Sort out visa problem while in ASQ

[HHTel]

Let us know how you get on. Aside from the daily overstay fine, they're not obliged to give you a further extension once the deadline has passed.

[Gregjam]

Whilst not obliged to give me the extension, having my wife go in and explain the situation beforehand things may help and it will work out one way or another.... Could be interesting and a good reason to pass on what happens. Previous experience with Hua Hin immigration has been positive and I hope it remains so.

[HHTel]

Good luck. I do agree that officers at HH immigration are usually human, unlike some other immigration offices we hear about.

[Gregjam]

To give this thread some sort of closure I can report that as anticipated I had to pay overstay and was able to get my visa extension done. Next due for 90 day report in May but will probably be back at work by then. I still have to visit immigration as I will need a re-entry stamp. Normally I would get multi entry but as I am only likely to be out once before I extend again I will leave it until next time. Enjoying my time at home and it being less crowded is a real bonus.

[PeteC]

British man fined for overstay after being forced into Bangkok quarantine

https://thethaiger.com/news/national/br ... quarantine

You take your PCR test after your stay in Thailand, before you return home to the UK. You test positive and are confined in a Bangkok hospital for 10 days. Then, to add insult to injury, you’re fined 4,000 baht for overstaying your visa when you go through immigration… purely because you were confined in hospital.

This is the sad tale, one of many, when the Test & Go program didn’t quite go to plan. Quite a high percentage of visitors from overseas have been found to test positive after their compulsory PCR tests (certainly in places like Phuket during late December and January), leaving them to an uncertain 10 days of quarantine in a hospital, ‘hospitel’, field hospital or, if they’re lucky, confined to their hotel or place of residence.

This was the first message to The Thaiger from a gentleman we’ll call ‘CM’…

“My recent experience… On 3rd January I tested positive for covid when I took a pcr test for a return flight to the UK, I was incarcerated in a hospital room for 10 days even though I was asymptomatic. Upon release I left the country the next day but because my visa expired on 5th January I was fined 4000 baht by Immigration at the airport for overstaying. I wasn’t the only one being fined for overstaying due to quarantine incarceration, crazy Thailand.”

He had been confined to Bangkok’s BangPo Hospital. But, even there, he struck problems with hospital administrators who alleged that the patient’s insurance company would not pay the full amount of his treatment bill. (The Thaiger has copies of the CM’s hospital bill)

As soon as he was released from his incarceration at the hospital, CM headed to the Suvarnabhumi Airport where immigration officials, despite being presented with evidence of his enforced quarantine, fined him for 8 days of overstay, @500 baht per day. A total of 4,000 baht. (The Thaiger has a copy CM’s immigration fine receipt)

“Tried to explain, showed the certificate from the hospital, they ignored it. I was instructed to sign 2 documents (both in Thai), handed over the 4,000 baht, passport endorsed and they moved onto the next guy (also overstayer due to quarantine).

In further messages to The Thaiger, CM told us that he had come to Thailand for a Christmas/New Year break with his Thai girlfriend.

“I arrive beginning December for Christmas and New Year holiday and visit with my gf, first time back in over 2 years.”

Now safely back in the UK, and 4,000 baht lighter, CM has written an official letter of complaint to the Royal Thai Embassy in London. Let’s hope, apart from offering an apology, the Embassy refund CM’s 4,000 baht fine.

[buksida]

More Thai covid quarantine horror stories mounting up ...

Australian girl, 14, locked in Thai COVID hotel as travel horror stories pile up
Thai authorities separated a 14-year-old Melbourne girl from her family and locked her in COVID-19 isolation earlier this month after she caught the virus.

Hers is one of a growing number of holiday horror stories some Australian travellers are partly blaming on onerous Qantas travelling requirements.

Vaccinated Australians who have caught and recovered from COVID-19 but continue to test positive due to “viral shedding”, say they are stuck abroad because of 14-day Australian government health requirements, as well as a seven-day processing requirement by Qantas and Jetstar, meaning flight delays of 21 days in total.

Melbourne teacher Jo Foggo said Australians should reconsider international travel after her teenage daughter Savannah was forced to isolate alone in Thailand for 10 days after testing positive to COVID-19 on January 7 while asymptomatic.

