Camerata's Guide To The Permanent Residence Process

[BritTim]

2 minutes ago, Michael Hare said:

Strange. I have lived in Thailand for over 30 years and I have never come across petty bribes and using third parties in cases where I can do the work myself. 

Good for you. I can assure you, however, that there is quite a lot of corrupt activity that takes place in Thailand.

[Misty]

I remember consulting with two separate law firms at the time, hoping to hire one to help with all the paperwork. Both said that VIP service fees were now required, and one even consulted their contacts at CW and came back with an estimate of how much would be involved. 

 

Separately, I checked with friends who had received PR status years ago, and some folks on this forum.  Their general view was that VIP fees are not required, you can do the application yourself and in fact this would be appreciated by the PR desk staff at CW.

 

Unfortunately it was the law firms that proved correct. Not just in my case but in at least several others I talked to who had hoped to apply that year.

 

No real problems were identified in the application. The discussion lasted nearly 3 hours in Thai and each "issue" was discussed and resolved.

 

But in the end (after the accountant shake-down occurred), I was told "we just don't think our bosses will accept this application" but with no problem identified.  As I learned from others that year, the real problem was the lack of use of an agent with VIP service fees attached.  And that apparently was the state of play for several recent years.

 

I hope it's not the case this year.  However, applicants should be aware before they spend a lot of time on putting together an application. You may actually need an agent to get anywhere with the process.

[Misty]

11 minutes ago, Michael Hare said:

From reading the above posts about the difficulty of getting PR it seems to me to be different processes involved with different applications. I applied through the yearly country quota system which is in December of each year. Others it seems to me, apply any time of the year through a business application process. This may be more difficult. With my application, besides all the personal documents, I had to show taxes paid and that I had worked successfully in Thailand and my presence and work had benefitted Thailand in a significant way. On the day of submitting my application I joined a queue of about 8-10 people. From memory at the first desk my application was looked at and maybe a few questions were asked. Didn't take long. None of this 3 hour grill. I think I paid a small application fee which I received a receipt for. With waiting in the queue I was in and out in about 1 hour. 

I'm guessing you may have applied some years ago.

 

I was applying in November during the yearly country quota system window which had opened.  CW was pretty empty, it was during the covid period and there were two other applicants that afternoon, both with agents and paying the VIP service fees. The other applicants did not have a 3 hour grill and were in and out quickly, from what I could tell without speaking much Thai at all.

 

Having worked in Thailand for many years I had the all the Thai tax documents, company documents, affidavits, old passports & visas, work permit copies, benefit to thailand, education records, police report, medical records, etc, etc prepared.

 

 

 

 

[Arkady]

I would suggest that anyone rejected as Misty was should get a lawyer and not pay them a bribe but get them to accompany them to CW to enquire politely under which sections of the Immigration Act or related regulations and guidelines they have made the decision to reject the application.  They will not be able to reference anything, if the application is word perfect, and the lawyer can then ask them to proceed with the application or face a lawsuit in the Administrative Court, if they still refuse, something which terrifies most bureaucrats as they can be tied up for years in the three levels of the court.  This was done by someone going back years in this thread and they did accept his application with with very bad grace.  He was initially rejected under the humanitarian category for not having a WP which is not listed as a requirement in the regulations. But at least they gave him a reason for the initial rejection.  I think that, if they can't even tell you why the MOI would not like an application, they would back down pretty quickly. If the obstruction was from the lower level of Immigration, it would not make any difference once the file had passed them. If it comes from the MOI, then it would be more difficult and it might be necessary to wait for a new minister.

 

Anyway I am glad that Misty found a more suitable alternative in the LTR visa with digital WP.  We have discussed recently why it is unlikely that PRs will ever be offered this option.

 

[anthonyT]

7 hours ago, Misty said:

I'm afraid things may have changed a lot in the 10+ years since you applied.

