Thai Elite Visa Expiring But Permission to Stay Is Not Update

[krey]

Just an update for you guys I posted this in an older post I had running but think it just got lost in the oldness, so wanted to put it up fresh

 

So today is the day I am heading out of the country.  Heading to Laos to meet up with a good friend for a few days.

1. My Thai Elite Expires Tomorrow

2. I am flying out Today

 

My plan was to just go and come back and get the 30 day stamp and then extend it for another 30 days at local immigration then do one more run and go back to Canada in May or so. 

 

There has been a lot of back and forth if I can stay here longer because in oct 2019 I left the country and came back and got a full year stamp allowing me to stay until Oct 2020.  However, Thai Elite, a couple of visa agencies and one guy at Chiang Mai local immigration said I could not stay with an expired visa, something that has been debated here on this post and probably many others.

 

So I just got to the airport and of course I decided to see if I could get a re entry stamp and take advantage of staying to October 2020 which is much longer than I need.

1. I went to the re entry permit office (4 officers were there and they all helped me with this)

2. I explained my Thai Elite officially expires tomorrow

3. I explained I have a stamp that allows me to stay in the kingdom until 2020 of october.

4. I asked can I stay in the country if I get a re entry stamp now and come back.  I stressed many times my Visa will be expired when I come back.

5. They all said I can come back, I can stay until October 2020 with no problems, just need to do the 90 day check in and if I want to leave and come back before october 2020 I will of course have to get the re entry stamp once again.

 

It totally amazes me that everyone has a different answer but it is nice to at least hear the airport staff are the ones saying that this can be done.  I have to admit I am still uptight about the whole thing, Permission of Stay says YES, Visa Expires Says No!   guess will see more when I come back in

 

Anyway I got the re entry stamp and I am off to Laos, will be back in a few days and will see if I have any problems getting back in to the country.

 

Thanks!

[Maestro]

No. 5 on your post is correct. Get a re-entry permit before leaving Thailand.

[krey]

7 hours ago, Maestro said:

No. 5 on your post is correct. Get a re-entry permit before leaving Thailand.

I did of course, and coming back tomorrow for the first time with the expired visa but the good permission to stay stamp with the re entry permit.  I have to admit I am stressed out since I seen so many different answers on my queries on here and outside of the forum.   Hopefully all goes smoothly

[DrJack54]

42 minutes ago, krey said:

I did of course, and coming back tomorrow for the first time with the expired visa but the good permission to stay stamp with the re entry permit.  I have to admit I am stressed out since I seen so many different answers on my queries on here and outside of the forum.   Hopefully all goes smoothly

Don't stress you have a valid permission and a reentry permit. 

 

[Fairynuff]

Be sure to let us know! Out of interest are you planning to get another Elite visa?

[Scouse123]

4 hours ago, Fairynuff said:

Be sure to let us know! Out of interest are you planning to get another Elite visa?

 

I think if he was he would have done it already and not be stressing about getting another year.

[willi2006]

Confusion occurs when the terms Visa and Permission to Stay are used in the same sense. It's better to distinguish clearly. It's simple as that:

1. When entering with a valid Visa of any type you get a Permission to Stay.
2. You can stay in the country as long as the permission to stay is valid. You must report every 90 day.
3. You can get one or more single or one multiple reentry permits which are valid until the permission of stay.
4. You can leave and reenter with a valid reentry permit and get a permission to stay until the reentry permit is valid.

Edited January 21, 2020 by willi2006
typo

[krey]

Hello all,

Well I am in Thailand now and it did not go as smooth as I hoped.

Arrived in Bangkok but was going to Chiang Mai so went to the international transfers so it was still Bangkok immigration but not the main one where you go if you were exiting directly into bangkok.

 

So I gave the officer my passport had the re entry stamp page open to it

Of course they flipped to my visa

Saw the very confused look on her face and I knew already there would be some confusion

She talked to the other officer back and forth.

She said you have expired visa you know?

I said I do know that the Thai Elite is expired but I have permission to stay until Oct 2020

She Called Manager Over

He looked as well, he says you should call Thai Elite Visa and get another Elite Visa

I explained to him that I do not want to get another Thai Elite Visa right now because I am going home in May and do not know when or if I plan to come back.

