[Best alternatives to stay after September 26]

10 hours ago, Max69xl said:

Expats on 1 year retirement/marriage extensions should have done them as usual. They are not stranded in Thailand and not affected by the coronavirus. If they didn't do them, then who's to blame? If they must leave, then grab a flight back home. People on 90 days Non-O ME is another story and they might have problems if they can't do border runs or extend the stay at the local immigration office. 

If you got a 1 year extension last year that expires July/August 2020, you wouldn’t of thought to go to a Thai Embassy to get a new visa back in March before the borders shut down. So if their visas expired around this time, none of them would have predicted the borders would be shut down for this long

[Best alternatives to stay after September 26]

What are guys on retirement visa extensions that expired doing to continue living in Thailand once the Amnesty is over?  If your retirement visa extension expired from March-Now and you needed to go to Thai Embassy to renew but now stuck in Thailand and can’t leave the country, how do you get a new Non O-A without overstay after Amnesty is up?

[Is this the final extension ?]

3 possible outcomes:

 

1. amnesty is extended again (best)

2. borders open (good because we can hop to the border and apply for new visa at thai embassy)

3. borders closed/no extention for amnesty. (worst case scenario)

then we are forced out of the country with no signs on when we will be allowed back in.

[Best alternatives to stay after September 26]

If the borders are still closed after 26 Sept, then the only way to stay in Thailand will be if you already have a Non B/O visa.  No one believes the borders for Thai Embassy will open any time soon. I already saw a statement from the US Embassy stating they will not be issuing any letters for an extension.

[Visa amnesty extended to September 30?]

1 hour ago, andux said:

You think everyone in Thailand is doing visa runs every 90 days? A bit of perspective... Also, there have been better times to be in Thailand than now, so again, perspective please

Quite a few people use tourist visas to live in thailand for a year or two. It depends on the person.  That means doing a border hop every 90 days to re-activate their visa or apply for a new one at Malaysia/Cambodia/Laos.

 

due to the borders being closed, the amnesty allows tourists to live in thailand without worrying about traveling to do a border hop

[Visa amnesty extended to September 30?]

9 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

BS there are many flights out of Thailand each day

 

There are Limited flights out of Thailand each day. AND They are charging $1,000+ for a flight.

No one is going to pay these outrageous prices when they can stay put in Thailand.

 

There are thousands of foreigners who are waiting for the borders to open up so they can cross the border and re-apply for their respective visa, but right now the Amnesty is the placeholder until borders open up again.

 

I don't see why people are getting mad at this, this is actually the first time where people don't need to worry about doing visa runs every 90 days. There hasn't been a better time to be in Thailand than right now.

[Thai Elite visa holders to be allowed in soon?]

Thai Elite should have priority over regular tourists if they're paying all that money for it.

 

But looking beyond that. This is a very good sign that they might plan on allowing regular tourists in very soon.  First they let foreigners who are married/working, then allow the premium Elite visa tourists, the next is allowing normal tourists from other countries to come in.

[Visa Grace Period announcement]

Today's the big day. Let's see if all the rumors are true now for the official announcement..

[Police exploring legal action against Democracy Monument protest leaders]

Thailand is not a free country. I'm actually really surprised people went and supported this protest. Maybe they thought that if hundreds of people got together then nothing would happen to them.

[This means amnesty till 26 september?]

20 hours ago, Phillip9 said:

It is very highly optimistic to think the borders will be open by September 26.  They might still be closed September 26, 2021.

 

Don't be surprised if they extend the Amnesty again in September, too.

Unless they open the borders to allow tourists to re-enter after going to bordering countries.

 

I just can't see them kicking out all foreigners if they aren't allowed to leave to a Thai Embassy and re-apply for a new Visa to return and be here legally.  That's what the Amnesty is for, because no one can go anywhere and come back.

[This means amnesty till 26 september?]

The Amnesty is good to have until borders to Laos or Malaysia open up before September 26 so that way they can go to the Thai Embassy and apply for another tourist visa to re-enter Thailand with.  If the Amnesty ends and the borders are shut, then there is no where else to go.

