Apply For Non Imm O - Leave Thailand (malaysia)

[uk_falang]

Hi

If I leave TL and go to Malaysia. Is it legal for me to fedex my passport to UK company (sponsor) who will then apply for the non imm O visa for "exploring opportunities" in TL. They will send my passport to one of the consuls in the UK. When the visa is issued they will fedex the passport back to me in malaysia.

If I get the non imm 1 year (90 day X 4) visa I can then enter to Haad Yai with the british issued non immigrant visa.

Is this OK? Obviously I havent been back to the UK to get this visa in person.

Please refer to

http://www.thaiconsul-uk.com/pdfs/A%20%20V...0Oct%202006.pdf

There is no mention that I have to be in the UK when my sponsoring company applies for my O visa.

Also - what is the cost?

[mosquitoman]

If yourt current visa has enough time on it, why not just post it from Thailand? When your passport returns then leave on your current visa and re enter Thailand on the new one from from the UK

I cant recall seeing anything in the rules that says you have to be in UK, or that you cant be in Thailand, Malaysia or Timbuktoo when making a postal application.

I would imagine that the embassies and consuls actually prefer postal applications.

Good Luck

MM

Edited October 23, 2006 by mosquitoman

[Lite Beer]

Hi

If I leave TL and go to Malaysia. Is it legal for me to fedex my passport to UK company (sponsor) who will then apply for the non imm O visa for "exploring opportunities" in TL. They will send my passport to one of the consuls in the UK. When the visa is issued they will fedex the passport back to me in malaysia.

If I get the non imm 1 year (90 day X 4) visa I can then enter to Haad Yai with the british issued non immigrant visa.

Is this OK? Obviously I havent been back to the UK to get this visa in person.

Please refer to

http://www.thaiconsul-uk.com/pdfs/A%20%20V...0Oct%202006.pdf

There is no mention that I have to be in the UK when my sponsoring company applies for my O visa.

Also - what is the cost?

Not an expert but I would think the cost would be a lengthy stay in the Bangkok Hilton. Maybe some of the others have more ideas than me. Sorry

[Maestro]

If I leave TL and go to Malaysia. Is it legal for me to fedex my passport to UK company (sponsor) who will then apply for the non imm O visa for "exploring opportunities" in TL. They will send my passport to one of the consuls in the UK. When the visa is issued they will fedex the passport back to me in malaysia.

Based on other threads on this subject in this forum, what you propose is not illegal. However, whether upon your entry into Thailand the immigration officer will accept your visa as valid or reject its validity and simply gives you a visa-exempt 30-day stamp on arrival is another question.

I remember reading the posts of two persons whose visas, for which they had sent off from Thailand, were not accepted as valid.

I do not recall any report from anybody who sent off his passport for a visa from Malaysia or another country in the region. Personally, I would advise against doing it. See, for example, this text on the website of the Aranyaprathet Immigration Office:

- Visa that have not been obtained by the traveller personally are considered incomplete documents. The passport holder will not be allowed to stay in Thailand according to the visa but only according to the rights of the nationality of the passport holder.

---------------

Maestro

[uk_falang]

If I leave TL and go to Malaysia. Is it legal for me to fedex my passport to UK company (sponsor) who will then apply for the non imm O visa for "exploring opportunities" in TL. They will send my passport to one of the consuls in the UK. When the visa is issued they will fedex the passport back to me in malaysia.

Based on other threads on this subject in this forum, what you propose is not illegal. However, whether upon your entry into Thailand the immigration officer will accept your visa as valid or reject its validity and simply gives you a visa-exempt 30-day stamp on arrival is another question.

I remember reading the posts of two persons whose visas, for which they had sent off from Thailand, were not accepted as valid.

I do not recall any report from anybody who sent off his passport for a visa from Malaysia or another country in the region. Personally, I would advise against doing it. See, for example, this text on the website of the Aranyaprathet Immigration Office:

- Visa that have not been obtained by the traveller personally are considered incomplete documents. The passport holder will not be allowed to stay in Thailand according to the visa but only according to the rights of the nationality of the passport holder.

---------------

Maestro

Thank you for your feedback. But the UK consul site for application of business visa explicitly says that the sponsoring company has to apply for the visa and submit the documents. In this case I cant see how I should submit the application myself.

I would love to hear from anyone who has successfully obtiained and entered TL on a visa made from an overseas consul by sending their passport to their home country to get this visa

By the way I think the poster is right, if you did this while you were in Thailand you may very well get put in jail.

Remember the "Prince of Leichenstein" who got locked up and died in jail for making a minor adjustment to his entry stamp!

I

[Thai-Spy]

A few questions for the OP:

Are you sure you're pursuing an "O" visa and not a "B"? What opportunities are you exploring?

