Questioner: Peter
An English friend of mine officially divorced his Thai wife two months ago. He has had an O visa based on marriage for several years with 400.000 Thb in the bank. This visa runs until March next year.
Today he went to the immigration in Nakhon Sawan to ask what documents he needs to convert his visa to an O-visa based on retirement with 400.000 Thb in the bank and a monthly income of more than 40.000 Thb at the next extension . However, he was told that he was not allowed to be in Thailand now because he was divorced and therefore no longer had a valid visa.
What should he do now? The immigration service will not take any action for the time being.
I think the best thing to do is to leave the country, without re-entry of course, and then come back with a 3 month tourist visa and then convert this to an O visa based on retirement? Is there any other solution?
Which nearest country is best to go to to apply for a Tourist visa? And can this be arranged quickly?
I hope you have an answer to the above questions.
Reaction RonnyLatYa
He should normally have been aware that immigration must be notified in the event of a divorce. In recent years, everyone has to sign 2 forms for acquaintance when applying for an extension. One concerns the consequences of an overstay and the other mentions “Acknowledgment of terms and conditions for permit of temporary stay in the Kingdom of Thailand”. It states, among other things, that if the circumstances under which an extension of stay was obtained change, you must inform immigration accordingly.
For example, when an employment contract is terminated, but also in the case of a Thai Marriage and a divorce follows later. The circumstances under which the extension was requested no longer exist due to the divorce and so you must apply for an extension in a different way. This is possible as a Retired if you qualify, but also, for example, if a minor child would continue to live with you under your care.
Exception: If your wife dies, you do not have to report this and you can simply cancel your extension. You must apply for the next extension for another reason.
In this case it concerns a divorce and he should have reported this immediately to immigration.
Immigration can then decide that the remaining extension can be taken out (which usually happens), or that you must immediately apply for a new annual extension but for a different reason. For example, if there is not enough money in your account for long enough, it can also be decided that you can continue for the time being and come back when that is the case.
But immigration just doesn't take any action here I understand and they haven't canceled their period of stay either. In principle, there can actually be nothing wrong and he can never be in overstay.
Normally they have to accept his application as Retired, now or in March.
Something is wrong. Guess there's someone out there who doesn't know how to handle that. However it is simple…. Or just want to make it difficult of course.
Of course he can also leave the country, but where can he get a visa at the moment? I don't know what the situation is like in other countries either? But maybe he also has the option to apply for the visa online somewhere and then enter with it? Or maybe just come back without a visa, so on Visa Exemption and then convert this to Non-immigrant. Can he do too.
How can he read here:
https://bangkok.immigration.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/8-1.pdf
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