 

In the recent year that I applied, as part of my preparation I spoke to a number of people, to include would be applicants.  I also posted a number of times on this thread to get answers to technical questions. Folks on this thread were very responsive, but unfortunately their information turned out to be out of date in many cases.  I wish someone had mentioned about the required agent & VIP service fees and I wouldn't have bothered preparing my application.

 

Of the would-be applicants I talked to, unfortunately all had the same experience that I did. If you were willing to pay an agent "VIP service fees" (min six digit), then you could apply.  The PR desk staff even gave one person the business card of an agent who could "help."  If you weren't willing to pay (such as me), you might have the "perfect application" and it wouldn't matter. You would get no where.

 

When I went to the PR desk to submit my application, my accountant wasn't actually there to negotiate on my behalf.  Of course I was very respectful, but I was well-qualified and had never heard I would have to "negotiate" in any way. My accountant was only there in case there were some specific questions in Thai on the accounts that I didn't have the vocabulary to answer.  In the end, she wasn't asked anything other than cornered in a back room to find out if she was actually an agent.

 

So now I have a 10 year LTR visa from the NY consulate and a 5 year digital work permit, renewable for another 5 years.  It's actually a much better fit for my situation. The BoI was truly a pleasure to work with.  After the PR fiasco, it was really heartening to have the senior staff there say that I was exactly who the program was looking for.  Such a different experience than applying for PR.

 

 

For myself, i went thru the process of applying for the PR in December 2021, did the interview in April 2022 and finally received the approval of my PR in March 2023 and have collected it in early May as i had booked my family visit already. The amount of paperwork is quite substantial, but if you have a secretary and a HR person of your company helping you, you dont really need a firm or agent to help you. Imo, the HR person is more important, as many documents to support your application come from your work place, with which an outside agent can not help you with. And neither can they help with the document you have to get from overseas.  Personally i have not received any request for money from the immigration officers other then the application fee and the final 95K once approved. Anyway, that was my experience.

 

With kind regards,

Ant.

[scorecard]

2 hours ago, BritTim said:

Good for you. I can assure you, however, that there is quite a lot of corrupt activity that takes place in Thailand.

Examples:

-My thai son went to do the initial register at his uni of choice. Many hopeful teens all lined up waiting for the  window to open. Twenty minutes before window opening time a 30 year old man (no name tag or uniform) approached the first person in the queue saying "I am the rep. of the dean, please make a 200Baht donationto me for the uni development fund". He moved quickly along because everubody refused to give him money.

-Started work at one of the 'better' unis, day one went to the professors lounge to us the well set up work stations for professors. Got appraoched by an old dragon professor telling me there's a joining fee of 200Baht. Another female professsor yelled at her to stop asking me for money, at same time politely telling me 'there's no joining fee, ignore her'.

 

[Arkady]

2 hours ago, scorecard said:

RE the PR process..."You might get rogue officers trying to squeeze big income of it from time to time but there have been very few reports of this type. "

 

I received approval 27 years ago. I had the interview (about 1.5 hrs) with a snr. officer, who spoke perfect English, within 30 minutes of lodging the application.

 

Pleasant guy, very polite, very focused and he asked what I hought were good questions very approprite to my application for PR.

 

He didn't once make any hint of tea money or whatever and I offered none. 

 

But of course this is just one case. 

I also applied 27 years ago and found the staff pleasant with the exception of the officers who did the two interviews I was subjected to who were both captains I think and not very nice. Nobody spoke in English but there was no requirement to be able to speak Thai in those days and you could use an interpreter, if desired.  I had a 1.5 hour interview and then a 2.5 hour interview a month or two later. Both interviews were conducted in a room with a soap opera playing on the TV at high volume and with other candidates being interviewed in the same room at the same time at the old Suan Plu office.  Eventually I was told at the second interview I would be rejected because I was working for a foreign rep office that was unable to pay Thai tax, except VAT because it was not allowed to receive income which was all booked offshore.  Of course there was no regulation that specified that applicants had to working for a company that had the ability to pay corporate income tax. I was told that this was not final and I had a chance to "fix things" to impress the two committees. So I called everyone I knew who knew people and was lucky to find a major general at Immigration to vouch for me there and and a senior guy at the NIA which has a seat on the inter agency committee for PR, which is the last step before the minister's signature, to vouch me there. Job done and neither of these gentlemen asked for any favours in return, as they were good friends of friends. In fact the senior NIA official didn't even met as he said he would take his nephew's word for it. My approval was fully legit because the law and regulations didn't specify the need for corporate income tax.

