Unable to go and apply for retirement visa in person, because of age related problems

[kurtgruen]

I have been looking for answers to this....

I know, that if a person is hospitalized, immigration often comes to extend your visa, but what I am wondering is....

What if you get old in your home, living with your Thai wife and you are physically unable to come in and apply for a Marriage or Retirement Visa every year?  Are there alternative ways of obtaining another marriage visa or retirement visa, without coming to immigration in person? 

Can I give Power of Attourney to my wife, for example and get her to apply for me, if I am personally unable to do so? 

As this will become (or already is) and important issue, for many foreigners on retirement or marriage visa, I would really appreciate some concrete steps on how to proceed, in an above scenario. 

Thank you

 

 

[Evilbaz]

Logically (I know!) if Immi is prepared to come to your house to check if you live there, they should offer this service, for an extra fee of course.

Would it be worth inquiring about this further up the Immi pecking order?

Perhaps someone could advise to whom to address this?

[ubonjoe]

If you had a letter from a doctor and possibley other proof you could not travel immigration would allow your wife to apply for you.

[Evilbaz]

2 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

If you had a letter from a doctor and possibley other proof you could not travel immigration would allow your wife to apply for you.

 

Possibly where you live - possibly not elsewhere.

TiT.

[DGS1244]

I have a friend in Chiang Mai who can not get to the immigration office, his wife does the yearly renewal and occasionally they make a visit just to check that he is still there.

[hansnl]

2 hours ago, Evilbaz said:

 

Possibly where you live - possibly not elsewhere.

TiT.

All offices offer this service.

Doctors letter needed.

And a written request including reasons.

Do it at least 21 days in advance.

No extra costs.

[Evilbaz]

Well Phuket has a junior colonel who rejects medical statements from a Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery.

This is Thailand - all Immi offices are different.

Blanket statements are irrelevant.

[KarenBravo]

Use an agent.

I use one every year for my extension based on retirement.

They're not free.

[lungnorm]

6 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

If you had a letter from a doctor and possibley other proof you could not travel immigration would allow your wife to apply for you.

Seems like commonsense. But that is a rare commodity in Thailand.

[ubonjoe]

1 hour ago, KarenBravo said:

Use an agent.

I use one every year for my extension based on retirement.

They're not free.

That might work if you were living where agents are available.

There are many places in the country where there are no agents.

[thailand49]

Depending your location the best is send your wife down to the Immigration office and get the information first hand in Thai.  End of story here!

 

As for marriage you are already married? 

[NancyL]

The immigration offices are usually very accommodating for someone who is a long-term resident in their area and has never created any problems with overstays, police arrests, etc.  Especially if the person has a Thai wife and is respected in their village.  A doctor can write a letter that the person cannot travel to the Immigration office and the wife is given the authority to handle the extension.

 

The wife should check all this out at least 45 days before expiration of the extension, however, to get the correct documents organized.  Usually someone has a gradual decline happening over a number of years.  Like for several years, he's brought to the Imm. office in a wheelchair and then eventually it gets where he can't even manage that.  So, it should be no surprise when the wife asks for help because he can't leave the house.

 

Even here in Chiang Mai, which can be pretty tough on retirees at times, they can be compassionate with long-time retirees.

[gamini]

There are three possibilities. Firstly you can get a doctor's certificate to say that you cannot travel and this can be renewed every three months. But how long they would keep extending it for I do not know. I am in the situation at the present where I can travel to the immigration lying in the back of my car. My friend goes in and does everything for me very quickly. The immigration officer comes out and takes a photograph of me lying in my car. No problems it is all done very quickly.   If you are unable to travel in the car all you have to do is get someone to go down to the immigration and explain the situation. It would be best to have a letter from your doctor and I think you would find that immigration would agree to visit your home for a small fee. My experience of them has always been very good and I find most of them very compassionate and helpful.

[NancyL]

1 minute ago, gamini said:

There are three possibilities. Firstly you can get a doctor's certificate to say that you cannot travel and this can be renewed every three months. But how long they would keep extending it for I do not know. I am in the situation at the present where I can travel to the immigration lying in the back of my car. My friend goes in and does everything for me very quickly. The immigration officer comes out and takes a photograph of me lying in my car. No problems it is all done very quickly.   If you are unable to travel in the car all you have to do is get someone to go down to the immigration and explain the situation. It would be best to have a letter from your doctor and I think you would find that immigration would agree to visit your home for a small fee. My experience of them has always been very good and I find most of them very compassionate and helpful.