And since you put quotes around "exploring opportunities" (and what seems to be a smirking icon after it) are you perhaps less than sincere in your stated reasons for requesting the visa?

[uk_falang]

If this works it could be the answer to get around the new visa regulations. For example the Phenom Penh Thai embassy looks like it may not give out tourist visas to those who have many tourist stamps, and if you try there it may be best to get an agent.

Personally I am going to put my passport in the mud and then take it to my embassy and get a new one without stamps. Then I will go to malaysia and try and send my new passport to the UK, to a friend with a British company who will then send me on an extended business trip, returning my passport to malasia and i will fly into Bangkok (i think overland may be a problem) if I arrive at the international terminal it wont be obvious to the immigration guy where i just came in from, if he sees my "blank" passport with only a new business visa inside he will probably assume i just arrived from the UK. If this fails I will go to thai consul in malaysia and get a tourist visa 60 days which i can extend for 30 days in Thailand. After that I get 3 stamps (90 days) and then will probably wish to return home for a holiday where I can apply for the business O visa again (business trip)

There are a lot of hoops to jump through but for me this is better than having to keep 400,000 baht in Thai bank account or whatever.

To me, this seems like the best alternative - certainly better than having to keep hundreds of thousand bahts in bank accounts for marriage visas, business visas etc. Also I get to visit Malaysia - since I have not been there before it will be a nice little holiday.

[Maestro]

Thank you for your feedback. But the UK consul site for application of business visa explicitly says that the sponsoring company has to apply for the visa and submit the documents.

Link, please! I believe the application form must always be signed by the holder of the passport into which the visa is to be stamped. The sponsoring company, obviously, has to supply some documents to support the application.

I would love to hear from anyone who has successfully obtiained and entered TL on a visa made from an overseas consul by sending their passport to their home country to get this visa.

Perhaps the reason why we have seen no such report is that nobody has been successful with this scheme.

By the way I think the poster is right, if you did this while you were in Thailand you may very well get put in jail.

Please read that quote from the website of Aranyaprathet Immigration Office again. No jail, simply visa not recognised as valid and, if you qualify, you get a 30-day stamp on arrival. (You are punished enough by having wasted your money for sending your passport abroad for a visa) And posters who went through this experience have confirmed this.

Remember the "Prince of Leichenstein" who got locked up and died in jail for making a minor adjustment to his entry stamp!

That was an entirely different story. Please do not confuse the issue by mixing apples with oranges!

---------------

Maestro

[desmond]

My suggestion is not to post your passport so many times , even once is not good. It is just too risky.

[uk_falang]

Mestro

If i fly from malaysia to BKK, it may not be apparent to the immigration guy that I have just arrived from malaysia, or he sees my malaysia stamp and assumes i flew from the UK to KL with a stop over and then enter TL with business visa. Of course if he looks carefully he sees the passport is issued in Bangkok or Malaysia and then I may have some problems

What do you think?

Cheers

[uk_falang]

A few questions for the OP:

Are you sure you're pursuing an "O" visa and not a "B"? What opportunities are you exploring?

And since you put quotes around "exploring opportunities" (and what seems to be a smirking icon after it) are you perhaps less than sincere in your stated reasons for requesting the visa?

B Visa, sorry.

[Maestro]

If i fly from malaysia to BKK, it may not be apparent to the immigration guy that I have just arrived from malaysia, or he sees my malaysia stamp and assumes i flew from the UK to KL with a stop over and then enter TL with business visa. Of course if he looks carefully he sees the passport is issued in Bangkok or Malaysia and then I may have some problems

If after all the information you have read in this and linked topics, please go ahead and do it, then come back and report here how it went for you.

It is useless to speculate any further with “if...then...otherwise if... then...etc. ad infinitum”. Now is decision time for you.

---------------

Maestro

[mosquitoman]

My suggestion is not to post your passport so many times , even once is not good. It is just too risky.

What is risky?

MM

[seeker108]

About a year back this topic was exhaustively discussed. A quick search should turn it up.

A couple of things I remember was one of the older and "wiser" tv members was emphatic that it was illegal and could not be done which did not seem to ring true to me. Then at least one gent posted details on the fact that he had done it including copies of emails from one of the consulates telling him it was fine to do this.

About 4 months back a friend of mine did this in an even more complex fashion the details of which I don't wish to bandy about here but it was 100% no problem.

This whole thing is a bit of a gray area with different consular and immigration officials having different opinions. Here are some tips that will help you to avoid raising problems with officials who may wish to raise problems simply because they like raising problems. As you already mentioned it is better to fly into Thailand when returning with your new visa. Second, when sending your passport in to a consulate by post or courier have it sent from and back to an address within the same country that the consulate is in. In other words do not post it directly to the consulate from Malaysia or wherever unless you've already had a discussion about this with the consul and (s)he is fine with this. And a third tip is to always use an honorary consul if there is any complexity to your situation as they do not make a career out of the fine art of raising obstacles in the way that many lifetime bureaucrats do. Good luck and enjoy the process and do let us know how it goes.

