Retirement visa renewal with expiring passport

[LALes]

I have 9 months left before my passport expires but I need to renew my retirement visa in 2 weeks.  

What is the amount of time needed on the passport?  I'm guessing one year if I am to get a one year visa.

It would be nice if it was only 6 months.  Anyone know the Thai law on this?

[Jingthing]

Your new extension will last exactly as long as your current passport. So assuming you don't have time to get a new passport, go ahead and apply for your annual extension. You will get 9 months instead.

[elviajero]

You can apply with 9 months remaining. The new permission to stay won't necessarily be for the full remainder of you passports validity, but should be close. That decision will be down to the IO processing the application.

[wpcoe]

On 12/4/2016 at 10:12 PM, Jingthing said:

Your new extension will last exactly as long as your current passport. So assuming you don't have time to get a new passport, go ahead and apply for your annual extension. You will get 9 months instead.

 

@LALes:  In years gone by, you would get the remaining three months after you got a new passport and went to Immigrations.  Not any more.  Currently, at the end of nine months you need to go through the entire application process for a new retirement extension.

[LALes]

Went to Jomtien Immigration and got the lowdown.  They would give me 9 months now but I would need to renew again after that period.  I applied for a new passport last week and will pick it up in about 2 weeks.  It will be nip and tuck between the passport ready date and the visa expiration date.  The lady at Immigration said I would be fined 500 baht/day for every day I was late getting my application in.

I figure its better to get the one year visa in the new passport and maybe pay a fine for a day or two than have to hassle with it now and again in 9 months.  New passport is $110 and has 52 pages they told me.

[Jingthing]

That's interesting. I didn't even know you were allowed to apply for a retirement extension after your previous permission to stay had ended. Personally, that would make me super nervous to go on overstay even if someone at immigration said it was OK. You never know what's OK or not OK until you actually try something there.

Anyway, good luck with all that. 

[ubonjoe]

10 minutes ago, LALes said:

Went to Jomtien Immigration and got the lowdown.  They would give me 9 months now but I would need to renew again after that period.  I applied for a new passport last week and will pick it up in about 2 weeks.  It will be nip and tuck between the passport ready date and the visa expiration date.  The lady at Immigration said I would be fined 500 baht/day for every day I was late getting my application in.

I figure its better to get the one year visa in the new passport and maybe pay a fine for a day or two than have to hassle with it now and again in 9 months.  New passport is $110 and has 52 pages they told me.

You will likely get your passport in about t0 days  or even a day or 2 sooner. Some people have gotten them in a week.

[ubonjoe]

3 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

That's interesting. I didn't even know you were allowed to apply for a retirement extension after your previous permission to stay had ended. Personally, that would make me super nervous to go on overstay even if someone at immigration said it was OK. You never know what's OK or not OK until you actually try something there.

Anyway, good luck with all that. 

It is not unusual for immigration to do an extension after a few days of overstay. They do understand things do happen. 

[Jingthing]

Just now, ubonjoe said:

It is not unusual for immigration to do an extension after a few days of overstay. They do understand things do happen. 

Well, that's good to know, but it's my impression that would probably be at the discretion of the officer, so if for any reason whatsoever, if they WANTED to, they could reject the application based on overstay without needing any other reason. Isn't that correct?

[LALes]

I have heard that there was a grace period before.  Not sure how long but doesn't matter now.  No grace period.  Hopefully, I get the passport this week and won't have to worry about it.

[ubonjoe]

4 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Well, that's good to know, but it's my impression that would probably be at the discretion of the officer, so if for any reason whatsoever, if they WANTED to, they could reject the application based on overstay without needing any other reason. Isn't that correct?

The are normally more reasonable than you think. Sure they could say no but it is not likely to happen.

[Jingthing]

The are normally more reasonable than you think. Sure they could say no but it is not likely to happen.

Sure. Thanks. I don't necessarily think they would be unreasonable but still I think being on overstay puts you in a vulnerable situation.

[LALes]

I don't think a day or two is going to be a dealbreaker here.  I've had retirement visas for 9 years and I'm sure they will look at all the evidence before making a decision.  If they do, I shouldn't have anything to worry about.

[phuketjock]

34 minutes ago, LALes said:

I don't think a day or two is going to be a dealbreaker here.  I've had retirement visas for 9 years and I'm sure they will look at all the evidence before making a decision.  If they do, I shouldn't have anything to worry about.

 

There is no such thing as a retirement VISA it is an extension of permission to stay on the grounds of retirement, so

I suspect you have had 9 extensions.............not VISAS.

[salavan]

sorry to hi jack this post a bit but if you have to apply again after 9 month all over again will you then get a year from the date you apply or only another 3 months

and then have to apply  yet again if you get a year then it will change the time of the year that you apply from then on

[Jingthing]

50 minutes ago, salavan said:

sorry to hi jack this post a bit but if you have to apply again after 9 month all over again will you then get a year from the date you apply or only another 3 months

and then have to apply  yet again if you get a year then it will change the time of the year that you apply from then on

In the scenario you describe with the new passport and the previous extension cut short because of an expired old passport, the next annual extension on the new passport would be for one full year. So yes, that would be a way of resetting the annual extension date.

[LALes]

Correct.  I thought about doing this.  For one thing, it would get me out of having to renew around Christmas every year, which is always a circus in Jomtien  Immigration.  However, I just want this thing over, so I will renew as soon as I get the new passport.

[elviajero]

1 hour ago, salavan said:

sorry to hi jack this post a bit but if you have to apply again after 9 month all over again will you then get a year from the date you apply or only another 3 months

and then have to apply  yet again if you get a year then it will change the time of the year that you apply from then on

It's not from the date you apply. You would get a full 1 year, with day 1 being the day after the 9 month extension expires, regardless of when you apply.

[LALes]

Got a message from the Embassy that my new passport is ready.  10 days.  I won't have to worry about any expiration or fines, now.

Off to Jomtien Immigration on Monday for the renewal.