Been living in Thailand for 5 years using an APEC card and now want to get a Marriage visa as have been married to a Thai for 5 years.

Travelled from Phuket to Bangkok to get a Stat Dec which i need to apply for a marriage visa but was told at the Phuket Immigration office ( Which is always unprofessional ) that i need to apply for the visa outside Thailand.

Is this true?

Moved to the visa forum.

I changed my non-B to O visa in Bangkok, then got a year extension.

You need a non immigrant visa entry to apply for an extension of stay (it is not a visa). A APEC card is not considered a non immigrant visa.

You need to get a single entry non-o visa based upon marriage. From Phuket the best location to get it is at the consulate in Penang.

You will need your marriage certificate plus a copy and a copy of your wife's house book and ID card.

I changed my non-B to O visa in Bangkok, then got a year extension.

You did not change visas. That is not possible.

You probably applied for an extension of stay based upon marriage or retirement using a non-b visa entry or changed the reason for your extension of stay.

"Travelled from Phuket to Bangkok to get a Stat Dec which i need to apply for a marriage visa but was told at the Phuket Immigration office ( Which is always unprofessional ) that i need to apply for the visa outside Thailand."

"Is this true?"

You didn't know the rules, and were informed of them by the Immigration Officer.

Then, not liking what you were told, you bad mouth the Immigration Office on a public forum.

Nice one for a first post.

I changed my non-B to O visa in Bangkok, then got a year extension.

You did not change visas. That is not possible.

You probably applied for an extension of stay based upon marriage or retirement using a non-b visa entry or changed the reason for your extension of stay.

I will look tomorrow

"Travelled from Phuket to Bangkok to get a Stat Dec which i need to apply for a marriage visa but was told at the Phuket Immigration office ( Which is always unprofessional ) that i need to apply for the visa outside Thailand."

"Is this true?"

You didn't know the rules, and were informed of them by the Immigration Officer.

Then, not liking what you were told, you bad mouth the Immigration Office on a public forum.

Nice one for a first post.

Actually who didn't know the rules and acted unprofessionally was the immigration officer, who failed to mention that conversion to non-imm 'O' can be done in Thailand. Specifically it can be done in Hat Yai and required two visits.

Actually you cannot convert an APEC entry into a Non-O at any immigration in Thailand. Read post #4!

"Travelled from Phuket to Bangkok to get a Stat Dec which i need to apply for a marriage visa but was told at the Phuket Immigration office ( Which is always unprofessional ) that i need to apply for the visa outside Thailand."

"Is this true?"

You didn't know the rules, and were informed of them by the Immigration Officer.

Then, not liking what you were told, you bad mouth the Immigration Office on a public forum.

Nice one for a first post.

Actually who didn't know the rules and acted unprofessionally was the immigration officer, who failed to mention that conversion to non-imm 'O' can be done in Thailand. Specifically it can be done in Hat Yai and required two visits.

Only a tourist visa or visa exempt entry can be converted to a non immigrant visa. An entry from an APEC card is neither of those.

The OP could make a border crossing and re-enter not using his card to get a visa exempt entry and then do the conversion in Bangkok only since it would based upon marriage.

The best option for him is to go to Penang for a single entry non-o visa.

Only a tourist visa or visa exempt entry can be converted to a non immigrant visa. An entry from an APEC card is neither of those.

You may know better and from experience, but from what I understand what we call conversion is simply the issue in country of a non-immigrant visa (to someone that doesn't have one) when conditions exists for granting an extension of stay. And the OP has both.

We have never seed the written guidelines, but we know it is not done for all extension cases. It can surely be, as you say, that APEC stays are excluded because not listed explicitly before APEC was introduced.

2.18 In the case of being a family member of a Thai national (applicable only to parents, spouse, children, adopted children, or spouse’s children):

Each permission shall be granted for no more than one year.

(1) The alien must have been granted a non-immigrant visa (NON-IM).

(2) The alien must have proof of relationship.
(3) In the case of spouse, the relationship must be de jure and de facto:

(6) In the case of marriage to a Thai woman, the alien husband must earn an average annual income of no less than Baht 40,000 per month or must have no less than Baht 400,000 in a bank account in Thailand for the past two months to cover expenses for one year.

Only a tourist visa or visa exempt entry can be converted to a non immigrant visa. An entry from an APEC card is neither of those.