I know people who have been on medical extensions for years.  You don't have to go to Imm. in the back of a vehicle, either.  A simple photo of the applicant, looking incapacitated is sufficient.  Sometimes it's difficult to keep the nurses in the hospital from smiling for the photo.  I've told them, as I get them to pose around the patient -- look serious like he's about to die.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

53 minutes ago, NancyL said:

I know people who have been on medical extensions for years.  You don't have to go to Imm. in the back of a vehicle, either.  A simple photo of the applicant, looking incapacitated is sufficient.  Sometimes it's difficult to keep the nurses in the hospital from smiling for the photo.  I've told them, as I get them to pose around the patient -- look serious like he's about to die.

You think of EVERYTHING, Nancy!!!

[dentonian]

Had the same problem with a long term expat who is bedridden at home due to a pelvic issue.

Not married but long time girl friend.

 

Immigration flatly refused to allow his g/f to do his extensions.

Even with Doctors letters, they insisted he had to attend in person even if it meant he was collected and returned home in an ambulance, even then they would only issue a 3 month extension based on medical grounds. (246km round trip)

 

After numerous meetings, we eventually took the stance that he should go into overstay and it would become Immigrations problem to remove him from the Country as he would require special transport, and an air ambulance home which he could never afford.

Only by dumping the problem on their doorstep did we achieve any results.

They now allow me to do his annual extensions, when I do mine.

 

Where there's a will, there's a way.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

27 minutes ago, dentonian said:

Had the same problem with a long term expat who is bedridden at home due to a pelvic issue.

Not married but long time girl friend.

 

Immigration flatly refused to allow his g/f to do his extensions.

Even with Doctors letters, they insisted he had to attend in person even if it meant he was collected and returned home in an ambulance, even then they would only issue a 3 month extension based on medical grounds. (246km round trip)

 

After numerous meetings, we eventually took the stance that he should go into overstay and it would become Immigrations problem to remove him from the Country as he would require special transport, and an air ambulance home which he could never afford.

Only by dumping the problem on their doorstep did we achieve any results.

They now allow me to do his annual extensions, when I do mine.

 

Where there's a will, there's a way.

What Immigration office was involved in that situation?

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 hours ago, gamini said:

 My experience of them has always been very good and I find most of them very compassionate and helpful.

If they were compassionate and helpful, they wouldn't be requiring you to get into a car and lay down in the back seat, drive to Immigration, wait around for someone from Immigration to come out and take your photo, and then drive back home laying down in the back seat. [I'm presuming you have some disability that requires that].

 

Being compassionate and helpful would be allowing a person with a significant disability to stay at home and either a) have someone else do the reporting for them, or b] have Immigration do a home visit.

 

[NancyL]

4 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

If they were compassionate and helpful, they wouldn't be requiring you to get into a car and lay down in the back seat, drive to Immigration, wait around for someone from Immigration to come out and take your photo, and then drive back home laying down in the back seat. [I'm presuming you have some disability that requires that].

 

Being compassionate and helpful would be allowing a person with a significant disability to stay at home and either a) have someone else do the reporting for them, or b] have Immigration do a home visit.

 

Problem is that there seems to be a fairly new requirement that the applicant show up in person at the Immigration office and have his photo taken by a camera attached to an Immigration computer.  At least that's the case here in Chiang Mai.  Heck, for some applications, like ED and Business related visas or extensions, they even have the applicants clutch their documents near their face so they show up in the photo.  Haven't had us do that yet for the retirement extension photos.  We just get to look confused about what it is we're suppose to look at us when they point at an eyeball on their computer and say "look here" and then don't tell us when they're done with the photo.

 

But, now that you mention it, I did assist someone once with their husband's retirement extension when he was in hospital and they had the wife hold up the photo of the guy in bed surrounded by the nurses and they snapped her photo for their immigration computer records.  

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

8 minutes ago, NancyL said:

Problem is that there seems to be a fairly new requirement that the applicant show up in person at the Immigration office and have his photo taken by a camera attached to an Immigration computer.  At least that's the case here in Chiang Mai.  Heck, for some applications, like ED and Business related visas or extensions, they even have the applicants clutch their documents near their face so they show up in the photo.  Haven't had us do that yet for the retirement extension photos.  We just get to look confused about what it is we're suppose to look at us when they point at an eyeball on their computer and say "look here" and then don't tell us when they're done with the photo.

