New USA Passport

[claynlr]

I am coming on an R&R to Thailand from the Middle East. I will arrive on Visa Exempt and will be getting a new passport at the U.S. Embassy.

 

On their website they say after receiving my new passport (app. 2 weeks?) to go Thai Immigration and get the entry Visa stamp transferred to new passport. 

 

Is that also true for Visa Exempt or can you show old and new passports at departure?

[perthperson]

The website is wrong,  

 

You present both passports when leaving. The IO will know what to do. 

 

 

[Monomial]

The US Embassy will give you a letter for Thai immigration when they issue you a new passport. The letter will say that they have issued you a new passport and ask immigration to move the visa and entry stamp to the new book.

 

If you are flying out the next day, you can probably do nothing, take this letter and the old and new passports to the airport and let them sort it out there.

 

However, if you are going to be staying in country for any length of time, I would recommend you go down to Chaeng Wattana and get it sorted. There are many times you need your passport where you are not dealing with immigration. Checking into a hotel for example. They won't be able to accept your old passport because it is cancelled, and they won't be able to accept your new one because it doesn't have an entry stamp. You will probably just get dumb looks from the desk clerk as they try and figure out what to do.

 

So even on a Visa exempt I would recommend you do the full procedure, unless you are planning to leave right after.

 

[perthperson]

Well done Monmial. You have just advised the OP to wast his time on something that is 99.999999%  certain to be refused by immigration.  Permission to stay stamps from visa exempt and tourist visas remain valid in a 'old' passport and are easily dealt with on departure,

 

[JackThompson]

28 minutes ago, Monomial said:

The US Embassy will give you a letter for Thai immigration when they issue you a new passport. The letter will say that they have issued you a new passport and ask immigration to move the visa and entry stamp to the new book.

 

If you are flying out the next day, you can probably do nothing, take this letter and the old and new passports to the airport and let them sort it out there.

 

However, if you are going to be staying in country for any length of time, I would recommend you go down to Chaeng Wattana and get it sorted. There are many times you need your passport where you are not dealing with immigration. Checking into a hotel for example. They won't be able to accept your old passport because it is cancelled, and they won't be able to accept your new one because it doesn't have an entry stamp. You will probably just get dumb looks from the desk clerk as they try and figure out what to do.

 

So even on a Visa exempt I would recommend you do the full procedure, unless you are planning to leave right after.

 

He's OK, as long as he is leaving by air.  There are a couple land-crossings that have sent people back to the nearest immigration office to do the transfer - but this would only affect him if making side-trips to other countries.  If he has to get an extension at immigration, they will do the transfer at that time - otherwise, I'd let the airport handle it on the way out - but do leave some extra time pre-departure, as there is considerable paperwork and computer-entry time involved for them.

[perthperson]

Just now, JackThompson said:

as there is considerable paperwork and computer-entry time involved for them.

 

Really ? 

 

Where does this "considerable" paperwork come from and what does it consist of ? 

[JackThompson]

1 hour ago, perthperson said:

Really ? 

Where does this "considerable" paperwork come from and what does it consist of ? 

I haven't done the procedure, since I am not an Immigration Officer, but watched them do it for me at an immigration office.  It took awhile, and involved a lot of paper and data-entry on a computer.  Others have also warned to allow extra time at the airport to clear immigration, because of this.

[perthperson]

6 minutes ago, JackThompson said:

I haven't done the procedure, since I am not an Immigration Officer, but watched them do it for me at an immigration office.  It took awhile, and involved a lot of paper and data-entry on a computer.  Others have also warned to allow extra time at the airport to clear immigration, because of this.

Oh dear --  Why post stuff that clearly little is known about? 

 

Last year my son left with a new passport. The complex process took no more than a couple of minutes, involved no paperwork and the demanding  "computer data-entry" involved swiping both passports -----

Edited July 21, 2017 by perthperson
typo removed

[QuantumMech]

3 hours ago, perthperson said:

Oh dear --  Why post stuff that clearly little is known about?

Why do you think you know any more about the process than JackThompson? Neither of you are Thai immigration officers and neither of you have processed an entry stamp transfer. In fact, you seem to be even further removed from the process than JackThompson—he at least watched an IO process his own passport; you watched an IO process someone else's.

[ubonjoe]

7 hours ago, JackThompson said:

I haven't done the procedure, since I am not an Immigration Officer, but watched them do it for me at an immigration office.  It took awhile, and involved a lot of paper and data-entry on a computer.  Others have also warned to allow extra time at the airport to clear immigration, because of this.

I would guess you had a tourist visa and had a 30 day extension of your entry. Having those does create a little more effort since they will do a annotation about your visa and old passport as part of the process.

All that has to be done for a visa exempt entry is to transfer the entry stamp to the new passport and stamp a person out in it.

[YetAnother]

9 hours ago, Monomial said:

They won't be able to accept your old passport because it is cancelled

you are of course correct; i would add tho that many guesthouses and such know Very Little about passports from other countries; i was denied once when they couldnt decipher the real expiration date of my 1 year extension; told me to go to immigration...

