Alternative State Quarantine (ASQ): where?
I hope to return to Thailand in the middle of next month, on the basis of my non-immigrant O visa. I have on coethailand.mfa.go.th completed the application for the required Certificate of Entry (COE) and attached the required documents digitally.
You will then receive a code number with which you can follow the progress of the process on the same website. A provisional decision (pre-approval) will follow within 3 working days. By the way, I already received it halfway through the first working day after my application in the weekend, so that goes quickly.
With that 'pre-approval' you get 15 days to book an ASQ hotel and a flight to Bangkok. You then have to 'upload' the booking receipts again via that website; if you have done so, the COE will be issued.
The flight must be booked with one of the authorized companies; you will find them in a list https://thaiembassy.ch/files_upload/editor_upload/VISA/1604497641_list-semi-commercial-flights-4-nov-2020.pdf If you have a ticket, you will of course still have to look for accommodation in one of the hotels approved for this purpose by the Thai government.
On November 10, there were 108, with a total of 14.348 rooms available for ASQ. You can find the link to the complete official list at hague.thaiembassy.org/th/content/119625-asq-list
More information about the hotels and especially about the content of their quarantine packages can be found at asq.wanderthai.com – you can also contact the hotels via that website.
Although a quarantine period of 14 days is often spoken of, all ASQ offers appear to be based on 15 nights/16 days. The prices start at 28.000 baht, but you can also spend 200.000 baht on it. You seem to have the most choice between 40.000 and 60.000 baht. What you want / can spend for it is of course personal; in making that decision, everyone weighs up his/her own possibilities and preferences. Do you, for example, want to spend more than two weeks in a room (small) of 22 square meters with only daylight through a window in the bathroom, or can it be a bit more? Do you want a balcony? As for the latter: check with the hotel whether it is accessible, because some ASQ hotels have closed the balconies, according to the experiences that quarantine visitors have shared.
You will find useful information and experiences on two Facebook groups, namely 'Farangs stranded abroad due to lockdown in Thailand' and 'ASQ in Thailand'.
Another point that will be taken into account in my personal choice is the payment. Some hotels require full payment at the time of booking, and if it turns out to be attached – as I have already encountered – that, for example, you lose your money if you cancel within 5 days of arrival, I remove them from my list. Others are extremely flexible, asking 5.000 baht when booking and the rest upon arrival.
What I also came across are hotels that require you to be Covid tested within 72 hours before arriving at the hotel, while the requirement to enter Thailand is 72 hours before departure. If you fall between two stools in this way, those hotels require you to take a test immediately upon arrival and that extra test is usually not included in the package, resulting in a bill of around 6.000 baht.
In short, carefully study the offers on all aspects before you make a choice!
Just this: I reported above 108 hotels with 14.348 rooms available for ASQ. That is a huge offer, if you then read in an article on Thaivisa that, according to the Tourist Authority of Thailand, 1465 foreigners entered the country with a Certificate of Entry in the month of October. The occupancy rate was therefore minimal, but it will probably improve now that access to the country is being carefully expanded.
Dramatic figures, by the way, when you realize that in a 'normal' month of October, about 3 million tourists enter the country…..
Another addition for those who want to quarantine with their partner: 'Only husband and wife showing marriage certificate can share one room', so if you are not legally married you have to book 2 rooms!
Completely correct Cornelius.
And the hotel - I can say from my own experience - also specifically asks for the relevant proof when booking.
As for the 14 days and 15 nights. Day of arrival is day 0. Then day 1 starts the next day. With 14 full days in quarantine, you end up with 15 nights.
a specific thai marriage certificate or just a marriage certificate?
There are also hotels that accept cohabitation contracts for a connected room, for example.
Dear Cornelius,
Good information with clear the pitfalls that exist and how to avoid them.
Have you applied for/obtained the non-immigrant O visa at the Thai Embassy/Consulate or is it based on a re-entry. Thanks in advance for your answer.
