Non B expires tomorrow. Can pickup workpermit 2 days later.

[Direktkaoz]

I went to the the Ministry of Labor and applied for a work permit this past Friday. All documents were in order, I paid 100 baht. I' ll be able to receive the blue book on Thursday August 22nd.

I then took the receipt and went to Lopburi Immigration on the assumption that I can receive an extension based on the work permit receipt. According to the immigration officer though, she said I must have the physical blue book in hand to apply for an extension. She asked me when my visa expires and I told her it expires on Tuesday August 20th. Instead of recommending me to get a 7day extension, for 1900 baht, she recommended me to come in two days late with the blue book in hand and 1000 baht for overstaying. She said she would be able to extend my non b for 1900 baht, even though it would have expired for two days.

My question is, is this even possible? Should i go tomorrow to extend my visa for 7 days? Or should i take the immigration officer' s advice?

Any help would be much appreciated.

[ubonjoe]

Yes it's possible. It's not the first time I have heard of them telling someone to overstay.

[Direktkaoz]

Thanks for the quick reply ubonjoe.

I was a bit confused because I read on another thread that your work permit expires when your non b expires. I just wanted to be on the safe side. If that means paying an extra 900 baht to save the hassle from getting a new non b at Laos, I would rather go that route.

[ubonjoe]

In reality it is your permit to stay that is ending not your visa. Your visa no longer matters.

It's up to you how you do it.

Wok permits are not tied to a permit to stay.

[digitalchromakey]

I suspect you will find your self in a Catch 22 situation as labour will not issue you the WP until you have a valid Non B entry stamp in your passport (even if you could go on Monday, two days left is not enough - they often want a much longer stamp validity).

The 7 day extension will not cut it with Labour.

As is often the case, Immigration officials are not familiar with Labour Dept procedures and vice versa.

And certainly Immigration will not give you the 2.1 Extension without your having the Blue Book (WP) in your hand wit hall the other required paperwork.

Your solution is to do a visa run to to get a Single Entry 90 day non immigrant Category 'B' Visa, pick up your WP from Labour then apply for a One year Extension at Immigration.

[Direktkaoz]

Update: First of all thanks to the people who replied to my post.

Today I went to the ministry of labor in Lopburi, with my receipt. As digitalchromakey said, I was expecting to get rejected because my permission to stay in Thailand has expired for two days.

When my turn came up they asked me for my passport, and I was thinking "crap , here comes the rejection lecture". Instead, they just put a stamp in the back of my passport, took my 3000 baht fee and sent me away with a brand new work permit.

However, my worries didn't end there as I still overstayed my non b Visa and I still had to clear things up at Lopburi immigrations. The biggest worry being; the issue of extending a non b that has been overstayed.

At Lopburi immigrations, the same lady who advised me to overstay the two days took care of me. She looked through all my documents and my new work permit and asked me why I came in so late. I then explained to her about how she was actually the one who told me to come in today, and thankfully she remembered. She took my 1000 baht late fee along with the 1900 baht application fee and after a few minutes she stamped my passport with an extension to be allowed to stay until March 30, 2014. I also signed 3 or so documents written in Thai, (looked like a criminal report form) and I'm pretty sure it was related to clearing up my 2 day overstay.

All in all it was a pretty good experience, the lady at Lopburi immigration was super generous. I really didn't want to do another non b visa run as the school would've taken ages just to get the papers in order. Saved me around 10k baht.

Thanks to Ubonjoe once more, your advice was right on point.

[ubonjoe]

Thanks for the thanks glad it all worked out