Extending wife and kids' permission to stay on husband's Non Immigrant O-A Visa

[Isaanman]

I want to make sure my understanding is correct before I head down to immigration to try to get my wife and kids an extension to stay  based upon my expiring non-immigrant O-A visa:

 

My 1-year multiple entry O-A visa obtained in the USA in May 2016 expires May 2nd. Presently I have been granted permission to stay until February 2018, following a trip to Malaysia a couple of months ago in keeping with everyone's experience that the O-A visa obtained from abroad will grant you an additional year's extension to stay in the country once the actual visa has expired without having to put any money in a Thai bank account.  

 

Before a couple of weeks ago, I was under the impression that my wife and kids would be granted an extension to stay in the Kingdom until my extension to stay expires in 2018.  In the words of UbonJoe: "There is no financial requirements for a dependent extension."  [https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/767024-spouse-has-reirement-visa-but-i-am-not-old-enough/], apparently rooted in clause 2.20 of Police Order 777/2551.  [https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/529900-visa-options-for-non-thai-spouse-of-retirement-visa-holder/#comment-5017210]. 

 

However, a couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine in Songkhla went to the Immigration office in Hat Yai and was told that his wife needed to have 800k THB in her bank account to be granted an additional 1-year extension to stay on her husband's Non-Immigrant O-A visa obtained abroad from Korea. Like me, he did not have a problem being granted an extension to stay once his 1-year visa obtained abroad had expired; but, his wife had to obtain a new 3-month renewable visa with a local organization in order to remain in the country! 

 

Is this how it is supposed to work? I was planning to go down to Immigration with all the appropriate documentation and simply ask for a dependent extension to stay for my wife and kids (all have non-immigrant O multi-entry visas) based upon my O-A visa and my extension to stay on it, thinking that my wife would not be responsible to meet any financial requirements and could stay in the country until my extension to stay expired. Is this simply another case of a immigration officer waking up on the wrong side of the bed in the morning? Or, did I overlook something somewhere and will have to help my wife find some other avenue to remain here? Thanks for any help!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ubonjoe]

You managed to dig up some very old topics. The one from 2012 was before police order 327/2557 (2014) was issued that allows the dependent extension to be based upon a OA visa entry.

 

Quote

2.20 In the case of being a family
member of an alien permitted a
temporary stay in the Kingdom under
Criteria 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5, 2.6,
2.7, 2.10, 2.12, 2.13, 2.14, 2.15, 2.16,
2.17, 2.21, 2.22, 2.26, or 2.29 hereof or
Section 34(1) (2) and (7) including
family of alien granted nonimmigration
visa which contains “A”
letter at the end of visa code,
(applicable only to parents, spouse,
children, adopted children, or
spouse’s children) except for Non-
Immigrant code L-A:
(1) The alien must have been granted a non-immigrant visa (NON-IM).
(2) Must have proof of relationship.
(3) In the case of spouse, the relationship must be de jure and de facto: or
(4) In the case of children, adopted children, or spouse’s children, said children,
adopted children, or spouse’s children must not be married, must live with the alien as
part of the family, and must not be over 20 years of age except in case of the person
hereof is of illness or disability and cannot live without support of father or mother: or
(5) In the case of parents, the father or mother must be 50 years of age or over.
Translated by Siam Translation for thaivisa.com. The translation of this document is for information purposes only.
Each permission shall be granted for no
more than one year.

Their extension will be based upon your current permit to stay date from your last entry (it is not an extension) from your visa. If you were to leave and re-enter the country prior to the enter before date (May 2nd) on your visa you would get a new one year entry. You might want to consider doing another border hop for a new entry prior to applying for your family's extensions.

You should have no problem getting the extensions. You will need your certified marriage and birth certificates.

Not sure exactly what the situation was that your friend had but it seems it was a mistake made by immigration in Songkhla.

 

[Isaanman]

Yes, I had every intention of leaving and re-entering Thailand before the May 2 expiry in order to get the extra time. What I was not  sure about is what they will do at immigration, if I report with my wife and kids tomorrow as planned--whether they would stamp  permission to stay in their passports based upon my current permission to stay  (Feb 26th, 2018) or stamp something to the effect that they can stay up until my permission to stay expires (the end of April/beginning of May 2018 once I do the final exit and re-entry at the end of this month). Your reply seems to indicate that I should wait until I have done another hop across the border and back before I take them down to Immigration. 

 

All that being said, it is still confusing to me, as to when exactly I should take my family down to immigration to make this transfer. Presently, my wife has a 1-year, non-O, multi-entry visa that expires on May 2nd. Obviously, if she leaves the country and re-enters before May 2nd, she would be granted another 90-days in the country on the basis of her visa alone.  I do not want to risk her losing the additional time (from Feb, 26, 2018 until May 1st, 2018), if things go wacky at immigration like they did for my Korean friend! But, I also do not want to take them in to transfer things over too late either, as many have also said on these forums that people with O-A visas should take their dependents in to apply for dependent extensions as their O-A visas approach expiration (30-45 days prior)--which is in less than 2 weeks in my case. [Perhaps, the latter only applies for those applying for the O-A visa from within Tland for the first time???] I am thinking from what you said above that we both need to leave and come back in before May 2nd and then go to apply for their extensions; but, I would like to get your expert opinion on that first. Thanks.