[Tourist Visa extension]

Your visa already expired. Around May.  That means you can not "extend" anything because you are already on an extension, the amnesty.  If you try to extend your visa, they will look at the expiration date and say that it's already expired. You are supposed to extend it BEFORE the expiration date on the visa.  However, if you have an METV, then the expiration date would be 6 months from whenever you got it issued so you could still extend that.

[How many of us are actually on the Visa Amnesty until July 31?]

2 hours ago, salsajapan said:

Hundreds thousand people on amnesty won't be able to leave or visit immigration. Clearly extension will be announced soon. Only idiots do not understand this.

 

The Amnesty was created to give people time to leave Thailand and get where they needed to go. The problem is so many people are using this to “live” inside Thailand. It’s completely different than what the immigration created it for. So they could think that March-July was enough time for whoever was in Thailand to figure out their plans and leave so there won’t be a point to keep extending it over and over

[Tourist to Retirement visa if Amnesty does not extend?]

How on Earth are they going to process us visa runners wanting to renew our visas, tourist, student, or retiree visa? Can I process my retiree visa now or do I have to wait until the 30th?  And will I have to quarantine in Laos and then quarantine back in Thailand? Or can immigration convert me from tourist to retiree without a border run?

[International flights to Thailand won't resume until September, says aviation authority]

On 6/20/2020 at 7:21 PM, Peterphuket said:

The problem is: just in HK you don't get any stamp anymore in your pp.

How you can prove you come from there?

 

You know when the immigration takes your passport and scan it, the computer shows exactly where you've been

[Border Run Alternatives]

12 hours ago, Jatujan said:

Yeah, to leave Thailand as a U.S. passport-holder right now more or less means going back to the States. I read similar things about the Maldives in addition to St. Lucia and Aruba in the Caribbean—very random. European countries are starting to open up but don't seem eager to accept Americans. 

 

I don't believe Americans will be allowed to travel to any country anytime soon due to the fact that the numbers for covid-19 are still crazy. Some places are still reporting 3,000+ cases daily (new york, arizona, florida to name a few).

 

Thailand has pretty much got covid-19 under control, and the only way to allow tourists to travel into the country again will with a travel bubble and in phases. so even when the borders do open up again, immigration isn't going to just accept americans to fly into the country. they will most likely start with asian countries first and then see how the community is and if they can keep the spread of infection under control with just a few countries being allowed in.

[Border Run Alternatives]

If the amnesty extends past 31 July, this has got to be the only way for tourist visa holders to actually live in Thailand long-term without doing visa runs anymore. Quite amazing if you think about it since you don't even have to leave the country anymore so long as the amnesty keeps extending.

[International flights to Thailand won't resume until September, says aviation authority]

Thai Airways already announced that they will be resuming flights to 37 countries starting 1 August...

 

THAI Airways International opens new schedule, set to begin on 1 August 2020.

Starting 1 August 2020:

Bangkok-London: 1 flight/day

Bangkok-Paris: 3 flights/week

Bangkok-Copenhagen: 1 flight/week

Bangkok-New Delhi: 1 flight/day

Bangkok-Denpasar: 3 flights/week

Bangkok-Thagar: 5 flights/week

Bangkok-Frankfurt: 1 flight/day

Bangkok-Guangzhou: 2 flights/week

Bangkok-Hanoi: 1 flight/day

Bangkok-Hong Kong: 1 flight/day

Bangkok-Islamabad: 5 flights/week

Bangkok-Karachi: 4 flights/week

Bangkok-Lahore: 4 flights/week

Bangkok-Melbourne: 5 flights/week

Bangkok-Islamabad: 5 flights/week

Bangkok-Nagoya: 3 flights/week

Bangkok-Osaka: 3 flights/week

Bangkok-Phnom Penh: 1 flight/day

Bangkok-Seoul: 6 flights/week

Bangkok-Sydney: 5 flights/week

Bangkok-Taipei: 1 flight/day

Bangkok-Tokyo (Haneda): 4 flights/week

Bangkok-Tokyo (Narita): 4 flights/week

Bangkok-Vientiane: 1 flight/day

Bangkok-Yangon: 1 flight/day

 

THAI Airways International suspends flights to Milan, Rome, Moscow, Vienna, Stockholm, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Sendai, Kathmandu, Oslo, and Colombo.