[JackThompson]

1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:

I would guess you had a tourist visa and had a 30 day extension of your entry. Having those does create a little more effort since they will do a annotation about your visa and old passport as part of the process.

All that has to be done for a visa exempt entry is to transfer the entry stamp to the new passport and stamp a person out in it.

It was a stand-alone event when I did it - no extension.  I did it when I got my new passport back, to prepare for leaving Thailand via a land-border crossing.  There had been reports of Nong Khai border IOs turning people around to get the stamp-transfer done at the local immigration office, so opted to do it in Jomtien, before I left.  I would estimate it took 10 to 15 minutes, and they completely filled an entire passport-page with stamps and hand-written entries (I just looked to double-check). 

Edited July 22, 2017 by JackThompson

[ubonjoe]

40 minutes ago, JackThompson said:

It was a stand-alone event when I did it - no extension. 

I meant you had already done the extension not doing it at the same time.

Most immigration offices will not transfer the stamps when you have a tourist visa with no extension done. They tell you to do it when you  leave the country.

 

[YetAnother]

13 hours ago, perthperson said:

The website is wrong,  

 

You present both passports when leaving. The IO will know what to do. 

 

 

likely they will; i got a letter at the chiang mai consulate along with my new passport; dont think the letter is absolutely necessary but sure cant hurt; might also want to know that that consulate has a form that you can sign for someone else to pick up your passport (if you trust them) ; in my case , we had star visa, right down the street, pickup the passport in my absence; and then another trusted friend in c mai picked it up from them;worked fine 

[JackThompson]

28 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

I meant you had already done the extension not doing it at the same time.

Most immigration offices will not transfer the stamps when you have a tourist visa with no extension done. They tell you to do it when you  leave the country.

I actually skipped doing an extension of that TR Visa, because I wanted to go to Vientiane to get one of the last 2-entry visas, just before those became "no longer available."  So, in this case, the transfer was of a "60 day TR" visa entry - not extended. 

I agree that they generally won't do the transfer without another reason, these days.  At that time, there was a form for me to fill out, then a several of forms / ledgers I did not see which they filled out.

As to others' experiences, perhaps transferring an exempt-entry to a new passport is faster, or they have streamlined the process since late-2015, when I did it.

[perthperson]

11 minutes ago, JackThompson said:

then a several of forms / ledgers I did not see

 

If you did not see these several "forms and ledgers" how do you know they existed or were filled in? 

[JackThompson]

20 minutes ago, perthperson said:

If you did not see these several "forms and ledgers" how do you know they existed or were filled in? 

I watched them shuffle the papers and fill them in.  The supervisor's desk is just behind the person who deals with you directly - some of the work was done by the supervisor.  It's all out in the open.  Do I need to include a map of where I was, and the desk-layout?  I don't think it matters to the OP, since he just needs to include some more time prior to departure.  But you can go Jomtien immigration - check out the the "100s que" desks, if you want to investigate further.

Edited July 22, 2017 by JackThompson

[WhizBang]

On 7/21/2017 at 9:12 AM, JackThompson said:

I haven't done the procedure, since I am not an Immigration Officer, but watched them do it for me at an immigration office.  It took awhile, and involved a lot of paper and data-entry on a computer.  Others have also warned to allow extra time at the airport to clear immigration, because of this.

 

I did mine in January at the airport.  Took all of 5 minutes.

[claynlr]

21 hours ago, WhizBang said:

 

I did mine in January at the airport.  Took all of 5 minutes.

Whiz- Is there a certain office at the airport you went to or does the Immigration Officer at the departure desk (where the long lines are!) do it?

[claynlr]

My plan was to have an appointment at the Embassy on the afternoon of my morning arrival. My R&R is 16 days and they are saying app. 2 weeks for processing. I believe after initial appointment I can keep my old passport with me while they process. Then on to GF's home to await e-mail from the Embassy that passport is ready. After passport pick-up I will be flying out in 1-2 days. A hotel In Bangkok will be obtained before passport pick-up. Really didn't want to go to immigration in Bangkok if could be avoided.

[ubonjoe]

4 minutes ago, claynlr said:

My plan was to have an appointment at the Embassy on the afternoon of my morning arrival. My R&R is 16 days and they are saying app. 2 weeks for processing. I believe after initial appointment I can keep my old passport with me while they process. Then on to GF's home to await e-mail from the Embassy that passport is ready. After passport pick-up I will be flying out in 1-2 days. A hotel In Bangkok will be obtained before passport pick-up. Really didn't want to go to immigration in Bangkok if could be avoided.

You do not need to go to immigration. Just show both passports to the officer at departure immigration and your entry stamp will be transferred to the new one and stamp you out the country in it.

[claynlr]

5 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

You do not need to go to immigration. Just show both passports to the officer at departure immigration and your entry stamp will be transferred to the new one and stamp you out the country in it.

Thanks Joe