I explained to him that I asked if I am allowed to stay up to my permission to stay date to the Chiang Mai immigration and they said I could stay. 

He asked what I plan to do in Thailand during the rest of the stay, told him just tourist things and get ready to go back home in May

He said okay and let me in

 

BTW I had to explain this pretty much in Thai language,  I tried English at first but it wasn't working.  My Thai isn't the best but it is enough to at least most of the time get my point across.

 

So now I have a new stamp in my passport that says visa class Non PE.  with a date of admitted to Oct 30 2020 (which was  my former permission of stay)

 

So it did not go as smoothly as I hoped and it was stressful though I suppose I could have fallen back on the 30 day if it all went wrong,  so it worked for me, getting into the 6th year but it seemed like this might not always work as I had to do a lot of explaining. 

 

Cheers

Edited January 21, 2020 by krey

[Mike Teavee]

This must be a peculiarity of the Thai Elite visa as lots of people use re-entry permits to keep their permission to stay "alive" after their visa has expired, e.g. 

1. People on an OA Visa who leave the country just before it expires & come back to get another 1 year stamp then use re-entry permits if they leave during the 2nd year
2. People on single entry 90-day non-O visas who need to leave Thailand during the 90 days and want to keep their permission to stay "alive"
3. People on multi entry 90 day non-O visas who need to leave the country close to when it expires & come back to get another 90 day stamp then use re-entry permits if they leave during the final 90 days (I did this due to the fact I was working in Singapore at the time so couldn't stay in-country for 2 months until I could do my extension, so entered, got a multi re-entry permit to keep my permission to stay valid for 2.5 months after the visa expired & came in & out 3-4 times during that time on the re-entry permit days before doing my extension - never a word said about mu visa being expired, only thing that matters was permission to stay date which was kept alive by the re-entry permit)  

 

 

 

Edited January 21, 2020 by Mike Teavee

[krey]

3 hours ago, Mike Teavee said:

This must be a peculiarity of the Thai Elite visa as lots of people use re-entry permits to keep their permission to stay "alive" after their visa has expired, e.g. 

1. People on an OA Visa who leave the country just before it expires & come back to get another 1 year stamp then use re-entry permits if they leave during the 2nd year
2. People on single entry 90-day non-O visas who need to leave Thailand during the 90 days and want to keep their permission to stay "alive"
3. People on multi entry 90 day non-O visas who need to leave the country close to when it expires & come back to get another 90 day stamp then use re-entry permits if they leave during the final 90 days (I did this due to the fact I was working in Singapore at the time so couldn't stay in-country for 2 months until I could do my extension, so entered, got a multi re-entry permit to keep my permission to stay valid for 2.5 months after the visa expired & came in & out 3-4 times during that time on the re-entry permit days before doing my extension - never a word said about mu visa being expired, only thing that matters was permission to stay date which was kept alive by the re-entry permit)  

 

 

 

yes that was one of the defenses that you could do this with the Thai Elite, I had a lot of people telling me I could not do it, including Thai Elite, a visa agency and a local immigration rep at the chiang mai office. Yes I had several people on the forums saying it was possible but It wasn't until the airport in chiang mai where I was told I could do it officially  (was going to try in any case to get the 6th year, I mean might as well) and it was in Bangkok coming in where they approved it after some confusion and uncertainty.  Anyway I got it, just want to let other Thai Elite people that are planning on the 6th year that it might work, might be confusing or might not work at all, hard to say who you will get as an immigration officer when you come back and how flexible or knowledgeable they will be of the rules.

[krey]

On 1/20/2020 at 1:45 PM, Fairynuff said:

Be sure to let us know! Out of interest are you planning to get another Elite visa?

not at this point, going back home for a while  Perhaps in the future if I have a plan to come back for long stay, I do not regret it at all, besides the 6th year craziness, the other 5 years were completely stress free with no visa runs or 90 day checks ins (visa agency did them for free) was much better than my past 3 years before the visa using student visas and tourist visa where rules kept on changing and immigration was much more interested in what you are doing here:).