Advice for best plan for marriage visa

[athousand]

Fantastic explanation - should be a sticky! First time I understand the terminology!

[JackThompson]

23 hours ago, athousand said:

He also said I needed to go to Chaeng Wattana to register my new Bangkok address as soon as I go to BKK. 

Although CW doesn't enforce the TM-30 rule, perhaps this is a good idea in this context, so there will no issue using the CW office for the next steps.

Jomtien does enforce the TM-30 - do this before your next activity with them - it's the little office down the hall to the left of reception - towards the copy machine.

 

21 hours ago, athousand said:

I also forgot to mention that my wife told me the immigration officer said that we could convert the tourist visa to non-O at the Jomtien office no problem. 

They have been reported to ask for a hefty 'extra' fee for this - in one report this year, the fellow got his initial Non-O in Laos due to this problem. 

https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/968065-how-to-get-a-change-of-visa-if-pattaya-immigration-dont-give-you-one/

But perhaps that is yet another case of that office trying something of that nature, then stopping a month or so later, as has happened before. 

Please come back and update this thread with your experience on the conversion to the Non-O at Jomtien.

[athousand]

I won't be converting at Jomtien luckily - as I'll be in Bangkok by then - so won't be able to update on that one. I will be extending the tourist visa based on visiting my wife so will report back about that in a couple of weeks. 

 

As for converting to Non-O in Bangkok, I'm filling out the form for the Income Letter from the British Embassy. I need to write a Thai address. Would it matter if this is the Pattaya address? In other words, does the address on the income letter need to be within the district where I will be applying to convert from Tourist to Non-O? 

[athousand]

My plans have changed in that I have found out I have to go back to the UK by September 30th at the latest. So ideally I could avoid Chaeng Wattana entirely and get the Non-O conversion in Jomtien (assuming there's no 'extra' fee for it, as I wouldn't be up for that) and that would take me to September 30th. If I need to return I'd get a single Non-0 from the very helpful and friendly Cardiff consulate. 

 

My dilemma is : the British Embassy takes (up to) 10 working days to send the letter. If I want to convert to Non-O at Jomtien I have to do so before June 15th. If the address written on the income letter has to match the district where I'm applying for the conversion, I'd be taking a £50 punt on the letter getting here in time. If the address can be anywhere in Thailand it's a no-brainer, but if it has to be within the district, and the letter arrives a couple of days late, I won't be able to apply in Jomtien and I won't be able to use the letter in Bangkok :)

 

If I do get the non-O at Jomtien I'll report back. 

Edited June 3, 2017 by athousand

[athousand]

Having just read the thread linked by JackThompson I think I'll revert to plan A. Thanks for the heads up.  Converting to Non-O at Jomtien seems to be much more difficult than Chaeng Wattana. I'd be doing it on income rather than savings, and wouldn't have the time to get the letter verified by the MFA so those two make it a non-starter anyway. 

 

If I'm doing it at Chaeng Wattana I don't need the income letter verified by the MFA ? 

 

 

Edited June 3, 2017 by athousand

[Tanoshi]

Personally, I think your putting yourself through a lot of work.

 

Especially now you post you must return to the UK before the end of September, the solution to your problem would be to get a Non Imm O ME Visa from Savannakhet in my opinion.

That would allow multiple entries for 1 year.

Come and go as you please.

 

No need to mess about at CW or the Thai Embassy in Cardiff.

No Income letter required.

[jeab1980]

6 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

Personally, I think your putting yourself through a lot of work.

 

Especially now you post you must return to the UK before the end of September, the solution to your problem would be to get a Non Imm O ME Visa from Savannakhet in my opinion.

That would allow multiple entries for 1 year.

Come and go as you please.

 

No need to mess about at CW or the Thai Embassy in Cardiff.

No Income letter required.

Agreed that would give you ample time to sort things out at your leisure.

[Tanoshi]

On ‎02‎/‎06‎/‎2017 at 5:40 PM, athousand said:

Tanoshi - a new process was introduced on April 21st. Before that applications were considered in Bangkok, now they are considered in the UK in Sheffield along with pretty much all other applications worldwide. This system has been phased in over the past few months globally. The effect seems to be that applications are taking much much longer than before and that they are massively understaffed and underprepared in Sheffield. The data published is for February this year - before the new system was in place. 