[sting01]

About a year back this topic was exhaustively discussed. A quick search should turn it up.

A couple of things I remember was one of the older and "wiser" tv members was emphatic that it was illegal and could not be done which did not seem to ring true to me. Then at least one gent posted details on the fact that he had done it including copies of emails from one of the consulates telling him it was fine to do this.

About 4 months back a friend of mine did this in an even more complex fashion the details of which I don't wish to bandy about here but it was 100% no problem.

This whole thing is a bit of a gray area with different consular and immigration officials having different opinions. Here are some tips that will help you to avoid raising problems with officials who may wish to raise problems simply because they like raising problems. As you already mentioned it is better to fly into Thailand when returning with your new visa. Second, when sending your passport in to a consulate by post or courier have it sent from and back to an address within the same country that the consulate is in. In other words do not post it directly to the consulate from Malaysia or wherever unless you've already had a discussion about this with the consul and (s)he is fine with this. And a third tip is to always use an honorary consul if there is any complexity to your situation as they do not make a career out of the fine art of raising obstacles in the way that many lifetime bureaucrats do. Good luck and enjoy the process and do let us know how it goes.

My original visa (tourist 60 days) was the result of me sending my passport by post (with the forms filled) and returned to me also by post. I lived in french riviera and do not have the need to go to Paris for that. Fact also the operation was allowed because I was inside my country, not outside. Legal or illegal was not the point, the point was it was a service offered to those genuily far of any thai consulates and desiring visiting the country.

Back to APEC time (2003), that idea was raised (maybe the oldest of us have souvenirs of the crackdown at that time on the visas agencies and the fake stamps!!!). No one reported a success, in my opinion not because noone sucessed, but simply it's grey zone. You have to do that to issue fake statements about your passport (to get a new one), about your current location (must be in your own country) and then bullshit (passively or actively) the thai immigration at the border/entry point.

In thai law, the immigration officer who is examing your passport and your visa is the only one qualified to decide if you can enter in thailand or not, and on wich status. If the officer feel something is not right or correct, he will denie your right to enter (I witnessed it the very day I came for the first time in thailand, it was in dong muang, it was a couple, from UK, they were spoken thai, they were dressing formal and tried 2 times (second time with a gift in their passport)).

So be cautious, and if you success, keep a very low profile. Do not forget you can be able to enter that time with that visa, but if you find the scheme (or hear from it) you can be denied the nexttime, even with a genuily aquired visa. They are not morons, and for sure they do not like when people think they are morons.

[visarunner]

You need to be outside of Thailand in order to apply for a Thai Visa.

Once the Visa is obtained and the immigration officer has real doubt about how it was obtained he has the right to cancell said Visa and will allow you to stay under a 30day stamp , provided you have not exceed the quota.

[seeker108]

So be cautious, and if you success, keep a very low profile. Do not forget you can be able to enter that time with that visa, but if you find the scheme (or hear from it) you can be denied the nexttime, even with a genuily aquired visa. They are not morons, and for sure they do not like when people think they are morons.

Very important points. Well said.

[mosquitoman]

You need to be outside of Thailand in order to apply for a Thai Visa.

I am curious is there anything in black and white that stipulates this?

MM

[JR Texas]

About a year back this topic was exhaustively discussed. A quick search should turn it up.

A couple of things I remember was one of the older and "wiser" tv members was emphatic that it was illegal and could not be done which did not seem to ring true to me. Then at least one gent posted details on the fact that he had done it including copies of emails from one of the consulates telling him it was fine to do this.

About 4 months back a friend of mine did this in an even more complex fashion the details of which I don't wish to bandy about here but it was 100% no problem.

This whole thing is a bit of a gray area with different consular and immigration officials having different opinions. Here are some tips that will help you to avoid raising problems with officials who may wish to raise problems simply because they like raising problems. As you already mentioned it is better to fly into Thailand when returning with your new visa. Second, when sending your passport in to a consulate by post or courier have it sent from and back to an address within the same country that the consulate is in. In other words do not post it directly to the consulate from Malaysia or wherever unless you've already had a discussion about this with the consul and (s)he is fine with this. And a third tip is to always use an honorary consul if there is any complexity to your situation as they do not make a career out of the fine art of raising obstacles in the way that many lifetime bureaucrats do. Good luck and enjoy the process and do let us know how it goes.

My original visa (tourist 60 days) was the result of me sending my passport by post (with the forms filled) and returned to me also by post. I lived in french riviera and do not have the need to go to Paris for that. Fact also the operation was allowed because I was inside my country, not outside. Legal or illegal was not the point, the point was it was a service offered to those genuily far of any thai consulates and desiring visiting the country.