You may know better and from experience, but from what I understand what we call conversion is simply the issue in country of a non-immigrant visa (to someone that doesn't have one) when conditions exists for granting an extension of stay. And the OP has both.

We have never seed the written guidelines, but we know it is not done for all extension cases. It can surely be, as you say, that APEC stays are excluded because not listed explicitly before APEC was introduced.

This announcement for doing a conversion/change clearly states visa exempt and tourist visa entries. It is for doing one based upon several types of extensions. It does not mention marriage or retirement extensions but the same rule would apply.

27102014ann_imm.pdf

The APEC card is in class of it's own. It is not visa and gives a special entry of is own.

Only a tourist visa or visa exempt entry can be converted to a non immigrant visa. An entry from an APEC card is neither of those.

You may know better and from experience, but from what I understand what we call conversion is simply the issue in country of a non-immigrant visa (to someone that doesn't have one) when conditions exists for granting an extension of stay. And the OP has both.

We have never seed the written guidelines, but we know it is not done for all extension cases. It can surely be, as you say, that APEC stays are excluded because not listed explicitly before APEC was introduced.

This announcement for doing a conversion/change clearly states visa exempt and tourist visa entries. It is for doing one based upon several types of extensions. It does not mention marriage or retirement extensions but the same rule would apply.

27102014ann_imm.pdf

The APEC card is in class of it's own. It is not visa and gives a special entry of is own.

shout a bit LOUDER joe.

Joe is like a guru about Visa in Thailand. Never read something wrong from him per years. Follow him you never fail. I'm serious.

What's the cost of the "extension of stay on marriage grounds"?

What's the cost of the "extension of stay on marriage grounds"?

It is the same1900 baht fee as for all other extensions of stay.

Thanks Joe, one other thing, is it multiple entry?

Thanks Joe, one other thing, is it multiple entry?

After you have the extension you need to apply for a re-entry permit if you want to travel. A single re-entry permit is 1000 baht and a multiple 3800 baht.

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"Travelled from Phuket to Bangkok to get a Stat Dec which i need to apply for a marriage visa but was told at the Phuket Immigration office ( Which is always unprofessional ) that i need to apply for the visa outside Thailand."
"Is this true?"

You didn't know the rules, and were informed of them by the Immigration Officer.
Then, not liking what you were told, you bad mouth the Immigration Office on a public forum.
Nice one for a first post.

"Travelled from Phuket to Bangkok to get a Stat Dec which i need to apply for a marriage visa but was told at the Phuket Immigration office ( Which is always unprofessional ) that i need to apply for the visa outside Thailand."
"Is this true?"

You didn't know the rules, and were informed of them by the Immigration Officer.
Then, not liking what you were told, you bad mouth the Immigration Office on a public forum.
Nice one for a first post.

Actually who didn't know the rules and acted unprofessionally was the immigration officer, who failed to mention that conversion to non-imm 'O' can be done in Thailand. Specifically it can be done in Hat Yai and required two visits.

So that's two people who don't know the rules but, if they don't like what they hear, point their fingers at Immigrations and posters on TV who do know the rules ... all of which adds to what makes some of these free-for-all threads unnecessarily confusing.

From what immigrations and Ubonjoe have said(and other posters have reiterated) , the O/P needs a non-imm O entry to apply for a extension of stay (not a visa) based on marriage. A conversion to a non-imm O (which I thought was now limited to immigrations in Bangkok) depends on your current status and is not available to the O/P which means he needs to go to an embassy/consulate to get a non-Imm O.

And the conversion to a non-imm O entry isn't, strictly speaking, handing out a visa, it's changing the entry to make it appear that the passport holder entered Thailand using a non-imm O.

Edited December 12, 201411 yr by Suradit69

I changed my non-B to O visa in Bangkok, then got a year extension.

You did not change visas. That is not possible.

You probably applied for an extension of stay based upon marriage or retirement using a non-b visa entry or changed the reason for your extension of stay.

I will look tomorrow

Doesn't say hat sort of visa extension in my passport. Just says non-immigrant

I changed from Tourist visa to Non Imm O based on marriage using the Change of Visa form at Chaeng Wattana (minimum 15 days before current visa expires & was given an extension while application was processed). I then got 1 Year Extension when the Visa expired.