 

At that time people were definitely paying bribes to Immigration get through more easily, as there was no thread like this and there was a lot of mystique about how difficult it was to get PR.  But bribes were not paid via law firms or agents because the police didn't trust them to keep quiet or to hand over the full amount.  Those who wanted to pay had to find a police general with contacts at Immigration through personal connections and the payment was made through several nominee accounts before it arrived at Immigration. The name card of the police general who had taken the bribe was stapled to the application, so that when it went to the internal committee at Immigration they knew they had to approve on the nod and who to collect the cash from.  I onlyl heard of this system after I had already applied and had no interest in paying a bribe which sounded quite risky anyway. In the event, it seemed to me that those who paid were simply spared the interviews (a friend who was proud of paying a bribe had only a single 5 minute interview where he produced the name card of the general who had taken the bribe and the officers winked, saying, "Oh yes, P' X will fix everything for you," and told him the interview was done and he had his PR within 6 months of applying).  Those who didn't pay passed anyway, if they were fully qualified, but perhaps waited a few months more, as there was a rule in those days that everyone got a reply within 12 months which obviously went by the wayside after Thaksin shook things up for the worse. In my case I wouldn't have got through without connections because I was not qualified according to the unpublished guidelines but since these guidelines were unofficial my connections were able to get me over the line.

 

I am not disputing that it was possible to have an easy time of it in those days, even though I didn't but it could certainly be tough, if they found something in your application they could object to.  On the other hand, compared to today the level of documentation and notarisation required them seems very lightweight, even though it seemed a hassle at the time. Also there was no need to to do any interviews in Thai. That was introduced on Thaksin's watch.  Best of all was the virtual guarantee you would have a reply within a year, even though the wait seemed a lifetime then. 

 

Looking ahead there may be storm clouds on the horizon as Thaksin prepares to install yet another nominee as PM and come home. Any politician as interior minister is likely to be worse than Gen Anuphong has been for the 9 years of Prayut's watch which have actually been relatively benign for foreigners. Under the two Thaksin premiershps things fell into a deep black hole, and the in nominee tenures of Samak, Somchai and Yingluck the approval process for PR and citizenship was decidedly lacklustre.  Thaksin will almost certainly insist on PT having the interior ministry due to its power over elections and other things.

 

[smutcakes]

On 8/8/2023 at 2:19 PM, onthemoon said:

How exactly did the consultant reduce the paperwork for you? Did they request certain documents from your home country for you, or did they contact the accounting department in your company for the documents directly? The latter actually can be done by your secretary if you don't want to do that by yourself. Did they make the photocopies of old passports for you? I really don't get how they could help in any way.

 

Of course they would say it's a lot of headache, otherwise you wouldn't need them. Oh, you don't.

No need to get bent out of shape.

 

I was just giving my opinion from going through the process. If you found the process easy and comfortable, bully for you. Detail of individual parts fade, but i remember having numerous submissions at Chaengwattana, organizing documents from police in home country, having to get it translated in home country then getting that notarized by Thai Embassy in home country, then in Thailand, all other docs need to be translated, notarized etc etc Maybe my memory is mixing Citizenship application with PR application but i forever seemed to be signing documents in Thai, which someone needed to prepare.

 

Anyway, you think its easy, i thought it was a pain in the ass and was very happy to pay for someone to organize everything for me and just tell me to be somewhere when and where and what to sign.