 

 

Nancy, as you suggest in your post above, I'm assuming the practices you're mentioning are ones occurring in CM, not necessarily everywhere else. And, of course, the OP in this thread didn't indicate he was from CM, nor is this a CM sub-forum. So presumably all sorts and areas of Immigration customers are reading here.

 

And if you take Gamini's account above as any indication, presumably they weren't running a USB cable from the Immigration computers indoors out to the parking lot where they were snapping his photo in the back of his car. So it would seem, in at least some places, there's some flexibility and discretion in how they handle the photo taking issue.  Or if you read Dentonian's post above, perhaps no new in-person photo of the applicant at all...

 

[Krataiboy]

1 hour ago, ThaiWai said:

Before you die do you think you could stop saying the incorrect term "retirement visa"?

And before you die do you think you could stop needless nit-picking?

 

[TSF]

34 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Nancy, as you suggest in your post above, I'm assuming the practices you're mentioning are ones occurring in CM, not necessarily everywhere else. And, of course, the OP in this thread didn't indicate he was from CM, nor is this a CM sub-forum. So presumably all sorts and areas of Immigration customers are reading here.

 

And if you take Gamini's account above as any indication, presumably they weren't running a USB cable from the Immigration computers indoors out to the parking lot where they were snapping his photo in the back of his car. So it would seem, in at least some places, there's some flexibility and discretion in how they handle the photo taking issue.  Or if you read Dentonian's post above, perhaps no new in-person photo of the applicant at all...

 

Seems that the fines for not doing 24 hour TM 30 & TM 28 reporting recently started in CM and is spreading like wildfire. So perhaps it's a wise thing to look at what's required up at CM.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I'm not sure the Immigration practices in CM should be considered as the model that other Thai Immigration offices do or will follow. CM, for example, is nothing like Chaengwattana in Bangkok. And that's not a compliment to CM.

[TSF]

43 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Nancy, as you suggest in your post above, I'm assuming the practices you're mentioning are ones occurring in CM, not necessarily everywhere else. And, of course, the OP in this thread didn't indicate he was from CM, nor is this a CM sub-forum. So presumably all sorts and areas of Immigration customers are reading here.

 

And if you take Gamini's account above as any indication, presumably they weren't running a USB cable from the Immigration computers indoors out to the parking lot where they were snapping his photo in the back of his car. So it would seem, in at least some places, there's some flexibility and discretion in how they handle the photo taking issue.  Or if you read Dentonian's post above, perhaps no new in-person photo of the applicant at all...

 

Take a look at op's location =  Chiang Dao (Chiang Dao is a district of Chiang Mai Province in northern Thailand)

[dentonian]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

What Immigration office was involved in that situation?

 

Amnat Chareon.

[dentonian]

What happens to the poor married sods who remain here on Non Imm O ME Visas obtained from Savannakhet without any proof of funds.

 

If incapacitated in any way and they can't make their annual or 90 day trips to the border, do they just go into overstay, hoping not to be noticed because they've never visited an Immigration office.

[kiniyow]

Seems like for a reasonable Fee they could go to your Home and do the paperwork...Many would be happy to pay

[joskeshake]

21 hours ago, KarenBravo said:

Use an agent.

I use one every year for my extension based on retirement.

They're not free.

i use every time an agent, BUT he does all the paperwork, and still ik have to go in person to Jomtien, because they must take photo for retirement visa.

[KarenBravo]

No photo needed for a retirement extension because the photo of you is on the passport copy.

For me, the whole point of using an agent is so that I don't have waste a day of my life.

I prepare all documentation myself and then hand it to the agent who checks it all.

Now, for the extension, you need a photo of yourself standing outside your residence with the address in view.

[merijn]

21 hours ago, Evilbaz said:

Well Phuket has a junior colonel who rejects medical statements from a Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery.

This is Thailand - all Immi offices are different.

Blanket statements are irrelevant.

It doesn't matter who the medical statement writes but whats is mentioned in the statements.

And the statement has to be very clear that the patient is not able to travel (in any kind of transportation).