Based on a period of stay valid until mid-May 2021 plus a re-entry permit, Gerard.
thought that if you have a non immigrant 0 visa you don't have to apply for re-entry when leaving Thailand
. In the past, I simply traveled in and out during the year that the visa was valid. This is to avoid misunderstandings.
When extending the stay period you can also buy multi re-entry for, I think, 3800 baht.
If you do not have one and you do not buy a re-entry permit before departure, you will only receive a stay of 30 days upon your return. Now, in corona times, you can no longer enter the country without that re-entry permit.
A NON-Immigrant “O” Multiple entry visa is valid for one year.
This allows you to enter an unlimited number of times until the end of the validity period. Each time you enter you will receive a residence permit for 90 days (stamp in your passport). Before those 90 days have passed you have to leave the country (->borderrun). If the visa has expired, but the residence permit has not yet expired, the residence permit will lapse upon departure. In order to retain the expiry date of the residence permit when you leave, you must request a re-entry at the immigration office or the airport before leaving. (There is a choice of single and multiple re-entry.) This re-entry allows you to re-enter and stay until the expiry date of the residence permit.
To be allowed to stay even longer, you must apply for a one-year extension of the residence permit at the immigration office of the province where you are staying, well before the expiry date of the residence permit.
As a result of the pandemic, you must now also have a Certificate of Entry (CoE) to travel. So doing a border run is not possible now.
Is it that clear?
PS @Cornelis: thanks for the valuable tips, recommendations and warnings!
If you have a Non-immigrant O Multiple entry and the validity period of that visa has not yet expired when you want to re-enter Thailand, you can still use it.
After all, the validity period of that Non-immigrant O Multiple entry visa is 1 year.
At the moment, this would only be Non-immigrant O Multiple entry visas that were issued after today, November 18, 2019, because you can still enter with them until today, November 18, 2020. Somewhere at the end of March 2020/beginning of April at the start of the lockdown, they also stopped to issue those visas.
Example: Suppose you have obtained a Non-immigrant O Multiple entry on February 20, 2019, then you can still enter with that visa until February 20, 2020.
In that case, a re-entry is of course not necessary, because your visa is still valid and upon entry you will receive a new residence period of 90 days.
You say it yourself “…. traveled in and out during the year the visa was valid.” and that can only have been a Multiple entry visa.
A Non-immigrant O Single entry is not possible. You can only enter it once and the validity period is only 3 months. The last ones were also issued at the end of March 20 and became invalid after three months (sometime at the end of June 20) whether they were used or not does not matter.
Correction because I wrote some mistakes this morning because I had to leave quickly
Must be ;
“Currently, that would only be Non-immigrant O Multiple entry visas issued after November 18, 2019,….”
“Example: Suppose you have obtained a Non-immigrant O Multiple entry on February 20, 2020, then you can still enter with that visa until February 20, 2021.
Dear John,
you are giving here completely wrong and even dangerous information regarding the O-visa:
There are actually two types:
Non O SE: SINGLE ENTRANCE. This gives you a residence period of 90 days upon arrival in Thailand. If you then leave Thailand, the visa, even if it is valid for one year, is USED UP. Being valid for 1 year only refers to the date of entry.
Non O-ME: MULTIPLE ENTRANCE. This will give you a stay of 90 days upon first entry. If you then leave Thailand and re-enter, you will again have a period of 90 days and you can do this as long as the validity of the visa runs.
With a NON O SE you DO need a Re-Entry otherwise the visa is no longer valid after the first entry.
So instead of avoiding misunderstandings you create one. You had/have a Nun O ME.
A NON 0 single entry is only valid for 90 days. Never a year. You can apply for an extension of one year. Extension of stay. It then starts after the initial 3 months. A valid visa will then only expire if the period of validity has expired or if you leave Thailand and no reentry permit has been applied for. you can get these as single or multiple.
Dear Cornelius,
Very informative article about the steps to take to return with a Non-Imm-O visa. I also applied yesterday and am now waiting for the pre-approval so that I can book a hotel and flight afterwards. I would like to be in Thailand until the end of March.
