Hi. It's my first post so thanks for help. I have been attending Thai Language School, and I had been on ED visa (entry to the Kingdom on 17th May), not visa extension, in total it should be 9 months of stay/course. However, I had to come to my country for funeral in family, so I bought ticket and fly away home. Yes, I know I should issued re-entry permit. I simply didn't think about this in that specific moment, and I didn't have a time to do it ( yes i know, I should think about it ). I asked my school can they issue me new documents, and they told me "no, because ministry will not allow two visas on the same level of course". Is it true? I try to find any information, but nothing there. If someone had similar story or can tell me if they are ok I would be thankful. Maybe I'm naive but for me it is not problem to send papers by DHL as I paid for course already, so why I cannot go back on the same visa.  I cannot believe there might be any problem with that. Thanks for feedback .

You had a 9 month ED Visa for a Thai language school ? Are you sure it was not a 90 day ED Visa with the ability to extend at Immigration for 9 months ?

 

When did you exit ?

Yes, you're right.  I've had 3 months ED visa (issued in Vientiane), and then I could extend it each 2 months till 9 months in total at Immigration Office. I departed on 24th July

Edited August 3, 20178 yr by Argmch

The school are likely correct in that they cannot obtain another approval for you from the Ministry to secure another Ed visa based on the same course. 

 

If you wish to continue with your studies you will likely have to start over again with a new course,

Just now, Argmch said:

Yes, you're right.  I've had 3 months ED visa (issued in Vientiane), and then I could extend it each 2 months till 9 months in total at Immigration Office. I departed on 24th June. 

Ok. It might be wise to seek another school.

9 hours ago, Here2008 said:

The school are likely correct in that they cannot obtain another approval for you from the Ministry to secure another Ed visa based on the same course. 

 

If you wish to continue with your studies you will likely have to start over again with a new course,

So I would need to pay again and It would be fine? But it seems to be a BIT unfair.  Anyway, thanks for information.

Edited August 3, 20178 yr by Argmch

EDIT:

 

I have recived e-mail from School: "if you do not properly cancel your visa the immigration officer will make you pay a fine or 20,000 THB the next time you try to do a visa extension for a non-immigrant visa"

It is possible? So if I get job in future I would need to pay 20.000 THB? I cannot acknowleage that.    

 

46 minutes ago, Argmch said:

I have recived e-mail from School: "if you do not properly cancel your visa the immigration officer will make you pay a fine or 20,000 THB the next time you try to do a visa extension for a non-immigrant visa"

It is possible? So if I get job in future I would need to pay 20.000 THB? I cannot acknowleage that.    

It is highly unlikely you would be fined for an overstay which is where the 20k baht number came and is the max fine for it.

Thanks for cheering me up. Ok... But I am in Europe now.. so I cannot be on overstay.... So my concern now: I had been on ED VISA, I would come back onTourist Visa and I would like to find job. It is possible that i would have problem in getting Non immigrant "B" ? 

1 minute ago, Argmch said:

It is possible that i would have problem in getting Non immigrant "B" ? 

 

Yes. You would need paperwork from a prospective employer/company. 

 

You can look for a job whilst on a tourist visa and apply for a B visa in a nearby country once the necessary paperwork is provided. 

2 minutes ago, Argmch said:

Thanks for cheering me up. Ok... But I am in Europe now.. so I cannot be on overstay.... So my concern now: I had been on ED VISA, I would come back onTourist Visa and I would like to find job. It is possible that i would have problem in getting Non immigrant "B" ? 

No problem to get a non-b visa and extension of stay.

OK. Thank you very much for yours help. The e-maill from school sounds very disturbing and I felt like at least criminal and I was worry if I would ever go back to Thailand. 

Chiang Mai visa agent told me something similar: that if I didn't cancel the ED extension (by signing a letter prepared by the school) I could be subject to fines in the future.  Leaving the country (without a re-entry permit) was not enough - the extension had to be formally cancelled.  Again, this was Chiang Mai.

 

If the normal term of the extension has not already expired, or even if it has, perhaps the school/agency could email you the cancellation letter and you could sign and post it back to them?

 

 

 

 

Edited August 4, 20178 yr by john_bkk919

4 hours ago, john_bkk919 said:

Chiang Mai visa agent told me something similar: that if I didn't cancel the ED extension (by signing a letter prepared by the school) I could be subject to fines in the future.  Leaving the country (without a re-entry permit) was not enough - the extension had to be formally cancelled.  Again, this was Chiang Mai.

 

If the normal term of the extension has not already expired, or even if it has, perhaps the school/agency could email you the cancellation letter and you could sign and post it back to them?

If I understand the OP correctly, he was not on an extension of stay. He was still using the original permission to stay based on the Non Ed visa. Anyway, if departing by air, I do not think formal cancellation of an extension is needed. You only need to worry if departing overland.

1 hour ago, BritTim said:

If I understand the OP correctly, he was not on an extension of stay. He was still using the original permission to stay based on the Non Ed visa. Anyway, if departing by air, I do not think formal cancellation of an extension is needed. You only need to worry if departing overland.

You're correct, OP was apparently on the initial visa, hadn't extended yet.  In that case, as far as I know, you go out without a re-entry permit and the visa is cancelled and that's it.  Nothing further in terms of immigration needs to be done.  Though if you think you might ever want to go the ED visa route again (not sure why you would) probably best to sign out from the school so the MOE is happy.

 

"Anyway, if departing by air, I do not think formal cancellation of extension is needed.  You only need to worry if departing overland."  Yes, I used to think that too.  First, there's two different problems.  One is that Nong Khai border is/was making ED holders show a letter from the school that they had signed out from the school.  This was only a problem if you crossed by land at that checkpoint.  

 

What I'm talking about is a second problem.  CM immigration (about 1.5 years ago) was fining or trying to fine people who had gone out on their last extension w/o re-entry (and without notifying anyone) and then came back at some later point with a new visa that they were trying to use to get another extension.  CM immi was attempting to charge these people 'overstay' for not having properly cancelled their prior extension.  As far as I know there was 'just' a fine and nothing about blacklisting or deportation.

 

When I pointed out to my visa agent that charging people for 'overstay' after they had stamped out was ridiculous/impossible/not the law he agreed but gave me some recent examples of customers who had this problem.

 

I believe this was a 'Chiang Mai only' problem.  I have cancelled extensions of various types before and after by just flying out on them.  But I have never returned to CM immigration nor do I intend to.

 

To reiterate, I agree with you and ubonjoe that the OP is fine and was on a visa not an extension.