Very confused - Retirement Visa or Extension of Stay?

[ChiangraiTony]

I've been in Thailand for a couple of years. After going to the CM immigration office the first time (2 years ago) they stamped my passport with a RED color stamp that shows "Retirement". In BLUE color ink the stamp continues and shows: CHIANG MAI IMMIGRATION OFFICE, Application of stay up to... Applicant must leave the Kingdom within the dates specified here in offenders will be prosecuted. Signed and dated: (by Immigration officer).

The second year, my passport essentially has the same BLUE color stamp but without the RED stamp showing "Retirement".

Yesterday I went to CM immigration for my 90 day reporting. Everything (all papers) were in order and accepted. The immigration officer placed the "Receipt of Notification" document in my passport with a staple holding it in place. However, this time they did something different...they applied a BLUE color stamp on the paper to show: THIS IS NOT AN EXTENSION OF STAY. PLEASE NOTIFY YOUR ADDRESS AGAIN ON...

My question:

If there is no such thing as Retirement visa (even though) they once stamped it "Retirement" but instead is really technically called an "extension of stay" then why have they placed a most recent stamp showing "This is NOT and extension of stay"?

Any assistance would be appreciated because it is all confusing to me with this recent stamped paper attached to my passport.

[Jingthing]

Yes, you are using annual extensions of stay based on retirement.

The message you are referring to is about the 90 day address report!

The 90 day address report is not an extension of stay or a visa.

They want to warn people that the next reporting date on the 90 day address report paper might confuse some people to believe they have been given permission to stay another 90 days based on the report.

They may or may not have actual permission to stay in their passport.

But the 90 day report for is not that.

BTW, the only thing that should really be called a "retirement visa" is the OPTIONAL O-A visa obtained in home countries, and even that is technically a LONG STAY visa.

Cheers.

[partington]

You are confusing 90-day reports with being granted an extended permission to stay on a visa. They are completely separate procedures and to inform you of this they stamp your 90-day report receipt with the information that "this is not an extension of stay".

Doing a 90-day report is merely reporting your address to the immigration authorities, and has no effect on the period you are permitted to stay at all.

These are two separate systems, and you should not think of them as being connected. If you fail to make a 90-day report, you are guilty of failing to report your address and you can be fined 2000 baht. This is the ONLY consequence.

You have been given an extension of permission to stay on the grounds of retirement, and this is valid for one entire year, This is why your passport stamp says 'retirement' on it.

As you have been given extended permission to stay for a year, your 90-day report is necessary because you can stay more than 90 days at a time, as a result of this extension permission. People who have not been given permission to stay for more than 90 days never need to do 90-day reports!

Edit: Oooops JT beat me to it!!!

[northernjohn]

Yes, you are using annual extensions of stay based on retirement.

The message you are referring to is about the 90 day address report!

The 90 day address report is not an extension of stay or a visa.

They want to warn people that the next reporting date on the 90 day address report paper might confuse some people to believe they have been given permission to stay another 90 days based on the report.

They may or may not have actual permission to stay in their passport.

But the 90 day report for is not that.

BTW, the only thing that should really be called a "retirement visa" is the OPTIONAL O-A visa obtained in home countries, and even that is technically a LONG STAY visa.

Cheers.

Actually the whole thing can be very confusing. In August 2013

I received a new passport. I took it over to immigration with my old one to get the extended permission to stay transferred into it,

They put in Non OA

Down below that they had two little boxes saying in one non OA and the other one said non RE

Then they had a copy of my 2012 permission to stay and it said retirement on it.

A month later I went in for my 2013 extension and once again received a stamp saying retirement on it.

I might add that I had gotten my original retirement in Vancouver Canada.