[Isaanman]

For clarification . . . I definitely want my wife to get the additional 90-day permission to stay by leaving and returning before May 2nd, if things get messed up at immigration. And I would also like her to get the additional 2+ months (from Feb, 26, 2018 to May 1st, 2018) by me waiting and us both hoping out and coming back in before May 2nd. I just do not want to wait this long, if that will in some way jeopardize her being granted a family dependent extension by us waiting too long to apply for it (i.e. right up until the very day or two before my O-A visa expires!). 

 

Hopefully that will make it a bit more clear, as I edited my post to say this better, but not quickly enough before the time to edit was over. 

[ubonjoe]

If you went to immigration before getting another entry they would only do their extensions to February.

Not sure why you waited until both your visas are near expiration. Your wife could of applied for the extension during the last 30 days of any of her 90 day entries from her visa.

 

55 minutes ago, Isaanman said:

I also do not want to take them in to transfer things over too late either, as many have also said on these forums that people with O-A visas should take their dependents in to apply for dependent extensions as their O-A visas approach expiration (30-45 days prior)--which is in less than 2 weeks in my case.

The extension is applied for during the last 30 days of their permit to stays not the date your visa expires.

4 minutes ago, Isaanman said:

For clarification . . . I definitely want my wife to get the additional 90-day permission to stay by leaving and returning before May 2nd, if things get messed up at immigration. And I would also like her to get the additional 2+ months (from Feb, 26, 2018 to May 1st, 2018) by me waiting and us both hoping out and coming back in before May 2nd. I just do not want to wait this long, if that will in some way jeopardize her being granted a family dependent extension by us waiting too long to apply for it (i.e. right up until the very day or two before my O-A visa expires!). 

 

That would be the best option. Your wife could then apply for the extension during the last 30 days (45 at some offices) of that last 90 day entry.

[Isaanman]

15 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Not sure why you waited until both your visas are near expiration. Your wife could of applied for the extension during the last 30 days of any of her 90 day entries from her visa.

 

The extension is applied for during the last 30 days of their permit to stays not the date your visa expires.

I guess this is where my confusion in the matter continued down till this point. If I would have taken my wife to apply for the family dependent extension during the last 30 days of any of her 90-day entries, would immigration have only given her the extension only up until the date of my latest permission to stay at that time?

 

And, if I am understanding you correctly now, after we have made the hop in and out of Malaysia next week, we should wait until the last 45 days from this upcoming 90-day re-entry to go the the Hat Yai immigration office and apply for the extension, correct?  Although it sounds like this is something I should have done at this juncture following one of her 90-day entries in the past, I still can do this 45-days after this last upcoming exit and return, even if both of our visas will have expired when we take her (and my kids--also with expired visas) down to immigration to apply for the family dependent extension, correct? Thanks for the clarification, man.  

[ubonjoe]

13 minutes ago, Isaanman said:

I guess this is where my confusion in the matter continued down till this point. If I would have taken my wife to apply for the family dependent extension during the last 30 days of any of her 90-day entries, would immigration have only given her the extension only up until the date of my latest permission to stay at that time?

 

And, if I am understanding you correctly now, after we have made the hop in and out of Malaysia next week, we should wait until the last 45 days from this upcoming 90-day re-entry to go the the Hat Yai immigration office and apply for the extension, correct?  Although it sounds like this is something I should have done at this juncture following one of her 90-day entries in the past, I still can do this 45-days after this last upcoming exit and return, even if both of our visas will have expired when we take her (and my kids--also with expired visas) down to immigration to apply for the family dependent extension, correct? Thanks for the clarification, man.  

If she had applied for the dependent extension before it would of been valid up your permit to stay date you had then. The advantage of doing it before would of been that she did not need to leave the country every 90 days.

After your wife get her new 90 day entry she will not be able to apply for the extension until the last 30 days of it (I don't Hat Yai allows 45 days early). She will not have a problem because of  it being the last entry on her non-o visa.

Do your children have a valid entry from a non-o visa? If not they will not be able to apply for the extension.

[Isaanman]

The only reason we waited until now to have my wife and kids apply for their dependent extensions is that we all had 1-year multiple entry visas from the US.  We wanted to travel to Malaysia a number of times this last year and,  had we gone ahead and applied for and received their family dependent extensions, then we would have had to pay for each of them to get multiple-entry permissions to exit and re-enter the country. So, we were actually just trying to get the most mileage out of our multiple-entry visas this last year.

 

My kids have valid entries from their non-O visas. But, as both their passports expired end of February this year, they were only able to get their visas up until that time.  We have renewed their passports and had their visas transferred over to the new passports; but, they cannot leave the country with us for this last time next week, as they would not receive permission to re-enter the country. I am assuming from all you and others have said here that I need to take them down to immigration in about a week and apply for their family dependents extensions, even if I have to wait another 45-60 days to do the same with my wife. 

 

We plan to pay for multiple exit and re-entry permits for each of us after we apply for my wife's dependent extension in June and should be able to travel in and out of the country until just before my last permission to enter stamp expires at the end of April 2018, if I understand all this correctly. Malaysia is a great place to visit!