 

[Dogmatix]

A former colleague of mine used an accounting firm that had been warmly recommended for its PR service by others.  They made some stupid mistake that got him rejected and he was so peed off that he left Thailand. 

[Misty]

On 8/9/2023 at 5:16 PM, anthonyT said:

For myself, i went thru the process of applying for the PR in December 2021, did the interview in April 2022 and finally received the approval of my PR in March 2023 and have collected it in early May as i had booked my family visit already. The amount of paperwork is quite substantial, but if you have a secretary and a HR person of your company helping you, you dont really need a firm or agent to help you. Imo, the HR person is more important, as many documents to support your application come from your work place, with which an outside agent can not help you with. And neither can they help with the document you have to get from overseas.  Personally i have not received any request for money from the immigration officers other then the application fee and the final 95K once approved. Anyway, that was my experience.

 

With kind regards,

Ant.

Thanks, Ant, it's good to know the process worked for you.  The year before, I only met people like myself who'd had a different experience.  In my case, I'd handled my application much as you did, with my accountant helping as I don't have an HR dept. That didn't work, and my accountant was even mistaken as an agent during the process.  But again, glad to know it all worked for you a year later. Perhaps things have improved again.

 

Just to make sure people understand:  the PR desk folks weren't asking anyone for a bribe.  There was nothing near so obvious or direct going on as that.  It was just that they were only accepting applications from people who were working with a law firm or other independent agent that had an established relationship and would deliver the VIP service fees.  The fees were imbedded in the overall fee the applicant was paying to that firm or other agent.  You have to talk with the law firm or agent to learn the ins and outs.  Unless you know them personally, many may not discuss it openly, so that a level of plausible deniability is preserved.

 

 

[onthemoon]

Suddenly I cannot transfer money from my Thai account to my home country account anymore with my bank's software (both website and mobile app) when using "repatriate income of foreign workers" as the purpose of transfer. The error message says "you cannot send money to your own account" or something like that. Apparently, this works for people who use their passport but not for people with pink card and PR. I have now changed my registered ID in the bank's system from the pink card back to my passport, and now it works again.

 

Is it true that PR holders cannot repatriate income anymore (as they told me at the call center), or is that a new software bug at my bank? It only started recently, so if there is a new regulation, I think I would have read about it here.

[beeper]

I had the same issue some time ago with account registered with Pink ID. I found two options 1. select  another category for the purpose of transfer 2.I have another account in a different bank I used passport number for registration. I use that one to transfer funds abroad. 

[onthemoon]

15 minutes ago, beeper said:

I had the same issue some time ago with account registered with Pink ID. I found two options 1. select  another category for the purpose of transfer 2.I have another account in a different bank I used passport number for registration. I use that one to transfer funds abroad. 

Thanks. At least now I know I am not the only one. ???? 

Was that also at Kbank, or was it at another bank?

[beeper]

Not Kbank

[onthemoon]

4 minutes ago, beeper said:

Not Kbank

Noted. Thanks for your reply.

[scorecard]

54 minutes ago, onthemoon said:

Noted. Thanks for your reply.

So (at 78 yo) I'm now a bit lost.

 

I have Inter. Funds Transfer in my Kplus smartphone app and I did successfully use it to send funds to a mainstream bank in Australia, all very fast, about 2 months ago.

 

I also have K Biz internet banking on my notebook computer and I've also used this means for successful transfers to Australia, last time 2 weeks ago.

 

So I guess that also confirms there's no difficulties to transfer out of LOS using K bank online facilities (as long as you click on the right boxes). 

 

Is anybody aware if the list of 'purpose of funds transfer' has recently changed, on the K Bank online facilities?

 

 

[onthemoon]

36 minutes ago, scorecard said:

So (at 78 yo) I'm now a bit lost.

 

I have Inter. Funds Transfer in my Kplus smartphone app and I did successfully use it to send funds to a mainstream bank in Australia, all very fast, about 2 months ago.

