Nakhon not a problem at all.

Argument from NK immigration was......a lot of transfer stamping...why not use your valid stamps untill in old passport apply for new extentionof stay date.(in new passport)

in almost all cases I know of passport renewels have a stamp to remind immigration that the new passport is a replacement for the old one.

NK = NonKhai

[mojaco]

Today, Thursday, Jan 19, 2012, I took a new USA passport to Thai Immigration in Bangkok (Chaeng Wattana) to have retirement extension and multiple-re-entry permit transferred.

Got there about 9:30 AM because I stopped at the US Embassy to pick up the new passport first (which took 13 days from application to get), got finished about 11:30 AM. Process at Thai Immigration took a little long because of some confusion on directions given.

(1) Stopped at the information counter (first counter when entering) and was given a transfer form to fill out along with instructions about copies needed. So went downstairs for the copies, filled out the form and returned to the queue ticket station. The instruction sheet said to "include a letter from the Embassy about the new passport if available." The USA Embassy gave us one as a matter of course so we had one. But the way the instruction sheet is worded ("if avaiable"), not having one doesn't seem all that important. The copy place downstairs only charged 1 Baht per copy which I found astounding. They have a captive clientele and could charge much more.

(2) Got a queue ticket to go the the counter doing transfers. Waited 15 minutes for my number to be called, and the agent told me I had to have "the station that issues such extensions is the place to do extension transfers".

(3) So, back for a new queue ticket for the "retirement extension station". There we waited about half an hour for our number to come up. The actual transfer process only took 10 minutes. I asked about having the re-entry permit transferred. The officer said "I would need to get a queue ticket for the re-entry permit station and have them do the transfer".

(4) So, back for a queue ticket for the "re-entry permit" station. There we waited about 45 minutes for our number to come up. When we finally were called to talk to the officer, he threw away our queue ticket and said "not needed for transfers". So, had we known, we could have just walked up to one of the re-entry stations, and interrupted what he/she was doing with another applicant, and given him/her our passports? Seems sort of impolite to do that, and the wait wasn't bad.

The wait was pleasant. Air conditioned, not crowded at all (less than half full), there was a current "Nation" newspaper to read, no grouchy officers, and it was all free.

The bottom line is, that at Bangkok Immigration they will transfer the multiple re-entry permit into the new passport if you ask them. They acted like it was normal to do so.

Morris (not the cat)

[wpcoe]

Morris (not the cat)

Hahaha. How many people here even remember/know who Morris the Cat was? According to Wikipedia he died in 1993! (That was 19 years ago! Ouch!)