Why Is It Called A Non-emmigrant Visa?

[Firefan]

Why is it called that? A negative in front ("non-") negates the emmigrant part - got that!

But "Non-tourist" visa should then also be a normal term? (as we know - it is not).

Or does it relate more to being a non-emmigrant BUSINESS(or whatever category) visa? I.e. it is really a Business Visa (but why then mention EVERY time that it is not an emmigrant visa IS there even something called an Emmigrant Visa - I thought that would be "PR" and "National"?)

Any good explanation to this? Cheers!

Edited November 1, 2006 by Firefan

[LoveDaBlues]

forget it

Edited November 1, 2006 by LoveDaBlues

[AlexLah]

Your question should be in the: WHY thread

[weary]

It's Non-Immigrant, not "emmigrant" but yeah, good question I guess.

Maybe there is an Immigrant visa too?

[VBF]

Why is it called that? A negative in front ("non-") negates the emmigrant part - got that!

But "Non-tourist" visa should then also be a normal term? (as we know - it is not).

Or does it relate more to being a non-emmigrant BUSINESS(or whatever category) visa? I.e. it is really a Business Visa (but why then mention EVERY time that it is not an emmigrant visa IS there even something called an Emmigrant Visa - I thought that would be "PR" and "National"?)

Any good explanation to this? Cheers!

Might it possibly be because you still have to renew it annually? Logic (sorry, TIT!) dictates that an IMMIGRANT visa would be granted for life as opposed to NON immigrant which is for a fixed period.

BTW, AFAIK an emigrant is one who leaves a country for a new life elsewhere, an immigrant is one who arrives in a new country to live. Pedantic but relevant!

[Firefan]

Good points sofar... But if one has received immigrant "status" (whatever that is), one would no longer NEED a visa... (thinking PR and National here). Cheers!

[PeaceBlondie]

In nationalization terminology in some countries, an immigrant is one who has declared their intent to permanently settle in the new country. Same in Mexico; I applied for a "no-inmigrante" visa.

I think; I'm not sure.

[Thaddeus]

In nationalization terminology in some countries, an immigrant is one who has declared their intent to permanently settle in the new country. Same in Mexico; I applied for a "no-inmigrante" visa.

I think; I'm not sure.

And that is why most of us are Non-Immigrants, we would like to stay here without any fuss but most are not allowed. An Immigrant visa would indicate a permanent change of location.

[samran]

Or they just copied it off the yanks....

[Maestro]

Why Is It Called A Non-emmigrant Visa?

Where there are non-immigrants, there must also be immigrants:

Because there is a quota for immigrants per country per year (50, I believe), there are also non-quota immigrants for when the quota for a year is exceeded. In fact, because it is not considered good to have too many immigrants in Thailand, people are quickly demoted to non-quota immigrants even when the quota for the particular country is not exceeded:

Now, please do not ask me the difference between the rights and duties of the various categories of immigrants and non-immigrants, because I would not know.

Incidentally, today I am no longer any of the above (but plan to be a non-immigrant soon)

But "Non-tourist" visa should then also be a normal term? (as we know - it is not).

A non-tourist wouldn’t be travelling to Thailand, would he? However, to make things not too boring, we have the visa-holding tourist and the visa-exempt tourist.

Actually, there are non-tourist visas: the various non-immigrant visas, for example, and the immigrant visa.

You may have thought that the visa-exempt stamp on arrival is a “non-tourist” visa, but it is not. Everybody gets this arrival (admitted until) stamp, regardless whether he is a visa-exempt tourist, a visa-holding tourist, an non-immigrant, a non-quota immigrant, an immigrant, or whatever. If the word “visaclass” appears on the entry stamp, it is merely a prefix to the hand-written entry the immigration officer makes, or does not make, in the blank space immediately following that word to indicate the type of visa the traveller has or to indicate that he has no visa, as the case may be.

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Maestro

[Firefan]

Maestro; so what is an immigrant visa? And why are you back to non-immigrant visas again?

I am just pointing out that the term non-immigrant might as well be called non-tourist (yes; the biz visa, spouse visa or whatever).

I do not think it is something specifically Thai as other countries use some of the same terminology, but still found it weird to use a negative "non" to describe a visa... Now that I have learned that there IS an immigrant visa it at least makes a bit more sense. How did you obtain that?

Cheers!

[Maestro]

But if one has received immigrant "status" (whatever that is), one would no longer NEED a visa... (thinking PR and National here).

Right you are! In my case, the Thai consulate in Manila issued the immigrant visa only on instruction from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who apparently pre-approved my permanent residency status. That was in 1973, when things worked differently from today. I can’t say how it was done exactly: my Thai employer handled everything.

As it turned out, upon arrival in Bangkok I got a stamp saying that I had to report to Immigration within 24 hours. I got extensions while my case was under consideration, got my PR book and police book, and from then on non-immigrant quota re-entry permits. I never got an actual non-quota immigrant visa stamped in my passport, just successive non-immigrant quota re-entry permits.

I lost my Permanent Residency and with it my non-quota immigrant status when I relocated to Europe in the 1980s and did not travel to Thailand annually before the expiration of the re-entry permit.

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Maestro