My Thai/American wife and I have lived here since 1996. Over the years, both she and I have had to renew our passports......the passport renewals not in sync with our visa renewals. We extend our retirement visas in Oct.

In the past (twice with me, once with my wife), when our passport expires during the course of our visa extension, an extension is granted until the current passport expires. Once a new passport is obtained, we've gone back to immigration to have the visa transferred over to the new passport. Again, in those three cases, the visa extension is then extended out through Oct.

Except: My wife and I extended our visas in Oct 2015. Her passport was due to expire in March. Her visa extension was granted until March. So far, so good. When she obtained her new passport, the visa stamps were put into her new passport. Only today, did I find out that she has to renew her visa again in March......it will not be extended until Oct. The officials said, "That's the way it is for everyone."

I'm just curious whether anyone else has had this happen when they have to renew their passport in the course of an annual extension.

A friend told me the same thing happened to his wife.....but was offered an opportunity to get a new extension which would put his wife back in sync with his own visa extension. I don't mind doing this.......but wanted to see if anyone else has run into the same situation.

Since August of 2013 if a passport does not have a year left on it when an application for an extension is done the extension will only be done to the date the passport expires.

When the shortened extension ends a new extension must be applied by showing all the required documents for the extension.

Thanks. That follows the time lines of what happened to my friend. If it was posted on the forum, I must have missed it. Good to know for those renewing passports.

If your wife is Thai/American why is she even getting an extension. She shouldn't need one.

You can get a new US passport at any time. If your passport is going to expire during what would be the next year of your extension, get a new passport sometime before renewing the extension to avoid this issue.

I did that a year ago. My current passport would have expired about 6 months after the new extension would be granted, so I applied for a new passport from the US embassy before the extension expired, transferred the extension and relevant stamps to the new passport, and then when I applied for the next extension it was good for a full year.

we've gone back to immigration to have the visa transferred over to the new passport.

They don't transfer or extend visas. It's just your permission to stay in the country that's extended. If you have been here on annual extensions for some years, the visa would have expired long ago. They would only make a notation of the original visa and your last visa entry in the new passport.

If your wife is Thai/American why is she even getting an extension. She shouldn't need one.

Yes. The Lady is Thai and should not be getting extensions.