I've also been scrolling through the list and ticking hotels based on price and location, since I have to go 360 km north afterwards, I want to look for a hotel on the north side of Bangkok.
NAV Your comments about the payment requirements and COVID test actually make me curious which hotel you chose. Maybe that will save me and others time (and money) to search when making a booking.
I saw that KLM and EVA AIR no longer have direct flights until February, but I found an opportunity through Lufthansa -AMS-FRA-BKK
I have a re-entry valid until December 27, so I hope to be out of quarantine before December 24 to get another year extension.
I am traveling alone, because my girlfriend already went back via KLM on September 30th.
She also had to be quarantined for 15 nights and 16 days.
Everything was well arranged.
greeting
Ferdinand
Perhaps unnecessarily, but when it comes to waiting for approval, you must regularly check the code number yourself. You will not receive a message about whether or not your application has been approved. If you have a 'pre-approval', you will only see this after logging in by the fact that it says that you have to 'upload' your ticket and the hotel booking.
Dear Cornelius,
I also intend to go back home (=Thailand) in mid-December.
I too have seen the lists of hotels where you can book.
But how exactly does that work?
There are no contact details in the listings and the hotel website does not indicate whether they are ASQ or ALQ hotel.
Is it a matter of sending an email?
Sa Wadi Ruud
Ha Ruud, via the one also mentioned in the article https://asq.wanderthai.com/ you will see the desired information, and you can also contact us via that site.
thought asq are hotels in bangkok and pattaya and the alq is outside these areas.
My transfer of the amount for the booking to ASQ hotel Princeton with Transferwise failed and the amount never arrived. When I suggested doing it with Western Union, I was advised against it; unfortunately at a late stage because until then I apparently only had to deal with the reception, who told me that I had to pay the whole amount first.
Instead, they asked me to give my credit card number with expiry date and then the amount to be paid will only be debited upon arrival at the hotel.
Niek, Has the money been debited? If so, the hotel may not be able to find the payment without the so-called bank transfer receipt. That was also the case in my case.
If the transfer is visible on your transferwise page, click on it.
Then click on the 3 dots in that square.
Then click on “view transfer details”.
Then you will get a pop-up window.
Then click on “get pdf receipt” at the bottom. These are 2 pages, including the transfer number of the payment.
If the payment has been made, then it must be traceable.
I sent receipt and transfer details to transferwise and hotel and chatted a lot in TW's chatbox, but the latter keeps claiming that the money must have arrived on the hotel's account, which the hotel denies.
And that's it for the 'investigation team' of TW and I've lost the money.
Strange while many others like me have had good experiences with TW.
Then the next step may be to contact the bank of that hotel.
Every transfer must be traceable with that transfer number.
And ask Transferwise for a printout of their transfer to the hotel bill.
If all this fails: https://www.1213.or.th/th/Pages/default.aspx
Phone 2
Email: [email protected]
That is a consumer protection website.
I found it on the websitehttps://www.bot.or.th/English/Pages/default.aspx) from the Central Bank of Thailand.
(I'd be tempted to insist when you're at the hotel that you want to see bank details on their website.)
Dear Ferdinand,
You say “KLM will no longer operate direct flights to BKK until February.”
That is not entirely correct: if you look at klm.com and then enter Kuala Lumpur or Taipei as your final destination, you will see that there are flights to both destinations 2 or 3 times a week… with a stopover in BKK !!!! (Crew change; the question is whether passengers can get out?)
Perhaps you can book such a flight through the Thai embassy?
If you here https://hague.thaiembassy.org/th/content/register-for-sq-november-2020 look, you see that the embassy arranged two flights to BKK via KLM in November, but a different flight number than the flights to KUL and TAIPEI that I mentioned above.
The risk is that you are on the plane with a number of Thais who have not taken a covid test.
Hello Sjoerd,
In any case, I no longer saw BKK as a final destination on KLM.com. At Lufthasa, yes.
