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A change regarding Health Insurance requirement and NON IMM OA Extension of Stay


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Hi.  I have an OA based on retirement which is due its first renewal February 2021.  I understand that I can go for the renewal one one before expiry.  Surely if I go one month before expiry and the IO say I must have insurance that would give me more than enough time to go and buy a policy and then re-apply.

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3 hours ago, Peter Denis said:

In Phuket an 'experiment' is on-going where IO does not enforce that requirement presently, but they will evaluate in October whether or not to continue that practice.

What possible data are they evaluating? Of course, if no insurance requirement, one less piece of documentation, plus a search of the TGIA data base, is eliminated. Obviously that's good (less work), so the "experiment" certainly isn't addressing that aspect, as that's a 'given' should the insurance requirement go away.

 

So, what are they looking for? Ah, maybe the brown envelopes from the TGIA scammers have been too empty, thus not worth the extra processing energy by the iOs? But, hey, something's better than nothing.... Plus, without the insurance requirement, the delegit agents' brown envelopes would dry up. So, the experiment certainly doesn't sound like it's about kickbacks.

 

What then? Fewer TM87's to process from folks converting from O-A to O? Has that been a burdensome workload, not worth the extra fees? Doubtful. Anybody got a clue, other than they're trying to make the O-A farang crowd happier NOT!

 

 

Edited by JimGant
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52 minutes ago, Adelphi said:

Hi.  I have an OA based on retirement which is due its first renewal February 2021.  I understand that I can go for the renewal one one before expiry.  Surely if I go one month before expiry and the IO say I must have insurance that would give me more than enough time to go and buy a policy and then re-apply.

When your 1-year extension of stay for your Non Imm O-A Visa for reason of retirement, is only due Feb 2021 you have nothing to worry about.

Actually you can only apply for your 1-year extension 30 days (some IOs allow 45 days) before your present permission to stay expires. 

Applying for the cheapest thai IO-approved healht-insurance policy (LMG Insurance Plan 1 with a 200K deductible), does not require a medical exam, so you just need to fill in the policy-application form and you will receive your Insurance Certificate a couple of days later.  So yes, plenty of time to do that during the 30-day window to apply for your 1-year extension.

Note: By January 2021 for sure the borders will be open again, so you could also do a quick border-run and then apply for the 90-day Non Imm O - retirement Visa at your local IO and in the last 30 days of that 90-day permission to stay apply for the 1-year extension.  

The requirements/conditions when applying for a 1-year extension of stay for a Non Imm O - retirement Visa are exactly same as for a Non Imm  O-A Visa for reason of retirement, but do NOT require the additional thai IO-approved health-insurance. 

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27 minutes ago, JimGant said:

What possible data are they evaluating? Of course, if no insurance requirement, one less piece of documentation, plus a search of the TGIA data base, is eliminated. Obviously that's good (less work), so the "experiment" certainly isn't addressing that aspect, as that's a 'given' should the insurance requirement go away.

 

So, what are they looking for? Ah, maybe the brown envelopes from the TGIA scammers have been too empty, thus not worth the extra processing energy by the iOs? But, hey, something's better than nothing.... Plus, without the insurance requirement, the delegit agents' brown envelopes would dry up. So, the experiment certainly doesn't sound like it's about kickbacks.

 

What then? Fewer TM87's to process from folks converting from O-A to O? Has that been a burdensome workload, not worth the extra fees? Doubtful. Anybody got a clue, other than they're trying to make the O-A farang crowd happier NOT!

Phuket IO will most probably have noticed that retirees on an O-A extension, are either switching to an O-A extension for reason of marriage or are doing a quick border-run to switch to a Non Imm O - retirement Visa and subsequent extension (IO actually recommends that latter route when retirees have problems meeting the health-insurance requirement).

In both cases, that means more admin work for them.

So not enforcing the health-insurance requirement anymore, would likely stop this unproductive 'drain', and that's probably what they would evaluate in October.  Would be a sensible win-win decision for both IO and those on an O-A retirement extension.  The loser would be the greedy TGIA associated insurers, but as mentioned higher their scam did only work for those on an O-A retirement extension that were 'taken by surprise' and I doubt that these would prolonge their scam insurance policy knowing that there are surprisingly simple ways of avoiding it.

Edited by Peter Denis
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1 hour ago, JohnOFphon said:

I live in bkk..my address on the TM 30 is here.

Can I fly to Phuket and extend my Non OA there?