 

I also have K Biz internet banking on my notebook computer and I've also used this means for successful transfers to Australia, last time 2 weeks ago.

 

So I guess that also confirms there's no difficulties to transfer out of LOS using K bank online facilities (as long as you click on the right boxes). 

 

Is anybody aware if the list of 'purpose of funds transfer' has recently changed, on the K Bank online facilities?

 

 

Is your ID at Kbank your passport or your pink ID? I think that is the issue. No problem if it is the passport.

[MRtommyR]

On 8/12/2023 at 9:40 AM, Misty said:

Thanks, Ant, it's good to know the process worked for you.  The year before, I only met people like myself who'd had a different experience.  In my case, I'd handled my application much as you did, with my accountant helping as I don't have an HR dept. That didn't work, and my accountant was even mistaken as an agent during the process.  But again, glad to know it all worked for you a year later. Perhaps things have improved again.

 

Just to make sure people understand:  the PR desk folks weren't asking anyone for a bribe.  There was nothing near so obvious or direct going on as that.  It was just that they were only accepting applications from people who were working with a law firm or other independent agent that had an established relationship and would deliver the VIP service fees.  The fees were imbedded in the overall fee the applicant was paying to that firm or other agent.  You have to talk with the law firm or agent to learn the ins and outs.  Unless you know them personally, many may not discuss it openly, so that a level of plausible deniability is preserved.

 

 

Just to briefly share my experience (applying with a lawyer assisting):

 

1. Applied in December 2019: they found an issue with one of my documents (they said my criminal record check from my home country was too old). They proposed a "solution" which I refused and so they did not accept my application. My lawyer asked for the regulation/announcement about the validity period for the criminal record check. They said they wasn't one - it was an internal policy. I do not know how genuine this was.

 

2. Applied again in December 2020: application accepted without paying anything. I had a different officer reviewing it and I made sure my criminal records check was brand new. They didn't mention it or seem to pay any attention to it. Got the approval in 2022

[Kayahammer]

For what it's worth, I applied for PR early 2017, using the visa/HR lady at my work. She gathered all related documents from work and told me what I had to do (including photos outside my house, outside my village, inside all rooms in my house, outside my place of work, inside my pace of work). We submitted all the paperwork, and each subsequent time we went back they asked for something else. Each visit the immigration officers at CW tried to sell us things like a Thai course (wife informed them I didn't need it as I spoke Thai well enough), a fast track (no thanks, we can wait) etc. until we were called in to an unofficial interview where they asked about savings, assets etc. I'm not stupid, so I said we had none. They explained I would not pass unless we made a contribution (not their policy, but their superiors we were told). It wasn't a great amount, and we were cornered, so we paid. After that it was plain sailing. Short, easy interview. The visit from local immigration beforehand was tension filled as the main guy was not happy about having to perform this task, and didn't hide it.

 

The whole process was about a year.

 

As an aside, the visa lady from work tried to trick me out of 100K as a payment to immigration officials, which we refused to pay (immigration asked for a lot less than that).

 

I will add that having PR is nice, however I have since bought a couple of condos, and both land and house offices refused to accept I now have the right to buy a condo without sending money from overseas, even when I showed them the official rules and regs regarding foreigners purchasing property).

 

Lastly, I am about to get my PR renewed for the first time - does anyone know what documents I have to produce for this?

 

Thanks in advance

[Michael Hare]

16 minutes ago, Kayahammer said:

For what it's worth, I applied for PR early 2017, using the visa/HR lady at my work. She gathered all related documents from work and told me what I had to do (including photos outside my house, outside my village, inside all rooms in my house, outside my place of work, inside my pace of work). We submitted all the paperwork, and each subsequent time we went back they asked for something else. Each visit the immigration officers at CW tried to sell us things like a Thai course (wife informed them I didn't need it as I spoke Thai well enough), a fast track (no thanks, we can wait) etc. until we were called in to an unofficial interview where they asked about savings, assets etc. I'm not stupid, so I said we had none. They explained I would not pass unless we made a contribution (not their policy, but their superiors we were told). It wasn't a great amount, and we were cornered, so we paid. After that it was plain sailing. Short, easy interview. The visit from local immigration beforehand was tension filled as the main guy was not happy about having to perform this task, and didn't hide it.