Savannah is still unsure when or how she can return home from the resort island of Phuket. During her isolation she contracted food poisoning and was offered alcohol by an adult unknown to the family.

Fill story: https://www.smh.com.au/business/compani ... 59pr1.html

[brightside]

Though this thread is a year old, I’m curious, as well as disturbed, about the misfortune the OP @gregjam suffered on return to Thailand and the stay in mandatory quarantine, the duration over which the OP had no control.

The OP arrived on 4-Feb-2021 though the passport was stamped only until 10-Feb-2021. As a minimum, a visitor not in possession of a visa, such as those from the majority which represent foreign arrivals to Thailand, are entitled to 30 days’ stay. As the OP has a visa, why didn’t the arrival stamp properly cover the relevant period?

I realise there is often some confusion about what constitutes a visa and what constitutes an extension of stay. Even so, while a visa still remains current, one's permission of stay being granted on arrival, shouldn't be determined by the length of the remaining period of the visa, but by the number of days to which it entitles.

[Gregjam]

Thanks for your concern. I entered based on an extension of stay on a Non Imm O visa. Had I used the visa exemption method it would have voided the Non Imm O and meant that I would have had to start over again on that visa meaning more visits to the immigration office and probably more expense than just paying the overstay fine.
It is just another of those quirks of staying here longer term. The officers were only applying the law in a way that they could not be accused of any corruption. Frustrating at the time but it has not affected my subsequent entries since then.

[brightside]

Thanks for replying and explaining this @Gregjam it's new to me. From what you describe, I assume the basis of this is that if you have an extension of stay, then leave Thailand but return before the expiry of that extension of stay, you are only given the remaining days up to that past extension? I'm not sure I follow the logic behind that.

I always thought, but quite incorrectly it seems, that when you enter Thailand with a current valid visa, you're entitled to the 90-days (or whatever the period) granted by that visa.

So what would have happened if you had arrived just after 10-Feb-2021, therefore after the extension expired? Would you have received the full period of stay? What was the correct procedure anyway? It all seems very complex, and to my mind almost against common decency. It rather puts me off settling permanently in the country, as the rules seem to have no logical basis.

[caller]

It rather puts me off settling permanently in the country, as the rules seem to have no logical basis.

No point looking for logic where there isnt any. Something you have to accept if living here

[lomuamart]

But Gregjam didn't arrive with a current valid visa. He arrived on an extension of stay. For instance, the Non O visa I first extended off expired almost 15 years ago.

There used to be a multi-entry Non O visa that was valid for a year and entitled the holder to a 90 day stay every time they entered whilst the visa was valid. In that case, a person who entered one day before the visa expired got the 90 days (89 over the visa's validity). But these were pretty much, if not totally, phased out a number of years ago as Imm wanted people to get annual extensions if they were staying long term.

With the annual extensions, you don't have to exit every 90 days but you won't get an entry beyond the date of the extension. And you need re-entry permits to leave without invalidating the extension.

Swings and roundabouts, I suppose. The multi entry visa was very convenient for those who didn't qualify for an annual extension by age, marriage to a Thai or for financial reasons (and I had a few of those back before I turned 50) but, on the other hand, I was sick and tired of doing visa or border runs so jumped at the chance to extend annually when I qualified.

Hope that makes sense.

[brightside]

But Gregjam didn't arrive with a current valid visa. He arrived on an extension of stay. For instance, the Non O visa I first extended off expired almost 15 years ago.

Thanks, that explains it very well, I understand the OP's situation now. I hadn't been aware that those Non-Immigrant visas were no longer prevalent.

As I understand it, were it not for the OP's mandatory confinement due to pandemic restrictions, he would otherwise have attended immigration on 10-Feb-2021 and extended his stay. That wasn't possible and no alternative arrangements had been put in place by the authorities, yet by contrast they had made arrangements between April-2020 and October 2020 to automatically extend temporary visitors' stays. Even then, the arrangement came after some delay, with queues of tourists at various immigration offices being seen in the news. Eventually commonsense prevailed.

What happens, incidentally, if one arrives into the country after the extension of stay has expired? Is it possible to extend that former extension on arrival, or does this mean that the visitor receives the basic visa on arrival and thus has to start over again?

[lomuamart]

Start all over again from the 30 day entry stamp to non O visa to annual extension.

All possible but obviously best to be avoided if one can.