 

So is this wrong? Or are they going to be forced to not fly and push back this schedule?

 

[August 1st - 'covid visa' ends, what next?]

3 hours ago, tribalfusion001 said:

I'm following a few YouTube vloggers in Thailand and they are planning to leave before 31st July. I doubt they will extend again, the tourists there have had plenty of time to find an exit out.

 

Everyone is hoping they extend the Amnesty but the big problem is If they don't extend it, there is no where to go since every country in SE Asia says "Passengers are not allowed to enter."

 

Thailand is still allowing citizens to return back into the country on repatriation flights and that's where a lot of people are being tested positive for Covid, so they have a mandatory quarantine for 14 days.  So that seems to be the only option what everyone is doing to get back to their passport country.

[August 1st - 'covid visa' ends, what next?]

You might be forced to return to your passport country as no other countries are allowing foreigners to enter the country.

 

I don’t believe the amnesty will be extended after 31 July. This is your time to figure out how to get out of Thailand if you don’t belong here. If you don’t have a Non-B visa, they want you to go home already. I can imagine how immigration feels about this because they know that majority of the foreigners on this visa amnesty don’t have proper visas/only using tourist visas.  The problem is that it doesn’t look like countries are opening their doors anytime soon, so there’s really only 1 option. Get out of the country and go to the only place that will accept you (your passport country). I know it sucks but what other option do you have? 

[Border Run Alternatives]

What do you guys predict will happen if the emergency decree doesn’t extend after 31 July? So far we know that the amnesty is good until 31 July, but do you honestly believe they will restrict a Visa Run to Laos/Savannakhet? 
 

Ideally I would hope I could do that and then extend that fresh new stamp for 1900 Baht at Immigration and be good until September.
 

That would be the best case scenario for me. Or... the amnesty extending to 30 August, but since everything is slowly starting to re-open, I predict the international flight ban will stick to their re-open date of 1 July.
 

It just gets my anxiety going crazy not knowing if I will be able to do a Visa/Border run or I need to figure out a flight to fly out/fly back in before 31 July.

[Thai soldier kills 'many' in shooting rampage]

13 minutes ago, Kraig62 said:

Wow! Surely this come to an end soon. Has his teerak or mother been in contact with him? 

I’m sure his mom is calling him and asking him if he has eaten yet and what time will he be home, don’t worry

[Denied entry- Second attempt coming up]

The fact you had a previous overstay had NO bearing at all on being denied entry. It was because you did not have the 3 proofs they ask for...

Even IF you have a valid visa for thailand in your passport IF you are asked by immigrations you need to show (1) proof of funds, (2) onward travel and (3) accomodation. 
Very rarely will the immigration officers void those requirements (and usually that's only for people on long-stay type visas or extensions).

A person denied entry is held at IDC at the airport he flew in at until he works out with his carrier where he will go.

The immigration officers do NOT care in the least where you go to, all they tell you is that you can't enter thailand. It is between you and your air carrier where you go back to. Some let you fly back to where you came from, some let you fly anywhere they fly to and some make you go back to the country your passport is from. 

[Border Run Alternatives]

13 hours ago, BritTim said:

Summary: avoid Poipet, and probably Padang Besar, and you will be fine.

What is wrong with Padang Besar? Surely not as bad as Poipet/Aranyaprathet border crossing

 

Isn't Padang Besar the preferred way to enter Thailand coming from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia? I think the other border was the more strict one in Malaysia that people were told to avoid, the Sadao crossing. But coming in with a history of Tourist visas, if not Vientiane, then either Padang Besar or Myawaddy I thought would be a worry free experience.

[Are you still at risk even with a re-entry permit?]

People who have an extensive history are being told to avoid airports like a plague, so instead they enter through the land border to activate their visa for a worry free entry and only use airports to fly into BKK via domestic flight since you won't be faced with Immigration there.