 

The whole process was about a year.

 

As an aside, the visa lady from work tried to trick me out of 100K as a payment to immigration officials, which we refused to pay (immigration asked for a lot less than that).

 

I will add that having PR is nice, however I have since bought a couple of condos, and both land and house offices refused to accept I now have the right to buy a condo without sending money from overseas, even when I showed them the official rules and regs regarding foreigners purchasing property).

 

Lastly, I am about to get my PR renewed for the first time - does anyone know what documents I have to produce for this?

 

Thanks in advance

All you need is the red PR book and a passport size photo or two. 

[onthemoon]

I recently turned 60 and asked the staff at the BTS to issue a Senior pass for me. They checked and said this is only for Thai citizens. I understand that they don't want to discount the fares for tourists, but I have PR and I pay taxes, like every Thai citizen. Does anybody know anything more about this?

[Arkady]

2 hours ago, Kayahammer said:

For what it's worth, I applied for PR early 2017, using the visa/HR lady at my work. She gathered all related documents from work and told me what I had to do (including photos outside my house, outside my village, inside all rooms in my house, outside my place of work, inside my pace of work). We submitted all the paperwork, and each subsequent time we went back they asked for something else. Each visit the immigration officers at CW tried to sell us things like a Thai course (wife informed them I didn't need it as I spoke Thai well enough), a fast track (no thanks, we can wait) etc. until we were called in to an unofficial interview where they asked about savings, assets etc. I'm not stupid, so I said we had none. They explained I would not pass unless we made a contribution (not their policy, but their superiors we were told). It wasn't a great amount, and we were cornered, so we paid. After that it was plain sailing. Short, easy interview. The visit from local immigration beforehand was tension filled as the main guy was not happy about having to perform this task, and didn't hide it.

 

The whole process was about a year.

 

As an aside, the visa lady from work tried to trick me out of 100K as a payment to immigration officials, which we refused to pay (immigration asked for a lot less than that).

 

I will add that having PR is nice, however I have since bought a couple of condos, and both land and house offices refused to accept I now have the right to buy a condo without sending money from overseas, even when I showed them the official rules and regs regarding foreigners purchasing property).

 

Lastly, I am about to get my PR renewed for the first time - does anyone know what documents I have to produce for this?

 

Thanks in advance

I think what happened with your HR lady was similar to what happens with lawyers and agents.  They quote huge fees, claiming that a large element is bribes for Immigration and maybe the MoI too but it is unlikely that they pay more than about 30k of it to CW Immigration, if anything.  They have very little decision making power and can't speed things up. It is unlikely that they pass anything higher up the chain than the front office CW staff, as it is much harder for them to get access and the applications go through a committee which makes it obvious to the others, if someone is getting favorable treatment.

[Arkady]

1 hour ago, onthemoon said:

I recently turned 60 and asked the staff at the BTS to issue a Senior pass for me. They checked and said this is only for Thai citizens. I understand that they don't want to discount the fares for tourists, but I have PR and I pay taxes, like every Thai citizen. Does anybody know anything more about this?

That is BTS's racist policy I am  afraid.  Even as a Thai citizen they tried to refuse me, on the grounds of being not Thai in the eyes of the idiotic girl on the desk.  I had to cause a fuss and let an angry queue build up behind me.  I refused to budge from the queue and she refused to back down, so I suggested that, in the interests of the other passengers waiting, she might like to call her supervisor.  He arrived in seconds and ticked her office roundly, saying, "He is Thai. Give him the senior ticket NOW".  She went bright red at the loss of face. I still can't imagine what she thought she was trying to prove.

