Thailand Visa Question 061/23: Re – Entry's
Questioner: Tom
I came to Thailand with a non-immigrant o visa in October 2022 and then applied for and received the “Thai Wife” visa in December.
Now this is a single entry visa, but I was wondering whether I should now make it a multiple entry or whether the single entry is valid if I go to the Netherlands in April, when I come back it will be my first entry with this visa.
If I want to go to the Netherlands again later, I can still apply for a multiple entry, am I looking at it that way?
Thanks in advance for your response(s).
Response Lung addy
yes, you are looking at it all completely wrong and mixing up the terms VISA and RENEWAL. In the first place, in Thailand, you did not receive a 'NEW VISA', but a YEAR EXTENSION based on being married to a Thai.
– “Whether the single entry is valid if I now go to the Netherlands in April, when I come back it will be my first entry with this visa.”
Totally wrong reasoning as this is 'not a VISA' and therefore CANNOT be a first entry. If you follow that line of reasoning, the result is that you can start all over again.
A 'year extension is always WITHOUT RE-ENTREES, after all it is not a visa but a permitted period of stay, following your first 90 days, which you received upon entry with your Non-O visa, and this with 1 year. You can't make that into a 'MULTIPLE Entrance', as you call it, but you have to buy those Re-Entrances with it. This can be as Single or Multiple Re Entree. In your case it is best to have a Single Re-Entrance.
What you have to do is very simple: to start, you buy, at your local Immigration Office, a SINGLE RE-ENTREE: costs 1000THB. With this you can go to the Netherlands in April and return to Thailand. Upon your return to Thailand you will again receive a stamp for a period of stay valid until the end of your current annual renewal. If you want to return to the Netherlands afterwards, during the remaining term of your annual extension, you can buy a Re-entrance again. I would not recommend a multiple Re-entry as you would then have to plan to travel in and out 4 – 5 times in 1 year.
PS: you can also buy the Re-Entrance 'BEFORE leaving Thailand' at the airport.
– Do you have a visa question for Ronny? Use it contact form.! -