CM: Changing EoS from retirement to marriage only after new visa?

[mausbiber]

I have a friend far into retirement age and married to a Thai woman for more than 5 years in Chiang Mai province.

He is using his pension to show he has enough funds to apply for an extension.

He is fearing that in the future the Thai Baht will raise again so he can not meet the 800k THB limit then.

Last time(this year late spring) when he applied for a new extension based on marriage the officer told him he can only go this way after he entered Thailand with a new visa (non-imm "O").

His wife was together with him at the office so chance of misunderstanding is low.

After reading in the pinned topics and a lot of posts I am sure that such a rule is not existing.

Of course we all know immigration officer are creating some times their own rules.

Beside this my friend says he is very satisfied the way this officer is dealing with him.

So what he can do without causing too much trouble?

Should he ask to talk with the supervisor?

Ask for a written guideline?

Or does anybody know a link to an official document where is written what is necessary to provide when changing the type of extension? Preferably in Thai language.

Thanks for your advice

Mods: I take CM Forum because I think it is a problem with the regional immigration office. If more suitable you can move it to the Visa forum

[noise]

You said, "the officer told him he can only go this way after he entered Thailand with a new visa (non-imm "O")."

I read that to mean he has to apply for a brand new extension of stay based on marriage, start as if he had no extension of stay. He can not just show a marriage certificate and have it automatically switched over.

If you meant something else, please explain.

[Greenside]

I just ran into something similar.

I have had a retirement extension for 7 consecutive years with no problems but this year thought that I would change to a marriage extension for reasons of cash flow. I checked to see if there would be any issues with the online appointment since it was booked ages ago and was for retirement, but after they looked at my passport I too was told that I had to go and get a new Non-Immigrant O visa outside the country. It turns out that the reason was that I originally entered the Kingdom on a tourist visa and had it changed to a Non O here in Chiang Mai so that I could get a retirement extension and it seems that this CM conversion doesn't work for a marriage application. I don't think anyone, anywhere could tell you why but that seems to be the policy.

Irritating as it is, it's cheaper to pay the British Consulate 2500 baht (or whatever it is now) for a letter to verify income than go and get a new visa so I'm just going to have to postpone the change until the next time I really need to go somewhere.

[khwaibah]

I just ran into something similar.

I have had a retirement extension for 7 consecutive years with no problems but this year thought that I would change to a marriage extension for reasons of cash flow. I checked to see if there would be any issues with the online appointment since it was booked ages ago and was for retirement, but after they looked at my passport I too was told that I had to go and get a new Non-Immigrant O visa outside the country. It turns out that the reason was that I originally entered the Kingdom on a tourist visa and had it changed to a Non O here in Chiang Mai so that I could get a retirement extension and it seems that this CM conversion doesn't work for a marriage application. I don't think anyone, anywhere could tell you why but that seems to be the policy.

Irritating as it is, it's cheaper to pay the British Consulate 2500 baht (or whatever it is now) for a letter to verify income than go and get a new visa so I'm just going to have to postpone the change until the next time I really need to go somewhere.

Conversion of a tourist visa to an O-visa for marriage can only be done inside Thailand by Bangkok. So if you have a visa exempt or a Tourist visa and wish to get a marriage extension you have two choices, go to Bangkok immigration or go out of country and get a single entry O-visa based on a marriage extension.

[mausbiber]

I just ran into something similar.

I have had a retirement extension for 7 consecutive years with no problems but this year thought that I would change to a marriage extension for reasons of cash flow. I checked to see if there would be any issues with the online appointment since it was booked ages ago and was for retirement, but after they looked at my passport I too was told that I had to go and get a new Non-Immigrant O visa outside the country. It turns out that the reason was that I originally entered the Kingdom on a tourist visa and had it changed to a Non O here in Chiang Mai so that I could get a retirement extension and it seems that this CM conversion doesn't work for a marriage application. I don't think anyone, anywhere could tell you why but that seems to be the policy.

Irritating as it is, it's cheaper to pay the British Consulate 2500 baht (or whatever it is now) for a letter to verify income than go and get a new visa so I'm just going to have to postpone the change until the next time I really need to go somewhere.

Greenside, thanks for your answer.

Yesterday I got my friend on the phone. He said he entered Thailand with no visa. He did a lot of 30-day-runs to Mae Sai, before he applied for Extension of Stay.

He is rather old, so he doesn't remember if and where he went for a visa change.

It is new to me but there may be a rule in Thailand you need a regular non-imm visa before applying for an extension of stay based on marriage.

Anyway it seems silly to me when someone is already living for many years with EoS in Thailand. Why Immigration does not accept

My friend will follow the"advice" of the immigration and use his next flight to his homeland to get a visa.

[mausbiber]

...

Conversion of a tourist visa to an O-visa for marriage can only be done inside Thailand by Bangkok. So if you have a visa exempt or a Tourist visa and wish to get a marriage extension you have two choices, go to Bangkok immigration or go out of country and get a single entry O-visa based on a marriage extension.

Kwaibah, thanks for your answer.

I know, a conversion can be done in Bangkok. But my fried said immigration in Chiang Mai told him he has to go outside the country to apply for a new visa.

Are the knowledge of the officers so limited they don't know about the services Bangkok is offering?

[khwaibah]

...

Conversion of a tourist visa to an O-visa for marriage can only be done inside Thailand by Bangkok. So if you have a visa exempt or a Tourist visa and wish to get a marriage extension you have two choices, go to Bangkok immigration or go out of country and get a single entry O-visa based on a marriage extension.

Kwaibah, thanks for your answer.

I know, a conversion can be done in Bangkok. But my fried said immigration in Chiang Mai told him he has to go outside the country to apply for a new visa.

Are the knowledge of the officers so limited they don't know about the services Bangkok is offering?

My take is CNX is saying and doings this for face saving as Pattaya,Phuket and Hua Hin have been striped of issuing of single entry O-visas for converstion to retirement. All must go to Bangkok to start this process OR go out of country.

Edited November 7, 2014 by khwaibah

[Sophon]

A couple of comments.

You say that he uses his pension to qualify for the extension, so he would need 65,000 Baht per month (780,000 Baht per year), not 800,000 Baht.

When applying for extension based on retirement, he has the option of qualifying using a mix of yearly income and bank deposit totalling 800,000 Baht. So if the exchange rate becomes more unfavourable for him, he could top up by putting some funds in the bank. Of course, if he has very few funds and/or the exchange rate changes considerably, then he might not be able to qualify with the combination method either.

Personally, unless he wants to work I don't see why he would want to change to a marriage extension now. I would continue extending based on retirement until I no longer qualified, and only change to marriage extension if/when that day came. Why does he think it's better to change now?

Sophon