[scorecard]

1 hour ago, Kayahammer said:

For what it's worth, I applied for PR early 2017, using the visa/HR lady at my work. She gathered all related documents from work and told me what I had to do (including photos outside my house, outside my village, inside all rooms in my house, outside my place of work, inside my pace of work). We submitted all the paperwork, and each subsequent time we went back they asked for something else. Each visit the immigration officers at CW tried to sell us things like a Thai course (wife informed them I didn't need it as I spoke Thai well enough), a fast track (no thanks, we can wait) etc. until we were called in to an unofficial interview where they asked about savings, assets etc. I'm not stupid, so I said we had none. They explained I would not pass unless we made a contribution (not their policy, but their superiors we were told). It wasn't a great amount, and we were cornered, so we paid. After that it was plain sailing. Short, easy interview. The visit from local immigration beforehand was tension filled as the main guy was not happy about having to perform this task, and didn't hide it.

 

The whole process was about a year.

 

As an aside, the visa lady from work tried to trick me out of 100K as a payment to immigration officials, which we refused to pay (immigration asked for a lot less than that).

 

I will add that having PR is nice, however I have since bought a couple of condos, and both land and house offices refused to accept I now have the right to buy a condo without sending money from overseas, even when I showed them the official rules and regs regarding foreigners purchasing property).

 

Lastly, I am about to get my PR renewed for the first time - does anyone know what documents I have to produce for this?

 

Thanks in advance

QUOTE: "Lastly, I am about to get my PR renewed for the first time - does anyone know what documents I have to produce for this?"

 

I suspect you're a little confused. PR is for your lifetime until you die (as per the title 'Permanent Residence'). It NEVER needs renewal and you don't have to have it re-endorsed, re-checked or anything similar for your whole lifetime.

 

I'm wondering if you mean your 'Exit and re-entry stamp.?' That's a different matter. 

 

By the specific regulations which most PR holders follow you only need an Exit and re-entry stamp when you are about to depart / return to Thailand.

 

In other words you must get a new Exit and re-entry stamp when you need it. You are not required to get a new Exit and Re-entry stamp every 12 months.

 

it's not an automatic and not a compulsory annual renewal. You get an Exit and Re-entry stamp when you need it.

 

PR holders who haven't been out of Thailand for many years haven't had a current Exit and Re-entry stamp in their PR book and their passport for years because for years they haven't had any plan to depart and return to Thailand. 

 

What documents: Changes a bit according to what Immigration office you go to. Basic documents will be:

- PR book

- Passport

- Some Imm. offices might ask to see your Red Police Registration book.

- Some Imm. offices might ask to see your Tabien Baan book.

- Some might ask to see your flight tickets.

- You will need at least 2 small photographs.

- Completed Exit-Re-entry application form.

- There's 2 charges involved:

 

For the multiple entry stamp (can be used for 12 months any number of journeys out and in from date of getting the exit and Re-entry stamp):

• Put the Exit and Re-entry stamp in your PR book 3,800Baht
• Copy the same stamp into your passport 1,900Baht. (This is called endorsement.)
• Total 5,700Baht

There also a single entry (single journey / trip) stamp available, sorry I don't know the charges for this.

 

I've had PR for 27 years, I get the multiple entry Exit and Re-entry stamp at Chang Wattana Immigration office or Chiang Mai Immigration office.

 

Most times it's all done within 30 minutes, depends if there's other PR holders there getting an Exit - Re-entry stamp at the same time. Never ever been asked for 'tea money'.

 

You will see mention of getting an Exit - Re-entry stamp at the airport when you are about to fly.

 

That's available to various long-term Visa holders (Visas which have an expiry date which usually need re-application / re-issue every 12 months), it's NOT available at the airport for PR holders.

 

Good luck.