Just spoke to my girlfriend.. she received a message from an acquaintance who had arrived in Amsterdam this morning from Bangkok with KLM with only 10 passengers on board..
At least passengers can then board there.
Then you can sit far apart I think..
That's right, you have to enter Kuala Lumpur or Taipei as the final destination and then click on a date that can be booked. After that you will see the details, that there is a stopover in BKK
Those other flights you point out are probably repatriation flights arranged by the Thai embassy exclusively for fr Thai nationals. They fly on and come back with cargo!!
Where do you get it from, that Thai nationals do not have to take a Covid test. Thought everyone was required to.
Thais do not have to take a Covid test from the embassy (only fit-to-fly), unless the airline demands it. If you have the relevant Thai text on https://hague.thaiembassy.org/vertaalt using translate.google, you can read all that. (Click Thailand&Covid-19–> click Thai link (the 3rd link) which also contains the word covid-19. Then you won't find anything about a covid test.)
KLM does not require - as far as I know - a Covid test.
Emirates, for example, does. That's why I chose Emirates.
Are there certain points that should be taken into account when applying for a CoE online? Is that easy, How much time does it take after the application before you receive a CoE?
Guido, Surprisingly fast! For me: first phase 1,5 working days, followed by pre-approval. Second step went just as fast! Provided all papers are in order! Between the first 1,5 days and the second 1,5 days, of course, is the period of booking a ticket and ASQ hotel. (In my case, I had already arranged those two things a few weeks earlier - I could change them for free if COE was late.)
Thank you Sjoerd. Should there always be 2 steps, in other words if you book an ASQ hotel & flight before the first step, can't everything be done in one step? I was also told that with insurance you can only scan one insurance certificate, while in principle you have to scan 2 documents, namely Health Insurance & Insurance Certificate. Is that right?
No, you are stuck with those 2 steps. You will only see the pages where you can enter hotel and flight details if the application has been 'pre-approved'.
Completely correct. I tried everything at once. You can upload multiple documents in that first step, so I had also uploaded my ASQ hotel and flight ticket (both I had booked a few weeks earlier) there as well.
That kite didn't work, I had to do that again in the 2nd step...
And what happens if your flight is canceled before you leave, because then the dates of your ASQ hotel and your COE must also be changed.
By the way, I am very sick of what requirements you have to meet to be allowed to stay in Thailand.
Think hard about leaving permanently. I don't want to have to spend the last years of my life behind a PC and printer living according to their wishes and constantly having to wonder what new visa requirements there are.
Real estate prices drop dramatically if you have a condo or house, which also makes it not easy to just leave.
Moreover, as an 81-year-old, it will be prohibitively expensive for me to be obliged to choose a Thai insurance company when renewing an OA visa if there is already one that wants to insure me.
I'm so fed up with the mentality of the Thai government to milk foreigners as much as possible financially.
But what about my disabled Thai girlfriend, who no one else cares about?
I can leave her my condo in Chiangmai, but she still has to be maintained.
It will be a concern for the Thai government. Those 'dirty' farangs can take care of that, which are good for squeezing out as much money as possible.
And all those women with their families who are supported by farangs without alimony or other assistance? It will be a concern for the Thai government.
They have to see money to make the rich richer.
Lower income groups that depend on the cheap tourist, backpackers, lust travelers, young people,
just have to see how they can make ends meet.
Dear Nick,
If you go to the Netherlands once every 2 years (without re-entry) and then apply for a new OA in The Hague, you can get an OA visa based on your Dutch health insurance
(or possibly do you have expat insurance?).
At the end of your first year you will leave Thailand for a while (hopefully everything will be back to normal by then), after which you can stay in Thailand for another year without the compulsory Thai insurance.
After those 2 years you repeat this.
I know someone (via Facebook) who does this. An advantage for him (he said) is that he shows an amount equivalent to 800.000 baht in an account in his own country when applying for this visa. Handy in case he dies, because then his next of kin do not have to follow a very lengthy procedure to get the 800.000 baht back to a Thai account.