Back to APEC time (2003), that idea was raised (maybe the oldest of us have souvenirs of the crackdown at that time on the visas agencies and the fake stamps!!!). No one reported a success, in my opinion not because noone sucessed, but simply it's grey zone. You have to do that to issue fake statements about your passport (to get a new one), about your current location (must be in your own country) and then bullshit (passively or actively) the thai immigration at the border/entry point.

In thai law, the immigration officer who is examing your passport and your visa is the only one qualified to decide if you can enter in thailand or not, and on wich status. If the officer feel something is not right or correct, he will denie your right to enter (I witnessed it the very day I came for the first time in thailand, it was in dong muang, it was a couple, from UK, they were spoken thai, they were dressing formal and tried 2 times (second time with a gift in their passport)).

So be cautious, and if you success, keep a very low profile. Do not forget you can be able to enter that time with that visa, but if you find the scheme (or hear from it) you can be denied the nexttime, even with a genuily aquired visa. They are not morons, and for sure they do not like when people think they are morons.

JR Texas: 1) you are in Thailand, 2) you exit Thailand for Malaysia (passport indicates this...no problem), 3) while in Malaysia you post/mail your passport to a friend in the UK who sends it to the Thai Consulate in the UK for a visa (no problem), 4) the first thing the Thai immigration officer in the UK does is examine your "stamps," especially the most recent ones, and notices you do not have one indicating that you left Malaysia and/or entered the UK (problem)............ooooops.....you are TOAST! Maybe I am missing something, being from Texas, but this plan seems like a recipe for disaster.

[Krub]

About a year back this topic was exhaustively discussed. A quick search should turn it up.

A couple of things I remember was one of the older and "wiser" tv members was emphatic that it was illegal and could not be done which did not seem to ring true to me. Then at least one gent posted details on the fact that he had done it including copies of emails from one of the consulates telling him it was fine to do this.

About 4 months back a friend of mine did this in an even more complex fashion the details of which I don't wish to bandy about here but it was 100% no problem.

This whole thing is a bit of a gray area with different consular and immigration officials having different opinions. Here are some tips that will help you to avoid raising problems with officials who may wish to raise problems simply because they like raising problems. As you already mentioned it is better to fly into Thailand when returning with your new visa. Second, when sending your passport in to a consulate by post or courier have it sent from and back to an address within the same country that the consulate is in. In other words do not post it directly to the consulate from Malaysia or wherever unless you've already had a discussion about this with the consul and (s)he is fine with this. And a third tip is to always use an honorary consul if there is any complexity to your situation as they do not make a career out of the fine art of raising obstacles in the way that many lifetime bureaucrats do. Good luck and enjoy the process and do let us know how it goes.

My original visa (tourist 60 days) was the result of me sending my passport by post (with the forms filled) and returned to me also by post. I lived in french riviera and do not have the need to go to Paris for that. Fact also the operation was allowed because I was inside my country, not outside. Legal or illegal was not the point, the point was it was a service offered to those genuily far of any thai consulates and desiring visiting the country.

Back to APEC time (2003), that idea was raised (maybe the oldest of us have souvenirs of the crackdown at that time on the visas agencies and the fake stamps!!!). No one reported a success, in my opinion not because noone sucessed, but simply it's grey zone. You have to do that to issue fake statements about your passport (to get a new one), about your current location (must be in your own country) and then bullshit (passively or actively) the thai immigration at the border/entry point.

In thai law, the immigration officer who is examing your passport and your visa is the only one qualified to decide if you can enter in thailand or not, and on wich status. If the officer feel something is not right or correct, he will denie your right to enter (I witnessed it the very day I came for the first time in thailand, it was in dong muang, it was a couple, from UK, they were spoken thai, they were dressing formal and tried 2 times (second time with a gift in their passport)).

So be cautious, and if you success, keep a very low profile. Do not forget you can be able to enter that time with that visa, but if you find the scheme (or hear from it) you can be denied the nexttime, even with a genuily aquired visa. They are not morons, and for sure they do not like when people think they are morons.

JR Texas: 1) you are in Thailand, 2) you exit Thailand for Malaysia (passport indicates this...no problem), 3) while in Malaysia you post/mail your passport to a friend in the UK who sends it to the Thai Consulate in the UK for a visa (no problem), 4) the first thing the Thai immigration officer in the UK does is examine your "stamps," especially the most recent ones, and notices you do not have one indicating that you left Malaysia and/or entered the UK (problem)............ooooops.....you are TOAST! Maybe I am missing something, being from Texas, but this plan seems like a recipe for disaster.

The exit stamp from Malaysia may be a problem but the enrty stamp to UK is not as they do not stamp their own on entry

I would not like to risk being in Malaysia without a passport for over a week......

[lopburi3]

What may be illegal activity is not up for discussion on this forum and subject is closed.