Foreigners can apply for a visa extension after July 31
Foreign visitors still stranded in Thailand due to the Covid-19 pandemic can apply for an extended short stay on July 31, the immigration chief said.
Foreigners who cannot leave Thailand will be given the opportunity to reapply for a period of stay from August 1 to September 26, Lieutenant General Sompong Chingduang said. However, if you do not get an extension, and you are still in Thailand after September 26, you can be prosecuted and blacklisted.
Foreigners should contact the Immigration Office as soon as possible to prepare for their next steps and avoid crowding as the September 26 deadline approaches. Foreign visitors must specify their reasons and provide the necessary documents when they wish to extend a short-stay visa.
“If they cannot return because there are no flights or because of an entry ban in their country, they must provide proof of this. The granting of a short-stay visa will be considered on a case-by-case basis,” said Pol Lt Gen Zei Sompong while visiting Phuket, a province with a large number of stranded foreigners.
The Ministry of the Interior's visa amnesty scheme for stranded foreigners will be submitted to the cabinet next Tuesday. The agency will later communicate the conditions for applying for a visa extension.
Those planning to return to their home country soon do not need to contact the immigration office, but must leave Thailand before September 26. The Immigration Service estimates that between 300.000 and 400.000 foreigners are stranded in Thailand due to travel restrictions related to the corona pandemic.
The government previously extended visas automatically until July 31, but foreigners still have to inform authorities where they are staying.
Source: Bangkok Post
“The Immigration Department estimates that between 300.000 and 400.000 foreigners are stranded in Thailand due to travel restrictions related to the corona pandemic.” If these foreigners are gone at the end of August, it will be even emptier in the tourist areas of Thailand because no one is allowed to enter. The Thai authorities are working on a clean-up program. First, they debunk the myth that foreigners are an asset to the country. Foreigners take away their wives and pretend that they have a monopoly on the truth, but the opposite in truth. Most are there with a minimum of subsistence, are not clean on their bodies and therefore bring diseases. As a 2nd step, it is now ensured that all short time farang are gone at the end of the summer. The 3rd step is that existing longstayers will be confronted with more and more additional conditions regarding their proof of income and that new arrivals will have to meet stricter conditions, such as health insurance and bank balances.
Tell me a source of step 1, step 2 and step 3. I think it has more to do with gossip in the pub what you report to us because I have not seen any official body state this anywhere nor have I seen this in the normal media I have not read nor am I aware that any line as in step 3 has been changed. I would say that they are very helpful because the stranded tourist is granted 4 months longer stay, until July 31 in the first instance, and now another period of 2 months is added. This seems right that people are very nice to the short-time tourist or short stayer because in the meantime many already have the option to fly back, look at the Europeans for this where various companies commute back and forth and I have not yet heard a story that there is no space on these outgoing flights. When you talk about foreigners, you undoubtedly mean the Westerners, but there are also many Asians as tourists in Thailand. Just wait a few months and then it will hurt that billions of USD or Euros are no longer coming in per month and the Thai government will have to make major cutbacks and take other measures such as closing 1 of the 2 airports in Bangkok and has a major social problem because it was already said in June that there were 14 million unemployed Thais. Where previously everything was done to attract more tourists, this will soon be done again. I think health insurance is right because, for example, the countries of the EU also ask tourists for this, and they must demonstrate about it
to have sufficient resources. All nothing wrong with that.
Yes, the Thai government has already made it abundantly clear which way it should go with the admission of farangs. Only very wealthy people are welcome in the land of smiles. Those poor farangs who don't spend anything and live here in Thailand like Jan Splinter, that is of no use to the Thai. No, only the rich who are going to scatter the money with the wheelbarrow across the country are welcome. So, Thai people just be patient and persevere and you will be rewarded with the bounties of the Western capitalist.
In August I would apply for my annual extension as I do every year... I have the necessary requirements. The article does not mention "long-term residents", is anything more known about this?
Thanks,
Yan
Nothing will change for now, in my opinion.
I did my renewal (based on Thai marriage) in May.
Nothing changed. I always submit the new application 3-4 weeks before the end of the term. Do you have enough time to arrange things if something is not right?
I don't understand the idea behind the scheme.
You can request a short stay from August 1, but why would you want to do that on August 1, for example?
If you get a 60 day extension, that period is almost up on September 26 and you could be in trouble soon after September 26, if the situation hasn't changed, so everyone will preferably go to the immigration office on September 25.
Then you also have a better chance that borders will open in the meantime and you can return to Thailand right away – if you want to.
I don't see a storm at the immigration office on August 1.
The only logic I could find in it is that every application is checked to see whether flights to the country of birth are possible, but then, if I were to draw up the scheme myself, I would have an end date for an application for extension on August 31 sting with an expiration date until October 1.
Then you have at least one month on August 31 to book a ticket and pack your bags.
There must of course be room for exceptions, for example if you become ill or break your leg.