30 days visa extension or 60 days covid extension. Need an advice.

[Faz]

Never heard of two dates being applied to a stamp.
A typical Tom and Jerry act.

Seriously what was the panic, you had permission of stay until Feb 28th.
If you knew anything about Thai Immigration you'd know they tend to make announcements at the 11th hour or even later, effectively backdating it.

[MikeV]

I wonder if the agency or their contact in immigration had a stamp and tried to sneak it by and a final officer in the process caught it was like wtf is this? No

[Mass]

Mike i think that is one explanation. The other, more favourable is that they put the early stamp on but were persuaded by the agent to change it. 

Faz, you are probably right and a further announcement is forthcoming but the unpredictabilty and illogicality of these departments means that it is far from certain. If Covid extensions do end i have to return home by 28th February. no other avenues available to me. 

[Faz]

1 minute ago, Mass said:

If Covid extensions do end i have to return home by 28th February. no other avenues available to me. 

If Covid extensions end and land borders remain closed, then a lot of married men will be forced to either leave the Country (to where?) or go into overstay.......they are fully aware of that.

[Seba34e]

On 1/22/2022 at 12:34 PM, Mass said:

Hi Everyone,

I decided not to gamble and wait to see if the 25th January deadline will be extended, so i used an agency in Chiang Mai, figuring that if i did it myself and messed up there would not be sufficient time to rectify the situation. 

My experience was as follows. I rang the agency at 1300 yesterday. They said they could get me an extension for 60 days on top of my present 30 day tourist extension. They also said that there would not be any 14 day under consideration period if they made the application on my behalf. on the basis of this information i agreed to instruct them and was told to rush to their office before 1330. once there the necessary forms were completed and  i was told to meet the agent at the immigration office at 1430 for a 1500 appointment. while waiting at the office i received a call from the agents office saying that i would not actually be granted 60 days on top of my tourist extension (28th February) and that the 60 days would expire 60 days from today ie the 21st March. i made it clear that i was unhappy as this was not what they had promised, however i agreed to proceed on that basis. in fact when i was 'interviewed'  at 1500 the passport was shown to me with the 21st March and also the 29th April- the date i was effectively promised at the outset. i said i was very happy and left at 1510. i  presumed that the agent had managed to persuade the immigration officer to change the date. 

however having looked at the stamp in more detail its not clear whether the date which applies is indeed the 29th April, as this date appears to be crossed out and the initials of the immigration officer added. i am trying to seek clarification of this from the agent. 

My 30-day tourist visa extension was due to expire on January 4. I went on December 20 and they gave me the extension of the covid permit until March 5, based on the expiration date of the my visa and not the day I requested the extension of the covid permit. This was in Phuket Town.

[Zmicier]

In Phuket there is a HUGE queue for covid extensions and the worker told me thwt he has NEVER seen such crowds here before. However, it goes quite quickly. Also they require address confirmation for covid extensions (even if your stay is still less than 90 days).

[Seba34e]

2 hours ago, Zmicier said:

In Phuket there is a HUGE queue for covid extensions and the worker told me thwt he has NEVER seen such crowds here before. However, it goes quite quickly. Also they require address confirmation for covid extensions (even if your stay is still less than 90 days).

I just submitted my application to extend the covid permit for 60 more days at the phuket town office. I have to come back tomorrow at 8:30am to pick up my passport. We'll see what happens. Immigration officials said they have no information if they are going to extend this permit for another 2 months. Tomorrow when I come back for my passport I will ask again and I will keep you informed.

[Zmicier]

1 hour ago, Seba34e said:

I just submitted my application to extend the covid permit for 60 more days at the phuket town office. I have to come back tomorrow at 8:30am to pick up my passport. We'll see what happens. Immigration officials said they have no information if they are going to extend this permit for another 2 months. Tomorrow when I come back for my passport I will ask again and I will keep you informed.

Thank you. Do they collect TM6 during covid extension application? I've just noticed that they did not return it (I presented it along with other documents during the application)? Is it indended or a mistake? They just returned me a spare photo and a number but not TM6.

Edited January 24 by Zmicier

[Seba34e]

28 minutes ago, Zmicier said:

Thank you. Do they collect TM6 during covid extension application? I've just noticed that they did not return it (I presented it along with other documents during the application)? Is it indended or a mistake? They just returned me a spare photo and a number but not TM6.

Yes. Correct. They stay with the TM6. They will return it to you stapled in the passport.

[Faz]

51 minutes ago, Seba34e said:

Yes. Correct. They stay with the TM6. They will return it to you stapled in the passport.

Mmmm! You should be giving them copies.

[Seba34e]

On 1/22/2022 at 12:34 PM, Mass said:

Hi Everyone,

I decided not to gamble and wait to see if the 25th January deadline will be extended, so i used an agency in Chiang Mai, figuring that if i did it myself and messed up there would not be sufficient time to rectify the situation. 