[onthemoon]

1 hour ago, Arkady said:

That is BTS's racist policy I am  afraid.  Even as a Thai citizen they tried to refuse me, on the grounds of being not Thai in the eyes of the idiotic girl on the desk.  I had to cause a fuss and let an angry queue build up behind me.  I refused to budge from the queue and she refused to back down, so I suggested that, in the interests of the other passengers waiting, she might like to call her supervisor.  He arrived in seconds and ticked her office roundly, saying, "He is Thai. Give him the senior ticket NOW".  She went bright red at the loss of face. I still can't imagine what she thought she was trying to prove.

She was clearly wrong on both ethical and legal grounds. BTS' policy is also wrong; however, the employees I talked to (on three different stations, actually) were just following the rules. Who sets these rules?

[onthemoon]

1 hour ago, scorecard said:

I suspect you're a little confused. PR is for your lifetime until you die (as per the title 'Permanent Residence'). It NEVER needs renewal and you don't have to have it re-endorsed, re-checked or anything similar for your whole lifetime.

While you correct yourself later in your post, let's make it clear that the PR in Thailand is NOT permanent. If it were, you wouldn't have to apply for a visa and endorsement every time (or once a year) you leave the country. This is a major flaw in the Thai PR system and highly annoying. I once almost lost my PR because I had forgotten to get these stupid stamps. Luckily that was in the morning on a weekday, and I could jump over from Suvarnabhumi to CW and back in time to catch the evening flight. Missed one business meeting in Vietnam, though. Sure, if you know for a fact that you will never travel again until the end of your life, you won't need the visa and endorsement, but that case is too rare to claim that this is the rule.

 

The other major flaw is that PR holders still need work permits. And then there is a long list of minor ones.

[Kayahammer]

Thanks so much for all the comments.

 

For clarification, the HR lady at work charged me 15,000B up front and 10,000B after PR was issued. Sometime during the process she tried to stiff me for 100K (claiming it was for the immigration officials). I didn't pay though : )

 

Also my initial post wasn't clear. I meant the red book needs renewing (at local police station). I have to do that once every 6 years.

 

I guess I'll take along as many docs as I put my hand to for the red book renewal and hope I don't need anything else.

 

I agree about the entry and exit stamps being ridiculous. A single use exit stamp for PR holders is 3,800B. For everyone else it's 1,900B.

 

Thanks again.

[Kan Win]

4 minutes ago, Kayahammer said:

 

 

Also my initial post wasn't clear. I meant the red book needs renewing (at local police station). I have to do that once every 6 years.

 

1st time, one year and then after that every 5 years, just done mine last week, at a cost of 820/- b... which has not changed in 21 years.

 

Win

[Michael Hare]

17 minutes ago, Kan Win said:

1st time, one year and then after that every 5 years, just done mine last week, at a cost of 820/- b... which has not changed in 21 years.

 

Win

Same here. Every five years at the local police station here in Ubon Rarchathani. Only need the red book and a few photos. 

[scorecard]

2 hours ago, onthemoon said:

While you correct yourself later in your post, let's make it clear that the PR in Thailand is NOT permanent. If it were, you wouldn't have to apply for a visa and endorsement every time (or once a year) you leave the country. This is a major flaw in the Thai PR system and highly annoying. I once almost lost my PR because I had forgotten to get these stupid stamps. Luckily that was in the morning on a weekday, and I could jump over from Suvarnabhumi to CW and back in time to catch the evening flight. Missed one business meeting in Vietnam, though. Sure, if you know for a fact that you will never travel again until the end of your life, you won't need the visa and endorsement, but that case is too rare to claim that this is the rule.

 

The other major flaw is that PR holders still need work permits. And then there is a long list of minor ones.

Quote: "...you wouldn't have to apply for a visa and endorsement every time (or once a year) you leave the country. ..."

 

It's been said before by snr. Immigration officials that this shouldn't be labellled as a Visa, it should be labelled as something like a processing number.

 

Endorsement is nothing more than repeating the stamp and exact same details entered in the PR book into the holders passport. 

 

What I find annoying about this point is the cost 1,900Baht for less than 1 minute work to copy a few numbers from the PR book to the passport. What a rip off.