Don't think so, but same cost as flying in and out of country.

You would first need to relocate there, before being allowed to apply for your extension.

So in the end not worth it considering that you can subscribe to a cheap thai IO-approved health-assurance policy (in the area of 6.000 THB to 11.400 THB in the age bracket of 51 to 75 years).

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7 hours ago, OJAS said:

I do, however, wonder whether we might now be seeing some back-tracking on the Immigration Bureau's part in their interpretation of Police Order 548/2562 in the case of those seeking retirement extensions on the basis of original non-OA visas issued before November 2019. If so, I would have thought it more likely that any U-turn would be performed informally on the quiet within individual offices rather than through some formal announcement and a revised Police Order. After all, under no circumstances should the big wigs in the Immigration Bureau be seen to be losing face on this issue, should they?

 

But I do agree with you that it would be unwise to take any chances in the absence of firm information from one's local immigration offfice.

@Peter Denis - another, rather less encouraging, take on the situation is that we might only be talking about a temporary COVID19-related dispensation. If by October it is possible for retirees with original non-OA visas to travel freely to places like Vientiane, Savannakhet, Hoh Chi Minh City and Penang for fresh non-O visas so as to circumvent the insurance requirement without being quarantined, Phuket might re-introduce this requirement then.

Edited by OJAS
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4 minutes ago, OJAS said:

@Peter Denis - another, rather less encouraging, take on the situation is that we might only be talking about a temporary COVID19-related dispensation. If by October it is possible for retirees with original non-OA visas to travel freely to places like Vientiane, Savannakhet, Hoh Chi Minh City and Penang for fresh non-O visas so as to circumvent the insurance requirement without being quarantined, Phuket might re-introduce this requirement then.

Hi OJAS, yes indeed it is possible that Phuket not enforcing the mandatory thai IO-approved health-insurance requirement anymore, is a temporary measure because of the border-closures making it presently impossible to convert to a different type Visa.  But in fact there would be no reason for doing this, as the permission to stay of O-A Visa holders is also automatically extended till July 31 because of the Amnesty.  Furthermore Phuket IO announced that their 'experiment' will only be evaluated in October, and till then they will not enforce the HI-requirement.  

So it looks that the covid-situation is not the driver for their action (which is good news).

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On 5/30/2020 at 11:59 AM, KhunBENQ said:

Would love to believe it as it is just plain arbitrary to introduce aggravation retroactively.

I hope they have changed their "interpretation".

Fortunately I have time until early October to let 

 

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I went to Korat Immigration last week to see if l could use my existing AIA health Insurance(inpatient and outpatient coverage requirements covered) for my extension of stay(retirement)due for renewal in October.The officer said AIA was not on the Immigration approved list of companies.He gave me a list of the companies l could use and said I'd have to change to one of them.

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1 hour ago, Northoltboy said:

I went to Korat Immigration last week to see if l could use my existing AIA health Insurance(inpatient and outpatient coverage requirements covered) for my extension of stay(retirement)due for renewal in October.The officer said AIA was not on the Immigration approved list of companies.He gave me a list of the companies l could use and said I'd have to change to one of them.

Unfortunately for you the Korat IO is correct.

IO does ONLY accept IO-approved health-insurance policies from TGIA associated thai insurers ( https://longstay.tgia.org/home/companiesoa ).

Content-wise most of these thai IO-approved policies are worthless, so - if you go that road - you might as well opt for the cheapest one, which is the LMG Insurance Plan 1 with a 200K deductible (annual premium of 6.000 THB to 11.400 THB in the age bracket of 51 till 75), with the additional advantage that no medical exam is required when subscribing to that LMG-policy.

Alternatively - once the borders are open again - you could also do a border-run and return VisaExempt, and then apply at your local IO for the 90-day Non Imm O-A retirement Visa and in the last 30 days of that 90-day Visa apply for a 1-year extension.  The requirements/conditions when applying for the 1-year extension of that Non Imm O - retirement Visa are identical as for the Non Imm O-A retirement extension, but do NOT require the thai IO-approved health-insurance scam.

>> I did PM you a comprehensive guideline document outlining all options/details to apply for that Non Imm O - retirement Visa.

To access your PM-messages just click the letter-icon next to your Profile when logged-in to the Forum.