To be sure, ask aainsure.net whether this is correct or whether there is another solution.
The weak point in this setup seems to me to be the fact that if you only come to the Netherlands once every two years, you cannot legally be registered as the Netherlands. In that situation you are not actually entitled to Dutch health insurance. Or am I wrong?
Dear Sjoerd,
Disregarding the current corona requirements and measures and also the mandatory period of residence in the Netherlands to which Cornelis refers, because that will certainly also play a role.
I just want to respond to your proposal.
Your proposal did indeed work in the past, but before there was compulsory health insurance. That is not long since that obligation has only been in place since October 31, 2019.
You then applied for an OA. The visa has a Multiple entry and the validity period is 1 year. With each entry during that validity period you will receive a new residence period of 1 year. In theory you could spend almost 2 years in Thailand with that visa. You only had to make a “border run” before the end of the validity period and you were given another one-year residence period. Just send the 90 day notifications during your stay and you're done. Went perfectly. No financial proof and no insurance or anything you had to provide in Thailand. Everything was already proven at the time of application.
However, since the obligation (October 31, 2019) of health insurance, something has changed and that should no longer be possible
It is now the case that upon first entry you are granted a maximum stay of one year, just like before, provided your health insurance fully covers that period. The validity period of the health insurance is a maximum of one year. You cannot submit longer at once and it is stated on the “Foreign Insurance Certificate” of your health insurance that you must submit.
If you enter a second (or more) time during the validity period of the same visa, you will no longer receive a new residence period of one year as before. You will only receive the remaining period from the first entry with that visa, but also no longer than the coverage period of your health insurance stated on the “Foreign Insurance Certificate”.
Example: Suppose you enter for the first time on April 1, 21 with a new OA visa and have health insurance from April 1, 21 to March 31, 22. Then you will have a period of residence from April 1, 21 to March 31, 22. Suppose you then go on October 1, 21 outside Thailand, for any reason, and you re-enter on October 10, 21 with a still valid OA visa. Then you will not again obtain a one-year residence period from October 10, 21 to October 09, 22, as before, but only from October 10, 21 to March 31, 22.
Your first date of entry therefore continues to count towards the allocation of one year and you now receive the remaining time. Moreover, your insurance only runs until March 31, 22 and you cannot obtain longer.
Extending that period of stay after March 31, 22 is of course always possible afterwards at immigration, but then you will also have to submit a new insurance period of one year, which must come from the mandatory list this time.
You can read all that in this document. Previously you could find this document on the Immigration website, but when creating the new website they did not copy all the documents. I still have it, but you can also find that document on the MOPH (Ministry Of Public Health) website
I will just extract the most important text relating to those entries because it may be a bit difficult to find in the document.
https://hss.moph.go.th/fileupload_doc/2019-10-18-1-19-50192312.pdf
Subject: Permission for an alien who has been granted Non-Immigrant Visa Class OA
(not exceeding I year) to temporarily stay in the Kingdom
Deputy Commissioners of the Immigration Bureau
Commanders of the Immigration Bureau
According to the Immigration Bureau's urgent letter no.0029.142/160 dated January 14, 2008 concerning the practice for permitting an alien to temporarily stay in the Kingdom no.4 paragraph 2 appointed an immigration officer to permit an alien, who has been granted Non- Immigrant Visa with the letter “A” after the purpose of visiting's code, to stay in the Kingdom for not exceeding 1 year counting from the date of arrival in the Kingdom,
On April 2, 2019, the Cabinet resolved and approved in principle to add a criterion concerning a health insurance's requirement for an alien applying for Non-Immigrant Visa Class OA with the purpose of retirement. (not exceeding 1 year)
Therefore, when an alien, who has been granted Non-Immigrant Visa Class OA from an overseas Royal Thai Embassy with the purpose of retirement (not exceeding 1 year), enters the Kingdom, an immigration officer shall abide by the following practices for permitting an alien to stay in the Kingdom, effective from October 31, 2019 onwards:
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 . An immigration officer shall check any remarks on a visa issued by an overseas Royal Thai Embassy for consideration and approval.