My experience was as follows. I rang the agency at 1300 yesterday. They said they could get me an extension for 60 days on top of my present 30 day tourist extension. They also said that there would not be any 14 day under consideration period if they made the application on my behalf. on the basis of this information i agreed to instruct them and was told to rush to their office before 1330. once there the necessary forms were completed and  i was told to meet the agent at the immigration office at 1430 for a 1500 appointment. while waiting at the office i received a call from the agents office saying that i would not actually be granted 60 days on top of my tourist extension (28th February) and that the 60 days would expire 60 days from today ie the 21st March. i made it clear that i was unhappy as this was not what they had promised, however i agreed to proceed on that basis. in fact when i was 'interviewed'  at 1500 the passport was shown to me with the 21st March and also the 29th April- the date i was effectively promised at the outset. i said i was very happy and left at 1510. i  presumed that the agent had managed to persuade the immigration officer to change the date. 

however having looked at the stamp in more detail its not clear whether the date which applies is indeed the 29th April, as this date appears to be crossed out and the initials of the immigration officer added. i am trying to seek clarification of this from the agent. 

Hi Mass... how are you?? Did you speak with your agent to determine the final date???

I have to return tomorrow for my passport and I hope they give me the latest date.

[Seba34e]

1 hour ago, Faz said:

Mmmm! You should be giving them copies.

Yes. they kept the copies and the original TM6 they stapled to the passport.

[Vince]

14 hours ago, Faz said:

Mmmm! You should be giving them copies.

Is this general advice - should we try to hold onto originals? 

[Faz]

25 minutes ago, Vince said:

Is this general advice - should we try to hold onto originals? 

Generally supply the originals and copies for Immigration to keep.
In this case Immigration are keeping the originals until the following day.

That isn't the standard practice at most offices.

[Seba34e]

 

Hello everybody. I just picked up my passport with the permit extension until May 5 (covid visa). They also returned my original TM 6 and everything was perfect. I have to say that the immigration office in Phuket Town has outstanding attention and service. I've been there 3 or 4 times already and they always solved my problems quickly and excellently.

On the other hand, they reported that the covid visa was extended until March 26...

 

[Zmicier]

2 hours ago, Seba34e said:

I just picked up my passport with the permit extension until May 5 (covid visa).

I've just picked my passport too and got +60 days.

[Faz]

4 hours ago, Seba34e said:

Hello everybody. I just picked up my passport with the permit extension until May 5 (covid visa).

Jan 25th - May 5th ???   (100 days)

[Freeduhdumb]

28 minutes ago, Faz said:

Jan 25th - May 5th ???   (100 days)

He reported that he got a 60 day that ended on March 5th. Then he reports he got another 60 day that ends May 5th? I bit confusing for sure... why did he go in again on January 23rd? And why was he granted another 60 days, when his current extension wasn't due to expire until March 5th?
 

 

[Zmicier]

1 hour ago, Faz said:

Jan 25th - May 5th ???   (100 days)

In my case my previous extension was about to expire at 8-th of February and it was extended till 9-th of April. So they give +60 days not starting from the current day but starting from the expiration date of the previous extension.

[Seba34e]

20 hours ago, Faz said:

Jan 25th - May 5th ???   (100 days)

Hi Faz. It's not that they gave me 100 days. My previous visa was to expire on March 5. They take that date when the visa expire, not from the date of application.

[Faz]

Jan 25th they gave you a further 60 day extension on top of your existing permission of stay until March 5th.

You were extremely lucky, most offices tell you to apply 7-14 days before your current permission of stay expires - which office was that at?

[Spengler]

So I went back to Chiang Mai Immigration this morning to submit my ‘under consideration’ Covid visa. Arrived early and half an hour later received my passport back with an extension for an additional 45 days. Why this could not have been done when I submitted my original 60 day Covid extension is beyond me. A complete waste of time for all concerned. 
 

Suffice to say that I am sick to death of having to deal with Thai Immigration BS every time I want to stay here more than a few months. I will be voting with my feet and taking my $60,000 a year retirement income and spending it somewhere else where I don’t have to deal with this circus and where my I am treated better. I think there are many others starting to feel the same way.

[MikeV]

10 minutes ago, Spengler said:

So I went back to Chiang Mai Immigration this morning to submit my ‘under consideration’ Covid visa. Arrived early and half an hour later received my passport back with an extension for an additional 45 days. Why this could not have been done when I submitted my original 60 day Covid extension is beyond me. A complete waste of time for all concerned. 
 

Suffice to say that I am sick to death of having to deal with Thai Immigration BS every time I want to stay here more than a few months. I will be voting with my feet and taking my $60,000 a year retirement income and spending it somewhere else where I don’t have to deal with this circus and where my I am treated better. I think there are many others starting to feel the same way.

 

Just use an agent, go to an office that is not flooded with others doing the same, or get a proper visa for what you are trying to do. You are taking advantage of a covid exception and wondering why it isn't working for you. They didn't create this to encourage its use to stay forever.

There is a visa for exactly what you are doing. They sort of want you to use it vs this loophole over and over.

Edited February 3 by MikeV

[Spengler]

Congratulations MikeV on completely missing the point

[MikeV]

On 2/3/2022 at 9:55 AM, Spengler said:

Congratulations MikeV on completely missing the point

I got the point perfectky The person is upset because they want the covid extension to be a convenient replacement for a perfectly applicable retirement visa or tourist visa plus normal extension.

 

FWIW....I just got my passport back from the agent I used for covid extension. 3 days turn around and I didn't have to do anything but pay and get them my passport. The 60 days were added to my original final day and not the day it was processed.