 

As far as I can tell that figure now can be totally disregarded. There are many reports of people applying with priority taking six weeks now. 

Thank you. I've just read the new procedure.

 

However it states 60 days for process.

As you can get a 60 day extension based on marriage to a Thai, I'd hold fire on any further plans at the moment.

If I read correctly that you have a 30 day extension to the end of June, a 60 day extension would take you to the end of August.

Fingers crossed you may have a reply by then.

[athousand]

It's nothing compared to trying to get the UK spouse settlement visa! :)

 

I'm doing my best to travel as little as possible as I've been going in and out every three months for over three years now! I'm hoping to stay in Thailand until the UK visa is issued. 

 

My thinking is that if I get the 60 days at Jomtien I'll just have to go to Chaeng Wattana a couple of times - easier than going in and out of the country, and that will take me up to Sept 30th when I have to go back to the UK for a week or so. With any luck, my wife will have her uk visa by then, if not,  the trip to Cardiff is hassle free and will give me another 90 days if I need to return. 

[athousand]

Thanks Tanoshi (our posts overlapped) - that's what I'm hoping :)

 

I'm trying to account for a longer wait in my planning though, as the 60 days stated is very optimistic from what I can tell reading other forums. 

Edited June 3, 2017 by athousand

[athousand]

An update in case anyone is in a similar situation: 

 

We moved to Bangkok earlier than expected so extended the tourist visa in Chaeng Wattana. 

 

Hiccup number 1: In Jomtien, they accept the form being filled out by the condo occupant (ie myself) - in Bangkok they only accepted the TM30 in the name of the condo owner. but - to make things easier - they allowed my wife to fill it out in the name of the condo owner, and also to sign in her name! ??? - fine with me but ???

 

After they accepted the change of address, the tourist visa extension was accepted. 

 

We were then told we could go and convert the extended tourist visa to Non-0 (we couldn't do before as there were only 10 days left).

 

We had all the documents apart from : photos of ourselves in front of our new condo showing the condo name and the room number, my wife's housebook original (even though we had a copy of the relevant pages)  and - a copy of our affirmation to marry! We didnt' have this as the agent who sorted our marriage registration didn't give us a copy and the amphur had the original. So - we jumped in a cab and went to the amphur and they gave us a copy. 

 

One of the documents that seems to be tricky is the embassy's letter of income (if you're using that) - as far as Chaeng Wattana goes - they don't seem to need a legalized translation - the original (in English) was fine. They didn't ask to see any proof like bank statements etc. 

 

The next day - back to Chaeng Wattana - and we had all the docs - my wife's housebook, the photos, the affirmation(legalized, translated etc) copy, the marriage docs, .. 

 

We spent twenty minutes with a helpful immigration officer, dotting the i's and crossing the t's and paid the 2,000 baht. In a couple of weeks I'll go back and pick up the non-o. 

 

I asked twenty questions re the year extension. As far as I understand - the only extra thing required at Chaeng Wattana for the year extension is the 'hand drawn map' - apart from that, as long as the income letter (if you're using that) is within six months, you just provide the same documents. 

 

The kor ror 2 marriage registration, which in some districts has to be upto date within 3 months, is not required to be updated (ie the original is ok - for us at least as ours was only a month old), and they don't need a witness, as some offices do. 

 

The advice of elviajero and ubonjoe as always has proven to be spot on, so thanks as always to them, and anyone else helping us navigating the various hoops to jump through. 

 

 

Edited June 27, 2017 by athousand

[JackThompson]

5 hours ago, athousand said:

One of the documents that seems to be tricky is the embassy's letter of income (if you're using that) - as far as Chaeng Wattana goes - they don't seem to need a legalized translation - the original (in English) was fine. They didn't ask to see any proof like bank statements etc. 

I believe English is always accepted for that particular document - though other languages may need to be translated.  Proof of income beyond that document is optional / up to the IO and office-policy.