Renewing Thai Wife stamp

[Aza90]

Went to renew my Thai Wife visa at CW last week. They didnt like the bank statements I showed to prove income so they requested a certification letter from the bank. This has been ordered and I'll be able to collect this in a few days. My visa runs out tomorrow. Question, can I go to CW and extend for 1900 baht? If so, how many days will I get? If not, is my best bet to do a border bounce at say Poipet? I have read that I'll need to stay overnight and come back the next day. Can someone please advise a best option. Many Thanks.

[jackdd]

You can get a 60 day extension to visit your wife, if you didn't get one on your current stay yet

[asiaexpat]

You need to make it clear as to your current status. Are you on a VISA that requires you to leave Thailand every 90 days or are you on and extension of stay. Since there is no such thing as a Thai Wife Visa I will assume you mean Non-O visa requested to visit Thai family (wife) and the last 90 days is about expire. In that case if you can not get the bank letter and present it to Immigration on Monday you will need to  apply for an extension of stay of  60 days to visit wife or leave Thailand and get a new NON-O visa. 

[Aza90]

I live here and am renewing my Thai Wife stamp / permission to stay to support family. Its not an O visa.  Previously proved income via embassy letter which now Uk embassy don't provide.  So you are saying I can extend for 60 days at CW for 1900 thb? The officials suggested going out the country and coming back in??? Yes, with this I need to report every 90 days but not leave the country.

[elviajero]

1 hour ago, Aza90 said:

Went to renew my Thai Wife visa at CW last week. They didnt like the bank statements I showed to prove income so they requested a certification letter from the bank. This has been ordered and I'll be able to collect this in a few days. My visa runs out tomorrow. Question, can I go to CW and extend for 1900 baht? If so, how many days will I get? If not, is my best bet to do a border bounce at say Poipet? I have read that I'll need to stay overnight and come back the next day. Can someone please advise a best option. Many Thanks.

They will almost certainly let you apply for the 1 year extension a few days late, but you’ll have to pay the 500 baht per day overstay fine.

 

Tomorrow you could apply for a 60 day extension to visit your wife. You do not need to provide any financials. That will give you time to sort out the paperwork for a 1 year extension application towards the end of the 60 days.

 

I would do a border bounce as a last resort as that would mean having to apply for a new Non ‘O’ visa begore applying again for a 1 year extension. If you do a border bounce do not use the Aranya/Poipet crossing. 

[Aza90]

9 minutes ago, elviajero said:

They will almost certainly let you apply for the 1 year extension a few days late, but you’ll have to pay the 500 baht per day overstay fine.

 

Tomorrow you could apply for a 60 day extension to visit your wife. You do not need to provide any financials. That will give you time to sort out the paperwork for a 1 year extension application towards the end of the 60 days.

 

I would do a border bounce as a last resort as that would mean having to apply for a new Non ‘O’ visa begore applying again for a 1 year extension. If you do a border bounce do not use the Aranya/Poipet crossing. 

Ok thanks. Just to clarify I have an annually renewable "Thai Wife" stamp. This expires tomorrow. The issue I had last week is that they wouldnt accept bank statements showing income every month, I need a letter from the bank confirming monies in excess of 45k thb pm. This isn't a problem, just need to wait on Kasikorn to issue the letter. I've been advised to just pay a few days overstay but I would rather not have overstay in my passport! I'll see if I can get an extension of stay for 1900 bht at CW tomorrow morning. If not my option is do a border run or pay overstay. I was going to go to Poipet tomorrow but I am reading issues there so that's a non-option. 

[elviajero]

22 minutes ago, Aza90 said:

Ok thanks. Just to clarify I have an annually renewable "Thai Wife" stamp. This expires tomorrow. The issue I had last week is that they wouldnt accept bank statements showing income every month, I need a letter from the bank confirming monies in excess of 45k thb pm. This isn't a problem, just need to wait on Kasikorn to issue the letter. I've been advised to just pay a few days overstay but I would rather not have overstay in my passport! I'll see if I can get an extension of stay for 1900 bht at CW tomorrow morning. If not my option is do a border run or pay overstay. I was going to go to Poipet tomorrow but I am reading issues there so that's a non-option. 

I beleive it will be standard practice for immigration to have bank statements or bank book, and a letter from the bank.

 

A 60 day extension buys you time and, IMO it’s the best option.

[Aza90]

Thanks again. I'll go to Chaeng Wattana tomorrow and see if I can get the 60 day extension. I wish they could have suggested this when I was there last week!

[Tanoshi]

What I can't understand is why it's going to take a few days for KK to issue a certified letter of income.

 

Went through the same scenario nearly 3 weeks ago at KK, had a coffee and went back an hour later to collect certified letter of income, accepted by Immigration 30 minutes later.

Did you make the request at the branch you opened the account with?

[Aza90]

5 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

What I can't understand is why it's going to take a few days for KK to issue a certified letter of income.

 

Went through the same scenario nearly 3 weeks ago at KK, had a coffee and went back an hour later to collect certified letter of income, accepted by Immigration 30 minutes later.

Did you make the request at the branch you opened the account with?

Was told by Kasikorn at CW 3-5 days for letter. Ordered it at Kasikorn Mega on Saturday and told the same?? Immigration want confirmation in the letter monies coming from abroad which showed as a code on the bank statements. 

[Tanoshi]

35 minutes ago, Aza90 said:

Immigration want confirmation in the letter monies coming from abroad which showed as a code on the bank statements. 

The problem is with how KK process and record the overseas transaction.

Usually shows as local in your passbook.

