TB Immigration Info Brief 113/19 – Immigration Bangkok (Chaeng Wattana) – Year Extension
Message: Jan
Subject: Immigration Bangkok (Chaeng Watthana)
Today 19-11-2019 to the Government complex Chaengwatthana for extension of retirement. Got up early for a low queue number. In at 08.20:10.00 and by 7:6 it's your turn for documents check: TM90, passport with copy passport, visa, TM 30, XNUMX days, income statement embassy (legalised), TMXNUMX, rental contract, Id card owner, Tabien job, title deed owner house, yellow book. Map, photos of the house were not necessary.
Because I came in with an OA at the time (2016), I was asked about health insurance. I had already copied this one, but without OPD, and was not accepted. So no extension. Now first apply for a new insurance with OPD and come back.
In addition, 4 documents still had to be signed, income, overstay, familiar with the rules for residence and statement with address. After a long wait at 12.00 at home and this at a distance of ± 3 km. from my house.
Reaction RonnyLatYa
May I ask that whenever an abbreviation is used, wherever it is, it is also written out in full at least once. Not all abbreviations are so obvious to all readers.
Here it will want to say OPD – “Out Patient Department”. However, I can imagine that not everyone knows this immediately and then starts looking it up. Then one finds “OPD – Oncological Patient Dossier” and one wonders why immigration wants to see something like this again…..
Without wanting to start the discussion (again), here you can also read an answer to the question, whether or not insurance can be requested when extending periods of stay obtained with OA and this before October 31, 2019. In Bangkok is that the case.
As I said before, it will depend on how the rules are read by the local immigration office. Asking locally is the best advice I can give.
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Regards,
RonnyLatYa
I would advise taking the cheapest Thai health insurance with high ER. Hopefully you won't be refused because of age or exclusion.
I thought OA visa was so great. I am happy with my O visa, because it does not (yet) have the requirement of OPD insurance.
By the way, I still wonder why Thai Immigration has started requiring NON OA visa holders to have OPD insurance. Did this group lead to this?
Maybe they're introducing it in stages.
First OA, then retirement and then possibly marriage, although the latter may not happen, because the Thai husband/wife and any children will not appreciate it if part of the family is deported from the country.
This will undoubtedly lead to negative comments in the (foreign) news and possibly complaints about human rights violations.
And especially that an extension of 1 year for those who once started with a NON OA entails exactly the same as an extension (retirement) based on a NON O visa. You must submit exactly the same documents down to the letter and meet the same requirements.
What that actually matters is a total mystery to me whether it should be that people hope to sell a few thousand NON O visas. Anyway, from what I hear, that's the trend right now. In many immigration offices people themselves tell people with a NON OA to cancel this and come back with a NON-O. Ridiculous.
Normally I only assume things that are first officially confirmed, but I do like to make an exception. I think that they are breeding on a different plan.
The reason for the exception that I am now making is to read the following text that you can read in the new lines.
“….. 1 .An alien, who has been granted Non-Immigrant Visa Class OA for single entry or multiple entry and enters the Kingdom for the first time, will be permitted to stay in the Kingdom for a coverage period of health insurance for not exceeding 1 year. …..”
https://www.immigration.go.th/read?content_id=5d9c3b074d8a8f318362a8aa
I especially noticed the text “….Non-Immigrant Visa Class OA for single entry or multiple entry ..” It may well be that they were mistaken. But it may also be that someone is anticipating certain things and has accidentally already mentioned this in these rules.
There is no Single entry version of the Non-immigrant OA visa. Just a Multiple entry
http://www.mfa.go.th/main/en/services/4908/15385-Non-Immigrant-Visa-%22O-A%22-(Long-Stay).html
Will it be possible in the long term (when?) to obtain a Non-immigrant OA only when retired?
Will the possibility of obtaining a Non-immigrant “O” as a Retired be completely scrapped?
Any application based on “Retirement” will then only be possible via the Non-immigrant OA visa and it would then become a “real” retirement visa. Pensioners will then automatically receive a residence period of one year upon arrival, insofar as that year is covered by health insurance.
Unlike now, the visa could also have a Single and Multiple entry.
Actually, that would be good news for those who come to hibernate for about 4 or 6 months. Now they have 90 days with their Non-immigrant O and after those 90 days they have to start border running, or take a year extension if they want to stay for 4 or 6 months. In that case, they would already be freed from those border runs with a Non-immigrant OA Single entry.
The Non-immigrant “O” will continue to exist, but no longer for retirement, but for Thai marriage, family visits, children, etc…
Remark
Again, this is nothing official. It's just something that I might expect people to want to move towards in the future.
So it is not necessary to ask where you can get that Non-immigrant OA Single entry and how much it costs….
The problem is how they are going to manage that with your insurance? Suppose you apply for OA single entry.
You have a Belgian comprehensive insurance that runs from February to February and is tacitly renewed. Then you are not allowed to stay longer than February with an OA.
As I have already heard, no Belgian insurance company like DKV Assudis or Europa Assistance wants to fill in that form because it is not compatible.
So all in all, that won't change much…..you will have to go to the embassy every year for a new OA visa and additional Thai insurance.
It will only get a lot more complex. Then don't forget to add that this is about not really young people anymore who don't feel like that much walking and hassle anymore.
And those who now retire every year after a Non-immigrant O and then have to make mandatory border runs after 90 days…. Are they getting younger?
The fact is that if you want to stay in Thailand as a “retired person”, you are usually no longer the youngest. Whether this is with an O or OA does not matter.
By the way, nobody prevents them from continuing to work in Thailand with an annual extension if they want to. But that will then possibly only be possible via a Non-immigrant OA and no longer via a Non-immigrant O.
This mandatory insurance now also applies to a Non-immigrant OA visa application. And for a visa application, it does not state anywhere that this must be a Thai person. This requirement only applies to extensions. And if your insurance company (such as DKV, Assudis or Europa Assistance) does not want to fill out that paper, then that is not the problem of immigration or the embassy. That's why they're probably not on the list. Then, upon application and certainly upon renewal, you will have to take out another, accepted insurance policy that is on the list.
I don't know what that could possibly be. I said in my previous response that it is nothing official and it is just an idea of where I think it could go.
Immediately another whining about that health insurance.
I already regret writing it... and I'm not going to respond to it any further, because in the end it will be about the same thing over and over again.
Thank you Jan for your message. What struck me is that you write that you also had an “embassy income statement (legalised)” with the documents.
My question concerns the word “legalised”. Is this new? I have just received my “Visa Support Letter” from the Dutch embassy. Should this also be legalized? Because it has already been issued by the embassy, it seems to me that this can be seen as legalization.
Hi Hansman,
I don't know if this is new, I read it somewhere at the time
and now have it legalized as a precaution at the Min. or foreign affair,
for 200 Thb, you can then have it sent to your home,
you never know what surprises will come out of the Immigration box,
Jan
There are immigration offices that require this. You have to check locally whether or not that is the case
In previous years, it will be my 3rd time in December, it has not been asked… I will ask next week. Thanks for the tip, Jan and Ronny.