Edited by Peter Denis
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My being on a Type-OA non-immigrant Visa, and living in Phuket, I find this thread (wrt Phuket immigration) of applying for a 1-year retirement extension on a Type-OA permission to stay and not having to prove Health Insurance an interesting possibility.  I have superb Health Insurance (covers myself and my Thai wife and exceeds the Thai minimum requirements) but its not on the limited official Thailand health insurance company list for Type-OA visa permission to stay 'retirement' extensions.

 

My permission to stay in Thailand on my Type-OA is until 27-February-2021 hence sometime in February-2021, I need to apply in the Phuket immigration office for a 1-year extension of my permission to stay in Thailand, either due to 'retirement' or due to 'marriage'.   Last year in December (2019) I went through the effort to register my foreign marriage (almost 20 years ago) to my Thai wife, here in Thailand.  I had planned to apply in February-2021 at the Phuket immigration office for the extension based on 'marriage'.

 

I'm tempted now, to show up in the Phuket Immigration Office in February-2021, with the paperwork prepared for both possibilities for a 1-year extension on my permission to stay (ie paperwork ready for an extension by 'retirement' with no proof of insurance; and also paper work for an extension by 'marriage').   And then see what Phuket immigration will accept.  Its a bit extra work to prepare paperwork for both possibilities, but having the 'larger' amount of money in the bank (800k) is not an issue - and I am sufficiently curious to be willing to go through the extra hoops to have paperwork for both possibilities. 

 

Its all very interesting.

Edited by oldcpu
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9 minutes ago, Mango Bob said:

How reliable is this person who wrote this thread?   I seen 15 post including two on this same subject.  Monitor should check this out.

OP confirmed what was already reported by 2 other posters, i.e. that currently (and till October) Phuket IO does not enforce the thai IO-approved health-insurance requirement when applying for a 1-year extension of your Non Imm O-A Visa for reason of retirement.

But if your OP is in Ratchaburi, as your Avatar indicates, it does not apply for you anyway.

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Thank you Peter but I did not know you were a monitor here.  We seen these types of threads before when the change first came out last year.  Lots of spammers were on the site.  Anyone with a few post and given an answer like this should be looked at closely.  Monitors may be able to see more then I can.

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14 minutes ago, Mango Bob said:

Thank you Peter but I did not know you were a monitor here.  We seen these types of threads before when the change first came out last year.  Lots of spammers were on the site.  Anyone with a few post and given an answer like this should be looked at closely.  Monitors may be able to see more then I can.

Hi MangoBob,

I am not a Forum-moderator, but I had lengthy correspondence with the 2 Non Imm O-A holders that were not required to show thai IO-approved health-insurance when applying for their 1-year extension for reason of retirement at the Phuket IO.

Both were also in contact with Phuket Volunteers, who confirmed that the health-insurance requirement is currently not enforced in Phuket and that this practice will be evaluated by Phuket IO in October. 

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4 hours ago, Peter Denis said:

Unfortunately for you the Korat IO is correct.

IO does ONLY accept IO-approved health-insurance policies from TGIA associated thai insurers ( https://longstay.tgia.org/home/companiesoa ).

Content-wise most of these thai IO-approved policies are worthless, so - if you go that road - you might as well opt for the cheapest one, which is the LMG Insurance Plan 1 with a 200K deductible (annual premium of 6.000 THB to 11.400 THB in the age bracket of 51 till 75), with the additional advantage that no medical exam is required when subscribing to that LMG-policy.

Alternatively - once the borders are open again - you could also do a border-run and return VisaExempt, and then apply at your local IO for the 90-day Non Imm O-A retirement Visa and in the last 30 days of that 90-day Visa apply for a 1-year extension.  The requirements/conditions when applying for the 1-year extension of that Non Imm O - retirement Visa are identical as for the Non Imm O-A retirement extension, but do NOT require the thai IO-approved health-insurance scam.

>> I did PM you a comprehensive guideline document outlining all options/details to apply for that Non Imm O - retirement Visa.

To access your PM-messages just click the letter-icon next to your Profile when logged-in to the Forum.

Thank you for your advise

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On 5/28/2020 at 11:56 PM, PhuketDok said:

My new stamp  is clearly OA. There is no doubt that IO new I was an OA Visa holdr

Roi et are still requiring the health insurance for OA renewal regardless of when issued.

 

On 5/29/2020 at 5:14 AM, kingofthemountain said:

it's a 180 degree turn and in a very good way.

i hope to read more experiences like this from 

other immigration offices in the next weeks

Roi et is still requiring health insurance for OA renewall regardless of date issued so dont hold your breath anything has changad.

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