Only there HQ can confirm the overseas source.

[JackThompson]

13 hours ago, Aza90 said:

Thanks again. I'll go to Chaeng Wattana tomorrow and see if I can get the 60 day extension. I wish they could have suggested this when I was there last week!

They don't want foreign-husbands to be successful in staying here - tend to make things as difficult as possible - and suggested a course of action (border-bounce for a visa-exempt entry) which would make things even more difficult for you in the future.

 

14 hours ago, Aza90 said:

I was going to go to Poipet tomorrow but I am reading issues there so that's a non-option. 

Any other land-border would work.  But only as a last-resort, as you would have to "start over" with the entire process from 90-day Non-O Stamp and onward. The crossing near Kanchaburi would be a good choice, but ...

 

If you are unable to get the 60-day extension, better to go to a Thai Consulate and get a Non-O Visa based on marriage there, instead of a "border bounce" for a Tourist-type entry.  It is easy, and no financials are requied at Vientiane or Savannakhet.  Starting with a Non-O-Visa entry, you could go directly to a 1-year extension - the same thing you are attempting to get now.

Edited February 11, 2019 by JackThompson

[Aza90]

On 2/11/2019 at 12:15 PM, JackThompson said:

They don't want foreign-husbands to be successful in staying here - tend to make things as difficult as possible - and suggested a course of action (border-bounce for a visa-exempt entry) which would make things even more difficult for you in the future.

 

Any other land-border would work.  But only as a last-resort, as you would have to "start over" with the entire process from 90-day Non-O Stamp and onward. The crossing near Kanchaburi would be a good choice, but ...

 

If you are unable to get the 60-day extension, better to go to a Thai Consulate and get a Non-O Visa based on marriage there, instead of a "border bounce" for a Tourist-type entry.  It is easy, and no financials are requied at Vientiane or Savannakhet.  Starting with a Non-O-Visa entry, you could go directly to a 1-year extension - the same thing you are attempting to get now.

Well, what a day but got it sorted in the end. To refresh;

I was renewing my "Thai Wife" stamp, not renewing an O visa as i don't have an O visa.

For the last 8 odd years, always obtained an income letter from the UK embassy but they don't issue them anymore.

Bank statements that i printed out and showed for 3 months showing well in excess of 40k per month were NOT acceptable. This was last Friday.  NB. Kasikorn do not show that the monies are from abroad on their statements. 

Kasikorn at CW said 3-5 working days to get a letter from h/o but anyway,  system on Friday was down.

Went to Kasikorn at Mega on Saturday. Again, can order but no working on Saturday so would take 3-5 days to issue. We ordered.

Wife chased Monday early afternoon with bank as urgent as my stamp / visa whatever, expired Monday. They (branch) could not get through to their dept all day. My wife said this was very urgent and that they have wasted a day. They suggested she ring call centre. She did. This was around 2pm. They rang branch to discuss. She rang me to say call call centre to also chase which i did. This was around 3.30pm. 

Call centre (English) said ok, i understand,  i will check with Mega branch and call you in 1 hour. 40 mins later lady at call centre phoned me back and said letters ready for collection!!!

In the meantime (yesterday) I went back to CW to ask for an extension but could not get one. I went because i wanted to avoid an overstay in my passport. The alternative i had considered was to do a border run or trip to Yangon which would have cost about 10k for a 2 day trip, or overstay. 

This morning at 10.30am collected 3x letters confirming monies transferred from the UK.

Drove straight to CW.

Letters were initially NOT acceptable.  Immigration want 1x summary letter showing monies in from abroad.  Kasikorn DO NOT / CANNOT do this.

Spoke to a Senior lady there and also there was a younger lady (but senior immigration lady who discussed together in length the issue). They understood after my wife explained everything and in the end accepted a letter my wife hand wrote summarising the payments in, totals etc. 

All then processed with 1 day overstay.

In summary;

I know we now live in a "computer says no" world but but........Kasikorn DO NOT currently have any policy to issue one summary letter and asking them to write one is futile and an absolute waste of time (The senior immigration lady did say that they need to set up a committee to look into this with all banks following some, including UK embassy, now not issuing income letters) but now i know.

I will allow more time ie 1 month before expiry to get an income letter or to show 400k for 2 months in a Thai account assuming Big Joke doesn't change the criteria!

Have to say that immigration were very helpful today, recognised the issue and helped to resolve it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JackThompson]

Thank you for the detailed summary of the outcome.  This could help others in a similar situation.  I am glad to hear you found someone in the chain of command who was helpful - even if only reluctantly. 

 

I reply below, just in case others find themselves in a similar situation, and are not able to resolve the issue in-country, as you did:

 

7 hours ago, Aza90 said:

I was renewing my "Thai Wife" stamp, not renewing an O visa as i don't have an O visa.

A 1-year "Thai Wife" stamp from immigration is a "Non-Immigrant" type extension.  At some point, you received a "Non-Imm" permission of stay - either from entering on a "Non-Imm" Visa (usually a "Non-O"), or getting a "Non-Imm-O" stamp at an immigration office in the country. 

 

If you were to enter the country on a "Non-O" visa (based on marriage from Savannakhet, for example), your status is "Non-Immigrant" upon-entry, and you can proceed directly to a 1-year extension based on marriage/Thai-family or retirement.  But if you made a simple "border bounce", thus entering on a Tourist-type (Exempt, in this case), you would need to apply for an additional "Non-Imm-O" 90-day stamp from immigration (sometimes difficult), before being able to apply for the 1-year extension during the last 30 days of that 90-days.