2.An alien, who has been granted Non-Immigrant Visa Class OA for multiple entry and enters the Kingdom from the second time onwards, will be permitted to stay in the Kingdom for the remaining coverage period of health insurance for not exceeding 1 year.
3.An alien, who has been granted Non-Immigrant Visa Class OA for multiple entry but the coverage period of health insurance has already expired, even if the visa is still valid, will not be permitted to enter the Kingdom. However, the said alien can buy a health insurance in Thailand in order to be permitted to enter the Kingdom for a coverage period of health insurance for not exceeding 1 year.
4.1n case of the permission of stay in the Kingdom exceeds the coverage period of health insurance, an immigration officer shall apply mutatis mutandis the Order of the Immigration Bureau no. 115/2553 dated June 29, 2010 concerning the Amendment of an immigration stamp in a passport and the Order of the Immigration Bureau no. 79/2557 dated April 1, 2014 concerning the Guideline in case of an alien's granted permission of stay in Kingdom is not meet a visa class or visa exemption.
Please be informed and proceed accordingly.
Police Lieutenant General Sompong Chingduang
Commissioner of the Immigration Bureau
What he could do is get a new Non-immigrant OA visa every year in the Netherlands, provided he is in order with his registration/health insurance there, as Cornelis said, but I am not fully familiar with those Dutch regulations.
That's right. I also have the impression that I have to invest more and more time in following ever-changing rules, have to meet more and more requirements and the administrative hassle is becoming more and more complicated.
To get back here this time with my wife I spent more than a month printing, scanning….mailing and so on. I'm getting fed up with it now too.
Many have chosen to enjoy a quiet old age here, no more or no less.
If it were to start again, I would have chosen a destination within the EU. You don't even need an international passport for it. Your ID and you're fine. If things continue to evolve like this, I can see myself emigrating to Romania.
with regard to ASQ hotels (quarantine hotels) another tip. Small, however.
You rightly wrote that you should carefully check the cancellation conditions of the ASQ hotel. After all, you may not be able to fly, for whatever reason.
That's quite a bit of work. Google each hotel and read the website to learn the cancellation policy. If you google “thai airways and ASQ hotels” you will get a few pages with hotels related to thai air. The great thing about this is that each of the hotels provides the data of those hotels in standard order. One of that group of data is exactly the cancellation policy!! Even if there are no conditions but simply says “no refund”, then that is also clear.
But as I said, we only mention a limited number of hotels, but it makes it easy! These are not very expensive hotels by the way!! Good luck with your application. I hope to follow you. Still have a non o that doesn't "expire" until next year
Thank you for this transparent explanation.
Wow, very nicely written. The right man in the right place.
Well, when I read what you all have to meet, I lose the desire to pack my suitcase, since I'm staying in NL. Of course you have to stay alert to contamination, but how the Thai government wants to attract tourists in this way is a complete mystery to me, but Thais are simply difficult to fathom through Western glasses. For me it is certain I will stay at home, at least I will not go to Thailand this year and probably not next year either. I hope for the south of France.
You are a man who is fortunately free to make that choice.
But as soon as you own a house or condo and/or have a permanent or married relationship with a Thai with possibly. If you have children, you are prey to all the demands and obligations that the Thai government imposes on you now and in the future.
Moderator: Questions must go through the editors.
Although we miss Thailand very much. My friend's family all the more so. Let's go into the waiting room. I wonder what Thailand will do when there is a vaccine.
In any case, I won't be sitting in a room for 2 weeks before I can go into the country for maybe another 3 weeks of vacation. It's also quite pricey I see. Damn virus.....
The quarantine period is indeed not a pleasant prospect, but I think that quite a few long-stayers will decide to get over that objection. If, for example, you go for about four months and avoid the European winter, then it seems to me - but that is personally - worth it.
In addition, with the current corona measures in NL and BE you also experience restrictions in terms of contacts, movements, catering visits, etc.