Thailand Visa question No. 137/21: Application CoE with old and new passport and re-entry

Questioner: Albert

I will be returning to Belgium in a few months for a major medical procedure. I am in possession of a non emigrant O -Retirement visa valid until December 2021 and have taken out a re-entry permit at the immigration in Thailand to be able to come back to Thailand.

Now the problem is that I had to apply for a new passport in Belgium as my term for my renewal of my next application was not sufficient to meet the term requirement for the period of 18 months. Normally that is not a problem to have the visa transferred to my new passport in normal times.

Now, how should I apply for a COE for return to Thailand, as I cannot convert that stamp in Thailand. Are they going to allow that to allow this re-entry when it needs to be converted? My passport is cut at the front and the pages with the visa and re-entry are not cut.

My question is will they allow me to use this re-entry to approve my application from the COE or will they be able to force me to apply for a new visa?

I hope there are people with this experience and share it with us.

I thank you in advance.

Reaction RonnyLatYa

1. As long as a stay/re-enrty/visa have not reached their end date and have not been invalidated when applying for a new passport, they will remain valid in your old passport even if the passport itself was invalidated.

2. I assume that you will have to upload both the new passport and the old passport with the period of stay/re-entry/visa still valid. But for that you better contact the embassy how to handle something like this with the CoE application.

3. FYI. The validity period of the passport should not be at least 18 months for applying for an annual extension in Thailand. That is only for applying in an embassy for a visa with a validity period of 1 year.

To apply for a year extension, 1 year is sufficient and if the passport is valid for less than a year, you will only receive an extension until the expiry date of your passport. In other words, if it is only valid for 8 months, you will only receive an extension of 8 months.

4. Readers who have applied for a CoE with an old passport with a valid period of stay/re-entry/visa and a new passport can always share their experiences here. Nevertheless, I advise you to contact the embassy as well.

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